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(88)Tibet Today still fighting its Biggest Enemy...

Secret CIA Sponsorship of Tibetan Rebels against China Exposed---How A Ground-breaking Book Unveiled History as It Was

+ - 10:46, March 28, 2008

On March 25, 2008, Mr. Kenneth Conboy, the book -CIA's Secret War in Tibet's only author alive, readily accepted an exclusive interview by People's Daily staff editor Dr. Liu Chao. The following are excerpts from Dr. Liu's exclusive interview with Mr. Kenneth Conboy, as well as some excerpts from his renowned book.

Background : the Book and its Authors

In 2002, the Kansas University Press published a ground-breaking book entitled CIA's Secret War in Tibet, which revealed in vivid detail the top-secret and still little-known, decade-long "war at the roof of the world," during which the CIA fostered, trained and supplied a tenacious Tibetan resistance force to help them struggle against China. However, the US government has always denied sponsoring Tibetan rebels and exiled Tibetan communities to destabilize Chinese rule and has kept the CIA operations in Tibet in secret, largely because the US government had stuck to the policy of non-recognizance of Tibetan independence prior to the Communist victory in China, and the Nationalist Government in Taiwan insisted that Tibet belonged to China even after the Communists' victory on the Mainland.

Cover of the book, provided by Mr. Kenneth Conboy

Mr. Kenneth Conboy and Mr. James Morrison, the two authors of the book, took great pains to interview CIA agents, Taiwanese spies and Nepalese agents to add to the accuracy of the history accounts recorded in the book. It was due to their perseverance and seriousness that enabled the book to won high acclaim from academics and common readers alike. Book critics gave the book high marks. John Prados, author of Presidents' Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations from World War II Through the Persian Gulf described the book as "the inside story of one of the CIA's most tragic covert operations¡&endash; this is the stuff of a great yarn, which the authors tell in engaging detail." David F. Rudgers, author of Creating the Secret State: Origins of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1943¨C1947, praises the book as "a masterful account of how the CIA sought to play the 'new great game' on the roof of the world." And William M. Leary, author of Perilous Missions: Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia, recommends the book as "an excellent and impressive study of a major CIA covert operation during the Cold War."

Exclusive Interview with Mr. Kenneth Conboy, Author of CIA's Secret War in China

Mr. Kenneth Conboy is noted author, expert on Southeast Asian terrorism, and Country Manager for Risk Management Advisory in Indonesia. He is responsible for all Indonesian operations for RMA Indonesia, in which capacity he manages risk and security management projects and confidential investigations spanning Indonesia and neighboring countries. Prior to moving to RMA Indonesia, he was Southeast Asian policy analyst and Deputy Director for the Asian Studies Center in Washington, DC, and wrote research papers for the U.S. Congress on U.S. security and economic relations with the countries of Southeast Asia. Mr. Conboy obtained his degrees from the Georgetown University and the John-Hopkins University, and he also studied in the Sophia University in Tokyo.

Mr. Conboy is the author of 15 books on intelligence operations and Southeast Asia, including Spies in the Himalayas: Secret Missions and Perilous Climbs, which revealed the little-known intelligence episode that, after China detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1964, the CIA started a joint American-Indian effort to plant a nuclear-powered sensing device on a high Himalayan peak in order to listen into China and monitor its missile launches. He has had numerous articles published in such newspapers as "The Wall Street Journal". He has been frequently quoted in dozens of news outlets around the world, including "The New York Times," the Associated Press, and CNN.

Editor: Dear Mr. Conboy, what inspired your writing of this book? Given the huge impact brought about by the publication of your book, did you annoy the CIA and some Tibetans who stick to an opposite version of the historical facts in your book? Were your co-author and you ever afraid of being portrayed as "Red China sympathizers"?

Kenneth Conboy: I had written several books on Cold War operations in Asia, including places like Laos, North Vietnam, and Indonesia. Tibet was one of the larger Cold War operations that took place in Asia, so my co-author and I gravitated toward that subject. From a historical perspective, I saw the Tibet book as a challenge to research and write because many of the actors were spread across the globe.

I took great pains to remain neutral in the book, and to show the shortcomings of all the sides involved. I have not been portrayed as a sympathizer to any side. I leave it to my reader to determine who deserves sympathy.

Editor: Why was CIA interested in Tibet but kept their actions in secret? What do you think prompted the CIA to sponsor Tibetan resistance to China? Did the CIA decide to do so out of its own interests or, as some claimed, upon the request by the Tibetans?

Kenneth Conboy: Because the U.S. government did not have diplomatic relations with Tibet, the Cold War operation in that region remained covert and was handled by CIA. Why did CIA sponsor the resistance? The resistance, in fact, was already in existence when the U.S. government stepped in. The U.S. government helped support the existing Tibetan resistance initially in an attempt to marginally expand their capabilities so that they might more effectively snipe at the PRC (and in an area that, for Beijing, would be relatively difficult to defend because of distances involved). Later, the operation was aimed in part to gather intelligence on what was then a very closed society inside China. Yet another part of the operation was aimed at bolstering India following the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

Did the U.S. government do so for its own interests, or upon the request of the Tibetans? It was a bit of both.

Editor: On http://time-blog.com/china_blog/, TIME magazine Beijing Chief Simon Elegant replied today to my Letter to Editor on Tibet's shared history with China. Did you take such history facts into account as your wrote the book? Do you share my opinion that the kind of Tibet Western media portray to ordinary Westerners is somewhat distorted, or at least could have been more unprejudiced/truthful?

Kenneth Conboy: In my book, I detail the type of society that existed in Tibet prior to the early fifties. I leave it to the reader to decide for themselves what Tibet was like during that timeframe, and how it historically interacted with China.

Editor:You wrote in your prelude "That the free Tibetan community has been able to survive and even thrive--arguably, the Tibetan issue has a higher profile today than at any time since the 1959 flight of the Dalai Lama--is owed in no small part to the secret assistance channeled by the United States." Why do you think so? What strategic goals do they hope to achieve through this? If "containing Communist expansion" was politically right, why did it have to remain secret?

Kenneth Conboy: Had it not been for the assistance of the U.S., especially on a symbolic level, it is hard to imagine that the Tibetan Diaspora would have been able to remain coherent and focused during the sixties and into the early seventies. By the seventies, the free Tibet community was sufficiently developed to go from strength to strength.

What strategic goals were accomplished? As you note, there was an overriding concern about containing communism, especially following the 1962 Sino-Indian War. Why did it remain covert? In large part, the operation had to remain covert because it was staged from countries that, for a variety of reasons, did not want their involvement made public.

Editor: How did your co-author, James Morrison, contribute to the collection of facts and writing of your book? How did the two of you ensure first-hand interviews of CIA principals as well as Tibetan, Nepalese and Taiwanese agents to make your auguments more compelling and your history accounts most accurate?

Kenneth Conboy: The late James Morrison was an outstanding military historian. He focused on collecting research material within the U.S., while I focused outside the U.S. How did we gain first-hand interviews? One word: persistence. In addition, we did not operate to any deadline, so we were free to take our time to track down leads.


Original Excerpts from the Book:

"In 1928, Chiang Kai-shek's regimented Kuomintang party took the reins of power within the republican government. The Kuomintang reemphasized the goal of a unified China -- including Tibet. To realize this goal in part, that same year it announced plans to formally absorb Amdo and Kham as the new Chinese provinces of Tsing-hai and Sikang, respectively.

On 1 October 1949, a victorious Chairman Mao formally inaugurated the People's Republic of China (PRC) from a new capital in Beijing.The PRC saw itself as heir to the Kuomintang claim over Tibet. Making no secret of its intentions, on 1 January 1950 communist state radio declared that the liberation of all three -- Taiwan, Hainan, and Tibet -- was the goal of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for the upcoming calendar year."

"During World War II, top State Department officials, out of deference to America's Chinese allies, did not want to stray from U.S. recognition of what the Kuomintang declared was its sovereign jurisdiction (Tibet). But by the summer of 1949, with Kuomintang defeat in the Chinese civil war seen as increasingly likely, the United States belatedly entertained thoughts of a policy shift. The impetus for this rethinking came from American diplomats in both India and China, who suggested that the United States weigh the advantages of courting Tibet before control was forfeited to the communists.

Back in Washington, policy makers were not swayed. Even when members of the Tibetan cabinet made a desperate plea for U.S. assistance in gaining membership in the United Nations that December, Secretary of State Dean Acheson flatly discouraged the idea".

"(In July 1950,) US Embassy officials even flirted with fanciful plans for Heinrich Harrer, the monarch's former tutor, and George Patterson, an affable Scottish missionary who had once preached in Kham, to effectively kidnap the Dalai Lama and bundle him off to India."

"the Dalai Lama he had already voiced support for radical land reforms at home, although the landed aristocracy and religious elite had successfully thwarted implementation. During that same time frame, a hint of the dissatisfaction brewing in Kham reached the U.S. consulate in Calcutta via a different channel."

"In the fall of 1964, an initial group of four Tibetans arrived at the Cornell campus for nine months of course work. Midway through the semester, half of the class was quietly taken down to Silver Spring, Maryland, where they were kept in a CIA safe house for a month of spy-craft instruction.

These first dozen Cornell-trained Tibetans were put to immediate use. Three were assigned to the Special Center. Others were posted to one of the CIA-supported Tibet representative offices in New Delhi, Geneva, and New York. The New Delhi mission -- officially known as the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama -- was headed by a former Tibetan finance minister and charged with maintaining contact with the various embassies in the Indian capital. The Office of Tibet in Geneva, led by the Dalai Lama 's older brother Lobsang Sam ten, focused on staging cultural programs in neutral Switzerland.The New York Office of Tibet, which included three Cornell graduates, concentrated on winning support for the Tibetan cause at the United Nations."

By People's Daily Staff Editor Liu Chao

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/6382633.html

Wall Street Journal : USA confession of

CIA Campaign Against China 50 Years Ago

Revolt of the Monks ---

How a Secret CIA Campaign Against China 50 Years Ago Continues to Fester;

A Role for Dalai Lama's Brother

By Peter Wonacott

2376 words

30 August 2008

The Wall Street Journal

DARJEELING, India -- Chodak, an 83-year-old former monk, fled Tibet in the wake of a bloody Chinese invasion more than 50 years ago. Today, he spends his days trimming wool carpets at a refugee center perched above the tranquil tea plantations of this Indian hill town. The plight of Tibetan exiles like Chodak, and their Buddhist message of nonviolence, has drawn world-wide sympathy to their cause.

But Chodak's story has a twist. He's one of the last surviving guerrilla fighters who took up arms against the Chinese during a little-known chapter in Tibet's history. His life has been one of war, not peace.

Starting in the late 1950s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency trained scores of Tibetans, many of them monks, and then air dropped them back to their country with weapons and wireless radios. The linchpin of the operation was an older brother of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of 2.7 million Tibetans and today a Nobel Prize-winning symbol of peaceful resistance.

"We were fighting to protect Buddhism from those who wanted to harm it," said Chodak in an interview, his eyes now clouded with cataracts.

These days, armed with little more than his message of peace and the occasional chortle at Beijing's expense, the 73-year-old Dalai Lama enjoys the upper hand in a international public-relations war. He inspires protests that embarrass the Chinese government around the world, including during the recently concluded Beijing Olympics. He also provokes over-the-top denunciations from Chinese officials. During the unrest in March, Tibet's Communist Party Secretary, Zhang Qingli, accused the Dalai Lama of sabotaging the region's stability and described the Buddhist leader as a "a wolf in monk's clothes, a devil with a human face."

The Dalai Lama deflects such accusations with dry humor, saying repeatedly that if Tibet's freedom movement ever became violent, he'd step away from politics. "Please investigate," he said of the charges that he inflamed Tibetan protests in March. "If we are really the instigator, we are awaiting punishment."

He has said that he wasn't aware of the 1950s-era armed resistance in the beginning, and that upon learning about it, he didn't encourage Tibetans to join it. He also disavows any plan to see Tibet become independent, pressing merely for China to allow Tibetans more local autonomy to preserve their customs and language.

But the history of the resistance movement -- and the Dalai Lama's close family connection to it -- remains very much a part of the ongoing tensions with China. It helps explain why even rudimentary reconciliation talks -- the next round is expected in October -- have gone nowhere.

---

John Kenneth Knaus, a retired CIA officer who led a covert Tibet command center from New Delhi in the 1960s, remembers the Dalai Lama as torn -- personally sympathetic to his brave compatriots but unwilling publicly to support a bloody rebellion that ran counter to his Buddhist belief in protecting life.

"The Dalai Lama knew everything that was going on, but he couldn't give his blessing," says Mr. Knaus, author of the 1999 book "Orphans of the Cold War: America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival."

Gyalo Thondup, one of the Dalai Lama's brothers and the former resistance leader, declined to be interviewed for this story. "It's a very sensitive and inopportune time to talk, from the points of view of many different parties," said one of his sons, Tempa Thondup, in a message conveyed from the elder Mr. Thondup. People who answered the door at Gyalo Thondup's residences in New Delhi and Kalimpong, India, said the 80-year-old wasn't at home.

Stories recounted by Tibetan resistance fighters, including six surviving guerrillas, demonstrate the deep involvement of Mr. Thondup in the CIA-backed operation.

Mr. Thondup came to the resistance movement with rare qualities for Tibetans of his generation -- a fluency in Mandarin and an understanding of China's history. In 1949, he was studying in the wartime capital of Nanjing when the People's Liberation Army vanquished the Nationalist forces. Mr. Thondup and his Chinese wife, the daughter of a Nationalist general, eventually settled in Darjeeling, near the Indian border with Nepal.

