Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Tibet shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Tibet offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Tibet at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Tibet? Wrong! If the Tibet is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Tibet then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Tibet? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Tibet and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Tibet wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Tibet then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Tibet site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Tibet, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Tibet, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
{| class="toccolours" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; width: 306px; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 85%;" bgcolor=#eeeeee|-|height=3px colspan=10||- align="center"| colspan="10" | |-| width=10px height=15px bgcolor=#ff4040 | | width=10px bgcolor=#ff9f40 | | width=10px bgcolor=#ffff40 | | width=10px | | width=10px | | width=10px | | Historic Tibet as claimed by Tibetan exile groups|-| width=10px height=15px || width=10px bgcolor=#ff9f40 || width=10px bgcolor=#ffff40 || width=10px bgcolor=#40ff40 || width=10px bgcolor=#40ffff || width=10px || Tibetan areas designated by the People's Republic of China|-| width=10px height=15px || width=10px || width=10px bgcolor=#ffff40 || width=10px bgcolor=#40ff40 || width=10px || width=10px || Tibet Autonomous Region (actual control)] as part of Aksai Chin|-| width=10px height=15px || width=10px || width=10px || width=10px || width=10px || width=10px bgcolor=#4040ff || Other areas historically within Tibetan cultural sphere|}
Tibet (see [#Name below for other spellings) is a
Tibetan Plateau in
Central Asia and the indigenous home to the
Tibetan people. With an average
elevation of 4,900 metres (16,000 Foot (unit of length)), it is the highest region on Earth and is commonly referred to as the "Roof of the World."
Tibet is today part of the People's Republic of China (PRC) (with a small part, depending on definitions, 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.
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 regionThe 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", are believed to be the emanations of Avalokiteśvara ("Chenrezig" 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 Tibet from the traditional capital
Lhasa, regarded as Tibet's holiest city.
Definitions 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 Central Tibetan Administration 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.
When the People's Republic of China (PRC) refers to Tibet, it means the
Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR): a province of China-level entity which, according to the territorial claims of the PRC, includes Arunachal Pradesh (which is an Indian state but disputed by China). 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.
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.
Name
In Tibetan
Tibetans call their homeland
Bod (བོད་), pronounced 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" (), whereas "motherland" () is a
neologism introduced in the 1960s to refer to China.
In Chinese
The modern Chinese name for Tibet, 西藏 (Xīzàng), is a phonetic transliteration derived from the region called
Tsang (western
Ü-Tsang). The name originated during the Qing Dynasty of China, ca. 1700. It can be broken down into “xī” 西 (literally “west”), and “zàng” 藏 (literally “Buddhist scripture” or “storage”). The pre-1700s historic Chinese term for Tibet was 吐蕃, pronounced as Tǔbō in mainland China and Tǔfān on
Taiwan"现代汉语词典","遠東漢英大辭典", its pronunciation is Tǔfān if not taking historical accuracy into consideration, there is also some debate in mainland china and on Taiwan as to its correct pronunciation., its reconstructed Medieval Chinese pronunciation is /t'obwǝn/, which comes from the
Turkish language word for “heights” which is also the origin of the English term “Tibet”. 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 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. 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.
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).
In English
The English word
Tibet, like the word for Tibet in most European languages, is derived from the Arabic language word
Tubbat.Partridge, Eric,
Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, New York, 1966, p. 719. This word is derived via
Persian language from the Turkic languages word
Töbäd (plural of
Töbän), meaning "the heights".Behr, W., "Stephan V. Beyer,
The Classical Tibetan Language" (book review),
Oriens 34 (1994): 557–564. in Medieval Chinese, 吐蕃 (Pinyin
Tǔfān, often given as
Tubo), is derived from the same Turkic word.
Tǔfān 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 Order of Friars Minor 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
Tǔfān.China Tibet Information Center "The Origin of the Name of Tibet"
Language
The
Tibetan language is spoken in Tibet,
Bhutan, Nepal, and in parts of 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 language,
Sherpa language, and Ladakhi language, are considered for political reasons by their speakers to be separate languages. 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.
History
Pre-history
Chinese and the "proto-Tibeto-Burman" language may have split sometime before 4000 BC, when the Chinese began growing millet in the Yellow River valley while the Tibeto-Burmans remained nomads. Tibetan split from Burman around AD 500.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.
Unified kingdom
(centre) with his wives
A series of
List of Kings of Tibet 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.
Tibet first enters history in the
Geographia (Ptolemy) under the name
batai (βαται), a Greek transcription of the indigenous name
Bod. Tibet next appears in history in a Chinese 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 China 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 (604–50 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.
The Tibetans were allied with the
Abbasid Caliphate and eastern Turkic people. 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
Tang dynasty. However, after Gao Xianzhi's defeat by the Arab Empire and Karluks 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 Zhol
rdo-rings, in the ancient village of Zhol 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.
