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History of Development of Tibet | |
|---|---|
| Author | Zheng Shan |
| Publisher | Foreign Languages Press |
| First published | 2010 |
| Type | Book |
| Source | https://annas-archive.org/md5/4f75fcadae9d94b3fa3a2644eb0349fd |
Preface
By Deng Fuquan and Yang Zaizhong
Tibet has a long history, and since ancient times has been an inseparable part of China. The Tibetan people is one of the many ethnic groups that compose the big family of the Chinese nation. The Tibetan people with wisdom and diligence have made great contributions to the development of Tibet and to the formation and development of China, our great motherland.
This book, beginning with an account of the Tibetan people's origins, is an introduction to the historical development of the Tibetan people and to the historical contributions made by all fraternal ethnic groups in Tibet, as well as all ethnic groups of China, to the development, construction and defense of Tibet. About 2,000 years ago Tibetan tribes and clans expanded their activities in scope and scale. The History of the Later Han Dynasty (Hou Han Shu) gives a record of the early relations between the tribes and clans in Tibet and the ethnic groups in the hinterland. Thus it is clear that these relations have a long history.
Songtsen Gampo, a Tibetan hero and leader of the Pugyal tribe in the Yarlung Valley in the early 7th century, unified Tibet and established the Tubo Dynasty, developing the productive activities of the Tubo society and strengthening the slave-owning system of Tibet. He attached great importance to the introduction of advanced technology and political and cultural achievements from China's Tang Dynasty. He repeatedly sent emissaries to the Tang capital to seek matrimonial bonds with the Tang court. The Tang emperor, Taizong, took friendly policies toward Tubo. In 641 the emperor sent Princess Wencheng to Tibet, in the company of a special envoy, to marry Songtsen Gampo. The princess brought with her a large number of Han craftsmen, and this greatly promoted the economic and cultural development of Tibet.
During the 8th century the Tubo Dynasty expanded its dominance into Gansu and Qinghai as well as southern Xinjiang and western Sichuan and Yunnan. As a result, the Tibetan people developed wider contacts with the Hans and other ethnic groups in western China, and thus helped to bring about progressive development for themselves.
At that time, the Tubo Tsenpo (king) Tride Tsugtsen again requested matrimonial relations with the Tang court. In 710 the Tang emperor Zhongzong gave Princess Jincheng to him as his wife. After that the Tang and Tubo courts several times pledged alliance and often exchanged envoys. Particularly in 821 and 822, the Tang and Tubo rulers held solemn ceremonies at Chang'an and Rasa (modern Lhasa) to mark their mutual pledge of peace. In 823 a stone monument was put up to commemorate the relations between the Tang and Tubo courts, relations as close as that of an uncle and a nephew. These close relations lasted for more than 200 years. After the fall of the Tubo Dynasty a large number of Tubo people remained in the Gansu and Qinghai areas of northwestern China. They lived in close contact with the local Han people. The Tibetan people since then have had closer and wider contacts with other ethnic groups and have achieved greater development, especially in the introduction of technology and the exchange of products. The historically well-known "tea-horse barter" system was formed at that time.
In the mid-9th century (the end of the Tang Dynasty) Tibet witnessed disorder and disintegration. The Tubo King Darma was murdered by a Buddhist monk. After that Tibet was divided into many small tribal groups that fought each other for more than 400 years.
During the Yuan Dynasty, after the Mongolian leader Genghis Khan founded the Mongolian Khanate in the north, he marched westward into the Tibetan areas and ended the state of turmoil there. In the 13th century the Mongolian aristocrats established the Yuan Dynasty, which achieved an unprecedented unification of all ethnic groups of China. In this unification, the central government of the Yuan Dynasty attached great importance to assigning Tibetan political and religious leaders to important official posts, and at the same time Tibetan leaders actively assisted and supported the Yuan Dynasty in its unification of the whole country.
Kublai Khan, who became the Yuan Emperor Shizu, after his accession to the throne in 1260, conferred the title of State Preceptor (Imperial Preceptor later) to Phagpa, leader of the Sakya Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1264 the Yuan Dynasty established the Supreme Control Commission, a body that handled Buddhist affairs for the whole nation and the local administration of Tibetan areas, and Phagpa was appointed Chief of the Commission. Besides this, the Yuan Dynasty established three Pacification Commissions combined with Chief Military Command in the Tibetan areas. This was the first time that the central government exerted sovereignty over Tibet. In 1268 Kublai Khan sent a party of officials to Tibet to take a census, establish a tax-collection system, and set up thirteen myriarchies there (wan-hu in Chinese, an administrative unit, each theoretically comprising ten thousand households). Kublai Khan ordered the leaders of the Sakya Sect to collect taxes from the myriarchies. Later, he granted Tibet as a fiefdom to his seventh son, Oiruchi. Under the jurisdiction of the central government, a system of local administration based on an amalgamation of temporal and spiritual affairs was established in Tibet.
The central government of the Ming Dynasty paid close attention to the development of economic ties between Tibet and the hinterland. It encouraged Tibetan religious and political leaders to pay tribute to the imperial court in the form of generous gifts. Consequently, the number of tribute payers increased to more than a thousand per year. In return for these tributes the emperor bestowed plentiful gifts on the Tibetans, of which tea was one item presented in the amount of more than a hundred thousand jin (one jin is half a kilogram) a year. To facilitate the tea-horse trade, the Ming court set up offices in charge of such trade in the northwestern and southwestern areas, and maintained and improved the roads between Tibet and the hinterland. All these measures promoted the tea-horse trade. As a result, the Tibetans and people of other ethnic groups in the hinterland established close economic ties.
On the basis of Yuan and Ming's systems, the Qing Dynasty court made great reforms in their administration of Tibet. During the early Qing Dynasty, the central government set up a Board of Minority Affairs (Lifan-yuan) to be in charge of Mongolian and Tibetan affairs and granted the official titles of Dalai Lama (1653) and Panchen Erdeni (1713) respectively to the chief leaders of two most important incarnate-lama lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. Since that time the Dalai Lama and Panchen Erdeni have been acknowledged by the central government. All their successive reincarnations were authorized by the central government. In 1728 the Qing government sent Amban (Resident Commissioner) to supervise the administration in Tibet. In 1751 the Kashag, Tibetan local government, was established. In 1793 the Qing court issued an Ordinance for the More Efficient Governing of Tibet. The ordinance prescribed the status and power of the Amban, stipulating his authority in the supervision of Tibetan affairs and his equal status with the Dalai and Panchen lamas. It included regulations concerning Tibetan officials, army, judicature, border defense, finance, census, corvee service, external affairs and reincarnating system of the Dalai and other Living Buddhas. The Qing government sent troops to Tibet to drive out the Mongolians and push back Gurkha invaders. In 1888 and 1904 Tibetan troops fought bravely against British aggression in Tibet.
The 1911 Revolution ended the feudal system in China. The government of the Republic of China inherited the Qing's administrative structure in the Tibetan areas. It set up an administrative organ in charge of Mongolian and Tibetan affairs, selected Tibetan delegates to attend the national assembly and appointed its commissioners in charge of Tibetan affairs. Trying to obstruct this, the British government engineered the "Simla Conference" of 1913, seeking to interfere in China's internal affairs and force the so-called Simla Treaty on China, which severely violated China's sovereignty and was an attempt to split China's territory. This British conspiracy was opposed and condemned by all the Chinese people and their government. At the time of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, the government of the Republic of China (ROC) disclosed to the public the Sino-British negotiation process relating to the so-called Tibet problem. It aroused anti-imperialist rage among the Chinese people both in China and abroad. Tibetan civil and religious leaders also condemned the British imperialists' attempt to split China at the Simla Conference. The government of the ROC from the very first day of its founding repeatedly declared to Tibet its policy on the republic of the five ethnic groups (Han-Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui and Tibetan), and at the same time the Tibetan local government time and again told the central government that it was willing to solve any problems left over by history. In 1919 the 13th Dalai Lama indicated to the envoys sent by the government of the ROC his support for the central government and his determination to make joint efforts for the happiness of the five ethnic groups. The Ninth Panchen Lama also actively contacted the central government and appealed for the restoration of normal relations between the central government and Tibet and the maintenance of the unification of the motherland.
In 1927, after the National Government was established in Nanjing, relations between the Tibetan local government and the central government saw obvious changes. In 1929, the 13th Dalai Lama sent his representatives to make official contacts with the National Government and to declare: "We will never be on intimate terms with Britain or betray the central government." Then the National Government sent envoys to Tibet to express their greetings and appreciation. The Tibetan local government and the Panchen Lama established resident offices in Nanjing. In 1931, the Tibetan local government officials and the Ninth Panchen Lama attended a national assembly meeting. In the 1930s the National Government began to set up special organs for the management of Tibetan affairs. According to the tradition by which the Qing government handled Tibetan political and religious affairs, after the 13th Dalai Lama passed away at the end of 1933, the National Government granted the title of "Great Master of Patriotism, Magnanimity, Benevolence and Sagacity" posthumously to the Dalai Lama and sent Huang Musong as a special envoy to Tibet to confer the title and to convey their condolences. As to such important affairs as the appointment of a "regent," seeking and confirming the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai and the enthronement of the 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan local government applied for the approval of these by the National Government in accordance with tradition. In response to the application of the Tibetan local government the National Government sent Wu Zhongxin, president of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, as special envoy to Tibet to preside over the enthronement of the 14th Dalai Lama in 1940. At the same time the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs established its resident Tibetan office in Lhasa. After the death of the 13th Dalai Lama, Radreng Rinpoche did many things to improve relations between the Tibetan local government and the central government. When the Japanese imperialists launched their aggressive war against China, the monks of the three great monasteries (Sera, Ganden and Drepung) in Tibet arranged religious services in which they prayed for victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan. Radreng Rinpoche attended these services and joined in the chanting of prayers. Through this special activity the Tibetan people showed their common hatred of the enemy and their love for their motherland. The National Government through its office in Tibet persistently maintained the status of exercising sovereignty over Tibet. In the summer of 1949 the Tibetan office of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs was still operating in Lhasa. In August of that same year, the National Government sent Guan Jiyu, president of the Commission, as special envoy to preside over the enthronement of the 10th Panchen Erdeni in Qinghai.
After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, the areas inhabited by Tibetans in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and Xikang provinces were liberated. The Central People's Government several times stated, in accordance with the wishes of the people of all ethnic groups of China, including the Tibetan people, that it was determined to liberate Tibet and fulfill the sacred cause of safeguarding the unification of the motherland despite of the obstruction and sabotage by imperialists. In 1951, the Central People's Government notified the Tibetan local government to send representatives to Beijing for negotiations, which resulted in the signing of "The Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet." This agreement led to the peaceful liberation of Tibet. Since then, Tibet has enjoyed a new life. According to the Chinese Communist Party's policy of ethnic regional autonomy, a Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region was set up in 1956, and the Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965. On the basis of democratic reform, Tibet carried out its socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production. This meant that Tibet had entered the primary stage of socialism and had realized the direct transition from feudal serfdom to socialism. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in late 1978, particularly after the 1980 Forum on Work in Tibet convened by the central government, reforms and the opening up of Tibet resulted in scenes of flourishing life. Now all the people of the Tibet region,under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government, are struggling with one heart and one mind for the construction of a socialist new Tibet, a society of unification, prosperity and civilization.
Ancient Society of Tibet
Origin of the Tibetan People and the Development of Tibet by Ancient Tibetans
The Rising of the Tibetan Land-Mass and the Formation of Its Natural Environment
Tibet is a beautiful region within the Chinese land-mass and one rich in natural resources. Located on the southwestern border of China, Tibet lies in the southwestern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. To its north is Xinjiang; to the northeast, Qinghai; to the east, Sichuan; to the southeast, Yunnan; to the south and west, Myanmar, India, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and Kashmir, with a border line of about 4,000 kilometers. The Tibet Autonomous Region covers an area of more than 1.2 million square kilometers, one-eighth of China's total area and 11 times the size of Zhejiang Province or 33 times the size of Taiwan Province. Among the provinces and regions of China, it is second in size only to Xinjiang.
The Tibetan Plateau is a relatively young land-mass. According to geological surveys conducted on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it was the seabed for a vast ocean during the early and middle Jurassic period, about 160-140 million years ago. The land began to rise above the sea only during the Pliocene epoch.
The reason it rose up was because the ancient Eurasian land-mass and the ancient Gondwana land-mass of the south hemisphere came together and pressed up against one another. The area to the south of what is now the Yarlungzangbo River and the South Asian subcontinent were both parts of the ancient Gondwanaland while the area to the north of the river was part of the Eurasian land-mass. With the movement of the earth's crust, the area to the south of the Yarlungzangbo River and the South Asian subcontinent broke away from the ancient Gond-wana land-mass and moved gradually from the south to the north. It pushed against the Eurasian continental plate. The line that linked them together is now along the Yarlungzangbo River. As a result of the two continental plates pressing against each other, the Tanggula area in the north of Tibet was the first to rise above the ocean. It was followed by the areas now to the south of the Tanggula Mountains, which also rose up from the ancient ocean and became dry land. A third area that rose from the ocean to become dry land was the area now along the Yarlungzangbo River. And the last area to rise up from the sea was what are now the Himalaya Mountains.
However, during most of the dozens of millions of geological years, Tibet was a lowland area with an average elevation of about 2,000 meters and a terrain higher on the whole in the west than in the east and south. According to the record in A Happy Feast for Wise Men: "The Upper Three Regions of Ngari were like lakes and ponds; the Central Four Regions of U and Tsang like ditches and canals; and the Lower Three Hills of Do-kham like cultivated land."[1] The History of Tibetan Kings and Ministers also holds that after the floods subsided, "The Upper Ngari was covered by snow mountains and stone mountains; the Middle U and Tsang by rock mountains and grassland; and the Lower Do-kham by dense forests."
At that time the Himalayas were not as high as they are at present, and the humid and hot monsoon from the Indian Ocean could come over the mountains and influence the climate of Tibet. The climate of Tibet was then subtropical, warm and humid. Two archeological teams in 1975 in the Xainza area of northern Tibet, found many fossils of coral, brachiopods, trilobites, three-toed horses, conifers, broadleaf trees and bushes in the stratum of the Paleozoic era. By inference, at that time the average annual temperature was about 10 degrees centigrade, and the annual rainfall was 2,000 to 5,000 millimeters. The geographical and natural conditions of Tibet in remote ancient times thus was suited to the development and multiplication of primitive humans.
With continued orogenic movement, the Himalayas rose up during the Quarternary period[2] and gradually became a climate barrier for Tibet. Thus the climate and natural environment of Tibet went through great changes: Tibet saw continental climate, cold and dry. And Tibet became the "Roof of the World."
As a result of this crustal movement over millions of years, the terrain of Tibet became surrounded by the Himalayas, the Tanggula Mountains, the Hengduan Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains, which has resulted in four kinds of natural environment in Tibet.
The topographic features of the Changtang Plateau in Northern Tibet are characterized by lakes. "Changtang" in the Tibetan language means "wide plain land in the north." Its average elevation is over 4,500 meters. The topographic features are characterized by rounded low hills with a height of 100 to 400 meters only. To the northwest of Damxung, an important town in north Tibet, lies the Namco Lake, a salt lake with an area of 1,940 square kilometers, the second largest salt lake in China, only exceeded by the Qinghai Lake. The Namco was formed by the earth's crust sinking during the process of the orogenic movement of the Himalayas. This lake is called "Tengri Nor" in Mongolian, meaning "heavenly pond" or "heavenly lake." The plateau in northern Tibet also has many basins, the lower parts of which became water storage points, or lakes. The total area composed of lakes in Tibet is 23,800 sq. km., making up 30 percent of all the lakes of China. Most of these lakes are scattered over the Changtang Plateau in northern Tibet. The plateau, far, wide and dim, is adjacent to the river valleys in southern Tibet, with the Gangdise (Kailas) and Nyainqentanglha mountains as the border between them. The plateau covers two-thirds of Tibet, and is the main pastoral zone of Tibet.
The topographic features of southern Tibet are characterized by many valleys. The zone between the Gangdise mountain range and the Himalayas is an area of many valleys of different sizes, resulting from the Yarlungzangbo River and its branches that run through the place. Its elevation is about 3,500 meters. The Yarlungzangbo River, meaning "mother river" in Tibetan, is the longest river in Tibet. The Yarlungzangbo runs from the west to the east. It turns southwestward at Mt. Namjagbarwa and then goes through Loyul into India. It is called Brahmaputra in India. Finally it runs through Bangladesh and empties into the Indian Ocean. The Chinese section is 2,057 kilometers long, the fifth longest among the many rivers of China, and the drainage area covers more than 240,000 sq. km. It is the sixth biggest among the drainage areas of China. The volume of its water flow is the third largest in China, and its elevation is the highest in the world. With many tributaries on both sides, it is a valley crisscrossed by a network of many rivers, flat terrain and fertile land. The valley has a population of 870,000 and cultivated land of 2.30 million mu (1 mu = 1/15 hectare), half population and the farmland of Tibet. It is thus the main agricultural zone of Tibet. Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and other important cities such as Xigaze (Shigatse), Gyangze and Tsetang (Zetang) are located in this valley. Zetang in the Yarlung valley is also the main cradle of the ancient Tibetan people.
The topographic features of eastern Tibet are characterized by mountains and gorges. The eastern part of Tibet is closed off by mountain ranges running north to south, and is divided by three of the major rivers of Asia: the Jinsha (upper reaches of the Yangtze), the Lancang (upper reaches of the Mekong) and the Nujiang (upper reaches of the Salween). Owing to the partition by the Jinsha, Lancang and Nujiang rivers, great gorges that run from north to south have been formed. The terrain is precipitous and higher in the north than in the south, with an average elevation of 4,000-5,000 meters. It is about 2,500 meters from the top of the mountains to the bottom of the gorges. Remains of the glaciers from the Quaternary period can be seen here and there in this area. The tops of the mountains are treeless and snow-covered all year around. There are dense forests on the mountainsides and green fields at the foot of the mountains. This is an agricultural-and-pastoral mixed zone of Tibet. Qamdo, an important city of eastern Tibet, is located to the north of the three river valleys.
China's border adjoining Nepal, India, Bhutan and Sikkim is formed by the Himalayas. The Himalayan range runs from east to west, stretching 2,400 km. in length and 200-350 km. in width. It is higher in the west than in the east. There are abundant rainfall and thick woods here. The range has an average altitude of 6,000 meters above sea level. Mt. Qomolangma is the highest peak in this mountain range, and is the highest peak in the world, with an altitude of 8,848.13 meters above sea level. The Himalayan range has many other peaks, of which more than 50 have an altitude of over 7,000 meters above sea level and 10 an altitude of over 8,000 meters. There are so many peaks, in fact, that a terrain barrier to airflow exists. It exerts great influences on the climate for the whole Asia. Yadong, an important town on the southern border of Tibet, is located in the curved part of the Himalayas.
The terrain conditions of the Tibetan Plateau result in much atmospheric circulation above the plateau, abundant sunshine, strong radiation from the sun, low temperature, big differences in temperature in a single day, sharp distinctions between dry and damp seasons, frequent night rains, dry winter and spring, strong wind, low atmospheric pressure, inadequate oxygen in the air, and the weather being cold and dry in the northwest and warm and damp in the southeast.
As can be seen from the above, the natural conditions specific to Tibet are important causes for the unique social and historical development of Tibet. It should be noted that partition by high mountains, isolated natural conditions, and climate changes in remote antiquity were elements that effected the lifestyle and civilization of the ancient Tibetans. Similarly, the origin and development of the Tibetan ethnic group, its unique conditions of life and mode of civilization are important historical, geographical and social reasons for the exploration of the land of Tibet.
Origin of the Tibetan Ethnic Group and the Distribution of Its Population
The Tibetan ethnic community is an important part of the big family that makes up the entire Chinese nation. It has a population of more than 3.8 million, of which 2.09 million[3] are distributed in Tibet, and the rest in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Haixi Mongolian-Tibetan-Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province; Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County of Gansu Province; Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Muli Tibetan Autonomous County of Sichuan Province; and Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province. Thus, the Tibetan people are concentrated on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its neighboring areas, comprising one fourth of the territory of China. Most of them live in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Tibetan ethnic group has a long history. According to archeological findings and historical records, 4,000 to 20,000 years ago humans began to inhabit Tibet. Tibet was called "Bod" in ancient times, the word "Bod" meaning agriculture in the ancient Tibetan language. This means Tibet had agricultural production a very long time ago. In Chinese historical books Tibet was also called "Xi-bo" or "Tubo." The Tibetan people called themselves "Bodpa." In the Tibetan language "pa" means people. Thus, "Bodpa" means people living in Bod. Judged from this designation, the Tibetan ancestors engaged in agricultural production long ago, and the Tibetans originated from local agricultural tribes.
Like other ethnic groups, the Tibetans have a legend of "Creation" that tells of their origin. Tibetan books, such as The History of Tibetan Kings and Ministers and A Happy Feast for Wise Men, record the legend of how monkeys transformed themselves into human beings in the Yarlung valley. The legend says that in times of remote antiquity Tibet was a howling wilderness, which was like a sea of fog when looked at from the heavens. In order to establish a world of utmost joy in Tibet, the heavenly god sent a divine monkey down. The monkey united with a rakshasa maiden, who lived in a local cave. The couple gave birth to six children, who multiplied and produced many descendants. The heavenly god taught them how to speak, gave them seeds of grain, and taught them to cultivate the land. At the same time the heavenly god gave them kindling material and taught them how to cook. At last, a world of happiness was established. Mythical legends are not history, but they contain elements of history anyway.
According to The History of Tibetan Kings and Ministers, Tibetans are "the descendants of a monkey and a rakshasa."[4] A Happy Feast for Wise Men says: "The monkeys ate grains and thus gradually transformed into human beings. They ate wild grains, wore clothes made with tree leaves and lived like beasts in the forests."[5] This is a description of how primitive people lived in the primitive society of Tibet. The legend of Tibetan people originating from monkeys reflects to a certain degree the fact that the Tibetan ancestors went through a process of evolution during a pre-historic period in which monkeys transformed themselves into human beings, and productive labor and cooking over a fire played a role in their evolution. The rakshasa in the legend was a cliff goddess worshipped by the primitive matrilineal clans in the Yarlung valley, and the divine monkey was a male deity worshipped by local patrilineal clans. Engels pointed out:
The gods thus fashioned within each people were national gods, whose domain extended no farther than the national territory which they were to protect; on the other side of its boundaries other gods held undisputed sway. They could continue to exist, in imagination, only as long as the nation existed; they fell with its fall.[6]
The legend of the union of a monkey and a rakshasa reflected the historical process by which Tibetan ancestors developed from a matrilineal system to a patrilineal system during the process of their evolution. Usually the pre-historical records of an ethnic group are passed down orally from generation to generation because of the lack of a written language. The Tibetan legend of "Creation" reflected the Tibetan people's reasonable imagination about their ancestors' evolution. That is why the legend of monkeys transforming into human beings is still spread among the Tibetans, Lhobas and Moinbas in Tibet.
If the mythical legend reflects, from only one aspect, the main role aborigines played in the formation of the Tibetan people, archeological findings have eloquently proved that Tibet was the cradle of the Tibetan ethnic community. Ancient human skulls were found in Nyingchi of Tibet in 1958 and 1975.[7] Systematic excavations made at the Karo neolithic archeological site in Qamdo, in 1977 and 1978, revealed 29 house sites, about 60 chipped stone tools, about 600 tiny blade tools, 500 polished stone tools and 366 bone tools, of which the smallest bone needle was 2.4 cm. long with an intact needle nose, as well as a large number of potsherd, millet and animal bone fossils. With radiocarbon dating (C14 test) and dendrochronology tests the fossils were dated to 3,900 to 5,600 years ago, and the place was determined to be a neolithic cultural site.[8] Since 1966, various stone, bone and pottery articles have also been unearthed in Tingri, Nyalam, Nagqu, north Ngari, Medog, the northern suburbs of Lhasa and other places of Tibet. A site for making primitive stone articles was discovered by the side of the Chedo Chaka Lake in northern Tibet. These archeological finds were of great significance. They were so widely distributed and had such a long history that they prove the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been a habitation for human beings from time immemorial.
The stone articles were appraised to have been produced in paleolithic, mesolithic and neolithic times respectively. Their special characteristics are: first, being similar to those of the same type found in North China; and second, having obvious regional features. The chipped stone tools found in Tibet consist of chopping tools, striking tools, scrapers, plated tools and pointed implements, made by striking stone from its broken face to the back of the stone. This was characteristic of the tools made in North China during the paleolithic age. But to strike from different angles is a characteristic of the Tibetan stone tools. The smallest Tibetan stone tools consisted of cuneiform stone cores, cone-like cores, post-like cores and ship-like cores, as well as stone arrowheads, axes and knives made by striking and then polishing. Their shapes are similar to those of the Shiyu stone articles found at Zhoukoudian in North China. Potsherds of more than 200 broken pots were unearthed at the Karo site, among which 46 were recovered. They were painted pottery vases, plates and bowls with various patterns and closely related to the Majiayao culture in Gansu and the Xi'an Banpo culture. However, they are small articles with flat bases. As compared with the three-legged vessels such as the ding (cauldron for meat and cereals), li (cauldron for meat and cereals) and yan (steamer for vegetables and cereals), as well as spread-footed vessels such as dou (hemispherical bowl with high stem and spreading feet) and bowls in the Central Plains of China, they have strong local features. All this has proven that the ancient culture with Tibetan characteristics had a close relationship with the ancient culture of the Yellow River valley. The skulls of ancient people found in Nyingchi were similar in form and structure to those of the same age found in North China. As shown by the latest research of anthropologists, the physical features of the early Tibetans were most similar to the ethnic minorities and Hans of northern and northwestern China. Both they and the Homo sapiens of North China belonged to the yellow race of East Asia. The racial origin and the cultural source of archeological finds show that the Tibetan ethnic community has since antiquity been an important part of the big family that now forms the Chinese nation.
From an ethnological viewpoint, an ethnic group should have a common territory, common psychology, common language and common economic and cultural features. The sites of Tibetan hominids so far found are mostly in places with good natural conditions. For example, the Nyingchi site is not far from the junction of the Yarlungzangbo and Nyang rivers; the Karo site is 12 km. to the south of Qamdo, with the Lancang River to the east and the Karo River to the south, having an elevation of 3,100 meters above sea level and forests and marshland nearby. The sites where stone vessels were excavated in northern Tibet were mostly near lakes, rivers, forests and caves, where fishing, hunting and gathering were available and the climate was warm and damp. Such natural conditions were good for multiplying. As to when the Tibetans as an ethnic group formed, Ya Hanzhang, a well-known scholar, has said:
The ethnological and anthropological investigations at home and abroad have proved that when men were in primitive society, tribes developed into ethnic groups. This is a universally applicable truth of Marxism on the formation of ethnic groups.[9]
According to the basic theory of Marxism, ethnic groups were formed at the end of primitive society and evolved from tribes. About 4,000 or 5,000 years ago the primitive people of southeastern Tibet called themselves "Bod." This means that at that time the ethnic self-consciousness of Tibetan people came into being. Then they merged with the ancient Qiang people and the "Tuofa" tribe of the Xianbei ethnic group, which had moved to Tibet from the north, and they formed a common language and tradition. Common territory of inhabitance brought about a common language. The Tibetan language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman group of the Han-Tibetan language family. The U-Tsang dialect is quite different from the Amdo dialect, and the Kham dialect is somewhat between U-Tsang and Amdo. A common language and common habits and customs gave rise to common ethnic psychology. The Tibetan ethnic group thus came into being.
Ancient Chinese books and records concerning the origin of Tibetan people deal mostly with ethnic merging and were written by later generations. Owing to the barriers provided by the mountains and rivers, the authors could not know the main role that the Tibetan aborigines played in the development of the Tibetan ethnic group. The "Records of Western Qiang" in the History of the Later Han Dynasty is the earliest record we have of the ancient Qiangs merging with the aborigines of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It says that the Yuexi tribe and the Yak tribe of the ancient Qiangs merged with the "six Yak tribes" of Tibet[10] The Old Tang Annals says: "Tubo, which is 8,000 li to the west of Chang'an, was originally a place of the Western Qiang in the Han Dynasty." The book considers them as descendants of the "Tuo-fa-li-lu-gu" of the Xianbei people.[11] According to Tong-Dian (A Comprehensive Study of History), the first Tsenpo (king) of the Tibetan people said he was a son of a heavenly god and was called Wode Pugyal. The book records that the Tuo-fa-li-lu-gu tribe subjugated all the other Qiangs and became stronger and stronger, and when they came into Tibet, they took Pugyal as their surname.[12] The New Tang Annals, quoting historical records after the History of the Later Han Dynasty and tracing back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.), says: "There were about 150 ancient Western Qiang tribes scattered in the valleys of the Yellow River, the Huangshui River, the Jinsha River and the Mingjiang River."[13] Of these tribes the "Fa-Qiang" lived in the remotest Shannan (Lhoka) area of Tibet. The name for their group was Tubo and their surname was Pugyal. "Their ancestor was called Wode Pugyal. He was brave and wise. He subdued other Qiangs and occupied their land."[14] This record is close to reality. It confirms the role of the Tibetan aborigines, the Pugyal tribe, in the origin of the Tibetan ethnic group, and also the role of ethnic fusion by the various Qiang tribes.
No ethnic group, in fact, could have been formed by a single tribe. Just as the Han ethnic group was formed by a combination of the Huangdi tribes and the Yandi tribes and merged with the Li, Miao and other southern tribes, the Tibetan ethnic group originated from the local Pugyal tribe, which merged with the ancient Qiangs and Xianbeis. The ancient Qiangs came from the Longshan area of Gansu. Their first ancestor was Yandi. During the ethnic migration of ancient times, a branch of the emigrants moved into the Central Plains and merged into the Hans, another branch moved westward into Xinjiang (called Nor Qiang during the Han Dynasty), and still another moved southward into northern Tibet and merged with the Tibetans. The modern Tibetan language and customs still have many features of the ancient Qiangs. For example, the ancient Qiangs called Huaxia (the Huangdi tribe) "Gya," and the Tibetans now still call the Hans "Gya"; the ancient Qiangs called mountain valleys "Yong," and the Tibetans still call valleys less than 3,000 meters high where it is warm and suitable for farming "Yong" and the people engaged in farming "Yongwa." Besides, the Tibetans call the place in north Tibet once inhabited by ancient Qiangs "Qiangtang" (i.e. Changtang). Both the ancient Tibetans and the Qiangs practiced the custom of "painting their faces red." The structure of a fortress in Tibet is similar to that of the dwelling houses ("Chonglong") of the ancient Qiangs. All this shows that the Tibetans had a blood relationship with the Qiangs that developed during the process of their origination. As to the ancient Xianbei people, a part of them merged with the Tibetans, another part with the Mongolians, and still another with the Hans. Thus, the Chinese nation is an ethnic amalgam in which all ethnic groups are like brothers and connected to each other in blood relationships.
A conclusion may be drawn from the above: the Tibetan people originated from the aborigines of the Tibetan Plateau merging with the ancient Qiangs and Xianbeis. However, there are different theories about the origin of the Tibetans. One is known as the "coming from the north." According to this theory, the Tibetans came from the north, that is, they originated from ethnic groups that had moved southward and westward. The theory neglects the important role the aboriginal ancestors of the Tibetans played in their origin, ignores the laws of ethnic origin and development, exaggerates the role of the ancient Qiangs and Xianbeis in the origin of the Tibetan people, and even holds that "the Qiangs were the Tibetans." However, "The theory of the Qiangs and Hans sharing a common origin" is a theory that politically serves Han chauvinism. Another theory holds that the Tibetans originated only from the Pugyal tribe, i.e. an aboriginal tribe in the Yarlung valley. It neglects the role of ethnic fusion in the origin of the Tibetan ethnic community and ignores the historical fact that the ancient Qiangs and Xianbeis moved southward and westward. It oversimplifies the complex ethnic problem and politically provides a basis for local ethnic chauvinism.
A third theory holds that the Tibetans came from the south. Some books on the history of Tibetan Buddhism say that Nyatri Tsenpo, the legendary founder of the Tubo royal family, was an Indian prince named Rubadi, who came with his attendants to the peak of Mt. Lhari Gyanto where local people found him and carried him on their shoulders back to their tribe, enthroning him as their king, called "the king carried on shoulders."[15] Thus it is said that the Tibetans originated in India; this brought about the fabrication that India and China's Tibet had the "relationship of mother and son" and shared "a common cultural source." Taking advantage of the Tibetans' popular belief in Buddhism, this theory mixes the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet from India with the origin of the Tibetan ethnic group, replacing historical fact with a myth. The Tibetan race in fact has none of the physical features of the Aryans of India, characterized by high noses and deep eyes, and linguistically is not related to the Hindi language of the Indo-European linguistic family. The theory of "originating from the south" was created only to provide basis for separating Tibet from China. The theories above not only are harmful politically, they also do not agree with the historical evidence of the Tibetan people. In solving the problem of the origin of the Tibetan ethnic community we should confirm the key role of the ancient Tibetan aborigines, as well as the role of other ethnic groups of China merging with them in ancient times.
Tibet now has a population of 2,196,000[16] Besides the Tibetans, there are ethnic Moinbas, Lhobas, Dengs and Sharpas who have lived in Tibet since ancient times. The Moinbas live mainly in Monyul, and some of them are scattered about in the counties of Medog, Nyingchi and Cona. They have their own language but no script. Monyul is located in the lowlands at the Himalayas with an area of 10,000 square meters. It has high mountains and deep valleys. The people there have had little contact with the outside, and so the place was once called "a hidden paradise" by Tibetan Buddhists. Before the Tubo unified Tibet, the Moinba ancestors had already lived in Mon, a wide mountainous area of southern Tibet. Most of the Lhobas live in Loyul in southeastern Tibet, and the rest in Mainling, Medog, Zayu, Lhunze, and Nangxian counties. In the Tibetan language "Lhobas" means southerners. The Lhobas constitute more than 20 tribes with different self-designations. In ancient times they migrated from north to south. Before this migration, they lived in the areas of Gongbo, Dakpo and Bomi. At the end of the 6th century the Lhobas became subjects of the Tubo. The Dengs are scattered about in the valleys of the Er Chu, Zayu Chu, Khetog Chu and Duche Chu in Zayu in southeastern Tibet. The Dengs speak the Darang and Geman dialects. They engage mainly in agriculture. The Dengs are called "Dengpas" in Tibetan. The term "Sharpas" means easterners in Tibetan. The Sharpas live mainly in Lishin and Shobogang near Zham, a land port on the Sino-Nepalese border, and Dinggye County. In China there are only 1,200 Sharpas. They engage in agriculture, animal husbandry and transportation. Like the Tibetans, the ethnic groups mentioned above also made contributions to the development of Tibet.
The Development of Tibet by Ancestors of Various Ethnic Groups
The ancestors of the various ethnic groups in Tibet experienced a long period of primitive clan communities during the process of their evolution. In ancient times they lived in rough natural environments. They developed Tibet with wisdom and coarse tools. In the past, some bourgeois scholars thought that Tibet, located on the "Roof of the World," was so cold and secluded by high mountains and deep rivers and so difficult of access that it was not fit for human habitation, and thus the earliest inhabitants of Tibet must have been those who had moved there from other places. The reason they advocated this theory was to prove Tibet was not a part of China's territory in ancient times and thus to attempt to separate Tibet from China. But the fact is that the ancestors of the Tibetans and other ethnic groups have labored and multiplied at this place since time immemorial.
According to archeological records and Tibetan and Chinese literature, the ancient people of the Tibetan Plateau first passed through a primitive period of cave-dwelling. At that time they were engaged in hunting and gathering with simple stone tools and bows and arrows. Both the Tibetans and the Lhobas have legends to this effect and there is archeological evidence of cave-dwellings. The Tibetans of Tsetang and Qonggyai still consider some mountain caves as the sites where their ancestors dwelled. For instance, in the cliff hanging over the Yarlungzangbo River near the town of Tsetang in Nedong County there is a cave in which a monkey was painted on the rock. The cave is said to have been the place from which the ancestors of Tibetans came. Since time immemorial the Tibetans have held sacrificial ceremonies at the cave during sowing time. The structure of the semi-underground caves at the Karo site of Qamdo prove the local Tibetan ancestors were cave-dwellers and their cave-dwelling obviously came from the same origin as that of Tibet proper in the Old Stone Age[17] Among the Lhobas of Medog a legend has it that their ancestors came from a cave. As they were not willing to give up the water in the cave, they took a ladleful of the water when they left the cave. Unfortunately they tumbled and spilled the water on the ground. The spilled water formed Lamco Lake. The Lhobas of the Daermu tribe hold that their ancestors came from a mountain cave near the Gongdu Photrang.
Legends and myths arise from social life. They are "a natural and social form made by people's illusion and unconscious artistic elaboration."[18] The Tibetan ancestors of the cave-dwelling period belonged to the time of consanguineal group marriage system. Their main economic life was characterized by the men doing the hunting and the women doing the gathering, domestication of animals and simple crop cultivation. In the Bogar tribe of the Lhobas goes a story about the marriage of Daning and Damong. It is said that Daning was Damong's brother and Damong his sister. They were the son and daughter of a heaven father and an earth mother. They lived in a cave. They loved each other, but were too shy to get married. In order to get humans to multiply, the sun god closed them into a coop, forcing them to get married. After the marriage, Daning hunted in mountains and forests and caught little boars for Damong to domesticate. In addition to the domestication of animals, Damong gathered wild fruits, dug the soil with muntjac's horns, softened the soil with a monkey's mandible and practiced planting. By rubbing rattan with a piece of wood they learned how to make fire and cook food. Their descendants formed the Bogar tribe. The story reflects the people's dim memory of cave-dwelling life. It also shows that at that time group marriage was practiced between sisters and brothers of the same generation, while group marriage between parents and children was excluded, as it was between grandparents and grandchildren. Primitive stock-breeding and agriculture also began at that time.
As the people began to realize that group marriage among brothers and sisters often led to bad results on the part of the offsprings, and as the population increased and productive activities enlarged in scope, consanguineal group marriage gradually developed into exogamous group marriage between different clans, and marriage within the same clan was forbidden. The emergence of exogamous marriage implied the beginning of the matri-clan society. The Contents of the Yungdrung Bon, a Tibetan history book on Bonism, as well as the Red Annuals and A Happy Feast for Wise Men, two Tibetan books on Buddhist history, all have information about the matri-clan society. In the Yarlung valley the Tibetan ancestors were divided into six clans: Si, Mu, Tong, Dong, Cha and Chu. The record tallies with that of the "Six Yak Clans" in the History of the Later Han Dynasty and New Tang Annals. The clans lived in Sogkang, Tsekang, Woka-Jukang, Trikang and other places in the Yarlung valley. People at that time had already given up cave-dwelling and women had a fixed residence in the "Long House." People knew how to plant qingke (highland barley), millet, etc., make pottery and tend yaks. Hunting no longer played a main role in their economic life. Instead, animal husbandry and domestication enjoyed greater development. Tibetan history books vividly describe the Tibetan ancestors then as "meat-eating and red-faced men."[19] "Meat-eating" suggests that animal husbandry had witnessed great progress by that time, and the fact that they liked to paint their faces red was probably related to the red paint for making pottery and their love for red colors.
