Why should anyone,
especially you, care about Tibet?
Until 1949, Tibet was an independent
Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with
the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse
of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism. Religion
was a unifying theme among the Tibetans -- as was their own
language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at
high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their
environment.
The Dalai Lama, an individual said to be
an incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion, had been both the
political and spiritual leader of the country. The current Dalai
Lama (the 14th) was only 24 years old when this all came to an
end in 1959. The Communist Chinese invasion in 1950 led to years
of turmoil, that culminated in the complete overthrow of the
Tibetan Government and the self-imposed exile of the Dalai Lama
and 100,000 Tibetans in 1959.
Since that time over a million Tibetans
have been killed. With the Chinese policy of resettlement of
Chinese to Tibet, Tibetans have become a minority in their own
country. Chinese is the official language. Compared to pre-1959
levels, only 1/20 monks are still allowed to practice, under the
government's watch. Up to 6,000 monasteries and shrines have
been destroyed. Famines have appeared for the first time in
recorded history, natural resources are devastated, and wildlife
depleted to extinction. Tibetan culture comes close to being
eradicated there.
Peaceful
demonstrations/protests/speech/writings by nuns, monks, and
Tibetan laypeople have resulted in deaths and thousands of
arrests. These political prisoners are tortured and held in
sub-standard conditions, with little hope of justice. Unless we
can all take part and recognize Tibet's loss as our own, the
future looks grim.
Some Startling Facts
1. The peaceful buddhist country of Tibet
was invaded by Communists China in 1949. Since that time, over
1.2 million out of 6 Tibetans have been killed, over 6000
monastaries have been destroyed, and thousands of TIbetans have
been imprisoned.
2. In Tibet today, there is no freedom of
speech, religion, or press and arbitrary dissidents continue.
3. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's political and
spiritual leader, fled to India in 1959. He now lives among over
100,000 other Tibetan refugees and their government in exile.
4. Forced abortion, sterilization of
Tibetan women and the transfer of low income Chinese citizens
threaten the survival of Tibet's unique culture. In some Tibetan
provinces, Chinese settlers outnumber Tibetans 7 to 1.
5. Within China itself, massive human
rights abuses continue. It is estimated that there up to twenty
million Chinese citizens working in prison camps.
6. Most of the Tibetan plataeu lies above
14,000 feet. Tibet is the source of five of Asia's greatest
rivers, which over 2 billion people depend upon. Since 1959, the
Chinese government estimates that they have removed over $54
billion worth of timber. Over 80% of their forests have been
destroyed, and large amoutns nuclear and toxic waste have been
disposed of in Tibet.
7. Despite these facts and figures, the US
government and US corporations continue to support China
economically. This shows their blatant lack of respect for these
critical issues of political and religious freedom and human
rights.
Yes, things are bad, but you may still
ask, why Tibet? There are hundreds of other countries in which
equal or worse environmental and human rights devistation has
occured. Why Tibet? Tibet can be used as the catalyst for change
in human rights, womens rights, political, religious and
cultural freedom across the globe. Through a concerted effort,
the citizens of Earth can stand up and say "NO!" to the
corporations and governments that continue to abuse it's people
and misuse it's resources. The struggles in Tibet are symbolic
for every human rights struggle. Please, get involved. There is
only a limited time left until there will longer be a Tibet to
save.
Early History
Although the history of the Tibetan state
started in 127 B.C., with the establishment of the Yarlung
Dynasty, the country as we know it was first unified in the 7th
Century A.D., under King Songtsen Gampo and his successors.
Tibet was one of the mightiest powers of Asia for the three
centuries that followed, as a pillar inscription at the foot of
the Potala Palace in Lhasa and Chinese Tang histories of the
period confirm. A formal peace treat concluded between China and
Tibet in 821/823 demarcated the borders between the two
countries and ensured that, "Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet
and Chinese shall be happy in China."
Mongol Influence
As Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire expanded
towards Europe in the West and China in the East in the 13th
Century, Tibetan leaders of powerful Sakya school of Tibetan
Buddhism concluded an agreement with the Mongol rulers in order
to avoid the conquest of Tibet. The Tibetan Lama promised
political loyalty and religious blessings and teachings in
exchange for patronage and protection. The religious
relationship became so important that when, decades later,
Kublai Khan conquered China and established the Yuan Dynasty
(1279-1368), he invited the Sakya Lama to become the Imperial
Preceptor and supreme pontiff of his empire.
