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The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(March 2008) Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. |
This article is about historical/cultural Tibet. For the administrative region of the People\'s Republic of China, see Tibet Autonomous Region. For other uses, see Tibet (disambiguation).
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| Historic Tibet as claimed by Tibetan exile groups | ||||||||
 
| Tibetan areas designated by the PRC | ||||||||
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| Tibet Autonomous Region (actual control) | ||||||||
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| Claimed by India as part of Aksai Chin | ||||||||
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| Claimed by PRC as part of TAR | ||||||||
| Other areas historically within Tibetan cultural sphere | ||||||||
Tibet (see Name section below for other spellings) is a Plateau region and Nation in Central Asia and the home to the indigenous Tibetan people. With an average elevation of 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), it is the highest region on Earth and is commonly referred to as the "Roof of the World."
Tibet is part of the People\'s Republic of China (PRC) (with a small part, depending on definitions, controlled by India). As an exclusive mandate, Tibet is also officially claimed by the Republic of China (Taiwan). In the Tibetan sovereignty debate, the government of the People\'s Republic of China and the Government of Tibet in Exile disagree over when Tibet became a part of China, and whether this incorporation into China is legitimate according to international law. UNESCO and Encyclopædia Britannica[1] consider Tibet to be part of Central Asia, while several academic organizations controversially consider it part of South Asia.
King Songtsän Gampo united many parts of the region in the seventh century. From the early 1600s the Dalai Lamas, commonly known as spiritual leaders of the region, have been heads of a centralised Tibetan administration (at least nominally),The historical status of the Dalai Lamas as actual rulers is disputed. A. Tom Grunfeld\'s The Making of Modern Tibet, p. 12: "Given the low life expectancy in Tibet it was not uncommon for incarnations to die before, or soon after, their ascendancy to power. This resulted in long periods of rule by advisers, or, in the ease of Dalai Lama, regents. As a measure of the power that regents must have wielded it is important to note that only three of the fourteen Dalai Lamas have actually ruled Tibet. From 1751 to 1960 regents ruled for 77 percent of the time" and are believed to be the emanations of Avalokiteśvara ("Chenrezig" [spyan ras gzigs] in Tibetan), the bodhisattva of compassion.
Between the 17th century and 1959, the Dalai Lama and his regents were the predominant political power administering religious and administrative authority over large parts of Tibet from the traditional capital Lhasa.
Flag of Tibet used intermittently between 1912 and 1950. This version was introduced by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1912. The flag is outlawed in the People\'s Republic of China.
When the People\'s Republic of China (PRC) refers to Tibet, it means the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR): a province-level entity which, according to the territorial claims of the PRC, includes Arunachal Pradesh. The TAR covers the Dalai Lama\'s former domain, consisting of Ü-Tsang and western Kham, while Amdo and eastern Kham are part of Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, and Sichuan.
When the Government of Tibet in Exile and the Tibetan refugee community abroad refer to Tibet, they mean the areas consisting of the traditional provinces of Amdo, Kham, and Ü-Tsang, but excluding Sikkim, Bhutan, and Ladakh that have also formed part of the Tibetan cultural sphere.[citation needed]
The difference in definition is a major source of dispute. The distribution of Amdo and eastern Kham into surrounding provinces was initiated by the Yongzheng Emperor during the 18th century and has been continuously maintained by successive Chinese governments. Tibetan exiles, in turn, consider the maintenance of this arrangement from the 18th century as part of a divide-and-rule policy.[citation needed]
Tibetans call their homeland Bod (བོད་), pronounced [pʰøʔ] in Lhasa dialect. It is first attested in the geography of Ptolemy as βαται (batai)Beckwith, C. U. of Indiana Diss. 1977. Tibetans refer to Tibet as a "fatherland" (Tibetan: ཕ་ཡུལ་; Wylie: pha-yul), whereas "motherland" (Tibetan: མ་ཡུལ་; Wylie: ma-yul) is a neologism introduced after the communist take over to refer to China.[citation needed] In Nepal, Tibet is known as "Bhot".
Himalayas near Lhasa.
The PRC\'s Chinese name for Tibet, 西藏 (Xīzàng), is a phonetic transliteration derived from the region called Tsang (western Ü-Tsang). The Chinese name originated during the Qing Dynasty of China, ca. 1700. It can be broken down into “xī” 西 (literally “west”), and “zàng” 藏 (from Ü-Tsang, but also literally “Buddhist scripture,” or “storage” or possibly "treasure"See Transliteration into Chinese characters for more information on the relationship between literal meanings and sound transliterations.). The pre-1700s historic Chinese term for Tibet was 吐蕃. In modern Standard Mandarin, the first character is pronounced "tǔ". The second character is normally pronounced "fān"; in the context of references to Tibet, most authorities say that it should be pronounced "bō", while some authorities state that it should be pronounced as "fān"."现代汉语词典","遠東漢英大辭典". Its reconstructed Medieval Chinese pronunciation is /t\'obwǝn/, which comes from the Turkic word for “heights” which is also the origin of the English term “Tibet”.Behr, W., "Stephan V. Beyer, The Classical Tibetan Language" (book review), Oriens 34 (1994): 557–564.Sellheim, R. "Oriens - Journal of the International Society for Oriental Research: 1994". Brill Publishers, 1994. page 559 When expressing themselves in Chinese, many exiled Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama\'s government in Dharamsala, now use the term 吐博 Tǔbó. Although the second character is not historically accurate, it has the correct pronunciation (whereas ambiguity attends the pronunciation of 蕃), and thus 吐博 is deemed a more appropriate way to write "Tibet" in Chinese.