Matrilineal clan society does not have a "king." Women enjoyed high prestige in the society, and the clan chieftain was a woman. They not only led clan members in productive activities but were also responsible for arranging clothing and food for their clan members and distributing these equally among them. As the inter-relationship of marriage and productive activities increased, the neighboring clans gradually developed into tribes. In the Bonru tribe of the Lhobas there is a legend that their tribe included six clans including Maya, Bayina, Daneng, Bonru and Suneng, and their first ancestress was Lede Loden. At that time there was no grass but mountains and forests on the land. Lede Loden learned to plant grass and distributed grassland, mountains, and forests, as well as cattle, sheep and horses among her descendants, of whom some got cattle, some got sheep and some got horses. The legend shows the ancient people in Tibet knew how to plant grass as early as the time of the matrilineal system. As to the distribution of mountains, forests and domestic animals, it proves that the people in matrilineal society had a rather fixed scope of production and living, and different clans had different totem animals such as the yak, sheep or horse.
In matrilineal society, marriages were arranged with women as the center, and exogamous group marriage was practiced. A child would know his mother but not know who his father was. The blood relationship took only the maternal line of descent into consideration. A woman could marry several men from other clans. A legend of the Bonies of the Lhoba ethnic group goes like this: In the mountains in the northeastern part was a place called Miyumen where all the inhabitants were women. They led a comfortable life and had many treasures. If a man accidentally appeared among them, he would be forced to stay for the night. When he was allowed to leave, the women would give him treasures so as to attract other men to come and stay the night. After a baby was born, if it was a girl, she would remain in the matri-clan tribe and if it was a boy, he would be sent to another tribe or be killed. The legend shows that in a matri-clan society men went to women's clan for marriage and matriarchy was in power. Marriage remnants of the matriarchal clan society could still be found in some areas of Tibet when the territory was peacefully liberated in 1951. According to a social survey, among the Moinbas of Medog County there were 22 households of polyandry, among which 18 households were of fraternal polyandry (one household of four brothers sharing a wife, two households of three brothers sharing a wife, and the rest were of two brothers sharing a wife) and four households were composed of several friends sharing a wife. Most of the last four households were constituted by semi-ablebodied men. Generally, if a wife was capable, her husbands would live together in a friendly way.[20]
With development of the productive forces, there were great changes in men's social status. Disintegration of matri-clans and changes in marriage customs and habits occurred. Patri-clan society with men as the center began to be established. It is generally held that the establishment of patrilineal inheritance symbolized that society had entered the period of patri-clans. By that time Tibet had entered the age of "rule by kings." The "king" was in fact the male chieftain of a tribe. As recorded in handwritten copies in ancient Tibetan script, which were discovered in Cave No. 17 at Dunhuang, Tibet originally had 44 kings and then it developed into 12 small kingdoms. Each of these had its own king and ministers, and the kingdoms were in Qingyul, Shang-shung, Nyangro, Nubu, Nyang, Kori, Ngangshung, Wupu, Drak-ana, Gongyul, Nyangyul, and Dayul. They were in fact 12 big tribes. The Pugyal tribe in the Yarlung valley was one of them. It had its king earlier than the others. A king was called "Tsenpo" in Tibetan. In ancient Tibet "tsen" meant "strong" and "po" meant "man," and so Tsenpo meant "a strong man." In 117 B.C. the first Tsenpo of the Pugyal tribe in the Yarlung valley appeared.[21] He was called Nyatri Tsenpo. He was the son of a deity called Tridontsi.[22] The first Tsenpo was perhaps selected by way of election. It is recorded that he was invited to be enthroned by twelve representatives of the Bonists with different clan names.[23] So he was probably chosen through a democratic election at a tribal conference. The Dunhuang literature also says the title of Tsenpo was offered by all tribes to the Pugyal chieftain[24] and they considered him as "king of Bod."[25] After that, Tibetan society entered the age of men's rule and thus patrilineal descent was established.
An important feature of patri-clan society was patriarchy. However, the disintegration of matriarchy passed through a very long period of time. All the Tsenpos from the first to the seventh (Siptri Tsenpo) were surnamed after their mothers respectively. But the fourth Tsenpo (Sotri Tsenpo) was surnamed after his mother and named after his father. This agrees with the records of the History of the Later Han Dynasty about the ancient Qiangs: "In accordance with their custom and habits, the clans of the Qiangs have no fixed surnames and one could be surnamed after the mother and named after the father[26] Patriarchy was reflected not only by the fact that men controlled political affairs, but also by the marriage system: polyandry changed into polygamy. Being contrary to matri-clans, in patri-clan society, men instead of women were the successors of family lineage and women were married out to other clans. The marriage institution developed into monogamy only after the disintegration of the patri-clan system. But among Tibetans, Lhobas and Moinbas, like polyandry, remnants of polygamy still existed until 1951. However, polygamy in Tibet, being different from that among the Hans, was characterized by the fact that a man married a group of sisters, and the relations among the women were not those of a wife and concubines.
The emergence of the patri-clan system implied that a deep social reform had promoted the development of the productive forces. Its striking manifestation was the appearance of metal tools and the growth of agriculture. At the time of Drigum Tsenpo and Pude Gungyal (the two Middle Kings) the Yarlung valley saw that people "could make charcoal by burning wood; extract gold, silver, copper and iron from ore; make a plough or a yoke by drilling holes in pieces of wood; open up wastelands; bring water from a river to irrigate farmlands; plough farmlands; bring grassland and plains under cultivation; and build bridges across rivers. That was the beginning of agriculture."[27] Animal husbandry also saw great advances. Cross-bred animals such as the dzo (hybrid yak) and mules, as well as the practice of "storing hillside grass for domestic animals to pass the winter" began to appear. The development of agriculture and animal husbandry provided conditions for the emergence of commerce. "At that time measurement tools for grain and oil began to emerge in bargains. But before that time Tibet had had no measurement tools for length, capacity and weight."[28] The establishment of a measurement system and trade prices showed the progress of the primitive trade exchange. With economic development, Tibet built its first houses, known as Yumbulagangs,[29] and the first tomb for one of its kings.[30] In production and daily life, people began to find medical functions for some animals and plants and established the primitive "Bonist Medicine." At that time there was no systematic medical theory, but treatment by bloodletting, fire and mud-smearing were practiced. It was the beginning of Tibetan medicine. In astronomy and calculation people began to develop an initiative primitive knowledge. At the time of King Namri Lontsan, people knew how to take salt from Lhatso Lake in the north and then they learned to season their food with salt.
In a word, the primitive people developed Tibet and created a brilliant ancient culture through diligent labor.
Tibet Before the Establishment of the Tubo Regime
The Blending of the Qiang and Tibetan Tribes at the Turn of the Qin to Han Dynasties
At the turn of the Qin to Han dynasties, a united multi-ethnic feudal state was formed in the Central Plains of China. Because China was very large, its ethnic groups developed unevenly. In the hinterland the productive mode of feudalism was already consolidated, while in Tibet there existed a great number of tribes that were still in the primitive patri-clan stage of society. Although at that time the dynasty in the hinterland could not exercise authority over Tibet, the unification and stability of the hinterland surely had a great impact on Tibet and promoted the blending of the Tibetan tribes.
In 221 B.C. Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, unified China. The Yis in the Huaihe valley in the east, the Mans, Miaos, Bas and Shus in the Yangtze and Hanshui valleys in the south, the Baiyues in Fujian, Zhejiang and the Pearl River valley, the Qiangs, Dis and a part of the Rongs in the west were all unified into the one country. The areas under the jurisdiction of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) stretched from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Gansu Plateau in the west, from the Nanling Range and Xiang prefecture of the northern Yue in the south to Hetao (the Great Bend of the Yellow River), the Yinshan mountain range and Liaodong in the north. The whole country had at first 36 prefectures and these were then increased to more than 40. At that time the Xiongnus (Huns) to the north of the Yinshan Mountains were strong and often invaded the hinterland of China. In order to resist invasion by the Xiongnus, Qin Shi Huang sent Meng Tian with a big army of three hundred thousand soldiers to go on an expedition, established 34 counties to the south of the Yinshan mountain range, and rebuilt the city walls originally erected by the Yan, Zhao and other states during the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) and connected these as a whole for defense against the Xiongnus. It is obvious that the Qin Dynasty concentrated its attention on the north and did not have contact with "faraway" Tibet, and therefore knew little about it. Nonetheless, although there were no official contacts, the contacts between the ancient Qiangs in Gansu and Qinghai and the "Fa Qiang" and "Tang Mao" tribes in the interior of Tibet had already had a long history.
The ancient Chinese inscriptions on tortoise shells and animal bones have records about the ancient Qiangs. Beginning in the Zhou (c. 11th century B.C.-256 B.C.) and Qin dynasties, ancient Chinese books referred to Qiangs not only as the ancestors of the present Qiangs but also as the tribes in western China engaged in animal husbandry, including the Fa Qiang and Tang Mao tribes in the interior of Tibet. Geographically, the Qiangs at the upper reaches of the Jialing River and the Qiangshui valley in the south of Gansu were called the Baima Qiangs and Shenlang Qiangs; those at the Huangshui valley in Qinghai and the upper reaches of the Yellow River were called the Shaodang Qiangs, Mitang Qiangs and Xianling Qiangs; those in southern Xinjiang were called the Nor Qiangs; and those in the interior of Tibet were called the Fa Qiangs and Tang Maos. So the history books from all the dynasties considered Tibet as a part of the area of the ancient western Qiangs. The New Tang Annals says: "Tubo originally belonged to the western Qiangs." The History of the Song Dynasty says: "Tubo was originally a place of the western Qiangs in the Han Dynasty." The Yi Tong Zhi (Records of Unification) of the Ming Dynasty says: "The Xibos are none other than the Tubos. Their ancestors were a part of Qiangs."
Before the unification of China by Qin Shi Huang, the Qin focused its main efforts on conquering its six rival kingdoms; this provided Qiangs an opportunity to grow and develop. Their animal husbandry and handicrafts progressed at this time. The History of the Han Dynasty says, they "were good at cultivating farmland and raising pigs, cattle, sheep, horses, donkeys and mules and were good at making woolen cloth."[31] However, the Qin's rule was harsh. Before unifying China, its rulers consistently attacked the six kingdoms of Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qi, and, after unifying the country, fought with the Xiongnus. Thus, in order to support the wars, a large number of soldiers were recruited and a great amount of taxes were collected from the people. Severe oppression and exploitation certainly would scare Qiangs so that they would flee. That is the reason Qiangs moved southward and westward.
At that time, the Fa Qiang and Tang Mao tribes in the interior of Tibet consisted of the Pugyal tribe in the Yarlung valley and the twelve tribes of Qingyul, Shangshung, Nyangro, Nubu, Nyang, Kori, Ngangshung, Wupu, Drakana, Gongyul, Nyangyul, and Dayul, and nine tribes in Wupalung; they all enlarged their scope of activities. As the Himalaya Mountains constituted an obstacle in the south, they had to move to the relatively plain northern Tibet in order to get salt, and so came into contact with Qiangs who had moved into northern Tibet and southern Qinghai. During a long period of association they supplemented each other economically, absorbed each other's culture, and became related through intermarriage.
In ancient Chinese books the earliest record of the blending of Qiangs and Tibetans is the story about Wuyi Nuanjian and his descendants, called generally the Xi Qiangs (the western Qiangs), and the tribes of Fa Qiang and Tang Mao, the ancestors of the Tibetans. The History of the Later Han Dynasty says:
Wuyi Nuanjian of Qiangs was captured and put under control as a slave by the Qin during the reign of Duke Li of Qin... He fled and the Qins ran after him. He hid himself in a cave and the Qins set a fire to burn him. But something like a tiger protected him from the fire. He survived after the fire. After coming out of the cave he met a woman in the wilderness and married her. She was ugly because her nose had been cut off. The woman was so ashamed of her ugly face that she covered it with her hair. After that it has become a custom of Qiangs, who then wandered from place to place... At the time of Wuyi Nuanjian's great-grandson Ren, Duke Xian of Qin came to power. The duke defeated the Di and Rong tribes. Ren's uncle, Ang, was afraid of the Qin's rule, so he led his tribesmen to move southward several thousand li west of Hequ (the first bend of the Yellow River). After that they have had no contact with other Qiangs.[32]
According to other history books, the reign of Duke Li of the Qin was in 476-443 B.C. During his reign, the Qin attacked Qiangs including the Yiqu tribe and captured their chieftain. Nuanjian, a commoner of the Qiangs, was also captured in the war and was forced to be a slave in the Qin territory. He was called Wuyi Nuanjian because "Wuyi" meant "slave" in the ancient Qin language. Afterward, Nuanjian fled. The Qin duke sent soldiers to run after him. Nuanjian hid himself in a cave. When the Qin soldiers set fire to burn the cave something like a tiger was seen in the fire. The soldiers took it for a mysterious thing and so put out the fire and let him go. Nuanjian ran away and met a woman slave whose nose had been cut off. They got married and moved to the Qiang area in the Huangshui valley of Qinghai. Nuanjian was then elected as the tribal chieftain of the Qiangs. His wife used to cover her nose with her hair. After that it became the Qiangs' custom for women to cover their faces with hair. Years later when Nuanjian's grandson Ang was in power, he was so afraid of Qin's rule that he moved the tribe southward into northern Tibet where they mixed themselves with the local "Tang Mao" tribe, and thus became ancestors of the present-day Changtang people of northern Tibet. Nuanjian's great-grandsons included Wu and Ren. Ren was Ang's nephew, and the latter was the former's fourth uncle. Both Wu and Ren were tribal chieftains. Ren had nine sons, who founded nine tribes; Wu had seventeen sons, who founded seventeen tribes. When Duke Xian of Qin came into power in 385 B.C. he started to attack the Qiang tribes of Rong and Di. The war caused great upheaval in the Qiang society. The tribes of Wu and Ren again moved several thousand li westward and southward. A part of them stayed in Gansu and Qinghai and the rest reached southern Tibet. After the unification of China, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, put his main efforts into dealing with the Xiongnus and did not send troops to the west, so the Qiangs and Tibetans then led a relatively stable life. By now there were more than 150 big and small patri-clan tribes of Qiangs and Tibetans on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
During the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) ethnic blending continued. In 206 B.C. the Han Dynasty was established by Liu Bang, who was later known as Emperor Gaozu. In this period China was further unified on the basis of unification started by the Qin. The Xiongnus, the ethnic groups in the Western Regions, the Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes of the eastern Hu, and most of the Qiangs in the west that had not been unified during the Qin Dynasty were now brought into the compass of China. Owing to the submission of the Xiongnus and the exploitation of the Western Regions, the territory of the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 23) became larger than that of the Qin; its borders reached the ocean in the southeast, Balkhash Lake, Fergana Basin and the Pamirs in the west, and Guangxi and Yunnan in the southwest.
During the years between the Qin and Han dynasties, the Qiang tribes in Qinghai and southern Gansu were ruled by the Xiongnus for a short period of time. Together with Xiongnus they offered allegiance to the Han Dynasty. The Han Emperor Wudi established the post of "Hu-Qiang-Xiao-Wei" (General for the Protection of Qiangs) to put the Qiang areas under his direct control. The policies of oppression of national minorities practiced by the Western Han Dynasty caused many rebellions by the Qiangs. Especially during the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220) the Qiangs waged three large-scale rebellions. The first was during the reign of Emperor Andi (r. 107-125). The rebels numbered tens of thousands. The Eastern Han court sent more than two hundred thousand troops to suppress the revolt. The second one was during the reign of Emperor Shundi (r. 126-144). The rebels killed General Ma Xian who was sent by the Eastern Han court. It was only after ten years of war that the Eastern Han finally put that revolt down. The third one was during the reign of Emperor Huandi (r. 147-167). Hundreds of thousands of rebels occupied the whole Liangzhou Prefecture. After fighting for eleven years, they were defeated by the Eastern Han. The three revolts were heavy blows to the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In ancient times wars between ethnic groups frequently occurred and were a cause for ethnic migrations, blending and assimilation, and also led to people of various ethnic groups living together in compact or mixed communities. The wars were different in character from national wars between modern sovereign states. They were usually wars between the central court and national minorities in the border areas. On one hand, it was the way that the Han rulers enlarged their territory and practiced policies of oppression of national minorities in the border areas. On the other, it was the way that the Qiangs encroached on the Han areas to make use of grassland and capture people. It had the character of wars between tribes. The History of the Later Han Dynasty records how the Qiangs of the Mitang tribe fought against the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the autumn of A.D. 101 (the thirteenth year of the Yongping reign of Emperor Hedi).
The Mitang sent troops to attack the stronghold. Zhou Wei, governor of Jiuquan of Han, and Hou Ba, governor of Jincheng, together with troops from other prefectures, totalling thirty thousand strong, went out of the stronghold to fight the Mitang in Yunchuan. Zhou Wei went back to defend the camps, while Hou Ba with troops fought bravely and killed more than four hundred people of the Mitang. The Qiangs suffered a great loss and dispersed. More than 6,000 people surrendered. They were sent to Hanyang, Anding and Longxi.[33]
After the war the Mitang tribe of the Qiangs was greatly weakened. The Eastern Han moved the 6,000 Mitang people by force into the interior. The rest could do nothing but go "to the Cizhi River and live together with the Fa Qiangs."[34] After moving into Tibet, the Mitang tribe gradually blended with the Tibetans.
At that time the Yarlung tribe in Lhoka, Tibet, had entered the age of "ruling by kings." After "The Seven Heavenly Kings" (i.e., Nyatri Tsenpo, Mutri Tsenpo, Dingtri Tsenpo, Sotri Tsenpo, Mertri Tsenpo, Dagtri Tsenpo, and Sibtri Tsenpo), "Two Middle Kings" (Drigum Tsenpo and Pude Gongyal), "Six Lek Kings" (Esholek, Desholek, Tisholek, Gurulek, Drongshelek, and Isholek) and "Eight De Kings" (Sanam Sinde, Detul Namshung, Senol Namde, Senol Pode, Denolnam, Denolpo, Degyalpo, and Detintsen), the patri-clan system had become consolidated among them.
In a word, the blending of the Qiangs and Tibetans at the turn of Qin to Han was carried out by a process of ethnic migration and wars. Doubtlessly, the ethnic contacts and blending, by way of the ancient Qiangs moving southward and westward, brought advanced knowledge of agriculture and husbandry from the hinterland to the border areas inhabited by the Tibetan ancestors, which promoted the development of remote border areas. Through contacts with the ancient Qiangs the hinterland began to learn about Tibetan ancestors in the "most faraway" places. Historical records of Tibet became more detailed. These are the first records of relations between Tibet and the hinterland.
Tibetan Tribes in the Period of the Wei, the Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties
After the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, China entered the period of the Wei (220-265), the Jin (265-420) and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589). Following 216, the year that Cao Cao proclaimed himself king of Wei, the hinterland became divided into the three rival kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu. Then, after more than half a century, in 265, Sima Yan overthrew the Wei and established the Western Jin, which saw a temporary unification of China. But then northern China fell apart again. Seven ethnic groups set up a total of 23 independent local regimes, namely: the Former Zhao, Northern Liang, and Xia—three regimes of the Xiongnus; the Liaoxi, Dai, Northern Zhou, Former Yan, Later Yan, Western Qin, Western Yan, Southern Liang and Southern Yan—nine regimes of the Xianbeis; the Later Zhao of the Jie people; the Chouchi, Former Qin and Later Liang—three regimes of the Dis; the Later Qin of the Qiangs; the Cheng-Han of the Bas and Dis; and the Former Liang, Ran Wei, Western Liang, Later Shu and Northern Yan—five regimes of the Hans. Finally, the Northern Wei of the Xianbeis again unified the northern part of China. In the south, Sima Rui established the Eastern Jin (A.D. 316-420) in Nanjing. It was followed by the four small dynasties of Song, Qi, Liang and Chen, one after another, which were antagonistic to the Northern Wei. This historical period is called the Southern and Northern Dynasties Period.
The time of Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties was a period of wholesale migration and blending of the people of the ethnic minorities in China. At this time the relations between ethnic groups experienced great changes. It was also a period of many wars in which China saw a lot of rebellions and disturbances. Ethnic groups made frequent movements. Some disappeared, and others prospered. After the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there are no records about the activities of Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Tugu and Lushui Hu. They had been assimilated by other ethnic groups. The ancient Qiangs who entered Tibet during the Qin and Han periods were assimilated by the Tibetans. The Xianbeis who entered Tibet during the Wei and Jin dynasties were also assimilated by the Tibetans. During the several hundred years from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to 589, when the Sui Dynasty unified China, there were about a dozen big tribal groups or power groups in Tibet in addition to the Pugyal tribe in the Yarlung valley: they included the Sumpa, Greater and Lesser Yangtong, Palen, the Eastern and Western Woman States, Fuguo, etc.
The Sumpa tribe in northern Tibet and southeastern Qinghai was called "the Western Woman State" in ancient Chinese books. The History of the Northern Dynasties says: "The Woman State is to the south of the Congling range [the Pamirs]. The state has been ruled by queens for generations. The queen's surname is Sumpa and her name is Mojie."[35] This shows that the Sumpa tribe had a wide scope of activities and its influence reached south of the Congling range. The Sumpas engaged mainly in agriculture and animal husbandry and had thirty thousand-odd households. The queen's husband was called "Jingju," and he was in charge of war activities. "All men were engaged in war activities. They had wars with the Tianzhu and Dangxiang."[36] The tribe was once quite powerful. It built a big fortress with walls for defense. The fortress had a circumference of five or six li. The queen lived in a nine-storey building, and she was served by several hundred women servants. Every five days she held an audience with her ministers. A junior queen was her assistant in state administration. In 586 the tribe sent envoys to offer tribute to the Sui court. The Sumpas had an unstable union with the Yarlung tribe. In their struggle within the Bonpas, Ayong, a Bonist of the Sumpa tribe, killed Nyatri Tsenpo, the first Tsenpo of the Yarlung tribe. After Tubo established its rule in Tibet, they annexed Sumpa.
The Yangtong tribes, consisting of the Greater Yangtong and Lesser Yangtong, inhabited western Tibet. The former was in northern Ngari and northern Tibet, while the latter in southern Ngari. The Yangtong people "wore their hair in braids and engaged in animal husbandry." The territory of Greater Yang-tong was bigger than that of the Lesser Yangtong, "reaching Tubo in the east, Lesser Yangtong in the west, and Yutian in the north. It was a thousand li from east to west and had eighty or ninety thousand veteran troops."[37] The scope of the Greater Yangtong people's activities extended to the south of Xinjiang. They had close relations with the Yarlung tribe. During the early reign of the Tubo Dynasty, the Greater and Lesser Yangtong sent troops to attack Tuyuhun ("Asha" in Tibetan) in Qinghai in coordination with the military operations of the Tubo. In 644 the Yangtong tribes were annexed by Tubo.
The Palen tribe in northern Tibet was formed by an amalgamation of Qiangs and Tibetans at an earlier time. They engaged in animal husbandry: breeding horses, yaks, cattle and sheep. They lived in tents and had no cities. The scope of their activities extended to the source of the Yellow River in Qinghai. The Palens originally pledged allegiance to the Tuyuhuns, and then became independent because Tuyuhun became weak. In the middle of the 6th century the Palens sent envoys to pay tribute to the Northern Zhou of the Northern Dynasties. In 652 Palen was subdued by Tubo.[38]
The Eastern Woman State and Fuguo in eastern Tibet and western Sichuan were the outcome of a merging of the Maoniu (Yak) Qiangs, Baima (White Horse) Qiangs and Tibetan ancestors who inhabited Sichuan during the Han Dynasty. "Fuguo is two thousand li to the northwest of Sichuan. It was called the Southwestern Yi in the Han Dynasty." The name of its king is Yizeng, and "the kingdom is about 800 li from north to south and 1,500 li from east to west."[39] It had 20,000-odd households. They engaged mainly in agriculture and animal husbandry. They lived in fortress-like houses built of stone. They crossed rivers on leather rafts. In 608 and 609 they twice sent envoys to pay tribute to the Sui Dynasty.
The Eastern Woman State was located to the west of Fuguo and to the south of Dangxiang. It had the same customs as did the Fuguo, and it had developed various handicrafts. The people were good at making gold and silver wine containers and jewelry. They were ruled by a queen. Men were responsible for farming and war affairs. Children were surnamed after their mothers. In the early 7th century the Eastern Woman State and Fuguo were subdued by Tubo.
The Yarlung tribe inhabited Lhoka (Shannan). During the period of the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties it was ruled by nine generations of Tsenpos. The first five Tsenpos were Gyalto Rilungtsen, Tritsanam, Trida Pungtsen, Trito Jetsen, and Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen. They are called the "Five Tsens" in Tibetan history. The other four Tsenpos were Trinyan Songtsen, Drongnyan Deu, Takri Nyansik, and Namri Songtsen. That period in Tibet was one of late-period primitive society. When Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen began to build Lhasa, the relations of production of a slave system had already begun and Tibetan history turned from primitive society to a slave system.
The Rise of the Pugyal Tribe in the Yarlung Valley
The valley in Lhoka, Tibet, was called the Yarlung valley. The area of Qonggyai and Tsetang in the Yarlung valley was the cradle of the Yarlung tribe, an area where the elevation was relatively low and the land fertile. From the first Tsenpo, Nyatri Tsenpo, to Songtsen Gampo, who unified Tibet and established the Tubo regime of the slave system, the Pugyal tribe in the Yarlung valley was successively ruled by 32 Tsenpos. During the reign of the 28th Tsenpo, Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen, the primitive patri-clan society disintegrated and the relations of production of a slave system began to appear. It was during the reign of the 32nd Tsenpo, Songtsen Gampo, that the slave society was completely established. This period witnessed the rise of the Yarlung tribe.
The Yarlung Pugyal tribe was for a very long period of time a primitive clan society. According to Tibetan and Chinese records, in order to safeguard their ruling authority all the Tsenpos proclaimed themselves "sons of the Heavenly deity," coming from heaven to the earth to be kings. The first Tsenpo was called Wode Pugyal, meaning "King of Brilliant Heaven Realm." "The first Tsenpo proclaimed himself Wode Pugyal, so it was his surname."[40] "The Sacred Tsenpo Wode Pugyal came down to earth in the guise of a man, and became the great king of Tubo."[41] A legend has it that the "Seven Heavenly Kings" after death went back to heaven after rendering meritorious services. This reflected the fact that in early patri-clan society the Pugyal tribe consolidated its regime in the name of the "heavenly deity." Nyatri Tsenpo subdued the chieftains of Nu and other tribes and made the tribesmen his subjects.[42] Thus we can see that the tribes were beginning to annex each other.
At that time religious forces became powerful and began to exert their influence over politics. Nyatri Tsenpo built a Bonist temple named Yungdrung Lhatse, but soon afterward he came into conflict with another Bonist group and was killed by a Bonist from Sumpa. This shows that Bonism at that time was powerful. With the establishment of the Tsenpo institution and the rise of Bonism during the reign of the 8th Tsenpo, Drigum Tsenpo, the struggle between the two became intense. At last Drigum Tsenpo subdued the Bonists. It was the first time in history that Bonism became weak. The struggle resulted in Drigum Tsenpo being killed by Longam, a herdsman. Supported by the religious forces, Longam was able to buy weapons and armor and to proclaim himself king. After taking political power from the Tsenpo, he tried to kill all the Tsenpo's descendants. The Tsenpo's three sons were protected in three neighboring tribes, and his wife, who was eight months pregnant, was forced to tend sheep on a mountain. There she gave birth to a posthumous child named Purugyal. After Purugyal came of age, he sent troops to kill Longam, destroy Longam's power, and invite his elder brother, Pude Gongyal, who had fled to Popu (now Bomi), back to take power. Thus the Tsenpo institution, which had been broken for a dozen years, resumed again. Literally, "Pude Gonggyal" means "triumphing over all" in Tibetan. Pude Gongyal became the 9th Tsenpo. When he came to the throne, he drew a lesson from his father's losing power. He cemented relations with the Bonists. Thus encouraged by the royal court, the Bonists rose for a second time. In order to bring order out of the chaos caused by wars and to consolidate his power, the 9th Tsenpo built in Yarlung the first tomb for a Tibetan king, i.e., the tomb of Drigum Tsenpo, and he held sacrificial activities there lasting for as long as a year and attended by most of his subjects. He had his father's body put into a copper coffin, which was buried at Taktang in Qingyul, and appointed Purugyal minister. To meet the needs of economic development, Purugyal organizd his subjects to smelt gold, silver, copper and iron for farm tools, and to make glue from leather. He built the Chingwa Tagtse Castle. In Tibetan history he is called the head of seven wise and brave ministers.
During the reign of the "Six Lek Kings," agriculture and animal husbandry developed further. "Farm tools were made and ditches and bridges were repaired for the benefits of the people."[43] The "Six Lek Kings" are regarded in Tibetan history as kings who accomplished great achievements.
During the reign of the "Eight De Kings," the 17th Tsenpo, Detul Namshung, repressed Bonism because of conflicts between the various Bonist sects. In order to wipe out the influence of Bonist priests, the Tsenpo established the post of Senior Lon (prime minister), to assist him in dealing with administrative affairs. The conflicts between the Bonist sects reflected a struggle between the aristocrats and the Bonist priests. As a result of these conflicts, the status of the aristocrats was strengthened.
During the reign of the "Five Tsens," five Tsenpos ruled Tibet one after another. "They educated people in morals, organized them, appointed officials for administration and had horses and yaks herded so as to get clothing and food. The population increased, so they widened their territory and subjugated other tribes."[44] That period of time saw class polarization. "The people could no more live in liberty." An embryonic political regime came into being. In the late reign period of the "Five Tsens," or during the reign of the 28th Tsenpo Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen, the primitive patri-clan system fell apart. Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen moved his capital to Lhasa. Thus the Yarlung Pugyal tribe occupied the interior of Tibet and began the historical process of moving into a slave-owning system.
The development of Lhasa by Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen was of historic significance. It not only provided good conditions for the development of the Pugyal tribe, it also laid the basis for Songtsen Gampo to build Lhasa as the political center. Lhasa (called Rasa in ancient times) is in central Tibet. The significance of building Lhasa can be seen in what follows.
First, it was beneficial to breaking down isolation and enlarging the field of vision. It played a role in assimilating the civilization of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers of the motherland, the nomadic culture of the Central Asian grasslands, the agricultural tradition of the West Asian valleys, and the Buddhist ideology of South Asia. In the reign of Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen Buddhism was introduced into Tibet. By then Buddhism had already been thriving in the hinterland of China for more than 260 years.[45] After coming into Tibet it might have spread easily had it not been opposed by the Bonist group, which had its strength in Tibet. So a myth was created about a Buddhist scripture falling from the sky. Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen kept the Buddhist sutras and musical instruments for Buddhist ceremonies from India in a hall of Yumbulagang; the book was called "Hidden Greatness." It reflected the ideological struggle of the period when the relations of production of the primitive clan system were changing into that of the slave-owning system. At that time Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen invented Tibetan opera. He organized six old men, called Drashi Shewa (auspicious men), and dressed them up as the Tsenpo to play "Chimga Lapa" in the streets so as to educate the people. Even today the Tibetan people regard Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen as the pioneer of Tibetan opera.
Second, the development of the Lhasa area was good for getting rid of the harassment of the old aristocrats in Lhoka and watching over the whole of Tibet. All the Tsenpos prior to Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen lived in Yarlung of Lhoka. The Tsenpos from Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen onward began to live on the Red Hill (Potala Hill) in Lhasa. It was more convenient for people in Lhasa to contact Yangtong in the west and Sumpa in the north and to get rid of old influences than it had been for people in Lhoka. In the later period of the "Five Tsens," there were frequent battles, so the Tsenpos recruited troops, equipped them with knives, spears, bows and arrows, and organized them into teams.[46] Lhasa was a good place for organizing forces and watching over the whole of Tibet.
Third, it was good for the development of the Pugyal tribe. Lhasa was an important communications center with low elevation and fertile land, which was good for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry. In order to develop the economy, Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen collected iron articles from his subjects and built an iron-chain bridge over the Lhasa River. His territory expanded, the population increased and Bonist medicine improved. Owing to the efforts of Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen and his son Trinyan Songtsen, the Pugyal tribe became a powerful tribal group in the area covering Yarlung and Lhasa.
The beginning and development of the relations of production of a slave-owning system are always accompanied by the annexation of one tribe by another. Such annexation inevitably involves the capturing of land, slaves and property. During the reign of the 30th Tsenpo, Takri Nyansik, the process of annexation and unity between tribes began. By that time the Pugyal tribe had made great strides in economic development. Fine cross-bred domestic animals were raised. "Ditches were dug to connect lakes, and water was led to irrigate the farmland." Iron spades and plows were used far and wide. Weights and measures appeared. Economic development laid a solid foundation for annexation and unity. As Tibetan history books record, during the reign of Takri Nyansik, the Pugyal tribal group put "two thirds of the smaller tribes under its control. The kings of Bonpa, Asha (Tuyuhun), Changge, Senpa and Shangshung (Yangtong) were subdued. The clans of Nyang, Pa and Lun were subdued and became the Pugyal's subjects."[47]
A true account of the annexation as recorded in ancient Tibetan manuscripts was found in the Dunhuang caves. In about the 6th century there existed two local regimes in the Lhasa valley. One was at Drikung in Maizhokunggar and its chief was called Takgyawo. The other was at Phanpo to the north of Lhasa and its chief was Tripansong. Takri Nyansik of the Pugyal tribe secretly supported Tripansong in his annexing of Takgyawo's tribe. Afterward Tripansong gave a whole village's slaves to the persons who had rendered meritorious services to him. It is the first time the word "slave" appears in Tibetan historical material, which shows that the relations of production of the slave-owning system had already emerged among the tribes of the Lhasa valley.
Later, Takri Nyansik made use of conflicts between Tripansong on the one hand and the Shan and Wei families, two slave-owner aristocrats of the Tripansong tribal group, on the other, to plot toward annexing Tripansong. At that time the Nyang family, who had become slaves of the Tripansong tribe, united with Lhoka's Tsephongsa family, who had good relations with Takri Nyansik; the Wei family united with the clan of Lun who had blood relations with it. The four clans and Takri Nyansik pledged alliance and planned to conquer the Tripansong tribe. However, as they were about to go on a military expedition, Takri Nyansik died of illness. His son, the 31st Tsenpo, Namri Lontsen, after ascending the throne continued the expedition. He had his mother and brother stay behind to take care of Lhoka, the Nyang and Lun clans to spy out military secrets, and the Wei and Tsephongsa clans to be guides, and he himself led an army of ten thousand soldiers to conquer the Tripansong tribe. Being defeated, Tripansong fled to northern Tibet. After annexing Tripansong, Namri Lontsen bestowed 1,500 slaves on each of the clans of Nyang, Wei and Lun, as well as giving 300 to the Tsephongsa clan.
Namri Lontsen was a Tsenpo who made great contributions to the rise of the Pugyal tribe. Having conquered the Lhasa area, he captured Xigaze (Shigatse) of Tsang, killed the local chief Mar-men, seized land and 20,000 households and put the area of Xigaze under his control. Then Namri Lontsen tried to annex Sumpa in northern Tibet. At that time Sumpa was full of conflicts and discord; its production had stagnated, and people's complaints could be heard everywhere. The king of Sumpa was imperious, the slave-owners and aristocrats intrigued against each other, and many ministers colluded with Namri Lontsen. Attacking from both within and without, Namri Lontsen conquered Sumpa and took advantage of the victory to subdue U, Tsang, Dakpo, Ngari and Bomi. All the tribes elected him as the leader of their alliance.
However, the process of unification was complicated. As Namri Lontsen put new aristocrats into important positions and left old ones out in the cold, discontent and rivalries arose within the ruling class. After annexing the tribes, Namri Lontsen established the posts of inner and outer ministers and assigned a person from the Nyang family to fill the post of prime minister. He bestowed much land and many slaves on the new aristocrats. Besides this, marriage with girls from other tribes began with his generation, which broke the tradition that a man of the royal family could only marry the daughter of an old aristocrat within his own tribe. All this aroused serious concern and discontent among the old aristocrats. In Lhoka "the three ministers of the mother queen" and "the six ministers of the father king" rebelled and the slave-owners of the subdued tribes of Yangtong, Sumpa and Tuyuhun also rose in rebellion. Namri Lontsen was finally murdered with poison by his old ministers. The unification as an outcome of the efforts of five generations for three centuries was thus broken. But the wheels of history could not be turned back. Namri Lontsen was, after all, a meritorious politician of the slave-owners. He had developed the economy, enlarged his domain, defeated strong neighbors and promoted understanding between the tribes. Of particular significance is the fact that in 634 (the 8th year of the Zhenguan reign period of Tang Emperor Taizong) he contacted the Tang Dynasty, and made his tribe go to power and prosperity.[48] This laid a good foundation for the unification of Tibet and the establishment of a slave-owning system by Songtsen Gampo.
The Rise and Fall of the Bon Religion, the Primitive Religion of Tibet
Bon was the primitive religion of Tibet. Some form of primitive religion as a social ideology existed in every primitive ethnic group. At different times, different ethnic groups had their appropriate religion and deities. Bon, the primitive religion of Tibet, like the primitive religions of the other ethnic groups, also had its rise and fall. The literature of Tibetan religious history states:
Bon prevailed in the reign of Nyatri Tsenpo but declined in the reign of Drigum Tsenpo, the 8th Tsenpo. It rose again in the reign of the 9th Tsenpo, Pude Gongyal, and fell in the reign of the 36th Tsenpo, Trisong Detsen.[49]
As can be seen from this excerpt Bon originated in the primitive matri-clan society, flourished during the primitive patri-clan society and finally declined in the time of the disintegration of primitive society. Because of the special conditions of Tibetan life, religion and politics were always entangled with one another. All Tsenpos held different attitudes toward Bon: some used it to support the royal power and some tried to get rid of its control. Thus, Bon became a special aspect of ancient Tibetan society, a religion to which we should pay much attention.
The fact that Bon originated in the matrilineal society and prevailed during the patrilineal society has its deep social roots. In primitive society, owing to low level of technological development, people's existence was always threatened by nature, and so nature worship evolved; population increase was important to the prosperity of a clan, so phallus worship emerged; the way of appointment of tribal chieftains changed from democratic election to father-to-son succession, so ancestor worship appeared. All these reflected primitive people's ideas, feelings and will. They were part of the primitive people's unenlightened ideology, but they did not have fully developed religious characteristics. With the start of sacrificial activities, witches or priests appeared who specialized in sacrificial activities. They systematized the primitive people's unenlightened ideology into religious doctrines and stylized sacrificial activities. Thus religion came into being, and this was the way that Bon originated.
The New Red Annals says the founder of the Bon religion was Shenrab Miwo, usually called Tonpa Shenrab (Tonpa means "teacher" and Shenrab is his name). Bon was spread first in Shangshung and Ngari, and then it spread to U and Tsang. During the reign of Nyatri Tsenpo it was introduced to the Yarlung tribe by Tsemi Shengyi Mucho.[50] The reasons Bon prevailed from the time of Nyatri Tsenpo are as follows. First, Bon reflected the desires of tribal chieftains and was useful for the chieftains to strengthen their ruling power, and so it was supported, sponsored and promoted by Tsenpos. Second, it reflected local people's wishes for good luck and safety of people and domestic animals, including the priests' prophecies of good and bad things, securing medicine to treat illness, and warding off evil. Particularly in the sacrificial rituals before a war, hunting or productive activities, priests (called Bonpo by the Bonists) led tribe members in reading prayers and performing dances in imitation of hunting and farming, mobilizing their enthusiasm to do their work properly. In a word, it was a religion fit for people whose thinking was limited by low productive forces, so that it could spread widely among them.