When the CIA made contact with him in the early 1950s, Mr. Thondup had been organizing escape routes for Tibetans fleeing Chinese rule. His wife, Nancy Chu, helped establish the center where refugees learned handicrafts so they could make a living on Indian soil.

A spokesman for the CIA declined to comment on the Tibetan operation.

The refugees arrived with tales of misery and horror. Tsering Dakpa, a Tibetan farmer, says in 1954 he watched Chinese soldiers drag suspected rebels outside a village and force them to dig a trench filled with freezing water. The men were stripped, thrown into the trench and -- when they didn't answer questions satisfactorily -- shot, according to Mr. Dakpa.

"My heart stopped," the 77-year-old says of the execution. "I decided then I'd join the resistance."

That same year, the Dalai Lama had gone to Beijing to meet with China's leaders, including Mao Zedong, in hopes of securing more religious and political autonomy for Tibet. But back home, in the Tibetan region of Kham, an anti-China resistance had already taken root.

It was in Kham, in 1956, that one of the most violent clashes occurred, a days-long battle at the Litang Monastery. One of the Litang monks was Chodak, who now works at the refugee center in Darjeeling. He recalls a meeting in which a Chinese general urged them to abandon their weapons. The monks carried weapons to defend themselves from bandits. Chodak says the general threatened to burn down the monastery if they didn't comply.

"The Chinese said they were protecting us, and that there was no need to carry weapons," says Nawang Datha, another monk. "We refused."

Instead, the Litang monks sneaked up at night and attacked a nearby Chinese camp, according to Mr. Datha and Chodak.

The Chinese army responded by charging the monastery in a pre-dawn raid. The Tibetans fought back with homemade pistols, antique rifles, axes and knives.

"Everybody was rushing here and there," says Chodak. "We didn't know who we were killing."

Mr. Datha's younger brother, Tenlay Tenzing, managed to flee the monastery earlier on the family's black horse. Chinese troops shot the horse, but the monk kept running. Coming upon the horse carcass later, Mr. Datha feared his younger brother had been killed -- only to be reunited later at their parents' home. When bombs from Chinese airplanes were dropped on the monastery, Chodak fled to Tibet's capital, Lhasa, a weeks-long walk, but far from the fighting in Kham.

China's official history of the fighting at Litang says the monks reacted violently to Chinese efforts to abolish a "feudal serf system" and "slavery," according to the Web site of the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture People's Government, a part of Sichuan province that includes Litang. The government accused Tibetan rebels in the area of attacking military and government officials, damaging roads and bridges as well as raping, looting and killing. As a result, the Communist Party of China extended "important orders for the suppression of unrest," the Web site says, calling it a "war of liberation."

The events at Litang inflamed passions across Tibet and helped fuel the resistance movement. Many monks, left without a monastery, shed their robes to fight the Chinese. Warring Tibetan clans set aside grievances to unite in battle. The CIA later would gain several recruits from Litang, who wanted to match China's soldiers with modern firepower and military training of their own.

One of the Litang monks, who went by the name Lhotse and was the older brother of Messrs. Datha and Tenzing, fled to Darjeeling, posing as a trader. When he arrived, he knocked on the door of Mr. Thondup.

The brother of the 14th Dalai Lama, Mr. Thondup was already a prominent figure among Tibetans and his political sympathies were well known. After listening to Lhotse recount the failed uprising, Mr. Thondup responded with a proposition.

"If you want to go for training," he said, "I may have a place to send you."

The monk agreed to the secret mission, according to interviews with his two surviving brothers, whom he later told about the conversation.

In addition to Lhotse, Mr. Thondup recruited five Tibetan fighters and sent them in early 1957 for training with CIA instructors on the Pacific island of Saipan. The Tibetans learned how to operate a radio transmitter, fire modern weapons and set up ambushes.

The Dalai Lama's oldest brother, Thubten Jigme Norbu, served as a translator on Saipan. Mr. Norbu, a retired professor of Tibetan studies at Indiana University, is now in poor health and unable to respond to comment, according to his youngest brother, Tendzin Choegyal.

After six months in Saipan, Lhotse and a monk named Athar parachuted back into Tibet. Traveling with other rebels, the pair relayed radio requests for weapons and supplies and kept the CIA apprised of the resistance inside Tibet.

Mr. Knaus, the former CIA officer, testified in writing to the U.S. Congress in 1999 that the CIA made two arms drops into Tibet in July 1958 and Feb. 1959. These included 403 Lee Enfield rifles, 60 hand grenades, 20 machine guns and 26,000 rounds of ammunition. By the late 1960s, Mr. Knaus estimates, the CIA had dropped 700,000 pounds of supplies to the rebels.

China's attempts to quell unrest around Lhasa worsened tensions. In March 1959, the Dalai Lama sneaked out of the city's Potala Palace and headed for India on horseback. The CIA-trained rebels hooked up with the Dalai Lama, sending radio updates on his whereabouts to Washington.

As Tibet's spiritual leader was about to cross safely into India, the rebels cheered and waved. The Dalai Lama waved back.

Chodak interpreted the wave as "a long-distance blessing," he says. "Then we went back to fighting."

The Dalai Lama's aides say that at the time the Tibetan leader didn't have a good grasp of the resistance, or of how the CIA was involved. "His brother really kept him in the dark -- for his own sake," says Tempa Tsering, the Dalai Lama's representative in New Delhi.

As Mr. Thondup filled out the ranks of the CIA-backed resistance, Mr. Datha and his brother Mr. Tenzing also enlisted. Mr. Tenzing recalls arriving in 1959 at a secluded training base in the Colorado Rockies called Camp Hale. He gazed at the pine forests and snow-covered peaks. "I felt I was back in Tibet," he says. Tibetans would train secretly in Colorado until 1964, according to Mr. Knaus's written testimony to Congress.

Mr. Thondup traveled extensively to publicize Tibet's plight, recruit fighters and forge links with foreign intelligence agencies, according to another of his sons, Khedroob Thondup, who acted as his private secretary.

During Mr. Thondup's rare breaks at home, the family went on picnics in the misty hills of Darjeeling. The children practiced shooting Mr. Thondup's old Winchester rifle. He also taught them how to prune his prize roses.

But inside Tibet, the resistance was wilting. China's superior radio communications allowed it to outmaneuver fighters. Its air power crushed Tibetan fighters. Most of the agents the CIA sent into Tibet were captured or killed.

In disarray, the rebels retreated to a mountainous base known as Mustang just beyond southern Tibet inside Nepal. Fighters at Mustang say Mr. Thondup showed up periodically to rally spirits. "You don't have to worry about food and supplies. We have sponsors that will take care of that," Mr. Thondup said, according to Nyima Namgyal, one of the rebels who heard the Dalai Lama's brother speak at Mustang.

"We had an idea it was America," added Mr. Namgyal, now 65 years old and living in a retirement home in Dharmsala.

So many arrived at Mustang that supplies were stretched thin. Chodak says he sold his sword and charm box -- an amulet he wore around his neck -- to buy provisions. The rebels raided farms inside Tibet for sheep that would provide food and wool to fend off the cold.

Infighting posed as grave a threat to the Mustang operation as the Chinese army. Several of the Tibetan fighters complained that the commander was pocketing funds, according to Mr. Tenzing. In 1968, disgusted with what had become of the resistance, Mr. Tenzing returned to Darjeeling and opened a dumpling restaurant.

For the Americans in the late 1960s, the operation was reaching the end of its usefulness. The CIA had closed training camps years earlier and was winding down supply runs. Mired in Vietnam, the U.S. government worried about getting drawn deeper into another Asian conflict. In 1972, President Nixon met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong, ushering in a new era of the U.S. and China relationship.

For the Dalai Lama, a new stance toward China would take shape, too. In the early 1970s, he sought to disband the rebels and end the bloodshed. Chodak says he concluded his war with the Chinese after a tearful 1972 meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala.

Not everyone agreed to leave Mustang. Some fighters shot themselves or slit their own throats rather than disobey the Dalai Lama's orders, according to his spokesman Tenzin Taklha.

By then, the fighting with China was essentially over. In 1974, the Dalai Lama huddled with aides in a sunlit meeting room at his residence. "We made up our minds that, sooner or later, we would have to talk with the Chinese government," he said in a recent interview. "Independence was no longer relevant."

The man who would serve as the go-between with the Chinese government was someone both sides knew well. He was the Dalai Lama's older brother, Gyalo Thondup.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122005956740185361.html

Gyalo Thondup: Interview Excerpts

02/20/09 Wall Street Journal

"American didn't want to help Tibet. It just wanted to make trouble for China.

It had no far-sighted policy for Tibet. I wasn't trained for this (clandestine operations).

We didn't know about power politics." said Gyalo Thondup, brother of Dalai Lama.

"I hope they wake up. The time has come."Article

Gyalo Thondup, in a series of exclusive interviews, opened up about his epochal role in modern Tibet and efforts over the years to prevent a widening rift between Beijing and his younger brother, the Dalai Lama. Weeks after The Wall Street Journal published a Page One article profiling his role organizing armed Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule, the 80-year-old Mr. Thondup agreed to talk. He invited a reporter to his rustic home in the Himalayan foothills of India, built from an architectural plan he bought for $200 on a visit to San Francisco long ago, and embarked on his memories dealing with China. (See related article.)

GYALO THONDUP

On arrival in the early 1940's in the capital of China's Nationalist government,

dispatched by a Tibetan regent to learn Mandarin and China's history:

"At 14 I went to Nanjing to study. Ordinary Chinese would ask where I came from. I told them I came from Tibet -- they'd look at me and say, 'Tibet, where's that?'"

On befriending China's Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek:

"I used to go to dinner at his house in Nanjing. He told me I must learn about China -- that I will be very important when the Dalai Lama assumes power. He said 'The Chinese government doesn't want Tibetans exploited by foreigners." He was a very simple, honest person."

Back in Tibet after the China's Communist Party came to power in 1949:

"The army wanted to crush American spies. Two Tibetan regents were accused of being American agents. I told the army officers these regents were very honest. They have never been to America. They don't want to go to America. They don't know where America is located on a map. I requested the Chinese government not to make wrong accusations. It creates a bad impression, pushing the masses against the Chinese."

Why he later fled Tibet to India in the early 1950s:

"I couldn't become a collaborator against our people, against my conscience."

On linking up with the Central Intelligence Agency and

helping to organize its support for armed resistance

inside Tibet that began in the late 1950's:

"I never asked for CIA military assistance. I asked for political help. I wanted to publicize the Tibet situation, to make a little noise. The Americans promised to help make Tibet an independent country. All those promises were broken."

Feelings after cooperation with the CIA ended (in the late 1960s):

"American didn't want to help Tibet. It just wanted to make trouble for China. It had no far-sighted policy for Tibet. I wasn't trained for this (clandestine operations). We didn't know about power politics."

On the Dalai Lama's role in the CIA operations:

"I never involved the Dalai Lama as a person. The Dalai Lama didn't know anything about (the CIA operation) until after he got to India (in 1959). I never tried to involve my family members in my work."

On a conversation with a KGB officer on working with

the Soviet Union in Tibet rather than the Americans:

"He told me you are all in the dark and very soon you will be sold out. If we promise to help, we will help. I thanked them for their interest and told the Americans Russia had offered to help. The CIA must have been shocked, but they kept quiet."

In retrospect, the Tibetan armed resistance backed by the CIA:

"I can't say the CIA help was useful. Whatever help they provided, it really provoked the Chinese. It led to reprisals. I feel very sorry for this."

In 1979, Chinese officials approached Mr. Thondup in Hong Kong

where he'd gone to live after the rebellion fizzled out.

They proposed a meeting with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping:

"I told them if I go, I have to get my brother's permission first. His Holiness said: 'You should respond. Go in your personal capacity. Go listen.'"

On meeting China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping:

"He told me whatever is past is past¡&endash;except independence, anything can be discussed."

Mr. Thondup then began 14 years of on-and-off talks with the Chinese seeking to widen political, cultural and religious autonomy in Tibetan areas of China. Talks broke down, and Mr. Thondup stepped back from his role as his brother's envoy.

"In 1993, I told the Chinese government it's useless. It was like one hand clapping."

But with the same goals of greater Tibetan autonomy in mind, he maintains open channels of communication with Chinese officials:

"I hope they wake up. The time has come. Otherwise, I can't foretell the future. If they want to talk to me, I will go in a minute."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123510349274730343.html

In Tibet, a Clash of Approaches

02/20/09 Wall Street Journal

As Anniversary of Exile -- and Protests -- Nears, Dalai Lama's Brother Advises CalmArticle

By PETER WONACOTT

Associated Press

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, head of state and spiritual leader of the people of Tibet, third from right, is shown with his family in Delhi, India, in 1956. From left to right are, Dalai Lama's mother; his elder sister; eldest brother Thubten J. Norbu; elder brother; Gyalo Thondup, brother; Dalai Lama; his younger sister; and his youngest brother.

KALIMPONG, India -- Nearly 50 years after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet with his followers to India, his older brother lives on a quiet hilltop here just beyond his Himalayan homeland, like an exile among exiles.

At 80 years old with a stooped back and bad knees, Gyalo Thondup remains one of Tibet's strongest supporters of better ties with Beijing. That is an increasingly unpopular stance among younger exiles, as their bitterness toward China grows over years of fruitless dialogue and a violent security clampdown.

Relations have become sufficiently tense that the Dalai Lama's envoys have suspended talks with China. Still, Mr. Thondup has maintained his largely improvised role in trying to bring the two sides closer together, courting Chinese officials to try to defuse tensions. His wristwatch is set to Beijing time.

photo by Peter Wonacott

Eighty-year-old Gyalo Thondup remains one of Tibet's strongest supporters of better ties with Beijing.

