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History of
Tibet |
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Five
hundred years before Buddha Sakyamuni came into this
world i.e., circa 1063 B.C., a semi-legendary figure
known as Lord Shenrab Miwo reformed the primitive
animism of the Shen race and founded the Tibetan Bon
religion. According to Bonpo sources there were
eighteen Shangshung Kings who ruled Tibet before
King Nyatri Tsenpo. Tiwor Sergyi Jhagruchen was the
first Shangshung King.
Shangshung, before its decline, was the name of an
empire which comprised the whole of Tibet. The
empire known as Shangshung Go-Phug-Bar-sum consisted
of Kham and Amdo forming the Go or Goor, U and Tsang
forming the Bar or Middle, and Guge Stod-Ngari
Korsum forming the Phug or Interior.
As the Shangshung empire declined, a kingdom known
as Bod, the present name of Tibet, came into
existence at Yarlung and Chongyas valleys at the
time of King Nyatri Tsenpo, who started the heroic
age of the Chogyals (Religious Kings). Bod grew
until the whole of Tibet was reunited under King
Songtsen Gampo, when tha last Shangshung King,
Ligmigya, was killed.
The official Tibetan Royal Year of the modern
Tibetan calendar is dated from the enthronement of
King Nyatri Tsenpo in 127 B.C. This lineage of
Tibetan monarchy continued for well over a thousand
years till King Tri Wudum Tsen, more commonly known
as Lang Darma, was assassinated in 842 A.D.
Most illustrious of the above kings were Songtsen
Gampo, Trisong Detsen and Ralpachen. They are called
the Three Great Kings.
The Great King Songtsen Gampo with his Nepalese
and Chinese Queen
During the reign of King Songtsen Gampo (629-49)
Tibet became a great military power and her armies
marched across Central Asia. He promoted Buddhism in
Tibet and sent one of his ministers and other young
Tibetans to India for study. He first took a Tibetan
princess from the Shangshung King as his wife and
then obtained a Nepalese consort. After invading the
Chinese Empire he also obtained a Chinese princess
as one of his wives. The two latter wives have been
given prominence in the religious history of Tibet
because of their services to Buddhism.
During the reign of King Trisong Detsen (755-97) the
Tibetan Empire was at its peak and its armies
invaded China and several Central Asian countries.
In 763 the Tibetans seized the then Chinese capital
at Ch'ang-an (present day Xian). As the Chinese
Emperor had fled, the Tibetans appointed a new
Emperor. This memorable victory has been preserved
for posterity in the Zhol Doring (stone pillar) in
Lhasa and reads, in part:
"King Trisong Detsen, being a profound man, the
breadth of his counsel was extensive, and whatever
he did for the kingdom was completely successful. He
conguered and held under his sway many districts and
fortresses of China. The Chinese Emperor, Hehu Ki
Wang and his ministers were terrified. They offered
a perpetual yearly tribute of 50,000 rolls of silk
and China was obliged to pay this tribute It was
during his time that Samye, the first monastery in
Tibet, was founded by Guru Padmasambhava, who also
established the supremacy of Buddhism and coverted
the indigenous deities into guardians of the Dharma.
King Trisong Detsen also expelled the Chinese monk (Hoshang)
and banished the Chinese Chan school of Buddhism
from Tibet forever and adopted the Indian system. He
also declared Buddhism as the state religion of
Tibet.
During the reign of King Ralpachen (815-36) the
Tibetan armies won many victories and in 821-2 a
peace treaty was concluded with China. The
inscription of the text of the treaty exists in
three places: One outside the Chinese Emperor's
palace gate in Ch'ang-an, another before the main
gate of Jokhang temple in Lhasa and the third on the
Tibetan-China border at Mount Guru Meru. Eminent
Tibetan scholars, Kawa Paltsek and Chogru Lui
Gyaltsen, worked with Indian scholars, invited them
to Tibet and prepared the first Sanskrit-Tibetan
lexicon called the Mahavyutpatti.
In 838 King Ralpachen's brother, Tri Wudum Tsen,
ascended the throne. He tried to reinstate the Bon
religion and persecuted the Buddhists. After his
assassination by a Buddhist monk the kingdom was
divided between his two sons. With warring princes,
lords and generals contending for power the mighty
Tibetan Empire disintegrated into many small
princedoms and a dark period fell over Tibet during
842-1247.