However, the propaganda of religion is after all idealistic. Bon was no exception. Bon advocated the doctrine of "Three Realms" and worshipped ghosts and deities. According to Bon, the universe consists of three realms: Heaven, Earth and the Underworld. Deities live in Heaven, human beings on the Earth and ghosts in the Underworld. Bon was also a belief in animism. Bon worshipped five deities: the Heavenly God, Earth God, Family God, War God and Maternal Uncle God. All these were male, which was one of the reasons why Bon could prevail in a patrilineal society. Bon took the mark of the swastika as its symbol, which is called "Yungdrung" in Tibetan, meaning "auspicious-ness and happiness." Tonpa, Yungdrung and Bonpo were called "the three jewels of Bon." Bonpo was responsible for sacrificial activities. He could make oracles and mediate with ghosts and deities, and knew witch medicine and calendrical calculation. Bonpo used such religious objects as divine sticks, swords, drums, robes and bells. In sacrificial activities Bonpo killed animals for blood sacrifices, and burned pine and cypress branches and crops because the fragrant smoke from the burnt branches was said to be the "access to ghosts and deities." Bonpo turned religious objects counter-clockwise. It was in imitation of the mark of Bonist swastika, and was different from Buddhists turning the sutra-pagoda clockwise[51] Bon did not have any doctrine of transmigration and retribution, but it held that a man's soul could ascend to heaven or descend to the hell to be a ghost, and that illness was caused by ghosts. So, Bonist rituals included praying for the blessings of deities, warding off evil things, practicing divination, making requests for oracles, and so forth. As it was similar in doctrine and rituals to the kind of witchcraft that spread among the national minorities of northeastern China and among the ancient people of Central Asia, some scholars classify it in the category of the Shamanism of the ancient Tongus people.
Bon consists of several sects. The Origin and Development of the Bon Religion states that there were three. However, Red Annals says it had nine. It is generally held that the early period of Bon was called Dolbon (Black Bon) and in the later period Kharbon (White Bon). The struggle between different sects reflected the conflicts between different interest groups. During the reigns of the twenty-eight Tsenpos from Nyatri Tsenpo to Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen, all the Tsenpos made use of Bon to support their regime. But this was not a complete merger of political and religious rule. There were Bonists serving the Tsenpo and they were granted high positions and took part in political affairs. Tsenpos took Bon as a spiritual weapon for ruling the people and Bon shared royal power by taking part in political affairs. Thus conflicts between the royal family and Bon sometimes rose and sometimes fell. When Bon reflected the will of the royal family, the royal family supported Bon and it prevailed. When the royal family tried to take back religious power from the Bonist priests, Bon was oppressed and Bonist priests tried their best to prevent the royal family from obtaining what it wished. So when the primitive clan society began to fall apart, Buddhism seized its chance to step in. When Buddhism was introduced into Tibet, it brought new hopes to the Pugyal tribe and was thus welcomed by the royal family.
The reasons why Bon declined were: First, at the time when clan society evolved into slave society, Bon could not meet the needs of the newly rising slave-owners to enhance the royal power; second, Bon obstructed the development of the productive forces of society. Under the Bon religion, four seasonal rites of sacrifice were held: in autumn one thousand deer were killed at one time; in winter the victims were three thousand male yaks, sheep and goats respectively, and one thousand female animals respectively, and they were vivisected; in spring the rite of "vivisecting female deer without antlers" was held, during which four deer were vivisected after their hoofs were cut off; in summer the rite of "sacrifices offered to the founder of Bon" was held, during which sacrifices were offered along with the burning of trees and crops. When a man became ill, a rite of "offering donations to redeem his life" was conducted. The number of animals offered for live sacrifices varied from three thousand male and three thousand female animals to no fewer than one male and one female, depending on a person's wealth. All this did great damage to agricultural production and stock-breeding. So when Songtsen Gampo established a unified Tubo slave-owning regime, he ordered a ban of Bon and supported Buddhism. The 36th Tsenpo, Trisong Detsen, simply ordered all Bonists to convert to Buddhism and killed those who did not. After that, though some Bonists still followed the part of Bon that was assimilated into Buddhism, Bon as a religion had already died out[52]
The Tubo Dynasty of the Tibetan Slave-Owning System
The Establishment of the Tubo Dynasty
Songtsen Gampo Unifies Tibet
Songtsen Gampo was born at the Champa Mijuling Palace of Yalun in 617 (the thirteenth year of the Daye era of the Sui Dynasty). [The birth year of Songtsen Gampo is different in various books, but according to the calculation of modern scholars, it should be A.D. 617.] He was the 32nd Tsenpo in Tibetan history. His name was Tri Songtsen. He was enthroned when he was a young man, and was intelligent and capable. With the power of his father, Namri Songtsen, he conquered the strong and rich Sumpa and Yangtong tribes. After that, he subdued other tribes and thus unified the whole of Tibet. He established the Tubo Dynasty, a strong slave-owning regime. He is known as a hero of the Tibetan people, and was given the honorable name of "Songtsen Gampo," which means "a strong and great king" in Tibetan.
The period of Songtsen Gampo was the time of the strongest dynasty in Chinese feudal society. In 617, Li Yuan (later to become the Tang Emperor Gaozu) rebelled against the Sui Dynasty, ended the division and disorder that had lasted for 300 years in the interior of China, and established the Tang Dynasty (618-907). During the reign of Tang Emperor Taizong, Li Shimin (r. 627-649), the Tang became one of the most influential empires in the world. In order to improve relations between the ethnic groups of China, he carried out a policy of pacification toward the ethnic minorities in the border areas. All pacified prefectures and counties were put under the control of the central government, but their taxes and territories were not registered by it. They enjoyed extensive rights of autonomy. All the ethnic groups in China supported Li Shimin because of this policy. The leaders of the Turks, Rouran, Huihe (Uygur) and other ethnic minorities jointly offered him the honorable title of "Tian Khan" (Heavenly King). At that time the Tang Dynasty had not yet adopted a policy of pacification toward Tibet, but the unification of the hinterland of China provided good conditions for Songtsen Gam-po to unify Tibet.
Songtsen Gampo had a good education in his youth, and learned the skills of riding, shooting, swordplay, wrestling and athletics. In 629, when he was 13 years old, his father, Namri Lontsen, was poisoned by the old aristocrats who tried to seize power. They sent troops from Dakpo, Kongpo and Nyangpo to attack Lhoka. The old aristocrats of Sumpa in the north and Yangtong in the west also carried out rebellious activities on a large scale. At this critical time Songtsen Gampo was enthroned as the Tsenpo and took responsibility for the unification of Tibet.
The basis for unification began with his control of the Pugyal tribe. He had his uncle, Lonkhor, and minister, Nyang Mangpoje Shangnang, who had excellent political capabilities and high prestige, as his advisors. At the critical time of domestic troubles and foreign invasion he made the decision to defend Qonggyai and Tsetang, the interior of Lhoka. As the Tsenpo, he called on his followers to fight the rebels. He first located the murderer who had poisoned his father, and then arrested all the old aristocrats who had taken part in the rebellion. In that way he got rid of the root of the trouble caused by enemies and in a very short time strengthened his ruling power.
Then he sent troops to suppress the rebellions. At that time the Pugyal tribe had many enemies, who occupied large territories, had strong armed forces and colluded with each other. They united to attack Songtsen Gampo. So Songtsen Gampo was in a dangerous position. Making a careful analysis of the situation, Songtsen Gampo found that there were enemies at both his sides but that it was rather calm in the north. Besides, the surrender of Sumpa, headed by Ba Yutsepu, resulted in deep contradictions with the old Tubo clan chiefs. To take advantage of this, Songtsen Gampo went northward across the Yarlungzangbo to Rasa. In Rasa he was looked down upon by Ba Yutsepu and other aristocrats, who had a high opinion of themselves and considered him but a child. They were not eager to suppress the rebellion and, instead, took a wait-and-see attitude toward it. At the same time, the local middle and minor aristocrats and the commoners welcomed Songtsen Gampo and earnestly supported him in subduing the rebellion. Their support encouraged him to unify the Tibetan Plateau. Tempering himself in hard struggle, he became mature. His military strength greatly grew. He won more and more people's support. In Rasa he made extensive contacts with the tribal people and united with those who supported him in the cause of unification. He recruited ten thousand troops and trained them to become his main force in the cause of unification. In three years he was able to suppress the rebellion. The aristocrats surrendered one after another. The Tubo proper was thus unified again. After moving the capital to Rasa, Songtsen Gampo sent troops to attack Sumpa. The Tubo army was so strong that the Sumpa troops were defeated in several battles. Realizing that his failure was a foregone conclusion the Sumpa prince surrendered to Songtsen Gampo. After conquering Sumpa, Tubo had more sources for troops and crops and so it became stronger. That provided good conditions for him to unify the rest of the Tibetan Plateau.
After conquering Sumpa, Songtsen Gampo went on an expedition against Yangtong, a tribe known for being brave and skillful in battle. Yangtong was located to the west of Tubo, with its territory stretching a thousand li from the east to the west, and it had eighty or ninety thousand crack troops. Yangtong was thus a strong opponent of Tubo. It often harassed the agricultural areas of Tsang, and Namri Lontsen had once conquered it. Now it took advantage of the rebellion by the old aristocrats to invade Tubo. The invasion greatly threatened the security of Tubo. Songtsen Gampo himself led an army on an expedition against Yangtong. Suffering a heavy blow from Tubo, Yangtong was once again conquered by Tubo.
Loyul and Monyul were by then also subdued. The Tibetan history book Red Annals records that Tubo's borders reached Loyul and Monyul in the south, Shangshung in the west, Hor in the north and Tsasmi Shimi in the east. All these places were subdued.[1] Songtsen Gampo sent governors to these places and the local chieftains pledged their allegiance and offered tribute to Songtsen Gampo. The task of unification of Tubo that began during the reign of his grandfather was thus finally accomplished by Songtsen Gampo.
That Songtsen Gampo unified the whole of Tibet is of historic significance. He put an end to the backward condition of Tibet as a decentralized and isolated area, and he established a strong, centralized slave-owning system—the Tubo Dynasty. He also consolidated the mode of production of the slave-owning system in Tibet, and thus promoted the political, economic and cultural development of Tibet, bringing the Tibetan people into a new age of unity and prosperity. What is more important is that the unified Tibet laid a foundation for the development of relations between the Tang and the Tubo, and provided an opportunity for Tibet to become a part of China. Owing to his brilliant accomplishments, the Tibetan people loved and supported him. His accomplishments form a brilliant page in the history of the Chinese nation. Chinese historian Fan Wenlan says: "His accomplishments were a great contribution not only to Tubo history but also to Chinese history."[2]
Tubo Makes Rasa Its Capital
After accomplishing the great task of unification, Songtsen Gampo took a series of administrative measures that put the Tibetan Plateau more effectively under his control.
(1) Making Rasa the Capital of Tubo
So as to more effectively enforce the administration on the whole of Tibet, Songtsen Gampo made Rasa (Lhasa) the capital of Tubo in A.D. 633. Before Rasa became the capital, the political center of Tubo had been Yumbulagang in Tsetang of Lhoka. After Lha Tho-tho-ri Nyantsen put Lhasa under the control of Pugyal, conditions were ripe for Lhasa to become the capital. This was particularly so because Lhoka was the cradle of Tubo, the place where old aristocrats and chieftains joined together. Thus by making Lhasa the capital it got rid of much of the influences of the aristocrats and chieftains. It was also significant for the consolidation of the new slave regime. By founding his regime in Lhasa Songtsen Gampo was able to enhance his control of the Yangtong and Sumpa tribes and establish a regime whose borders reached to Tuyuhun in the north, Nepal and India in the south and the Tang empire in the east. Songtsen Gampo built houses, temples and roads in Lhasa and moved people there. After Princess Wencheng came to Tibet, he built the Jokhang Temple, Ramoche Temple and the Potala, with Jokhang as the center of the city. Buddhist culture gradually flourished in Lhasa. After that Lhasa became a widely-known city of Buddhist culture.
(2) Consolidating Royal Power
Tsenpo was the highest ruler of the Tubo Dynasty[3] He held the supreme power and the power of life and death over his subjects. His power was protected by law.
The members of the Tubo royal family and officialdom were called "Lon" and "Shang" respectively. Lon and Shang constituted the ruling class. There were conflicts between the royal family and the officialdom, and between the old and new officialdom. In order to moderate these conflicts, Songtsen Gampo required an oath of alliance to be taken by all his courtiers. It was a rule that Songtsen Gampo and his courtiers would hold a small oath of alliance ceremony every year and a big one every three years. The sacrificial objects for this small oath of alliance were sheep, dogs and monkeys and for the big one persons or dogs, horses and yaks. At the sacrificial rites the Tsenpo would say: "You all should make concerted efforts to protect my family. Heaven, earth and the deities know what you think. If any of you breaks the oath, he will be treated like these animals." After that, the king and courtiers would take the oath together. The courtiers said that they and their descendants would "unconditionally be loyal to the Tsenpo." Tsenpo said that he would protect the property and status of his courtiers and their families and descendants and would not allow anybody to damage them. Thus the Tsenpo held in his own hand power over people's lives and property, which consolidated Tubo from the inside and strengthened the royal power.
Besides this, Songtsen Gampo suppressed some of the old courtiers by putting new ones in important positions, and he consolidated his royal power by dismissing and killing some of the most powerful ministers. In suppressing rebellions and conquering Sumpa and Yangtong, Songtsen Gampo appointed new ministers and awarded them merits so that they became more powerful than the old ones. He appointed Nyang Mangpoje Shangnang to be the prime minister. Then he put Chongpo Bangshe for an important position and sentenced Shangnang to death on a charge of plotting rebellion. Gar Mangsha Sunnang, a member of the royal family, was appointed prime minister and before long committed suicide for his crimes. Bangshe succeeded him to become the prime minister but he soon also committed suicide for being accused of plotting rebellion. There were numerous fierce contentions for the position of prime minister among new courtiers and between new courtiers and the members of the royal family. Finally, Gar Tongtsen (alias Gar Tongtsen Yul-sung), a well-known Tibetan minister, achieved and kept the position of prime minister. The frequent changes of prime ministers reflected the fact that the royal power was becoming strengthened.
(3) Establishing the System of Civil and Military Officials
Songtsen Gampo knew his subordinates well enough to assign them jobs commensurate with their abilities. Using the official system of the Tang Dynasty as his reference, he established and perfected the central organization of the Tubo Dynasty. He classified the high-ranking officials of the central government into two sections. One consisted of prime ministers, including a chief-minister (called Senior Lon) and an assistant minister (called Junior Lon); a Grand Marshal, who jointly managed affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery; and a Deputy Grand Marshal, who jointly managed affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery. The four prime ministers assisted Tsenpo in administration. There were also four ministers of virtue at that time. They were Thonmi Sambhota, Gar Tongtsen Yulsung, Seu Kong-tong and Nyang Trisang Yangtong. They achieved great merit for Tsenpo in the early period of the Tubo Dynasty. The other section consisted of officials under the prime ministers, including a minister in charge of internal affairs of state, a minister in charge of penal law, and officials responsible for financial, foreign and other affairs. The Senior Lon was the highest official. He was under Tsenpo only and above all the other officials. Any affair of state had to be approved by the Senior Lon before it was settled. All posts of officials were assumed by royal family members and aristocrats. In order to establish a hierarchy and ranks of officials, it was stipulated that all officials should wear badges of different materials to show their different ranks. The first class material was Sese (precious stones) and the materials of other classes were successively as follows: gold, gilded silver, silver, copper and iron. An official post was passed from father to son, or to the father's close relative if he had no son. When the hereditary tradition was not followed, there were disputes.
The military organization and the system of local officials was as follows. In the reign of Namri Lontsen, the father of Songtsen Gampo, Tibet was once unified but then broke up. Songtsen Gampo took this lesson to heart and knew that the main reason for the break-up was the fact that the aristocrats, ministers and tribal chieftains had too much military strength. So he adopted the prefecture military system of the Tang Dynasty in order to reform the Tubo military institution. As the Tibetan Dynastic History of Tubo records, Songtsen Gampo divided Tibet into four Ru ("ru" means "division" in Tibetan): Wuru (central region, with its seat at modern Lhasa), Yaoru (left wing, with its seat at modern Changzhug of Nedong), Yeru (right wing, with its center at modern Namling) and Rula (sub-wing, with its seat at what is now Lhaze). Each Ru was under a local military and civil authority, which consisted of a governor, a marshal, and a deputy general, etc. Each Ru had its banners and horses in a color different from that of the other Rus, with the color as its symbol[4] A Ru comprised two sub-Rus, upper and lower. There were altogether eight sub-Rus. Each sub-Ru had four Qianhu (one thousand households) offices and one Qianhu office of guards, altogether five Qianhu offices. Each sub-Ru was under the administration of a Rupon and a deputy Rupon. A Qianhu office was a military and administrative structure. Its officers were local administrative officials and also local slave-owners. The basic military unit comprised about one hundred men who were under a Baihuzhang (chief-of-a-hundred). Above him was the Qianhu chief. Each Qianhu office had about ten thousand soldiers. Later, this was called a Wanhu (a myriarchy, theoretically comprising ten thousand households) office or Wanhu chief. There were altogether thirty-one Qianhu offices with four hundred thousand soldiers.[5]
In order to guard against the aristocrats and chieftains setting up separatist regimes, Songtsen Gampo sent them out to take charge of other tribes. Thus their troops did not entirely consist of their own tribesmen and they were thus contained by each other. This weakened their power to a great extent, and was good for the consolidation of royal power. Through the military reform, the military power of aristocrats, officers and tribal chieftains was reduced and Songtsen Gampo controlled directly and effectively all of Tubo troops and thus laid a solid foundation for the consolidation of royal power and maintaining the unification of Tubo.
(4) Promulgating Laws
In order to strengthen his ruling power, Songtsen Gampo during his reign formulated the "Laws of Ten Benevolences" to encourage good behavior and prevent evil.[6] The laws stipulated that the Tsenpo was the highest ruler of the Tubo Dynasty and enjoyed supreme power over Tibet, and all Tibetan people should obey him. The laws also stipulated the social status of various classes of the Tubo and the privileges of slave-owners. Many regulations in these laws stipulated in detail how to protect the political and economic interests of the slave-owners. The laws were cruel to slaves. History books of the Tang Dynasty record that according to the Tubo laws, the Tubo rulers could use such inhuman tortures as gouging out eyes, tearing off skin and cutting off the feet, hands, knees, noses or heads to punish even those who had committed minor offenses. As to the judgment of who was guilty and who was not and what punishment should be used for a criminal there was no objective criteria. Slave-owners could decide this arbitrarily. A Tubo prison was a sunken pit several meters deep. Usually a criminal was kept in such a pit for two or three years before he was released.[7] It is clear that the Tubo laws were typical of most slave-owning systems.
(5) Developing Economy
The key economy of Tubo was farming and stock-breeding. Songtsen Gampo pacified the whole of Tibet and paid close attention to agriculture. "On the high land ponds were built for storage of water and on the low land canals led water into the fields... Wasteland was opened up." Farmland and pastureland were under separate management. Methods for preventing drought and draining water-logged fields were introduced. Agricultural production made great strides forward. In order to promote economic relations between various areas of Tubo and to conduct comprehensive exchange of agricultural and pastoral products, Songtsen Gampo ordered that the weights and measures should be standardized. All the measures he took promoted the development of production and exchange in Tubo society. It laid a solid material basis for the prosperity and external expansion of Tubo.
(6) Creating the Tibetan Script
During the reign of Songtsen Gampo, the Tibetan script was developed to meet the needs of social development and political administration.
He sent his minister, Thonmi Sambhota, together with a group of followers, altogether 16 men, to study in Kashmir and adjacent areas. With gold and slaves they set off through the Western Regions for India to study Sanskrit and phonetics under the tutorship of Brahman Lee Jing and Lare Basenge. After returning, Thonmi Sambhota created an alphabet of thirty consonants and four vowels on the basis of Indian and Khotan scripts. Songtsen Gampo widely advocated it and took the lead in using it. Afterward, it became popular among the Tibetan people. This now meant that the Tibetan people and abandoned their old way of keeping records by tying knots[8] It is the Tibetan script that is still used. The creation of Tibetan script promoted the development and transmission of Tibetan culture.
Owing to the measures mentioned above, the unified Tubo society became stabilized. This meant that Tubo, a state of slavery, was established and consolidated. In 650 (the first year of the Yonghui era of the Tang Dynasty), Songtsen Gampo died at Phanpo. He was succeeded to the throne by his grandson, Mangsong Mangtsen, because his son Gongri Gongtsen had died before him. As a man of great talent and bold vision, Songtsen Gampo clearly made great contributions to the establishment and unification of Tubo.
Economic Prosperity of the Tubo
The founding of the unified Tubo Dynasty provided favorable conditions for the economic prosperity of Tubo society. The Tubo Dynasty passed down through nine Tsenpos: Songtsen Gampo, Mangsong Mangtsen, Tri Dusong (alias Dusong Mangje), Tride Tsugtsen, Trisong Detsen, Muni Tsenpo, Tride Songtsen (Sadnaleg), Tritsug Detsen (Ralpachen) and Lang Darma. Owing to the social stability and unification of the Tubo, the productive forces were greatly enhanced. The marriage relations between the Tubo and the Tang, beginning with Songtsen Gampo, brought about the close relations between the Han Chinese and the Tibetan people. The introduction of the advanced modes of production and technology from the Central Plains of China into Tubo promoted the social and economic development there.
Agriculture This was an important economic sector of Tubo society, as important as animal husbandry. The natural conditions were bad for agriculture and the products were poor in Tubo proper, so the agriculture there was small in scale, low in level and backward in technology. The fields were not leveled and there were no crisscross footpaths between the fields. This caused much soil erosion. Agriculture prior to the Tubo regime was rather backward, but Songtsen Gampo put stress on agriculture. He had the valley in the middle reaches of the Yarlungzangbo River developed and made it an important agricultural area for the Tubo. When the Tubo became strong, they made territorial expansions, capturing adjacent agricultural areas and established many Tibetan farming regions in present-day Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan in the neighborhood of the Han people. In their contacts with the Han people, the Tibetans learned about agricultural experience and technology from them. They learned how to cultivate fields and apply fertilizer. Thus their yields increased and agricultural production developed. Wang Jian of the Tang period wrote in his poem Travel to Liangzhou: "The Bo people who knew not how to operate a plow have now become farmers skillful and proud." Many Tibetan nomadic regions became agricultural. This was an important change. The area of Amdo on the northeast rim of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was more suitable in climate and soil for agriculture than was Tibet proper. The Tubo rulers therefore increasingly realized that Amdo agriculture was significant to the Tubo economy. They paid attention to Amdo and once even thought of moving their political center there. They convened conferences of ministers in Amdo to discuss how to develop agriculture there and installed a post of commissioner of Amdo to take charge of local agriculture. Amdo became the grain base and a tax source for the Tubo. According to Chinese records, half of the Tubo military supplies, including grain and horses, came from Amdo.[9]
The Tubo Dynasty sent officials to administer agricultural production in different parts of Tubo.[10] The Tubo royal house owned a vast expanse of fields. In A.D. 719-720 it sent officials to measure the fields and to record these measurements in order to manage them. This shows that agriculture had become an important sector of the Tubo economy. The many slaves were the ones who engaged in farm work. Tubo Tsenpos bestowed slaves as well as land on the aristocrats. The slaves lived in scattered settlements. They did farming and stock-breeding. Both male and female slaves were engaged in farming. Ancient Tibetan historical materials discovered in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, tell of "six women cultivating the land." Besides this, the Shingpas (peasants) and soldiers of Tuyuhun, which was occupied by the Tubo, also engaged in agriculture.
The Tubo people made use of farm animals from quite early times. The key animal was the dzo (offspring of a bull and yak). The use of farm animals and the measurement of land indicates that Tubo agriculture made steady progress.
Along with the development of agricultural production, the Tibetan people built some water conservancy projects. They irrigated with water from reservoirs and rivers. Thus, villages appeared one after another along the river valleys. The development of agriculture was closely related to economic and cultural exchanges between the Tibetan and Han people. Owing to this exchange, many advanced technologies in agricultural production, and many kinds of crops and farm tools were introduced from Han areas, which helped in the development of Tubo agriculture. According to the "Chapter on Tubo" in New Tang Annals, "They grew crops such as wheat, qingke (highland barley), buckwheat and beans." During the reign of Songtsen Gampo, Princess Wencheng brought some seeds of the turnip to Tubo, and she taught the Tibetan people in Qinghai to build water mills on her way to Tubo[11] Water mills were also introduced into Tibet and played an important role in Tubo agricultural production and the people's daily lives. The Tubo people were able to make tools for production, namely: the ax, sickle, plow and saw. The variety of tools reflected the development of Tubo agricultural production, and agriculture thus became more and more important to the Tubo economy.
Animal husbandry Animal husbandry was one of Tubo's important socio-economic sectors. It had a long history. There were various domestic animals: cows, horses, dogs, sheep and pigs, according to Chinese historical records;[12] and yaks, goats, dzo, donkeys and camels, according to the ancient Tibetan materials discovered at Dunhuang. The herdsmen led a nomadic life in spring and summer and settled down in autumn and winter. They began to have settlements, a big step forward from their simple nomadic life. In order to improve the management of animal husbandry, Tri Dusong (Dusong Mangje) and Tride Tsug-tsen made large-scale surveys of the raising of animals in four Ru regions and collected taxes in 673, 709 and 746. People at that time tended sheep on the grasslands and goats in the forests, kept horses on the marshlands and raised dzo in fields and pigs in caves. By that time the production experiences and technologies of Tubo animal husbandry had reached a high level. The technology was particularly advanced in the keeping and domestication of horses. Tubo horses were well-known and became important goods in the barter market between the Tang and Tubo. Various animal by-products were also important goods of Tubo foreign trade: leather, fur, yak-tails, as well as meat, butter and milk. The people bartered their surplus with neighboring tribes for things they needed.
Those who engaged in animal husbandry were mainly slaves and war captives. The Tubo Dynasty installed special officials to be responsible for the management of animal husbandry. These were the Chupon, one of the "seven official posts" of Tubo, as well as the "seven officials" in charge of animal husbandry affairs in the local regions. Animal husbandry afforded the main source of tax revenue for the Tubo and was also a matter of financial support for the Tubo Dynasty. So the Tubo rulers paid a great deal of attention to animal husbandry. They acquainted themselves with local methods for raising animals and enacted measures to develop them.
Hunting and fishing Along with the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, hunting and fishing became an important supplementary economy. In the Tubo historical materials there is a record of the people "hunting deer and bulls ... hunting wild animals" and "catching birds." The Tubo rulers often went hunting. However, hunting was nothing but a form of recreation for them. Historical documents of the Tubos discovered at Dunhuang record the fact that Tubo Tsenpos and ministers hunted yaks and other wild animals in 653, 656 and 724. There were officials responsible for hunting and fishing in the Tubo ruling organization[13] The hunters' social status was very low, and the rulers looked down on them. Fishing was next in importance to hunting. There were fishing boats and forked spears for fishing at that time according to the historical materials discovered at Dunhuang. Fishing and hunting were thus a part of Tubo economy.
Handicrafts Owing to marriages between the Tang and Tubo royal houses and contacts between the Han and Tibetan people, advanced Tang handicraft skills were introduced into Tubo and this promoted the development of Tubo handicrafts. Princess Wencheng brought books on eighteen handicraft skills to Tibet as well as handicraftsmen as a part of her dowry. They established various crafts, such as silkworm breeding, wine brewing, grain milling, and paper and ink making in Tibet. Princess Jincheng also brought books on handicrafts and craftsmen to Tibet. The Tubo handicrafts, of course, had Tibetan features. The Tubo sent envoys to offer several hundred gold and silver handicraft articles as tribute to the Tang emperor in 736. The articles were so exquisite that the Tang emperor attached great importance to them and ordered that they be displayed at the palace gate for ministers to look at.[14]
The Tubo handicraft articles were of many kinds. There were production tools and weapons such as iron axes, knives, swords, spears, and articles for daily use and curios such as plates, necklaces, combs, locks, woolen blankets, golden crowns, silk robes and tents. These articles principally met the needs of the slave-owners and aristocrats for their luxurious life style and also served in production and for the military. The Tubo were good at absorbing other peoples' advanced handicraft skills. According to ancient Tibetan books, during the time of Songtsen Gampo, books on handicrafts and calendrical calculation were acquired from the Han area to the east of Tibet,[15] and the skill of pottery making was also introduced to Tibet from Han areas. The Tubo had craftsmen in iron-smelting and leather-making. In iron smelting, the Tubo people were able to make iron weapons. The Chinese history book Ce Fu Yuan Gui records the fact that the Tubo had blacksmiths, which shows that they knew the process of quenching iron in making weapons. With the development of Buddhism in Tibet and frequent contacts between the Han and Tibetan monks, the skill of bell-making was introduced from Han areas into Tibet during the Tang Dynasty. The casting of the bronze bell at the Trandruk Temple was under the guidance of Han monks of the Tang Dynasty. The construction of the well-known Jokhang, Ramoche and Samye temples more or less reflected the level of Tubo handicrafts at that time. And with the development of animal husbandry, the leather industry also made progress.
The Tubo handicraftsmen consisted of carpenters, stone masons and blacksmiths. Their status, however, was low. They were among the slaves and servants. The Tubo rulers looked down on them and established the post of Lapon (official in charge of handicraftsmen) to manage them. When Tubo was strong in power, Tubo handicrafts became more and more important in the Tubo economy.
Trade After the Tubo Dynasty was established, Tubo trade developed quite fast. Words about trade are found in the oracle bone inscriptions, which means that trade was popular among the Tubo people. The Tubo rulers designated officials to be responsible for the administration of trade activities. Not only domestic but also foreign trade enjoyed great development. When Tubo became strong it extended its intercourse with neighboring countries and tribes, especially during the Tang Dynasty. There were two kinds of trade between the Tubo and Tang. One was official exchanges: both sides sent envoys with presents to give to each other. Strictly speaking, this was not a trade or exchange of equal value. It was reciprocity required by courtesy. The other type of trade was border trade, which was the main form of foreign trade for the Tubo. For example, during the reign of Songtsen Gampo, the Tubo "got food and jewelry from Sokpo (it might be referred to as Persia) and Nepal."[16] The goods were obviously acquired through trade.
Owing to the frequent trade activities, the Tubo developed many trade centers. Rasa was the largest trade center of the Tubo Dynasty. During the time of Trisong Detsen there was a silk and cloth market between the Jokhang and Ramoche temples. The Kashmir trader Ananda did business in this market. He was also an interpreter for Trisong Detsen. The existence of Tubo weights and measures reflects the development of Tubo trade. Songtsen Gampo was the one who standardized weights and measures.[17] "Six Laws" stipulated eight units of weights and measures as Sheng, Dou and others. Besides, there were Khal copper coins and Sangla coins. Gold (or gold sand) was used as an equivalent for presents and goods of exchange.
Besides Rasa, Ganzhou, Guazhou, Shazhou, Longzhou and Chiling in the Hexi Corridor (Gansu) were also important trade centers between the Tubo and the Tang. Big business was done at each of these places. The Tubo envoys and traders liked to buy goods at Chang'an, the capital of the Tang. At that time Chan-g'an, where commodities of good quality and low price were many, was the most prosperous city in Asia and perhaps even in the world. The Tubo envoys and traders were good at evaluating commodities, and Zhang Zhu, the Chief Minister for Dependencies (in charge of the reception at court of tributary envoys) of the Tang recorded:
The Tubo envoys at the Court for Dependencies were good at evaluating articles. They appreciated silk and brocade as well as bows and arrows here and asked for permission to buy them.
Tea was a particularly big commodity sought by the Tubo. Tea planting and drinking had a long history in the hinterland of China. After being introduced into Tibet, it became an essential drink for the Tibetan people. The Tubo had officials responsible for the tea trade between the Hans and Tibetans, known as "five tea traders in Han areas."[18]
In a word, the Tubo Dynasty of slave-owners took a series of measures to promote their economy. The close contact between the Hans and Tibetans created favorable conditions for the development of the Tubo economy. Tubo agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts and trade all made great progress. The Tubo economy became prosperous and flourishing, and it laid a solid foundation for the prosperity and further expansion of the Tubo Dynasty.
Relations Between the Tubo and the Tang
Tang-Tubo Marriage Alliances and Princess Wencheng's Going to Tibet
In the early seventh century, Songtsen Gampo completed the unification of Tibet and established the Tubo Dynasty. He brought the relations between the Tubo and Tang into a new epoch, which began with a Tang-Tubo marriage alliance.
It was Lou Jing, a government councilor of the Western Han Dynasty, who first proposed that a policy of marriage alliances be initiated in an attempt to cement relations with the rulers of ethnic minorities in the border areas. He proposed that the daughters of the Han imperial family be given in marriage to rulers of various ethnic minority states. Two such marriages were particularly famous in Chinese history. One was Wang Zhaojun who was married to a Xiongnu chieftain during the reign of Emperor Yuandi (r. 48-33 B.C.) of the Han Dynasty; the other was Princess Wencheng who married a Tubo Tsenpo during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang court had a policy of pacification toward national minorities, and so Princess Wencheng and Princess Jincheng were married off to Tubo Tsenpos. Besides this, Princess Honghua married the Tuyuhun chieftain Norbo; Princess Gu'an, the chieftain of the Xi Kingdom; princesses Yongle, Donghua, Jingle and Yanjun, Qid-an khans successively; Princess Anhua, the king of Nanzhao in Yunnan; princesses Dongguang and Yifang, Turk khans one after the other; princesses Ningguo, Xian'an, Taihe and Conghui, Huihe (Uygur) khans successively. These were not simple matrimonial arrangements; they reflected the pacification policy of the central government of the Tang Dynasty toward national minorities. At the same time, the matrimonial relations reflected the national minorities' admiration for the advanced economy and culture of the Central Plains. They demonstrated unity and fraternity between the ethnic groups of China, and the Tang-Tubo marriage alliances incarnated that spirit.
In 638 Songtsen Gampo sent envoys to propose a marriage between him and a Tang princess. Although the Tang court considered the arrangement of matrimonial alliances with neighboring countries an important policy, owing to the recent estrangement of the Tuyuhun chieftain, who had married a Tang princess, they turned down the Tubo's proposal. Songtsen Gampo became so angry that he wrote a letter to the Tang emperor, in which he said: "If you do not agree to marry a princess to me, I shall lead an army of 50,000 soldiers to attack and occupy the Tang land and shall kill you and take away the princess." After that, the Tang and Tubo forces fought a battle at Songzhou (now Songpan in Sichuan), which ended in defeat for the Tubo. It was an important contest of strength because after this Songtsen Gampo realized the superior strength of the Tang army. When the Tubo troops retreated, Songtsen Gampo sent envoys to offer an apology to the Tang. The Tang Emperor Taizong, at the same time, realized that he should not treat the Tubo lightly. He also realized that good relations between the Tang and Tubo were necessary for the stability of western border areas, the maintenance of good relations between the Tang and the states in the Western Regions, and the smooth operation of trade routes between the Tang and the Western Regions. So the emperor changed his attitude toward the Tubo's proposal for marriage with a Tang princess. In 640 Songtsen Gampo again dispatched a mission of a hundred people headed by his prime minister, Gar Tongtsen. They offered 5,000 taels of gold and many jewels as betrothal gifts to the Tang court.[19] Gar Tongtsen, who had several times been sent as envoy to the Tang, enjoyed the Tang's respect. Emperor Taizong then promised the marriage of Princess Wen-cheng to the Tubo Tsenpo.
Princess Wencheng was born in 624. She was a daughter of a member of the royal family, and Emperor Taizong and his Queen Zhangsun adopted her and brought her up in the palace. She had been granted the title of princess. She was not only wise and pretty, but also well educated and far-sighted. In 641 Princess Wencheng, in the company of the Prince of Jiangsha, Li Dao-zong, went as a bride to Tibet. Songtsen Gampo, with his followers, greeted her at Zaling Lake (in present-day Mado County of Qinghai). When he met Li, Songtsen Gampo respectfully called himself the son-in-law of Li and showed admiration for the gorgeous dresses and rich ornaments of the Tang officials and the Tang's etiquette and ceremonies. After a long three-month trek through rugged terrain, Princess Wencheng reached Rasa, the capital of Tubo, in May, 641, and the city's inhabitants, dressed in festival clothing, gave her a rousing welcome, for she was the "Tsenmon" ("queen" in Tibetan) who came to improve friendship between the Tang and Tubo. A grand wedding ceremony was held in the city. Songtsen Gampo proudly said to his royal family:
My forefathers had no matrimonial bonds with the imperial house. Now I am able to marry a princess from the great Tang Dynasty. I take much pride in this. I'll have big houses built in her honor[20]
He kept his word by constructing splendid palaces in Tang style for the princess, so that she could live in Rasa as happily and comfortably as she had in Chang'an.
The Tang-Tubo alliance through marriage and the arrival of Princess Wencheng in Tibet exerted a positive influence on the political relations between the Tang and Tubo. After that marriage Songtsen Gampo always supported the Tang Dynasty and called himself "your humble servant" before Tang Emperor Taizong. During the nine years from Princess Wencheng's arrival in Tibet to the death of Songtsen Gampo, the Tang and Tubo maintained good relations and had no disputes. In the summer of 649 Tang Emperor Taizong died. When the new emperor Gao-zong came to the throne, he sent envoys to the Tubo to announce the death of the late emperor. He conferred on Songtsen Gampo the office of "Imperial Son-in-Law Governor" and the title "West Sea Prince." Thus honored, Songtsen Gampo sent a special envoy to express condolences over the death of Taizong. He wrote to the Tang court pledging his allegiance, stating:
At this time when the new emperor has just ascended the throne, in case somebody has the audacity to launch a rebellion, I will lead my Tubo army and other loyalists to help suppress it[21]
Meanwhile he had 15 kinds of jewelry placed before the tomb of Emperor Taizong to show how much he prized the friendship between the Han and Tibetan peoples and considered it his responsibility to defend the stability of the Tang Dynasty. To commend his loyalty, Emperor Gaozong conferred on him another title—"Treasured Prince"—and granted him 3,000 bolts of brocade. When Songtsen Gampo died in 650 (the first year of the Yonghui era of the Tang Dynasty), the Tang court sent General Xianyu Kuangji to attend the funeral service and to take an imperial edict with him to the Tubo capital. The stone statue carved of Songtsen Gampo, which was placed in the cemetery of Tang Emperor Taizong, is still preserved. Songtsen Gampo unified the Tibetan Plateau and laid down a good foundation for the friendship between the Tang and the Tubo. He made great contributions to the formation and development of a multi-ethnic state.
The Tang-Tubo marriage alliance also exerted influences on the Tibetan economy and culture. Princess Wencheng and her attendants promoted economic and cultural exchanges between the Tang and Tubo. She took to Tibet not only articles for daily use but also many Han craftsmen, vegetable seeds and books on medicine and calendrical calculation. She helped the Tibetan people to establish their handicraft industry and to improve their agriculture. Thus the Tibetan people began to absorb Tang astronomy, calendrical calculation, medicine and Confucianism, which enriched Tibetan culture.
According to a Tubo history book, what Princess Wencheng took to Tibet was as follows.