"Even if we don't agree, I will go and talk to them," says Mr. Thondup during an interview at his home in the Indian trading town of Kalimpong. "It's in the interest of China and Tibet, we must live peacefully. We must deal with each other."

The message is being put to the test as the anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight approaches. Last year, protests in Tibetan areas of China to mark the March 10, 1959, popular uprising in Tibet turned violent and were crushed. Now there have been reports of fresh protests and arrests.

On Thursday, a Communist Party official in Tibet warned Buddhist clergy against political activity. Lobsang Gyaincain, a member of the standing committee of the regional Communist Party, demanded that monks and nuns recognize what he called the "reactionary nature" of the Dalai Lama clique, as well as plots to use temples and clergy to carry out "infiltration and disturbances," the official Tibet Daily reported.

For its part, China has declared March 28 "Serf Emancipation Day" to celebrate the toppling of Tibet's feudal leadership five decades ago.

A Tibetan exile task force postponed dialogue with China until the anniversary passes. "At the moment we are much more concerned with the situation on the ground," said Lodi Gyari, special envoy of the Dalai Lama. "His Holiness has advised caution and restraint."

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Gyalo Thondup: Interview ExcerptsFrom the Archives

Revolt of the Monks: How a Secret CIA Campaign Against China 50 Years Ago Continues to Fester; A Role for Dalai Lama's Brother (8/30/08)Some Tibetan exile groups want to see the Dalai Lama take a tougher stand toward China -- an approach Mr. Thondup opposes. The Tibetan Youth Congress is planning a series of pro-independence rallies in the weeks ahead. One protest in Dharmsala, the north Indian town that serves as headquarters for Tibet's government in exile, will burn effigies of Mao Zedong and Chinese President Hu Jintao, as part of the traditional "sweeping away of evil spirits" ahead of the Tibetan New Year, according to the group's president, Tsewang Rigzin.

Mr. Thondup himself isn't likely to muster much of an effort to counter these forces, and says he is ready to step aside for a younger generation. "I'm coming to the end of what I have to contribute," he says. "I've talked too much."

He is blunt about why he hasn't achieved more in three decades of talks with Chinese officials. "How can a person discuss morality, reason and compassion with gangsters?" he says. "Of course," Mr. Thondup chortles, "they think I'm a gangster, too."

Gyalo Thondup

This undated photo shows Gyalo Thondup, the Dalai Lama's older brother, meeting with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to discuss Tibet issues.

Mr. Thondup's relationship with China began shortly after his brother was tapped as Tibet's spiritual leader in 1937. In the early 1940s, a regent dispatched Mr. Thondup, then 14 years old, to Nanjing to learn Mandarin. In the wartime capital, he befriended China's leader, Chiang Kai-shek, and eventually married the daughter of a Nationalist general. After the Communists came to power, he fled China and wound up in India.

In an attempt to defend Tibet in the 1950s, Mr. Thondup entered the world of clandestine resistance, eliciting aid from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for the training and arming of Tibetan fighters who were parachuted back into Tibet. Most of the agents were caught or killed

With his brother's consent, Mr. Thondup met in 1979 with the Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, and embarked on 14 years of talks. The talks failed to reach a settlement and Mr. Thondup bowed out of his role as envoy. Still, he continues to engage his old contacts.

Following the protests a year ago, he called and met with Chinese officials to complain that their demonizing the Dalai Lama would inflame Tibetan anger; he claims top leaders later toned down their rhetoric.

After the Dalai Lama's envoys walked away from talks with China in November, Mr. Thondup met in New Delhi with Chinese embassy officials. In those meetings, he argued that they had misconstrued as calls for independence the Dalai Lama's demands for meaningful autonomy in Tibet. Days later, he lobbied fellow Tibetans to avoid provoking Beijing and stick to a middle way. He also has urged more people to travel to China and to study Mandarin.

"Tibetans have to deal with China carefully," he says. "In order to solve our problems, we have to know each other."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123508535435527541.html

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Young Foreign Tibetans stop being used by USA

You deserve high standard free-of-charge Education

Say NO! to Dalai Lama and Tibetan Youth Congress

Destiny of Dalai Lama is desperate hopelessness

click here

The above event was in the Past, however

Today Tibet is still fighting her Biggest Enemy.

Many USA citizens have this to say...

<<China, Tibet and U.S.-sponsored counterrevolution>>

An objective look at the "Free Tibet" movement

Statement opposing anti-China campaign

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

A PSL press release

We are opposed to the campaign of disinformation and demonization that is targeting the People's Republic of China (PRC.) The timing of the campaign is linked to China's hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics. That the Olympics are taking place in China is of historic significance and great pride to all the country's people. It was less than six decades ago that China emerged from a century of colonialist humiliation at the hands of the same big powers that are spearheading the China-bashing campaign today.

Washington is providing financial, political, diplomatic and propaganda support to the racist demonization effort, supposedly because of concern for "human rights." This is the same government that is directly responsible for the death of one million Iraqis since 2003.

While one out of every three Iraqis have been killed, wounded or displaced since 2003 the US government is eager to have people in the US., especially students, protest any government other than their own. One pretext for the anti-China campaign is the fact that the PRC has trade relations with Sudan. The US wants to overthrow the government of oil-rich Sudan and replace it with a puppet. It has supported "rebel groups" who are prolonging the civil war. The people of the Sudan, who are suffering greatly, are cynically used as a fund raising vehicle by organizations that have raised tens of millions of dollars but have never spent a penny actually helping the people of Sudan, including those who live in the Darfur region.

Demonization campaigns against particular countries and their leaders are not just media exercises. Over the last two decades, such campaigns have preceded the invasions of Iraq and Panama, the bombing war against Yugoslavia, the coups in Haiti and attempted coup in Venezuela, and a threatened war against Iran. The pattern is clear and so too is the danger.

Regarding Tibet, for many centuries a region of China, the hand of Washington in the latest events is obvious for anyone who wants to see. For more than 50 years, the CIA and other U.S. government agencies have trained, funded, coordinated and supported the old feudal and repressive regime in Tibet represented by the Dalai Lama. The CIA front group the National Endowment for Democracy funds the International Campaign for Tibet, the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement and the Dalai Lama himself. The U.S. maintains close ties with the Tibetan "government-in-exile" in India, whose real aim is to break away a region making up a quarter of China's territory. These U.S. actions constitute an effort to de-stabilize and dismember the Peoples Republic of China. The progress in education, women's rights, employment and health care would be immediately eviscerated if the old serf-owning ruling elite, represented by the Dalai Lama, was brought back to power.

No one, least of all progressive people, should be misled about what is really going on. The real motivation for the anti-China campaign has nothing to do with human rights or liberation, and everything to do with an agenda of global domination.

We the undersigned call for an end to the disinformation and demonization campaign against China, and a halt to the attempts to boycott and disrupt the 2008 Olympics.

http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8917&news_iv_ctrl=1040

An objective look at the "Free Tibet" movement

The following is a statement from the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Many U.S. progressives and liberals are supporting the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan opposition to the People's Republic of China. So are George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh, the CIA, and every pro-imperialist government and media outlet. The vast majority of the peoples of China, including many in Tibet, oppose the U.S.-supported separatist movement.

"Peaceful" protesters killed 19
people and burned down numerous
buildings in Lhasa.

How could progressive people be on the same side as Bush, the CIA and the ultra-right? How do we explain the paradox of progressive people supporting a movement that is financed and supported by the proponents of the U.S. empire, as well as by all the other old European colonial powers that divided, humiliated and looted China for a full century prior to the 1949 revolution?

This riddle is solved by appreciating the impact of the effective CIA propaganda supporting the Dalai Lama and the old Tibetan ruling class, which lost its power, privileges, serfs and slaves because of the Chinese Revolution. This propaganda is echoed in the Western media constantly and has affected liberal public opinion.

The National Endowment for Democracy funds the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan opposition. It also funds or funded the pro-U.S. opposition to Venezuelan president Hugo Ch¨¢vez, the fascist opposition to former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the opposition to the Cuban Revolution. The NED also funded Ronald Reagan's contra war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

From 1995 to 2005, the NED gave $2,047,479 to opposition Tibetan publications, radio stations, organizations and other institutes.

The Dalai Lama has a long history of working closely with the U.S. government. In fact, he and his supporters have been on the CIA payroll since the 1950s.

The International Campaign for Tibet, the Tibet Fund, the Tibet Voice Project, the Tibet Information Network, the Tibetan Literary Society, the Tibetan Review Trust Society and the Voice of Tibet all advance the progressive-sounding call for a "Free Tibet." They are all funded by the NED, which is itself funded by the U.S. State Department and the CIA.

According to historian Allen Weinstein, "A lot of what [the NED does] today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." Weinstein helped draft the legislation that created the NED. (1)

Many progressives in the United States believe that Tibet is severely oppressed by the government of the People's Republic of China. They have been convinced that the Dalai Lama is a man of peace who has been ruthlessly suppressed by China, and that he has the allegiance of nearly all Tibetans. Most of these individuals sincerely believe in the right of self-determination and believe that the People's Republic of China has violated this right.

Among this sector of liberal and progressive opinion, the reflex to any struggle between China and what they perceive to be the Tibetan people as a whole is to express profound solidarity with those they consider to be the oppressed. But this view obscures the essential social and class dynamic in Tibet. Influenced by a false conception, people who should know better lose their critical faculties.

Knowing that George W. Bush is an imperialist criminal, one must pause and ponder the question: Why did Bush award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama in a highly publicized White House ceremony in 2007? Bush would never conduct such a ceremony for a genuinely progressive person. Bush views the Dalai Lama in much the same way he viewed Ahmed Chalabi before the invasion of Iraq --as a useful tool for the U.S. empire.

Demonization campaign a prelude to imperialist intervention

The demonization of China is in full swing now. Demonization is the imperialists' preferred tool to delegitimize their targets and prepare the ground for a destabilization campaign and possible military intervention.

The demonization tactic has been consistently applied preceding regime changes, coups and invasions: the invasion of Panama in 1989; Iraq in 1991 and 2003; Haiti in the first half of 1990s; the aerial destruction of Yugoslavia in 1999; the military coup in Venezuela in 2002; and the new threats against Iran. The pattern is crystal clear.

Although our party has profound political differences with many of the policies of the Chinese Communist Party, especially its promotion of capitalist-style market practices, we feel that it is necessary to expose the hidden and not-so-hidden efforts of the Bush administration, the CIA, the Democratic Party, and other centers of political power to destabilize and dismember the People's Republic of China. Most Chinese people recognize that this effort, if successful, would hurl both China and Tibet backward.

Some in the liberal camp might argue that, though U.S. motives may be impure and even imperialist toward China and Tibet, this does not diminish the legitimacy of Tibet's fight for independence.

Progressives should think this through. For more than a century, Washington has sought to build a world empire. Its foreign and military policies focus exclusively on achieving and maintaining its global aspirations. It is not tenable for progressives to view the issue of self-determination in the abstract; we must account for the strategic designs of imperialism.

The historical analogy of Cuba's war for independence from the Spanish Empire comes to mind. The U.S. military invaded Cuba in 1898 under the pretext of supporting Cuba's independence from Spain. Soon, the U.S. government's own imperialist goals were revealed as it turned Cuba into a protectorate, seized Puerto Rico from Spain and invaded the Philippines.

Mark Twain and the other leaders of the Anti-Imperialist League in the United States exposed the true nature of the U.S. project to incorporate Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines into a new U.S. sphere of influence. Progressives in the United States would be well served by remembering this legacy and applying it to U.S. imperialism's unfolding struggle to "liberate" Tibet from China.

Twain and his colleagues were deeply sympathetic to the cause of Cuban independence from Spain, but they still militantly opposed the U.S. intervention. They understood it was a cruel and cynical U.S. ploy to conquer Cuba. Unlike the current struggle by the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Youth Congress, Cuba's independence movement was led by genuine revolutionaries like Jos?Mart?

Mart? the "Apostle of Cuban Independence," represented the slaves, ex-slaves, workers and peasants against their Cuban bosses and tormentors, as well as the foreign colonizing power. The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, is the voice and figurehead for the ruling elites who lived off of the labor of serfs' modern-day land-slaves. Mart?fought the foreign occupier while the Dalai Lama was a well-paid cog in Britain's colonial machine in Asia.

Myths and facts of pre-revolutionary Tibet and the Dalai Lama

The popular presentation of old Tibet is the Hollywood version of reality. It is both Orientalist and racist. Old Tibet is viewed as a nation founded on peace and spiritual harmony, populated by gentle monks who lived humbly side-by-side with a rustic peasant population at one with nature. In this mythical depiction, the brutal communist government of China is cruelly occupying this idyllic Shangri-la.

There are more than 15,500
Tibetan language teachers in the
Tibet Autonomous Region.

Tenzin Gyatso, known as the Dalai Lama, heads the Tibetan opposition movement financed and cultivated for more than 50 years by Washington. He is the religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism and former ruler of Tibet-- the "god-king" of the Tibetan feudal system until 1959.

Prior to 1959, 95 percent of the people lived in shocking, slave-like conditions, while an extremely repressive aristocracy "lived in opulent splendor. .... Among the populace, a common appellation for the rich was 'ones whose lips are always moistened by tea.'" (2)

A 1940 survey showed that "38 percent of the households never got any tea, but either collected herbs that grew wild or drank 'white tea'--boiled water. .... 51 percent could not afford to use butter (tea and yak butter were main staples), and 75 percent of the households were forced at times to resort to eating grass cooked with cow bones and mixed with oat or pea flour." (3)

Education was almost non-existent, and what did exist was exclusive to the nobility. Health conditions were abysmal, with an estimated 90 percent of the people suffering venereal disease and about 30 percent infected with smallpox. (4) In 1959, infant mortality was 430 deaths per 1,000 births and average life expectancy was 35.5 years. (5)

Of a serf's production, 50 to 70 percent was owed to his manorial master, in addition to forced labor called "ulag." Dozens of taxes had to be paid, including a butter tax, meat tax, wool tax, woolen cloth tax and a tax on tsampa--a staple food usually made from barley--to support the monasteries. Prayer festival taxes, hay taxes, utensil taxes, meat taxes, past-due taxes, corvée taxes in the form of labor, military taxes and others had to be paid to the government. Many additional taxes were paid to the feudal lord.