In 1073 Konchog Gyalpo founded the Sakya monastery.
His son and successor, Sakya Kunga Nyingpo,
formulated the tantric traditions of the great
scholars Marpa and Drogme and founded the Sakya
sect. The Sakya lamas grew in power and from 1254 to
1350 Tibet was ruled by a succession of 20 Sakya
lamas. The Mongols, who invaded many countries of
Europe and Asia, also invaded Tibet and reached
Phenpo, north of Lhasa. However, Prince Godan, the
ruling Khan, was converted to Buddhism by Sakpa
Kunga Gyaltsen, popularly known as Sakya Pandita,
and the invading force was withdrawn. The next Khan,
Kublai, was also converted to Buddhism by Sakya
Pandita's nephew and successor, Sakya Phagpa. In
return, Kublai Khan gave recognition of full
sovereignty over "the three provinces of Tibet :
U-Tsang, Dhotoe and Dhome" to Sakya Phagpa.
The influence of the Sakya priest-rulers gradually
declined after the death of Kublai Khan in 1295. In
1358 the province of U (Central Tibet) fell into the
hands of the Governor of Nedong, Changchub Gyaltsen,
a monk of the Phamo Drugpa branch of Kagyud school,
and for the next 86 years, eleven Lamas of the Phamo
Drugpa lineage ruled Tibet.
But, after the death of Drakpa Gyaltsen, the fifth
Phamo Drugpa ruler, in 1434, power passed into the
hands of the Rinpung family who were related to
Drakpa Gyaltsen by marriage. From 1436 to 1566 the
heads of the Rinpung family held power.
Meanwhile, Tsongkhapa Losang Dragpa, one of the
greatest scholars of Tibet, was born in 1357. He
founded Gaden, the first Gelugpa monastery, in 1409
and began the Gelug lineage.
The Great Ganden Monastery
During the first decade of the 16th century, Tseten
Dorje, a servant of the Rinpung family, with the
help of some local tribes and Mongols, managed to
gain control of Shigatse and the surrounding regions
of Tsang province. From 1566 to 1642 Tseten Dorje
and his two successors ruled Tibet with the title of
Depa Tsangpa.
Sonam Gyatso, born in 1543, emerged as a scholar of
great spiritual and temporal wisdom. He became the
spiritual teacher of the Phamo Drugpa ruler, Drakpa
Jungne. He was the Abbot of Drepung monastery and
the most eminent lama of that time. He provided
extensive relief to the Kyichu flood victims in
1562, founded Lithang Monastery in 1580 and Kumbum
Monastery in 1582. He also successfully mediated
between the various warring factions in Tibet. He
converted Altan Khan to Buddhism and the latter
conferred on him the title Dalai Lama meaning "Ocean
of Wisdom" in 1578. As Sonam Gyatso was third in his
line, he became the Third Dalai Lama, the title
being posthumously conferred on his two previous
incarnations.
A close spiritual relationship developed between
Tibet and Mongolia. The Gelugpa sect grew stronger
and gradually eclipsed the waning Sakya authority.
In 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lozang Gyatso,
assumed both spiritual and temporal authority over
Tibet. He established the present system of the
Tibetan Government, known as the Ganden Phodrang,
"Victorious Everywhere". After becoming the ruler of
all Tibet, he set forth to China to demand Chinese
recognition of his sovereignty. The Ming Emperor
received the Dalai Lama as an independent sovereign
and as an equal. It is recorded that he went out of
his capital to meet the Dalai Lama and that he had
an inclined pathway built over the city wall so that
the Dalai Lama could enter Peking without going
through a gate.
The Emperor not only accepted the Dalai Lama as an
independent sovereign but also as a Divinity on
Earth. In return the Dalai Lama used his influence
to bring the warlike Mongols into acknowledging the
Emperor's sway in China. Henceforth, there started a
Priest-Patron relationship which brought a new
element into the relations of Tibet, China and
Mongolia. Another important event was the statement
of the Fifth Dalai Lama that the line of the first
Panchen Lama, Choskyi Gyaltsen, who was one of his
tutors, would continue.