Pastoral nomads camping near Namtso in 2005
The government of the People\'s Republic of China equates Tibet with the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). As such, the name “Xīzàng” is equated with the TAR. In order to refer to non-TAR Tibetan areas, or to all of cultural Tibet, the term 藏区 Zàngqū (literally, "ethnic Tibetan areas") is used. However, Chinese-language versions of pro-Tibetan independence websites, such as the Free Tibet Campaign, the Voice of Tibet, and Tibet Net use 西藏 (“Xīzàng”), not 藏区 ("Zàngqū"), to mean historic Tibet.
Some English-speakers reserve “Xīzàng”, the Chinese word transliterated into English, for the TAR, to keep the concept distinct from that of historic Tibet.[citation needed] Some pro-independence advocates duplicate the situation into the Chinese language, and use 土番 (Tǔbō) or 图伯特 (Túbótè), which are both phonetic transcriptions of the word "Tibet", to refer to historic Tibet.[citation needed]
The character 藏 (zàng) has been used in transcriptions referring to Tsang as early as the Yuan Dynasty, if not earlier, though the modern term "Xizang" (western Tsang) was devised in the 18th century. The Chinese character 藏 (Zàng) has also been generalized to refer to all of Tibet, including other concepts related to Tibet such as the Tibetan language (藏文, Zàngwén) and the Tibetan people (藏族, Zàngzú).
The English word Tibet, like the word for Tibet in most European languages, is derived from the Arabic word Tubbat.Partridge, Eric, Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, New York, 1966, p. 719. This word is derived via Persian from the Turkic word Töbäd (plural of Töbän), meaning "the heights". In Medieval Chinese, 吐蕃 (pronounced tǔbō), is derived from the same Turkic word. 吐蕃 was pronounced /t\'o-bwǝn/ in Medieval times.
The exact derivation of the name is, however, unclear. Some scholars believe that the named derived from that of a people who lived in the region of northeastern Tibet and were referred to as \'Tübüt\'. This was the form adapted by the Muslim writers who rendered it Tübbett, Tibbat, etc., from as early as the 9th century, and it then entered European languages from the reports of the medieval European accounts of Piano-Carpini, Rubruck, Marco Polo and the Capuchin monk Francesco della Penna.Stein, R. A. Tibetan Civilization (1922). English edition with minor revisions in 1972 Stanford University Press, p. 31. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN 0-8047-0901-7.
PRC scholars favor the theory that "Tibet" is derived from tǔbō.China Tibet Information Center "The Origin of the Name of Tibet"
A Tibetan woman in Lhasa
The Tibetan language is spoken throughout the Tibetan plateau, and also Bhutan, and in parts of Nepal and northern India such as Sikkim. It is generally classified as a Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Spoken Tibetan includes numerous regional dialects which, in many cases, are not mutually intelligible. Moreover, the boundaries between Tibetan and certain other Himalayan languages are sometimes unclear. In general, the dialects of central Tibet (including Lhasa), Kham, Amdo, and some smaller nearby areas are considered Tibetan dialects, while other forms, particularly Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Sherpa, and Ladakhi, are considered for political reasons by their speakers to be separate languages.[citation needed] Ultimately, taking into consideration this wider understanding of Tibetan dialects and forms, "greater Tibetan" is spoken by approximately 6 million people across the Tibetan Plateau. Tibetan is also spoken by approximately 150,000 exile speakers who have fled from modern-day Tibet to India and other countries.
The Tibetan language has its own script, which is derived from Sanskrit Devanagari script.[verification needed]
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into History of Tibet. (Discuss) |
Tibet in 820 in relation to the other powers
Chinese and the "proto-Tibeto-Burman" language may have split sometime before 4000 BCE, when the Chinese began growing millet in the Yellow River valley while the Tibeto-Burmans remained nomads. Tibetan split from Burman around 500 CE.Van Driem, George "Tibeto-Burman Phylogeny and Prehistory: Languages, Material Culture and Genes".Bellwood, Peter & Renfrew, Colin (eds) Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis (2003), Ch 19.
Prehistoric Iron Age hill forts and burial complexes have recently been found on the Chang Tang plateau but the remoteness of the location is hampering archaeological research. The initial identification of this culture is as the Zhang Zhung culture which is described in ancient Tibetan texts and is known as the original culture of the Bön religion.
A series of kings ruled Tibet from the 7th to the 11th century. At times, Tibetan rule may have extended as far south as Bengal and as far north as Mongolia.[citation needed]
Tibet appeared in an ancient Chinese historical text where it is referred to as fa. The first incident from recorded Tibetan history which is confirmed externally occurred when King Namri Lontsen sent an ambassador to the Chinese court in the early 7th century.Beckwith, C. Uni. of Indiana Diss., 1977
However general, the history of Tibet begins with the rule of Songtsän Gampo (604–649 CE) who united parts of the Yarlung River Valley and ruled Tibet as a kingdom. In 640 he married Princess Wencheng, the niece of the powerful Chinese emperor Emperor Taizong of Tang China.
Tibetan forces conquered the Tuyuhun Kingdom of modern Qinghai and Gansu to the northeast between 663 and 672 CE. Tibet also dominated the Tarim Basin and adjoining regions (now called Xinjiang), including the city of Kashgar, from 670 to 692 CE, when they were defeated by Chinese forces, and then again from 766 to the 800s.
