TIBET- THE FORGOTTEN NATION AND THE ‘LOST’ NEIGHBOUR

On 13th February 2025, Tibetans around the world will mark the 112th anniversary of the independence of Tibet. Although present conditions in the Tibetan plateau contradict the above line, yet Tibet had declared itself an independent and sovereign nation on the same date back in 1913. The conventional histories or accounts of Tibet’s past mostly begin from the Chinese occupation in 1950 because of which the story of pre-1950 Tibet is forced to recede in the background of popular narratives surrounding the Himalayan nation.

EARLY HISTORY

The origin stories of Tibet are symbolic of the latter’s ancient ties with the Indian subcontinent. As per one myth, the Tibetan people are said to be the progeny of Rupati, a commander of the Kaurava army who fled to the Himalayas with his followers after the battle of Kurukshetra. However, there exists another myth which says that the union of a monkey blessed by Avalokiteshwara, the Buddhist deity and a female rock demon resulted in the emergence of the Tibetan people. The influence of India again comes to the fore with regard to Nyatri Tsangpo, the first king of Tibet who is said to have been a descendant of a king exiled from Magadha. Nyatri Tsangpo was elected the king in 127 BCE and built the first Tibetan fortress Yumbu Lagar in Yarlung, thus establishing the Yarlung dynasty. Buddhism is said to have entered Tibet during the reign of the twenty-eighth king of the Yarlung dynasty Tho-Tho-ri Nyantsen in the fifth century AD when the latter received a book of Buddhist scriptures from Central Asia and was drawn to the new faith.

This was soon followed by the reign of the Three Dharma Kings of the Yarlung dynasty during which the Tibetan empire witnessed its golden era. The first Dharma King, Songtsen Gampo is said to have unified the Tibetan kingdom and even conquered adjacent areas including portions of the Burmese kingdom. Along with being a skilled warrior, he was also a great administrator and a reformer who instituted the ten moral principles and sixteen rules for the conduct of the people. Songtsen Gampo also came into conflict with Tang emperor Tai-Tsung whereby the latter was defeated by the Tibetan army and peace was achieved with the marriage of the Tang princess Wen-Cheng to Songsten Gampo in 641 AD. It was also during his reign that the Gupta Brahmi script arrived from India to Tibet, thus laying the foundation of the Tibetan script. The reign of the second Dharma king Trisong Detsen saw the Tibetan attack on the Tang capital Chang’an in 763 AD forcing the flight of the emperor Daizong and it was also the time when scholars like Guru Padmasambhava and Shantarakshita played a crucial role in the spread of Buddhism in Tibet. By the time of the third Dharma king, Tri Ralpachen the Tibetan empire had reached its zenith and included parts of Nepal and Central Asia such as Khotan, Xinjiang and the Oxus Valley. The peace treaty with Tang China in 823 AD was a testament to the might of the Tibetan empire and Ralpachen also ordered the translation of the Buddhist Tripitakas into Tibetan language and patronized the spread of Buddhism further.

Following the death of Tri Ralpachen, the Tibetan empire descended into chaos and factionalism and witnessed the first Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan in the early 13th century.

The Tibetan empire had to submit and paid the requisite tribute to the Mongols. However, the period also saw the establishment of ties between the Mongol Khans and Tibetan Buddhism through Sakya Pandita and his nephew Phasgpa; the latter introduced Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty to Buddhism thus establishing the priest-patron relationship between Tibet and Chinese empire. In return, the Sakya Lamas were recognized as the rulers of Tibet by Kublai. After the Sakya Lamas, the authority over Tibet fell into the hands of the Gelugpa sect of Buddhism whose third leader Sonam Gyatso received the title of ‘Dalai Lama’ or ‘Ocean of Wisdom’ from the Mongol chieftain Altan Khan. The Dalai Lamas are considered as reincarnation of Avalokiteshwara, the Buddhist deity and the same Dalai Lama is reborn in a new form every time after his demise.

