High time UN intervenes and forces China to leave Tibet alone
The history of Tibet shows that it had never been a part of China and was an independent state with its own spiritual rule.
Right from Yarlung Dynasty established in 7th Century AD under King Songsten Gompa and his successors, Tibet was one of the mightiest powers of Asia for the three centuries that followed. A formal peace treaty was concluded between China and Tibet in 821/823 AD which demarcated the borders between the two countries and ensured that, “Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China”.
Even in the 13th Century when Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire expanded towards Europe in the West and China in the East. 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 Kublai Khan conquered China later 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 thus developed continued till twentieth century between the Mongols and Tibetans and showed the close racial, cultural and religious affinity between the two Central Asian peoples. 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 and it continued till eighteenth century when Tibet did not come under a degree of foreign influence. Tibet developed ties with the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1386-1644). Actually, the Dalai Lama at that time established his sovereign rule over Tibet with the help of a Mongol patron in 1642 and had close religious ties with the Manchu emperors, who conquered China and established the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). As a result, the Dalai Lama agreed to become the spiritual guide of the Manchu emperor and accepted patronage and protection in exchange.
Manchu influence did not last very long and was entirely ineffective by the time the British briefly invaded Lhasa and concluded a bilateral treaty with Tibet, called the Lhasa convention in 1904. However, the imperial government in Peking continued to claim some authority over Tibet particularly with respect to its international relations which the British imperial government termed ‘suzerainty” in dealing with Peking and St Petersburg, Russia.
Chinese imperial armies however tried to reassert actual influence in 1910 by invading the country and occupying Lhasa but after the 1911 revolution in China and the overthrow of the Manchu Empire, the troops surrendered to the Tibetan Army and were repatriated under the 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.
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 remained 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 Shimla in 1913 where the representatives of the three states met on equal terms and Tibet entered the conference as an independent nation recognising no allegiance to China. The conference was unsuccessful and could not resolve the differences between Tibet and China. It was never the less significant as it reaffirmed the Anglo-Tibetan friendship and concluded in bilateral trade and border agreements. In a joint declaration, Great Britain and Tibet bound themselves not to recognise Chinese suzerainty or other special rights in Tibet unless China signed the draft Shimla convention which would have guaranteed Tibet greater borders, territorial integrity and full autonomy.
Tibet conducted its international relations dealing with the British, Chinese, Nepalese and Bhutanese diplomatic mission 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. Even Nepal while applying membership of the United Nations in 1949 sighted treaty and diplomatic relations with Tibet to demonstrate its full international personality.
Until 1949, Tibet was an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It remained 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 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.
Immediately after China got freedom in 1949 under People’s Republic of China, People’s Liberation Army crossed into Tibet and after defeating a small Tibetan army occupied half the country and imposed the so called 17-point agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet in May, 1951. Because it was signed under duress, the agreement lacked validity under international law. The presence of 40,000 Chinese troops in Tibet, the threat of an immediate occupation of Lhasa and the prospect of total obliteration of the Tibetan state left Tibetans little choice. However, in 1954, the Chinese government convinced India that they will establish a proper Tibetan religious state and their troops will go back to China. As a result, the Indian government agreed for suzerainty of Tibet to China.
But as the resistance of the Chinese occupation escalated, particularly in Eastern Tibet, the Chinese repression, which included the imprisonment of monks and other community leaders, increased dramatically. By 1959, popular uprising culminated in massive demonstration in Lhasa region alone.
By the time China crushed the uprising, 87,000 Tibetans were dead in the Lhasa region alone and the Dalai Lama fled to India, where he now heads the Tibetan government-in-exile headquartered in Dharamshala. 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.
It is now learnt that China is pushing out of Tibet number of rural labourers off the land into recently built military style training centres where they are being turned into factory workers as coercive labour. Under this repression, China has established big military bases in Tibet and are forcing peace-loving Tibetan religious monks to leave Tibet and are destroying their monasteries.
In his latest video conferencing speech in UN, the Chinese President has said that they are the biggest country in the world from all angles and do not wage war or even cold war with anyone and have no expansionist designs. On the contrary as everyone knows, China is trying to put its finger in every pie in many countries and has confronted India in Ladakh with a big force with its bases in Tibet and is not prepared to go back to old positions which is required to avoid tension in that region.
In view of the above, United Nations must take action against China to vacate Tibet and let them have a peaceful spiritual Tibetan monarchy. Tibet never had any boundary problems with either India, China, Nepal, Bhutan or any adjoining countries. China which had no boundary with most of these countries is trying to create boundary problems through Tibet and unnecessarily creating tension with not only India but with most of the countries in South China Sea.
The history of Tibet clearly shows that Tibet had never been a part of China and Chinese government. China should withdraw its troops from Tibet and allow them to have their own spiritual government. China should not be allowed to make Tibet as their military base to deal with adjoining countries.
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