The Tang emperor granted the following things as dowry to Princess Wencheng: an image of Sakyamuni, jewelry, gold-and-jade-inlaid bookcases, 360 volumes of Buddhist classics, gold and jade ornaments. He also granted various kinds of food and drink, saddles and bridles inlaid with gold and jade, silk and brocade quilts and cushions with patterns of a lion, phoenix, trees and other things, 300 books on oracle divination, books to distinguish good from evil (probably referring to history books), 60 books on handicraft skills, 100 prescriptions for 404 kinds of diseases, 5 ways of making diagnoses, 6 kinds of medical appliances, 4 medical books and turnip seeds. The image of Sakyamuni was carried by a vehicle and the other items by a large group of horses and mules.[22]
This shows that it was the first large-scale introduction of the Han culture into Tibet, providing nourishment for the Tibetan culture. Owing to the marriage alliance and at the request of the Tubo, the Tang also sent to Tibet artisans of wine brewing, milling, and paper- and ink-making, as well as silkworms. After Princess Wencheng's marriage to the Tubo ruler, grain seeds, fine strains of animals and handicraft skills were continuously introduced into Tibet. This greatly enhanced the productive forces of Tibetan society and was beneficial to the Tibetan people's lives. That is the main reason why Tibetan people still cherish the memory of Princess Wencheng. Songtsen Gampo admired the advanced Han culture. He sent Tubo aristocratic youths to Chan-g'an to study Han literature, and Tang and Song books record this fact. Buddhism, which had a deep influence on Tibetan society, was not initially introduced from India, but from Tang sources and from Nepal. As a follower of Buddhism, Princess Wencheng had a temple built in Rasa to house the image of the Buddha she brought with her. It was under her influence that Songtsen Gampo had Han monks come to translate the Buddhist scriptures and to advocate Buddhism in Tibet, thus promoting the development of Buddhism there. Princess Wencheng was an important economic and cultural link between the Tibetan and Han peoples.
Princess Wencheng died in 680 at the age of 56, having lived in Tibet for 39 years after she arrived there at the age of 17. Songtsen Gampo, who married Princess Wencheng at the age of 25 and died at the age of 34, lived with her for 9 years. The marriage of Princess Wencheng and Songtsen Gampo was a major event in the history of the ethnic relations of China. It not only enhanced the friendly relations between the Tang and the Tubo, but it also proved that the various ethnic groups in China could live together harmoniously.
The Expansion of the Tubo and the War Between the Tang and Tubo
The good relations established by Tang Emperor Taizong and Songtsen Gampo were not always a matter of plain sailing. In the period of more than 170 years (from 650 to 821) after the death of Emperor Taizong and Songtsen Gampo, the relations were sometimes good and sometimes full of conflicts and struggle.
After the death of Songtsen Gampo, the Tubo Tsenpos with the assistance of Gar Tongtsen and his descendants became stronger and stronger. The Tubo began to expand their territory by force. They occupied the Qiang area, which was a dependency of the Tang government. In 670 they conquered Qiuci (Kucha), Shule (Kashgar), Yutian (Khotan) and Yanqi, four strategic towns in Anxi (all in Xinjiang) which were under the Tang's control. This conquest caused direct conflicts between the Tang and the Tubo and led to protracted warfare between them.
However, in spite of this warfare the Tang and Tubo had peace alliances, marriage relations, and an exchange of envoys. This was characteristic of Tang-Tubo relations. In addition to the frequent border conflicts, the warfare concentrated on four aspects: (1) struggle for the control of the Tuyuhun, (2) struggle for the four strategic towns of Anxi, (3) struggle for the Hexi-Longyou area (now the central part of Gansu), and (4) struggle for the control of the Nanzhao. Generally speaking, the Tubo were on the offensive and the Tang on the defensive.
Contention for the Tuyuhun The Tubo bordered the Tuyuhun (in the area of modern Qinghai) in the north and the Tuyuhun bordered the Tang. So the Tuyuhun area was a strategic place for both the Tang and the Tubo. Owing to the marriage alliance made by Emperor Taizong, the Tubo were friendly to the Tang, and the Tang, Tubo and Tuyuhun were at peace with each other. But after the death of Songtsen Gampo, the ruling power of the Tubo came under the control of the prime minister Gar Tongtsen, and he pursued a policy of expansion and nullified the policy of keeping friendly relations with the Tang. First of all, the Tubo invaded the Tuyuhun territory, beginning with the occupation of the area controlled by the Palen, a tribe subject to the Tuyuhun. In 650 Gar Tongtsen led 120,000 troops to attack and occupy the Palen area (modern Dulan and Balong of Qinghai). In 663 Gar Tongtsen led an army to attack the Tuyuhun. The Tuyuhun king Norbo was defeated. He and his wife, Princess Honghua, fled to Liangzhou with several thousand households. Thus the Tuyuhun were eliminated. As a result, the Tubo came directly in contact with the border of the Tang and threatened the border of the Helong (Hexi-Longyou) area and the Western Regions of the Tang.
The Tuyuhun was a protectorate of the Tang. They had a vast and sparsely populated territory. The Tang emperor had granted the king of Tuyuhun the title of prince and had given Princess Honghua to him in marriage. Also the Tuyuhun area was along the trade route between the Tang and the states in the Western Regions. The Tang's countermeasure to the Tubo was to try to restore the Tuyuhun and at the same time to prepare for a war with the Tubo. After conquering the Tuyuhun, the Tubo attacked the Western Regions of the Tang. The Tang Emperor Gaozong sent General Xue Rengui with an army of 100,000 troops to attack the Tubo in 670. He fought a fierce battle with the Tubo General Gar Trinring (son of Gar Tongtsen), who led 400,000 troops, at Dafeichuan (in modern Qinghai). In that battle the Tang troops, who were tired after their long journey and were not accustomed to the plateau climate, were in an inferior position. The battle ended with a victory for the Tubo. That was the first large-scale war between the Tang and the Tubo. Thus the Tang lost control over the Tuyuhun. In 672 the Tuyuhun king with his family and remnant troops fled to Lingzhou (modern southwestern Ningwu County in Ningxia) and he lived there until his death. After that the original Tuyuhun territory became a dependency of the Tubo. Many Tibetans emigrated to the Qinghai area, which became the Tubo army's source of manpower and materiel. From then on, the Tubo continuously harassed Hexi, Longyou and the Western Regions on the borders of the Tang. Several times the Tang sent troops to fight with the Tubo but they were defeated. Thus the Tang was forced into a passive, defensive position.
Contention for the Western Regions When the Tang was at its zenith, it had well developed communications and foreign trade. Its main foreign trade routes were on land. Four towns in the Western Regions were strategic to the Tang because they were on the way to the Western Regions and on the Silk Road. In order to cut the communications route and replace the Tang as a hegemonic power in the Western Regions, the Tubo decided to capture these four strategic towns. The contention for the four towns led to a protracted war between the Tang and the Tubo.
After the battle at Dafeichuan, the Tubo captured Qiuci, the seat of the Anxi Area Command, and occupied most parts of the four strategic towns of Anxi. As the Tang could only control the areas to the north and east of the Tianshan Mountains, the Tarim Basin was thus in the hands of the Tubo, and the Tang was on the defensive in the Western Regions.
When Wu Zetian, the queen of the Tang Emperor Gaozong, came to power, she decided to take back the four towns of Anxi. In 685 she dispatched Wei Daijia with armed forces to fight the Tubo, but the Tang troops were defeated. In 692 Wu Zetian then sent an army under the command of General Wang Xiaojie to recapture the towns. Wang defeated the Tubo troops and recaptured Qiuci, Shule, Yutian and Yanqi. He left 30,000 garrison troops there to station the towns. This victory led to the restoration of the Tang's supremacy over the Western Regions. Wang Xiaojie with his Tang troops then had a battle with the Tubo general Gar Trinring in the area of the former Tuyuhun territory. Wang was defeated by Trinring at Mt. Suluohan in Qinghai and at Liangzhou in 695 and 696 successively. That was the second large-scale war between the Tang and the Tubo.
When the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion broke out, the Tubo took advantage of the situation and invaded Hexi and Longyou, thereby cutting off the link between the four strategic towns in Anxi and the Tang central government. The Tubo captured Shazhou in 781 and Beiting and Anxi in 787. The Tang was thus forced again into an inferior position.
Contention for the Nanzhao The Nanzhao area was to the southeast of the Tubo and it was a local independent regime that was set up by a tribal league with the tribe of Wuman as its main part during the early Tang Dynasty. Its capital was at present-day Dali and its territory covered Yunnan, the southern part of Sichuan and the western part of Guizhou, its political and military influence reaching the Indo-China Peninsula. It was in close contact with the Tang.
The Tubo king Dusong Mangje (r. 676-704) led an army into the Erhai region of Yunnan to fight the local tribes there in 704, but he failed to conquor them.
Since ancient times, six major tribes had lived in present-day Yunnan Province. They were once known as the Six Zhao's. During the early Tang period, the southernmost Mengshe Zhao, otherwise called the Nanzhao (Southern Zhao), grew strong. Their chieftain, Piluoge, often sent envoys to pay respect to the Tang court. In 738 Piluoge unified the five other tribes into one state and established the Kingdom of Nanzhao. The Tang court conferred upon him the title of King of Nanzhao.
Located between the Tang and the Tubo, the Nanzhao Kingdom was a place for which both contended. The Tang hoped to check the Tubo through the military might of the Nanzhao, while the Nanzhao intended to resist the Tubo's invasion and expand their influence to the area of Dianchi Lake by relying on the Tang forces. The Tang and Nanzhao's different intentions led to conflicts between the two. In 751 the Tang court sent an expedition into Yunnan under the command of Xianyu Zhongtong, a Tang garrison commander at Jiannan, and thus came into conflict with the Nanzhao. In 752, while putting up resistance the Nanzhao king, Piluoge, sought to collaborate with the Tubo and he pledged allegiance to the Tubo. The Tubo thus succeeded in making the Nanzhao its dependency, and it conferred on the next king of Nanzhao, Geluofeng, the royal title of "Tsenpo Drong" ("king's brother" in Tibetan). Geluofeng replaced the name of his original reign period with the Tibetan "Tsenpo Drong," and designated 752 as the first year of the Tsenpo Drong reign period.[23] Thus the Tubo accomplished its long-cherished design on the Nanzhao. With the Nanzhao as its dependency, the Tubo became stronger and imposed a direct threat to the Tang in southwestern China.
Contention for the Hexi Corridor and the Longyou (west Gansu) area The Hexi Corridor and the Longyou area were important strategic places along the Silk Road. Pursuing an expansion policy, the Tubo often harassed and nibbled at Hexi-Longyou. In 755 the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion broke out. The eight-year-long war swept across the Central Plains and greatly weakened the Tang's strength and prestige. This was especially true after the Tang court called back Gao Xianzhi and Ge Shuhan, two garrison commanders on the western borders, and sent them out with 150,000 troops to fight the rebels. Taking advantage of the Tang's unguarded western borders, the Tubo united with the Nanzhao, Dangxiang, Tuyuhun and Huihe to launch a large-scale offensive against the Tang and capture the prefectures of Lanzhou, Guozhou (to the west of modern Hualong County in Qinghai), Hezhou, Shanzhou, Taozhou (modern Lintan County in Gansu), Minzhou (modern Minxian County in Gansu), Qin-zhou (modern Tianshui), Chengzhou and Weizhou (southeastern part of modern Longxi County in Gansu). Almost the whole Hexi Corridor and Longyou were thus lost to the Tubo, except for a few places that were still held by the Tang troops.
In 763 the Tubo General Taktra Lukhong (called Ma Zhong-ying in the New Tang Annals) with 200,000 troops broke through the Tang's defensive line and stormed their way into Chang'an. The Tang Emperor Daizong fled to Shanzhou. The Tubo installed Li Chenghong (Princess Jincheng's nephew) as the new emperor of the Tang. After sacking the city for fifteen days they retreated westward. The Tang's failure in this war was the biggest they had ever suffered in their battles with the Tubo. After the An-Shi Rebellion, the Tang became so weak that they could no longer recover the lost towns. On the other hand, the Tubo, after the war, were able to move many Tibetan people into the northwestern and southwestern regions of China.
Owing to General Guo Ziyi's stubborn resistance, the Tubo army was forced to withdraw from the Tang capital, Chang'an. However, this did not stop their invasion of Longyou. They captured Ganzhou and Suzhou in 766, Guazhou in 777, and Shazhou in 781. In less than half a century the Tubo now occupied all the prefectures of Hexi and Longyou. The Tubo continued to invade the Tang territory and conducted an all-out offensive from the Western Regions, Yunnan and Hexi-Longyou. It was hard for the Tang to deal with them. The Tubo succeeded in occupying Hexi-Longyou, cutting off the Tang's communication with the outside world. It was only after the Tubo had collapsed that Hexi-Longyou returned to the Tang.
To sum up, after the death of Songtsen Gampo the relations between the Tang and the Tubo became complicated. The Tubo's contention for the Tang's borderland and protectorates led to 170 years of wars between them. Both the Tubo and the Tang suffered much in their social economies and their people's lives. The wars seriously hindered the cultural and economic exchanges between the Han and Tibetan peoples and caused the decline of both the Tang and the Tubo.
Tang-Tubo Peace Pledge, Setting of the Boundary Line and Friendly Relations
During more than two hundred years after the death of Songtsen Gampo, in order to solve contradictions between them, the Tang and the Tubo had a marriage alliance and eight peace conferences. The first peace conference was held in 706 and the last one in 821. Demarcation of boundary lines was the major subject to be solved at these conferences. As the Tubo invaded the Tang again and again, the Tang was forced to make concessions on demarcation. Owing to the frequent battles, the demarcation problem could not be solved at one conference. The Tang and Tubo reached agreements on the problem at four conferences. The line between the Tang and Tubo was along the Yellow River in northeastern Qinghai from the mid-7th to the mid-8th centuries. Then the Tubo moved the line eastward to the Liupan and Longshan mountains from the Mid-8th to the Mid-9th centuries. The conferences reflected the wishes of the rulers on both sides to adjust the political relations in a compromising way and revealed the Han and Tibetan peoples' aspirations for peace.
In the later period of the reign of Wu Zetian, the Tubo became weak owing to frequent wars. They sent envoys to the Tang court with a proposal for a marriage alliance. The Tang also hoped to end its wars with the Tubo and so the intense relations between the Tang and the Tubo might become more relaxed. In 704 the Tubo Tsenpo Dusong Mangje led a large army into the Erhai region, but the king died on the way. His son, Tride Tsugtsen (r. 704-754), then assumed the throne. Because he was still a child, his grandmother, Trimalo, served as the regent during his minority. Owing to the contradictions between aristocrats and the royal house, the Tubo was beset with a crisis. In order to strengthen the rule of the Tsenpo, Trimalo was eager to seek support from the Tang. So the Tubo sent its minister Nye Trisang Yangton as an envoy to the Tang court to seek matrimonial bonds with the Tang royal house. The Tang Emperor Zhongzong promised to give Princess Jincheng, the daughter of Prince Yong, Li Zongli, to the Tsenpo in marriage in the hope that this would "ease the tensions on the borderland and bring about an abatement of the border warfare."[24] In 706, the second year of the Shenlong era of the Tang Emperor Zhongzong's reign, the Tang and the Tubo held their first conference on the demarcation of a border line at Chang'an. This is known as the "Shenlong Oath of Alliance" in Chinese history. It brought the warfare between the Tang and the Tubo that had lasted for almost half a century to an end and began new friendly relations between them.
Princess Jincheng was the second Tang princess to marry a Tubo king. In November 709, Nye Trisang Yangton went with a group of one thousand people to Chang'an to welcome the princess to Tibet. In January 710, the Tang Emperor Zhongzong with officials escorted the princess to Shiping County (northwest of modern Xianyang of Shaanxi) and held a farewell party. To commemorate the occasion, he had the county's tax of the year exempted, granted an amnesty to all the local convicts under sentence of death, and renamed the county after Princess Jincheng. The emperor granted the princess acrobats, craftsmen, Qiuci musicians and other attendants. He bestowed Jiuqu of Hexi (the Yellow River valley to the southeast of Qinghai Lake) on Princess Jincheng and dispatched General Yang Ju as a special emissary to escort her to Rasa. The Tubo king built a palace for the princess in Rasa and held a grand marriage ceremony. Princess Jincheng's marriage to King Tride Tsugtsen marked another important event in the history of relations between the Hans and the Tibetans. She went to the Tubo at a time when the young Tubo Tsenpo Tride Tsugtsen was in difficulties. Representing the Tang court, she supported the Tubo king, making great contributions to the stabilization of the Tubo political situation and the development of the Tubo economy and culture. In the same way as Princess Wencheng, she had great influence over the Tibetan people. Princess Jincheng lived in Tibet for 30 years, and died in 740. Though she could not prevent the Tubo from invading the Tang territory, she did her best to moderate Tang-Tubo contradictions and to help bring about the demarcation of Tang-Tubo border line at Heyuan and Chiling.
In 714, after defeating the Tubo troops in Lintao, the Tang, on the excuse of conveying greetings to Princess Jincheng, sent envoys to Tibet to restore their good relations with the Tubo. The Tubo for the first time proposed a conference to delimit the boundary line between them. Through the mediation of Princess Jincheng, the Tang and the Tubo held a mutual pledge of peace at Heyuan. Shortly afterward the Tubo scrapped the contract and invaded Lanzhou and Weizhou of the Tang territory in July of the same year. The Heyuan conference was the first to deal with the boundary problem. After that, Tride Tsugtsen and Princess Jincheng several times dispatched envoys to the Tang court to establish peace, request border demarcation and encourage trade. The Tang also sent envoys to the Tubo to develop good relations between them. In 730 Tride Tsugtsen dispatched his minister Shina with a memorial to Tang Emperor Xuanzong, saying:
I am a nephew of the deceased emperor and now I have been honored with a marriage to Princess Jincheng. This shows that we are of one family. I am therefore confident that all people in both of our lands will live in peace and happiness.[25]
The Tang emperor replied, "The relationship of the Tang and the Tubo is at once a relationship of two good neighbors and that of uncle and nephew. Tang and Tubo, though two states, are of one family."[26] Thus in 732 the Tang and the Tubo held a conference at Chiling (modern Riyueshan in Huangyuan County of Qinghai) at which both sides agreed to have Chiling as the boundary line and to open trade markets at Gansongling (modern Songpan of Sichuan) and Chiling. A monument was erected to memorialize this decision at Chiling in 733. It bears the inscription of a written pledge for peaceful relations given by both parties at the conference in 732. The Tang and the Tubo frontier generals attended a grand ceremony held for the erection of it. It was announced to them that from that day on the Tang and the Tubo would have good relations and not harass each other[27] This was an important event in the history of good relations between the Tang and the Tubo. It satisfied the wish of the Han and Tibetan peoples and maintained peace for a period of time.
Seizing the chance of the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion, the Tubo intruded into the Tang capital, Chang'an, and occupied the Hexi Corridor and Longyou. The Tang had no strength to hit back. However, wars consumed the Tubo's strength and they could never invade the great Tang empire again. Two peace-alliance conferences were held in 757 and 765. When the Tang Emperor Dezong came to the throne, both the Tang and the Tubo emphasized their wish for peace. The emperor dispatched Zhang Yi, the military governor of Longyou, to meet with Tubo minister Shang Gyaltsen and held a peace-alliance meeting at Qingshui (modern Qingshui County in Gansu) in January of 783. Its inscription reads:
.... The Tang has had matrimonial bonds with the Tubo and they are in the relationship of uncle and nephew. Peace has been maintained for 200 years, though sometimes conflicts occurred on the borders.... Now it is determined that the boundaries from the Jinghe River westward to the west pass of the Tanzhengxia gorge, from Longzhou westward to Qingshui County, from Fengzhou westward to Tonggu County and from the Xishan Mountains of Jiannan westward to the east of the Dadu River belong to the Han; the Tubo guards Lanzhou, Weizhou, Yuanzhou and Huizhou, westward to Lintao, eastward to Huozhou and Jiannan as well as the southwest of the Dadu River.... As to the boundaries not recorded in the inscription, those on the Han's side will be guarded by Han troops and those on the Tubo's side by Tubo troops. The two parties must not invade each other.[28]
As was decided at the Qingshui conference, the boundaries went from the middle of the Liupan Mountains through the southern end of Mt. Longshan, then along the Minjiang and Dadu rivers southward to the Lijiang region in Yunnan, with the east side belonging to the Tang and the west side to the Tubo. This meant that the Tang was forced to give up its control of the Western Regions and virtually admit the Tubo's rule over the Hexi and Longyou regions. The Qingshui conference was the third meeting for delimitation of boundaries between the Tang and the Tubo.
However, after the Qingshui conference the Tubo still often invaded the Tang territories giving the Tang a world of troubles. In 787 the Tang Emperor Dezong appointed Li Mi as prime minister and adopted Li's proposal that the Tang should unite neighboring ethnic groups to isolate the Tubo. The Tang's policy was successful. The Tubo was exposed to attacks from all directions. At the same time they suffered much from natural calamities, which greatly consumed their strength. In the later period of the reign of Trisong Detsen, the Tubo appeared strong but weak in reality and was defeated by the Tang and the Nanzhao in many battles.[29] In order to free itself from the awkward situation caused by these wars, the Tubo had to sue for peace with the Tang. In 804 the Tubo dispatched a mission of 54 persons to the Tang court to appeal for peace relations and normal trade. In 810 the Tubo gave Anlezhou, Qinzhou and Yuanzhou—three prefectures—back to the Tang. In response, the Tang Emperor Xianzong praised the Tubo king for the meritorious service.[30] Thus the intense hostility between the Tang and the Tubo that had lasted for a long period of time was relaxed. The Tang released their Tubo prisoners of war, and the Tubo sent to the Tang the coffins of dead Tang officials. In that way the two parties showed their sincerity toward reconciliation. This created the conditions for the Changqing conference.
The Changqing meeting was known as an "Uncle-Nephew Peace Pledging Ceremony." It was held during the reign of Tritsug Detsen, when the Tubo was in its later period of rule. After exchanging views through envoys, the Tang and Tubo reached an agreement that both parties should no longer treat each other as enemies, should not attack each other, and should not annex each other's territory.[31] In October of 821 the Tubo sent a mission headed by special envoy Lon Nalo to Chang'an to appeal for a mutual pledge of peace. Granting this request, the Tang emperor promptly appointed 17 high officials, including prime minister Cui Zhi and minister Wang Bo, to attend a solemn ceremony in the western suburbs of Chang'an with the Tubo envoy in order to mark their mutual pledge of peace. The Tang agreed to the Tubo's occupation of the Hexi and Longyou regions and the Tubo guaranteed they would not again invade the borderland of the Tang territory.
In May of 822 the Tang court dispatched Liu Yuanding and other officials to the Tubo area to attend a peace-pledging ceremony presided over by the Tubo monk minister Bande Chenpo Yonten with the participation of another leading minister, Shang Trisumje, and leading aristocrats and local lords. The ceremony was held at Dratotsal to the east of Rasa. After this meeting, Shang Trisumje made a special trip to an outlying region in modern Gansu where he briefed an assembly of more than 100 army commanders and high officials on the peace agreement and committed them to observing it. To express their sincerity regarding peace and friendship, the Tubo put up an Uncle-Nephew Alliance Tablet at Rasa in 823. The tablet still stands near the entrance to the Jokhang Temple, after a period of 1,160 years. It bears an inscription, in both Tibetan and Chinese, which reads in part :
Emperor Muzong of the Great Tang and the Sacred Tsenpo of the Great Tubo Tritsug Detsen, uncle and nephew, have met with agreement to become allied as one. In order to maintain the alliance forever, and so that it may be witnessed and discussed by ecclesiastical and secular communities for generations hence, the treaty is engraved on this stone tablet.[32]
The inscription gives an account of the close ties of the two parties, expresses their wish for lasting peace and establishes the delimitation of boundary lines, thus recording the decisions made at the Qingshui meeting. The event was significant because it conformed to the Han and Tibetan peoples' aspirations. This was the fourth meeting for demarcation held between the Tang and the Tubo. It put an end to the warfare between them that had lasted off and on for one and a half century and brought about a time of social stability and some development in the economy and culture of Tibet.
The whole period of the Tang Dynasty saw frequent exchanges of envoys between the Tang and the Tubo, which promoted not only the political ties of the two courts but also the Han and Tibetan peoples' friendly relations. During the period of 213 years beginning in 634 (the eighth year of the Zhenguan era of Tang Emperor Taizong's reign) when the first Tubo envoys came to the Tang capital until 846 (the sixth year of the Huichang era of Tang Emperor Wuzong's reign) when the Tubo Dynasty collapsed, there were 191 exchanges of envoys, of which 66 were from the Tang and 125 from the Tubo. The number of persons in each of these missions reached 100 at the most and were never less than 10 at the least. Some envoys stayed at the other party's court for as long as ten years or even tens of years. Their main duty was to make a marriage alliance and to plan peace alliance meetings. In addition, they were sent to announce obituary notices, to send condolences and congratulations, to offer tributes and invitations, to hire craftsmen, send monks and to trade. In these close contacts through royal gifts and mutual trade the Tubo imported from the Tang a large amount of tea, silk and other products. The Tang imported from the Tubo horses and local products.
In summary, though there were conflicts and wars between the Tang and the Tubo, the wars did not prevent the Han and Tibetan peoples from having friendly contacts and economic and cultural exchanges. The two parties established close political and economic ties through marriage alliances and peace alliances. Peace and friendship were thus the mainstream of Tang-Tubo relations.
The Decline of the Tubo Dynasty and the Rise of Buddhism in Tibet
The Fall of the Tubo Dynasty
Trisong Detsen was Princess Jincheng's son. His reign (754-797) is considered to be the golden age in Tubo history, known as the "Great Tubo." At that time Tubo referred to Tibet proper, while the Great Tubo included, in addition to Tibet, the areas inhabited by Tibetans in Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai, as well as Kashmir, Assam, Bangladesh and northern Burma, with the Ganges River as the boundary line between Tibet and India. Owing to his great military and civil merit, Trisong Detsen is usually put on a par with Songtsen Gampo. He was respectfully called "the second Buddhist king." However, in the later period of his reign signs of the Tubo weakness began to appear. The decline of the Tubo began at the time of Muni Tsenpo.[33] The causes of the Tubo's decline were as follows: (1) Their expansion by force, especially in continuous wars with the Tang, which wore down the Tubo's manpower and material resources; (2) The rivalries of nobles for power that weakened the Tubo ruling power; (3) Fierce religious conflicts that sharpened the internal contradictions of the ruling group; (4) The Tang's policy of uniting other neighboring states to isolate the Tubo and attack them from all sides; and (5) The uprisings of slaves. The Tubo Dynasty fell apart in 846 during the time of Lang Darma.[34]
The wars between the Tang and the Tubo were an important cause of the Tubo's fall. The Tang Dynasty became weak after the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion. The Tang Emperor De-zong, Li Shi, after consulting with his ministers, Li Mi and Lu Zhi, carried out a policy of uniting with the Huihe in the north, Nanzhao in the south, and Tazi (ancient name for Arabia) and Tianzhu (ancient name for India) in the west to isolate the Tubo.[35] Though in the past the Huihe had united with the Tubo to attack the Tang, the Tang gave no thought to previous enmities and, instead, arranged a marriage alliance with the Huihe by giving Princess Xian'an to Huihe Khan, thus putting an end to the Tubo-Huihe alliance. After subduing the Nanzhao and making their territory a base from which to attack the Tang, the Tubo stationed troops there and levied taxes from the Nanzhao. The taxes were too heavy for the Nanzhao to endure, and so, in 794, the Nanzhao King Yi Muxun met with Tang envoys. Then he broke with the Tubo. The Nanzhao king gave up his title of "Tsenpo Drong" granted to him by the Tubo and restored his old title. The Nanzhao then captured sixteen Tubo towns and 100,000 Tubo people. He immediately informed the Tang of his victory. After that the Tang and the Nanzhao united to defend themselves against the Tubo. Though the Tang failed to make direct contact with the Tazi and Tianzhu, the Tazi king sent troops to attack the Tubo in 786. The Tubo thus had to dispatch troops from Hexi-Longyou to defend themselves against the Tazi. This greatly weakened their ability to invade the Tang.[36] After the Tang formulated this policy, the Tubo was weighed down with defending itself against attacks from all sides. The Tubo thus became weakened.
Trisong Detsen advocated Buddhism in the later period of his reign, and Buddhist influence made itself felt in the political realm of the Tubo, bringing about fierce conflicts between Buddhism and Bonism. Bon was the primitive religion of the Tubo. Trisong Detsen's chief minister, Takra Lugong, as a follower of Bon firmly opposed the building of Buddhist temples. Thus the king dismissed him from office and even condemned him to death, though he had done meritorious deeds and the Tsenpo had earlier erected a tablet to his merits. From this we can see that the conflicts between Buddhism and Bonism were actually a struggle for power between different interest groups of the Tubo ruling elite.
Trisong Detsen died in 797. After his death his three sons contested for the throne. Finally, Muni succeeded to the throne. Muni's mother was Tsephongsa. At that time a sharp discrepancy in possession of property existed in the society and a number of commoners were reduced to slavery. The king three times ordered the equalization of property among his subjects, including all nobles and high officials. He compelled his subjects to make donations to erect Buddhist temples. Thus the king deeply offended the nobles by these measures, which damaged their interests and ran against his mother's wishes. Consequently he was poisoned by his mother, Queen Tsephongsa, less than two years after he assumed the throne.[37]
Muni's brother, Tride Songtsen (commonly referred to as Sadnaleg in Tibetan sources), succeeded him to the throne.[38] He adopted a proposal of monk minister Nyang Tingzin's to pledge oaths with the nobles and local lords so as to lessen the sharp conflicts inside as well as to make a peace alliance with the Tang and thus enhance his control over subjugated tribes. He put monks in charge of political affairs. He set up two posts of monk ministers, their status being higher than that of the royal aristocrats. Monk ministers were called Bande Chenpo, meaning "high monks in the position of minister."
Tride Songtsen died in 815. Tritsug Detsen (also known as Ralpachen) then succeeded to the throne.[39] His mother was Bro. During his reign, the Tubo social contradictions further sharpened and the Tubo became weaker. To carry out his father's will, he also spared no effort in patronizing Buddhism. He appointed two monks as his ministers to be in charge of political affairs. As his health was bad, the royal power soon fell in the hands of these monk ministers. In the later period of his reign the monk officials enjoyed the patronage of Queen Palgye Ngangtsul and the royal court and became more powerful. All this inevitably aroused strong opposition from the nobles and high officials opposed to Buddhism. Even the king himself eventually cast suspicion on the Bande Chenpo and appointed Gyaltore as his chief minister in charge of state affairs. On the excuse of banning Buddhism, the nobles contested for royal power. They forced the queen to commit suicide. In 838 Tritsug Detsen was assassinated by two pro-Bon ministers, Be Gyaltore and Chogro Lhalon, who were loyal to Darma, the king's brother. Darma then succeeded to the throne[40]
Darma, like his father and brother, sincerely believed in Buddhism when he was a prince. But he was enthroned by ministers who opposed Buddhism and so he followed their advice. Natural disasters took place after he came to the throne. He followed chief minister Gyaltore's advice, considering this to be the result of the belief in Buddhism, which offended heaven. In order to clear away the influences of the Bande Chenpo and the other monks, he banned Buddhism. He ordered the closing of all Buddhist temples and monasteries in Tubo, compelled all monks to leave the religious order and burned Buddhist scriptures. He destroyed and buried Buddhist images. He even ordered the monks to become hunters and butchers. Such repressive measures were a heavy blow to Buddhism in the Tubo. However, some lay Buddhists who practiced the Tantra at home escaped persecution.[41] They paid close attention to his movements and tried to take revenge on him. Finally, in 846, Darma was assassinated by a revenging monk.
The Tubo Dynasty, which began in 633, when Songtsen Gampo established his regime at Lhasa, and passed through nine Tsenpos over a period of 213 years, ended after the reign of Darma. At the time of Darma's death, his senior queen had no son, but his junior queen was pregnant. After his death, the senior queen adopted her nephew, a boy aged 3; the child was supported by his mother's family, so he acquired the name Yumtan, which means "Relying on the Mother." The junior queen gave birth to a son named O-sung, meaning "Protected by the Light," who was supported by chief minister Gyaltore and other ministers.[42] The nobles soon divided into two groupings, each backing one of the king's two sons, Yumtan and Osung, in the contest for the throne. This brought Tibet into a period of division and rebellion of slaves. Accordingly, the Tubo Dynasty's supremacy over various tribes began to fall apart and the once powerful Tubo Dynasty headed for destruction.
After the split in the royal house, the group backing Yumtan occupied Wuyul, while the group backing O-sung was forced to retreat to the Yarlung valley, the cradle of the former Pugyal tribe. They engaged in hostilities for more than twenty years. At the same time the Tubo generals in the outlying regions were also locked in armed strife against each other. This brought about the destruction of forces of social production and sharpened the class contradictions. Large-scale rebellions of slaves broke out in the Tubo. The uprising of various ethnic groups in the Hexi-Longyou areas broke out first. After the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion, the Hexi-Longyou areas had been under the control of the Tubo for as long as a hundred years. The local Han people were reduced to slavery by the Tubo. The Tubo slave-owners forced them to live in the Tibetan way. They were forced to wear Tibetan clothes and were allowed to wear Han clothes only on the first day of New Year, when they held sacrificial ceremonies for their ancestors. Taking advantage of the Tubo's fall, the Hexi-Longyou people rose in rebellion against the Tubo. The Hexi-Longyou slave uprising broke out in 847. The rebels included local Hans and Tibetans as well as the tribes of Yangtong, Sumpa, Dangxiang, Palen and Tuyuhun. The rebellion did not have a unified leadership but covered a large area. Shortly after the rebellion, the Tang took measures to restore the Hexi-Longyou area. At that time a man named Zhang Yichao led an uprising in Shazhou with the support of the local people. The Tubo garrison generals ran away. Taking advantage of this victory, Zhang proceeded to capture ten prefectures, including Guazhou, Yi-zhou, Xizhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Lanzhou and Mingzhou. This freed the people in the Hexi-Longyou areas from the Tubo's protracted oppression and put them back under the Tang. The rebellion of commoners and slaves of the Tubo proper broke out in 869 in eastern Tibet. According to Tibetan documents, the rebellions began in lower Do-Kham (the modern Tibetan areas in Qinghai, Gansu and western Sichuan) and Yoru (southeastern Tibet) and expanded to other places[43] The rebels declared that they would kill all the officials of the Tibetan king.[44] This showed what a deep hatred the slaves had for their rulers. Though the nine-year-long uprising ended in failure, it dealt a heavy blows to the Tubo slave system and made it collapse completely.
Separatist Regimes in Tibet During the Song and Liao Dynasties
The Tubo slave-owning system collapsed under the heavy blows of slave uprisings. The Tubo Tsenpo Darma's descendants fled and set up separatist regimes in different places. Many feudal lords and nobles also each occupied places and established their regimes there. They claimed to be kings and fought with each other. As the historical literature records, "In the Five Dynasties Tubo became weak. Huihe and Dangxiang captured its places but not its people."[45] The History of the Song Dynasty says, "Tubo became weak and its people scattered and lived in groups. A big group had several thousand families and a small one several dozens. They were no longer unified."[46] The separatist regimes might be roughly classified into the following lineages: The Ngari King's lineage, the Jowa King's lineage in Yarlung, the Yartse King's lineage in Tsang, and the Lhasa King's lineage in U. The kings of Ngari and Lhasa were more powerful than the others. This situation of separatist regimes lasted for more than 400 years and ended at the time when the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) unified China.
The separatist regimes of the Tubo were based on the ruins of the old system, which was destroyed by the uprisings of slaves. Compared with the interior of the Tubo, its border areas near to the hinterland of China had more direct political contact with the Tang and were strongly influenced by its advanced modes of production, and they absorbed more elements of feudal system and therefore the rudiments of feudal economy emerged there at an earlier time. The interior of Tibet also saw a gradual transition from the slave-owning system to a feudal serfdom economy. The transition in Tibet began in the 10th century and ended in the 13th century, lasting for about 300 years. According to the Biography of Rinchen Zangpo, the Gu-ge King Lhade, who lived during the first half of the 11th century, granted Rinchen Zangpo, a well-known translator of Buddhist scriptures, three shikas (manorial estates) near Tsapar-ang in recognition of his merits of reviving Buddhism.[47] This was the earliest record of the rudiments of a serf system being established in Tibet. The record shows two developments: first, the emergence of manorial estates of feudal lords a hundred years after the fall of the Tubo Dynasty indicated that those areas had begun to change from a slave-owning system to a feudal serf system; second, it indicated that Rinchen Zangpo, as a Buddhist monk who had made great contributions to Tibetan Buddhism, was one of the earliest owners of shikas, which shows the close relation between the rapid development of Buddhism and the formation of the feudal system in Tibet.
There is no doubt that after the Tubo fell apart the separatist regimes of Tibet were to some degree feudal in character. At the same time the interior of China was also split into feudal separatist regimes successively known as the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms." The Five Dynasties, founded between 907 to 960 in the Central Plains, were the Later Liang, the Later Tang, the Later Jin, the Later Han and the Later Zhou. The ten kingdoms, founded successively in South China and in what is now Shanxi, were the Wu, Southern Tang, Wuyue, Chu, Min, Southern Han, Former Shu, Later Shu, Nanping, and Northern Han. The separatist regimes of Tibet paid tributes to the various small dynasties of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, appealed for granting of titles and asked the dynasties to send officials for administration. They were subordinate in different degrees to the various dynasties of China.
During the Song Dynasty (960-1279) this political subjugation was further enhanced. The establishment of the Song Dynasty in 960 put an end to the division of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. In the next year, 961, some of the Tubo tribes contacted the Song on their own. According to the "Chapter on Tubo," in the History of the Song Dynasty and other historical documents, during the whole period of the Song Dynasty the major tribes of the Tubo kept close political and economic relations with the Song. The relations were closer than those in the period of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. This is shown in the following: (1) Some Tubo tribes offered land many times to the Song and asked the central government to dispatch officials for their administration, which seldom happened prior to the period of the Song; (2) The number of important Tubo tribal chieftains who were appointed as officials by the Song was larger than that by the Tang and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms; (3) There were few wars between the major Tubo tribes and the Song; (4) The tea-horse trade that began with the Tang enjoyed greater development in the Song, with a large number of Tubo horses and local products being imported from Tibet to China's interior, and tea, cloth and other products necessary to the Tibetan people from China's interior to Tibet. The economic relations between the Han and Tibetan peoples were thus closer than before.
In the early part of the Song Dynasty, there were Tubo tribes at the border of the Qinfeng Circuit, in the Xiliang Prefecture and along the Yellow River and Huangshui River valleys. Of these tribes the large ones had several thousand families and the small ones had several dozen. Each tribe had its chieftain and was independent from the others. The Song adopted a policy of pacification toward them and had close political relations with them by granting them gifts and titles of nobility.
Liangzhou was at the center of the Hexi Corridor. As an important border town of the Tubo it was always garrisoned by Tubo generals. During the Five Dynasties, Tsepu Gyatso, a chieftain of Liugu tribe in Liangzhou, after getting a title of honor from the Later Han, put the Hexi Corridor under his control. The Song Dynasty kept good relations with the Liugu tribe. The tribe chieftain often offered horses as tribute to the Song court and, in return, received many gifts from the imperial court. The Song united with the Liugu tribe to guard against the Xixia (Tangut) invasion[48] In 1001 (the fourth year of Xianping era), the Song emperor appointed Palochi, the chieftain of the Liugu tribe, as Military Governor of the Suofang Army and Chief Military Inspector of Lingzhou, and bestowed on him a suit of armor in addition to money. In 1006, when the tribe suffered from pestilence, the Song emperor gave them 76 kinds of medicine, thus saving its people in time.[49] The Song always protected and encouraged the trade between the tribespeople and the people of China's interior. Besides, the Tibetan tribes along the Qinfeng Circuit also paid tribute and offered land to the Song court to demonstrate their dependency on the Song. After that, all the Tsepu chieftains in the Xiliang Prefecture were appointed by the Song court. The common interests of resisting the Xixia's invasion brought the Han and Tibetan peoples closer to each other.