The extremely high number of manor estates and monks--who performed no work but lived from others' labor--was an enormous drain on society. Out of the 37,000 inhabitants in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, 16,000 were monks. The Drepung monastery alone had "185 manors, 20,000 serfs, 300 pastures and 16,000 herdsmen." (6)

Profoundly superstitious beliefs, complete religious control by Tibetan Buddhist lamas over the masses and severe punishment, including death, for any type of disobedience effectively kept the people from questioning their conditions or rebelling.

It is no coincidence that the recent chain of events leading up to the present turmoil began on March 10. On that day in 1959, the Dalai Lama and the feudal nobility launched an armed rebellion in Tibet in opposition to major social changes introduced after the triumph of the Chinese Revolution.

Tibet and China before the 1949 revolution

In present-day China, the Han nationality makes up 91 percent of the population. The remaining 9 percent adds up to 105 million people of 55 different nationalities, including 16 million Zhuang, 10.6 million Manchu, 8.3 million Uyghur, 8.9 million Miao, 8 million Tujia, 7.7 million Yi and 5.4 million Tibetan.

Roughly half of the Tibetan nationality lives within the borders of the 470,000 square miles that make up the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. The remaining Tibetan population lives in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan. There are also Tibetans in India, Bhutan and Nepal.

Tibet has long been recognized as part of China. The relationship goes back until at least the 13th century, in an arrangement whereby the Tibetan rulers exercised local autonomy while the central Chinese government conducted Tibet's foreign affairs and defense. In 1906, Britain signed a formal recognition of China's sovereignty over Tibet.

During an exchange of diplomatic statements between Britain and the United States in 1943, Washington stated: "For its part, the Government of the United States has borne in mind the fact that the Chinese constitution lists Tibet among areas constituting the territory of the Republic of China. This Government has at no time raised a question regarding either of these claims." (7)

Before the Chinese Revolution, Tibet's lamas and nobility accepted the political arrangement with China's dynastic rulers--and later British colonizers in the early 20th century--as long as the Tibetan rulers could lord over the Tibetan masses unimpeded. Only when the prospect of socialism threatened their privilege, which was founded on the exploitation of the peasantry, did the Tibetan ruling class decide to break ties with China.

In September 1949, fearful of the impending revolution and a challenge to their power, the Tibetan leaders immediately expelled China's mission in Lhasa on instructions of longtime British agent Hugh Richardson.

Revolution brings change to Tibet

The aim of China's October 1, 1949, revolution was the emancipation of all the people of China, including the 55 smaller nationalities within Chinese territory.

The government's initial attitude toward Tibet was one of extreme caution on the matter of reforms. The government was cognizant of the profound control that Tibetan rulers wielded over the serf population, as well as the historic resentment of the Tibetan nationality towards the Han nationality.

The 1951 "Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" signed by the new revolutionary government and local Tibetan leaders provided for economic development, education and health care programs.

At first, the old, reactionary social relations were not disturbed. The pact established that "the local government of Tibet shall carry out reform voluntarily, and, when the people demand a reform, shall settle it through consultation with the Tibetan leaders."

Public social projects were inaugurated immediately. The first two roads ever built in Tibet began construction in 1950 and took almost five years to complete. One crossed 14 mountain passes over 1,500 miles from Ya'an in Sichuan province to Lhasa. One truck could transport in two days what it used to take 12 days for 60 yaks to haul. Schools and hospitals were built. (8)

But by 1959, the ruling priesthood, still owners of virtually all the country's wealth, strongly opposed any attempt to reform their system. Counterrevolutionary bands opposed to change waged paramilitary attacks.

Despite the obstacles imposed by the Tibetan ruling circles, the central government continued the development projects. It firmly believed that the impoverished Tibetan masses, gaining from the progress, would eventually take part in their own emancipation.

There were tremendous difficulties, as one directive from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to the reformers showed in the early 1950s:

"As yet, we don't have a material base for fully implementing the Agreement, nor do we have a base for this purpose in terms of support among the masses or in the upper stratum. To force its implementation will do more harm than good. Since they are unwilling to put the agreement into effect, well then we can leave it for the time being and wait. ...

"Let them go on with their insensate atrocities against the people, while we on our part concentrate on good deeds--production, trade, road-building, medical services, and united front work (unity with the majority and patient education) so as to win over the masses and bide our time before taking up the question of the full implementation of the Agreement. If they are not in favor of the setting up of primary schools, that can stop too." (9)

After eight years of harsh opposition by the feudal lords, the new Chinese revolutionary leadership took direct action in 1959 to overturn the serf system.

The Dalai Lama set the date of March 10, 1959, for a reactionary uprising. The Chinese People's Liberation Army stayed in the barracks for 10 days while the Dalai Lama's forces attacked, winning over the people by revealing who the real aggressor was. Because the uprising lacked popular support and was confined to the area around Lhasa, it was quickly defeated.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet for exile in India, eventually landing in Dharamsala. There, he developed a close and long relationship with the CIA. His two brothers had already been working actively with the CIA since the late 1950s.

The Dalai Lama's treasures preceded him out of the country, as well as the wealth of the nobility who joined him in India. Smaller numbers went to Bhutan and Nepal.

Tibetan progress since the 1949 revolution

The obstacles of poverty, illiteracy, isolation and deeply superstitious beliefs made it difficult to bring even minimal development to Tibet.

Farmer Nuosang in his newly-built
house. By 2010, new housing will
have been constructed for 80
percent of farmers' households.

The Chinese government, which has a long experience in handling the issues confronting national minority peoples in a multi-national state, has also dealt with the problem of chauvinism and racism emanating from the Han population as well as the government.

Members of the Han nationality living or stationed in Tibet exhibited chauvinism in their relations with the Tibetans at times. Ignorant of the Tibetan language, culture and religion--the latter deeply permeated into all facets of life--the cadre had to be intensively trained at the initiative of the Communist Party leadership.

In "The Making of Modern Tibet," A. Tom Grunfeld writes: "They were taught to respect local customs and etiquette, never to defile temples and holy sites, and to never criticize the Dalai Lama or religious practice. They were told not to bring up communism and class struggle. They arrived carrying whatever provisions they could, and paid for everything they purchased. They paid wages to the Tibetans who worked for them and practiced egalitarianism among themselves to set an example." (10)

Although not all statistics compare to those in the more developed areas of China, progress made during the last 50 years has revolutionized life for Tibetans.

Infant mortality has dropped from 430 deaths per 1,000 births, to a range of 6.61 to 24.5 per 1,000 in 2002. Where only 2 percent of school-age children in the 1950s were in school, today the figure is 85.8 percent; however, there is still a need to increase secondary-level educational levels. The region's 6,348 hospital beds and 8,948 medical personnel exceed China's national per-capita average. (11)

Before the revolution, the masses had no elections or political life. In 1965, the First People's Congress of Tibet was held, which led to the founding of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and the Regional People's Government. There are 70,000 elected representatives on all levels of government in the TAR.

Beijing is intensifying its development programs in Tibet, with substantial investments in housing, medical care, infrastructure and restoration of cultural sites.

The Ninth People's Congress of the TAR put forth a housing plan for farmers and herders--the backbone of Tibet's economy--that will build 52,000 housing units in 2008. By 2010, new housing will have been constructed for 80 percent of farmers' households. (China Radio International, March 22)

In 2006, the annual income of farmers and herders grew 13.1 percent, the fourth double-digit growth in as many years.

Tourism has increased greatly, especially with the construction of two main railroad lines from central China--the world's highest in elevation. Four million tourists traveled to Tibet in 2007, up 60 percent from 2006, adding substantially to the region's income.

Tibetan exiles and the CIA

In the late 1950s and 1960s, the CIA trained hundreds of counterrevolutionary exiles in sabotage and terrorism. This took place on bases from Saipan to Virginia, including the main center of Tibetan operations: Camp Hale, in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

U.S. intelligence documents, which were released in the late 1990s, document the close relationship between the CIA, the Tibetan exile movement and the Dalai Lama personally: "[F]or much of the 1960s, the CIA provided the Tibetan exile movement with $1.7 million a year for operations against China, including an annual subsidy of $180,000 for the Dalai Lama." (12)

Imperialist support for the Tibetan "independence" movement is reminiscent of their support for Cuban counterrevolutionary forces that fled to exile in Miami after the island's 1959 liberation from U.S. neo-colonial rule.

Soon after Fulgencio Batista's overthrow, the CIA trained several thousand Cuban reactionaries in bombings, assassination and other terror tactics in the name of "freedom" and "democracy." The terrorist project, codenamed JM WAVE, became the largest operation in the CIA's history.

Cuban extremist exiles in Miami claim to speak for Cubans who live in Cuba as they work to destroy the social gains that the vast majority of Cubans support. Similarly, the Tibetan reactionary opposition exiled in Dharamsala fights to overturn the social gains of Tibetans living in Tibet. China has made it clear that it will defend its territorial integrity.

Tibetan right-wing groups could not exist without U.S. and European financing or the support of organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch. Actor Richard Gere, chair of the International Campaign for Tibet, has given a high profile to the issue.

Today's Tibetan "independence" movement

In 1989, a U.S.-influenced public campaign to elevate the Dalai Lama as leader of a Tibetan government-in-exile began to accelerate and continues to the present. The Dalai Lama was granted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. As a prelude to the present unfolding events, George W. Bush awarded him the Congressional Gold Medal in October 2007 despite protests from China.

The Dalai Lama claims to seek dialogue with China for discussions on autonomy, but that would only be the first step toward an eventual breaking away from China.

Tibetan counterrevolutionary forces lay claim not only to the 470,000-square-mile territory of the TAR, but also to much of four surrounding provinces that would triple the TAR's political territory to 1.5 million square miles.

There are new formations in the Tibetan right-wing opposition movement, such as the Tibetan Youth Congress. These younger activists demand immediate separation from China, while the Dalai Lama claims to be only for autonomy. These are only minor tactical differences in what amounts to an internationally financed and coordinated counterrevolutionary campaign.

The method of operation, financing and putsch-style mobilizations are very similar to other U.S. plots targeting governments for overthrow.

The recent riots in Tibet, reminiscent of the "color revolutions" that took place in former socialist states like Yugoslavia (2000), Georgia (2003 Rose Revolution), Ukraine (2004 Revolution) and Kyrgyzstan (2005 Tulip Revolution), bear the markings of a CIA-directed offensive.

Attacks on 17 Chinese embassies and consulates--as well as on the Olympics ceremonies in Greece--is more evidence of a high level of central coordination and planning.

Tibetan "self-determination" under the present circumstances

In the current epoch, it is not possible to speak of independence in an abstract sense. Since the triumph of the first socialist revolution in Russia in 1917 and the subsequent development of a socialist camp--including China--imperialist influence has not permitted any state or nationality to remain neutral.

Every national struggle today contains within itself a class struggle. Tibet is not simply a nationality united by religion, culture and history. There are two classes deep in struggle.

One of these classes is the former ruling landlord class, which never gave up its dream to reconquer its privilege. It is backed by U.S. imperialism, whose ultimate objective is breaking up China.

The other is the vast majority of Tibetans, who--despite the shortcomings and mistakes of the central government--have greatly benefited from the Chinese Revolution, which ended feudalism not only for Tibetans but for all of China's peoples.

If the Tibetan separatists succeed, Tibet will become a vassal state under the control of the United States. Washington will have dealt a major blow to China and taken one more step toward the full overturn of the Chinese Revolution. For Tibet, this would not be "independence" at all, but a return to feudal and neocolonial servitude.

It might seem hard to stand up in the United States against the maturing campaign against China. The corporate media blitz of disinformation and well-crafted propaganda is designed to delegitimize China while building credibility and sympathy for those favored by imperialism. This is all the more reason for progressive people and opponents of imperialism not to buckle under the pressure.

Bush, the Pentagon and the Democratic Party leadership would prefer nothing more than U.S. students forming "Free Tibet" committees and protesting against China's fictitious "cultural genocide" in Tibet while Washington continues its very real war and occupation of Iraq. The death of one million Iraqis does qualify as real genocide.

The people of China, including the Tibetans, cannot be assisted by imperialist sanctions, covert operations and military intervention.

Notes:

1. Washington Post, September 22, 1991. Cited in William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (2000), 180.

2. A. Tom Grunfeld, The Making of Modern Tibet (Armonk, New York; London, England: M.E. Sharep, Inc., 1996), 16.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid, 21.

5. "Tibet's March Toward Modernization," Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, November 2001, Beijing.

6. Ibid.

7. Grunfeld, 258.

8. Ibid, 121.

9. Anna Louise Strong, When Serfs Stood Up in Tibet (Peking: New World Press, 1965), 45. Cited in Grunfeld, 112.

10. Grunfeld, 61.

11. "Tibet's March Toward Modernization."

12. J. Mann, "CIA Funded Covert Tibet Exile Campaign in 1960s," The Age (Melbourne, September 16, 1998). Cited in "'Democratic Imperialism:' Tibet, China, and the National Endowment for Democracy," Michael Barker (Global Research, August 13, 2007).

http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8845

1788-1792 Victory Against Ghurkas Invasion

In 1788 an army from an area today known as Nepal invaded Tibet. The local Tibetan army was defeated and sent a messenger to ask the Central Government for help. Due to long distance apart it took Emperor QianLong four years to send an army to drive out the Nepal army and regained control of Tibet in year 1792. This event was well documented in Tibet history.