Mongols & Manchus and incorporation into China
of the Yuan Dynasty.In 1240, the
Mongol Empire marched into central Tibet and attacked several monasteries. Köden, younger brother of Mongol ruler Güyük Khan, participated in a ceremony recognizing the Sakya lama as temporal ruler of Tibet in 1247. The Mongol khans had ruled northern China by conquest since 1215. They were the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai Khan was a patron of Tibetan Buddhism and appointed the
Sakya Lama his "Imperial preceptor," or chief religious official. Tibetans viewed this relationship as an example of
yon-mchod, or priest-patron relationship. In practice, the Sakya lama was subordinate to the Mongol khan. The collapse of the
Yuan dynasty in 1368 led to the overthrow of the Sakya in Tibet. Tibet was then ruled by a succession of three secular Tibetan dynasties. According to a Chinese source, in 1372, an emperor of China’s Ming Dynasty granted the desi (
sde-srid, viceroy) of Tibet the official title of Abhiseca State Tutor, and gave him the jade seal of authority. The following year saw this ruler (Jamyang Sagya Gyaincain) send people to pay tribute to the Ming court.Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 71–9
According to a Chinese source,Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 89–92 between the 17th century to 1721, the political leader of Tibet was the Degsi or governor. In 1721, the Chinese emperor abolished the position of Degsi and gave the political power to the hands of four Galoons. The Qing Emperor put Amdo under Qing government's direct rule in 1724, and incorporated east Kham into neighbouring Chinese provinces in 1728.Jiawei, Wang, "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 ambasa. 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 2000. 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. In 1751, the Chinese emperor established the Dalai Lama as both the spiritual leader and political leader of Tibet who lead a government (Gaxag) with four Galoons in it.
Establishment of the Dalai Lama lineage
According to the same Chinese source,Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 71–9 in 1578,
Altan Khan, who was subordinate to China’s Ming Dynasty from 1571, invited Soinam Gyaco to lecture on Buddhism in what is today considered by China as Qinghai and bestowed upon him the title of "Dalai Lama," thus beginning the official use of the title "Dalai Lama." The 3rd Dalai paid tribute to the Ming imperial court through Althan Khan and wrote to the Chinese prime minister, requesting to be allowed to pay tribute to the imperial court on a regular basis, and was approved. In the 16th century, Altan Khan of Tumet Mongolian tribe supported the Dalai Lama's religious lineage to be the dominant religion among Mongols and Tibetans. This fact is, however, contested by Tibetan exiles.According to a Chinese source, the
Tsangyang Gyatso, 6th Dalai Lama enjoyed a lifestyle that included drinking, the company of women, and writing love songs.Alexandra David-Neel,
Initiation and Initiates in Tibet, trans. by Fred Rothwell, New York: University Books, 1959Yu Dawchyuan, "
Love Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama",
Academia Sinica Monograph, Series A, No.5, 1930 Declaring him to be unworthy as a monk, Mongol leader Lha-bzang Khan invaded Tibet with the approval of China's Kangxi emperor in 1705. According to this claim, the Kangxi emperor dismissed him (the sixth Dalai Lama) from office and ordered him brought by Chinese troops to Beijing for questioning. He died soon afterwards on the way to Beijing in 1706.Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 135–7 Tibetans in exile claimed that in 1706, the sixth dalai lama was invited to China and died on the way.The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso", 2007 In the book of "Tibet: A Political History", written by a famous pro-independent Tibetan official—Xagabba, the author claimed that "The emperor decided to dismiss the 6th Dalai Lama from office."
In fact, the sixth Dalai lama visited the Panchen Lama in Shigatse and requested his forgiveness, and renounced even the vows of a novice monk. Though he continued to live in the
Potala Palace, he roamed around Lhasa and other outlying villages, spending his days with his friends in the park behind the Potala Palace and nights in taverns in Lhasa and Shol (an area below the Potala) drinking chang and singing songs. He was known to be a great poet and writer and he wrote several poems.
British in Tibet
The first Europeans to arrive in Tibet were Portuguese people missionaries in 1624 and were welcomed by the Tibetans who allowed them to build a church. The
18th century brought more Jesuits and
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin 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 potato crop into Tibet.
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 (Tibet).
Then in 1904 a British Empire advance mission, accompanied by a large military escort, invaded 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". 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 natives 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. Some documents claim that 5,000 Tibetans were killed by the British army.
(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 monastery,
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
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 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 Foreign relations of Nepal 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) The
Qing central government established direct rule over Tibet for the first time in 1910.
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 consequent power vacuum within Tibet) were primarily responsible".Bell (1924), p. 113 Britain later violated all these treaties when it fomented the
Sino-Indian War by defining the
McMahon Line in London without China's agreement and with the
Simla conference, thus interfering in the affairs of the region.
