The
History Guy
Tibet is a mountainous region located between
India, China, and Nepal. Tibetan history, as a
separate and independent country, dates back at
least to the early 7th century, with the
establishment of the Tibetan Kingdom. Modern Tibet
gained independence from the Manchu Chinese Empire
in 1911, and enjoyed independence until the
Communist Chinese invasion of 1950-1951. Tibetans are a Buddhist people, and the lure of
this faith is so powerful in Tibet that the secular
leader of Tibet since the late 1500s has been the
primary Tibetan Buddhist religious leader, known as
the Dalai Lama (meaning "Ocean of Wisdom"). Relations between Tibet and China have been
often hostile, sometimes friendly, since the two
nations first made contact in the 700s. At times,
both Tibet and China came under the domination of
foreign conquerors. In the 1200s, the Mongol
warlord, Genghis Khan and his heirs ruled Tibet and
China, and beginning in the 1600s, both Tibet and
China came under the influence of the Manchu
Empire. The Manchu ruled China from 1644 until the
Chinese Revolution of 1911, and began to gain
influence in Tibet in the 1720s. When the Chinese
Revolution took place in 1911, ending the Manchu
Empire, the people of Tibet rose up against the
Imperial troops in Lhasa and regained
independence. Below is a partial listing of wars and conflicts
between Tibet and China. It should be noted that
the several conflicts from 1911 into the 1930s were
attempts by Tibet to throw off Manchu/Chinese
domination and to reclaim ethnic Tibetan territory
occupied by the Chinese. 670--War between Tibet and the T'ang dynasty
of China. Following this war, Tibetan influence
in the Central Asian trade routes grows. 1207- Tibet surrenders to Mongol ruler,
Genghis Khan, who also conquered China, as well as
many other nations. 1903-1904- British Invasion of Tibet 1911-1913--Tibetan Uprising --During the
anti-Manchu Chinese Revolution, Tibetans revolt and
force out the Manchu Chinese garrison. The
surviving Chinese troops evacuate Tibet by way of
British India. 1918--Sino-Tibetan War-- China, having
never accepted Tibet's independence, sent troops
into eastern Tibet in 1918. This conflict is
considered as a stalemate, and ended due to British
diplomacy. 1930-1932--Sino-Tibetan War--A Tibetan
army attacked Sichuan Province in China, which was
at the time ruled by a warlord named Liu Wen-Hui.
China was at the time divided among dozens of
"Warlords" who often fought amongst themselves as
well as against the central Chinese government. Liu
Wen-Hui battled the Tibetans for several years,
sometimes with the aid of other warlords, such as
the Qinghai province's warlord Ma Bu-Fang. A peace
agreement was finally signed in 1932, setting
Tibet's eastern border at the Yangtze River. 1950-1951--Chinese Communist invasion and
occupation of Tibet. The subsequent occupation
and consolidation of Communist control over the
Buddhist kingdom resulted in the destruction of
thousands of Buddhist temples and the deaths of at
least tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and other
Tibetan civilians. 1956-1959-Tibetan Revolt--Khampa rebels
in eastern Tibet rebelled against Communist Chinese
rule. Up to 20,000 Tibetan guerrillas battled the
Chinese army. By March, 1959, the situation in the
capital city of Lhasa had deteriorated as tens of
thousands of Chinese troops occupied the city and
made preparations for an attack on the Dalai Lama's
palace and his guard force. On March 17, 1959,
after two Chinese mortar shells landed near his
palace, the 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa with
his bodyguards and headed into exile in neighboring
India. In Lhasa, the Chinese troops attacked the
Dalai Lama's palace, killing thousands of Tibetan
civilians who had encircled the palace to prevent
the Chinese from seizing their spiritual leader.
Over the next several days, severe urban warfare
played out in the Tibetan capital, as the Chinese
consolidated their control over the city, killing
thousands of rebels and civilians. Many Tibetan
monks and civil leaders were publicly executed. Since the Chinese takeover of Tibet, in addition
to the acts of brutality against the native
population and the religious leaders, Chinese
policy has led to a large influx of ethnic Chinese
into Tibet. This is termed by many as a form of
"Demographic Genocide," with the Chinese culture
beginning to supplant the native Tibetan
culture. 1956-1974-Chushi Gandrug Resistance
Movement--The American Central Intelligence
Agency aided Tibetan rebels from 1956 through 1974,
when China and the U.S. began to re-establish
relations. The Tibetan guerrillas used
American-supplied weapons and training to wage a
war of resistance to the Communist occupying army.
After American aid ended in the early 1970s, the
surviving rebels fled to Nepal, where they were
wiped out by Nepalese security forces. March/April, 2008--Tibetan protests
against Chinese occupation gain the attention of
the world media, in part because China is the host
of the 2008 Olympics. Copyright
© 1998-2008 Roger A. Lee; Last Modified:
04.17.08 Please
cite this source when appropriate: Lee,
R. "The History Guy: Wars and Conflicts Between
Tibet and China" http://www.historyguy.com/tibet_china_wars_conflicts.html "The
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Chronology of Tibet's
History--From
PBS The
History/Background of
Tibet Brief
History of
Tibet--from
Friends of Tibet.org CIA's
Secret War in
Tibet--An
article from
HistoryNet History
leading up to March 10th
1959--From
the Tibetan Government in
Exile Media,
Blogger, and Opinion
Pieces: China
will hold on to Tibet: US
security think
tank-April
17, 2008--Times of India article,
commenting on how China will
not/cannot let go of Tibet for
strategic reasons. China:
more sour than
sweet-March
20, 2008--by John Birmingham,
author and social critic.
Birmingham reminds readers the
Chinese occupation of Tibet is
more accurately seen as a brutal,
amoral Communist act of
repression. SOURCES: 3.
Steems, Peter and William L. Langer.,
ed. An
Encyclopedia of World History.
Boston,
Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin,
2002. 4.
Banks, Arthur S., ed.
Political
Handbook of the
World
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1.
Kohn, George C.
Dictionary
of Wars.
New York: Facts On File Publications.
1986.