Of the Tubo separatist regimes the most powerful was the Gyalsra (meaning "son of Buddha" in Tibetan), a Tibetan chieftain who maintained an independent regime in Miaochuan (modern Xining in Qinghai). This regime, centered in Gansu and Qinghai, was founded in the 11th century and lasted for more than 100 years. The term Gyalsra referred to both the chieftain and his regime. Gyalsra claimed that he was a descendant of the Tubo Tsenpo Yumtan lineage and that his forefathers came to Hezhou from the Western Regions in 1008. Many stories about Gyalsra exist in Tibet. He nearly became the overlord among the Tubo separatist regimes. After founding his regime, Gyalsra maintained close contacts with the Song and its chieftains of all generations were granted titles of honor by the Song court. Gyalsra respectfully called the Song Emperor "Uncle Emperor." The Song court appointed Gyalsra as Chief General of Ningyuan and Commander of the Aizhou Militia in 1032.[50] Gyalsra frequently sent envoys to offer tribute to the Song court and received gifts from the emperor. Records about this can be found in several historical books. Gyalsra reigned for 50 years, and after his death his son Dongtsan succeeded him.
Dongtsan was also subject to the Song and held the usual practice of an annual offering of tribute to the Song. These tributes included pearls, frankincense, ivory, jade and horses. In return, the Song emperor bestowed on him tin, tea, silk and money. Dongtsan sent 30,000 troops to help the Song army when the Song conducted an expedition against Xixia in 1081, and dispatched 120,000 troops to help the Song recover Lanzhou in August of that year. For his military aid the Song emperor appointed him as the Prince of Wuwei. The Xixia tried to bribe him by promising to give him the land to the west of Zhuolong, a high official office and treasure. But Dongtsan refused the Xixia and told this to the Song court. The Song Emperor Shen-zong appreciated his refusal and said that each of his reports was full of loyalty and intelligence, and that even Chinese high officials loyal to the court could not exceed him.[51] Dongtsan died in 1086. After his death, his adopted son named Aligu succeeded him. The Song court appointed Aligu as General-in-chief of the Guan Army and Military Governor of the Hexi Army.
Close economic contacts also existed between the Song and the Gyalsra regime. The Gyalsra exchanged their farming and pastoral products for metal tools, paper and other utensils from China's interior. When the Xixia occupied the Hexi Corridor, the traders from the Western Regions to the Central Plains had to take the way through Shanzhou. Thus, Shanzhou became an important place in communications between China's interior and the Western Regions. This brought prosperity to the Gyalsra trade.
While enhancing their political relations, the Song and all the tribal groups of the Tubo also developed economic contacts. Tribute-paying and imperial bestowing were important ways for the interchange of commodities. For example, in 984 (the ninth year of Taiping-Xingguo era) one Tubo tribe sent envoys to Qinzhou to offer sheep and horses to the Song court and the court rewarded them with tea and silk of full value[52] In 1015 (the eighth year of Dazhong-Xiangfu era) the Tubo Gyalsra tribe offered tribute to the imperial court and the emperor ordered to bestow on them in return "silk robes, golden belts, tools, money, groceries, tea and medicine, in addition to 7,000 taels of gold."[53] Besides, the Song court sent officials of the trade institution to the areas bordering the Tubo "to invite the Tubo merchants and to buy horses of good quality." There were also frequent commercial activities between the Han and Tubo peoples. Tea and horses were the goods they exchanged in large quantities.
During the Tang Dynasty tea was exported from China's interior to the Tubo and became a necessity in the Tubo people's lives. Historical documents record that the Tibetan people ate raw meat and had neither vegetables nor soy sauce. They only knew that salt could make food taste better, and their hobby was drinking wine and tea.[54] Since tea did not grow in Tibet, the Tibetans had to exchange for it with the people of the Central Plains. Owing to the great losses of horses during wars with the Liao, Xixia and Jin, the Song needed a large number of them. Thus horse markets were set up in Xizhou and Hezhou in the northwest and Yazhou in the southwest. The Song exchanged Yazhou's tea and local products for the Tibetans' horses. The governmental and non-governmental trade of this kind was known as the "tea-horse trade." The tea-horse exchange activities went on frequently in the horse market set up by the Song, once every half a year or every three months. The number of horses that the Song government bought each time ranged from several thousand to ten thousand.
In addition to the tea-horse trade, trade in other commodities was also prosperous. It was conducted by way of barter. "They used grains, frankincense, horses and cattle as money in this trade."[55] Wang Shao, a frontier general of the Song, said:
Among the frontier prefectures only Qinfeng is close to various Tubo kingdoms. The Tubo goods are going to all places. Those flowing to Qinfeng are numerous. The profits of trade are now all enjoyed by civil traders. If a commerce office is established in Qinfeng to do the business with governmental funds, the revenue will be hundreds of thousands of guan [1 guan = a string of 1,000 cash in ancient times].[56]
The Hans and Tibetans in the border areas helped each other and learned from each other. Their relations were friendly and harmonious. In order to prevent the Tibetans from becoming victims of usury and therefore losing land when they could not return a debt, Wang Shao stipulated that the government should lend money to them at an annual interest of ten percent. This was known as "the Hans helping Tibetans at the time of young crops." It promoted the unity of the Hans and Tibetans. According to Chinese historical documents, fields located to the west and south of the Dadu River in Lizhou were mostly owned by Tibetans, and the Hans often went across the river to rent them from the Tibetans. The Hans paid ten percent of their harvest to the Tibetans as rent. That the Han peasants rented and cultivated the fields of Tibetans not only made it possible for the interchange of agricultural technology but also brought about close contacts between them.
Generally speaking, owing to political, military and economic reasons, close relations existed between the Song and the Tubo, which promoted the process of feudalization of the Tubo and enhanced the close relations between them. These close relations between the Song and the Tubo laid down a solid foundation for Tibet to afterward become an inseparable part of China and for the Tibetan people to become members of the great family of the Chinese nation.
Formation of the Various Sects of Tibetan Buddhism
Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are the three great religions in the world. The fundamental doctrines of Buddhism are "im-permanence," "the limitlessness of the ocean of misery," "the cycle of all beings," "recompense," etc. One can free oneself from misery only by cultivating Buddhism in accordance with its Tripitaka (sutras, disciplines and discourses). The Tantric sutras of Buddhism were introduced into the Tubo area before Songtsen Gampo founded the Tubo regime. But Buddhism could not spread widely without a written script. It was during the reign of Songtsen Gampo, as is generally recognized, that Buddhism was formally introduced into Tibet. This was because at that time a unified Tubo Dynasty had been founded, the Tibetan script had been created, and the Tibetan people had entered the historical period of written records. Tibetan historical documents have records of the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet. The Tablet of Patronizing Buddhism records: "Our ancestor King Songtsen Gampo built a temple in Be-go of Rasa. That was the beginning of Buddhism in Tibet." Songtsen Gampo married the Nepalese Princess Belsa and the Tang Princess Wencheng. The two princesses each brought with them to Tibet images of Buddha. This indicates that Buddhism was introduced into Tibet from the Tang empire and Nepal during the reign of Songtsen Gampo. Songtsen Gampo was interested in the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet and gave great support to Buddhism. A book on the history of the Bon religion also says that Songtsen Gampo believed in Bonism during the first half of his life, but in Buddhism during the second half of his life[57] After the Nepalese and Tang princesses arrived in Tibet, Buddhist temples and monasteries were built there. The well-known Jokhang and Ramoche temples were built at Lhasa by the two princesses respectively. During the reign of Songtsen Gampo the translation of the Buddhist canons began. Among the translators were Gusare, an Indian; Shangda, a Nepalese; and Da-Tianshou, a Chinese monk, as well as Tibetan translator named Thonmi Sambhota. They translated the Buddhist canons of Hinayana as well as the exoteric and esoteric canons of Mahayana.
Buddhism went through a prolonged and complicated process of conflicts with the Bon religion in Tibet, experiencing ups and downs several times. Buddhism and Bon struggled with each other, absorbed each other, approached each other and mixed with each other. As a result, Tibetan Buddhism developed. No sooner had Buddhism been introduced into Tibet than the conflicts between Bon and Buddhism began. The high status that the Bon priests enjoyed was the biggest obstacle to Buddhism entering Tibet. When the Tubo royal court decided to support Buddhism, the Bonist priests instigated Tibetans to oppose Buddhism. The Records of Tibetan Kings says that while filling in the Wotso Pool to build the Jokhang Temple, no matter what was erected during the daytime the whole thing collapsed as soon as night fell. Of course, it was destroyed by the Bonists.
After Songtsen Gampo died, Buddhism spread slowly in Tibet, because the power of the Tubo Dynasty had fallen into the hands of aristocrats and ministers who were devoted to the Bon religion. They opposed and suppressed the development of Buddhism in Tibet.
Trisong Detsen, the son of Princess Jincheng, patronized Buddhism. He got rid of the Bonist ministers, putting Mashang Dompa Ke to death and sending Takra Lugong into exile in northern Tibet. He took all the measures he could to support Buddhism. With his support, Buddhism again spread in Tibet. During his reign a great many Indian and Tibetan translators of sacred texts were gathered to translate Buddhist sutras. The king took in both the doctrines of Mahayana and Hinayana as well as those of exoteric and the esoteric Buddhism, putting stress on Mahayana, especially the esoteric variety. After a protracted struggle Buddhism was closely combined with the Tubo political power.
The successors of Trisong Detsen were also eager to patronize Buddhism. They built temples and monasteries on a large scale and had many Buddhist sutras translated. The kings made preferential policies toward the Buddhist monks. Some members of the royal family even became monks. To raise the social status of monks, the kings allowed them to participate in government affairs by establishing the office of Bande Chenpo. Only a Buddhist monk could take the post of Bande Chenpo, which was higher in status than that of the other ministers.
Tritsug Detsen further promoted Buddhism. In his reign Indian and Tibetan translators of sacred texts were gathered not only to translate and preach Buddhist canons but also to check previous translations of the scriptures. Old temples and monasteries were renovated. The king also issued a decree commanding every seven households to contribute to the upkeep of one monk. At Buddhist meetings he spread his turban on the floor and asked monks to walk over it, and then he wore it. If anybody committed offenses against the Three Precious Ones (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha), the king would punish them severely. He also laid down a law that whoever swore at any monk was to have his tongue cut out, whoever pointed an accusing finger at any monk was to have it cut off, and whoever stared at any monk with malicious eyes was to have them gouged out. With these measures Buddhism spread from religious circles to all aspects of the Tubo social life and from the ruling class to the common people. The influence of Buddhism and the power of the monks were thus further enhanced. All this inevitably aroused strong opposition from the nobles who opposed Buddhism and supported Bon and wanted to recapture their lost power. When Darma came to the throne, under the instigation of the ministers who advocated a ban on Buddhism, he conducted a campaign to persecute Buddhists. He banned the Buddhist religion, ordered the closure of all Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Tubo area, and destroyed Buddhist images and scriptures. Some monks were killed, some were compelled to leave the religious order and some were even treated as stepping stools for the ministers. This period of a hundred years beginning with Darma's reign is called the "Persecution of Buddhism" in Tibetan historical documents.
The period from the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet during the reign of Songtsen Gampo to the persecution of Buddhism by Darma Tsenpo is called the "First Dissemination of the Doctrine in Tibet" or the "Previous Prosperity of Buddhism," and the period after 978 when Buddhism developed again in Tibet is called the "Second Dissemination of the Doctrine in Tibet" or the "Later Prosperity of Buddhism." Tibetan Buddhism as it exists today was formed in the period of the Second Dissemination of the Doctrine. It is quite different from the Buddhism that had spread for more than two hundred years before Darma. It is the merging of Bon and Buddhism after the protracted struggle between them. Though it is based on Buddhist doctrines, its rituals and deities show Tibetan characteristics. So it is also called Lamaism ("Lama" meaning "teacher" in Tibetan, referring to Tibetan Buddhist high monks). Tibetan Buddhism spread in the areas inhabited by Tibetans, Mongolians, Tus and Yugurs. It has a history of more than one thousand years and had an important impact on Tibetan politics, economics and culture.
Tibetan Buddhism rose at a time when Tibetan society was in a transition period from a slave-owning system to a feudal serf system. As a social ideology it served as the basis for the society it relied on, i.e. the serf system. During the process of its development Tibetan Buddhism formed its characteristics as follows: (1) Based on Buddhist doctrines, Tibetan Buddhism was formed after absorbing many elements of Bonism; (2) It combined politics and religion. The emergence of various Buddhist sects in the period of the Later Prosperity of Buddhism formed the system of combining politics and religion—a specific characteristic of Tibetan Buddhism. Each new sect represented the interests of some local regime, and the latter's strength determined the former's rise or fall. So the chieftains of the local forces, apart from patronizing Lamaism and making it serve their own ends, often acted in the capacity of lamas. This was the origin of the Tibetan political system under which secular and ecclesiastical administrations merged; (3) The reincarnation system of naming Living Buddhas. The reincarnation system began with the Karma Kagyu Sect and then it was adopted by all monasteries in Tibet; (4) There were many religious sects. At that time Tibet was divided into many feudal separatist regimes. Major and minor feudal serf-owners supported Lamaism and utilized it to scramble for power and profit. Thus various sects emerged in response to the needs of the times.
The formation of various sects of Tibetan Buddhism lasted for 300 years from the middle of the 11th century to the 15th century, the period of the feudal separatist regimes of Tibet. Its formation corresponded to the political divisions and its sectarian tendencies became more and more obvious. The major sects formed at that time were as follows:
(1) The Nyingma Sect (Nyingma means "old," "ancient" in Tibetan). This was the earliest established sect. It followed the Tantric mysticism of the period of the Previous Prosperity of Buddhism and inherited the old tradition of Buddhism of the Tubo in the 8th century, so it is known as the Ancient Mystic Order. It is also popularly called the Red Sect because the monks of this school wear red hats. The characteristic of this sect is its stress on practicing mysticism and incantations. It promotes its sutras as those passed down from the Tubo Dynasty. The Nying-ma Sect has never formed an influential monastic grouping because it has no communities of monks; its solitary teaching of mystics is only from tutor to disciple or from father to son or from brother to brother; and because its monks, who can marry and do physical labor, do not have a regular learning system and did not have close relations with local forces.
(2) The Kadam Sect. This was founded in the mid-11th century. "Kadam" means "Buddha's commandments" and the sect taught the Buddhist doctrine through the Buddha's own words. Its founder was a wealthy man, Drom Tonpa, who lived in Doilung in the neighborhood of Lhasa. In 1045 he was sent by the local authorities of U and Tsang to Ngari to invite the noted monk, Atisha, to his area to preach Buddhism; Drom Tonpa took Atisha as his teacher. After Atisha's death, he inherited the monk's teaching role and preached at Radreng (Rating) on the upper reaches of the Lhasa River and had the Radreng Monastery built there in 1056. Using the monastery as his base, he gradually brought the Kadam Sect into being. This sect put stress on set steps through meditation, monastic discipline and organization. Since Atisha strengthened monastic discipline, systemized Buddhist doctrines and regulated the relations between esoterism and exoterism, this sect rapidly grew in strength with temples and monasteries established in all parts of Tibet. At the end of the 12th century the sect united with the local authorities of Yarlung Jowa in the area of Lhoka and became a large influential monastic group. In the 15th century when Tsongkhapa founded the Gelug Sect on the basis of the Kadam doctrines, this sect was gradually merged into the Gelug Sect (Yellow Sect). As a result, the Kadam Sect no longer existed as an independent body.
(3) The Sakya Sect. "Sakya" means "gray soil," and the name is derived from the fact the soil of the Sakya Monastery is gray in color. This sect is also called the "Striped Sect" because of the three stripes of red, white and black on its monastery walls, representing Lord Manjushri, Lord Avalokitesvara and Vajra-pani respectively. The Sakya Sect was founded in the 11th century by Konchok Gyalpo of the Khon family. In 1073, as a wealthy man, Konchok Gyalpo established Sakya Monastery in his hometown of Sakya, where he disseminated Buddhist teachings and trained disciples, and so the Sakya Sect took shape.
It stipulated that only the members of the Khon family could become abbots of the Sakya Monastery and the post of abbot was to be inherited by a son or younger brother. The first abbot was Konchok Gyalpo and his successors were all from the Khon family. Sakya had five great abbots called the "Five Forefathers of Sakya," all of whom took the post by inheritance. Sapan Kunga Gyaltsen, the fourth successor, is known to have been the first person to effect the political connection between Tibet and the Mongol royal house. The fifth successor, Phagpa, had the honor of being appointed the first "Imperial Preceptor" of the Yuan Dynasty and granted the title of "Great Treasure Prince of the Dharma." The five all had much impact on Tibetan religion and politics. Sakya is still one of the most influential Lamaist sects in Tibet.
(4) The Kagyu Sect. "Ka" means "teacher's instruction." "Kagyu" means that all instruction is passed down orally from master to disciple. This sect was founded in the mid-11th century. It is also called "White Sect" because its monks wear white robes. It has two main branches: Dakpo Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu. The two branches had the same origin in India and, after coming to Tibet, became different in strength owing to the different areas in which they spread. Shangpa Kagyu was weak and had an insignificant impact on Tibetan society. Dakpo Kagyu was founded by Dakpo Lhaje. He established the Gampo Monastery in the Dakpo region in 1121. Four of his disciples each formed a sub-branch of the Dakpo Kagyu, and thus the four sub-branches took shape: Karma Kagyu, Tsalpa Kagyu, Babrum Kagyu and Phagdru Kagyu. The most influential of these sub-branches was Karma Kagyu, founded by Dusum Khyenpa. This branch initiated the system of reincarnating Living Buddhas, which has been operative since the 13th century. The Phagdru Kagyu was founded by Phagmo Drupa, a disciple of Dakpo Lhaje. Soon afterward, the Lang family, major feudal serf-owners in the Lhoka region, usurped the leadership of the Phagdru Kagyu and became the most influential local force in Tibet. In the mid-14th century the Phagdru Kagyu put the Sakya regime to an end and established the Phagdru regime. It ruled over most areas of U and Tsang until the early 17th century. Then it declined and its monasteries merged into the Gelug Sect. Since then the Phagdru Kagyu Sect has disappeared.
To sum up, the characteristics of the Kagyu Sect are as follows. (1) This sect spread widely. All Tibetan areas in China with Ngari in the west and Kham in the east were under its influence. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties its influence spread to the interior of China. (2) It had many sub-sects. The Kagyu Sect had the largest number of sub-sects of all Lamaist sects. The whole of the Kagyu Sect had "four major sects and eight minor sub-sects." (3) Its strength was great. The Phagdru Kagyu directly controlled the local regime of Tibet and had a significant impact on Tibetan politics. This sect was also strong in the economy. (4) It laid stress on the esoteric, but the exoteric also enjoyed a certain position in the sect[58]
Apart from the four major sects, the Lamaist sects formed after the mid-11th century were the Shiche, Joyul, Jolang and some others. They did not last long and all died out one after another because they had no strong monastic economy and were always under the attack from the Gelug Sect.
The Merging of Tibet into China in the Yuan Dynasty and the Establishment of Feudal Serf System
The Yuan Government Merges Tibet into China
Tibet Gives Allegiance to the Mongolian Khanate
At the beginning of the 13th century the Mongols to the north and south of the Gobi Desert in north China arose rapidly. In 1206 Temujin (Genghis Khan), a Mongolian tribal chieftain, annexed all the other Mongolian tribes and established the Mongolian Khanate. This newly established regime of Mongols expanded its influences continuously. Having consolidated its base to the north and south of the Gobi, the Mongolian khan led his army west. In 1209 they conquered Uygur. In 1227 they annihilated the Xixia; then their troops came to Helong, went across the Qilian Mountains and stayed in Kokonor (Qinghai). In 1234 they smashed the Jin and marched to the Yangtze River. By then this Mongolian Khanate had unified most areas of China, except the area of the Southern Song Dynasty, the dynasty of the Duan family of the Bai people in Dali, and Tibet. At that time the Khanate put its strategic efforts on the west line, i.e. Central Asia and Europe. Therefore it was necessary for them to solve the ownership of Tibet. After solving this problem the Mongols would have no fear of anything that might happen "back at home" and they could hold down the Southern Song in the east, preparing for the unification of all China. Thus Genghis Khan and his successors paid great attention to the strategic position of Tibet.
Following the period of division from the end of the 9th century to the beginning of the 13th century, Tibet had several independent influential religious sects and groups, of which the major ones were the Sakya Sect in Tsang, the Kagyu Sect in U and Gu-ge in Ngari[1] When Genghis Khan's Mongolian cavalrymen captured Central Asia and south Xinjiang in 1218, the king of Gu-ge pledged his allegiance to the Mongols. As the History of the Yuan Dynasty records, the troops of Genghis Khan at one time reached the west side of the Indus River and tried in 1223 to go along the upper reaches of the river to return to Mongolia through Tibet. However, they failed because the road was too difficult and dangerous. A book about Mongolian history says that when Genghis Khan sent troops to conquer the Western Liao and Central Asia, he wrote a letter to the ruling lama of the Sakya Monastery expressing his faith in Buddhism and asking for the lama's religious protection, but this proposed friendship was not realized.[2]
The Mongol Prince Godan was the first person of the Mongolian Khanate to contact Tibetan authorities. In 1227 Genghis Khan died and his third son Ogodai Khan succeeded to the throne of the Great Khan. The Khan put the former Xixia region and a part of Tibetan areas in Gansu and Qinghai under the control of his second son Godan. Godan was active in political affairs of the then Mongolian Khanate; "his headquarters was at Liangzhou in the west."[3] In 1239 General Dorta Nagpo, by the order of Godan, led an army into Tibet to get information on Tibetan politics and religion so that the Khanate could design policies for unifying Tibet. According to the Records of Tibetan Kings and Ministers, Dorta Nagpo, in his letter to Godan, gave a detailed account of the various religious sects in Tibet. He wrote:
In Tibet today the Kadam Sect has the largest number of monasteries. The ruling lama of the Taklung Kagyu Sect is very well known for his virtuous deeds, Chen-nga Rinpoche of the Drikhung Kagyu Sect is the wealthiest; and Sakya Pandita (abbot of the Sakya) is well-versed in the Five Knowledges of Buddhism. I suggest that Your Highness arrange for their invitation.
What he reported was true. In 1240, after attending the funeral of his father Ogodai Khan in Holin (modern southwestern Ulan Bator of Mongolia), Godan returned to Liangzhou and decided to invite Sapan Kunga Gyaltsen, a learned, high priest of the Sakya Sect, to his court. He again sent Dorta Nagpo and Gyalmen with troops into Tibet. Instead of conducting a military campaign and getting information about Tibet, they took a letter and gifts from Godan to Sapan so as to invite him to Liangzhou for discussions about Tibet's submission.[4] The letter stated:
I, the most powerful and prosperous Prince Godan, wish to inform the Sakya Pandita, Kunga Gyaltsen, that we need a lama to advise my ignorant people on how to conduct themselves morally and spiritually. I need someone to pray for the welfare of my deceased parents, to whom I am deeply grateful. I have been pondering this problem for some time, and after much consideration, have decided that you are the only person suitable for this task. As you are the only lama I have chosen, I will not accept any excuse on account of your age or the rigors of the journey. The Lord Buddha gave his life for all living beings. Would you not, therefore, be denying your faith if you tried to avoid this duty of yours? It would, of course, be easy for me to send a large body of troops to bring you here; but in so doing, harm and unhappiness might be brought to many innocent living beings. In the interest of the Buddhist faith and the welfare of all living creatures, I suggest that you come to us immediately. I will invest you with temporal authority over Tibetan monks[5]
Facing the threat of invasion by Mongolian troops, the various chieftains of Tibet had to cease their rivalries for the time being and hold discussions on how to deal with the situation. Some stood for resisting the Mongols, but the majority with Sakya Pandita as their representative held that it was impossible to resist, and that the only way out was to give allegiance to the Mongols.
Sakya Pandita, when he received the letter from Godan, was 63 years old and was weak physically. A thousand miles of hazardous journey from Sakya of Tsang to Liangzhou would not be easy for him. However, from the letter he knew that he had to go and not delay. After weighing the pros and cons he decided to set out immediately. According to the Mongolian stipulation, any one who came over and gave allegiance to the Mongolian Khanate should send his son, nephew or other close relatives as hostages for them. Being unmarried, Pandita had no son. He had to send as hostages two of his nephews, ten-year-old Phagpa and eight-year-old Chakna Dorje.[6]
Sapan took his two nephews with him on the journey. En route, the party passed through Lhasa, where the young Phagpa became a monk, taking his first ordination from Sakya Pandita in the Jomonang Monastery. Sakya Pandita preached many sermons along the way, and the journey was taking such a long time that he sent his nephews on ahead. He stayed for some time in Lhasa to preach and to hold talks with local chiefs on problems related to his giving allegiance to Mongolia. Then he went to Liangzhou by way of Kham, Qinghai and Gansu and arrived in August, 1246, but it was not until January, 1247, that he met Godan, who had been in Mongolia until then for the election of the Mongol Khan. The meeting was of historical significance[7]
After the meeting, Godan had a very good impression of Sapan. Sapan not only had the high position of being the Sakya ruling lama, but also had a good knowledge of the Buddhist doctrines as well as medicine. During his stay in Liangzhou, Sapan is said to have cured Godan of a severe illness. Godan ordered that from then on Sapan, instead of the Mongolian shamanist priests, should take the seat of honor and Buddhist monks should be the first to pray at Mongolian prayer meetings. Godan thus set a precedent for the Yuan Dynasty by patronizing only Lamaism. Sapan lived in a temple in Liangzhou specially built for him by Godan. Having come to terms with Godan regarding Tibet's submission to Mongolia, Sapan sent an open letter to the Tibetan temporal and clerical leaders in the various localities, known as "Sakya Pandita's Letter to the Tibetans."[8]
In this letter Sapan said that he came to Liangzhou to preach Buddhism and received a warm reception from Godan. He advised the Tibetan leaders to consider the Mongols' formidable military power of widespread fame. The letter stated that submission to Mongolia would be in step with the general trend of events. It admonished the readers to weigh the pros and cons. He warned that those refusing submission would become victims to the Mongols' punitive campaign. As to the terms of submission, the letter stated that Tibetan temporal and clerical officials and common people should admit themselves as subjects of Mongolia, and that the Mongol leader Godan had appointed Sakya and other officials to help govern Tibet in religious and secular affairs. (Here Sapan put himself in a position higher than that of other religious leaders.) Those local chiefs willing to give allegiance were to each make detailed lists of their officials, local population and tribute to be offered. Three copies of these lists should be made: one for Godan, one for Sakya and one to be kept by the local chief concerned. The names of those accepting and those refusing should be written separately, otherwise any confusion would transfer the latter's disasters to the former. All officials accepting this arrangement were to keep their original posts and properties. They were to be appointed by the Mongolian government as a Darkhache.[9] Sapan also asked Tibetan chiefs to treat well the Mongolian officials sent to Tibet and to give them gifts. He cited such gifts as gold, silver, ivory, big pearls, bezoar, tiger and leopard skins, and Tibetan woolen cloth, etc. He stressed that gold would have a special function in winning the Mongols' favor. In a word, Sakya Pandita's open letter urged the Tibetan chiefs to surrender to the Mongolian Khanate.
After Sapan issued this open letter, the Tibetan clerical and secular chiefs all expressed their willingness to accept the terms of submission and to fulfil their duties as subjects of the Mongols. Apart from Sakya Pandita, who depended on Godan, the other religious leaders attached themselves to other Mongol princes, such as the Drikhung Sect to Monge, the Tsalpa Kagyu Sect and Karma Pakshi to Kublai, the Phagdru and Yazang to Hulagu, and the Taklung to Alibugo.
In 1251 Monge ascended the throne of the Great Khan. He continued Godan's policy of using the Sakya Sect to help govern Tibet. This can be seen from a letter written in February 1252 by Phagpa, Sapan's successor, to the high lamas of U and Tsang. Phagpa said:
The edict of Monge Khan ascending the throne has been declared to all parts of Tibet. All is well in Tibet. Especially it has been declared that monks are to be exempted from military and labor services, as well as taxes, Mongolian envoys will neither stay for the night in monasteries nor ask monks to do ula (free-of-charge) services. Monks should pray for the Khan. The Sakya Sect has been ordered to dominate all affairs of Buddhist monks. The Emperor informed me that he has already sent officials to Tibet to take a census of the population and to delimit boundary lines. He also asked me to send monks to accompany the officials. So I have sent Geshe Dorjezol and Geshe Songpo with followers to do that. For more detailed information you may consult them.[10]
It can be seen that Tibet had by now submitted to Mongolia and Monge had begun to govern it. The relationship between Mongolia and Tibet established by Sakya Pandita and Godan continued. Sakya Pandita and Godan died in 1251 and 1252 respectively. But the submission of Tibet to Mongolia, which they established, continued and developed. This laid down a solid basis for the Yuan Dynasty officially merging Tibet into China and having an effective administration over the whole of Tibet. These facts proved that Tibet was under the jurisdiction of Mongolian Khanate after the 1240s.
The Merging of Tibet into China
In July of 1259, Monge, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongolian Khanate, died in a battle with the Southern Song at Hezhou in Sichuan. In November of that year his brother, Kub-lai, went northward to Shangdu (Upper Capital) from Ezhou, Hubei. In March of the next year he succeeded as the Great Khan. Kublai, who had lived in the Han areas for a long time and after Godan's death governed the Han areas to the south of the Gobi by Monge's order, had more foresight than his predecessors. He often thought about how to consolidate Mongolian rule in China. Kublai admired the Tang Emperor Taizong, who had gathered many scholars to discuss how to govern the country and thus led to the consolidation of Tang's rule over China. Kublai Khan decided to do likewise. After ascending the throne, Kublai Khan won over the chiefs of landlord military forces in the north of China and recruited Han scholars as his advisors. Under their influence he formulated the principles: "One cannot consolidate one's rule in China without using Han measures of ruling,"[11] and "Only those who act in the Chinese way can govern China."[12] In spite of opposition from some conservative Mongolian princes, he advocated civil administration and political reform in accordance with Chinese traditions.
In 1264 Kublai shifted his capital from Shangdu (Kaiping, modern Duolun County, Inner Mongolia) to Zhongdu (modern Beijing), moving the political center southward, and thus speeding up the unification of China. At the same time, in his policy toward Tibet he adopted Godan's policy of supporting the dominant position of the Sakya Sect among the other Tibetan religious sects. After the death of Sakya Pandita, Phagpa inherited his role. Phagpa maintained Tibet's submission to Mongolia and did his best to support the unification of China by Kublai.
(1) Phagpa advised Kublai to show kindness to the Han people. When the Mongols rose up to become a powerful khanate, wherever their cavalrymen went great devastation ensued, and people suffered serious losses. As the historical documents of the Yuan record, during the reign of Genghis Khan the Mongols invaded the territory of the Jin to the north of the Yellow River and killed anybody who opposed them. The Mongols in the war against the Jin trampled over the vast territory north of the Yellow River, burning, killing, and plundering everywhere they went, and the war of plunder left behind nothing but ruins and forsaken land. When they captured De'an, the whole population of De'an of several hundred thousand people was eliminated.[13] The Mongols even turned living people into funerary objects. During the reign of Ogodai Khan someone from the Mongolian royal family said that the Hans were of no use and their farmland should be turned into pastoral areas.[14] During the reigns of Guyuk Khan and Monge Khan, the Mongols still ill-treated the Han people and turned farmland into pastures for their cattle and sheep. This caused strong resistance by the Han and other ethnic groups. The unification of China could not be achieved by these methods. Phagpa instructed Kublai in the teachings of Buddha. He advised Kublai to put down the sword and show kindness to other ethnic groups. Only in this way, he said, could the Mongols rule the other ethnic groups. Phagpa taught Buddhist doctrines to Kublai Khan and asked him to convert to Buddhism so as to repent for his father and brothers' plundering and to pray for the dead. Phagpa asked Kublai to pray before the Buddha for his rule and for the country and people. He also spread Buddhist teachings about "refraining from killing" among Mongolian aristocrats and Buddhist instructions about "being at the mercy of Heaven" and "being content with one's lot and knowing one's place" among the people of various oppressed ethnic groups. Kublai received his teachings and agreed to convert to Buddhism. Kublai received two "consecrations" and several times ordered that his soldiers should not kill innocent people. Lamaism thus became the spiritual support for the Mongolian Khanate's unification of all China.
(2) Phagpa helped the Mongolian Khanate to suppress a local rebellion in Tibet. In 1267, when the Khanate was launching a campaign against the Southern Song, some local forces in Tibet took this chance to revolt. At that time Phagpa and Chakna Dorje, by the order of Kublai, were engaged in establishing Tibet as a province of China. This task could not be completed if the rebellion was not suppressed. So Phagpa wrote to Kublai, asking him to send Mongol troops to suppress it. In March 1275 (the twelfth year of Zhiyuan era of the Yuan Dynasty) Kublai ordered Anxi Prince Mangwula, Zhu Prince Zhibi Temur and Imperial Son-in-law Changjie to go with Xiping Prince Auruchi to suppress the rebellion in Tibet[15] The Mongol troops captured and killed the rebel chief, Darmari, and stabilized Tibet, the rear of the Mongolian Khanate. This helped to unify the whole country.
(3) Phagpa helped Kublai Khan in military strategy and preparation for the unification of the whole country. Before the Mongolian Khanate led a military expedition southward on a grand scale to occupy the territory of the Southern Song, Kublai asked Phagpa, "Can our dynasty succeed in subduing the king of barbarians, whose people are rich, by military force and with the help of Buddhist power?"[16]
Phagpa replied, "At present nobody can do that. I'll look for a suitable person for the task."[17]
The next year Hulagu, Kublai's brother, sent Boyan to make a report to Kublai. Minister Yelu recommended Boyan to Kublai. Kublai ordered Boyan to stay at the royal court, and at a palace banquet Phagpa met Boyan. Phagpa told Kublai that Boyan would be able to subdue the Southern Song. So Kublai appointed Boyan as Commander-in-chief and ordered him to lead troops to attack the Southern Song. When Boyan was about to set off, Kublai had a temple built by Anigo, a Nepalese artisan. In the temple there was an image of Protector Mahakala facing south[18] Phagpa himself held an initiation ceremony for the image and prayed for the victory of the Mongolian army.[19]
(4) Phagpa supported the war of the Mongolian Khanate for the unification of the whole country. As a Buddhist, Phagpa was against "killing," but he did not oppose all wars. Instead, he stood for the righteous war of the Mongolian Khanate for the unification of the whole country. In his view, to support a righteous war did not mean to support "killing." On the contrary, he opposed killing of the inhabitants of any captured city and of prisoners of war. Earlier, while conquering the interior of China, Mongolian troops had thrown large numbers of captured Song soldiers into the Yellow River every year. Phagpa persuaded Kublai to order his army to refrain from doing this. Kublai agreed.[20] This resulted in the Han soldiers having a good impression of the Khan's troops and won the support of the people. When the Mongolian troops marched across the Yangtze River and unified the vast areas to the south of the river, the unification of China was achieved. "This was owing to the help of Kublai's religious teacher, Phagpa, apart from the merits of the Khan and his ministers."[21] After the unification of the whole country was achieved and it became a fact that different ethnic groups had been unified into a single country, in August 1275 Phagpa in Tibet submitted a "Memorial for Congratulating the Victory over the Southern Song" to Kublai. The memorial stated:
Owing to the virtue and morality of the fifth Emperor Kublai, the whole country is unified. Particularly, the southern barbarians, whose country has a long history and a large territory, being continuously ruled by emperors, submitted themselves to the lotus throne of the lord of the people. Now the blessing light of Your Majesty reaches as far as to the shores of great oceans. To show my congratulations to the sacred merits, I, Bhichu Phagpa, wrote the memorial at Tsandoshing Monastery in Markam on the 22nd day of the eighth month of the female Wood-Hog year.[22]
From this memorial it can be seen that Phagpa considered himself to be a member of the ruling group of the Yuan and he, as a local political and religious leader under the jurisdiction of the central government, praised and supported the unification of the whole country by the Yuan Dynasty.
In 1271 (the eighth year of the Zhiyuan era during Emperor Shizu Kublai's reign), Kublai renamed his reign Dayuan (Great Yuan). In 1279 the Yuan eliminated the Southern Song and thus unified China as a multi-ethnic, centralized country. Accordingly, the Mongolian Khanate became the central government of China instead of a local regime, and Tibet became a part of China. This was an unprecedented event of great historical significance in both Tibetan local history and the history of China.
The merging of Tibet into China by the Yuan shows that the efforts of fraternal ethnic groups in Tibet for the formation of a multi-ethnic big family had achieved brilliant results. After that, Tibet became an inseparable part of China, and the Tibetans, Lhobas, Moinbas and Sharpas became members of the big family of the Chinese nation.
The merging of Tibet into China put an end to the divisions it had experienced for more than 300 years after the collapse of the Tubo Dynasty. It brought about a unified and stable political situation in Tibet and made it possible for the Tibetan people to rehabilitate and restore the development of their production.
The incorporation of Tibet into China by the Yuan was agreeable to the common wish of the people of the various ethnic groups in China and was an inevitable result of the continual joint development of Tibetan and other ethnic groups.
After the incorporation, the Tibetan people more actively joined the other ethnic groups of China in their common activities. The Tibetan and other ethnic groups of China shared the same destiny and interests. During 1337-1338 (the third to fourth year of the Zhiyuan era of Yuan Emperor Shundi's reign) Mohammed Tugluk of Delhi sent a hundred thousand troops to the Himalayan area in an attempt to invade Tibet. The Tibetan people with the support of the central government and other ethnic groups of China defeated and eliminated the invaders. After that the Tibetan people, as history shows, played an increasingly important role in the struggle of the Chinese nation against aggression and for the safeguarding of the territorial integrity of the motherland.
Tibet's merging into China promoted economic and cultural exchanges between Tibetans, Hans, Mongols, Uygurs and other ethnic groups of China. Political unification, communication of postal roads and the dismantling of borderlines between them changed the relations between Tibet and neighboring areas and provided unprecedented advantageous conditions to economic, cultural and technical exchanges between the Tibetans and Hans.
In brief, Tibet's becoming a part of China was a great event in the history of the Chinese nation. It put an end to the division of Tibet that had lasted for nearly four centuries. From then on, Tibet was officially incorporated into the territory of China; it became an inalienable part of China and played an active role in the creation of China's brilliant culture.
The Administration of Tibet by the Yuan Government
The Establishment of Xuanzheng-yuan
After the Yuan government unified Tibet, Kublai Khan, the Mongolian ruler, adopted the policy of pacification toward the Tibetans in accordance with their tradition[23] According to the History of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan set up various official posts for the administration of various areas of Tibet and all the officials were put under the charge of an imperial preceptor. Thus the Xuanzheng-yuan (Commission for Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs) was established. The post of Assistant Commissioner was always held by a monk appointed by the imperial preceptor. All Tibetan affairs were under the imperial preceptor's supervision. Both a lay official and a monk official were to be appointed for each official post below that of prime minister. The imperial preceptor's orders were as effective as imperial edicts in the whole of Tibet. The administration of Tibet by the Yuan can be summarized as follows: the Yuan established the Xuanzheng-yuan, put an imperial preceptor into the highest position, founded local Tibetan administrative organs and used the Sakya Sect to help govern Tibet.