Relations with the Republic of China
On 1 January 1912 the Republic of China was established and one month later the
Qing Dynasty Emperor of China 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 1913, Tibet and
Mongolia allegedlyThe Tibetan representative who signed this document is said to have been a pro-Russian
Buryat people monk named Agvan Dorjiev. There exist some doubts as to the existence/validity of this treaty, the 13th Dalai Lama himself denied that he authorized Dorijiev to negotiate a treaty with Mongolia and, besides, neither the cleric or the Tibetan government ever ratified the treaty.
see Bell, Charles,
Tibet Past and Present, 1924, pp. 150–1. In January 1913, the Russian Foreign Minister, reported the signing of this treaty to the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, saying the treaty, in his opinion, was not valid; it was
nul et non avenu. The Russian government maintained that, as a Russian subject, Dorjiev could not possibly act in a diplomatic capacity on behalf of the Dalai Lama, a peculiar argument, to say the least.
see UK Foreign Office Archive: FO 371/1608.Grunfeld, 1996, p. 65 signed a
Treaty between Tibet and Mongolia (1913) proclaiming mutual recognition and their independence from China. However, the validity of such a treaty is disputed by historians and diplomats as there was not, at the time, nor has there been since, any official publication of the text by either party, and the text does not appear to have been published in any language other than English.Quoted by Sir Charles Bell, "
Tibet and Her Neighbours",
Pacific Affairs(Dec 1937), pp. 435–6, a high Tibetan official pointed our years later that there was "
no need for a treaty; we would always help each other if we could."
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 90,000 square kilometers of traditional Tibetan territory in southern Tibet, which corresponds to most of the 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 secretly 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 was sovereign over Tibet, did not sign the treaty, the treaty was meaningless, and the annexation and control of southern Tibet 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. 1935-
The subsequent outbreak of
World War I and
Chinese Civil War caused the Western powers and the infighting factions of China proper 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 and western
Kham, 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 by ethnic
Hui people 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, F. Spencer Chapman said:
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. During the 1940s 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 with the Chinese invasion in 1950.
Rule of the People's Republic 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
People's Armed Police before Potala Palace in
Lhasa.
In 1950, the
People's Liberation Army invaded the Tibetan area of
Chamdo, crushing minimal resistance from the ill-equipped Tibetan army. In 1951, the Tibetan representatives, under PLA military pressure, signed a
Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the PRC's Central People's Government affirming China's sovereignty over Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.Gyatso, Tenzin, Dalai Lama XIV, interview, 25 July 1981. Goldstein, Melvyn C.,
A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951, University of California Press, 1989, pp. 812–3.
Some Tibetans have accused the People's Republic of China of a campaign of terror after the invasion, which they claim led to the disappearance of up to 1 million Tibetans. The PRC denies these claims. Charges of genocide, crimes against humanity,
state terrorism and torture are currently being investigated by a Spanish court.http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article656410.ece
Though some of the population of Tibet at that time were serfs ("
mi ser"),Goldstein, Melvyn,
An Anthropological Study of the Tibetan Political System, 1968, p. 40Rahul, Ram,
The Structure of the Government of Tibet, 1644–1911, 1962, pp. 263–98 often bound to land owned by monasteries and aristocrats, Tibetans in exile have claimed that the serfs 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, and have proclaimed that the Tibetan government inhibited the development of Tibet during its self-rule from 1913 to 1959, and opposed any modernization efforts proposed by the Chinese government.Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 194–7 This agreement was initially put into effect in Tibet proper. However, Eastern Kham and Amdo were outside the administration of the government of Tibet, and were thus treated like any other Chinese province with land redistribution implemented in full. As a result, a resistance broke out in
Amdo and eastern Kham in June 1956. The resistance, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (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
Tibetan resistance movement continued in Tibet until 1969 when the CIA abruptly withdrew its support.
Although the
Panchen Lama remained a virtual prisoner, the Chinese set him as a figurehead in Lhasa, claiming that he headed the legitimate Government of Tibet since the Dalai Lama had fled to India after the failed Tibetan uprising in 1959, and they established him as the traditional head of the Tibetan government. 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, the Chinese Red Guards inflicted a campaign of organized vandalism against cultural sites in the entire PRC, including Tibet's Buddhist heritage. Some young Tibetans joined in the campaign of destruction, voluntarily due to the ideological fervour that was sweeping the entire PRCWang 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 List of Tibetan monasteries, 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 1962The petition of 10th Panchen Lama in 1962. Five days later, he mysteriously died of a massive heart attack at the age of 50.
11th Panchen Lama claimed by exiled TibetanIn 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 frequent 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. 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.
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 non-governmental organisation). The press conference address on the report states in paragraph 26 that
On 11 January
2006 it was reported that the Spanish High Court will investigate whether seven former Chinese officials, including the former President of China Jiang Zemin and former Prime Minister Li Peng participated in a Genocides in history in Tibet. This investigation follows a Spanish Constitutional Court (26 September 2005) ruling that Spanish courts could try genocide cases even if they did not involve Spanish nationals.Spanish courts to investigate if a genocide took place in Tibet.