In early years Emperors of Qing Dynasty accepted the idea to allow Dalai Lama to run Tibet. However, there was a lot of internal struggles among greedy local administrators and religous clergies. The Tibet local government was legally the owner of all the land and pasture. It in turn parceled out the land to the aristocrats and monasteries as their manors. The officialdom, the nobility and the clergy thus became the three major categories of feudal lords. The serfs included Thralpas and Dudchhong, who accounted for over 90 per cent of the Tibetan population. With no land or personal freedom, they were chattels of their lords. Politics in Tibet under the various Dalai Lama administrations became very corrupted. Tibetan suffered immensely when their administrators were both a political and religious leader.

Since then Emperor QianLong had changed his system of governing Tibet. He set up a Representative Office with his own senior officers from Beijing to help to administer Tibet.

For details, please click here 'Tibet before 1951'

1788-1792 Victory Against Ghurkas Invasion

The year of 1788 saw the invasion of Nepalese Ghurkas in the Xigaze area. Historically, Nepal referred to Yambo (today's Katmandu), Kukule and Yeleng, the three places covering the Katmandu Valley and populated by the Parlebos. Tibetans called the three places Parlebo. In 1768, the Ghurkas, one of main Nepalese tribes, annexed the three tribes of Parlebo when the latter were plagued with internal struggles, and moved the capital to Yangbo. The border of the Xigaze region was close by and the two sides enjoyed close economic relations through trade, despite sometimes witnessing some friction and disputes over small problems in these trading affairs. In 1788, on an excuse of a problem in exchanging money and a higher tax imposed on trade, the Ghurkas dispatched over 3,000 soldiers to occupy Jilong, Nyelamo, Zongkar in the border areas of Xigaze. Upon hearing the news, Emperor Qianlong sent General Erhui of Chengdu, Military Commander of Sichuan, to rush troops to Tibet to fight the invaders. At the same time, Bazhong was also sent to Tibet in the capacity of Imperial Commissioner to meet and consult with General Erhui in handling the aftermath of the event. Before the arrival of Bazhong, Hotogtu Zhongba in Xigaze had made secret terms with the Ghurkas, agreeing to cede territory and pay an indemnity. When Bazhong went to Tibet, he first consulted with General Erhui and then got the Red Cap Living Buddha to send an official denunciation to the Ghurkas, ordering them to give back Jilong, Nyelamo, Zongkar and promise not to invade Tibetan territory in future. On the other hand, Bazhong secretly sent his envoy to sue for peace. The Ghurkas retreated from the occupied Tibetan areas after receiving a written IOU promising that Tibet would pay them 300 gold ingots every year. Bazhong and his allies hid the true situation from the Qing court and reported in succession that they had recovered the occupied territories, thus setting the scene for a further Ghurka invasion. In 1769, the Ghurkas sent a mission to receive the promised money. Bazhong promised to pay, but this was rejected by the Dalai Lama and the Gaxag Government. The Dalai Lama sent an envoy to negotiate with the Ghurkas and gain a retraction of the contract, but the latter angrily rejected the request. When Emperor Qianlong was informed of this, he finally came to understand the falseness of the previous reports from Bazhong. Considering the situation dangerous, Emperor Qianlong sent Living Buddha Cemolin to Tibet to serve as Prince Regent. Unfortunately, he died in March, of 1771, several months after reaching Tibet. The Qing court appointed the eighth Living Buddha Jilong (Gongdelin) as Prince Regent just as the Ghurkas were launching a second war against Tibet claiming a Tibetan breach of contract. Over a period of several days, they occupied Nyelamo, Dingri, Sagya, Jilong and so on. The Red Cap Living Buddha made effort to incite them invaders to ransack the Tashilhungpo Monastery because of a personal grudge against his elder brother Hotogtu Zhongba, as the latter hadn't shared the heritage of the sixth Panchen with him (The Red Cap Living Buddha was half-brother of the sixth Panchen and Hotogtu Zhongba). When High Commissioner Baotai was informed of the situation, he ordered the seventh Panchen be moved to Lhasa to avoid capture. Hotogtu Zhongba fled with large quantities of gold, silver, pearls and jewelry. As diviners had prophesied that it was not a good choice to fight with the invaders, many lamas of Jizhong and the monks of Tashilhungpo Monastery gave up thought of resistance and fled in all directions. Allowing the Ghurkas to ransack the monastery. Only Commander Xu Nanpeng with 80 men held fast to the castle of Xigaze and vigorously resisted the invaders. The Qing court were shocked by the event, while Bazhong plunged into a lake to end his life for his unforgivable crimes. Emperor Qianlong decided to send General Fu Kang'an, Minister Hai Lancha, and the Valiant Commander, leading an army of over 170,000 soldiers composed of Manchu, Han, Mongol, Hui, Daur, Ewenk, Oroqen and other ethnic groups, along three routes to fight the invaders. With the support of the Tibetan people, the Qing troops recovered the lost Tibetan areas in May of 1792 and drove the Ghurkas out of Tibet. In July, the Qing troops fought their way into Nepal to within 10 miles of Katmandu, forcing the Ghurkas king to submit and admit guilt. He released Galoon Danjin Pandrul and other captives, handed over the contract signed with Bazhong, and returned treasures and the gold certificate of appointment to Panchen that had been stolen from Tashilhungpo Monastery. Considering the change in climate, Emperor Qianlong instructed Fu Kangan to accept the Ghurkas submission and allowed the latter to present official document admitting guilt and promising "never to invade Tibet" again, and agree to pay regular tribute to the Qing court. The Ghurka king accepted all the terms and sent envoys to Beijing to present various tributes to the Qing court. In September, General Fu Kang'an and his troops returned victorious from the Sino-Nepalese border.

http://en.tibet.cn/newfeature/xzt_congshu/xzt_congshu_lishi/xzt_congshu_lishi_qcqqdls/t20070329_222930.htm

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Tibet's nightmare had begun when the British army conquered India, Nepal and Sikkim.

U.K. Policy Recognizes Tibet,China sovereignty

Miliband clears up Britain's Tibet policy

2008-11-03 09:26:00

A statement by UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband posted on the Foreign Office website on October 29 tidies up an obscure detail of British foreign policy and makes it clear that the British government fully recognizes Chinese sovereignty in Tibet.

Previously, in a fine distinction fully understood by only a few specialists in international law, Britain had recognized Chinese suzerainty but not sovereignty in Tibet. Suzerainty is defined, rather unhelpfully, by Webster's dictionary as "the authority of a suzerain" or "paramount authority". The earlier British position dates back to a 1906 Sino-British convention signed in the wake of a 1903-1904 invasion of Tibet by British imperial forces under the command of Colonel Francis Younghusband.

Miliband said that Britain's previous position on the status of Tibet was defined at the start of the 20th century, and was "based on the geo-politics of the time" and "the outdated concept of suzerainty". He went on to say that "Some have used this to cast doubt on the aims we are pursuing and to claim that we are denying Chinese sovereignty over a large part of its own territory. We have made clear to the Chinese Government, and publicly, that we do not support Tibetan independence."

Although many will regard it as a footnote to history, the shift in Britain's policy will be seen as undercutting the legal case for Tibetan separatism. The Wall Street Journal quoted a spokesman for the self-styled Tibetan government-in-exile as saying Miliband was "testifying a falsehood."

Speaking to journalists in Beijing on Saturday, the former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, said the move to abolish what he called a "quaint eccentricity" in British policy was long overdue. He praised Mr. Miliband for bringing the UK into line with the rest of the world, including the Dalai Lama, in recognizing China's sovereignty in Tibet.

http://eng.tibet.cn/index/news/200811/t20081103_436073.htm

<<The Wall Street Journal>> NOVEMBER 1, 2008

U.K. Policy recognizes Tibet,China sovereignty

click here

Tibetans' fight against British invasion

by:BIANGYI 2005-03-09 16:57:57

Late in the 19th century, the Qing Central Government was in a state of permanent decline, and its control over some southwestern and northwestern areas suffered accordingly, making possible British and Russian incursions. In order to expand its sphere of influence and occupy all of Tibet, Britain clandestinely sent nominal preachers, tourists and explorers to explore for minerals in Tibet. Later, they managed to encroach on some of the adjacent countries of Tibet including Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan, paving the way for invading Tibet.

Oil Painting Gyangze Battle.

The First Anti-Britain Fight

In the 1860s, British soldiers, who had occupied Sikkim adjoining Tibet took the liberty of crossing the border at Rina, and scouted toward the northern border near Mt. Lungtog. They alleged that Mt. Nyiang La, which stood to the east of Mt. Lungtog, not Rina, was the actual border between Tibet and Sikkim.

In order to stop British, in 1866, the Gaxag government dispatched a Tibetan army to set up a check post at Mt. Lungtog, prohibiting cross-border trading and preventing any Britain from entering Tibet. What's more, a White Light Guardian Temple was built on the mountain.

On March 20, 1888, British armed forces comprising over a hundred soldiers launched an assault on the Tibetan army at the foot of Mt. Lungtog. The Tibetan soldiers lined up along the trench saluted the divine image of the Buddha's protector before valiantly fighting back with their primitive weapons such as spears, bows and swords. A British official was shot dead, followed by a scattered retreat, while there was no casualty among the Tibetans.

Early next morning, British army launched another assault along the same route, which ended with more than 100 British casualties. The Tibetan side lost 20 soldiers in the hard fighting.

When the attack on March 25 broke out, many Tibetan warriors died in the explosion of a bomb lobbed into their midst. They withdrew from Yadong and Pali, and Mt. Lungtog was lost. Later, over 10,000 Tibetan soldiers and militiamen headed for the front to engage in several fights against the British between June and October, but failed to regain Mt. Lungtog.

A memorial tablet was erected at Zongshan Hill to remind people of later generation of the Tibetan fight against Tibetan invaders.

The Second Anti-Britain Fight

As a result of this failure, the Central Government signed an unequal treaty with Britain in 1890 under which Sikkim became a protectorate of the British Empire and the British began demarcating and erecting border tablets. In 1893, the Central Government signed an annexation treaty with Britain on matters including mutual trade, regardless of Tibetan opposition. In accordance with the treaty, Tibet was required to reopen Yadong as a trading port, enabling Britain to further encroach on Tibet and control the Tibetan economy under the disguise of doing business. Due to the Tibetan people's firm opposition, however, none of the articles in the treaty was put into practice, which resulted in British second invasion to seek more benefits.

In June 1902, the British official White in Sikkim led 200 soldiers to Gyigang. Because of the intervention by Tsarist Russia, the troops had to retreat to India, at which time they plundered more than 5,000 sheep and 600 yaks from the Tibetan inhabitants.

The Tibetan government received a missive from the British government in July 1903, in which the latter required Tibetan delegates to be sent to Yadong to negotiate on border issues. The High Commissioner of the Qing Government soon dispatched He Guangxie and Gaxag representatives to Yadong, utterly ignorant of the fraudulent nature of the British claims. The leader of the British invading forces, General Younghusband, suddenly changed the place where the negotiations would be held, and wrote to the Gaxag to send representatives to Gangba Zong near the border with Sikkim to deal with matters relating to trade and border demarcation, with which the Gaxag complied. When they reached their destination, Younghusband and White had already placed six officials protected by 300 soldiers in Gangba Zong on July 11. In reality, all this was a mere stalling tactic adopted by Britain for the sake of preparing for the second invasion of Tibet.

Some 300 British invaders led by Younghusband and White made inroad into Gangba Zong. Picture shows the ruins of the Gangba Castle. YUAN XUEJUN

During the months of British occupation of Gangba Zong, they kept moving the borderline between Gangba Zong and Sikkim toward the Tibetan domain, and moreover, they had been scouting and photographing nearby areas. After having drawn the Tibetan government's attention to these activities, Younghusband abruptly withdrew his troops from Gangba Zong in October, looting more than 20,000 domestic animals from local herdsmen.

After the feint at Gangba Zong, the British invaders quickly assembled forces at Mt. Lungtog. On December 12, 1903, the British force of 3,000 soldiers headed by McDonald and Younghusband, together with the bearers who brought the total force up to 10,000 people, appeared at the pass of Chelilha Mountain and intruded into Yadong's Rengqengang and Chunpeitang (old customs posts), which controlled the Tang La Mountain mouth at Pali.

With Britain's occupation of Pali on December 21, they quartered in Pali Zong government office building, and detained the delegates from the Xigaze area for negotiations. Local residents rushed into the Pali Zong government office building with swords, sickles, and wooden sticks to rescue the delegates. Despite being shot, arrested or cauterized by hot irons, none of the Tibetans submitted to the enemy.

On January 4, 1904, Younghusband led a British force equipped with 400 rifles, two cannons and two machine guns to Duina Garwu where he encountered a Tibetan force of 200. From January 12 to February 7, the Tibetan representatives twice requested that Younghusband and his troops withdraw to Yadong for negotiation, which were declined unjustifiably.

Two opinions advocating force and peace emerged in the Gaxag government in the face of the imminent attack. Under pressure from those favoring war, more than 1,000 armed soldiers were sent by the Gaxag.

Two Tibetan army officers--Ladingser and Langserling--negotiating with the British on March 31, 1904 Younghusband (right and with hat) and interpreter (kneeling and speaking).

Under the guise of so-called negotiation, British military forces kept scouting nearby areas and were ready in March 1904 to intrude into Gyangze with sufficient of ammunition for prolonged operations. On March 21, McDonald and Younghusband led nine troops of 1,000 soldiers into the Garwu area with four cannons, machine guns and rifles. As the Tibetan soldiers and militiamen were guarding against invasion in the area, the British requested direct negotiations with Tibetan military representatives.

