TIBET- Proving Truth From Facts

7/31/2019 TIBET- Proving Truth From Facts

1/5

TIBET: Proving Truth from FactsJune 1993

Department of Information and International RelationsCentral Tibetan AdministrationGangchen Kyishong, Dharamasala 176 215 INDIA

[This document has been made available for electronic archiving and world-widenetworked access by the Tibet Information Office for Australia, New Zealand andSouth East Asia, 3 Weld Street, Yarralumla, ACT 2600, Australia. Telephone(61-6) 285 4046 or (61-6) 282 4306 Fax (61-6) 282 4301]--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tibet:Proving Truth from Facts

Content:

1.! Status of Tibet2.! Invasion and illegal annexation of Tibet3.! National Uprising4.! Traditional Tibetan society5.! Human Rights6.! Socio-economic conditions and colonialism7.! Religion and national identity8.! Population transfer and control9.! State of Tibet's environment10.! Militarisation and regional peace11.! Quest for solution

Chapter 3. National Uprising

Introduction

When people are oppressed, they are likely to rise up against the oppressor.There was never a popular uprising in Tibet until the 1950s. Tibetan resistancemovement against the Chinese started right from the time of invasion. By 1956

open fighting broke out in the Eastern Tibetan provinces of Kham and Amdo. Threeyears later the uprising took on national proportions, leading to the massivedemonstrations in Lhasa in March 1959, the flight of the Dalai Lama and some80,000 refugees to neighbouring countries. Tens of thousands of Tibetans wereslaughtered by the PLA. Since then, Tibetan uprising and demonstrations havecontinued. Between 1987 and 1992 alone, there had been over 150 demonstrationsin Lhasa and other parts of Tibet, some small but others very large. The Chinesetroops suppressed most of these demonstrations with brutal force. In March 1989Tibet was put under Martial Law for the second time in its history: the firsttime was in 1959.

The Chinese Government tries to depict the popular resistance of Tibetans as thework of a few disgruntled aristocrats who wish to restore the old system ofexploitation and oppression of the Tibetan masses. It depicts 95 per cent of the


2/5

Tibetans as having been serfs, brutally oppressed by a small number ofaristocrats and lamas. What China cannot explain is why these allegedlyoppressed masses never rose up against their masters, despite the fact thatTibet did not have a national police force and for most of its history had nostrong army. Yet, these same Tibetans did rise up, and still do today, againstthe massive security apparatus and army of China, knowing the tremendous risk

they take. If we look at the social composition of the Tibetans involved in thesuccessive uprisings and demonstrations, more than 80 per cent of them are notaristocrats and high lamas. Furthermore, more than 85 per cent of Tibetans inexile belong to what the Chinese would call "serf class".

Events leading up to the 1959 National Uprising

Let us look briefly at the main causes of the Tibetan people's uprising againstChina in 1959. Following the entry of Chinese troops into Lhasa, every effortwas made to undermine the sovereign authority of the Tibetan Government andimpose Chinese authority. This was carried out in three ways: First, politicaland regional divisions were created among Tibetans under the policy of divideand rule. Secondly, certain social and economic reforms, calculated to changethe fabric of Tibetan society, were instituted against the wishes of Tibetans.Thirdly, various organs of the Chinese Government, and new bodies under theirauthority, were set up alongside the existing Tibetan institutions.

Between 24 November 1950 and 19 October 1953, China incorporated a largeportion of Kham province into neighbouring Chinese Sichuan province. Kham wasdivided into two so-called Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures and one TibetanAutonomous District. On 13 September 1957, another portion of southern Kham was

named the Dechen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and put under Yunnan Province.

The bulk of Amdo, together with a small area of Kham, was reduced to the statusof a Chinese province, and named as Qinghai. One portion of Amdo was named NgapaTibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and merged with Sichuan Province. The remainingarea of Amdo was sub-divided into Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous District (6 May1950), and Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (1 October 1953), andincorporated into the Chinese province of Gansu.

On 9 September 1965, China formally established the so-called Tibet AutonomousRegional government, placing under its administration the whole of U-Tsang and

parts of Kham area.