The Xuanzheng-yuan came from the Zongzhi-yuan (Supreme Control Commission in Charge of All Buddhist Monks). The Yuan's administration of Tibet began with the establishment and adjustment of the Yuan central government organs. After ascending the throne in 1260, Kublai granted Phagpa the title of "State Preceptor" and ordered him to be responsible for all political, military and religious affairs of Tubo on behalf of the Mongolian Khanate.[24] In 1264 (the first year of Zhiyuan reign period) Kublai moved his capital to Dadu (modern Beijing). In the same year, with an aim toward strengthening the administration of Tubo as a rear base for attacking the Southern Song, Kublai established the Zongzhi-yuan to supervise Buddhist monks and to provide general civil administration for Tibet.[25] Phagpa, the State Preceptor, was appointed as the head of this Commission. He thus became a high-ranking official of the Yuan Dynasty. The Zongzhi Commission was established in accordance with the general situation of religious belief of Tibet and was set up at almost the same time as the Secretariat (Zhong-shu-sheng), the Bureau of Military Affairs (Shu-mi-yuan) and the Censorate (Yu-shi-tai), the three core units of the Yuan central government. The Zongzhi Commission was responsible for supervising all Buddhist clergy and the affairs of the whole country including Tibet, the interior and the southern areas after the fall of the Southern Song, and all military, civil and financial affairs of Tibet, or in a word, to govern Tibet on behalf of the Mongolian royal court. Just as the History of the Yuan Dynasty says, "The Zongzhi Commission was responsible for Buddhist and Tibetan affairs."[26]
To improve the administration of the whole country the Yuan government established three Xuan-wei-shi (Pacification Commissions) and their branches in Tibet. Buddhist affairs of the provinces to the south of the Yangtze River, after the Yuan overthrew the Southern Song, were also under the jurisdiction of the Zongzhi Commission. The Zongzhi Commission thus had a lot to do and it had only a small staff, so it was difficult for the commission to carry out its duties. In 1280 (the seventeenth year of Zhiyuan era) the Imperial Preceptor Phagpa died suddenly at Sakya, and for a period of time there was nobody in charge of Buddhist and Tibetan affairs. The Zongzhi Commission could not meet the needs of the situation. In order to strengthen the administration of Tibet, the Yuan government founded the Du-gong-de-shi-si (Chief Commission of Merit and Virtue) in the same year to help the Zongzhi Commission in supervising Buddhist clergy as well as Tibetan military and civil affairs.[27] However, the Du-gong-de-shi-si did not cooperate well with the Zongzhi Commission. Thus the two organs were not able to bring about the effects intended.
In order to strengthen its administration of the religious affairs of the whole country and the military, civil and financial affairs of Tibet, the Yuan government then adopted Tibetan minister Sange's proposal to raise the position of and change the name of the Zongzhi Commission in 1288 (the twenty-fifth year of Zhiyuan era). The Zongzhi Commission was renamed the Xuanzheng Commission, and given three silver seals. Kublai asked Sange who should be its head. Sange replied, "Toyin and I." So Kublai appointed Sange as the commissioner and Toyin his assistant. As the agency became larger and larger, it grew in size of personnel. The number of commissioners increased to as many as ten. In 1329 (the second year of Tianli era) the Du-gong-de-shi-si was annexed to the Xuanzheng Commission. After that the religious affairs of the whole country, and the Tibetan military and civil affairs were all under the jurisdiction of the Xuanzheng Commission.
The Xuanzheng Commission enjoyed a high position in the Yuan Dynasty. The three core organs of the Yuan government were the Zhong-shu-sheng (the Secretariat), the Shu-mi-yuan (Bureau of Military Affairs) and the Yu-shi-tai (the Censorate).[28] However, the Xuanzheng Commission held the same high position as the three core organs in terms of rank of chief officials. In personnel affairs, the Xuanzheng Commission was independent and was not contained by the Secretariat.[29] The Xuanzheng Commission, just as the Bureau of Military Affairs and the Censorate, could make reports to the emperor for approval without going through the Secretariat. But other organs of the central government had to get the approval of the Secretariat in personnel affairs or to make reports to the emperor for approval.[30]
Besides, the Xuanzheng Commission had the following characteristics that the other governmental organs did not have. First, the number-two commissioner had to be a monk nominated by the imperial preceptor, while other officials were either temporal or ecclesiastical.[31] Second, the Xuanzheng Commission had the same power to set up its branches as did the Secretariat, the Bureau of Military Affairs and the Censorate. Like the Secretariat, the Bureau of Military Affairs and the Censorate the Xuanzheng Commission also had its Branch Xuanzheng Commissions. The only difference lay in the fact that the Branch Xuanzheng Commissions were not as widespread and stable as the Branch Secretariats were. According to the History of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan established the Branch Xuanzheng Commissions in at least Hangzhou, Fuzhou, and Shaanxi. In case there was a rebellion in a Tibetan area, the Yuan court would order the Xuanzheng Commission to lead troops to suppress it, granting the commander of troops the title of "Xuanzheng Commissioner," or to establish a Branch Commission in the Tibetan area to govern the local people. However, any large-scale military campaign would not be launched before consultations were held with the Bureau of Military Affairs.[32]
The Xuanzheng Commission, as an organ of power for religious affairs and the military and civil affairs in the national minority areas, was established by the Mongolian rulers of the Yuan Dynasty. It had a great influence on the system of officialdom and the administration of national minority areas. The Lifan-yuan (Board of Minority Affairs) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs of the Republic of China (1912-1949) came historically from the Xuanzheng Commission of the Yuan Dynasty.
The Establishment of the System of Imperial Preceptor
To venerate Tibetan Buddhist leaders, establish the system of imperial preceptor and use the imperial preceptor's influence to intensify ideological supervision in Tibetan areas was part of the Yuan's administration of Tibet. "Imperial Preceptor" was a title of honor that Kublai Khan, Yuan Emperor Shizu, following Xixia's institution, granted to Phagpa, the leader of the Sakya Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Beginning with Phagpa, the title was fixed and became a system—the system of imperial preceptor.
Phagpa, whose original name was Lodro Gyaltsen, came from the Sakya Khon family in Ngamren, Tibet. He was a nephew of Sakya Pandita, the leader of the Sakya Sect. In 1246 at the invitation of Mongol Prince Godan, Sakya Pandita went with Phagpa to Liangzhou and met Godan and stayed there for the next year. In 1251 Phagpa, accompanied by Mongkadu, son of Godan, went to Liupanshan for an interview with Kublai, Commander-in-chief of Mongolian troops. Kublai got a very good impression of young and learned Phagpa. He granted 100 cavalrymen to Mongkadu and asked Phagpa to stay. After that the political relationship of lord-subject and the religious relationship of patron-master were established between Kublai and Phagpa.
In that year Sakya Pandita died. Phagpa then became the leader of the Sakya Sect. During that time the situation in the interior and Tibet was not stable, and the Mongolian royal family also had internal conflicts. Tibetan Buddhist sects sought support from Mongol princes and each sect submitted itself to a powerful prince. Some sects left one prince to seek the patronage of another. For example, Karma Pakshi of the Kagyu Sect left Kublai to seek the patronage of Monge Khan. In the midst of this unstable political situation, considering the alternation of imperial ruling power and the changing public and personal feelings, the Mongolian ruler needed to use religion to consolidate his ruling position. Phagpa was always loyal to Kublai and praised him a great deal. With his loyalty, Phagpa won Kublai's good feelings and trust. This laid down the basis for Kublai to venerate no other religious sect than the Sakya of Phagpa.
In early 1258 the Buddhists and Taoists came into conflict because of their political and economic interests. So Monge Khan, in 1258, instructed Kublai to hold at Kaiping (near modern Duolun in Inner Mongolia) an unprecedented large-scale debate on the genuineness of Lao-Zi-Hua-Hu-Jing (the Taoist scripture "Lao Zi's Conversion of the Barbarians") between the Buddhists and Taoists. As the debate was important to the future and interests of both parties, the teams of Buddhists and Taoists for the debate were large and strong. The Buddhist team, headed by State Preceptor Namo, had 300-odd members including Phagpa, the ruling lamas of all Tibetan Buddhist sects and the abbots of big monasteries of Tibet. The Taoist team had 200-odd members. At the debate, with his great learning and eloquence Phagpa defeated many Taoist masters. The debate in fact led to the fact that Buddhism became the state religion of the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongolian rulers forced the Taoists to convert to Buddhism and burned 45 Taoist scriptures. Thus most of the Taoists converted to Buddhism[33]
In 1259 Monge Khan died in a battle at Hechuan in Sichuan. Kublai, Monge's brother, succeeded to the throne of the Great Khan in 1260. This was decisive in the establishment of the Sakya Sect's dominant position in Tibetan Buddhist circles. Not long after ascending the throne, Kublai Khan granted the title of State Preceptor and a jade seal of authority to Phagpa and appointed him as the religious ruler of the Central Plains in charge of all religious sects of the whole country.[34] Earlier, Monge Khan had granted the title of State Preceptor and a jade seal to Namo, a Kashmir monk, and put Buddhist affairs under his jurisdiction. The appointment of Phagpa as State Preceptor showed that Kublai Khan had decided to give exceptionally good treatment only to the Sakya Sect of Phagpa.
Religion as a spiritual force to rule over the people can play a role that political, economic and military forces cannot. In 1260 Phagpa, after being granted the title of State Preceptor, acted concurrently as the chief of the Zongzhi Commission, thus enjoying a very high position. Kublai continued to give him higher titles in order to strengthen his role. In 1270 for Phagpa's contribution in creating a Mongolian script, Kublai conferred on him the titles of "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma" and "Imperial Preceptor of the Great Yuan."[35] The "Biography of Phagpa" says:
The emperor ordered Phagpa to devise a writing system for the Mongolian language.... When he had worked out his scheme he submitted it to the emperor and the emperor was pleased.... His title was raised to that of imperial preceptor, and another new title of Great Treasure Prince of Dharma was given to him together with a jade seal of authority.
The seal with six edges was made from the seal of the former Xixia king; it had the inscription of "Prince of Heavenly Deities, Miraculous Divine Lord Under the Sky and Above the Earth, the Creator of the Script, Messenger of Peace Throughout the World, Possessor of the Five Higher Sciences, Phagpa, the Imperial Preceptor."[36]
Imperial preceptor, meaning the emperor's tutor, was a post for which the royal court could appoint only one official. In honoring Phagpa with the title and the jade seal Kublai wished to use Phagpa's religious teachings in order to lull the Tibetan people's political consciousness. The imperial preceptor enjoyed a high position and great power in the Yuan central government and local regions. In the presence of the emperor, officials were not allowed to take a seat, but the imperial preceptor could. He could send persons to make an inspection of local religious affairs, and local officials could not resist this. He could nominate high-ranking officials and even those of the first government rank. Some high officials, in fact, had to be nominated by the imperial preceptor. During the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial preceptor was accordingly the head of the Xuanzheng Commission. What was more important was the fact that the emperor and Phagpa had between them the disciple-tutor relationship as well as the lord-subject one. According to Tibetan historical literature Kublai was ordained by Phagpa, and after that, it became an established convention in the Yuan Dynasty that a new emperor must be ordained by the imperial perceptor before ascending the throne. Phagpa was also responsible for the religious education of the crown prince.
The establishment of the system of imperial preceptor had a far-reaching influence on Tibetan history. First, it created good conditions for the Sakya Khon family to rule over Tibet. The post of imperial preceptor was always held by Khon family members, who enjoyed a high position and great power and were in charge of religious and political affairs of Tibet. They were officials and at the same time practiced Buddhism. Even the imperial edicts about Tibet had to be countersigned by the imperial preceptor. The imperial preceptor was so powerful and influential that none of other sects could compete with him. This created the conditions for the Khon family to maintain its rule over Tibet for nearly a hundred years.
Second, it raised the social status of Tibetan lay people and monks of the upper strata. The Yuan practiced a "caste" system. There were four castes during the Yuan Dynasty: Mongolians, Semus, Hans and Southerners, the latter three being determined according to the time sequence in which each was conquered. The Tibetans belonged to the Semus, inferior to Mongolians, but superior to Hans and Southerners. However, the imperial preceptor had the privilege of nominating high officials. This created favorable conditions for the Tibetans of the upper strata to enter the ranks of ruling caste.
Third, it played a role in stabilizing Tibetan society and promoting the development of the Tibetan Buddhist culture. In 1277 Phagpa held a prayer-meeting at Chumik in Tsang on an unprecedented scale. Tens of thousands of people attended the meeting. At the prayer-meeting alms were given to the monks, one qian (5 grams) of gold to each one and a suit of kasaya to three monks. Then Phagpa began to strengthen his Tibetan administration. He removed Kunga Zangpo from the office of Ponchen because, he said, Kunga Zangpo had formed a clique to pursue selfish interests and did not obey his orders[37] Kunga Zangpo and his followers occupied Gyaro Dzong to challenge Phagpa. Phagpa's attendant reported the incident to the imperial court behind the back of Phagpa. The court decided to send troops to Tibet to help Phagpa. In 1279 Kublai Khan sent Tibetan minister Sange with 70,000 Mongolian troops to Tibet to suppress the rebellion and to punish Kunga Zangpo. After the victory, Sange paid a visit to Phagpa with great courtesy. Then he left a part of his troops to guard Tibet and took the rest back with him to the interior. Not long after the event Phagpa died of disease on November 22, 1280 (the 17th year of the Zhiyuan era) at Sakya.
The system of imperial preceptor also had great influence on the whole country. It showed that the Yuan attached importance to Tibetan Buddhism and looked down upon the Chan Sect of Buddhism in its ideological control of the whole country[38] Many Buddhists desired power and wealth. The Yuan Dynasty treated Phagpa's family especially well. When Phagpa died, the Yuan government held a grand funeral for him and bestowed on him the posthumous title of "Lord Under the Divine Sky, Propagator of Literature, Protector of the Country, Great Sage of the Highest Virtue, Profound Wisdom and Accomplished Enlightenment, Great Treasure Prince of Dharma, Prince of the Deities of Paradise, Imperial Preceptor of the Great Yuan."[39] After that all successive Yuan emperors held activities in memory of Phagpa. The activities were as follows: In 1282 (the 19th year of the Zhiyuan era) Emperor Shizu built a stupa for Phagpa in Dadu; In 1320 (the 7th year of the Yanyou era) Emperor Renzong ordered each prefecture to build a memorial hall to Phagpa, bigger in scale than a Confucius Temple[40]; In August 1324 (the 1st year of the Taiding era) eleven pictures of Phagpa were sent to all provinces so they could make statues of Phagpa for worship;[41] In March 1321 (the 1st year of the Zhizhi era) the Temple of Imperial Preceptor Phagpa was built in the capital city.
The system of imperial preceptor played a major role in strengthening the rule in China of the Yuan Dynasty, stabilizing Tibetan society, promoting the development of Tibetan Buddhist culture, promoting the mutual understanding, unity and blending of Mongolians, Tibetans, Uygurs, Hans and other ethnic groups of China, sapping people's fighting will, protecting the interests of the ruling class of the Yuan Dynasty and maintaining the policy of ethnic exploitation and oppression by the Yuan. The Yuan had 13 generations of imperial preceptors. They were in order as follows: Phagpa, Ye Rinchen, Dharmapala Rakit, Yeshe Rinchen, Drakpa Odser, Rinchen Gyaltsen, Shangyal Pal, Shan-gyaspa, Kunga Lodro Gyaltsen Palzang Pal, Wangchuk Gyaltsen, Kunga Legpa Jungne Gyaltsen Palzangpo, Rinchen Drashi, and Kunga Gyaltsen Palzangpo.[42] Phagpa, the first imperial preceptor, exerted a far-reaching impact on the later historical trends of Tibet, the relations between Tibet and the central government, and the central government's policies toward religion and the ethnic regions.
Phagpa should be regarded as a positive person in China's history. On the other hand, however, the imperial preceptor system was a means of ideological control, so it was negative and decayed later on. All Phagpa's disciples and successors were not as learned or of as much moral integrity as Phagpa. Many of the imperial preceptors were ignorant and incompetent and did various misdeeds. Some of Phagpa's successors, after acquiring the high-ranking positions of Situ or Sikong, swindled and bluffed everywhere. Sange, Phagpa's favorite disciple, after acquiring his high-ranking position, became so arrogant that he even dared to take tribute meant for the emperor for his own use. It was a common thing for him to take bribes. Dingxi, Pingliang and other prefectures were on the road the Tubo monks took to reach the capital Dadu. Hundreds of high monks were often on that road. It was really a heavy burden for local governments to receive them. That monk officials forciblly occupied commoners' houses and property and raped women was not unknown. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, lamaist monks even taught the emperor the "Secret Method of Supreme Joy"; the emperor and monks, singing and dancing with women in the same hall in a dissipated and Unashamed way.
Apart from the monks' evil doings, regular Buddhist activities consumed millions of kilograms of flour, butter, honey, etc. a year. High monks constituted a privileged strata, leading a parasitic life and perpetrating outrages, while the common people went hungry and did not have enough clothes. Especially in Tibet, Buddhist culture enjoyed an abnormal development and monks enjoyed a very high status, leading the society to mysticism and obstructing the normal development of history. Therefore, the desi (imperial preceptor) system was intrinsically decayed and backward.
The Administrative Divisions of Tibet
After incorporating Tibet into China, the Yuan government took a census of the population and then set up pacification commissions, chief military commands, thirteen myriarchies, qian-hu offices, and postal relay stations successively. Moreover, they established the Sakya Ponchen regime to help the central government carry out the administration of Tibet.
Not long after Kublai ascended the throne in 1260, he dispatched Tamen and others to take a census of the population in Tibet. This was the first census of Tibet. According to the data he collected, Tamen established 27 postal relay stations: 7 stations in Dotod (Garze, Qamdo), 9 in Domed (Tibetan areas in Gansu and Qinghai), 7 in the U region (Anterior Tibet) and 4 in the Tsang region (Ulterior Tibet). There were a certain number of sub-stations between every two stations. The distance between every two sub-stations was one-day's journey. Special personnel were assigned to run the stations and sub-stations. The stations had facilities to provide the traveling officials and monks with lodging, boarding and horses. Food, horses, and utensils for daily use at every station were provided by a certain number of civilian households.[43] The establishment of the postal relay stations facilitated and strengthened contacts between the hinterland and the Tibetan areas, and made it easier for the central government's policies to be transmitted to Tibet and for the information about Tibet to be quickly reflected to the central government.
In 1265, Phagpa came back to his hometown, Sakya, after leaving there more than twenty years before. In the same year, he established the Tibetan local regime in Sakya. Nominally, Phagpa was the Sakya's ruling lama, but he did not handle the day-to-day administrative work, which was done by Sakya Ponchen. The Ponchen was nominated by the Sakya ruling lama and appointed by the Yuan central government; he was an official of the third rank, and he was the administrative head of the Tibetan local government. Ponchen was a subordinate of the Sakya ruling lama, who had the last say in all important matters. There were altogether 27 Ponchens who were nominated by the imperial preceptor and appointed by the Yuan government.
In 1268 the Yuan government dispatched Akon and Miling to Tibet to take a census of the population for the second time. The census was taken with the help of Sakya Ponchen Shakya Zangpo, and so it was well done. According to the results of the census, the Yuan government established 13 myriarchies in U-Tsang, and set a quota for each myriarchy to pay tributes and the amount of its ula service. There were 6 myriarchies in the U region: Phagmo-drupa, Drigung, Tsalpa, Yazang, Gyama, and Taklung; and 6 myriarchies in the Tsang region: Latodjang, Latodlho, Sakya, Shang, Chumik, and Shalu. The Yamdrok (Yamzhoyum) Myriarchy was located in the area of the lake of Yamdrok. A myriarch was installed in each myriarchy. He was nominated by the Sakya ruling lama and appointed by the Yuan central government. The Sakya myriarch was the head of all the 13 myriarchs. The Sakya Ponchen was the head of the 13 myriarchies. Among the 13 myriarchies, the Drigung, Tsalpa, and Phagmo-drupa myriarchies were stronger than the others, but then registered number of households did not show Phagmo-drupa to be very strong. The Biography of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso, has a record of the number of households that provided ula service in ten of the thirteen myriarchies:
Latodlho myriarchy, 1,990 households
Latodjang myriarchy, 2,250 households
Chumik myriarchy, 3,003 households
Shalu myriarchy, 3,892 households
Yamdrok myriarchy, 750 households
Drigung myriarchy, 3,630 households
Tsalpa myriarchy, 3,700 households
Phagmo-drupa myriarchy, 2,438 households
Yazang myriarchy, 3,000 households
Gyama myriarchy, 5,900 households
The Analects on the Historical Relations Between the Hans and Tibetans has a similar record, and it also gives the household numbers of Sakya and Taklung. All these numbers refer to the households that did the ula corvee, excluding the number of monks, the households of manorial lords and the households under the jurisdiction of monasteries. The total household number of each myriarchy is not available.
According to Sakya's Lineal Description, the Yuan court stipulated that a family with a man and a wife, two children, two servants, a horse, a donkey, a goat, a sheep, a cow, a house with six stanchions, and a piece of arable land on which 12 khal (a unit of measure equal to about 12 kilograms) of seeds could be sown constituted a dud-chung (small household). Twenty-five dud-chung constituted a dud-chen (big household), two dud-chen constituted one tamgo, two tamgo constituted one chakor (100 households), ten chakor constituted one dongkor (1,000 households), and ten dongkor constituted one myriarchy. By this calculation, there were only 130,000 households in the U-Tsang regions, much less than the number of households in a province. But in reality, the Yuan central authorities treated Tibet as a province, if not more than a province. For example, the courteous reception and power accorded to the Sakya ruling lama was far beyond that accorded to provincial governors. The establishment of 13 myriarchies in the U and Tsang regions formed the main part of the Yuan's administrative division in Tibet; it played an important role in the implementation of the Yuan's policies and in maintaining social order. The 13 myriarchies were renamed as 13 dzong (counties) in the following Phag-dru period.
The 13 myriarchies were in the U-Tsang regions; Ngari, Qamdo and other Tibetan areas were not included. In order to strengthen its rule over the Tibetan areas in the whole country, the Yuan government further perfected its administrative divisions in the Tibetan areas. From 1272 to 1282, they established the Pacification Commission and Chief Military Command of the Tubo Areas (jurisdiction over the present-day Tibetan areas in Gansu and Qinghai and the northern parts of Aba and Garze prefectures in Sichuan), the Pacification Commission and Chief Military Command of Tubo Circuits (jurisdiction over the greater part of the present-day Aba and Garze prefectures and the Qamdo region of Tibet), and the Pacification Commission and Chief Military Command of U-Tsang and Ngari Korsum (jurisdiction covered the same area as the present-day Tibet Autonomous Region). The Pacification Commission was the highest administrative and military organ installed by the Yuan court in the Tibetan areas; it was under the Zhongzhi-yuan (promoted as Xuanzheng-yuan in 1288). The Pacification Commissioner was an official of second rank. The chief military commander of the Mongol troops stationed in Tibet was called a marshal. The Pacification Commissioner had more power than the Sakya Ponchen, and had a higher position than he. Although the Sakya Ponchen was not as powerful as the Pacification Commissioner, yet he could concurrently serve as a Pacification Commissioner. According to the Red Annal and other books, there were altogether four Sakya Ponchens who served as concurrently Pacification Commissioners.
The Yuan government dispatched Dosu Anugan and Argon to Tibet to take a third census of the population in 1287 and reorganize postal relay stations and sub-stations. For instance, no postal relay station had been set up in Ngari after the first census in 1260, but by now four stations were set up there. After the third census, military relay stations were set up exclusively for military use.
In summary, the Yuan court administrative measures toward Tibet included the setting up of various postal relay stations, the support of the Sakya ruling lama, help to the Sakya ruling lama in setting up his administrative apparatus—Larang—the setting up of the post of Ponchen, the establishment of 13 myriarchies, and the setting up of Pacification Commissions—the highest administrative apparatus to govern the Tibetan areas. All these were important measures taken by the Yuan court toward Tibet.
The Relationship Between the Sakya Local Regime and the Yuan Government
After unifying Tibet, the Yuan government handled Tibetan affairs through the Xuanzheng-yuan and the Imperial Preceptor. In addition, it helped the Khon family build up the Sakya local regime, and enlisted it to help the Pacification Commission control the myriarchies in the U-Tsang regions. The relationship between the Sakya regime and the Yuan government was very clear: it was the relationship between a local regime and the central government, and Tibet was a local regime equivalent to that of the provincial level. However, ever since the beginning of the 20th century, some of the so-called Tibetologists have wantonly distorted the facts to create an historical basis for "Tibetan independence." They describe the relationship between the Yuan central government and the Tibetan local government as that of "patrons and lamas." They say that Phagpa was a "ruling lama and the Tibetan king" and that Tibet was a kingdom independent of the Yuan central government. This is a groundless fabrication.
The Sakya regime was established with the support of the central government of the Yuan Dynasty. Its foundation was laid down by Sakya Pandita and Godan Khan; it was developed and consolidated by Phagpa and Kublai. Sakya Pandita's pledge of allegiance to the Mongols laid the foundation for Sakya Sect's dominant position in Tibetan political, economic and religious affairs. In 1260, when Kublai conferred on Phagpa the title of State Preceptor and the chief of Zongzhi-yuan, Chakna Dorje, Phagpa's brother, was honored with the title of "Prince of Palen" and was put in charge of all Tibetan affairs. Chakna Dorje went back to Sakya in 1263; he was the first chief administrator of the Sakya local regime. Chakna Dorje died in 1267, having been in the post of chief administrator for only three years.
In 1265 Phagpa returned to his hometown, established a "Larang" (incarnate lama's residential quarter) and recommended that Shakya Zangpo be appointed Ponchen (official in charge of all administrative affairs). The Larang was directly under the control of the Sakya ruling lama, in charge of religious affairs and the ruling lama's property and his daily affairs. The Sakya Monastery was under the jurisdiction of the Larang. The Larang was led by three Khenpos. They were all monk officials: Solpon Khenpo was in charge of general affairs; Zimpon Khenpo was in charge of the ruling lama's daily life, food, clothes, etc.; and Tsecha Khenpo was in charge of the ruling lama's financial affairs, revenues and expenditures.
Ponchen was the chief administrator of the Sakya regime, and he might also be appointed as Pacification Commissioner. Under the local government were two apparatus— Yigtsang (secretariat) and Nyetsang (treasury)—to administer temporal affairs. Ponchen was nominated by the imperial preceptor and appointed by the emperor. The ninth Imperial Preceptor, Kunga Lodro Gyaltsen, had several brothers and so he assigned his brothers to four Larangs: Shithok Larang, Lhakhang Larang, Rinchen Larang, and Duchod Larang. The brothers were the heads of the respective Larangs, and the post was then passed down from father to son. The later Sakya ruling lama was selected from among the four Larangs. Not long after this, all the Larangs fell into discord with one another. From then on, the Sakya Khon family began to decline. When the Sakya regime lost its ruling power over Tibet in 1351, only the Duchod Larang existed and kept the title of Sakya ruling lama. During the Ming Dynasty, the title of Assistant Prince of the Doctrine was conferred on the ruling lama of the Duchod Larang by the imperial court.
The relationship between the Sakya regime and the Yuan central government was, first of all, a relationship of subordination. It was not a regime independent of the jurisdiction by the central government, and Phagpa was not a "religious ruling lama and concurrently the king of a state." The function of the Sakya local regime was to help the Pacification Commission in administering Tibetan affairs.
The Yuan court established an efficient control over Tibet. After Tibet pledged its allegiance to the Mongol Khanate in the 1240s, Tibet was Godan's fief, and then it was under Kublai's control. During the 1260s, Kublai gave Tibet to his seventh son, Oruchi, and from then on Oruchi's descendants inherited the place. All those Mongol princes had the right to handle Tibetan affairs. According to historical records, Timur Buhur, Oruchi's son, went into Tibet in 1290 to help Sakya defeat the Drigung myriarch. Ancient documents record that Sospan, Timur Buhur's son, sent a memorial to the Yuan court asking for renaming of the pacification commissions and moving the seats of the Ding-zhou, Songzhou, Panzhou, Diezhou, Tangzhou, Weizhou and Maozhou; he also once sent a memorial through the Xuanzheng-yuan, asking for the sending of relief to the postal relay stations in U-Tsang, Do-kham (Qinghai and Kham), and Domed (Gansu). From this it may be seen that the Yuan court handled Tibetan affairs concretely.
During the whole period of the Yuan Dynasty, the central government carried out its administration over Tibet mainly through three lines. One was the system of Mongol princes who were enfeoffed in Tibet, another was through Pacification Commissions affiliated to the Xuanzheng-yuan, and the third was the Sakya local regime. Although the Sakya Ponchen might be appointed as Pacification Commissioner, and there were four Ponchens who were appointed to the post during the Yuan period, yet the appointment, removal, rewards and punishments of the Sakya Ponchen, as well as the Pacification Commissioner, were in the hands of the central government. The Imperial Preceptor only had the power to recommend and nominate. When Kublai Khan quelled the "Drigung Rebellion," he ordered that Ponchen Kunga Zangpo be arrested and killed. Although the Yuan central government cherished great reverence for the Sakya Khon family and Phagpa's disciples were all given high-ranking titles,[44] yet the succession of the ruling lama, the succession of the family lineage, and the judgment of the family disputes were all in the hands of the Yuan government, even the emperor. The orders and laws of the central government were implemented thoroughly in Tibet. The Tibetan document Red Annals explicitly states that "The laws implemented in Tibet during the Yuan period were in fact the laws issued by the Yuan court."[45] From this it may be seen that the sovereignty exercised by the Yuan government over Tibet was complete and all-embracing.
The Sakya local regime, as an administrative unit at the provincial level, helped the Pacification Commissions to supervise the myriarchies of U-Tsang, and its functions and status were the same as that of the Pacification Commissions. Its relationship to the Yuan central government was under no circumstances that between a suzerain and a vassal, but was directly under the control of the central government. To understand this will be helpful to understanding the succeeding relationship between the Phagdru regime in Tibet and the central government during the Ming Dynasty and between the Tibetan Kashag local government and the central government during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
The relationship between the Yuan central government and the Sakya local regime was also one of each making use of the other in religious sphere. On the one hand, the Yuan imperial court needed to use a religious sect that was loyal to it to strengthen its ideological control over the country and to mark its rule with the symbol that the "emperor's power was given by divinity." At the same time, leaders of the Sakya Sect needed to acquire and consolidate their political and religious status through the patronage of the central government, and this is the reason why they were especially loyal to the Yuan emperors. The relationship between the emperor and the imperial preceptor was first of all the relationship between monarch and subject, and then it was a relationship between teacher and disciple. The title of imperial preceptor was given by the emperor, and the emperor took religious initiation from the imperial preceptor. The mutual use of this kind was based on loyalty to the monarch and the "emperor's power coming from divinity." Their relationship was by no means that between a "Lama and Patron," but was a means of strengthening their respective rule by a monarch and a subject. Although a member of the Sakya Khon family held the post of religious ruling lama and concurrently the head of Tibetan civil affairs, all the temporal and spiritual affairs had to be done in accordance with the emperor's will. Therefore, Phagpa and his successors' status was by no means the status of a "ruling lama and king of Tibet," as alleged by some Western scholars.
The relationship between the Yuan central government and the Sakya Khon family was also reflected in political matrimony. In addition to supporting the Khon family religiously and politically, the Yuan government strengthened its relations with the Khon family through matrimony. Chakna Dorje, Phagpa's brother, was the first to contract matrimonial relations with the Mongol ruling house. After Chakna Dorje went to Liangzhou at the age of six, Godan ordered him wear a Mongol costume and learn Mongol customs; later Godan married his daughter, Princess Mokatom, to him. During the reign of Emperor Shizu Kublai, Chakna Dorje was granted the title Prince Palen with a gold seal of authority, and so he became an "Imperial Son-in-Law" of the Yuan court[46] Dharmapala, Chakna Dorje's son, married Bedan, another Mongol princess. After Danyi Chenpo Zangpo Pal, Dhar-mapala's cousin, became the Sakya ruling lama, he married Princess Montakham, the sister of Yuan Emperor Chengzong Timur; she bore him a son named Sonam Zangpo, who later inherited the title Prince Palen, became a Pacification Commissioner and married the Mongol Princess Butagan.[47] Sonam Zang-po's step brother, Kunga Legpa Jungne Gyaltsen Zangpo, also married the Yuan emperor's sister. During the Yuan Dynasty, there were altogether five members of the Sakya Khon family who contracted matrimonial relations with the Yuan royal family. All this was typical political matrimony. The political relations between the royal family and the local regime were further consolidated through such marriages.
In short, the relations between the Sakya local regime and the Yuan central government were multi-faceted. But the most essential thing was the relation of political subordination. Although the status of Tibet was higher than that of other provinces in the country, it was never a "kingdom" independent of the jurisdiction of the central government. During the whole period of the Yuan Dynasty, the central government exercised effective administrative jurisdiction over Tibet.
Feudal Serfdom of Tibet During the Yuan Period
The Establishment of the Feudal Serfdom
The incorporation of Tibet into the Yuan empire marked a drastic change in the structure of Tibetan society—the establishment of feudal serfdom. Tibet had at last completed its transition from a slave-owning society to a feudal society, thus entering a new historical stage.
The transition from a slave-owning system to a feudal system took a long period of time. As early as the middle of the eighth century when the slave-owning system reached its apex, elements of feudal serfdom were already developing in embryo. At that time, under the influence of the advanced civilization of the Central Plains, the Tubo Dynasty had begun to follow the example of the Tang Dynasty in sharing out a small amount of fields equally among slaves, and the slaves were responsible for paying corvee and land rent.
During the time of Trisong Detsen (754-797), epidemics often broke out in the Tang-Tubo borderland in spring and summer, and nobody wanted to stay there because of this. Therefore, the Tubo authorities sent the Tang captives to station the borderland and provided them with a small amount of property, but kept their relatives as hostages so that they wouldn't run away[48] Slaves like this had the aspect of serfs, and the early embryo of feudal serfdom gradually developed from this.
With the decline of the Tibetan slave society, all contradictions within society became more acute. After Trisong Detsen died in 797, the struggle for power within the ruling group rapidly surfaced. The long period of internal struggle within the ruling group led to the decline of the Tubo Dynasty. The struggle between slave-owners and slaves intensified. The slaves could not tolerate the cruel oppression and exploitation, and a large-scale revolt broke out. The slave rebels marched into Lhasa area in 869, and slaves and commoners in other places also rose to revolt. This rebellion, which lasted for nine years, overthrew the reactionary rule of the slave-owners in Tibet, and a great number of slaves won their personal freedom and broke the slave-owners' shackles. Thus, the social basis of Tibetan slave-owning system was severely weakened. After the end of the ninth century, Tibet began its transition from a slave-owning system to a feudal serfdom.
The storm of revolts by slaves and commoners resulted in Tibet splitting into many separatist local regimes. The splitting up of the territory did not, however, stop the slow progress of the productive forces in Tibetan society. During the period of the Five Dynasties (907-960) and the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties (960-1279), the "tea and horse trade" between Tibet and the hinterland was still effectively carried on. This played a positive role in promoting the economic activities of Tibetan society. The struggle among the various political groups provided a certain convenience to the free emigration of slaves. In some areas where economy was relatively developed, the slaves who had thrown off the slave-owners' oppression and exploitation began to own a small amount of land, animals and tools of production. At the same time, former slave-owners were weakened by the long-term internal conflicts. Some of them lost their original political and economic status and became common peasants, and others, having adapted themselves to the needs of the new social situation, became serf-owners, who occupied a certain amount of land and had serfs under their control. However, the power of the separatist local regimes changed frequently and the control of serfs by serf-owners was not secure.
During the Northern and Southern Song period purchasing and selling land was prevalent. Land could freely be sold or bought. Some better-off land-holding peasants took the chance to buy more land and make themselves new serf-owners. After a long period of differentiation, serf-owners and serfs replaced the former slave-owners and slaves, and became the two big confronting classes of Tibetan society. As Tibet was divided into many separatist regimes at that time, the serf economy was only a scattered economic form, not a unified social, political and economic system.
In the first half of the 13th century, when the Yuan Dynasty officially incorporated Tibet into China's territory, the Tibetan system of feudal serfdom was finally established. The implementation of the shika system marked the establishment of serfdom. Shika means manor in Tibetan, and some had appeared long before. As early as the second half of the tenth century, the king of the Gu-ge Kingdom in Ngari bestowed Shel in Tsaparang (capital of Gu-ge) on Rinchen Zangpo, an eminent monk, as his shika. Afterward, the number of shikas gradually increased. There were two kinds of shikas: aristocratic shikas and monastic shikas. Aristocratic shikas were secular serf-owner's feudal manors; they were seen everywhere in Tibet.
Monastic shikas were a product of Tibetan social, political, economic and cultural development. They were formed gradually with the development of Buddhist influence. After the decline of the Tubo Dynasty, Buddhism gradually recovered its strength and won the support of some separatist regimes; that Rinchen Zangpo owned one is an example. Some newly-rising feudal lords put religious sects under their control, thus combining the power of the abbot and the manorial lord, and thus making the ruling lamas of monasteries into a special kind of feudal lords, who owned a certain amount of land, manors, and serfs. And a unique monastic economy came into being. At that time, all religious sects had their own shikas.
When the Mongol influence entered Tibet, the Mongols supported the Sakya Sect, one of the most influential sects in Tibet, and made it the Tibetan agent of the Mongol rulers. The Yuan government had great esteem for Phagpa, the fifth forefather of the Sakya Sect, conferring on him the title of "State Preceptor" and "Imperial Preceptor," and they put the thirteen myriarchies under his control. Phagpa became both the religious ruling lama and the administrative leader, and thus began the merging of religious and secular rule in Tibet. The high clergy, the local government officials, and aristocrats constituted the three major categories of feudal lords in the serf society.
The laws and orders issued by the Yuan central government further consolidated the feudal manorial system. They confirmed the serf-owners' right over the serfs. The Yuan government also stipulated that the serfs were forbidden to escape or flee to other places and that they must obey their lords and do service for them. Thus the relationship between the serfs and serf-owners was endorsed by the central government. The personal dependency of serfs on the serf-owners was strengthened, serfs were restricted to the land and they lost their personal freedom.
According to the Yuan government's stipulation, serfs had to pay taxes and levies to the central and Tibetan local governments. The aristocratic manors had to perform corvee duties, although the monastic manors did not. During the reign of Yuan Emperor Shizu Kublai, when a census was being carried out, the central government set up postal relay stations in Tibet. The manors along the road had to provide board, lodging and horses for passing officials. Corvee of this kind was called ula in Tibetan. But the burden of ula corvee was, in fact, shifted to the serfs by the feudal lords. Taxes, levies and ula corvee were the main forms of land rent that the serfs had to pay.
To sum up, by holding Buddhism in esteem, conducting a census, setting up postal relay stations, and issuing laws and other measures, the Yuan government established the Tibetan politico-religious system of government, legitimized the feudal land ownership and the serf-owners' ownership of serfs. Feudal manors became the basis of Tibet's socio-economic structure, and the serfs were restricted to the land. Thus the Tibetan feudal serfdom, with its embryo appearing during the Tang period and after a slow development over several hundred years, was finally established during the Yuan Dynasty.
Economic Features of Tibetan Feudal Serfdom
Beginning with the first half of the 13th century, Tibet entered the state of feudal serfdom. As a special form of feudal society, Tibetan feudal serfdom still kept remnants of the slave-owning system and the apparent features of the transition from slave society to feudal society remained for a long time.
