The general history of Tibet begins with the rule of
Songtsän Gampo (604–50 CE) who united parts of the Yarlung River Valley
and ruled Tibet as a kingdom. He also brought in many reforms and Tibetan
power spread rapidly creating a large and powerful empire. In 640 he
married Princess Wencheng, the niece of the powerful Chinese emperor
Emperor Taizong of Tang China.
Under the next few kings who followed Songsten Gampo, Buddhism became
established as the state religion and Tibetan power increased even further
over large areas of Central Asia while major inroads were made into
Chinese territory, even reaching the Chinese capital Chang'an (modern
Xian) in late 763. However, Tibetan troops occupied Chang'an for only
fifteen days.
Nanzhao (in Yunnan and neighbouring regions) remained under Tibetan
control from 750 to 794, when they turned on their Tibetan overlords and
helped the Chinese inflict a serious defeat on the Tibetans.
The Tibetans were allied with the Arabs and eastern Turks. In 747, the
hold of Tibet was loosened by the campaign of general Gao Xianzhi, who
tried to re-open 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. In 821/822 CE Tibet and
China signed a remarkable 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. Tibet
continued as a Central Asian empire until the mid-9th century.
=========Tibet and the Mongols
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 as far as Russia and modern Ukraine. The Tibetan
nobility, however, was fragmented and mainly occupied with internal
strife. Göden, a brother of Güyük, entered the country in 1240. A second
invasion led to the submission almost all Tibetan states. In 1244, Göden
summoned the Sakya Pandita to his court, and in 1247 appointed Sakya the
Mongolian viceroy for Central Tibet, though the eastern provinces of Kham
and Amdo remained "under direct Mongol rule". When Kublai Khan
founded the Yuan Dynasty in 1271, Tibet became a part of the Yuan Dynasty.
Between 1346 and 1354, towards the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the House of
Pagmodru toppled 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 important Ganden, Drepung, and Sera monasteries near
Lhasa. After the 1430s, the country entered another period of internal
power struggles.
In 1578, Altan Khan of the Tümed Mongols invited Sonam Gyatso, a high lama
of the Gelugpa school. They met near Khökh Nuur, where Altan Khan first
referred to Sönam Gyatso as the Dalai Lama; Dalai being the Mongolian
translation of the Tibetan name Gyatso, or "Ocean".[
========Events leading to Qing control
In the 1630s, Tibet became entangled in the power struggles between the
rising Manchu and various Mongol and Oirad factions. Ligden Khan of the
Mongolian Chakhar tribe, retreating from the Manchu forces, set out to
destroy the Yellow Hat Gelug school in Tibet but died on the way near
Kokonor, in 1634. His vassal Tsogt Taij continued the fight but was
defeated and killed by Güshi Khan of the Khoshud in 1637, who, in turn,
became the overlord over Tibet, and acted as a "Protector of the Yellow
Church". Güshi helped the Fifth Dalai Lama to establish himself as the
highest spiritual and political authority in Tibet and destroyed any
potential rivals.
In 1705, Lobzang Khan of the Khoshud used the 6th Dalai Lama's refusal of
the role of a monk (although the encumbant did not reject his political
role as Dalai Lama) as an excuse to take control of Tibet. The regent was
murdered, and the Dalai Lama sent to Beijing. He died on the way, also
near Kokonor, 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 the region of Kokonor. The Dzungars
invaded Tibet in 1717, deposed and killed a pretender to the position of
Dalai Lama (who had been promoted by Lhabzang), which met with widespread
approval. However, the Dzungars 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.
Emperor Kangxi finally 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, though they did not make Tibet a province, allowed it to maintain
its own officials and legal and administrative systems, and levied no
taxes. However, the Manchu Qing put Amdo under their control in 1724, and
incorporated eastern Kham into neighbouring Chinese provinces in 1728. The
Qing government sent a resident commissioner, namely Amban, to Lhasa. In
1751, Emperor Qianlong installed the Dalai Lama as both the spiritual
leader and political leader of Tibet leading the government, namely Kashag.[
===========Tibet under Qing
While the ancient relations between Tibet and China are complicated, there
can be no question regarding the subordination of Tibet to Manchu-ruled
China following first decades of the 18th century. 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
Qing Emperor Qianlong 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. Emperor Qianlong 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.
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
country — 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.
However, by the 19th century the situation of foreigners in Tibet grew
more tenuous. 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. Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, the Hungarian scientist spent 20
years in British India (4 years in Ladakh) trying to visit Tibet. He
created the first Tibetan-English dictionary.
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. Then, in 1904 a
British mission under the command of Colonel Francis Younghusband,
accompanied by a large military escort, invaded Tibet and reached Lhasa.
The principal pretext for the British invasion was a fear, which proved to
be unfounded, that Russia was extending its power into Tibet and possibly
even giving military aid to the local Tibetan government. But on his way
to Lhasa, Younghusband slaughtered many Tibetan troops in Gyangzê who
tried to stop the British advance.
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 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. The provisions of this 1904 treaty
were confirmed in a 1906 treaty Anglo-Chinese Convention signed between
Britain and China. The British, for a fee from the Qing court, also 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".
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.
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 British India, in
February 1910. The Dalai Lama returned to Tibet from India in July 1912,
and by the end of the year the Chinese troops in Tibet had returned, via
India, to China Proper.
==========Independence proclaimed
Upon his return to Tibet in 1913, the Dalai Lama issued a proclamation
that stated that relationship between the Chinese emperor and Tibet "had
been that of patron and priest and had not been based on the subordination
of one to the other." "We are a small, religious, and independent nation,"
the proclamation stated.