China stripped numerous ethnic Tibetans like the Sherpas, Monpas, Lhopas,Tengpas, Jangpas, etc, who consider themselves to be Tibetan, of their Tibetanidentity, classifying them as distinct Chinese minorities.

The appropriation by the People's Liberation Army of thousands of tons of barleyand other foodstuffs pushed the Tibetans to the brink of famine for the firsttime in history and prompted protest meetings in Lhasa. The first major popularresistance group, the Mimang Tsongdu (People's Assembly), banded togetherspontaneously and handed the Chinese Military Command a petition demandingwithdrawal of the PLA and an end to Chinese interference in Tibetan affairs. TheChinese reaction was swift: the two Tibetan Prime Ministers, Lukhangwa and Ven.Lobsang Tashi, who had made no secret of their opposition to Chinese rule and


3/5

opposed the "17-Point Agreement", were forced to resign and five Mimang Tsongduleaders were jailed, driving the organisation underground.

In 1954, the the Dalai Lama visited Beijing on China's invitation. The "special"autonomous position of Tibet, embodied in the "Seventeen-Point Agreement," wasformally abolished with the adoption of the new Constitution by the Chinese

People's Congress. This was followed by the adoption of the "Resolution on theEstablishment of the Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet(PCART)", a measure designed to further integrate the administration of Tibetinto that of PRC. The Preparatory Committee was to function as the centraladministration of Tibet instead of the Tibetan Government. The Dalai Lama wasmade its Chairman, but without any authority. As the Dalai Lama explained in hisautobiography:

The Committee was powerless a mere facade of Tibetan representation behindwhich all the effective power was exercised by the Chinese. In fact, all basicpolicy was decided by another body called the Committee of the ChineseCommunist Party in Tibet, which had no Tibetan members. [Dalai Lama, Ibid,p.133]

In 1956, PCART was set up and the Tashilhunpo estate, and those regions underthe jurisdiction of the Governor-General of Chamdo (a Tibetan Governmentappointee) in Eastern Tibet, were separated from the jurisdiction of the TibetanGovernment in Lhasa and their administrative organs given equal status as theTibetan Government, thereby reducing the authority of the Tibetan Government.

Social, political, and agrarian reforms were imposed by the Chinese Government

in Amdo and Kham and, to a much lesser degree, in the rest of the country.Frequent attacks were launched on religious personages and monasteries. All ofthese led to increasingly violent reactions. The "17-Point Agreement" guaranteedthat no reforms would be forced on the Tibetans. But in Eastern Tibet they wereintroduced and enforced at once. Mounting impatience and belligerence of theChinese administrators provoked violent reactions and rapidly culminated intoarmed conflicts in a widening spiral of resistance and military repression thatengulfed the entire eastern Tibetan provinces of Kham and Amdo.

As the violence spilled over to other areas of Tibet, a full- scale guerrillawarfare broke out in the summer of 1956. Refugees from eastern and northeastern

Tibet began to arrive in Lhasa in large numbers. Within a year, the uprising hadspread to Central Tibet, and in 1958 Tensung Dhanglang Magar, (the VoluntaryForce for the Defense of the Faith), a union of the Mimang Tsongdu and ChushiGangduk (Four Rivers Six Ranges) organisations, was founded. By the autumn ofthat year this popular army, estimated at 80,000 men, was in control of mostdistricts of Southern Tibet and parts of Eastern Tibet.

The Dalai Lama took pains to calm his people so as to prevent worse bloodbath.Nevertheless, the situation in Tibet deteriorated rapidly while the Dalai Lamavisited India, in 1956, to take part in the Buddha Jayanti celebration at theinvitation of independent India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Inmeetings with Nehru and Zhou Enlai in Delhi, the Dalai Lama expressed his deepconcern at the explosive situation in his homeland and admitted he wascontemplating seeking political asylum in India. Nehru advised the Dalai Lama


4/5

against it. To induce the Dalai Lama to return home, the Chinese Governmentpromptly announced that the "socialist and democratic reforms" would bepostponed in Tibet for the time being. It was also agreed that a number ofChinese civil personnel would be withdrawn, and the PCART's departments would bereduced by half. This turned out to be a false promise.