The feudal lords' ownership of land was the basis of the serfdom. Under this system, serf-owners held all the arable land, pastures, and the overwhelming majority of livestock, as well as the serfs living on the land. Land was the means by which the serf-owner exploited serfs and was a heavy shackle to tie down the serfs. The serfs were owned by the lords, just as if they were tools of production. The more serfs a serf-owner had, the more wealthy he was. The manorial lords generally kept the greatest part of their land under their own management and rented the rest out to their serfs. According to law, all the land in Tibet was actually owned by the feudal central government. When the Yuan government incorporated Tibet into the territory of China, it stipulated clearly that the central government had the right of supreme ownership over all the land in Tibet. When the Yuan Emperor Shizu Kublai conferred the title of Imperial Preceptor on Phagpa, he declared in his edict: "Now I entrust to Phagpa the 13 myriarchies as the offering for his first preaching of Dhar-ma...." After Phagpa's second preaching of Dharma, the emperor again issued an order that "the three regions of Tubo together with the people, secular and ecclesiastic, on them be offered to him."[49] In 1319 (the 6th year of the Yanyou era during Yuan Emperor Renzong's reign), the 9th Imperial Preceptor Kunga Lodro Gyaltsen Palzang Pal, in his official documents concerning the granting of manors in Potong, several times used these words: "according to His Majesty's edict" or "according to the Emperor's order," so as to prove that his granting of manors was endorsed by the central government and was lawful. During the Yuan period, the central government many times enfeoffed manors to the ruling lamas of Sakyapa, Phagmo Drupa, and Yazangpa, and other local lords. This also shows that the land of Tibet was owned by the central government. The ownership of land by the Tibetan serf-owners was but transferred to them by the central government.
Serf-owners and serfs constituted the two major classes in Tibetan society. The manorial lords of Tibet, who accounted for only a small percentage of the Tibetan population, comprised the officials of the former Tibetan local government, the aristocrats and monasteries (upper-strata lamas) and their agents, and they controlled the overwhelming majority of the land, pastures and livestock, as well as the serfs. They lived a luxurious, decadent life, enjoying various privileges.
The serfs accounted for the overwhelming majority of the Tibetan population. They had no political rights or personal freedom. The serfs consisted mainly of two types—"thralpa" and "dudchong." The thralpas were persons doing unpaid labor for the serf-owners. Generally speaking, the status of thralpas was higher than that of dudchongs.
The Dudchong, meaning small household in Tibetan, were composed of bankrupt thralpas. Their social status was lower than that of the thralpas, and they lived a poorer life than the thralpas did.
In addition to the serfs, there were a number of slaves, called nangzen in Tibetan; they were household slaves. They had no personal freedom whatever, nor any means of production. They were under the absolute control of the serf-owners, doing various heavy jobs and living at the bottom of society.
Poverty-stricken monks and nuns were also living in an enslaved and exploited condition. They made up the majority of monks, and in reality they were poor serfs in dressed kasaya clothing.
Under the feudal system, serfs had no personal freedom; they were regarded by the lords as "instruments that could speak." In order to suppress the serfs' revolt, "Fifteen Laws" were issued after the reign of the Sakya regime, which were a combination of Mongol laws and Tubo laws. The Fifteen Laws related to the following: (1) praise of a brave man by covering his back with a tiger-skin, (2) denunciation of a coward by covering his back with a fox-skin, (3) the system of promoting and punishing local officials, (4) distinguishing the true from the false when listening to appeals, (5) the process of arrest and summons for interrogation, (6) the way of extorting a confession by torture, (7) imposition of fines on law-breakers, (8) regulations regarding taxation, (9) death sentence for murderers, (10) punishment for people who wounded others, (11) punishment for people who perfidiously tore up agreements or contracts, (12) punishment for thieves, (13) marriage and divorce, (14) punishment for people who committed adultery, and (15) regulations regarding the borrowing or lending of money. This was a feudal legal code created by Ta Situ Changchub Gyaltsen.[50] In Tibet under 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 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 laws. They used such inhuman tortures as gouging out eyes, cutting off feet or hands, pushing the condemned person over a cliff, drowning, beheading, etc.
The serfs, owned by the serf-owners, had no personal freedom from birth to death. They and their children were freely given away as gifts or donations, sold and exchanged for goods. Their marriages had to be approved in advance by their manorial lords. Serfs who married out of the manorial estate had to pay ransom money to their lords. A serf's child was born to be a serf of its parent's lord. Those who could not perform corvee or went out to seek a livelihood elsewhere had to pay "corvee taxes" to show their dependence on the lords. If a serf lost his ability to work, all his property, including livestock and farm tools, would be confiscated by the lord. The property of those who died without issue was confiscated. Thus, the contradictions between the serfs and serf-owners were the major contradictions of Tibetan society. The cruel exploitation and suppression forced the serfs to launch rebellions over and over again. For example, in 1347 (the 7th year of the Zhizheng era of the Yuan Emperor Shundi's reign) more than 200 rebellions broke out in Tibet. This struggle was an attack on both the Yuan government's rule over Tibet and the reactionary feudal serfdom.
As a replacement for slave-owning system, the system of serfdom in its period of formation and development played a positive role, pushing social economy slowly forward. But serfdom as a whole was a hindrance to the productive forces. Natural economy occupied the dominant place, and commodity economy was poorly developed in Tibet. The social division of labor was only between farming and animal breeding; handicrafts and commerce made up a very small percentage of the economy. Handicrafts were only a household sideline and the main purpose for their production was for the feudal lord's consumption; only a very small percentage of such goods were used for exchange. The daily necessities of the lords and serfs were acquired through barter. Commercial activities in towns were mainly for the needs of religious practices. Farming and animal breeding, the main economic elements of Tibet, were also backward in development. The broad masses of serfs were not interested in production, tools and technology and so production was carried out only in a small scale, and farm produce was poor. Feudal serfdom obstructed the development of the Tibetan economy and it was the root cause of the slow development of Tibetan society.
Economic and Cultural Exchanges Between the Hans, Mongols and Tibetans During the Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan government unified the whole nation and incorporated Tibet into China's territory. After the postal relay stations were set up, the economic and cultural exchanges between the Hans, Mongols, and Tibetans further increased.
Commodity exchanges between Tibet and the hinterlands had a long history. The traditional exchange of Tibetan horses for Han tea began during the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and was further pushed forward during the Yuan period. In 1277, after the Yuan troops occupied Sichuan, the Yuan Emperor, Shizu Kublai, ordered that "markets be set up at Diaomen and Lizhou to do trade with the Tubo."[51]
As the Tibetans had a strong liking for wine and tea the amount of tea they needed was great. The government's exclusive possession of the trade in tea was abolished, and tea merchants were allowed to do business freely. The outcome of this policy was that tea became the major product exported from the hinterland into the Tibetan areas. At that time on the border between Sichuan and Tibet there had already emerged many merchants specializing in Han-Tibetan trade. They exported tea, silk, porcelain and various articles for daily use to Tibet and transported Tibetan products such as livestock, fur, and medicine to the inland. Many of these Han and Tibetan merchants became rich men. The barter trade met the needs of the Han and Tibetan peoples and played a positive role in developing the economy in the borderland between the Han areas and Tibet. Officials who went from the hinterland to Tibet to assume office often "took with them various copper articles, bowls, dishes, shoes, boots, clothes, and many other articles for daily use to Tibetan areas so that they would earn private benefits."[52] All this helped raise the living standards of the Tibetan people to varying degrees.
Seeing that the economy of Tibetan areas was not as developed as that of the Central Plains, the Yuan government granted various financial subsidies and relief to Tibet. According to the History of the Yuan Dynasty,In the second month of the first year of the Huangqing era (1312), envoys were sent to bestow on Tibetan monks 5,000 taels of gold, 25,000 taels of silver, and 39,900 bolts of cloth.... In the third month of the first year of the Zhizhi era (1321) envoys were sent to bestow on Sakya monks of Tibet 250 taels of gold, 2,200 taels of silver, 20,000 suits of kasaya, and cloth and tea.... In the twelfth month of the first year of the Zhizhi era, the emperor ordered the Imperial Preceptor Kunga Lodro Gyaltsen Palzang Pal to go to Tibet to receive full-fledged monastic discipline and bestowed on him 1,350 taels of gold, 4,050 taels of silver, 10,000 bolts of cloth, and 500,000 strings of cash[53]
The recorded subsidies in this period of ten years reached 6,600 taels of gold, 31,700 taels of silver, 500,000 strings of cash, and 49,900 bolts of cloth. During the reign of Emperor Wenzong, the Yuan government over a period of three years (1329-1332) gave Tibet subsidies totaling 500 taels of gold, 2,500 taels of silver, and 10,000 strings of cash, and 5,000 bolts of cloth.[54]
When natural disasters fell upon Tibet, the Yuan government would declare that taxes were to be reduced or exempted in Tibet, with the aim of maintaining its own rule over Tibet. For instance, in the Yanyou era of Emperor Renzong's reign, the seventh Imperial Preceptor, Kunga Lodro Gyaltsen Palzang Pal "in the court presented a petition to the emperor, and thus the people in U and Tsang areas were exempted from taxes for several years."[55]
According to the Yuan government's stipulation, the resident organs of the central government in Tibet were to be funded by the Tibetan local authorities, but in order to lessen the economic burden on Tibet, the central government often provided Tibet with financial aid. For instance, in the twenty-ninth year of the Zhiyuan era of Emperor Shizu's reign (1292)
The U-Tsang Pacification Commissioner reported that after the Drigung Sect staged a rebellion against the Sakya Sect, postal relay stations stopped working because the local people were too poor to support them. The emperor ordered that the central government give the five stations in U-Tsang 100 horses, 200 yaks, and 500 sheep.[56]
In the first year of the Yanyou era of Emperor Renzong's reign (1314), in view of the fact that the horses of the postal stations died from disease and the people were poor, the central government again gave 10,000 taels of silver to Tibet and declared that Tibet's tribute to the central government might be used to rebuild the stations.[57]
During the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), owing to the formation of a unified multi-ethnic state, the cultural exchanges between the Han, Mongol, and Tibetan peoples reached a new height. Sogpo Shito, written by the well-known Tibetan monk Sakya Pandita (1182-1250), was translated into Mongolian during the Yuan period; it was welcomed by the Mongolian and Tibetan peoples. Tsalpa Kunga Dorje (1309-1364), after consulting the Chinese history books— "Records of Tubo" in the New Tang Annals, written by Song Hao and Fan Zuyu, and the "Records of Tang" in History As a Mirror, wrote Red Annals, one of the oldest existing books in Tibetan. The book mainly tells the history of various religious sects of Tibet, and also describes the history of the Tangs, Songs and Mongols. This book was also translated into the Mongol language.
In creating the written language, some well-known Tibetan personages also made great contributions to the cultural exchanges between peoples of different ethnic groups. At the beginning of the Mongol Khanate, the Mongols had a spoken language but no written language, and their cultural level was low. At Mongol Prince Godan's request, Sakya Pandita designed a Mongol script with 44 letters based on the Tibetan letters. In the first year of the Zhongtong era in the Emperor Shizu's reign (1260) Kublai asked State Preceptor Phagpa to create a new set of characters for the Mongol script. After nine years of endeavor, Phagpa, together with other Tibetan linguists, created a new alphabetic system of writing using 41 letters, again based on Tibetan writing. In February, 1269, Kublai decreed that the script was the official Mongol script, which was later called "Phagpa's script." Phagpa's script was extensively used during the Yuan period and it was the legal script of the state. During the whole of the Yuan period, all the imperial decrees and official documents were written in Phagpa's script. The central government set up a "Mongol Academy" to take charge of the popularization of the script. The Yuan government had a great number of Chinese classics and history books translated into Phagpa's script for the Mongol young nobles to study. Thus Phagpa's script became an effective means for cultural exchange between the Han, Mongol and Tibetan peoples.
Buddhist scriptures were held in high esteem during the Yuan Dynasty. Phagpa also took part in the translation of Buddhist sutras. In 1280 he translated the 500-volume Disciplines into Mongolian. In 1307 Sosje Orjer, an Uygur, translated the Bodhisattva-carya-vatara (Chinese Ru-Pu-Sa-Xing-Ji), Saddhar-ma Pundarika Sutra (Chinese Miao-Fa-Lian-Hua-Jing) and other sutras from Tibetan into Mongolian. These translation activities played a positive role in the promotion of cultural exchanges between different ethnic groups.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the grandest project in cultural cooperation was a collation of the Buddhist classics. After the introduction of Buddhism into China, owing to the different places and different lineages of teachers, Buddhism became divided into two systems, one in the hinterland and one in Tibet. In 1285 Kublai suspected that they were two different religions and ordered the eminent monks from the two places to hold a debate between them. After the debate, Kublai expressed doubt as to whether the monks from the two sides were using the same classic sutras. So he issued an order calling together all the well-known Buddhist masters to collate the Buddhist classics. Thus, under the auspices of the central government, twenty-nine Han, Tibetan and Uygur Buddhist monks gathered together in Dadu (present-day Beijing) in 1285-1287 to collate the sutras of the Han and Tibetan areas. The monks of the Han area took the Kai-Yuan-Shi-Jiao-Lu {Catalogue of Buddhist Sutras Edited in the Kaiyuan Period) of the Tang Dynasty as their chief source, while the Tibetan sutras were based on the Narthang Tripitaka kept at the Sakya Monastery. After two years' effort, they made clear what were the similarities and differences of the classics in the two areas, and edited a Tibetan-Han bilingual catalogue of the Tripitaka, which was entitled Zhi Yuan Fa Bao Kan Tong Zong Lu (A General Catalogue of Collated Buddhist Classics of the Zhiyuan Period) and was contained in 5,586 volumes. Kublai learned from this work that the Buddhist sutras of the Han and Tibetan areas had only a few differences in their wording, but their doctrine and teaching was fundamentally the same. What is more important, the cooperation facilitated the flow of culture between the Han and Tibetan scholars, enriched their thoughts and widened their views. A General Catalogue of Collated Buddhist Classics of the Zhiyuan Period was printed and published in 1289. This monumental work is a symbol of the friendly cooperation and cultural exchanges between the Tibetan and Han Buddhist masters.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the cultural flow was also reflected in architecture, printing, the calendar, etc. In the middle of the 13th century, Phagpa recruited artisans to build the Sakya Monastery, including many Han artisans. The Southern Monastery of the Sakya Monastery was built in 1268 in the Han style. The main building of the Shalu Monastery was a combination of Han and Tibetan styles; some of the murals in the monastery had the Han style, while many pictures reflected the clothing, articles of daily use, and architectural styles of the then hinterland. Block printing of the hinterland was introduced into Tibet by Phagpa's attendants and disciples at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. During the time of Emperor Shizu Kublai, Karde Gonpo set up a printing house at Tsalpa to print Buddhist sutras. The introduction of printing technology facilitated the spread of Buddhist culture and played a positive role in preserving historical materials. Tibetans had had their calendar from ancient times. After the Yuan Dynasty incorporated Tibet into China, the Tibetan calendar was gradually perfected and developed under the influence of the Central Plains civilization. From 1027 on the Tibetan calendar gradually changed to closely resemble the Han's almanac (lunar calendar). When Phagpa's Sakya regime began to exercise its rule over the whole of Tibet, Tibetans began to use the Han lunar calendar. They divided the year into twelve months, thirty days in a big month and twenty-nine days in a small one. And they used the Ten Heavenly Stems, the Twelve Earthly Branches, and the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth) to designate years, months, days and hours, following the way the Han lunar calendar was set up. This method is still prevalent in Tibet.
The Tibetan Areas in the Ming and Early Qing Dynasties
Ming Government's Administration of the Tibetan Areas
Establishment of an Administrative System over the Tibetan Areas in China by the Ming Government
Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, set up the central government of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) at Nanjing in 1368, established administrative organs in all areas successively, including those inhabited by national minorities, put them under his jurisdiction and control, and regarded all ethnic groups within the boundaries as equal.[1] As for Tibet, which was incorporated into the territory of China during the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the Yuan's administrative system, regarding both the Tibetan areas and the hinterland as the territory of China and both the Tibetans and the Hans as the Chinese subjects. He established military and administrative organs to administer the Tibetan areas. With regard to institutions, he did practically nothing to alter those already set up by the Yuan; he only made some changes in the names of institutions, so as to facilitate the Ming central government's jurisdiction and control.
The Ming troops captured the Yuan capital of Dadu (modern Beijing) in 1368 and the Yuan regime collapsed. After Longyou (western Gansu Province) was captured by the Ming troops and the Yuan troops stationed at Lintao surrendered in 1369, the Ming government immediately sent Xu Yunde, an official of Shaanxi, and others to Tibet and areas inhabited by the Tibetans in Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan to offer amnesty and to enlist the Tibetan officials. These emissaries spread the news about the fall of the Yuan and its replacement by the Ming in the hope that the Tibetans might offer their allegiance at an early date. Xu Yunde first went to Hezhou (modern Linxia County in Gansu) to contact members of the upper strata there, but they adopted a wait-and-see attitude. The next year (1370) Ming troops under General Deng Yu's command seized Hezhou, compelling the local officials to give up their attitude of sitting on the fence. The Tubo Pacification Commissioner, Sonam Bu, stationed at Hezhou by the Yuan, led local officials and chieftains in surrendering to General Deng Yu, offering their allegiance to the central government of the Ming Dynasty, and handing in all the gold and silver plates and seals granted to them by the Yuan Dynasty. In order to completely eliminate the Yuan's influence over the Tibetan areas in Gansu, the Ming government moved Punala, a Mongol Prince, who had governed Tibet as a fief granted by the Yuan court, and his descendants to Nanjing, the capital city of the Ming. Sonam Bu also went to Nanjing in person to show his allegiance by paying tribute to the Ming court.
The Ming court set up a Hezhou Garrison (wei) in 1371. The Garrison Commander was a Han general, while Sonam Bu was appointed as the Vice Commander of the Hezhou Garrison, and was bestowed with a Chinese surname "He." His duty was to assist the Commander in administering the Tibetan area of Hezhou.[2] The Hezhou Garrison was the first administrative and military institution established by the Ming court in the Tibetan areas. Afterward, the Ming court set up the Xining Garrison in the Tibetan areas in northwest China. The Xining Garrison, like the Hezhou Garrison, was also run by both Han and Tibetan officials.
In 1371, the Ming troops pushed into Sichuan and eliminated the local separatist forces there. The Mongolian and Tibetan officials stationed by the Yuan at Jiezhou, Wenzhou, Maozhou, Weizhou and Songpan surrendered and offered their allegiance to the Ming court, one after another.
The Ming court set up a Pacification Commission at Tianquan in Sichuan in 1373. In that same year, the officials Yang Zhe-qi and Longmutou of Maozhou and Yue Xipeng of Jingzhou showed their allegiance to the Ming court by going to Nanjing to offer tribute. The Ming court showed its appreciation for their actions by allowing them to maintain their positions as local officials, and set up a new zhang-guan si or chiefs office (the Ming court did not even bother to change the name, which was originally set by the Yuan court) and put it under the jurisdiction of the Chongqing Garrison. Afterward, other local officials installed by the Yuan court pledged allegiance to the Ming one after another. Thus the Tibetan areas in west Sichuan were basically pacified.
But in 1378 and 1382 revolts staged respectively by Dong Tieli, a Tibetan chieftain in Weizhou, and Yang Zheqi, an aboriginal prefecture magistrate of Maozhou, broke out. After the Ming court quelled these revolts, they seized the chance to improve the administrative agencies in those areas, appointing Ming officials to run the prefecture and county governments at Maozhou, Weizhou, Wenzhou and other places and an ethnic Tibetan to run Longzhou Prefecture. They also established military institutions such as the Maozhou Garrison, Songzhou Garrison, Weizhou Garrison, Taozhou Garrison and Minzhou Garrison. The military and political institutions shared the work and cooperated with one another. The prefecture and county govern-merits were mainly responsible for local civil administration; their heads were prefecture magistrates, county magistrates, assistant prefects, chiefs of police, masters of postal relay stations, etc. Their posts were not inheritable, but were filled by appointments made by the Ming government. The garrisons, battalions and companies were military agencies. According to the Ming's system, a sub-prefecture had a battalion, several sub-prefectures had a garrison. Each garrison consisted of 5,600 soldiers. A guard had five battalions (qian hu suo) of 1,200 men each, divided into ten companies (bai hu suo). By then the Tibetan areas in the northwest of Sichuan had all come under the jurisdiction of the Ming court.
During the process of establishing its rule in the northwest of Sichuan, the Ming government vigorously carried out its tusi (aboriginal office) system. The Ming court gave tribal chiefs and headmen nominal official status and titles and allowed them customary, autonomous authority over their peoples so long as they were submissive. Various titles of pacification commissioners (xuan-wei si, xuan-fu si, or an-fu si), chiefs offices, aboriginal battalion commanders, aboriginal company commanders, etc. were bestowed on the tribal chieftains in accordance with the size of their land and the population under their control. All aboriginal officials were under the leadership and control of the military and administrative heads of the local prefecture and garrison. According to historical records, Songzhou had four pacification commissions and seventeen chiefs offices; Maozhou had one pacification commission, three chiefs offices and four aboriginal police chiefs. The tusi system was a means used by the Ming government to elicit allegiance from the local aboriginal tribal chieftains and to maintain social order.
Tibet was called "Xifan" at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. In carrying out its policy of pacification, the Ming court fundamentally maintained the system initially adopted by the Yuan Dynasty. The Ming official Xu Yunde first went to persuade the Tibetans in Gansu and Qinghai to offer their allegiance to the Ming, and then he went to Do-kham and U-Tsang to contact Tibetan chiefs for their offering of allegiance. Xu Yunde served as a Ming official in the Tibetan areas for five years and died of illness there. He was a native of Xi'an, but his tomb is still in the eastern suburbs of present-day Lintao.
After Xu Yunde arrived in Tibet, he got in touch with Nam-gyal Palzang Pal, the Acting Imperial Preceptor of the fallen Yuan Dynasty. The latter agreed to offer his allegiance to the Ming court and went to Nanjing in person to pay his respects to Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang in December, 1372. In February the next year the Ming emperor conferred on him the title of "Brilliant Treasure Buddha State Preceptor". The high lama then recommended that more than sixty Yuan appointed officials in the U-Tsang and Do-kham areas be reappointed. The Ming emperor gave his approval to this and set up the U-Tsang Garrison Commandery and Do-kham Garrison Commandery to govern the Tibetan areas in 1373. The next year the emperor set up the Xi'an Branch Regional Military Commission at Hezhou, with three garrison commanderies — Hezhou, Do-kham, and U-Tsang — under its command. The Hezhou Garrison governed the Tibetan areas of the modern Linxia and Gannan districts in Gansu Province; the Do-kham Garrison governed the Tibetan areas of modern Qamdo in Tibet, Garze in Sichuan and south Qinghai; and the U-Tsang Garrison's jurisdiction covered the major part of modern Tibet. Afterward, Namgyal Palzang Pal, carrying a special imperial edict, returned to U-Tsang to offer amnesty and enlistment to any Tibetan chieftains who had not yet submitted their allegiance to the Ming court. He fulfilled his task in a few years, and all the local chiefs in Tibet, together with their subordinates, offered their allegiance to the Ming central government. In 1375 the Ming government established the Ngari Military and Civilian Commission, whose jurisdictions covered the modern Ngari district and Ladakh.
After that, the Ming government upgraded the U-Tsang Garrison to become the U-Tsang Branch Regional Military Commission, whose jurisdiction covered the major part of modern Tibet, i.e., the territory under the administration of the Pacification Commissions of U-Tsang Ngari and Korsum of the former Yuan Dynasty. The Ming court upgraded the Do-kham Garrison to the Do-kham Branch Regional Military Commission, whose jurisdiction covered modern southern Qinghai, eastern Tibet, and the Tibetan areas in western Sichuan, i.e. the area under the control of the Pacification Commission of the Tubo Circuit of the Yuan Dynasty. A branch regional military commission was equivalent to a modern military area command at the provincial level; its commanders were appointed by the central government. Under this commission an administrative apparatus of various levels down to the lowest levels of wan hu and qian hu was established. Officials at the various levels were mainly local lay and clerical chiefs, and their posts could be passed on from father to son or from monk to disciple. They were required to fulfil specified feudal duties. After upgrading the U-Tsang and Do-kham garrisons, the jurisdiction of the Xi'an Branch Regional Military Commission at Hezhou covered only the Tibetan areas in eastern Qinghai, southern Gansu and northern Sichuan.
Following the establishment of the Hezhou Garrison, many Tibetan officials, lay and monk, went to the Ming capital at Nanjing to request reappointments and to receive various offices. The official titles conferred on them by the Ming court only showed they had a higher or lower rank, but did not reflect the fact that they were subordinate to one another. Judged from historical records, the highest administrative agency in the Tibetan areas was the branch regional military commission; the second highest was the pacification commission; then came the garrison, chiefs office, 10,000-man brigade (wan-hu fu), 1,000-man battalion (qian-hu suo), etc. The Ming's structure for ruling in the Tibetan areas was fundamentally the same as that of the Yuan, except that the Ming court abolished the Commission for Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (Xuan-zheng yuan) and the system of Imperial Preceptor. Although the Ming court kept the Yuan's structure of ruling intact, it revealed the characteristic that various Tibetan religious sects and local feudal lords had combined into separate independent power groups. This provided a firm foundation for keeping a peaceful situation throughout the Ming Dynasty. Especially the system of garrisons, brigades and battalions put the Tibetan areas under the jurisdiction of military commanders appointed by the central government. Thus, during the 200-odd years of the Ming Dynasty, except for two revolts that occurred in Taozhou and Songzhou respectively, all Tibetan areas were under the effective control of the central government.
The Tibetan Policy of the Ming Court
During the process of setting up the administrative apparatus for the Tibetan areas, the Ming government worked out and perfected a whole set of policies for running these areas. The main feature of the Ming's policy toward the Tibetan areas was the "granting of various new offices and titles of honor to high-ranking lamas and dignitaries." The grantees were not subordinate to each other, but only submitted themselves to the Ming central government. This policy originated in the Hongwu reign period (1368-1398) and was further developed in the Yongle reign period (1403-1424) and was carried on to the Xuande, Jingtai, Chenghua and Zhengde reign periods.
The highest title conferred on Tibetan lamas by the Ming court was "Prince of Dharma." Three such titles were given. They were, in the order of their ranks, "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma," "Great Vehicle Prince of the Dharma" and "Great Mercy Prince of Dharma."
"Great Treasure Prince of Dharma" was the title conferred by Emperor Yongle upon Deshen Shekpa, the fifth incarnation of trulku (Living Buddha) of the Black Hat Line of the Karma Kagyu Sect. Deshen Shekpa went to Nanjing at the invitation of Emperor Yongle in 1406 and received that title the next year. Several of his disciples were given the titles of "Grand State Preceptor" and "State Preceptor." This highest title in Tibetan Buddhism, "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma," had been given to Phagpa, leader of the Sakya Sect, during the Yuan Dynasty.
There were two reasons why the Ming court granted this lofty honor to the Karma Kagyu Sect. First, the Karma Kagyu Sect was the most influential sect at the time. In the early part of the Yuan Dynasty, the Karma Kagyu was as powerful as the Sakya Sect. Only after the Sakya got the patronage of the Yuan court, did it surpass the Karma Kagyu. During the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Sakya Sect declined, while the Karma Kagyu rallied its forces and soon became the most influential sect. Second, although the Karma Kagyu was influential religiously, it had no local administrative power. Conferring the highest honorific title on a religiously influential leader who had no real administrative power might meet the needs and aspirations of the Tibetan monks and laymen and this would facilitate the Ming court in putting the situation under its control and enlist the Karma Kagyu Sect's allegiance and service. This was also a kind of check on the Sakya Sect.
In 1413 the leader of the Sakya Sect Kunga Drashi went to the Ming capital in Nanjing at the invitation of Emperor Yongle. That year he was granted the title of "Great Vehicle Prince of Dharma." The Sakya Sect had been the highest political and religious group in Tibet during the preceding Yuan Dynasty. Although they had lost their political power by then, they still maintained considerable prestige and influence religiously. By conferring that honorific title on its leader, the Ming court might not only pacify the former Yuan-appointed officials and chiefs, but also contain the development of the Karma Kagyu Sect.
The title of "Great Mercy Prince of Dharma" went to the newly-founded Gelug Sect (Yellow Sect). Attaching great importance to the new sect, the Ming court in 1408 and 1414 sent emissaries to Tibet to invite Tsongkhapa, the founder of the sect, to Nanjing. However, Tsongkhapa was too busy with monastery construction and preaching to go in person at that time. So he sent, in 1414, his disciple, Shakya Yeshe, to call on the emperor on his behalf. The next year Emperor Yongle bestowed the title of "Grand State Preceptor" on Shakya Yeshe. Then, in 1434 when Shakya Yeshe visited Beijing, the new Ming capital, he was honored with the title of "Great Mercy Prince of Dharma" by Emperor Xuande. To confer the honorific title on one of the leaders of the Gelug Sect was a progressive step taken by the Ming court. It assisted the further development of the Gelug Sect and encouraged the monks in Tibetan areas to attach themselves to the central government.
The Ming court enfeoffed these three Princes of Dharma in order of the influence of their respective religious sects. The Karma Kagyu Sect was powerful and influential in the Kham, U and Tsang regions; the Sakya had been powerful during the previous dynasty and still remained influential; and the Gelug was a rising sect that had great appeal in Tibetan society. The power of the Prince of Dharma was inheritable. Thus the titles of "Prince of Dharma" and the titles of "Grand State Preceptor" and "State Preceptor," who were below them, could be passed on from monk master to disciple or through the lineage of incarnations.
The "Prince of Dharma" of the Ming Dynasty was different from the Imperial Preceptor of the preceding Yuan Dynasty. The Prince of Dharma had no right to supervise Buddhist affairs in the whole of China as did the Imperial Preceptor. All the three Princes of Dharma had no definite territory of their own. They only had honorific titles. They were not subordinate to each other and they engaged in no concrete political affairs. The Ming court conferred honorific titles of this kind on the religious leaders out of political aims, i.e. to solicit their allegiance and to stabilize the areas where they resided.
The Ming policy of "conferring honorific titles on local chieftains" was also reflected in the conferment of honorific titles on local feudal lords. The Ming court conferred titles on local leaders that had fixed territory and administrative organs. These titles were also "prince," but their posts were inferior to the "Prince of Dharma." The Ming government created five princes of this kind in Tibet. They were as follows:
"Propagation Prince of Persuasion" was the head of the Tibetan local Phagmodrupa regime. In 1372 the Ming government conferred the honorific title of State Initiation Master on Shakya Gyaltsen, the second ruling lama of the Phagmodrupa regime. In 1406 the Ming government again conferred the honorific title of "Propagation Prince of Persuasion and State Initiation Master" on Drakpa Gyaltsen, Phagmodrupa's fifth ruling lama. The ruling lama of the Phagmodrupa had his residence in Nedong (now Nedong County in Shannan Prefecture, Tibet).
"Promotion Prince of Virtue" was the title given to Pal Gyaltsen, a high lama in Linzang (near the present-day Dengke County in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province). In 1406 he went to pay tribute at Nanjing and received the title of "State Initiation Master." The next year he was given another title, "Promotion Prince of Virtue." He belonged to the Karma Kagyu Sect.
The title of "Guardian Prince of the Doctrine" went to Namkha Palzang Pal, a high lama in Konchok (near to the present-day Gonjo County, Qamdo Prefecture, Tibet). In 1406 he sent people to Nanjing to offer tribute and the Ming government then conferred the title "State Initiation Preceptor" on him. The next year he was given the honorific title of "Guardian Prince of the Doctrine." The lineage of this Prince belonged to the Karma Kagyu Sect.
"Assistance Prince of the Doctrine" was the title conferred on the Sakya ruling lama, Namkha Legpa, by the Ming government in 1415. His residence was at Dazang (modern Dachang, to the south of Sakya County, Xigaze Prefecture). The lineage of the "Assistance Prince of the Doctrine" concurrently served as the abbot of the Sakya Monastery.
"Propagation Prince of the Doctrine" was the title conferred on the Drigung Kagyu's ruling lama, Jampal Gyaltsen, by the Ming government in 1413. Drigung Kagyu was a branch of the Phagmodru Kagyu Sect, but one on bad terms with the Phagmod-rupa Kagyu because of a difference of opinions. The Ming government conferred the honorific title on the ruling lama of the Drigung Kagyu Sect with an aim of containing the development of the Phagmodru regime. The seat of the Drigung Kagyu Sect was at Drigung (near the present-day Maizhokunggar in Lhasa). The Propagation Prince of the Doctrine was the ruling lama of the Drigung Kagyu Sect and concurrently the abbot of Drigung Monastery.
These five princes created by the Ming government all had their own permanent manors. They were under the direct jurisdiction of the central government, and they were not subordinate to one another. The succession of their posts was decided by themselves. Nevertheless, the name of successor had to be submitted to the central government for approval and the central government would send emissaries to Tibet to confer the honorific titles on them.
The Ming court conferred honorific titles on all the influential lamas. In addition to "Prince of Dharma" and "Prince," there were various titles for monk officials, such as "Buddhist Master of the West Heaven," "Grand State Preceptor," "State Preceptor," "Chan Master," "Dugang" and "Jueyi." There are no accurate records of the number of Tibetan monks who were thus enfeoffed by the Ming court. Generally speaking, all the Tibetan monks who wanted to be enfeoffed were given honorific titles. The titles were given appropriate to the power and influence each monk enjoyed among the people. The Ming court also satisfied the wishes of those Tibetan monks who wanted to be appointed officials at the capital city so as to pacify them. Consequently, high-ranking Tibetan monks all vied with each other in going to the capital for requesting official titles. By so doing, they could do business on the way to earn money, and the official title they received might enhance their prestige and influence among the local Tibetans.
The Ming policy of conferring honorific titles on high-ranking lamas was supplemented by its tribute-paying policy. The Ming court stipulated that all Tibetan secular and spiritual officials with honorific titles above that of "State Preceptor" were qualified to send delegations to the capital to offer tributes. They could decide on their own what tribute to offer. Generally speaking, they presented as tributes livestock, furs, herbal medicines, woolen cloth, Tibetan incense, Buddhist scroll paintings, and local artistic craftworks. In return they received gold, silver, silk, cloth, grains, tea, and books. In addition, the Ming court allowed the Tibetans to do business on their way to the capital. They reaped many material benefits from the imperial bestowals and trade. The imperial bestowals usually far exceeded the tribute they gave in both quantity and quality. Consequently, the number of tribute payers increased year by year. While there were not more than 30 to 40 tribute payers per year in the 20s and 30s of the 15th century, the number grew to 300-400 in the 50s and to as many as 3,000-4,000 in the 60s. The Ming court thus began to apply restrictions on the number and frequency of such tribute-paying. For example, it was stipulated that the delegation sent by a high-ranking lama should not exceed 150 people and tribute should be offered once every three years, and that delegations sent by big tribes from Sichuan's borderland should not exceed ten people and that from smaller tribes should not exceed five persons, paying tribute once in two years. Tribute-paying and imperial bestowals not only strengthened the political subordinate status in the Tibetan areas to the Ming central government, but also boosted the economic and cultural exchanges between the Tibetan and Han ethnic groups, and thus it was conducive to the social and cultural progress of the Tibetan areas.
The Ming policy of pacification strengthened the political relations between the Ming court and Tibetan localities; it decentralized the power of Tibetan ruling lamas and local authorities and saw to it that none of the local chieftains could seize power over Tibet. Thus the central government maintained its supervision and control over the Tibetan areas. These pacification measures won the sincere submission of the overlords in all parts of Tibet. This policy, however, had more or less the character of racial discrimination and ethnic pressure. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, owing to the corruption of the Ming court, the slackening of its controlling power, and the increase of internal conflicts, its control over the Tibetan areas weakened. And generally speaking, the Ming government's control of Tibet was looser than that of the Yuan.
The Succession of the Tibetan Phagmodrupa (Desi) Local Regime
During the closing years of the Yuan Dynasty, the local regime at Sakya, a merger of clerical and secular rule, began to decline owing to intense rivalries with the Khon family that dominated the regime. The ruling family was divided in four Larangs. The Phagmodrupa Myriarchy, which was one of the 13 myriarchies under the U-Tsang Sakya regime, was growing stronger day by day under Myriarch Changchub Gyaltsen. In 1345 he defeated the Ponchen ("high official") of the Sakya Sect and began to develop independently. In 1347 Changchub Gyaltsen eliminated the myriarch of Tsalpa Myriarchy, and seized his territory and people. Afterward he subdued the Drigung and Yazang myriarchies and put all the territory and people of the U region under his control, thus gaining the upper hand of the Sakya ruling house. Changchub Gyaltsen led troops to attack the Sakya Monastery, defeated and arrested Sakya Ponchen and thus brought the Tibetan Sakya regime, which had lasted for 89 years, to an end. After overpowering the Sakya regime and other local forces, Changchub Gyaltsen set up a regime known as Phagmodrupa in 1354. The falling Yuan court recognized this new regime and gave Changchub Gyaltsen the honorific title of "Ta Situ" (high official in charge of Tibetan administration affairs). The succeeding Ming court honored the recognition and conferred the title of "Propagation Prince of Persuasion" on the regime's head.
The Phagmodrupa (Phagdru for short) regime had its capital city in Nedong (now Nedong County in Shannan Prefecture). Ta Situ Changchub Gyaltsen himself was a highly self-disciplined man, able and efficient. He abstained from wine, setting a fine example for the monastic and secular population. He also conducted a series of political and economic reforms to promote social progress in Tibet. He abolished the thirteen myriarchies (wan hu) under the Sakya regime, and replaced them with dzong (districts). The heads of the districts, called dzongpon, were directly appointed by the ruling lama.
Another important political decision Changchub Gyaltsen made was the granting of manorial estates (known as shika in Tibetan) to his followers for their meritorious performances. As these estates were hereditary, a new aristocracy began to emerge. He spared no effort to bolster the growth of this aristocracy. So it became a dominating social institution in Tibet.
Changchub Gyaltsen died in 1364. He was succeeded by his nephew, Shakya Gyaltsen, as the second ruling lama (called Desi) of the Phagmodrupa regime. In 1372 Shakya Gyaltsen sent an envoy to pay homage to the Ming emperor, who granted him the title of State Initiation Master and gave him a jade seal of authority. In 1373 Shakya Gyaltsen died and Drakpa Changchub succeeded as the third ruling lama. The next year he sent an envoy to pay tribute to the Ming court. Phagmodrupa's fourth ruling lama was Sonam Drakpa.
Phagmodrupa Desi regime's fifth ruling lama was Drakpa Gyaltsen. He stayed in the post as long as forty-seven years (1385-1432). In 1406 (the fourth year of Ming Emperor Yongle) he was granted by the emperor the title of "State Preceptor of Initiation, Propagation Prince of Persuasion" along with a jade seal that had a hydra-shaped top-knob, five hundred taels of silver, three brocade robes, fifty bolts of silk and two hundred jin of tea. Drakpa Gyaltsen was Changchub Gyaltsen's grandnephew, and he, as capable and intelligent as the latter, pushed the Phagmodrupa regime to its apogee, and boosted Tibetan economic development and social progress. Drakpa Gyaltsen attached great attention to the development of the feudal manorial estates, made frequent inspection tours to the shika in various places, and restored all the post-stage stations connecting various parts of Tibet and Tibet with inland China. He supported Gelug, a new Buddhist sect founded by Tsongkhapa; promoted the exchanges of the Han and Tibetan cultures, studied and mastered the Han culture, copied a great number of Tibetan sutras, asked the Ming government to give him books, and established a feudal hierarchy according to the social estate system of the Han people. The Sequel to the Illuminating History of Tibet records:
He decreed that clothing should be class-distinctive, earrings should be worn as indicators of social status, order should be observed in court, and distinctions should be set up between superiors and inferiors.