Thus, Tibet was administered by the Gaden Phodrang government led by the unbroken line of reincarnated Dalai Lama who at the same time maintained the priest-patron relationship with the Ming and later the Qing (Manchu) dynasty in China. However, during this period Tibet also witnessed repeated Mongol incursions and during the time of the seventh Dalai Lama in the eighteenth century, the Qing empire took advantage of civil strife in Tibet and stationed a Chinese military contingent under the command of two Manchu officials known as Amban. The Amban and the Qing contingent were placed in Tibet with the pretext of guarding the Dalai Lama from Mongol and Nepali invasions. It was through the Ambans that the Qing emperors began laying claims to Tibet and interfering in the succession and choosing of the Dalai Lamas and other high lamas.

TIBET AND BRITISH INDIA (1904-1913)

In addition to Qing China, another major power made its presence felt at the turn of the twentieth century. An expedition from British India led by Col. Francis Younghusband into Tibet resulted in the Anglo-Tibet Treaty of 1904 which led to the establishment of British trade marts in Gyantse, Gartok and Yatung and Article IX of the Treaty established Tibet as a protectorate of British India. However, the Article IX was modified during the Anglo-Chinese convention of 1906 which changed the status of Tibet from being a ‘protectorate’ to an area under ‘Qing or Chinese suzerainty’− the British and the Chinese were the only foreign powers to be allowed in Tibet.

The 1906 convention was done without consulting the Tibetans or their representative the 13th Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso. Fearing loss of control and intending to convert Tibet into a Chinese province, the Qing army invaded Tibet in 1910 and the Dalai Lama fled to India via Sikkim and stayed in exile in the hill station of Darjeeling. During this period, the 13th Dalai Lama was also invited to Calcutta by Viceroy Lord Minto and this helped secured the support of the British Raj for recognition of the fact that Tibet was not a part of the Qing empire.

However, with the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911-12 the Chinese presence in Tibet was weaken and seeing an opportunity, the Dalai Lama appealed to the heads of monasteries and the general Tibetan populace to unite against the Chinese and drive them out. He even appointed commander-in chiefs of the Tibetan army to re-capture the capital Lhasa and in 1912 the Chinese surrendered in exchange for safe passage from Tibet via India. On 6th January 1913 the 13th Dalai Lama arrived at Lhasa after two years of exile and refused offers of rank restoration by the new Chinese Republican government signifying the status of Tibet as an independent and sovereign nation.

THE INDEPENDENCE OF TIBET (1913-1950)

On 13th February 1913, the 13th Dalai Lama released the ‘Proclamation of Independence’ which marked the birth of the ‘small, religious and independent nation’ but ‘with rich natural resources’− Tibet. Following this, although retaining the Lamaist structure of governance, the nascent Tibetan state can be said to have possessed most of the markers of the modern nation-state− a centralized government and administrative structure, control over territory with somewhat fixed boundaries as well as its own national flag (designed in 1916) and unique language with script. The independence of Tibet was further highlighted during the 1913 Shimla Convention which saw the participation of Tibet as an independent nation through its plenipotentiary Lonchen Shatra along with representatives from the newly established Republic of China (1911) and the British Raj− thus underlining the separateness of Tibet from the modern-day Chinese state. The Conference demarcated the boundary between Tibet and then British India known as the McMahon Line which was rejected by the Chinese envoy Ivan Chen.

THE BEGINNING OF CHINESE OCCUPATION (1950)

However, the period of Tibetan independence came to an end with the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 under the leadership of Chairman Mao Tse Dong who vowed to ‘unify’ all historical China including regions such as Tibet which had been ‘forcefully removed’ from the motherland during the period of Chinese ‘national humiliation’ (1842-1949) by foreign powers such as the British Raj in India. The Chinese offensive started with the Battle of Chamdo on October 1950 which swept up till Lhasa as the Tibetan army with outdated weaponry were unable to withstand the onslaught of modernized People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops. This was followed by the signing of the 17 Point Agreement in 1951 between the PRC and the Tibetan government headed by the then newly anointed 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso which formalized the forceful annexation and occupation of the Tibetan plateau by the Chinese Communist regime. In addition, the disappearance of the independent state of Tibet also set the stage for the strategic competition and rivalry between China and India whose borders touched each other for the first time which would flare up in 1962.