The relationship that developed and
continued to exist into the 20th Century between the Mongols and
Tibetans was a reflect of the close racial, cultural, and
especially religious affinity between the two Central Asian
peoples. The Mongol Empire was a world empire and, whatever the
relationship between its rulers and the Tibetans, the Mongols
never integrated the administration of Tibet and China or
appended Tibet to China in any manner.
Tibet broke political ties with the Yuan
emperor in 1350, before China regained its independence from the
Mongols. Not until the 18th Century did Tibet again come under a
degree of foreign influence.
Relations with Manchu, Gorkha and
British Neighbors
Tibet developed no ties with Chinese Ming
Dynasty (1386-1644). On the other hand, the Dalai Lama, who
established his sovereign rule over Tibet with the help of a
Mongol patron in 1642, did develop close religious ties with the
Manchu emperors, who conquered China and established the Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911). The Dalai Lama agreed to become the
spiritual guide of the Manchu emperor, and accepted patronage
and protection in exchange. This "priest-patron" relationship
(known in Tibetan as
Choe-Yoen), which the Dalai Lama also maintained with some
Mongol princes and Tibetan nobles, was the only formal tie that
existed between the Tibetans and Manchus during the Qing
Dynasty. It did not, in itself, affect Tibet's independence.
On the political level, some powerful
Manchu emperors succeeded in exerting a degree of influence over
Tibet. Thus, between 1720 and 1792, Emperors Kangxi, Yong Zhen,
and Qianlong sent imperial troops to Tibet four times to protect
the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people from foreign invasions by
Mongols, and Gorkhas or from internal unrest. These expeditions
provided the emperor with the means for establishing influence
in Tibet. He sent representatives to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa,
some of whom successfully exercised their influence, in his
name, over the Tibetan government, particularly
with respect to the conduct of foreign relations. At the height
of Manchu power, which lasted a few decades, the situation was
not unlike that which can exist between a superpower and a
satellite or protectorate, and therefore one which, though
politically significant, does not extinguish the independent
existence of the weaker state. Tibet was never incorporated into
the Manchu Empire, much less China, and it continued to conduct
its relations with neighboring states largely on its own.
Manchu influence did not last very long.
It was entirely ineffective by the time the British briefly
invaded Lhasa and concluded a bilateral treaty with Tibet, the
Lhasa Convention, in 1904. Despite this loss of influence, the
imperial government in Peking continued to claim some authority
over Tibet, particularly with respect to its international
relations, an authority which the British imperial government
termed "suzerainty" in its dealings with Peking and St.
Petersburg, Russia. Chinese imperial armies tried to reassert
actual influence in 1910 by invading the country and occupying
Lhasa. Following the 1911 revolution in China and the overthrow
of the Manchu Empire, the troops surrendered to the Tibetan army
and were repatriated under a sino-Tibetan peace accord. The
Dalai Lama reasserted Tibet's full independence internally, by
issuing a proclamation, and externally, in communications to
foreign rulers and in a treaty with Mongolia.
Tibet in the 20th Century
Tibet's status following the expulsion of
Manchu troops is not subject to serious dispute. What ever ties
existed between the Dalai Lama and the Manchu emperors of the
Qing Dynasty were extinguished with the fall of that empire and
dynasty. From 1911 to 1950, Tibet successfully avoided undue
foreign influence and behaved, in every respect, as a fully
independent state.
Tibet maintained diplomatic relations with
nepal, Bhutan, Britain, and later with independent India.
Relations with China remain strained. The Chinese waged a border
war with Tibet while formally urging Tibet to "join" the Chinese
Republic, claiming all along to the world that Tibet already was
one of China's "five races."