The Tibetans were allied with the Arabs and eastern Turks. In 747, Tibet\'s hold over Central Asia was weakened by the campaign of general Gao Xianzhi, who re-opened the direct communications between Central Asia and Kashmir. By 750 the Tibetans had lost almost all of their central Asian possessions to the Chinese. However, after Gao Xianzhi\'s defeat by the Arabs and Qarluqs at the Battle of Talas river (751), Chinese influence decreased rapidly and Tibetan influence resumed. Tibet conquered large sections of northern India and even briefly took control of the Chinese capital Chang\'an in 763 during the chaos of the An Shi Rebellion.Beckwith, Christopher I. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia, p. 146. (1987) Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02469-3.
There was a stone pillar, the Lhasa Shöl rdo-rings, in the ancient village of Shöl in front of the Potala in Lhasa, dating to c. 764 CE during the reign of Trisong Detsen. It also contains an account of the brief capture of Chang\'an, the Chinese capital, in 763 CE, during the reign of Emperor Daizong.A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions. H. E. Richardson. Royal Asiatic Society (1985), pp. 1–25. ISBN 0-94759300/4.Tibetan Civilization. R. A. Stein. 1962. 1st English edition 1972. Stanford University Press, p. 65. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN 0-8047-0901-7 (pbk).
In 821/822 CE Tibet and China signed a peace treaty. A bilingual account of this treaty including details of the borders between the two countries are inscribed on a stone pillar which stands outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa.\'A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions. H. E. Richardson. Royal Asiatic Society (1985), pp. 106–43. ISBN 0-94759300/4. Tibet continued as a Central Asian empire until the mid-9th century.
At the end of the 1230s, the Mongols turned their attention to Tibet. At that time, Mongol armies had already conquered Northern China, much of Central Asia, and were operating in Russia and what is now Ukraine. The Tibetan nobility, however, was fragmented and mainly occupied with internal strife. Göden, a brother of Güyük, entered the country with military force in 1240. A second invasion led to the submission of almost all Tibetan states. In 1244, Göden ordered the Sakya Pandita to meet him in Liangzhou, and in 1247 Sakya became the Mongolian representative in Tibet. Sakya was accompagnied by two of his nephews: Chana Dorje (Phyag-na Rdo-rje) would later marry a daughter of Kublai Khan, and Phagpa would become Kublai\'s spiritual teacher. Although there was another Mongol expedition into Tibet in 1251/52, generally spoken the Tibetan experience with the Mongols was much less traumatic than that of other peoples.
On the other hand, Tibetan lamas would gain considerable influence in different Mongol clans, not only with Kublai, but for example also with the Il-Khanids. Kublai\'s success in succeeding Möngke as Great Khan meant that after 1260, Phagpa and the House of Sakya would only wield greater influence. Phagpa became head of all buddhists monks in the Yuan empire, and Sakya would become the administrative center of Tibet. The lamaist clergy would receive considerable financial support, at the cost of mainly the Chinese areas ruled by the Yuan Dynasty. Tibet would also enjoy a rather high degree of autonomy compared to other parts of the Yuan empire, though further expeditions took place in 1267, 1277, 1281 and 1290/91.Dieter Schuh, Tibet unter der Mongolenherrschaft, in: Michael Weiers (editor), Die Mongolen. Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur, Darmstadt 1986, p. 283-289
Between 1346 and 1354, already towards the end of the Yuan dynasty, the House of Pagmodru would topple the Sakya. The following 80 years were a period of relative stability. They also saw the birth of the Gelugpa school (also known as Yellow Hats) by the disciples of Tsongkhapa Lobsang Dragpa, and the founding of the Ganden, Drepung, and Sera monasteries near Lhasa. After the 1430s, the country entered another period of internal power struggles.Karenina Kollmar-Paulenz, Kleine Geschichte Tibets, München 2006, p. 98-104
In 1578, Altan Khan of the Tümed Mongols decided to invite Sönam Gyatso, a high lama of the Gelugpa school. They met in Khökh Nuur, and Altan Khan bestowed the title Dalai LamaDalai is the Mongolian word for ocean, a translation of the Tibetan title Gyatso. on Sönam Gyatso, and placed him in a reincarnation line with Gendun Drup and Gendun Gyatso.Chinese authors sometimes like to point out that Altan Khan was a tributary of China, or even allude to him being a subordinate. This, however, not only ignores the often merely symbolic nature of the Chinese tributary system during Ming and Qing dynasty (see for example a very short discussion on p. 140f of J.K.Fairbank, S.Y.Tseng,On the Ch\'ing tributary system, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2. (Jun., 1941), pp. 135-246), but also the fact that by the end of the 1570s, the relations between the Ming and Altan Khan were once again marred by border raids (for this and the meeting between Altan Khan and Södnam Gyatso: Micheal Weiers, Geschichte der Mongolen, Stuttgart 2004, p.175) While this did not really mark the beginning of a massive conversion of Mongols to Buddhism (this would only happen in the 1630s), it did lead to the widespread use of Buddhist ideology for the legitimation of power among the Mongol nobility. Last not least, the fourth Dalai Lama was a grandson of Altan Khan.Micheal Weiers, Geschichte der Mongolen, Stuttgart 2004, p.175ff
In the 1630s, Tibet would become entangled in the power struggles between the rising Manchu and various Mongol and Oirad factions. Ligden Khan of the Chakhar, on the retreat from the Manchu, set out to Tibet to destroy the Yellow Hat school. He died on the way in Koko Nur in 1634,Micheal Weiers, Geschichte der Mongolen, Stuttgart 2004, p.182f but his vassal Tsogt Taij would continue the fight, even having his own son Arslan killed after he (the son) changed sides. Tsogt Taij was defeated and killed by Güshi Khan of the Khoshud in 1637, who would in turn become the overlord over Tibet, and act as a "Protector of the Yellow Church".Rene Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes, New Brunswick 1970, p. 522 Güshi helped the Fifth Dalai Lama to establish himself as the highest spiritual and political authority in Tibet and destroyed any potential rivals, like the prince of Tsang. The time of the fifth Dalai Lama was, however, also a period of rich cultural development.