- "Spain to investigate 'genocide' in Tibet" The Independent in the section "European News in brief" on Wednesday 11 January 2006 Page 19
- Spanish court to investigate Tibet massacre case Reuters report in the New Zealand Herald 12 January 2006 The court proceedings in the case brought by the Madrid-based Committee to Support Tibet against several former Chinese officials was opened by the Judge on 6 June 2006, and on the same day China denounced the Spanish court's investigation into claims of genocide in Tibet as an interference in its internal affairs and dismissed the allegations as "sheer fabrication". World in Brief: Lawyers take China to court in The Times, 7 June 2006Alexa Olesen China rejects Spain's 'genocide' claims in The Independent 7 June 2006
In 1991 the
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama alleged that Chinese settlers in Tibet were creating "Chinese Apartheid":
A report by the
Heritage Foundation discussed some of the reasons for the use of this term:
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 United Kingdom 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:
Evaluation by the Tibetan exile community
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, 'Tibet: Proving Truth from Facts',
The Department of Information and International Relations: Central Tibetan Administration, 1996. p. 53 which the Chinese Communist Party denies. The Chinese Communist Party's official toll of deaths recorded for the whole of China for the years of the Great Leap Forward is 14 million, but scholars have estimated the number of the famine victims to be between 20 and 43 millionPeng Xizhe (彭希哲), "Demographic Consequences of the Great Leap Forward in China's Provinces,"
Population and Development Review 13, no. 4 (1987), 639–70.
For a summary of other estimates, please refer to this link. 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.
Tibet, Tibet ISBN 1-4000-4100-7, pp. 278–82Warren W. Smith,
Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations ISBN 0-8133-3155-2, p. 600 Even
The Black Book of Communism expresses doubt at the 1.2 million figure, but does note that according to the Chinese census the total population of ethnic Tibetans in the PRC was 2.8 million in 1953, but only 2.5 million in 1964. It puts forward a figure of 800,000 deaths and alleges that as many as 10% of Tibetans were interned, with few survivors.
Black Book ISBN 0-674-07608-7, Internment Est:p. 545, (cites Kewly,
Tibet p. 255); Tibet Death Est: p. 546 Chinese demographers have estimated that 90,000 of the 300,000 "missing" Tibetans fled the region.Yan Hao, 'Tibetan Population in China: Myths and Facts Re-examined',
Asian Ethnicity, Volume 1, No. 1, March 2000, p.24
, India.
The government of Tibet in Exile also says that, fundamentally, the issue is that of the right to self-determination of the Tibetan people. The Dalai Lama has stated his willingness to negotiate with China for genuine autonomy. 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 and preferential socioeconomic policies, as presenting an urgent threat to the Tibetan nation by stealing economic resources and smothering Tibetan 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. market in
Ladakh,
India.
The Chinese government says that when Hu Yaobang, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, visited Lhasa in 1980 he was unhappy when he found out the region was lagging behind neighbouring provinces. Policies were changed, and since then the central government's policy in Tibet has claimed to have granted most religious freedoms, despite the observation of the more stringent government control implemented over Tibetan monasteries. However, in 1998 three monks and five nuns died while in custody, after suffering beatings and torture for having shouted slogans supporting the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence.Amnesty International, 'Call for accountability for Tibetan deaths in custody in Drapchi Prison' Many Tibetans continue to attempt to flee Tibet. Projects that the PRC claims to have benefited Tibet, such as the China Western Development economic plan or the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway, are actually politically-motivated actions to consolidate central control over Tibet by facilitating militarization and Han migration while benefiting only a few Tibetans. Train heads for Tibet, carrying fears of change The money funneled into cultural restoration projects is being primarily aimed at purely attracting tourists, and Tibet is still lagging behind the rest of the PRC. The first large hospital in Tibet was not built until 1985. Several of Lhasa's main roads were not paved until 1987 and the first students at Tibet University did not graduate until 1988. There is still preferential treatment awarded to the Han Chinese population of the TAR in the labour market as opposed to Tibetans. Personnel Changes in Lhasa Reveal Preference for Chinese Over Tibetans, Says TIN Report
Evaluation by the People's Republic of China
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 stated that the lives of Tibetans have been improved immensely compared to self rule before 1950.Peter Hessler, 'Tibet Through Chinese Eyes',
The Atlantic Monthly, Feb. 1999 Benefits that are commonly quoted include — the
gross domestic product of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) today is thirty times that of before 1950, workers in Tibet have the second highest wages in China, 'High wages in Tibet benefit the privliviged', Asian Labour News, 21 February 2005, the TAR has 22,500 km of highways, as opposed to none in 1950, all secular education in the TAR was created after the revolution, the TAR now has 25 scientific research institutes as opposed to none in 1950, infant mortality has dropped from 43% in 1950 to 0.661% in 2000,
life expectancy has risen from 35.5 years in 1950 to 67 in 2000, the collection and publishing of the traditional
Epic of King Gesar, which is the longest Epic poetry in the world and had only been handed down orally before, allocation of 300 million
Renminbi since the 1980s for the maintenance and protection of Tibetan monasteries. 'Tibet's March Toward Modernization, section II The Rapid Social Development in Tibet', Information Office of the State Council of the PRC, November 2001 The Cultural Revolution and the cultural damage it wrought upon the entire PRC is generally condemned as a nationwide catastrophe, whose main instigators, in the PRC's view, the
Gang of Four, have been brought to justice. And whose reoccurrence is unthinkable in an increasingly modernized China. The China Western Development plan is viewed by the PRC as 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.
Geography
Tibet is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the world's highest region. Most of the Himalaya mountain range, one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world at only 4 million years old, lies within Tibet. Its most famous peak, Mount Everest, is on
Nepal's border with Tibet. The average altitude is about 3,000 m in the south and 4,500 m in the north.