The glorious reign of the Great Fifth was followed
by a period of intrigue and instability. To start
with, the powerful prime minister, Desi Sangye
Gyatso, had kept the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama
secret for fifteen years in order to complete the
construction of the Potala Palace and also to ward
off possible interference from the Manchus, who had
become increasingly powerful in China. When the
Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, was finally
enthroned in 1697 he turned out to be an
embarrassment to the Desi and his associates,
refusing to take interest in the affairs of state
and leading a frivolous life. Circumstances arising
from the behavior of the young Dalai Lama and also
the personal conflict between the Desi and Lhazang
Khan, the grandson of Gusri Khan and the chief of
the Qosot Mongols in Central Tibet, led to the
resignation of the Desi and the complete take-over
of political power by Lhazang Khan, who later allied
himself with the Manchus and sent the young Dalai
Lama into exile.
Lhasang Khan was himself defeated and killed by
Dzungar Mongols who had come to Tibet at the
invitation of the monks of the three big Gelugpa
monasteries in Lhasa. The Dzungars, who were staunch
followers of the Gelugpa tradition, were not content
with the death of Lhazang Khan. They proceeded to
persecute the adherents of the Nyingamapa sect. This
brought about a feeling of disenchantment against
their presence among sections of the Tibetan people.
When Kalsang Gyatso, the reincarnation of the Sixth
Dalai Lama, was discovered in Lithang, in eastern
Tibet, there was a struggle among various tribes of
the Mongols and the Manchus to gain control over him
so that they could exercise their influence in
Tibet. The Manchus were successful in this endeavor
and so it was that in 1720 the Manchus sent in
troops to escort the young Dalai Lama and also
avenge the death of their ally, Lhazang Khan. At the
same time, Tibetan troops under Khangchennas and
Pholhanas took advantage of the situation to attack
the Dzungars, who fled with as much loot as they
could take with them.
When the Manchu troops entered Lhasa, the Dzungars
hact already left. But they had other designs and
when their troops finally left in 1723 they left
behind a Resident or Amban ostensibly to serve the
Dalai Lama but in fact to look after their own
interests. This was the beginning of Manchu
interference iri Tibetan affairs. The Manchus also
put up their own nominee as the Tibetan Regent
against Tibetan wishes. A few years later the Manchu
nominee was killed and then the Manchu Emperor, Yung
Cheng, sent a military force which was the first
time the Manchus invaded Tibet. The Manchu force in
1727 tried to bring changes in the administration of
Tibetan Government. The Manchu Emperor also tried to
buy the allegiance of certain Tibetan princes,
chieftains and lamas by giving many of them seals of
office. But the Tibetans regarded the seals as a
compliment and did not acknowledge them as a mark of
vassalage. However, the Manchu Residents (Ambans)
began to meddle in Tibetan state matters whenever
the opportunity arose.
The Tibetans were repelled by the extent of Manchu
intrigues when the Manchu Resident murdered the
Tibetan Regent. The Tibetans retaliated by
massadring the Manchus in Lhasa. Again the Manchus
invaded Tibet in 1749 and they tried in vain to
increase the power of the Manchu Resident.
In 1786 the Gurkhas invaded Tibet. The cause for
this invasion went back a few years before the
Gurkhas had gained full control of Nepal. Nepal had
started adding copper to the silver coins which they
were supplying to Tibet. In 1751 the Seventh Dalai
Lama had written to the three Newari Kings, who
ruled over the principalities of Kathmandu, Patan
and Bhatgaon, to protest against this practice. When
Prithvi Narayan, chief of the Gurkhas, overthrew the
Newari rulers he was similarly apprised of the
situation.
Another sore point in the relations between the
Gurkhas and the Tibetans had been the intervention
of Tibet in the Gurkha invasion of Sikkim. Tibet
offered help to Sikkim and a treaty was concluded
between Nepal and Sikkim in the presence of two
Tibetan representatives. The Gurkhas resented this
interference and were looking for an excuse to
attack Tibet. Such an opportunity arose in the
controversy over the third Panchen Lama's personal
property which was being claimed by the Panchen's
two brothers, Drugpa Tulku and Shamar Tulku. The
latter hoped to use the backing of the Gurkhas for
his claim. The Gurkhas used the claim of Shamar
Tulku and invaded Tibet.