While the 17 Point Agreement guaranteed a measure of autonomy and self-rule to the Tibetan administration in local matters as well as maintenance of the previous forms of Lamaist administration, religion, and culture, yet the PRC leadership sought to dismantle the same under the guise of ‘liberating’ ordinary Tibetans from ‘feudal serfdom’ of the pre-1951 era. The period also witnessed the implementation of forceful collectivization of resources including agricultural lands and the of system of Laogai and Laojiao referring to reform and education through labor respectively which included Tibetans compelled to toil in inhuman conditions at labor camps. Such measures led to the eruption of the armed uprising by nomadic warriors and Tribesmen from the Khampa community in 1956 which also saw the formation of the Tibetan armed resistance group Chushi Gangdruk (Four Rivers, Six Ranges). Despite covert assistance from the CIA, the resistance was quelled by the much powerful PLA forces stationed in Tibet.

THE MARCH 1959 UPRISING

However, tensions kept mounting with the local population simmering with discontent and anger at the oppressive policies of the Communist occupation which culminated in the Tibetan uprising of 10 March 1959. The immediate pretext to the event were the apparent rumors of Chinese plans to kidnap the 14th Dalai Lama who had been invited by the Chinese PLA general Zhang Jingwu to witness a cultural performance in the Tibetan summer palace of Norbulingka. Thousands thronged the streets of Lhasa and surrounded the Potala Palace the traditional seat of the Dalai Lama to prevent him from stepping out and protect him. At this point, anti- Chinese slogans began emerging from the crowds which also attacked Tibetan officials perceived to be Communist loyalists. This was followed by protest marches involving women on 12 March which came to be known as the Tibetan Women’s Uprising Day.

In the midst of all this, both the remnants of the Tibetan Army of erstwhile independent Tibet and the PLA began fortifying their positions with the latter firing artillery shells on the Potala Palace. This created panic among the protestors and crowds who fearing for the life of the Dalai Lama pleaded him to leave Lhasa for his own safety despite the latter’s denial. On March 18, the Dalai Lama slipped out of the Potala in the cover of night escorted by a group of loyal followers and Khampa rebels crossing over into Arunachal Pradesh in India on 31 March, 1959. Parallelly, the Chinese regime began its brutal crackdown on the protesting crowds beginning from 20 March which resulted in 4000 arrests and innumerable deaths with the streets of Lhasa littered with corpses as per some accounts.

CONCLUSION

Coming to the present time, Tibet and its population has continued to suffer under Chinese occupation for 74 years as Beijing has consolidated its stranglehold over the once independent nation through a combination of military, political, cultural, and ideological measures to snuff out the memories and history of the land and its proud people and civilization not only from the local population but from the entire world. Such a project is aimed at enabling the Chinese weaponization of the Tibetan plateau and its resources including the terrain as well as the rivers emanating from the region such as Yarlung Tsangpo (known as Brahmaputra in India and Meghna in Bangladesh) under the Palm and Five Fingers strategy espoused by Mao himself− the Palm being Tibet facilitating access to the Five Fingers of Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh of which the last three constitute integral parts of sovereign Indian territory. This is all the while as the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE) along with patriotic Tibetans spread across the world continue their non-violent and rightful protest against a major military, economic and technological behemoth of the current global order.

As a rising power as well as for the sake of its own interests, India should ensure that the history of this proud nation and ‘lost’ neighbour is not swept under the carpet by the brushstrokes of Beijing while allowing the Snow Lion (Tibetan national symbol) to roar its story defying the flames spouted by the Dragon in Panda’s clothing.

 Anuraag Khaund is pursuing PhD in International Politics (IP), School of International Studies (SIS), Central University of Gujarat (CUG). He can be reached at khaundanuraag@gmail.com