His death was kept secret for 15 years by the regent (Tibetan: desi; Wylie: sde-srid), Sanggye Gyatso. His reasons for doing so are not really clear, but the Sixth Dalai Lama was only enthroned in 1697. The new Dalai Lama did not really live up to expectations: he would blackmail the Panchen Lama to let him return to the lay class, and afterwards grow long hair and spend the nights outside the palace, with women of his choice. He gained fame for writing love poetry.Karenina Kollmar-Paulenz, Kleine Geschichte Tibets, München 2006, p. 109-122
Lha-bzang Khan, the last Khoshut King of Tibet
In 1705, Lobzang Khan of the Khoshud used the 6th Dalai Lama\'s escapades as excuse to take control of Tibet. The regent was murdered, and the Dalai Lama sent to Beijing. He died on the way, in Koko Nur, ostensibly from illness. Lobzang Khan appointed a new Dalai Lama, who however was not accepted by the Gelugpa school. A rival reincarnation was found in Koko Nur.
The Dzungars invaded Tibet in 1717, deposed and killed a pretender to the position of Dalai Lama (who had been promoted by Lhabzang, the titular King of Tibet), which met with widespread approval. However, they soon began to loot the holy places of Lhasa which brought a swift response from Emperor Kangxi in 1718, but his military expedition was annihilated by the Dzungars not far from Lhasa.Richardson, Hugh E. (1984). Tibet and its History. Second Edition, Revised and Updated, pp. 48-9. Shambhala. Boston & London. ISBN 0-87773-376-7 (pbk)Stein, R. A. Tibetan Civilization. (1972), p. 85. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN 0-8047-0901-7.(paper)
Many Nyingmapa and Bonpos were executed and Tibetans visiting Dzungar officials were forced to stick their tongues out so the Dzungars could tell if the person recited constant mantras (which was said to make the tongue black or brown). This allowed them to pick the Nyingmapa and Bonpos, who recited many magic-mantras.Norbu, Namkhai. (1980). "Bon and Bonpos". Tibetan Review, December, 1980, p. 8. This habit of sticking one\'s tongue out as a mark of respect on greeting someone has remained a Tibetan custom until recent times.
A second, larger, expedition sent by Emperor Kangxi expelled the Dzungars from Tibet in 1720 and the troops were hailed as liberators. They brought Kelzang Gyatso with them from Kumbum to Lhasa and he was installed as the seventh Dalai Lama in 1721.Richardson, Hugh E. (1984). Tibet and its History. Second Edition, Revised and Updated, pp. 48-9. Shambhala. Boston & London. ISBN 0-87773-376-7 (pbk)
The Qing put Amdo under their rule in 1724, and incorporated eastern Kham into neighbouring Chinese provinces in 1728.Wang Jiawei, "The Historical Status of China\'s Tibet", 2000, pp. 162-6 The Qing government sent a resident commissioner (amban) to Lhasa. Tibetan factions rebelled in 1750 and killed the ambans. Then, a Qing army entered and defeated the rebels and installed an administration headed by the Dalai Lama. The number of soldiers in Tibet was kept at about 2,000. The defensive duties were partly helped out by a local force which was reorganized by the resident commissioner, and the Tibetan government continued to manage day-to-day affairs as before.
While the ancient Sino-Tibetan relationships are complex, there can be no question regarding the subordination of Tibet to Manchu-ruled China following the chaotic era of the 6th and 7th Dalai Lamas in the first decades of the 18th century.Goldstein, Melvyn C., "A History Of Modern Tibet", University of California Press, p44 In 1751, the Manchu (Qing) Emperor Qianlong established the Dalai Lama as both the spiritual leader and political leader of Tibet who lead a government (Kashag) with four Kalöns in it.Wang Jiawei, "The Historical Status of China\'s Tibet", 2000, pp. 170–3
In 1788, Gurkha forces sent by Bahadur Shah, the Regent of Nepal, invaded Tibet, occupying a number of frontier districts. The young Panchen Lama fled to Lhasa and the Manchu Qianlong Emperor sent troops to Lhasa, upon which the Nepalese withdrew agreeing to pay a large annual sum.
In 1791 the Nepalese Gurkhas invaded Tibet a second time, seizing Shigatse and destroyed, plundered, and desecrated the great Tashilhunpo Monastery. The Panchen Lama was forced to flee to Lhasa once again. The Qianlong Emperor then sent an army of 17,000 men to Tibet. In 1793, with the assistance of Tibetan troops, they managed to drive the Nepalese troops to within about 30 km of Kathmandu before the Gurkhas conceded defeat and returned all the treasure they had plundered.Teltscher, Kate (2006). The High Road to China: George Bogle, the Panchen Lama, and the First British Expedition to Tibet, pp. 244-246. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. ISBN 978-0-374-21700-6. Soon the Chinese emperor decreed that the selection of the Dalai Lama and other high lamas such as the Panchen Lama was under the supervision of Qing government\'s Amban Commissioners in Lhasa.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
"Tibet" (1878) is an account of early British attempts to gain influence in Tibet.