The Eighth Dalai Lama, then 26 years old, requested
the Manchu Emperor, Ch'ien Lung, for temporary
military assistance. The Manchu army which entered
Tibet in 1792 became more harmful to the Tibetans
and they again tried to increase the power of the
Manchu Resident. Further, Ch'ien Lung sent a golden
urn from Peking and declared that future
reincarnations of the Dalai Lama and other important
lamas should be determined by putting the names of
the candidates in it and extracting one at random in
the presence of the Manchu Resident. This
imperialist imposition was not adhered to by the
Tibetans and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, whose own
choice had not even been referred to the Manchus,
publicly abolished this form.
During this period Tibet was invaded several times
and the Manchu Resident at Lhasa engaged in
nefarious intrigues and meddled in Tibetan state
affairs. But Tibet never lost her sovereignty. The
Tibetan people recognized the Central Tibetan
Government, headed by the Dalai Lama, as the only
legal Government of Tibet.
The sovereignty of Tibet was further shown in her
dealings with Nepal in 1856 when a treaty was signed
between the two countries without reference to
China. In the internal affairs of Tibet, the
sovereignty of the Central Government of Tibet at
Lhasa was most clearly illustrated in the internal
war which broke out during the middle of the
nineteenth century between the chieftain of Nyarong
on the one side and the King of Derge and the Horpa
princes on the other. The Tibetan Government sent an
army, crushed the Nyarong Chief, whose invasion of
his neighbour was the cause of the trouble, and set
up a Tibetan Governor in his place, charging him
with the general supervision of the affairs of Derge
and the Horpa principalities.
In 1876, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso,
at the age of 19, took charge of the duties of state
from Regent Choekyi Gyaltsen Kundeling. He was an
outstanding personality and helped Tibet to reassert
her rightful sovereignty in international affairs.
At this period the British had close and profitable
ties with China. The Chinese had persuaded the
British that they exercise 'suzerainty' over Tibet.
Therefore on September 13, 1876, the Sino-British
Chefoo Convention, which granted Britain the 'right'
of sending a mission of exploration into Tibet, was
signed. The mission was abandoned when the Tibetans
refused to allow them on the grounds that they did
not recognise China's authority. Two more similar
agreements, the Peking Convention of July 24, 1886
and the Calcutta Convention of March 17, 1890, were
also repudiated by the Tibetans.
The Tibetan Government refused to have anything to
do with the British who were dealing over their
heads with the Chinese. This coincided with new
contacts between Russia and Tibet around 1900-1.
There followed an interchange of letters and
presents between the Dalai Lama and the Russian
Czar. This strengthened British fears about Russian
involvement in Tibetan affairs. As the Russian power
in Asia was growing, the British Government felt
that their interest was at stake. Tibet was invaded
by a British expeditionary force under Colonel
Younghusband, which entered Lhasa on August 3, 1904.
Younghusband
A treaty was signed between Tibet and Great Britain
on September 7, 1904. During the British invasion
Tibet conducted her affairs as an independent
country. Peking did not so much as protest against
the British invasion of Tibet.
When the British invaded Tibet, the 13th Dalai Lama
went to Mongolia. The Manchus, who were then ruling
China, made one last attempt to interfere in Tibet
through the military campaigns of the infamous Chao
Erhfeng. Mhen the Dalai Lama was in Kumbum monastery
in the province of Amdo, he received two messages -
one from Lhasa, urging him to return with all speed
as they feared for his safety and could not oppose
the intruding troops of Chao Erhfeng, and the other
from Peking, requesting him to visit the Chinese
capital. The Dalai Lama chose to go to Peking with
the hope of prevailing upon the Chinese Emperor to
stop the military agression against Tibet and to
withdraw his troops.
When the Dalai Lama finally returned to Lhasa in
1909, he found that, contrary to all the promises he
had received in Peking, Chao Erhfeng's troops were
at his heels. During the annual Monlam festival of
1910, some 2,000 Manchu and Chinese soldiers under
the command of General Chung Ying entered Lhasa and
indulged in carnage, rape, murder, plunder, and
wanton destruction. Once again the Dalai Lama was
forced to leave Lhasa. He appointed a Regent to rule
in his absence and left for the southern town of
Dromo with the intention to go to British India if
necessary. Events in Lhasa and the pursuing Chinese
troops forced him to leave his country once again.