As the Tibetan party was receiving British representatives on March 31, British troops were stealthily moving into the Tibetan military position, which had been besieged during the negotiations. The British delegate claimed that, in order to show their mutual sincerity for peaceful settlement, the Tibetan leaders should command their soldiers to extinguish the fuses of their matchlock guns and remove the bullets, a request the Tibetans obeyed. But British soldiers reloaded their guns immediately. Younghusband endeavored to hold back the Tibetan commanders in the feigned negotiations, while McDonald instructed his troops to compel Tibetan soldiers to disarm. The British commander ordered his men to open fire after a British soldier was shot down when seizing the guns of the Tibetans. However, Tibetan soldiers awaiting orders were not able to start the harquebus, and the 'negotiations' ended in their death.

Over 1,400 Tibetan soldiers lost their lives and only 380 survived the slaughter.

As the British army moved to Gyangze, Tibetan people on the way organized spontaneous attacks. They held up the ammunition and food supplies of the British, blocked the flow of communications, destroyed traffic, and used their swords, spears and clubs to assist the fighting Tibetan forces. The enemy demolished Qamling Monastery and Gungming Monastery, and stripped the hillsides of trees for their fires.

A herder fighting the British invaders.

Zachang was an essential transit point for Gyangze, where there was a one kilometer long canyon with steep cliffs, deep gully and swift river currents. After learning on April 9, 1904 that British troops had already started for the canyon, 4,000 Tibetan soldiers assembled there, ready to protect Gyangze by using the natural defenses. 

At midday on April 9, the British vanguard comprising more than 30 cavalry was soundly defeated by the Tibetan warriors.

Heavy artillery was set up outside the canyon to bombard the hillsides. After six hours of arduous fighting, more than 280 enemy soldiers had been shot dead or wounded, and there were 150 casualties on the Tibetan side.

After British invaders breached Zachang on April 10, 1904, they occupied Shaogang the next day, and entered Gyangze. Most of the cavalry and infantry, together with Younghusband's headquarters, were stationed at Gyannglholing, and groups of soldiers were sent out for patrols and scouting at intervals.

The aggressors also resorted to summoning the leaders and owners of monasteries and manors of the Gyangze magistracy and nearby areas to surrender, but received no response.

After the invaders had been in Gyangze for less than one month, over 10,000 Tibetan soldiers congregated on the roads leading to Gyangze, Xigaze and Lhasa, preparing for battle.

During the first ten-day period of May, British troops dispatched 360 soldiers to raid the Tibetan position at Karula, which was on the way to Nanggarze. Though resisting staunchly, the Tibetans were defeated and fell back on Nanggarze.

Militia men gathered hailing from various parts of Tibet gathered in Gyangze after April 1904. Picture shows two of them.

Meanwhile, only 130 British soldiers were left at Gyangze. On May 3, more than 1,000 Tibetan soldiers attacked Palha under cover of night and struck a crushing blow. Younghusband was nearly killed in this attack. The British army had been at a disadvantage until the troops at Karula withdrew for reinforcement on May 7. A batch of reinforcements left Yadong for Gyangze on May 26 and reoccupied Palha. Tibetan soldiers' resistance crumbled with large numbers of casualties and the fall of Palha.

Younghusband had no alternative but to break through the tight encirclement with his 40 cavalry to seek help at Yadong on June 6, but was again intercepted on the way.

On June 13, reinforcements composing 2,300 soldiers and eight cannons led by McDonald and Younghusband marched to Gyangze, and reached Naining Monastery in Kangma County on the 25th., which formed a transport stronghold 20 kilometers south of Gyangze. A group of Qamdo militia of 300 soldiers and 500 monks and lay people constructed fortifications around Naining Monastery.

Having anticipated that the invaders were going to pillage cows and sheep, the militiamen in Kangma County organized their strongest members to wear camouflage of sheepskin jackets and lie among the flock of sheep at night and they killed 20-30 invaders at one swoop.

To ensure a clear transit, the invaders dispatched large numbers of infantry and cavalry on a day in late June to assault Naining Monastery from both the south and north. What is worse, they persecuted the monks and laypersons there.

Tibetan militiamen besieged Naining Monastery and made a sneak attack on the British soldiers, who failed to escape.

Before long, British troops mustered all their forces to occupy the mountain behind Zijing Monastery on the morning of June 28, destroying the main hall, nine other buildings and 60 monks' houses by cannon fire. Cultural relics in the monastery were ransacked by the aggressors, including more than 1,000 gilded copper Buddhist statues, which were 14 centimeters to 4 meters tall. Eventually, they burnt down the monastery.

British troops encircled Gyangze from the east, south and north, blocked the route to Lhasa and Xigaze, and cut off the water supply to Zongshan Hill in Gyangze, preparing for the assault on the city proper.

The 13th Dalai Lama sent representatives to Gyangze on July 1 to negotiate with Younghusband, who proposed that the Tibetan soldiers must retreat from Gyangze by July 5. On account of the Tibetan rejection of this idea, British troops started their attack on the city area of Gyangze on the morning of July 5.

Owning to the fierce resistance from Tibetan army, they suffered heavy casualties. When the stored water on the mountain was exhausted, the defenders let down someone with a rope to fetch foul water from below, and, when that source was drained, they even drank their own urine. But none of the Tibetan soldiers gave in. At the point when Tibetan troops had run out of ammunition and provisions, the British army launched a vigorous offensive. Some Tibetan soldiers broke through the enemy encirclement and shifted to Barkor Monastery to continue the fight. Those who didn't achieve a timely breakout continued to fight unarmed, and some even died for their country by jumping off the cliffs.

Shortly after the fall of Gyangze Zongshan Castle, Barkor Monastery became the next target, and large numbers of valuable cultural relics and Buddhist scriptures were looted. The major hall for worship was turned into a mess hall for the British army.

Having occupied Gyangze, the aggressors moved toward Lhasa from July 14. Karula Mountain was the necessary passage from Gyangze to Lhasa and was about 70 kilometers to the east of Gyangze, where some 1,000 Tibetan soldiers had constructed fortifications.

On July 17, British vanguard troops went into the ambush ring, resulting in many casualties. Aiming at sweeping away the obstacles to Lhasa, British troops paid dearly at Karub. Some Tibetan soldiers who had no time to retreat stood and fought among the mountains and rocks, and the remaining ones valiantly jumped off the cliffs.

Treaty of Lhasa

On July 19, British troops encountered resistance at Nanggarze after crossing Karula Mountain. The preponderant group favoring compromise among the Tibetan local authorities commanded a retreat and cessation of the fighting, and sent representatives to negotiate with the British army. Nevertheless, the invaders drove straight into Lhasa without considering the request.

The enemy crossed the river straightway on the last day of July, and occupied Lhasa on August 3, taking the aristocrats' houses and Potala Palace as their headquarters. The Tibetan troops with 3,000-5,000 soldiers that had withdrawn into eastern Tibet raided British army in squads cloaked by night.

Hated by the Lhasa people, and facing severe cold and the soldiers' lack of acclimatization, British military leaders requested a treaty from High Commissioner Youtai, who was a good-for-nothing and immediately compelled the Gaxag to comply with the British request.

The Gaxag had to sign a Treaty of Lhasa with British party on September 6, 1904, which comprised 10 articles, including requirements to open Gyangze and Gartog, in addition to Yadong, as trading posts; paying a war indemnity to the tune of 500,000 pounds, allowing the British army to station troops in Tibet; and qualifying Britain to enjoy the privileges on land, mineral rights and control of telecommunications. However, the Central Government rejected the traitorous treaty since it humiliated the nation's sovereignty, and cabled an order to Youtai on the 14th, requiring him not to sign. On September 23, 1904, the British invaders withdrew back to India, and the Qing Central Government did not sign on the treaty.

In the next year, the Beijing Treaty was signed as a result of mutual negotiation. It proscribed British intervention in Tibetan affairs, and stipulated that other than the Qing Central Government, no other country could have privileges to construct railroads, highways, set up facilities for telecommunications or exploit minerals.

The Tibetan fight against British invasion that occurred 100 years ago eventually ended in failure. But the outstanding achievements Tibetan people made in resisting imperialistic aggression have been recorded in the nation's history.

http://en.tibet.cn/history/tib/t20050309_14950.htm

Interview: British invasions probed as root cause of Tibetan separatism

www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-06 21:33:25

BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Tibet, a region coveted by western nations since the Opium War in the 1840s, has long been an inalienable part of Chinese territory and the Tibetans have been part of the big multi-national Chinese family. The so-called issue of "Tibet Independence," is originally an outcome of aggression by imperialist nations, said a Chinese expert.

Britain launched two invasions into Tibet, in 1888 and during 1903 and 1904, in an attempt to build up an exclusive colonial influence in the region. It also tried to separate Tibet from China and ultimately turn it into a "buffer zone" against British-controlled northern India.

"These two wars shall never be forgotten," said Hu Yan, a professor from the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

"You may tell those Tibet separatists that Chinese people will never forget history and it was imperialist nations that had invaded Tibet and had been trying to separate Tibet from China," he said.

FIRST INVASION: VIOLATION OF CHINESE SOVEREIGNTY

After the Opium War, Britain planned to build a road as a trade channel between China's southwestern Yunnan province and Myanmar in a move to scramble for more economic benefits in the region.

During the pre-construction research session in 1875, a translator named Augustus Raymond Margary from the British consulate in Shanghai was killed as a result of local protests. Britain grabbed the opportunity and managed to force the Chinese Qing government to sign the Chefoo Convention, which allowed the British to "visit and explore" Tibet.

Having realized the greedy nature of the British invaders, the local Tibetan government built heavy fortifications on Ling Tu mountain along the border between Tibet and Sikkim in 1886.

Britain, outraged and which allegedly claimed the fortified area within the British-controlled Sikkim territory, warned the Qing government of military action unless the defensive measures were dismantled in time. Having tried in vain with warnings, in 1888 Britain launched military attacks against Tibet. Tibetan troops were defeated largely due to their outdated weapons and shortage of supplies.

After the war, the Qing government signed two more unfair treaties with Britain in 1890 and 1893. As a result, the Qing government acknowledged that Sikkim remained under British control and accepted Britain's proposal of border divisions between Tibet and Sikkim.

The Qing government also agreed to open the southern Tibetan city of Yadong (Chomo) as a business hub where Britain was granted extraterritoriality and exempted from trade duties on both imports and exports and five years.

The unfair treaties not only violated China's sovereignty but also infringed the interests of the local Tibetan government.

In spite of the treaties signed, Tibetans continued to herd in their home pasture land. They even managed to destroy the border stones erected by Britain in an open protest against the border division and the unfair treaties.

SECOND INVASION: MASSACRE OF TIBETAN SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS

At a time when Britain used India as its staging ground to press ahead its invasion plan of Tibet, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau also became the target of aggression by czarist Russia.

Britain considered the Himalayas as the barrier of the Indian subcontinent and Tibet, located just on the other side of the mountains, should belong to Britain's sphere of influence.

If Tibet were to fall into the hands of Russia, British India would be completely exposed to the threat of Russia. Governor-General and Viceroy of British India Goerge Curzon believed that Britain should pursue the Forward Policy to preempt Russia in the scramble for control of Tibet.

In July 1901, Secretary of State for British India George Hamilton delivered a note to the Russian Foreign Ministry, claiming that Britain would not keep silent on the contacts between Russia and Tibet.

In a letter to Hamilton, Curzon even proclaimed that "We regard the so-called suzerainty of China over Tibet as a constitutional fiction -- a political affectation which has only been maintained because of its convenience for both parties." He urged the government to approve the plan of the British invasion of Tibet.

In 1903, under the name of negotiations, an invading army sent by the government of British India crossed the border line and intruded into Tibet.

Led by F.E. Young husband, the British Army went into Pagri through Yadong. On March 31, 1904, the invading troops clashed with Tibetan troops in Qumigxung, north of Pagri.

Armed with outdated weapons including swords, spears and matchlock guns, most of the 1000-odd Tibetan troops were injured or killed by the British troops, an old colonial power, with maxim guns and big guns, the most advanced weapons of the day.

This was the British imperialists' savage and impudent massacre of Tibetan soldiers and civilians.

Gyangze County fell twice, on April 11 and on July 6, 1904. On August 3, British troops invaded Lhasa, first time the ancient holy city was trampled under the iron heel of imperialists throughout the ages.

Days before the British invasion, the 13th Dalai Lama left the Potala Palace with a handful of his followers and fled to Outer Mongolia through China's Qinghai province.

The British invading troops withdrew from Lhasa in late September 1904, as supplies and communications could not be guaranteed.

Britain's two invasions in Tibet were blatant armed aggression, Hu said, adding that it has been the longest among all the aggressive activities launched by imperialists in Tibet.

ILL INTENTIONS, INTRIGUES NO SECRET

Britain expanded its influence in Tibet after the two wars of aggression, which also fostered a hotbed for the emergence of the pro-Britain upper-class elements of Tibet, Hu said.

After realizing that the plateau could not be conquered by armed forces, the Britain imperialists began to build up their influence in the upper-class elements of Tibet, instigating them to oppose the Chinese government in a bid to separate Tibet from China, bring it into the British sphere of influence and become its dependency as well as a buffer zone in protection of the northeastern border of British India, Hu said.

"This was an invasion," said Patrick French, a British scholar and author of "Young husband, the Last Great Imperial Adventurer," when talking about Great Britain's invasion of Tibet in 1999.

During a small workshop held in London in the Fall of 2003, a few British scholars including French reached consensus that robbery admittedly occurred in the Tibet war.

In his book "Duel In The Snows" published in 2004, British scholar Charles Allen points out that in order to become the first group of Europeans in that area, F. E. Young husband and his clique created all kinds of conspiracies and intrigues to cheat the public and the media.