The first Europeans to arrive in Tibet were Portuguese missionaries in 1624 and were welcomed by the Tibetans who allowed them to build a church. The 18th century brought more Jesuits and Capuchins from Europe who gradually met opposition from Tibetan lamas who finally expelled them from Tibet in 1745. However, at the time not all Europeans were banned from the county — in 1774 a Scottish nobleman, George Bogle, came to Shigatse to investigate trade for the British East India Company, introducing the first potatoes into Tibet.Teltscher, Kate. (2006). The High Road to China: George Bogle, the Panchen Lama and the First British Expedition to Tibet, p. 57. Bloomsbury, London, 2006. ISBN 0374217009; ISBN 978-0-7475-8484-1; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. ISBN 978-0-374-21700-6
However by the 19th century the situation of foreigners in Tibet grew more ominous. The British Empire was encroaching from northern India into the Himalayas and Afghanistan and the Russian Empire of the tsars was expanding south into Central Asia and each power became suspicious of intent in Tibet. By the 1850s Tibet had banned all foreigners from Tibet and shut its borders to all outsiders.
In 1865 Great Britain began secretly mapping Tibet. Trained Indian surveyor-spies disguised as pilgrims or traders counted their strides on their travels across Tibet and took readings at night. Nain Singh, the most famous, measured the longitude and latitude and altitude of Lhasa and traced the Yarlung Tsangpo River.
Then in 1904 a British advance mission, accompanied by a large military escort, arrived in Lhasa. The head of the mission was Colonel Francis Younghusband, who in his earlier days was noted for wanting to "make a name for himself".[citation needed] The principal pretext for the British invasion was a fear, which proved to be unfounded, that Russia was extending its footprint into Tibet and possibly even giving military aid to the local Tibetan government. But on his way to Lhasa, Younghusband slaughtered 1,300 Tibetans in Gyangzê, because the locals feared that the British would force an unequal treaty on the Tibetans. Younghusband first tricked them into extinguishing the burning ropes of their basic rifles before opening fire with the Maxim machine guns.
Sera Monastery, Lhasa, Tibet (2006)
When the mission reached Lhasa, the Dalai Lama had already fled to Urga in Mongolia, Younghusband found the option of returning to India empty-handed untenable, he proceeded to draft a treaty unilaterally, and have it signed in the Potala by the regent, Ganden Tri Rinpoche, and any other local officials he could gather together as an ad hoc government. The Tibetan ministers whom Younghusband dealt with had apparently, unknown to him, just been appointed to their posts. The regular ministers had been imprisoned for suspected pro-British leanings and it was feared they would be too accommodating to Younghusband.Grunfeld, A. Tom, The Making of Modern Tibet. ISBN 1-56324-713-5, p. 57 A treaty was signed by lay and ecclesiastical officials of the said Tibetan government, and by representatives of the three monasteries of Sera, Drepung, and GandenBell, 1924 p. 284; Allen, 2004, p. 282 and the British force left the city of Lhasa on 23 September, 1904.
The treaty made provisions for the frontier between Sikkim and Tibet to be respected, for free trade between British and Tibetan subjects, and for an indemnity to be paid from the Qing court to the British Government for its expenses in dispatching armed troops to Lhasa. It also made provision for a British trade agent to reside at the trade mart at Gyangzê. The provisions of this 1904 treaty were confirmed in a 1906 treaty signed between Britain and China, in which the British, for a fee from the Qing court, also agreed "not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration of Tibet.".Bell, 1924, p. 288 The position of British Trade Agent at Gyangzê was occupied from 1904 until 1944. It was not until 1937, with the creation of the position of "Head of British Mission Lhasa", that a British officer had a permanent posting in Lhasa itself.McKay, 1997, pp. 230–1. A Nepalese agency had also been established in Lhasa after the invasion of Tibet by the Gurkha government of Nepal in 1855.Bell, 1924, pp. 46–7, 278–80
In the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1906 which confirmed the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of 1904, Britain agreed "not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration of Tibet" while China engaged "not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet".Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting Tibet (1906) In the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, drafted by the British, Britain also recognized the "suzerainty of China over Thibet" and, in conformity with such admitted principle, engaged "not to enter into negotiations with Tibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese Government."Convention Between Great Britain and Russia (1907)
Tibetan control of the Batang region of Kham in eastern Tibet appears to have continued uncontested from the time of an agreement made in 1726Abbé Huc. The Land of the Lamas. Taken from: Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 by MM. Huc and Gabet, translated by William Hazlitt, p. 123. until soon after the British invasion, which alarmed the Qing rulers in China. They sent an imperial official to the region to begin reasserting Qing control, but the locals revolted and killed him. The Qing government in Beijing then appointed Zhao Erfang, the Governor of Xining, "Army Commander of Tibet" to reintegrate Tibet into China. He was sent in 1905 (though other sources say this occurred in 1908)"Ligne MacMahon." [2]FOSSIER Astrid, Paris, 2004 "L’Inde des britanniques à Nehru : un acteur clé du conflit sino-tibétain." [3] on a punitive expedition and, according to some pro-Dharamsala sources, began destroying many monasteries in Kham and Amdo and implementing a process of sinification of the region:"About Tibet: Later History", The Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre
At the same time many other historians/Tibetologists provided, even disputedly, different accounts:
Charles Alfred Bell, British Political Officer in Sikkim notes that:
In 1910, the Qing government sent a military expedition of its own to establish direct Chinese rule and deposed the Dalai Lama in an imperial edict. The Dalai Lama once again fled, this time to India. "By going in and then coming out again, we knocked the Tibetans down and left them for the first comer to kick," wrote Charles Alfred Bell, also a critic of the Liberal government\'s policy. The situation was soon to change, however, as, after the fall of the Qing dynasty in October 1911, Zhao\'s soldiers mutinied and beheaded him.Hilton, Isabel. (1999). The Search for the Panchen Lama. Viking. Reprint: Penguin Books. (2000), p. 115. ISBN 0-14-024670-3.