In India the Dalai Lama and his ministers appealed
to the British Government to help Tibet. Meanwhile
the Manchu occupation force tried to subvert the
Tibetan Government and to divide Tibet into Chinese
provinces - exactly what, not half a century later,
the Communist Chinese would do.
But, when the news of the 1911 Revolution in China
reached Lhasa, the Chinese troops mutinied against
their Manchu officers and attacked the Amban's
residence. Fighting broke out between rival Manchu
and Chinese generals. Then, in a desperate attempt
to regain their dwindling hold in Lhasa, the Chinese
attacked the Tibetans. By then, however, the
Tibetans had reorganised themselves with orders
coming from the Dalai Lama in India. Chinese troops
in Lhasa, and elsewhere in Tibet were overcome by
the Tibetans and finally expelled in 1912. During
this period of fighting and confusion the new ruler
of China, President Yuan Shih-kai, tried to send
military reinforcements to the beleaguered troops
while at the same time trying to placate the
Tibetans. He apologised for the excesses and
said that he had restored the Dalai Lama who wrote
back saying that he was not asking the Chinese
Government for any rank as he intended to exercise
both spiritual and temporal rule in Tibet and
declared Tibet's independence...
The Great Thirteeth Dalai Lama .......Last of the
Chinese troops leaving Tibet for repatriation via
India 1913
In January 1913 a bilateral treaty was signed
between Tibet and Mongolia at Urga. In that treaty
both countries declared themselves free and separate
from China.
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, having returned from
India in January 1913, issued a formal declaration
of the complete independence of Tibet, dated the
eighth day of the first month of the Water-Ox year
(March 1913). The document also clarified:
"Now the Chinese intention of colonizing Tibet under
the patron-priest relationship has faded like a
rainbow in the sky".
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama started international
relations, introduced modern postal and telegraph
services and, despite the turbulent period in which
he ruled, introduced measures to modernize Tibet. On
December 17, 1933 he passed away.
The following year a Chinese mission arrived in
Lhasa to offer condolences, but in fact they tried
to settle the Sino-Tibetan border issue. After the
chief delegate left, another Chinese delegate
remained to continue discussions. The Chinese
delegation was permitted to remain in Lhasa on the
same footing as the Nepalese and Indian
representatives until he was expelled in 1949.
In September 1949, Communist China, without any
provocation, invaded Eastern Tibet and captured
Chamdo, the headquarters of the Governor of Eastern
Tibet. On November 11, 1950, the Tibetan Government
protested to the United Nations Organisation against
the Chinese aggression. Although El Salvador raised
the question, the Steering Committee of the General
Assembly moved to postpone the issue.
On November 17, 1950, His Holiness the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama assumed full spiritual and temporal
powers as the Head of State because of the grave
crisis facing the country, although he was barely
sixteen years old. On May 23, 1951 a Tibetan
delegation, which had gone to Peking to hold talks
on the invasion, was forced to sign the so-called
"17-point Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful
Liberation of Tibet", with threats of more military
action in Tibet and by forging the official seals of
Tibet.
The Chinese then used this document to carry out
their plans to turn Tibet into a colony of China
disregarding the strong resistance by the Tibetan
people. What is more, the Chinese violated every
article of this unequal 'treaty' which they had
imposed on the Tibetans.
On September 9, 1951 thousands of Chinese troops
marched into Lhasa. The forcible occupation of Tibet
was marked by systematic destruction of monasteries,
suppression of religion, denial of political
freedom, widespread arrests and imprisonment and
massacre of innocent men, women and children.
On March 10, 1959 the nation-wide Tibetan resistance
culminated in the Tibetan National Uprising against
the Chinese in Lhasa. The Chinese retaliated with
ruthlessness unknown to the Tibetans. Thousands of
men, women and children were massacred in the
streets and many more imprisoned and deported. Monks
and nuns were a prime target. Monasteries and
temples were shelled.
On March 17, 1959 the Dalai Lama left Lhasa and
escaped from the pursuing Chinese to seek political
asylum in India. He was followed by unprecedented
exodus of Tibetans into exile. Never before in their
history had so many Tibetans been forced to leave
their homeland under such difficult circumstances.
There are now more than one hundred thousand Tibetan
refugees all over the world.It has been almost 40
years since Chinese occupied Tibet. |
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