These were the most commonly used despicable means by imperialists at the time. History is a mirror of reality. Anyone's attempt to agitate for "Tibetan independence", like the serious crimes of aggression against Tibet committed by imperialist powers in the past, is doomed to failure.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/06/content_7929882.htm

History status of Tibet

by: 2005-03-09 08:59:40

China is a unified multinational country. Tibet has since the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) been an inseparable part of China. Prior to the common era, the ancestors of the Tibetan people had contacts with the Han people living in the Central Plains of China. During the long years leading up to the seventh century the many tribes scattered on the Tibet Plateau gradually came together to form the Tibetan ethnic group.

Tubo Kingdom. Early in the seventh century China move into a new stage of its history. The Tang Dynasty (618-907) was a powerful and politically united regime that initially established order over the shifting and chaotic situation that had prevailed for more than 300 years in China. At the same time, the great Tibetan leader Songtsan Gambo brought together more than 10 separate tribes, an event commonly seen as marking the establishment of the Tubo Kingdom, making his capital in present-day Lhasa. songtsan Gambo had good relations with the Tang court and benefitted from the importation of Tang technologies (advanced for the day), and was influenced by Tang culture and politics. He twice sent ministers to the Tang Dynasty court requesting a member of the imperial family be given him in marriage and in 641 he married Princess Wencheng, a member of Emperor Taizong's family. Introduced into Tibet during this time were Chinese technologies for wine-making, grinding, and paper and ink making. Sons of the Tibetan aristocracy were and ink making. Sons of the Tibetan aristocracy were sent to the Tang capital Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) to study. Literati from the Tang court went to the Tibetan capital to handle communications with the emperor. During the reign of Songtsan Gambo political, economic and cultural relations between Tang and Tubo were friendly. Laudatory titles given King Songtsan Gambo by Emperor Gaozong include Commandant-escort, Commandery Prince of the Western Sea and Companion Prince.

This pattern of friendly relations established during the reign of Songtsan Gambo was carried on during the next two hundred years. In 710 the Tang Princess Jincheng was sent to Tibet to marry the Tubo King Tride Tsugtsen, accompanied by several tens of thousands of pieces of embroidered satin brocade, a variety of technical writings and various other useful items. Princess Jincheng later gave money to support Buddhist monks from Yutian (now in modern Xinjiang) and elsewhere on their trips to Tibet to build monasteries and translate sutras. She also requested that Chinese classical works such as The Book of Songs With Annotation by Mao Heng, The Book of Rites, Zuo Qiuming's Chronicles, and Xiao 'Tong's Literary Selections be sent to her from the Tang court.

In 821 King Chiri Pachen of Tibet three times sent envoys to Chang'an to discuss forming an alliance with the Tang Empire. Emperor Muzong ordered his prime minister to effect the alliance in a grand ceremony held in the western suburbs of the capital. The following year high-ranking representatives of the Tang court including Liu Yuanding were dispatched to Tibet to participate in a similar ceremony marking the alliance held in the eastern suburbs of Lhasa. representatives of the Tibetan king included his chief ministers.

This all occurred during the first and second years (822 and 823) of the Changqing reign of the Tang Dynasty, and accordingly has been called the "Changqing Alliance" by historians. The two parties agreed to "amity as though they were of one family" and to "treat their sacrificial alters as though they were one." An account of the alliance is recorded on three tablets, and the "Tang-Tubo Alliance Tablet," one of the three, still stands before the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa.

Division Within Tibet. Beginning around 842 the Tubo Kingdom broke up. Rival groups of misters and members of the royal family engaged in internecine struggle. Power was educed to the local level. This state of affairs continued for more than 400 years.

Tibet Became a Part of China in the Mid-13th Century. Early in the 13th century, the leader of the Mongolian people Genghis Khan established a Mongol Khanate north of China. In 1247 the Mongol Prince Godan invited Pandit Gonggar Gyancain, an eminent monk with the Sagya Sect, to a meeting in Liangzhou (modern Wuwei in Gansu Province). He offered the submission of Tibet to the Mongol Khanate and the acceptance of a defined local administrative system and in return the Sagya were given political power in Tibet. In 1271 the Mongolain conquerors took Yuan as the name of their dynasty. In 1279 following their defeat of the Song they completed their unification of all of China. The newly united Central Government continued control over Tibet, including it as an administrative unit directly governed by the Chinese Yuan Dynasty Central Government.

In 1260, when Kublai Khan (1215-1294) ascended the throne, he conferred the title State Tutor on Gonggar Gyaincain's nephew Pagba, Prince of the Dharma of the Sagya order. In 1264 Kublai Khan established toe Zongzhi (General) Council in charge of Buddhist affairs with Pagba at its head. Dit was renamed Xuanzheng (Political) Council. Under it was the Pacification Commission Chief Military Command responsible for handling military and government affairs over a large part of what is now Tibet. Below this level were Wan Hu Fu (10,000 household office) and Qian Hu Fu (1,000 household office) in charge of civil administration. In 1265 Kublai Khan honored Pagba with the titles of Great Treasure Prince of Dharma and Imperial Tutor. Following Pagba's recommendations he appointed an official for the overall management of Tibetan affairs and heads for d13 Wan Hu Fu. In d1268, 1287 and 1334 the Yuan Central Government sent officials to check on the Tibetan population. Fifteen staging posts were set up linking communications between Tibet and the Yuan capital Dadu (present-day Beijing). in addition, the Ula conscript labor system was established and promoted in Tibet.

Subsequent Central Governments' Jurisdiction over Tibet. Since Tibet formally came under the control of the Yuan court in mid-13th century, China has seen changes of dynasty and many changeovers in the central authority, but Tibet has always remained under the Chinese Central Government's jurisdiction. During the mid-14th century the Sagya government gradually declined. The Pagmo Gagyu Sect headed by Qamqoi Gyaincain came to power, following the system of temporal and religious administration. Yuan rulers accepted the fact and gave Qamqoi Gyaincaion the title Grand Minister of Education. With the overthrow of the Yuan and the founding of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, a policy whereby titles were widely conferred was put into effect. The head of any religious sects who could claim local political power was given an honorary title such as "Prince," "Prince of Dharma" or "Abhisecana State Tutor" ("A bhisecana" being a Buddhist ceremony wherein a student's initiation is acknowledged by his teacher sprinkling water on his head). Succession to the throne was subject to approval by the Chinese emperor who would dispatch officials to deliver certificate acknowledging the title. During this time, the Gelug (Yellow) Sect, which recognized two great Living Buddhas, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, was gaining in prominence. The 3rd Dalai Lama Soinam Gyatso paid tributes to the Ming court and in return was given the title of DorjeChang Vajra Holder. The Ming government followed Yuan Dynasty practices regards Tibet. It esablished the U-Tsang and the Gargain garrison command headquarters and the Olisi Military-Civil Governor's Office respectively to manage the military and political affairs in the Central and Western Tibet, Qamdo and Ngari. During this time, the Tibetan government established the dzongpon system in parts of Tibet. The administrative heads of each dzong (an administrative unit about the size of a county) were recognized by the Ming court as dzongpon (county magistrate).

In 1644, the Qing Dynasty overthrew the Ming. The new central power increased control over, bringing increased systemization and an expanded legal framework. Qing Emperor Shunhi on several occasions invited the 5th Dalai Lama to beijing, and in 1652 he did so. In 1653 the emperor gave the Dalai Lama a gold-leaf certificate of appointment and gold seal of authority formally recognizing his status as the Dalai Lama. In 1713 Emperor Kangxi similarly honored the 5th Panchen lama Lobsang Yeshe formally recognizing him as Panchen Erdeni. Beginning around this time the Dalai Lama based in Lhasa ruled over the greater part of Tibet and the Panchen Lama based in Xigaze ruled over the remainder. In 1727 the Qing court appointed a resident Commissioner (Amban) as a Central Government representative in Tibet to oversee Tibet's administrative affairs. Tibet's borders with Sichuan, Yunnan and Qinghai were formally surveyed and fixed at this time. In 1721 the Qinghai were formally surveyed and fixed at this time. In 1721 the Qing Central Government established the Galoon (Ministers of Council) system in Tibet. In 1750 the Tibetan administrative system was reformulated and the "commandery prince" system was eliminated. The Tibetan local government (Gaxag) was founded with the Amban and the Dalai Lama together handling Tibetan affairs. In 1793 the Qing government issued the famous 29-Article Ordinance for the More Efficient Governing of Tibet, dealing with the authority of the Amban, the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama and other important Living Buddhas, frontier defence, relations with the outside world, finance and tax revenues, minting and administration of currency, and the support and administration of monasteries. The basic principles formulated in the 29Article Ordinance remained the standard for the administrative and legal systems in Tibet for more than the next hundred years.

The Revolution of 1911 which toppled the Qing Dynasty led to the founding of the Republic of China, a multi-ethnic, unified country where peoples of the Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan and other ethnic groups lived harmoniously. The Central Government continued jurisdiction over Tibet as it had in the three previous dynasties. In 1912 the Bureau for the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs (in 1914 renamed the Council for the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs)was set up chiefly to manage Tibetan affairs and a resident official dispatched to Tibet. The Nanjing Nationalist Government came to power in 1927 and two years later it set up the Commission for the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs to oversee administration of the areas inhabited by Tibetans, Mongolians and other ethnic minorities. In 1940 the Nationalist government set up the Lhasa Office of the Commission for the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs in Lhasa to function as the Central Government's standing body in Tibet. The Tibetan government frequently sent officials to participate in the Republic's National Congress. The Republic suffered from incessant foreign aggression and frequent internal disturbances. But despite the fragility of the Central Government the Dalai and Panchen lamas continued to accept its official recognition of their positions, receiving legal status in their political and religious roles in Tibet. The 14th Dalai Lama Dainzin Gyamco came to power in Tibet with the approval of the president of the Nationalist Government.

The founding of New Tibet. In 1949 the People's Republic of China was founded. Proceeding in cognizance of Tibet's history and present reality, the Central People's Government determined a policy of peaceful liberation. On May 23, 1951, representatives form the Central People's Government and the local government of Tibet agreed on a series of issues regarding Tibet's peaceful liberation, signing the Agreement of the central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (known as the 17-Article Agreement). The 17-Article Agreement contains two main points. First, the Central Government demanded that the Tibetan local government actively assist the People's Liberation Army as they entered and garrisoned Tibet to strengthen national defence and resolutely drive imperialist forces out of Tibet. All of Tibet's affairs involving the outside world were to be handled by the Central Government and the Tibetan army would step by step be absorbed into the People's Liberation Army. Second, the Central People's Government would not alter Tibet's current system or the Dalai Lama's inherent status and authority. The Tibetan people's customs would be respected and their religious freedom protected. The reform of Tibetan society would be decided after consultation with Tibetan leaders. Regional autonomy for minority people would be instituted in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The 14th Dalai Lama and the 10th Panchen Erdeni separately telegraphed their acceptance of the 17-Article Agreement to Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central People's Government, resolutely upholding the unity of the motherland's sovereignty. Other Tibetans, monastic and secular, and local Tibetan leaders expressed their firm support as well. This date marks a new page in Tibetan history.

In 1954 the 14th Dalai Lama and the 10th Panchen Erdeni went to Beijing to attend the first session of the First National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China. During this conference, the 14th Dalai Lama was elected as vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and the 10th Panchen Erdeni member of the NPC Standing Committee.

In 1956, the Preparatory Committee for the Founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region was founded with the 14th Dalai Lama as its chairman.

In March 1959, the majority of the Galoon officials in the Tibetan local government joined with the reactionary clique of the upper social strata to launch an armed rebellion with the aim of splitting the country, preserving the feudal serf system and opposing democratic reform. The Central People's Government ordered the PLA in Tibet resolutely to quell the rebellion. On March 28 of the same year, Zhou Enlai, Premier of the State Council of the Central People's Government, released order dissolving the Tibetan local government, and declaring that the functions and authority of the Tibetan local government would be vested in the preparatory Committee for the Founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region. At this same time, the Central People's Government, responding to the will of the Tibetan people, implemented democratic reform and abolished the feudal serf system in Tibet. As a result, the million serfs and slaves in Tibet stood up and came into their own, instead of being treated as the private property of serf-owners that could be traded, transferred or used to pay off a debt in kind or by labor. After a few years of steady development, the Tibet autonomous Region was formally founded in September 1965.

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The Tibetans first settled along the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet. Evidence of the new and old stone age culture was found in archaeological excavations at Nyalam, Nagqu, Nyingchi and Qamdo. According to ancient historical documents, members of the earliest clans formed tribes known as Bos in the Shannan area. In the 6th century, the chief of the Yarlung tribe in the area became leader of the local tribal alliance and declared himself the Zambo (king). This marked the beginning of Tibetan slavery society and its direct contacts with the Han people and other ethnic groups and tribes in northwest China.

At the beginning of the 7th century, King Songzan Gambo began to rule the whole of Tibet and made Losha (today's Lhasa) the capital. He designated official posts, defined military and administrative areas, created the Tibetan script, formulated laws and unified weights and measures, thus establishing the slavery kingdom known as Bo, which was called Tubo in Chinese historical documents.

After the Tubo regime was established, the Tibetans increased their political, economic and cultural exchanges with the Han and other ethnic groups in China. The Kingdom of Tibet began to have frequent contacts with the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Tibetan and Han peoples got on well with each other. In 641, King Songzan Gambo married Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty. In 710, King Chide Zuzain married another Tang princess, Jin Cheng. The two princesses brought with them the culture and advanced production techniques of Central China to Tibet. From that time on, emissaries traveled frequently between the Tang Dynasty and Tibet. The Tibetans sent students to Changan, capital of the Tang Dynasty, and invited Tang scholars and craftsmen to Tibet. These exchanges helped promote relations between the Tibetans and other ethnic groupss in China and stimulated social development in Tibet.