The 13th Dalai Lama fled to British India in February 1910. The same month, the Chinese Qing government issued a proclamation deposing the Dalai Lama and instigating the search for a new incarnation.Smith (1996), p. 175 While in India, the Dalai Lama became a close friend of the British Political Officer Charles Alfred Bell.
The official position of the British Government was it would not intervene between China and Tibet and would only recognize the de facto government of China within Tibet at this time.Bell (1924), p. 113 Bell, in his history of Tibet, wrote of this time that "the Tibetans were abandoned to Chinese aggression, an aggression for which the British Military Expedition to Lhasa and subsequent retreat [and consequent power vacuum within Tibet) were primarily responsible".Bell (1924), p. 113 Britain later violated all these treaties when it fomented the Sino-Indian border dispute by defining the McMahon Line in London without China\'s agreement and with the Simla conference, thus interfering in the affairs of the region.
On 1 January 1912 the Republic of China was established and one month later the regent of Qing Emperor Xuantong abdicated.Smith (1996), p. 181 In April 1912 the Chinese garrison of troops in Lhasa surrendered to the Tibetan authorities while the new Chinese Republican government wished to make the commander of the Chinese troops in Lhasa its new Tibetan representative.
The Dalai Lama returned to Tibet from India in July 1912. By the end of 1912, the Chinese troops in Tibet had returned, via India, to China Proper.
In early 1913, Agvan Dorzhiev and two other Tibetan representatives signed a treaty in Urga, proclaiming mutual recognition and their independence from China. However, Agvan Dorzhiev\'s authority to sign such a treaty has always been - and still is - disputed by some authorities.
John Snelling says: "Though sometimes doubted, this Tibet-Mongolia Treaty certainly existed. It was signed on 29 December 1912 (OS) (that is, by the Julian Calendar - thus making it 8th January 1913 by the Gregorian Calendar) by Dorzhiev and two Tibetans on behalf of the Dalai Lama, and by two Mongolians for the Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu." He then quotes the full wording of the treaty (in English) from the British Public Records Office: FO [Foreign Office] 371 1609 7144: Sir George Buchanan to Sir Edward Grey, St. Petersburg, dated 11 February 1913.Snelling, John. (1993). Buddhism in Russia: The Story of Agvan Dorzhiev, Lhasa\'s Emissary to the Tsar. (1993) Element Inc., pp. 150-151; 292. ISBN 1-85230-332-8
The 13th Dalai Lama himself denied he authorized Agvan Dorzhiev to conclude any treaties on behalf of Tibet. The Tibetan government never ratified this treaty and no Tibetan version of this treaty was published by Tibetan government.Sir Charles Bell, "Tibet and Her Neighbours", Pacific Affairs (Dec 1937), pp435-436Bell, Charles, Tibet Past and Present, 1924, pp150-151 A Russian diplomat pointed out to the British ambassador that since Agvan Dorzhiev himself is a Russian subject, his legal ability to sign such a treaty is in question.UK Foreign Office Archive: FO 371/1608
Some British authors have, based on remarks of a Tibetan diplomat some years later, even disputed the mere existence of the treaty, Quoted by Sir Charles Bell, "Tibet and Her Neighbours", Pacific Affairs(Dec 1937), pp. 435–6, a high Tibetan official pointed out years later that there was "no need for a treaty; we would always help each other if we could." but scholars of Mongolia generally are positive it existsGerard M. Friters: The Prelude to Outer Mongolian Independence, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 2. (Jun., 1937), p. 173f, as were contemporary authors Alfred L. P. Dennis: Diplomatic Affairs and International Law 1913, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 8, No. 1. (Feb., 1914), p. 38E. T. Williams: The Relations Between China, Russia and Mongolia, The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 10, No. 4. (Oct., 1916), p. 803f. The Mongolian text of the treaty has, for example, been published by the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in 1982.Udo B. Barkmann, Geschichte der Mongolei, Bonn 1999, p. 380f
In 1914, representatives of China, Tibet and Britain negotiated a treaty in India: the Simla Convention. During the convention, the British tried to divide Tibet into Inner and Outer Tibet. When negotiations broke down over the specific boundary between Inner and Outer, the British demanded instead to advance their line of control, enabling them to annex 9,000 square kilometers of traditional Tibetan territory in southern Tibet i.e Tawang region, which corresponds to the north-west parts of modern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, while recognizing Chinese suzerainty over TibetArticle 2 of the Simla Convention and affirming the latter\'s status as part of Chinese territory, with a promise from the Government of China that Tibet will not be converted into a Chinese province.Appendix of the Simla ConventionGoldstein, Melvyn C., A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951, University of California Press, 1989, p. 75 Tibetan representatives signed without Chinese approval, more so as an act of defiance now that the Chinese army had left; after the collapse of Chinese authority in Tibet in 1912. China maintains that it was signed under British pressure; however, the representative of China\'s central government declared that the secretive annexation of territory was not acceptable. The boundary established in the convention, the McMahon Line, was considered by the British and later the independent Indian government to be the boundary; however, the Chinese view since then has been that since China, which had suzerainty over Tibet, did not sign the treaty, the treaty was meaningless, and the annexation and control of parts of Arunachal Pradesh by India is illegal. This paved the way to the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the boundary dispute between China and India today.