The atmosphere is severely dry nine months of the year, and average snowfall is only 18 inches, due to the
rain shadow effect w
{| class="toccolours" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; width: 306px; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 85%;" bgcolor=#eeeeee|-|height=3px colspan=10||- align="center"| colspan="10" | |-| width=10px height=15px bgcolor=#ff4040 | | width=10px bgcolor=#ff9f40 | | width=10px bgcolor=#ffff40 | | width=10px | | width=10px | | width=10px | | Historic Tibet as claimed by Tibetan exile groups|-| width=10px height=15px || width=10px bgcolor=#ff9f40 || width=10px bgcolor=#ffff40 || width=10px bgcolor=#40ff40 || width=10px bgcolor=#40ffff || width=10px || Tibetan areas designated by the
People's Republic of China|-| width=10px height=15px || width=10px || width=10px bgcolor=#ffff40 || width=10px bgcolor=#40ff40 || width=10px || width=10px ||
Tibet Autonomous Region (actual control)] as part of Aksai Chin|-| width=10px height=15px || width=10px || width=10px || width=10px || width=10px || width=10px bgcolor=#4040ff || Other areas historically within Tibetan cultural sphere|}
Tibet (see [#Name below for other spellings) is a
Tibetan Plateau in
Central Asia and the indigenous home to the
Tibetan people. With an average
elevation of 4,900 metres (16,000 Foot (unit of length)), it is the highest region on Earth and is commonly referred to as the "Roof of the World."
Tibet is today part of the People's Republic of China (PRC) (with a small part, depending on definitions, 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.
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 regionThe 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", are believed to be the emanations of Avalokiteśvara ("Chenrezig" 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 Tibet from the traditional capital Lhasa, regarded as Tibet's holiest city.
Definitions 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
Central Tibetan Administration 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.
When the People's Republic of China (PRC) refers to Tibet, it means the
Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR): a province of China-level entity which, according to the territorial claims of the PRC, includes Arunachal Pradesh (which is an Indian state but disputed by China). 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.
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.
Name
In Tibetan
Tibetans call their homeland
Bod (བོད་), pronounced 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" (), whereas "
motherland" () is a neologism introduced in the 1960s to refer to China.
In Chinese
The modern Chinese name for Tibet, 西藏 (Xīzàng), is a phonetic transliteration derived from the region called Tsang (western
Ü-Tsang). The name originated during the Qing Dynasty of China, ca. 1700. It can be broken down into “xī” 西 (literally “west”), and “zàng” 藏 (literally “Buddhist scripture” or “storage”). The pre-1700s historic Chinese term for Tibet was 吐蕃, pronounced as Tǔbō in
mainland China and Tǔfān on
Taiwan"现代汉语词典","遠東漢英大辭典", its pronunciation is Tǔfān if not taking historical accuracy into consideration, there is also some debate in mainland china and on Taiwan as to its correct pronunciation., its reconstructed Medieval Chinese pronunciation is /t'obwǝn/, which comes from the Turkish language word for “heights” which is also the origin of the English term “Tibet”. 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 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. 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.
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).
In English
The English word
Tibet, like the word for Tibet in most European languages, is derived from the
Arabic language word
Tubbat.Partridge, Eric,
Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, New York, 1966, p. 719. This word is derived via
Persian language from the Turkic languages word
Töbäd (plural of
Töbän), meaning "the heights".Behr, W., "Stephan V. Beyer,
The Classical Tibetan Language" (book review),
Oriens 34 (1994): 557–564. in Medieval Chinese, 吐蕃 (Pinyin
Tǔfān, often given as
Tubo), is derived from the same Turkic word.
Tǔfān 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 Order of Friars Minor 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
Tǔfān.China Tibet Information Center "The Origin of the Name of Tibet"
Language
The Tibetan language is spoken in Tibet,
Bhutan,
Nepal, and in parts of 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 language,
Sherpa language, and Ladakhi language, are considered for political reasons by their speakers to be separate languages. 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.
History
Pre-history
Chinese and the "proto-Tibeto-Burman" language may have split sometime before 4000 BC, when the Chinese began growing millet in the Yellow River valley while the Tibeto-Burmans remained nomads. Tibetan split from Burman around AD 500.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.
Unified kingdom
(centre) with his wives
A series of
List of Kings of Tibet 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.
Tibet first enters history in the
Geographia (Ptolemy) under the name
batai (βαται), a Greek transcription of the indigenous name
Bod. Tibet next appears in history in a Chinese 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 China 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 (604–50 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.
The Tibetans were allied with the Abbasid Caliphate and eastern Turkic people. 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
Tang dynasty. However, after Gao Xianzhi's defeat by the
Arab Empire and
Karluks 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 Zhol
rdo-rings, in the ancient village of Zhol 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.