In the years that followed, the Chinese intensified socialist campaigns andpurges against Tibetans and sent considerable army reinforcements to Tibet, thusmore than offsetting the earlier modest reduction of Chinese cadres.

National Uprising and flight of the Dalai Lama

The inevitable showdown occurred in March 1959. There was general fear that theChinese were planning to abduct the Dalai Lama and take him away to Beijing. TheTibetan people already had bitter experiences in Kham and Amdo, where importantlamas and local leaders disappeared mysteriously after being invited to Chinesecultural shows and other functions. Fears for the safety of the Dalai Lamabecame acute when the Chinese Army Command invited the Tibetan leader to atheatrical show in the military barracks on 10 March. Tibetans became even moresuspicious when the Chinese instructed that the Dalai Lama be not accompanied bybodyguards as was the tradition. The people in Lhasa would not allow the DalaiLama to give in to the Chinese subterfuge.

On 10 March 1959, a massive demonstration was held and thousands of peoplesurrounded the Dalai Lama's Summer Palace, the Norbulingkha, to prevent theDalai Lama from attending the Chinese show. For the next few days, mass meetingswere held in Lhasa with the citizens demanding that the Chinese quit Tibet and

restore the country's full independence.

The Dalai Lama, fearing the explosive consequences of these mass demonstrations,urged the large crowd before the Norbulingkha to disperse and wrote threeletters to the principal Chinese General, Tian Guan-san, in an effort to placatethe Chinese and stave off impending violence. Explaining the circumstances inwhich he wrote these letters, the Dalai Lama says in his autobiography:

I replied to all his letters to gain time time for anger to cool on both sidesand time for me to urge moderation of the Lhasa people... my most urgent moralduty at that moment was to prevent a totally disastrous clash between my unarmed

people and the Chinese army. [Dalai Lama, Ibid, p.187]

But, despite the Dalai Lama's efforts, open fighting broke out in Lhasa soonafterwards, with disastrous consequences to the Tibetans.

Seeing that all efforts to prevent open confrontation and bloodshed hadultimately failed, and that cooperation with the Chinese authorities to minimisetheir oppression was no longer possible, the Dalai Lama decided to escape toIndia to appeal for international help to save his people. He left Lhasa on thenight of 17 March.

On 28 March 1959, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issued an Order of State Council"dissolving" the Government of Tibet. The Dalai Lama and his ministers, whilestill en route to India, reacted promptly by declaring that the new


5/5

administration installed in Lhasa, which was totally controlled by the Chinese,would never be recognised by the people of Tibet. Upon his arrival in India, theDalai Lama re-established the Tibetan Government in exile and publicly declared,"Wherever I am, accompanied by my government, the Tibetan people recognise us asthe Government of Tibet."

Within months, around 80,000 Tibetans reached the borders of India, Nepal,Bhutan and Sikkim after arduous escapes. Many more could not even make it to theborder.

China's White Paper tries to portray these events as the work of a handful ofTibetan reactionaries who, with the help of the CIA, created an armed"rebellion" which was "resolutely" opposed by the masses. The Dalai Lama was"carried away under duress" to India, the White Paper states. The resistance,they claim, amounted to no more than 7,000 "rebels," and was put down easily intwo days.

This view is hardly credible and has been contradicted even by the Chineseauthorities themselves. Chinese army intelligence reports admit that the PLAkilled 87,000 members of the Tibetan resistance in Lhasa and surrounding areasbetween March and October 1959 alone. [Xizang Xingshi he Renwu Jiaoyu de JibenJiaocai, PLA Military District's Political Report, 1960] The CIA's half-heartedassistance to the Tibetan resistance started in earnest only after the uprising,and, though welcomed by Tibetans, amounted to little. All the evidence showsthat the uprising was massive, popular and widespread. The brutal repressionwhich followed in all regions of Tibet only confirms this.--------------------------------------------------------------------------

end of file

TIBET- Proving Truth From Facts

Documents

Transcript of TIBET- Proving Truth From Facts