14th Dalai Lama 1935-
The subsequent outbreak of World War I and the division of China into military cliques ruled by warlords caused the Western powers and the infighting factions within China to lose interest in Tibet, and the 13th Dalai Lama ruled undisturbed until his death in 1933. At that time, the government of Tibet controlled all of Ü-Tsang (Dbus-gtsang) and western Kham (Khams), roughly coincident with the borders of Tibet Autonomous Region today. Eastern Kham, separated by the Yangtze River was under the control of Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui. The situation in Amdo (Qinghai) was more complicated, with the Xining area controlled after 1928 by the Hui warlord Ma Bufang, who constantly strove to exert control over the rest of Amdo (Qinghai).
Writing in 1940, after his visit to Tibet in 1936–7, British Army officer Freddie Spencer Chapman said:
Since the expulsion of the Chinese, following the revolution of 1910, there has been no official representative in Lhasa. In 1934, however, when General Huang Mu Sung returned to China, he left a wireless transmission set in the charge of a certain Mr. Tsang. As the Tibetans have no other form of wireless transmission, Tsang became a rather important person. This was especially clear during the recent disturbances on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, for it takes ten days or a fortnight for a mounted messenger from Lhasa to reach Derge or Chamdo. If Tsang did not like the message he changed it; if he disapproved of it altogether, he just didn\'t send it."Chapman, F. Spencer. Lhasa: The Holy City, p. 96. (1940). Readers Union Ltd., London.
In 1935 the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso was born in Amdo in eastern Tibet and was recognized as the latest reincarnation. He was taken to Lhasa in 1937 where he was later given an official ceremony in 1939. In 1944, during World War II, two Austrian mountaineers, Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter came to Lhasa, where Harrer became a tutor and friend to the young Dalai Lama giving him a sound knowledge of western culture and modern society, until he was forced to leave in 1959.
Sven Hedin (1865 - 1952) was a Swedish explorer and geographer who made several long expeditions to Central Asia and Tibet. In his later expeditions 1926-1935 he became the first to map large parts of the Tibetan highlands. He saw Tibet as a province and as a part of China.
Neither the Republic of China nor the People\'s Republic of China have ever renounced China\'s claim to sovereignty over Tibet.Grunfeld, 1996, pp. 255–7
Since 1951, Tibet has been under China\'s control. According to a 1951 agreement between the Tibetan and Chinese central governments, the Dalai Lama-ruled Tibetan area was supposed to be a highly autonomous area of China. Though, according to anthropologists, a vast majority of the people of Tibet were serfs ("mi ser"),Goldstein, Melvyn, Taxation and the Structure of a Tibetan village, Central Asiatic Journal, 1971, p15: "With the exception of about 300 noble families, all laymen and laywomen in Tibet were serfs (Mi ser) bound via ascription by parallel descent to a particular lord (dPon-po) though an estate, in other words sons were ascribed to their father\'s lord but daughters to their mother\'s lord."Goldstein, Melvyn, An Anthropological Study of the Tibetan Political System, 1968, p40Rahul, Ram, The Structure of the Government of Tibet, 1644-1911, 1962, pp263-298Grunfeld, A. Tom, The Making of Modern Tibet, p12: "The vast majority of the people of Tibet were serfs, or as they were known there, mi ser." often bound to land owned by monasteries and aristocrats, Tibetans in exile have claimed that the serfs and their masters formed only a small part of Tibetan society, and argued that Tibet would have modernized itself without China\'s intervention. However, the Chinese government claims that most Tibetans were still serfs in 1951,Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China\'s Tibet", 2000, pp 194-7, and have proclaimed that the Tibetan government inhibited the development of Tibet during its self-rule from 1913 to 1959, and opposed modernization efforts by the Chinese government.
This 1951 agreement was initially put into effect in Central Tibet (Ch: Xizang). However, Eastern Kham and Amdo were considered by the Chinese to be outside the administration of the government of Tibet in Lhasa, and were thus treated like any other Chinese province with land redistribution implemented in full. Most lands were taken away from noblemen and monasteries and re-distributed to serfs. As a result, a rebellion led by noblemen and monasteries broke out in Amdo and eastern Kham in June 1956. The insurrection, supported by the American CIA, eventually spread to Lhasa. It was crushed by 1959. During this campaign, tens of thousands of Tibetans were killed. The 14th Dalai Lama and other government principals fled to exile in India, but isolated resistance continued in Tibet until 1969 when the CIA abruptly withdrew its support. After the Lhasa rebellion in 1959, the Chinese government lowered the level of autonomy of Central Tibet, and implemented full-scale land redistribution in all areas of Tibet.
On 5 June 1959 Shri Purshottam Trikamdas, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, presented a report on Tibet to the International Commission of Jurists (an NGO). The press conference address on the report states in paragraph 26 that
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A report by the Heritage Foundation claimed some of the reasons for the use of this term:
If the matter of Tibet\'s sovereignty is murky, the question about the PRC\'s treatment of Tibetans is all too clear. After invading Tibet in 1950, the Chinese communists killed over one million Tibetans, destroyed over 6,000 monasteries, and turned Tibet\'s northeastern province, Amdo, into a gulag housing, by one estimate, up to ten million people. A quarter of a million Chinese troops remain stationed in Tibet. In addition, some 7.5 million Chinese have responded to Beijing\'s incentives to relocate to Tibet; they now outnumber the 6 million Tibetans. Through what has been termed Chinese apartheid, ethnic Tibetans now have a lower life expectancy, literacy rate, and per capita income than Chinese inhabitants of Tibet.Lasater, Martin L. & Conboy, Kenneth J. "Why the World Is Watching Beijing\'s Treatment of Tibet", Heritage Foundation, October 9, 1987.