Mongols & Manchus and incorporation into China
of the
Yuan Dynasty.In 1240, the Mongol Empire marched into central Tibet and attacked several monasteries. Köden, younger brother of Mongol ruler Güyük Khan, participated in a ceremony recognizing the Sakya lama as temporal ruler of Tibet in 1247. The Mongol khans had ruled northern China by conquest since 1215. They were the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai Khan was a patron of Tibetan Buddhism and appointed the
Sakya Lama his "Imperial preceptor," or chief religious official. Tibetans viewed this relationship as an example of
yon-mchod, or priest-patron relationship. In practice, the Sakya lama was subordinate to the Mongol khan. The collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 led to the overthrow of the Sakya in Tibet. Tibet was then ruled by a succession of three secular Tibetan dynasties. According to a Chinese source, in 1372, an emperor of China’s Ming Dynasty granted the desi (
sde-srid, viceroy) of Tibet the official title of Abhiseca State Tutor, and gave him the jade seal of authority. The following year saw this ruler (Jamyang Sagya Gyaincain) send people to pay tribute to the Ming court.Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 71–9
According to a Chinese source,Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 89–92 between the 17th century to 1721, the political leader of Tibet was the Degsi or governor. In 1721, the Chinese emperor abolished the position of Degsi and gave the political power to the hands of four Galoons. The Qing Emperor put Amdo under Qing government's direct rule in 1724, and incorporated east Kham into neighbouring Chinese provinces in 1728.Jiawei, Wang, "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 ambasa. 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 2000. 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. In 1751, the Chinese emperor established the Dalai Lama as both the spiritual leader and political leader of Tibet who lead a government (Gaxag) with four Galoons in it.
Establishment of the Dalai Lama lineage
According to the same Chinese source,Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 71–9 in 1578,
Altan Khan, who was subordinate to China’s
Ming Dynasty from 1571, invited Soinam Gyaco to lecture on Buddhism in what is today considered by China as Qinghai and bestowed upon him the title of "Dalai Lama," thus beginning the official use of the title "Dalai Lama." The 3rd Dalai paid tribute to the Ming imperial court through Althan Khan and wrote to the Chinese prime minister, requesting to be allowed to pay tribute to the imperial court on a regular basis, and was approved. In the 16th century,
Altan Khan of Tumet Mongolian tribe supported the Dalai Lama's religious lineage to be the dominant religion among Mongols and Tibetans. This fact is, however, contested by Tibetan exiles.According to a Chinese source, the Tsangyang Gyatso, 6th Dalai Lama enjoyed a lifestyle that included drinking, the company of women, and writing love songs.Alexandra David-Neel,
Initiation and Initiates in Tibet, trans. by Fred Rothwell, New York: University Books, 1959Yu Dawchyuan, "
Love Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama",
Academia Sinica Monograph, Series A, No.5, 1930 Declaring him to be unworthy as a monk, Mongol leader Lha-bzang Khan invaded Tibet with the approval of China's Kangxi emperor in 1705. According to this claim, the Kangxi emperor dismissed him (the sixth Dalai Lama) from office and ordered him brought by Chinese troops to Beijing for questioning. He died soon afterwards on the way to Beijing in 1706.Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 135–7 Tibetans in exile claimed that in 1706, the sixth dalai lama was invited to China and died on the way.The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso", 2007 In the book of "Tibet: A Political History", written by a famous pro-independent Tibetan official—Xagabba, the author claimed that "The emperor decided to dismiss the 6th Dalai Lama from office."
In fact, the sixth Dalai lama visited the Panchen Lama in Shigatse and requested his forgiveness, and renounced even the vows of a novice monk. Though he continued to live in the Potala Palace, he roamed around Lhasa and other outlying villages, spending his days with his friends in the park behind the Potala Palace and nights in taverns in Lhasa and Shol (an area below the Potala) drinking chang and singing songs. He was known to be a great poet and writer and he wrote several poems.
British in Tibet
The first Europeans to arrive in Tibet were
Portuguese people missionaries in 1624 and were welcomed by the Tibetans who allowed them to build a
church. The
18th century brought more
Jesuits and Order of Friars Minor Capuchin 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 potato crop into Tibet.
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 (Tibet).
Then in 1904 a
British Empire advance mission, accompanied by a large military escort, invaded 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". 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 natives 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. Some documents claim that 5,000 Tibetans were killed by the British army.
(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 monastery,
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
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 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
Foreign relations of Nepal 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) The Qing central government established direct rule over Tibet for the first time in 1910.
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 consequent power vacuum within Tibet) were primarily responsible".Bell (1924), p. 113 Britain later violated all these treaties when it fomented the
Sino-Indian War by defining the McMahon Line in London without China's agreement and with the Simla conference, thus interfering in the affairs of the region.