From the 10th to 12th century, Tibet fell apart into several independent regimes and began to move towards serfdom. It was at this time that Buddhism was adapted to local circumstances by assimilating certain aspects of the indigenous religion, won increasing numbers of followers and gradually turned into Lamaism. Consisting of many different sects and spread across the land, Lamaism penetrated into all spheres of Tibetan life. The upper strata of the clergy often collaborated with the rich and powerful, giving rise to a feudal hierarchy combining religious and political power and controlled by the rising local forces.

The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) founded by the Mongols in the 13th century brought the divided Tibet under the unified rule of the central government. It set up an institution called Xuanzhengyuan (or political council) and put it in charge of the nation's Buddhist affairs and Tibet's military, governmental and religious affairs.

Phagsba, a Tibetan lama, was given the title of imperial tutor and appointed head of the council. The Yuan court also set up three government offices to govern the Tibetan areas in northwest and southwest China and Tibet itself. The central government set up 13 Wanhu offices (each governing 10,000 households) in Inner and Outer Tibet east of Ngari. It also sent officials to administer civil and military affairs, conduct census, set up courier stations and collect taxes and levies. Certificates for the ownership of manors were issued to the serf owners and documents given to local officials to define their authority. This marked the beginning of the central authorities' overall control of Tibet by appointing officials and instituting the administrative system there.

The ensuing Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) carried over the Tusi (headmen) system in the Tibetan areas in northwest and southwest China. In Tibet proper, three sect leaders and five secular princes were named. These measures ensured peace and stability in the Tibetan areas during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and the feudal economy there developed and culture and art flourished. Tibet's contacts with other parts of the country became more frequent and extensive.

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the last monarchy in China, set up a government department called Lifanyuan to administer affairs in Tibet and Mongolia. In Tibet, the Qing emperor conferred the titles of the Dalai Lama (1653) and Bainqen Erdini (1713) on two living Buddhas of the Gelugba sect of Lamaism. The Qing court began to appoint a high resident commissioner to help with local administration in 1728, and set up the Kasha as the local government in 1751. In 1793, the Qing army drove the Gurkhas invaders out of Tibet and formulated regulations concerning its administration.

The regulations specified the civil and military official appointment systems and institutions governing justice, border defense, finance, census, corvee service and foreign affairs, establishing the high commissioners' terms of reference in supervising Tibetan affairs.

In other areas inhabited by Tibetans in northwest and southwest China, the Qing court continued the Tusi (headmen) system established by the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and put them under the administration of the Xining Commissioner's office (established in 1725) and the Sichuan governor (later the Sichuan-Yunnan border affairs minister).

After the Republic of China was founded in 1911, the central government set up a special department to administer Mongolian and Tibetan affairs. In 1929, the Kuomintang government set up a commission for Mongolian and Tibetan affairs in Nanjing and established Qinghai Province. In 1939, Xikang Province was set up. The Tibetan areas in northwest and southwest China, except Tibet, were placed under the administration of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Xikang and Yunnan provinces respectively.

After the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921, its central committee clearly stated in its Agrarian Revolution Program that the feudal privileges of Tibetan princes and Lamas would be abolished. During its Long March northward to fight the Japanese invaders, the Chinese Worker and Peasant Red Army passed through Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Xikang, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai, where they mobilized the poor Tibetans to carry out land reform and establish democratic political power of the laboring people. Areas inhabited by Tibetans were liberated one after another after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Tibet proper was liberated peacefully in 1951.

http://en.tibet.cn/history/his/t20050309_14413.htm

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The Feudal Serf System in Tibet Before 1959

A Society Based on a Regime that Combined the Political and Religious Powers, and Divided People into Three Strata and Nine Grades

Tibet before 1959 had a society of feudal serfdom. Along with the general characteristics of feudal serfdom, there were many remnants of slavery. This social system was more cruel and reactionary than serfdom in Europe in the Middle Ages. The serf-owners' economic interests were protected by a political system that combined political and religious powers, ruling over the Tibetan people spiritually as well as politically. The local government of Tibet (in Tibetan, Kashag, and meaning "the institute that issues orders") was composed of powerful and influential monks and aristocrats. It upheld a series of social, political and legal institutions that rigidly stratified society. The Thirteen Laws and The Sixteen Laws divided the Tibetan people into three strata in nine grades according to their family background and social status.

- The Organization of the Tibetan Regime

- Rigidly Stratified Tibetan Society

- The Social Strata Stipulated in Tibetan Local Codes

- The Structure of Tibetan Society

http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/2-1.htm

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The Feudal Lords' Ownership of Means of Production

The monasteries, officialdom and the aristocrats owned all the arable land and pastures as well as overwhelming majority of livestock. These means of production were granted to them by the Dalai Lama. They had the right to govern and inherit the land.

- The Feudal Lords' Ownership of Means of Production

http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/2-2.htm

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The Serfs' Economic Burden

Taxes and levies in Tibetan areas included land rent, stock rent, corvee and taxes.

The main form of land rent was forced labor. In addition, there was a mixed form of land rent, which was paid in kind, forced labor and cash.

The manorial lords generally kept 70 percent of their land under their own management and rented out the rest to their serfs as thralkang land. The serf tenants of the thralkang land also had to till the land managed by the manorial lord, using their own farm animals and tools. The entire harvest on land managed by the manorial lords belonged to them alone.

The serfs had to do corvee for manorial lords and local government and pay taxes in kind and cash. Corvee duties were allotted by the local government.

There were two kinds of stock rent: paid in animal products to the manorial lords according to the original number of livestock rented from them, or in products according to the actual number of livestock.

Other taxes included land tax, corvee tax, and countless others.

- Convee

- Usury

http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/2-4.htm

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The Oppression of the Serfs by Manorial Lords

In Tibet under the serfdom, not only did the local regime at various levels, set up judicial institutions, but the big monasteries, manorial lords and tribal chieftains could also judge cases and had their own private prisons.

If the serfs stood up against the manorial lords, violated the law or could not pay rent or taxes in time, the lords would punish them according to the Thirteen Laws or other laws. They used such inhuman tortures as gouging out the eyes, cutting off the feet or hands, pushing the condemned person down from cliff, drowning, beheading, etc

- The Oppression of the Serfs by Manorial Lords

http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/2-5.htm

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The Serfs' Miserable life

The wealth of the society was highly concentrated in Tibet before 1959. More than 80 percent was possessed by the manorial lords and less than 20 percent belonged to the serfs, who accounted for 95 percent of the population. The masses of serfs lived in extreme poverty.

- The Serfs' Miserable life

http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/2-6.htm

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Some statistics about serfdom in Tibet

Many statistics and data show that in Tibet before 1959, production stagnated, the population of the Tibetan nationality diminished, epidemic diseases prevailed, the people lived in misery and society as a whole developed very slowly. The facts cited above give a broad outlines.

- Some statistics about serfdom in Tibet

http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/2-7.htm

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Conclusion

Over a long period of historical development, the Tibetan nationality has created a brilliant culture and made outstanding contributions to the formation and development of China as a multinational unified country.

The feudal serf system of Tibet seriously hindered the progressive development of the Tibetan society. In 1959 under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, through the efforts of the Tibetan people serfdom was abolished and Tibet embarked on the socialist road. Over the past thirty and more years, Tibet has seen drastic changes, Population and production have grown, society has become stable, living standards have been rapidly raised, and education and science and technology are prospering.

http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/index.html

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Recollection of 100-Year History of Zongshan in Gyangze

Yadong is not very far from Sikkim and is well known since it was the place through which the British colonial army had to pass while invading Tibet on two occasions.

Sikkim was occupied by the Great Britain early in the 19th century and became an Indian state in 1975.

Early in 1887, the British colonialists initiated the first invasion of Tibet on the excuse that the Tibetan government built a barbette to hinder trade. Tibetan soldiers and people strove to fight against the enemy and engaged in the Battle of Lungtushan from February 7th to 10th, but finally lost Lungtushan and Ngatang in succession. The British army marched on to the north and began to attack Nyianladona on June 12th. But they were encountered hard resistance from Tibetan soldiers and people and the battle continued into October. However, the Court of the Qing Dynasty deprived Wen Shu, who had helped the Tibetan army to fight against the enemy, of his position as High Commissioner, and ordered the other commissioner, Sheng Tai, to negotiate peace with the British army. This resulted in the loss of large tracts of Chinese territory.

Part of oil painting: Resisting British invaders in Gyangze.

NGABO

In Yadong, I met once Bema Gyibo (which symbolizes the king of peony), aged 83, who is a Tibetan hero and once participated in the war against the British colonialists. He was in sound health and told us about the situation in the hard war against the British when the Tibetan army only had the most inferior weapons.

In July 1981, Jambian Gyaco and I went in the reverse direction along the route once used by the British army to invade Tibet, and found many relics of the war. Among them, Zongshan of Gyangze is the most integrated. We deliberately stayed for two days at Gyangze and visited Zongshan Castle in particular.

Zongshan was once the location of the government of Gyangze County and is a group of castles located on a solitary hill in the urban area. It is grand and splendid and it is easy to defend while being difficult to attack. Gyangze is well known as a Hero Town, because Tibetan soldiers and people once took part in a fierce battle to defend it.

In 1903, the British army used the delay of negotiations with the central government of Qing Dynasty as an excuse to initiate the second invasion of Tibet and its commander said it is impossible to solve the problem without coming to Lhasa. From December 12th, the British army began to march north. On March 21st 1904, the Tibetan army and people who had taken many opportunities of negotiations without any result initiated a large-scale battle against the enemy in the Qumeixiankuang area, which resulted in a bitter defeat. More than 1,400 Tibetan soldiers died or were injured. From April 11th, after the British army occupied Gyangze, Tibetan soldiers and people held their ground at Zongshan. They sometimes attacked the enemy and sometimes defended resolutely. This battle lasted for over 80 days and nights until July 6th, when Zongshan was finally occupied. In this period, they sufficiently showed their bravery, faithfulness and wisdom and once compelled the British army to ask for reinforcements from India. If the Tibetan powder store on mountain had not exploded by accident, this battle would have lasted longer. The battle resulted in the death of four heroes who jumped down the cliff facing Baiju Monastery. Their deed will even move the heart of the gods!

At that time, the British army had foot soldiers, cavalry, sappers, good logistics and even hospitals. They were equipped with various weapons such as cannon, mountain artillery, machinegun and over 2,700 rifles. Meanwhile, the Tibetan army was equipped with primitive weapons, such as broadsword, pike, crabstick, rolling log, stones and harquebus. People could not help recalling the great disparity in the battle strength between Yihetuan and the Eight-Nation Imperialist Allied Force years earlier.

One week after the occupation of Zongshan, the British army marched north and entered Lhasa on August 3rd. On September 6th, the British army compelled the Chinese side to accept the Lhasa Convention, although Qing High Commissioner You Tai rejected signing it under orders. On September 23rd, the British army returned to India.

Several men of letters who once worked in Tibet have dabbled in the historical documentation of this period. Early in the 1950s, Wei Ke collected many stories about the fighting against the British colonialists along the roads and composed and printed Unyielding Tibetan People. This book totals at 27 pages without any appendix.

In the mid-1950s, Liu Ke, a writer, created a film script "Gun Sound in 1904" which was published in "People's Literature", but it was a pity that he did not take any photos. Early in the 1960s, Gao Ping created the "Old Castle" totaling thousands of lines. The manuscript was regained after being lost in the Cultural Revolution and was eventually published. In the mid- 1980s, Jambian Gyaco, a Tibetan writer, published a full-length novel The 13th Dalai Lama that focused on the fight against the British in 1904, as well as a film Red River Valley on the same subject.

On the evening of December 16th 2003, I was standing on a sightseeing ship in Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong.

The seawater was dyed bright by lights of Hong Kong. It seems that the history still dips in the sea bottom. The British fleet once entered Hong Kong from here and, when Hong Kong returned to the motherland, the British colonialist organs also withdrew from here. I could not help recalling the British colonialist's deeds in Tibet long ago. For several centuries, colonialists and imperialists expanded so much and caused so much bloodshed and tears in the history of bitterness of Chinese people.

We cannot forget the history forever if for no other reason than to ensure such things never happen again.

http://en.tibet.cn/history/tib/t20050310_15315.htm

Tibetan Gyangze Anti-British Battle

by: 2005-03-10 08:52:41

The crudely fashioned gun used by Tibetan soldiers

Gyangze castle

The massacre monument of Chu gig Gzhung sgo

In 1888, the British Empire launched an invasion war named Mount Lungthur
Battle in China's Tibet for the first time. Mount Lungthur fell into enemy hands. The British force seized Mount Lungthur area and Natang area.

In July, 1903, the British Empire sent Rong Hepeng to lead ten thousand of army, directed by Major General Mcdonald, and started second large-scale military aggression to China's Tibet. On December 12, British army crossed Zelila Mountain and on 13th stationed Renjin. On 21st they seized Pagri area. In January, 1904, England seized more places in Tibet. The battle spear pointed straight to Gyangze. From this time on, the second Anti-British Battle started in Gyangze.

In 1961, Gyangze Zongshan Anti-British Battle site was listed as a national level Cultural Relic Preservation Unit by the State Council. It already became the educational site for the cadre staffs and the young people. In 1994 Tibet Autonomous Region selected it as Gyangze anti-British Battle educational base for the young people. In 1997 Chinese External Affair Department listed it as one of hundred national patriotic education bases.

Gyangze Zongshan Anti-British Battle site as a witness of unyielding fight against foreign aggression will stand still in southwest border of China

http://en.tibet.cn/history/tib/t20050310_15316.htm

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