In 2001 representatives of Tibet succeeded in gaining accreditation at a United Nations-sponsored meeting of non-governmental organizations. On August 29 Jampal Chosang, the head of the Tibetan coalition, stated that China had introduced "a new form of apartheid" in Tibet because "Tibetan culture, religion, and national identity are considered a threat" to China.Goble, Paul. "China: Analysis From Washington — A Breakthrough For Tibet", World Tibet Network News, Canada Tibet Committee, August 31, 2001. The Tibet Society of the UK has called on the British government to "condemn the apartheid regime in Tibet that treats Tibetans as a minority in their own land and which discriminates against them in the use of their language, in education, in the practice of their religion, and in employment opportunities.""What do we expect the United Kingdom to do?", Tibet Vigil UK, June 2002. Accessed June 25, 2006.
These tensions have spilled over into the tourist industry. According to Peter Neville-Hadley:
Hotels practice a form of apartheid. Han-run hotels overcharge foreigners and don\'t want your business. Equally perverse are Tibetan-run hotels with signage only in English, sending a clear message to Han would-be patrons.Neville-Hadley, Peter. Frommer\'s China, Frommers.com, 2003, p. 268.
In 1965, the area that had been under the control of the Dalai Lama\'s government from the 1910s to 1959 (U-Tsang and western Kham) was set up as an Autonomous Region. The monastic estates were broken up and secular education introduced. During the Cultural Revolution, fanatical youths, called "Red Guards", inflicted a campaign of organised vandalism against religious and cultural sites across the PRC, including Tibet\'s Buddhist heritage. In Tibet, as was the case elsewhere in mainland China, local (Tibetan) youths were often incited towards violence by youths from other parts of the country, keen to spread their ideological fervour.Wang Lixiong, \'Reflections on Tibet\', New Left Review 14, March-April 2002Jan Wong, \'TIBET: Life at the top of the world\', World Tibet Network News, December 10 1994 and involuntarily due to the fear of being denounced as enemies of the people.Tsering Shakya, \'Blood in the Snows\', New Left Review 15, May-June 2002 Of the several thousand monasteries in Tibet, over 6,500 were destroyed,\'Monastic Education in the Gönpa\' Conservancy for Tibetan Art & Culture only a handful of the most important, religiously or culturally, monasteries remained without major damage.Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China\'s Tibet", 2000, pp. 210–1 Hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns were forced to return to secular life.Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China\'s Tibet", 2000, pp. 212–4 Some were even imprisoned or killed.
In 1989, the Panchen Lama was finally allowed to return to Shigatse, where he addressed a crowd of 30,000 and described what he saw as the suffering of Tibet and the harm being done to his country in the name of socialist reform under the rule of the PRC in terms reminiscent of the petition he had presented to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1962.The petition of 10th Panchen Lama in 1962 Five days later, he mysteriously died of a massive heart attack at the age of 50."Panchen Lama Poisoned arrow", BBC, 2001-10-14. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
In 1995 the Dalai Lama named 6 year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama without Chinese approval, while the PRC named another child, Gyancain Norbu in conflict. Gyancain Norbu was raised in Beijing and has appeared occasionally on state media. The PRC-selected Panchen Lama is rejected by exiled Tibetans and anti-China groups who commonly refer to him as the "Panchen Zuma" (literally "fake Panchen Lama"). Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family have gone missing — believed by some to be imprisoned by China — and under a hidden identity for protection and privacy according to the PRC.\'Tibet: 6-year old boy missing and over 50 detained in Panchen Lama dispute\', Amnesty International, January 18, 1996
The PRC continues to portray its rule over Tibet as an unalloyed improvement, but foreign governments continue to make occasional protests about aspects of PRC rule in Tibet because of alleged reports of human rights violation in Tibet by groups such as Human Rights Watch. All governments, however, recognize the PRC\'s sovereignty over Tibet today, and none have recognized the Government of Tibet in Exile in India.
In 2005, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao\'s offered to hold talks with the 14th Dalai Lama on the Tibet issue, provided he dropped the demand for independence. The Dalai Lama said in an interview with the South China Morning Post "We are willing to be part of the People\'s Republic of China, to have it govern and guarantee to preserve our Tibetan culture, spirituality and our environment." A statement that was seen as a renewed diplomatic offensive by the Tibetan government-in-exile. He had already said he would accept Chinese sovereignty over Tibet but insisted on real autonomy over its religious and cultural life. Tibetan government-in-exile, called on the Chinese government to respond.Spencer, Richard. "Tibet ready to sacrifice sovereignty, says leader", The Daily Telegraph, 2005-03-15. Retrieved on 2007-08-01. The move was seen to be unpopular with many Tibetans in exile.
In January 2007 the Dalai Lama, in an interview on a private television channel, said "What we demand from the Chinese authority is more autonomy for Tibetans to protect their culture." He added that he had told the Tibetan people not to think in terms of history and to accept Tibet as a part of China."Accept Tibet as part of China: Dalai Lama", The Hindu, 2007-01-24. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
Buddhist monks in Tibet have begun a hunger strike and two others attempted suicide as troops surrounded monasteries in a government crackdown on widespread protests against Chinese rule it was reported on March 14 2008."Chinese troops \'surround Tibetan monasteries\'", CNN, 2008-03-14. Retrieved on 2008-03-14.
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In 1991 the Dalai Lama alleged that Chinese settlers in Tibet were creating "Chinese Apartheid":
The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb u