Relations with the Republic of China
On
1 January 1912 the Republic of China was established and one month later the
Qing Dynasty Emperor of China 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 1913, Tibet and
Mongolia allegedlyThe Tibetan representative who signed this document is said to have been a pro-Russian Buryat people monk named Agvan Dorjiev. There exist some doubts as to the existence/validity of this treaty, the 13th Dalai Lama himself denied that he authorized Dorijiev to negotiate a treaty with Mongolia and, besides, neither the cleric or the Tibetan government ever ratified the treaty.
see Bell, Charles,
Tibet Past and Present, 1924, pp. 150–1. In January 1913, the Russian Foreign Minister, reported the signing of this treaty to the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, saying the treaty, in his opinion, was not valid; it was
nul et non avenu. The Russian government maintained that, as a Russian subject, Dorjiev could not possibly act in a diplomatic capacity on behalf of the Dalai Lama, a peculiar argument, to say the least.
see UK Foreign Office Archive: FO 371/1608.Grunfeld, 1996, p. 65 signed a
Treaty between Tibet and Mongolia (1913) proclaiming mutual recognition and their independence from China. However, the validity of such a treaty is disputed by historians and diplomats as there was not, at the time, nor has there been since, any official publication of the text by either party, and the text does not appear to have been published in any language other than English.Quoted by Sir Charles Bell, "
Tibet and Her Neighbours",
Pacific Affairs(Dec 1937), pp. 435–6, a high Tibetan official pointed our years later that there was "
no need for a treaty; we would always help each other if we could."
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 90,000 square kilometers of traditional Tibetan territory in southern Tibet, which corresponds to most of the 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 secretly 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 was sovereign over Tibet, did not sign the treaty, the treaty was meaningless, and the annexation and control of southern Tibet 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. 1935-
The subsequent outbreak of World War I and
Chinese Civil War caused the Western powers and the infighting factions of China proper 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 and western
Kham, 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 by ethnic Hui people 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, F. Spencer Chapman said:
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. During the
1940s 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 with the Chinese invasion in 1950.
Rule of the People's Republic 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 People's Armed Police before Potala Palace in
Lhasa.
In 1950, the
People's Liberation Army invaded the Tibetan area of
Chamdo, crushing minimal resistance from the ill-equipped Tibetan army. In 1951, the Tibetan representatives, under PLA military pressure, signed a Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the PRC's
Central People's Government affirming China's sovereignty over Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.Gyatso, Tenzin, Dalai Lama XIV, interview, 25 July 1981. Goldstein, Melvyn C.,
A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951, University of California Press, 1989, pp. 812–3.
Some Tibetans have accused the People's Republic of China of a campaign of terror after the invasion, which they claim led to the disappearance of up to 1 million Tibetans. The PRC denies these claims. Charges of genocide, crimes against humanity,
state terrorism and torture are currently being investigated by a Spanish court.http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article656410.ece
Though some of the population of Tibet at that time were serfs ("
mi ser"),Goldstein, Melvyn,
An Anthropological Study of the Tibetan Political System, 1968, p. 40Rahul, Ram,
The Structure of the Government of Tibet, 1644–1911, 1962, pp. 263–98 often bound to land owned by monasteries and aristocrats, Tibetans in exile have claimed that the serfs 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, and have proclaimed that the Tibetan government inhibited the development of Tibet during its self-rule from 1913 to 1959, and opposed any modernization efforts proposed by the Chinese government.Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 194–7 This agreement was initially put into effect in Tibet proper. However, Eastern Kham and
Amdo were outside the administration of the government of Tibet, and were thus treated like any other Chinese province with land redistribution implemented in full. As a result, a resistance broke out in
Amdo and eastern Kham in June 1956. The resistance, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (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
Tibetan resistance movement continued in Tibet until 1969 when the CIA abruptly withdrew its support.
Although the
Panchen Lama remained a virtual prisoner, the Chinese set him as a figurehead in Lhasa, claiming that he headed the legitimate Government of Tibet since the Dalai Lama had fled to India after the failed Tibetan uprising in 1959, and they established him as the traditional head of the Tibetan government. 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, the Chinese
Red Guards inflicted a campaign of organized vandalism against cultural sites in the entire PRC, including Tibet's Buddhist heritage. Some young Tibetans joined in the campaign of destruction, voluntarily due to the ideological fervour that was sweeping the entire PRCWang 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 List of Tibetan monasteries, 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 1962The petition of 10th Panchen Lama in 1962. Five days later, he mysteriously died of a massive heart attack at the age of 50.
11th Panchen Lama claimed by exiled TibetanIn 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 frequent 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. 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.
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
non-governmental organisation). The press conference address on the report states in paragraph 26 that
On
11 January 2006 it was reported that the Spanish High Court will investigate whether seven former Chinese officials, including the former President of China Jiang Zemin and former Prime Minister Li Peng participated in a
Genocides in history in Tibet. This investigation follows a Spanish Constitutional Court (26 September
2005) ruling that Spanish courts could try genocide cases even if they did not involve Spanish nationals.Spanish courts to investigate if a genocide took place in Tibet.
- "Spain to investigate 'genocide' in Tibet" The Independent in the section "European News in brief" on Wednesday 11 January 2006 Page 19
- Spanish court to investigate Tibet massacre case Reuters report in the New Zealand Herald 12 January 2006 The court proceedings in the case brought by the Madrid-based Committee to Support Tibet against several former Chinese officials was opened by the Judge on 6 June 2006, and on the same day China denounced the Spanish court's investigation into claims of genocide in Tibet as an interference in its internal affairs and dismissed the allegations as "sheer fabrication". World in Brief: Lawyers take China to court in The Times, 7 June 2006Alexa Olesen China rejects Spain's 'genocide' claims in The Independent 7 June 2006
In 1991 the
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama alleged that Chinese settlers in Tibet were creating "Chinese Apartheid":
A report by the
Heritage Foundation discussed some of the reasons for the use of this term:
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 United Kingdom 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:
Evaluation by the Tibetan exile community
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, 'Tibet: Proving Truth from Facts',
The Department of Information and International Relations: Central Tibetan Administration, 1996. p. 53 which the Chinese Communist Party denies. The Chinese Communist Party's official toll of deaths recorded for the whole of China for the years of the Great Leap Forward is 14 million, but scholars have estimated the number of the famine victims to be between 20 and 43 millionPeng Xizhe (彭希哲), "Demographic Consequences of the Great Leap Forward in China's Provinces,"
Population and Development Review 13, no. 4 (1987), 639–70.