In an effort to reduce Sino-Tibetan
tensions, the British convened a tripartite conference in Simla
in 1913 where the representative of the three states met on
equal terms. As the British delegation reminded his Chinese
counterpart, Tibet entered the conference as "independent nation
recognizing no allegiance to China." The conference was
unsuccessful in that it did not resolve the difference between
Tibet and China. It was, nevertheless, significant in that
Anglo-Tibetans friendship was reaffirmed with the conclusion of
bilateral trade and border agreements. In a Joint Declaration,
Great
Britain and Tibet bound themselves not to recognize Chinese
suzerainty or other special rights in Tibet unless China signed
the draft Simla Convention which would have guaranteed Tibet's
greater borders, its territorial integrity and fully autonomy.
China never signed the Convention, however, leaving the terms of
the Joint Declaration in full force.
Tibet conducted its international
relations primarily by dealing with the British, Chinese,
Nepalese, and Bhutanese diplomatic missions in Lhasa, but also
through government delegations travelling abroad. When India
became independent, the British mission in Lhasa was replaced by
an Indian one. During World War II Tibet remained neutral,
despite combined pressure from the United States, Great Britain,
and China to allow passage of raw materials through Tibet.
Tibet never maintained extensive
international relations, but those countries with whom it did
maintain relations treated Tibet as they would with any
sovereign state. Its international status was in fact no
different from, say, that of Nepal. Thus, when Nepal applied for
United Nations' membership in 1949, it cited its treaty and
diplomatic relations with Tibet to demonstrate its full
international personality.
The Invasion of Tibet
The turning point of Tibet's history came
in 1949, when the People's Liberation Army of the PRC first
crossed into Tibet. After defeating the small Tibetan army and
occupying half the country, the Chinese government imposed the
so-called "17-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of
Tibet" on the Tibetan government in May 1951. Because it was
singed under duress, the agreement lacked validity under
international law. The presence of 40,000 troops in Tibet, the
threat of an immediate occupation of Lhasa, and the prospect of
the total obliteration of the Tibetan state left Tibetans little
choice.
As the resistance to the Chinese
occupation escalated, particularly in Eastern Tibet, the Chinese
repression, which included the destruction of religious
buildings and the imprisonment of monks and other community
leaders, increased dramatically. By 1959, popular uprising
culminated in massive demonstrations in Lhasa. By the time China
crushed the uprising, 87,000 Tibetans were dead in the Lhasa
region alone, and the Dalai Lama had fled to India, where he now
heads the Tibetan Government-in-exile, headquartered in
Dharmsala, India. In 1963, the Dalai Lama promulgated a
constitution for a democratic Tibet. It has been successfully
implemented, to the extent possible, by the Government-in-exile.
Meanwhile, in Tibet religious persecution,
consistent violations of human rights, and the wholesale
destruction of religious and historic buildings by the occupying
authorities have not succeeded in destroying the spirit of the
Tibetan people to resist the destruction of the national
identity. 1.2 million Tibetans have lost their lives, (over
one-sixth of the population) as a result of the Chinese
occupation. But the new generation of Tibetans seems just as
determined to regain the country's independence as the older
generation was.
Present Situation
In the course of Tibet's 2,000-year
history, the country came under a degree of foreign influence
only for short periods of time in the 13th and 18th centuries.
Few independent countries today can claim as impressive a
record. As the ambassador of Ireland to the UN remarked during
the General Assembly debates on the question of Tibet, "for
thousands of years, for a couple of thousands years at any rate,
(Tibet) was a free and as fully in control of its own affairs as
any nation in this Assembly, and a thousand times more free to
look after it own affairs than many of the nations here."
From a legal standpoint, Tibet has not
lost its statehood. It is an independent start under illegal
occupation. Neither China's military invasion nor the continuing
occupation by the PLA has transferred the sovereignty of Tibet
to China. As pointed out earlier the Chinese government has
never claimed to have acquired sovereignty over Tibet by
conquest. Indeed, China recognizes that the use or threat of
force (outside the exceptional circumstances provided for in the
UN Charter), the imposition of an unequal treaty, or the
continued illegal occupation of a country can never grant an
invader legal title to
territory. Its claims are based solely on the alleged subjection
of Tibet to a few of China's strongest foreign rulers in the
13th and 18th centuries.
Source:(Michael C. van Walt van Praag
practices international law. His publication include The Status
of Tibet: History, Rights and Prospects in International Law
(Westview Press, Boulder, Colo., Wisdom Press, London, 1987) and
numerous articles in book collections and magazines.)