In early 1913, Agvan Dorzhiev and two other Tibetan representatives signed
a treaty between Tibet and Mongolia in Urga, proclaiming mutual
recognition and their independence from China. The 13th Dalai Lama later
told a British diplomat that he did not authorized Agvan Dorzhiev to
conclude any treaties on behalf of Tibet.
In 1914, representatives of Tibet, Britain, and China negotiated a treaty
concerning Tibet's status called the Simla Convention. The convention
included a map delineating a boundary between Tibet and India later called
the McMahon Line. It affirmed Chinese suzerainty and stated that Tibet was
"part of Chinese territory". When the Chinese government refused to
ratify, Tibet and Britain concluded the treaty as a bilateral agreement
and attached a note denying China any priveleges under it.
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), somewhat larger than the Tibet Autonomous Region today.
Eastern Kham, separated by the Yangtze River, was under the control of
Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui.
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.
Supporters of the PRC have characterised the socio-economy of Tibet prior
to Communism as 'feudal serfdom'. However, supporters of an independent
Tibet objected to this assessment. For a discussion of the debate see
Serfdom in Tibet controversy. For a description of the traditional social
structure see Social classes of Tibet. ================Tibet under The
People's Republic of China
With the invasion of Tibet in 1950 and the subsequent Seventeen Point
Agreement, the PRC asserted control over Tibet.
A rebellion against the Chinese occupation was led by noblemen and
monasteries and 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 and the 14th Dalai Lama and other government
principals fled to exile in India.
Chinese sources claim rapid progress for prosperous, free, and happy
Tibetans participating in democratic reforms, although nothing like a free
and open election has ever occurred in Tibet under Chinese rule. Tibetans,
on the other hand, write of Chinese genocide in Tibet, comparing the
Chinese to the Nazis. Independent scholar Warren Smith, whose work became
focused on Tibetan history and politics after spending five months in
Tibet in 1982, portrays the Chinese as chauvinists who believe they are
superior to the Tibetans, and claims that the Chinese use torture,
coercion and starvation to control the Tibetans.
The Central Tibetan Administration states that the number that have died
in the Great Leap Forward, of violence, or other indirect causes since
1950 is approximately 1.2 million, which the Chinese Communist Party
denies. The Chinese Communist Party(CCP)'s official toll of deaths
recorded for the whole of China for the years of the Great Leap Forward is
14 million[citation needed], but scholars have estimated the number of the
famine victims to be between 20 and 43 million. According to Patrick
French, the estimate of 1.2 million in Tibet is not reliable because
Tibetans were not able to process the data well enough to produce a
credible total. There were, however, many casualties, with a figure of
400,000 extrapolated from a calculation Warren W. Smith made from census
reports of Tibet which show 200,000 "missing" from Tibet.
The following Cultural Revolution and the damage it wrought upon Tibet
and, indeed, the entire PRC is generally condemned as a nationwide
catastrophe. In the PRC government's view, the main instigators were the
Gang of Four, who have since been brought to justice. Large numbers of
Tibetans died violent deaths due to the Cultural Revolution, and the
number of intact monasteries in Tibet was reduced from thousands, to less
than ten. Tibetan resentment towards the Chinese deepened. Tibetans
participated in the destruction, but it is not clear how many of them
actually embraced Chinese ideology, and how many participated out of fear
of becoming targets themselves.
Projects that the PRC government claims to have benefited Tibet as part of
the China Western Development economic plan, such as the Qinghai-Tibet
Railway, have roused fears of facilitating military mobilisation and Han
migration. There is still ethnic imbalance in appointments and promotions
to the civil and judicial services in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, with
disproportionately few ethnic Tibetans appointed to these posts.
The PRC government claims that its rule over Tibet is an unalloyed
improvement, and that the China Western Development plan is a massive,
benevolent, and patriotic undertaking by the wealthier eastern coast to
help the western parts of China, including Tibet, catch up in prosperity
and living standards. But foreign governments continue to make occasional
protests about aspects of CCP rule in Tibet because of frequent reports of
human rights violation in Tibet by groups such as Human Rights Watch. The
government of the PRC maintains that the Tibetan Government did almost
nothing to improve the Tibetans' material and political standard of life
during its rule from 1913–59, and that they opposed any reforms proposed
by the Chinese government. According to the Chinese government, this is
the reason for the tension that grew between some central government
officials and the local Tibetan government in 1959.
The government of the PRC also rejects claims that the lives of Tibetans
have deteriorated, and states that the lives of Tibetans have been
improved immensely compared to self rule before 1950. Belying these
claims, some 3,000 Tibetans brave hardship and danger to flee into exile
every year.
These claims are, however, disputed by many Tibetans. In 1989, the Panchen
Lama,finally allowed to return to Shigatse, 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.
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.
The Dalai Lama has stated his willingness to negotiate with the PRC
government for genuine autonomy, but according to the government in exile
and Tibetan independence groups, most Tibetans still call for full Tibetan
independence. The Dalai Lama sees the millions of government-imported Han
immigrants[citation needed] and preferential socioeconomic policies, as
presenting an urgent threat to the Tibetan nation and culture. Tibetan
exile groups say that despite recent attempts to restore the appearance of
original Tibetan culture to attract tourism, the traditional Tibetan way
of life is now irrevocably changed. Tashi Wangdi, the Representative of
the Dalai Lama, stated in an interview that China's Western China
Development program "is providing facilities for the resettlement of Han
Chinese in Tibet."
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.
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." This statement was seen as a renewed
diplomatic initiative 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. The Tibetan
government-in-exile called on the Chinese government to respond. The move
was unpopular with many Tibetans.
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.
Talks between representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government
began again in May 2008 and again in July, but with little results. The
two sides agreed to meet again in October.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet
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