For a summary of other estimates, please refer to this link. 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.
Tibet, Tibet ISBN 1-4000-4100-7, pp. 278–82Warren W. Smith,
Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations ISBN 0-8133-3155-2, p. 600 Even
The Black Book of Communism expresses doubt at the 1.2 million figure, but does note that according to the Chinese census the total population of ethnic Tibetans in the PRC was 2.8 million in 1953, but only 2.5 million in 1964. It puts forward a figure of 800,000 deaths and alleges that as many as 10% of Tibetans were interned, with few survivors.
Black Book ISBN 0-674-07608-7, Internment Est:p. 545, (cites Kewly,
Tibet p. 255); Tibet Death Est: p. 546 Chinese demographers have estimated that 90,000 of the 300,000 "missing" Tibetans fled the region.Yan Hao, 'Tibetan Population in China: Myths and Facts Re-examined',
Asian Ethnicity, Volume 1, No. 1, March 2000, p.24
, India.
The government of Tibet in Exile also says that, fundamentally, the issue is that of the right to self-determination of the Tibetan people. The Dalai Lama has stated his willingness to negotiate with China for genuine autonomy. 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 and preferential socioeconomic policies, as presenting an urgent threat to the Tibetan nation by stealing economic resources and smothering Tibetan 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. market in
Ladakh,
India.
The Chinese government says that when Hu Yaobang, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, visited Lhasa in 1980 he was unhappy when he found out the region was lagging behind neighbouring provinces. Policies were changed, and since then the central government's policy in Tibet has claimed to have granted most religious freedoms, despite the observation of the more stringent government control implemented over Tibetan monasteries. However, in 1998 three monks and five nuns died while in custody, after suffering beatings and torture for having shouted slogans supporting the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence.Amnesty International, 'Call for accountability for Tibetan deaths in custody in Drapchi Prison' Many Tibetans continue to attempt to flee Tibet. Projects that the PRC claims to have benefited Tibet, such as the China Western Development economic plan or the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, are actually politically-motivated actions to consolidate central control over Tibet by facilitating militarization and Han migration while benefiting only a few Tibetans. Train heads for Tibet, carrying fears of change The money funneled into cultural restoration projects is being primarily aimed at purely attracting tourists, and Tibet is still lagging behind the rest of the PRC. The first large hospital in Tibet was not built until 1985. Several of Lhasa's main roads were not paved until 1987 and the first students at Tibet University did not graduate until 1988. There is still preferential treatment awarded to the Han Chinese population of the TAR in the labour market as opposed to Tibetans. Personnel Changes in Lhasa Reveal Preference for Chinese Over Tibetans, Says TIN Report
Evaluation by the People's Republic of China
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 stated that the lives of Tibetans have been improved immensely compared to self rule before 1950.Peter Hessler, 'Tibet Through Chinese Eyes',
The Atlantic Monthly, Feb. 1999 Benefits that are commonly quoted include — the gross domestic product of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) today is thirty times that of before 1950, workers in Tibet have the second highest wages in China, 'High wages in Tibet benefit the privliviged', Asian Labour News, 21 February 2005, the TAR has 22,500 km of highways, as opposed to none in 1950, all secular education in the TAR was created after the revolution, the TAR now has 25 scientific research institutes as opposed to none in 1950,
infant mortality has dropped from 43% in 1950 to 0.661% in 2000, life expectancy has risen from 35.5 years in 1950 to 67 in 2000, the collection and publishing of the traditional
Epic of King Gesar, which is the longest Epic poetry in the world and had only been handed down orally before, allocation of 300 million
Renminbi since the 1980s for the maintenance and protection of Tibetan monasteries. 'Tibet's March Toward Modernization, section II The Rapid Social Development in Tibet', Information Office of the State Council of the PRC, November 2001 The Cultural Revolution and the cultural damage it wrought upon the entire PRC is generally condemned as a nationwide catastrophe, whose main instigators, in the PRC's view, the
Gang of Four, have been brought to justice. And whose reoccurrence is unthinkable in an increasingly modernized China. The China Western Development plan is viewed by the PRC as 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.
Geography
Tibet is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the world's highest region. Most of the
Himalaya mountain range, one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world at only 4 million years old, lies within Tibet. Its most famous peak, Mount Everest, is on Nepal's border with Tibet. The average altitude is about 3,000 m in the south and 4,500 m in the north.
The atmosphere is severely dry nine months of the year, and average snowfall is only 18 inches, due to the rain shadow effect w
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