In addition, Drakpa Gyaltsen drew up a number of regulations that had the force of law. Known as "The Sixteen Laws" among Tibetans, these regulations helped in maintaining civil order.... All this was conducive to the economic development of serfdom and to social progress and was of great significance to the stability of Tibet.
The death of Drakpa Gyaltsen in 1432 marked the decline of the Phagmodrupa regime. Two years later, internal conflicts broke out for the control of the post of Desi. Each subordinate courtier tried to do things in his own way, turning a deaf ear to the Desi's instruction, and the Desi became a mere figurehead.
Formerly, the Phagmodrupa Desi regime was composed of four parts. The first was the lineage of the abbotship of the Yarlung Dansa Thel Monastery. The abbot was a prominent figure of the ruling family. As the religious leader, he had a considerable influence over the political situation. The second was the Desi lineage of Nedong. He, also a monk, held the Phagmodrupa administrative power and was the Prince of Persuasion, a title conferred on him by the Ming court. The third was the lineage of the son of the ruling family whose duty was to produce offsprings to become the successors of the former two lineages. The fourth was the abbotship lineage of the Zetang Monastery. This was a training center for educating potential Desis. The potential Desi, i.e. the Prince of Persuasion, would first be selected from the former three lineages, and then sent to the Zetang Monastery to study sutras and to become its abbot. He was the successor to the throne of the Prince. He would become the Desi of Nedong and inherit the title of Prince of Persuasion when the former Desi retired or died. When a Desi was too old to run the government, he would retire and become the abbot of the Dansa Thel Monastery.
After Prince of Persuasion Drakpa Gyaltsen died, his nephew Drakpa Jungne became the Desi and inherited the title of Prince of Persuasion. But Drakpa Jungne's father, on the pretext that nobody could take up the post of the abbot of the Dansa Thel Monastery, vied with Drakpa Jungne for the Desi post. Drakpa Jungne won the struggle and became the Desi and concurrently the abbot of the Dansa Thel Monastery. However, when Drakpa Jungne suddenly fell ill and died, his father with the status of a layman succeeded as the sixth Desi and Prince of Persuasion and got the recognition of the Ming court. This internecine struggle for power violated traditional practices, lost all popular sympathy, and shook the rule of the regime. Certain ministers seized the opportunity to set up feudal separatist rules and turned a deaf ear to the pronouncements of the Prince of Persuasion.
In 1446 Drakpa Jungne's father passed his throne to Sangye Gyaltsen, who became the seventh Desi (r. 1446-1468). Sangye Gyaltsen was at odds with his wife and sons. His son Kunga Legpa seized power before his retirement and became the eighth Desi (r. 1466-1495). Kunga Legpa had been chosen as the successor when he was young and he became a monk at the Zetang Monastery. After he became the Desi he violated his monastic vows, married a wife and had several sons, thus incorporating the Desi lineage and the offspring-producing lineage.
Kunga Legpa died in 1495. His son Ngagi Wangchuk, with the support of the Rinpung family, succeeded as the ninth Desi (r. 1495-1510). Ngagi Wangchuk, like his father, disregarded the rules formulated by their ancestor, Changchub Gyaltsen, and married a woman from the Rinpung family. Ngagi Wangchuk died in 1510 when his son Drashi Drakpa was only eleven years old. So, Drashi Drakpa became the tenth Desi, with Rinpungpa, a relative from his mother's family, acting as the regent for eight years (1510-1518). Rinpungpa returned the power to him when he was nineteen years old, but he was still just a figurehead throughout his 53-year reign (1518-1571) because, for the first half of his reign, the administrative power had been held by Rinpungpa Dondrup Dorje, and during the second half of his reign, his domain was split up. The eleventh and the last Desi of the Phagmodrupa regime was Drowai Gonpo (1571-1618). He was the head of the regime only in name, and was deposed by the Tsangpa Khan in 1618.
The first patriarch of the Rinpung family was the steward of the Supervisor of Disciples and Followers, Changchub Gyaltsen. Owing to his meritorious service in defending the Tsang region and guarding against the Sakya Sect, he was appointed as the dzongpon of the Rinpung Dzong by the Prince of Persuasion, Drakpa Gyaltsen. So he was called Rinpungpa and his post was inheritable. In 1433 Rinpungpa Norbu Zangpo, taking the opportunity provided by the internal struggle with the Lang family of the Phagmodrupa, conquered several local forces of the Tsang region. He complied with the Phagmodrupa Desi in public but opposed him in private. He was only nominally under Phagmod-rupa's jurisdiction. As the Phagmodrupa regime increasingly declined, Rinpungpa actually held the reins of the government. At the same time he became quite arrogant and imperious, threatening the Desi and treating his own subjects meanly.
In 1565 one of the Rinpungpa's subordinate nobles, Shingsha-pa Tseten Dorje, took advantage of the uprisings by the subjects of the Rinpungpa rulers and overthrew the Rinpungpa family. In 1618 Tseten Dorje's son Phuntsok Namgyal (i.e. Tsangpa Khan) toppled the Phagmodrupa regime and established the Desi Tsangpa regime at Samdrutse (modern Shigatse, or Xigaze). It was also called the Tsangpa Khan regime or Karma regime.
Having overthrown Rinpungpa's rule in the Tsang region and having terminated the Phagmodrupa regime, Shingshapa ran counter to the Phagmodrupa's tradition of supporting the Gelug Sect. He acted in collaboration with the Red Hat lineage under the Karma Sect to persecute the Gelug Sect. Thus, the leaders of the Gelug, such as Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen, were compelled to invite Gushri Khan, the Mongol leader of the Qoshot tribe, to attack Tsangpa Khan. In 1642 Gushri Khan carried this war into the U and Tsang regions, captured and killed Tsangpa Khan Karma Tenkyong Wangpo (Phuntsok Namgyal's son) and put an end to the Desi Tsangpa regime. Thus he placed Tibet under his control. At the moment the Ming Dynasty was declining rapidly, and so the spiritual and temporal leaders of Tibet decided to cooperate with the Qing Dynasty.
During the Ming period, the Phagmodrupa Desi regime had nominally maintained its rule in Tibet for 250 years plus 14 years at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. It thus lasted altogether for 264 years (1354-1618) with eleven successive Desis on the throne. But in reality the Desis held control over the regime for only 81 years (1354-1435), which covers 67 years of the Ming Dynasty. The Rinpung family held effective control of the Phagmodrupa regime for 130 years (1436-1565), and the Shingshapa family held power for 53 years (1565-1618). Tsangpa Khan's Karma regime ruled Tibet for 24 years (1618-1642) at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Generally speaking, Tibet was in a state split most of the time during the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming court adopted a policy of "investing many of the nobles with hereditary titles" and a policy of "divide and rule." While it conferred an honorific title upon the Phagmodrupa Desi, it also directly bestowed official titles on his subordinates, which encouraged the separatist trends within the Tibetan local regime. Thus no one could really put Tibet under a unified situation, except persons as intelligent and capable as Drakpa Gyaltsen.
Apogee of the Tibetan Serf Economy and the Exchange of Tibetan Horses for Han Tea
The period of the Phagmodrupa Desi regime, i.e., from the mid-14th to the early 17th century, witnessed the vigorous development of the Tibetan serf economy, and the 78 years (1354-1432) under the rule from Changchub Gyaltsen to Drakpa Gyaltsen was the apogee of that development. It was a period marked by social stability, prosperous economy and extensive cultural exchanges.
The economic development during this time was reflected in the following aspects. Agriculture and stockbreeding in manorial estates (shikas) got better results than ever before seen in Tibetan history. Beginning with Changchub Gyaltsen, the Desi divided his territory into a number of shikas and granted them to his subordinates. The Desi made regular tours of these estates with a view toward improving agricultural production. Those who did a good job in managing their estates were rewarded, while those who did not were punished by having their manorial estates confiscated and turned over to those that had done a good job. Consequently, all the manorial lords attached great importance to the development of these estates. They opened up land to grow crops, encouraged afforestation and built settlements and forts. A picture of prosperity appeared on the vast snowland. Nedong was the biggest city in Tibet at that time. The Desi's residence was surrounded by three walls. The History of the Ming Dynasty says that the Prince of Persuasion, Drakpa Gyaltsen, also paid attention to the expansion of cultivated land, encouraged land reclamation and afforestation, and built settlements and towns. Such a vigorous development of the manorial economy is seldom seen in Tibetan history.
The economic development helped to bring about the improvement of post relay stations and roads. Before the establishment of the Phagmodrupa regime, Tibet had only a few post relay stations and roads. But they had long been out of repair or destroyed in wars, and thus caused inconvenience to communications and transport between the Tibetan areas and the interior China. In 1407 the Ming court decreed that the Propagation Prince of Persuasion, Drakpa Gyaltsen, the most influential feudal lord in Tibet, should make joint efforts with the Guardian Prince of the Doctrine, Promotion Prince of Virtue, Drigung State Tutor, all the commanders of Beli, Do-kham and Longta and all the Tibetan tribal chieftains in Sichuan and Tibet to renovate the post relay stations and roads. Drakpa Gyaltsen resolutely carried out this order of the Ming government. Together with the chiefs and tribal chieftains, he renovated and built roads connecting different parts of Tibet and between Tibet and the interior China. The post relay stations and roads were thus restored to excellent order.
Handicrafts showed remarkable improvement in variety and technology during the period of the Phagmodrupa regime. In the manufacture of woollen fabric, a major Tibetan cottage industry, many producers were able to meet their own needs and have a surplus with which to engage in barter trade. Tibetan woollen fabrics were known for their fine quality. During Yuan and Ming times such quality goods became an indispensable part of tribute. They were also an export item to places south of the Himalayas.
The development of economy, communications and transport boosted the prosperity of the towns. With the development of the manorial estate economy, communications and transport, commodity exchanges became more frequent. In some forts, important towns, monasteries, and the city of Lhasa there appeared prosperous fairs for commodity exchange. Consequently, the towns were not only political, military and religious centers, but also economic centers. At the time, Lhasa, Xigaze and some other towns became well-known and important. The scale of official and civil commodity dealings became quite large.
The social stability and economic growth brought about a vigorous cultural development never seen before in Tibet. In the fields of literature, philosophy and history a large number of works were written. Numerous works by Tibetan scholars, such as Records of Tibetan Kings (completed in 1388), Blue Annals (completed in 1476), A Happy Feast for Wise Men (completed in 1564) and other works of academic significance, appeared one after another. Architectural design of fortresses and monasteries with unique Tibetan characteristics gained much achievement. Most of the fortresses, monasteries and temples we see today on the Tibetan plateau are the works of that time. It is noteworthy that several suspension bridges were also built at this time across the wide span of the Yarlungzangbo River, the widest in Tibet.
The economic and cultural development of the serf society was based on the cruel oppression and exploitation of the serfs. Karma Tenkyong Wangpo decreed "Thirteen Laws" in 1613 and "Sixteen Laws" in 1618. Gushri Khan decreed "Twelve Laws" in 1642. According to these laws, people were divided into three strata: upper, middle and lower; and each stratum was divided into three grades. Serfs were at the bottom of the social ladder; they were considered by serf-owners as "production tools that can speak."
The development of Tibetan economy and culture stepped up contacts between different ethnic groups. During the Ming Dynasty, the barter trade of Tibetan horses for Han tea thrived. Owing to the constant wars along its northern frontier, the Ming court needed horses in great numbers, while tea had become a necessity for the Tibetans. The barter trade flourished as never before, with trading centers springing into existence in various places. In order to control this trade, the Ming court formulated a series of concrete regulations: (1) The Ming court set up special offices and tea warehouses at Hezhou (modern Linxia in Gansu Province), Qinzhou (modern Tianshui in Gansu), Taozhou (modern Lintan in Gansu), Yazhou (modern Ya'an in Sichuan Province) and Yanzhou (to the northwest of modern Songpan in Sichuan Province) to monopolize the trade. The price for a horse varied in accordance with the different places and times. Generally, it was 30 jin of tea for a Tibetan horse at Hezhou; while at Yazhou, it was 120 jin of tea for a first-class horse, 70 jin of tea for a middle-class horse, and 50 jin of tea for a colt. This was because Sichuan produced more tea than Gansu and Qinghai did. (2) To Tibetans who lived in mixed communities with the Hans, the Ming court allotted a specific amount of land, designated as land for pasturing. It freed them from miscellaneous taxes; they were required only to provide a specified number of horses. The requisitioned horses were reasonably paid for by the Ming government. (3) In order that the tea-horse barter trade might be monopolized by governmental offices and that the officials might be honest in performing their duties, the Ming government specially made "golden-plate certificates" and issued them to Tibetans and the officials who were to purchase horses. Each side had to show the certificates before any dealing could be done. Although the Ming government tried valiantly to secure a monopoly over the tea-horse trade, the trade was actively operated by private individuals as well, especially after the ending of the practice of "golden-plate certificates" in the mid-Ming period. Then the private trade in tea for horses was all the more brisk.
The Reign and Administrative Reform of the Early Qing Dynasty in Tibet
The Establishment and Consolidation of the Qing's Rule over Tibet
In 1644 the Qing troops of the ethnic Manchus in the northeast of China marched southward across the Shanhaiguan Pass, toppled the Ming Dynasty and established the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with a vast territory. The Qing Dynasty's borders reached Balkhash Lake, the Chu River, the Talas River valley, and the Pamirs in the west; Gorno-Altay and the Sayan Mountains in the north; the Outer Hinggan Mountains and the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast; the East China Sea, including Taiwan and its subordinate islands, in the east; the islands in the South China Sea in the south; and Guangxi, Yunnan and Tibet, including Ladakh, in the southwest. The earlier stage of the Qing Dynasty refers to the 196 years from 1644, when the Qing forces entered North China, to 1840 when the Opium War broke out. During this period, the Qing government established effective rule over Tibet and consolidated this rule by giving titles of honor to its religious leaders and setting up the post of Resident Minister in Tibet (also called Amban).
Long before the Qing troops entered North China, the Qing government had established contacts with Tibet. In 1639 the Qing government sent an envoy to Tibet to send greetings to the Dalai Lama. At that time the Ming government was declining and Gushri Khan, the leader of the Mongol Qoshot tribe, had already entered Tibet. After Gushri Khan and the Gelug Sect leaders jointly destroyed Tsangpa Khan and other local forces in 1642, they decided to submit to the Qing government and sent a good-will mission to Shengjing (modern Shenyang) to seek the support of the Manchus. The mission paid respects to the Qing Emperor Taizong Huangtaiji and was warmly received by the Qing court. Emperor Taizong, together with all the princes, went out of the city gate to meet them and the princes were ordered to accompany the mission at meals by turns. When the mission returned to Tibet the following year, Emperor Taizong sent letters to the leaders of the various Tibetan sects. By so doing, the Qing court wished to show that it considered Tibet a part of the Great Qing Dynasty, hoping to solicit Tibetan help in dealing with the Ming and other hostile forces. In addition, they wanted to make use of the Yellow Sect to get the Mongols and Tibetans, particularly the Mongols, to support them. This was the first official contact between the Qing court and Tibet.
After the Qing court occupied Beijing in 1644, it immediately sent an envoy to Tibet to invite the Dalai Lama to Beijing to hold discussions on state affairs. At the same time it sent a letter to Gushri Khan, asking him to manage the Tibetan local administrative affairs for the Qing court.[3] The Tibetan local leaders, Gushri Khan, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, shortly afterward sent a mission to Beijing to congratulate the Qing court on the unification of the whole nation and to promise that the Fifth Dalai Lama would lead a local mission to have an audience with the emperor.
The Fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso, and his party arrived at Beijing in 1652; they were accorded a grand reception by the Qing court. Before he returned to Tibet in February the following year, Lozang Gyatso was officially honored with the title of "The Dalai Lama, Buddha of Great Compassion in the West, Leader of the Buddhist Faith Beneath the Sky, Holder of the Vajra." The Qing emperor also bestowed on him a title-conferring gold-gilt album, a gold seal of authority and a great number of precious gifts.
The "Dalai Lama" is the title of one of the two incarnating lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, the other being the lineage of "Panchen Erdeni." "Dalai" is Mongolian for "ocean"; "lama" is Tibetan meaning "guru." The title originated in 1578 when Altan Khan, chieftain of the Turned Mongols, presented Sonam Gyatso, leader of the Gelug Sect, with the title "All Knowing Vajra-Holder, the Dalai Lama." Sonam Gyatso was the Third Dalai Lama and the first Buddhist monk ever to be granted the title. The First and the Second Dalai lamas were recognized only posthumously.
The official confirmation of the Fifth Dalai by the Qing Emperor Shunzhi in 1653 indicated that the Qing government already had the Tibetan religious leaders under its control. From then on, all the successive reincarnations of the Dalai Lama had to be confirmed by the central government and this has become an historical convention.
When the Qing emperor granted the title to the Dalai Lama, he also conferred on the Tibetan administrative leader, Gushri Khan, the title of "Righteous and Wise Gushri Khan" with the gold-gilt album and the gold seal of authority. The album was inscribed with the following words: "I expect you to be even more trustworthy, to make my power and wishes known far and wide, to serve as my lieutenant in the frontier regions and bring peace to them...."[4] The two albums and two titles fully confirmed the Dalai Lama and Gushri Khan's status and the limits of their authority, that is, the Dalai Lama was designated the "leader of the Buddhist faith beneath the sky," while Gushri Khan was made the local administrative leader to "serve as the emperor's lieutenant." The official confirmation of the status of the Dalai Lama and Gushri Khan by the Qing court indicated that Tibet had officially accepted the rule of the Qing court. It marked the establishment of the Qing's rule in Tibet.
Gushri Khan was the founder of the Tibetan new order and the patron of the new-born Gelug Sect (Yellow Sect); he had both the civil and military authority in his hands and he had very friendly relations with the Dalai and Panchen lamas. So, in the "Depa" government that was in charge of local administration, he put those who were the Dalai's trusted attendants into important positions. Gushri Khan and the Dalai thus had a friendly and harmonious association. However, after the title-conferring ceremony on the Dalai by the Qing court, the Dalai Lama's prestige rose dramatically. And this became the root of later conflicts between the Gelug monastic group and the descendants of Gushri Khan.
After Gushri Khan died in 1655 (the twelfth year of Emperor Shunzhi's reign), his sons vied for the post of khan, which was vacant for three years before his eldest son, Dayan Khan, ascended the throne. Dayan Khan and Trinley Gyatso, the depa (chief administrator of Tibet) he appointed, died successively in 1668. The khanship was then vacant for another three years. As there was no khan to appoint a new depa, the Fifth Dalai appointed, in August 1669, Lozang Thuthop as the depa, breaking the convention that the depa had to be appointed by the Mongol khan. In 1679 (the eighteenth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign) the Fifth Dalai again appointed his trusted attendant Sangye Gyatso as the depa. This indicates that the power of control over the Tibetan local administration had shifted from the Qoshot Mongol nobility to the Gelug monastic group.
The Fifth Dalai passed away in 1682 (the twenty-first year of Emperor Kangxi's reign). Depa Sangye Gyatso kept his death a secret for a long time for his own and the Yellow Sect's benefits. He continued to give out orders in the name of the Fifth Dalai Lama. At the same time he secretly sent people to contact Galdan, the chieftain of Dzungar Mongols in Xinjiang, in an attempt to safeguard his position by using Galdan's troops to drive the Qoshot Mongols out of Tibet. Galdan had been a monk studying at Lhasa and was acquainted with Sangye Gyatso. However, Galdan staged a revolt in Xinjiang against the Qing court and was defeated by the Qing troops. In 1695, seeing that Galdan could not come to Tibet and attempting to raise his own prestige through obtaining a title given by the Qing court, Sangye Gyatso sent a mission to Beijing to present a tribute and a letter to the emperor in the name of the Fifth Dalai. The letter requested an honorific title for himself from the Qing court. At that time the emperor had not yet learned that the Dalai Lama had been dead for more than a decade and so he complied, granting Sangye Gyatso the title of "Mentor of the Faith of the Vajra-Holding Dalai Lama, King of the Propagation of the Doctrine of the Buddha."
In 1697 the Qing troops routed Galdan. When the emperor learned from Tibetans taken captive by the Qing army that Sangye Gyatso had concealed the death of the Dalai Lama for many years and had colluded with Galdan, he wrote a letter to Sangye Gyatso denouncing him in stern language. The letter sent Sangye Gyatso into great panic. He immediately sent a delegate to Beijing to make an apology, saying that he withheld the information about the Fifth Dalai's death in fear of an outbreak of unrest among the Tibetan people that might have been caused by the announcement. Then he made a report about the present situation of the Sixth Dalai. The Qing court, owing to the rebellions of Wu Sangui in Yunnan and Galdan in Xinjiang, took a compromising attitude toward Sangye Gyatso and recognized the situation created by him.
Lhazang Khan, great grandson of Gushri Khan and leader of the Qoshot Mongol nobility, assumed the leadership of the Tibetan local administration. During the ensuing years, increasing animosity between the Khan and Sangye Gyatso developed. Lhazang Khan removed Sangye Gyatso from office, but Sangye Gyatso still held the real power. After mediators' efforts, a compromise was reached. It was decided that Lhazang Khan should return to Qinghai with his forces, while the ex-Depa Sangye Gyatso should go back to Lhoka (Shannan). Lhazang Khan feigned that he was going back to Qinghai, but instead amassed his troops and captured and killed Sangye Gyatso. He then dethroned the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, who was installed by Sangye Gyatso, and replaced him with Yeshe Gyatso. The Mongol ruler reported all this to the Qing court. The Qing court, owing to Sangye's past faults, approved Lhazang Khan's actions and granted him the honorific title of "Supporter of the Doctrine, the Obedient Khan." Thus, Lhazang Khan assumed full political control over Tibet.
Nevertheless, the people as well as high-ranking lamas resented the treatment of the ex-Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, and the enthronement of Yeshe Gyatso. Thus, Emperor Kangxi decided that it was improper to let Lhazang Khan monopolize the administration of Tibetan affairs. So he sent Shilang (vice-minister) He Shou to Tibet to govern jointly with the Mongol Khan. In 1713 the emperor dispatched an envoy to confer the title of "Panchen Erdeni" on the Fifth Panchen Lama, Lozang Yeshe, as a means of appeasement. "Panchen" is a Sanskrit word, meaning "great scholar," while "Erdeni" means "treasure" in Manchu. The title of Panchen originated in the Ming Dynasty. In 1645 the Mongol leader Gushri Khan had honored Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen with the title of "Panchen Pokto" ("Pokto" meaning "a wise and brave man"). This is supposed to be the origin of the title of "Panchen." The title of the First through the Third Panchen was granted posthumously. The fact that the Fifth Panchen was granted the title of "Panchen Erdeni" by the Qing court indicates that the Panchen's religious status had received the Qing's confirmation and that the Qing government had begun to expand its rule over Tsang, the area under the jurisdiction of the Panchen. However, the title-conferring on the Panchen could not maintain social order.
In 1717 (the fifty-sixth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign) the chieftain of the Dzungar Mongols, Tsewang Rabten, Galdan's nephew, led an expedition to invade Tibet on the pretext of "protecting the Yellow Sect" and "taking vengeance for Sangye Gyatso's death." Lhazang Khan was defeated and killed, and Yeshe Gyatso was dethroned. But the Dzungar troops did not "protect the Yellow Sect" as they promised; instead they committed arson, killing, and pillage. All monasteries and residential houses in Tibet were ransacked. Tibetan society was left in chaos.
The Qing court sent troops into Tibet to fight the Mongol invaders in 1718. They ordered General Erentai to lead an army of Manchu and Han soldiers into Tibet, but they were all annihilated when they marched to the Nagchukha (Heihe River).
In 1720 Emperor Kangxi appointed his fourteenth son Yun-zhen the commander-in-chief to lead a great army to Tibet to put down the rebellion. The Qing troops, with the support of the Tibetan people and the cooperation of Khangchennas, Pholhanas and Ngabopa, officials of the Lhazang Khan administration, very soon were able to drive out the Mongol invaders, who were led by Tsewang Rabten. At the same time, the Qing troops escorted the Seventh Dalai, Kelzang Gyatso, from the Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai to Lhasa. During the ninth month of the same year he was enthroned at the Potala.
Before a new administrative organ was set up, the Qing troops exercised "military control" for a short time. In 1721 (the sixtieth year of Kangxi's reign) the Qing court abolished the post of Depa, which had been appointed by the chief administrator of Tibet, and replaced him with the institution of Kalons.[5] The Qing court appointed Khangchennas and three others who had rendered meritorious service in the fight against the Dzungar invaders as Kalons. Although the Kalon system was established by the Qing court in order to rule Tibet with the help of local forces, it was a step in advance over the rule of the Depa, who was installed by the Mongol Khan. Kalons were appointed directly by the central government. Besides, they exercised a collective leadership and could counter each other's actions when there was no collective agreement.
The Kalon institution in Tibet broke the vain hopes of Gushri Khan's descendants to take control of Tibet. Gushri Khan's grandson, Lobzang Tenzin, the Qinghai Mongol leader of the Qoshot tribe, started a rebellion in 1723 in collaboration with the Dzungar Mongols in Xinjiang in an attempt to secure the kind of ruling power over Tibet that his grandfather, Gushri Khan, had enjoyed. But the rebellion was very soon put down by the Qing troops under the command of Nian Gengyao. In the same year another Qing army, under the command of Eqi, Bandi and Zhou Ying, went to Tibet in anticipation of Lobzang Tenzin's flight into that region. They, together with Khangchennas and other officials, set the people's fears at rest. In order to strengthen the defense of the Northwest against an invasion of the Dzungar Mongols, the Qing court installed "the Resident Minister in Xining" in 1725 (the third year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign).
In 1727 a power struggle broke out among the Kalons, which resulted in a war between the U region (Anterior Tibet) and the Tsang region (Ulterior Tibet). The representatives of the U region forces were Ngabopa, Lumpanas and Jaranas; they allied with each other in the armed clash, killed the chief Kalon Khangchennas, the representative of the Tsang region. Consequently, the victim's trusted associate, Pholhanas, launched a punitive expedition from Xigaze, and conquered Lhasa in 1728. He put the three rival Kalons under arrest and waited for the Qing court's instructions. Learning of the internecine strife in Tibet, the Qing court immediately sent Senge, a cabinet member, and General Mala to Tibet to pacify the people. Then the court dispatched General Zhou Kaijie to lead an armed force into Tibet to help restore peace and order. Earlier, in 1727, the Qing government instituted two Ambans (resident ministers and vice-ministers in Tibet) in 1727, Senge being the first Resident Minister in Tibet. By then the Qing government had completed and consolidated its ruling structure in Tibet.
The Gurkhas' Invasions and the Tibetans' Counterattack
During the second half of the 18th century, the Gurkhas in the Kingdom of Nepal twice invaded Tibet. The main reason for this was the Nepalese ruler's expansionism, an attempt to seize Tibet's territory. Another reason was that the Sixth Panchen Lama's brother, Shamarpa Chodrak Gyatso, was not entitled to share any of the wealth the Qing court had given to the Panchen Lama. Embittered, he went to the Gurkhas secretly and persuaded them to invade.
The Sixth Panchen Lama, Palden Yeshe, led a Tibetan local delegation to Rehe and Beijing to attend Emperor Qianlong's birthday celebration in 1780. He was not only warmly received by the emperor, but was also given a great many gifts by the emperor. Unfortunately, the Panchen died of smallpox at Beijing in that same year. Emperor Qianlong was saddened by the Panch-en's early death. He ordered that a white pagoda be built in his commemoration. In 1781 the emperor sent a special envoy to escort the Panchen's remains and all the gifts given to him by the Qing court back to Tibet. The custodian of the Panchen's inheritance was the Panchen's elder brother, Drungpa Hutuktu. Drungpa Hutuktu took forcible possession of the majority of the treasures, and left only a small amount for the Tashilhunpo Monastery. The Panchen's younger brother, Shamarpa, being a Red Hat Living Buddha of the Karma Kagyu Sect, was not entitled to any share of the wealth. Embittered, "he went to the Gurkhas secretly, without informing the Resident Minister in Tibet or applying for a travel permit" in 1784 (the forty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign).[6]
The Gurkhas were a tribe within the boundaries of Nepal; they conquered the whole of Nepal in the mid-18th century. Their chieftain, Ratna Bahadur, claimed to be the king. The rising Gurkhas had the ambition to invade Tibet but they refrained from doing so in fear of the military might of the Qing Empire. When Shamarpa arrived at Kathmandu, he told the Gurkha king that, because Tibet was defenseless, it was the best time for them to take possession of the treasures in the Tashilhunpo. The temptation was too great for the Gurkha king to resist, so he dispatched a force of two thousand men to invade Tsang in 1788 on the pretext that a Tibetan local official laid a duty on goods imported from the Gurkha kingdom and that the salt imported from Tibet was impure. The invaders occupied Kyirong, Nyalam and Dzongga. The Qing Emperor, responding to the urgent request of the Eighth Dalai Lama, Jampal Gyatso, and Amban Qinglin for troops to be sent to Tibet, dispatched three thousand Qing troops under the joint command of Bazhong, the Vice-Minister of the Board of Minority Affairs, and General Ehui of Chengdu.
The Gurkha invasion was a probing attack. Seeing that the Qing troops had been sent to Tibet in large numbers, the Gurkha king asked Shamarpa to sue Bazhong, Ehui and their colleagues for peace, bribing them with gold, silver and jewelry. After receiving the bribes, Bazhong and Ehui disregarded the Dalai Lama's opposition, sent a representative to talk with the Gurkhas and reached a compromise with them. It was secretly agreed that the Gurkhas should leave the territory they had occupied and be guaranteed a payment of three hundred silver ingots (weighing 9,600 taels) each year for three years as compensation. The Dalai Lama never gave his consent to the compensation, but Bazhong acted in an irresponsible manner and wrote a written pledge for the Gurkhas. Thus, the Gurkhas went home, looting everything on the route. In his report to the Qing court, Bazhong said he had defeated the invaders, and Nyalam, Dzongga and Kyirong had been recovered. He then asked to be allowed to return with the victorious army.
In 1791 (the fifty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign) the Gurkhas asked Tibet to honor the compensation agreement, that is, to give them three hundred silver ingots. The Dalai Lama refused. Through the first invasion, the Gurkhas had already learned that the Qing government did not have many forces in Tsang. Thus, on the pretext Tibet was not honoring its written pledge, the Gurkha king amassed 4,000 troops and started a second invasion of Tibet in July 1791. The Gurkhas occupied Nyalam in the same month and captured Kalon Tenzin Paljor. The next month the Gurkhas occupied Kyirong and many other places in Tsang. When they were marching on Xigaze, Amban Baotai, panic-stricken by the Gurkha invasion, moved the young Seventh Panchen Lama from the Tashilhunpo Monastery to Lhasa; Drungpa Hutuktu, who was in charge of the financial affairs of the monastery, fled with his valuables. As the ruling lamas in charge of the Tashilhunpo had also fled, the other monks in the monastery were all seized with fear. The monks and lay inhabitants, frightened by a divine oracle publicized by Shamarpa who warned against any resistance against the invaders, scattered about and went into hiding. So the Gurkhas arrived and ransacked the Tashilhunpo without meeting any resistance. The only resistance came from eighty Han garrison troops under the command of Dusi (meaning "major") Xu Nanpeng, who held out for seventeen days and nights in the Xigaze fort.
When news of the Gurkhas' second invasion and their occupation of a great part of the territory of Tsang reached Beijing, the Eighth Dalai's brother, Lobzang Gedun Drakpa, happened to be there. He made a report to Emperor Qianlong about the bribed peace and the compensation agreement made by Bazhong during the first Gurkha invasion. When Bazhong, who was then keeping the Emperor company at the Imperial Summer Resort at Chengde, learned about this, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the lake. The Emperor later said that if Bazhong had been alive, he certainly would have been executed.
Upon reports of the invasion, the Emperor ordered Ehui, Governor-General of Sichuan, and Cheng De, General of Chengdu, to lead troops into Tibet. But the two officials acted slowly. On the Emperor's orders, Ehui and Cheng De were fired for their inaction. The Emperor then appointed Fu Kang'an as General-in-Chief and Hai Lancha the Minister Consultant. Each of them had about ten thousand troops under his command. They were ordered to enter Tibet by six different routes. Sun Shiyi, Acting Governor-General of Sichuan, was assigned by the Emperor to the task of collecting and transporting food supplies for the logistical support of the troops.
Soon after Fu Kang'an and Hai Lancha arrived in Tibet, they recovered all the territory occupied by the Gurkhas, and by May of 1792 all the Gurkha invaders had been driven out of Tibet. Afterward, the Qing troops marched over seven hundred li into Gurkha territory and were only twenty li from Yambu (Kathmandu), the Gurkha capital. The Gurkha ruler, Ratna Bahadur, seeing that there was no way out, sent a chieftain to ask the Qing troops to halt their advance, and he released Kalon Tenzin Paljor and other prisoners of war. Besides this, the Gurkha ruler returned his certification of the bribed peace agreement as well as the Tashilhunpo treasures they had looted. Since Sharmarpa had committed suicide by taking poison, his body and his family were placed at the Qing army's disposal. The Gurkha ruler pledged never again to invade Tibet in a written statement, and he promised to send his chieftains to Beijing to offer humble apology and to pay a tribute. Because of the Emperor's instructions that the army had to be withdrawn before heavy snows set in, Fu Kang'an granted the Gurkha ruler's appeal for peace. The Qing troops thus secured a sweeping victory in this war against the Gurkha invasion.
The victory of the Qing troops was inseparable from the support of the broad masses of the Tibetan people, who made great contributions in the counterattack. After the Gurkha troops occupied most of Tsang, Ambans Baotai and Yamantai were so frightened that they attempted to move the Dalai and Panchen out of Lhasa. The Eighth Dalai Lama, Jampal Gyatso, was strongly opposed to this; he said his retreat would create chaos and disorder among the people. His attitude was praiseworthy for he remained quite calm in the face of danger and actively organized the people to support the Qing troops. When the troops were engaged in battle at the frontline, the Dalai gave them financial support, at the same time organizing the monks to act as their guides and pray for their victory. All this indicated the patriotism of the monks led by the Dalai Lama. The rest of the Tibetan people also made great contributions to the victory of the war. The Tibetans in Sichuan and Qinghai actively helped to transport army provisions for the Qing troops. "All took part in lending a helping hand, each trying to outdo the others."[7] The expeditionary army to Tibet was composed of Hans, Manchus, Mongols, Ewenkis, Daurs and Tibetans from various regions, and they left a good impression on the Tibetan people. The anti-aggression served to enhance not only the defense of the Tibetan borderland but also the friendship of the Tibetan people with other ethnic groups of the Chinese nation. From then on Nepal and the Qing government maintained friendly relations for more than a century, and thus created good conditions for the Qing government to carry out administrative reforms in Tibet.
Administrative Reforms Carried Out in Tibet by the Qing Government
Early during the Qing Dynasty, the government exercised its rule over Tibet mainly through Mongol and Tibetan feudal serf-owners and aristocrats. For 75 years Tibet was under the control of four Mongol Khans — Gushri Khan, Dayan Khan, Dalai Khan, and Lhazang Khan. They appointed altogether eight depa (chief administrator of Tibet). Consequently, the prominent contradiction of Tibetan society during that period was the power struggle between the Mongol and Tibetan ruling classes. After the Dzungar rebellion was put down in 1721 (the sixtieth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign) the Qing court abolished the office of the Depa, who had overall authority in Tibet and was appointed by the Mongol Khan, and instituted the office of Kalons (Council of Ministers), who exercised collective leadership and ran the administration collectively. At first, Khangchennas, Lumpanas, Ngabopa and Jaranas were installed as Kalons. Two years later, Pholhanas was also appointed as a Kalon. The Qing court then granted Khangchennas the title of beizi (prince) and appointed him as the chief Kalon to assume overall responsibility for Tibetan affairs. Ngabopa was also granted the title of beizi; when Khangchennas was absent from Lhasa, he was expected to act on behalf of Khangchennas. Lumpanas and Pholhanas were granted the noble titles of various ranks. The implementation of the Kalon system laid the foundation for the Qing's rule in Tibet.
However, the Kalon institution did not resolve the contradictions between the Mongol and Tibetan serf-owners, who were scrambling for power and profit. In 1727 (the fifth year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign), after the war between U and Tsang came to an end, the Qing court installed the office of two Ambans (Resident Minister and Vice-Minister in Tibet), whose tenure of office was three years and whose duty was to direct the troops stationed in Tibet, and handle important administrative affairs and supervise the performance of local officials together with the Dalai and Panchen lamas. The Qing court recognized Pholhanas' status quo, conferred the title of beizi on him and appointed him as the chief administrator of Tibet; in addition, it approved Seyul Tesebutong and Tsering Wangdrala, recommended by Pholhanas, to be Kalons. In order to trim the power of the Tibetan rulers and keep them divided, the Qing court gave orders for Tachienlu (modern Kangding), Litang and Batang in eastern Kham to come under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province, and for Gyalthang (modern Zhongdian County), A'dun (modern Deqen County) and Balung (modern Weixi County) in southern Kham to be administered by the Yunnan provincial authorities, for Qamdo to come under the jurisdiction of the Phalpala Living Buddha, and the Tsang region and Ngari to be under the Panchen Lama. The institution of the office of Amban strengthened the Qing's administration over Tibet. But in the course of time it became obvious that administration of this kind had quite a few drawbacks, the critical one being that there was more than one administrative center. The contradictions between the Ambans and Tibetan religious leaders, those between the Dalai and the Panchen, those between U and Tsang—all those contradictions needed to be resolved through administrative reforms so that their functions and powers might be clearly defined.
The Qing court carried out its administrative reforms in two stages. The first stage began in 1751 (the sixteenth year of Emperor Qianlong's reign). The guiding concept of this reform was "to install more than one ruler so that the power would not be concentrated in the hands of one man." Its purpose was to raise and consolidate the Dalai Lama's status, functions and power, and to ensure that the Amban and the Dalai Lama had equal status. The idea and purpose were fully revealed in "A Program for the New Administration of Tibet" consisting of thirteen items, which was worked out by Celeng and Bandi in the third lunar month of 1751 and was approved by Emperor Qianlong.
There are five points in this reform that merit attention: (1) The Qing court rescinded the post of Depa, leaving the administration of Tibetan affairs to the Kashag, the Tibetan local government. The Kashag consisted of four Kalons, one of whom was a monk and the rest laymen. The lay and monk officials appointed by the Kashag were to get approval from the Ambans and the Dalai Lama. (2) A yigtsang (secretariat) was created under the Dalai Lama. It was staffed by four monk officials, who, acting as a restraint on the power of the Kashag, examined all the instructions and communications issued by the Kashag before they were delivered. (3) Put the Tsoba Sogu in northern Tibet and the districts of the Dam Mongols, formerly in Gyumey Namgyal's charge, under the jurisdiction of the Ambans. This step was aimed at strengthening the Amban's control over local power. (4) Invested the Dalai Lama with the power to directly manage Tibetan administrative affairs. He was thus equal to the Ambans in status and power. From then on, the Dalai Lama was not only the religious leader but also a political leader, and this ushered in a politico-religious regime controlled by the Gelug Sect. (5) It ushered in a convention by which a Grand Living Buddha held regency. The Seventh Dalai Lama died in 1757. As his death left this top spiritual and temporal position vacant, the emperor appointed Demo Hutuktu regent to act in the Dalai's place before the new Dalai Lama was discovered and during the new Dalai's minority (eighteen was the legal age for him to assume office). That was the inception of regency in Tibet and it became a convention afterward.
The administrative reform of the first stage by the Qing court brought it great influence over the situation. It stressed the status and power of the Ambans, established the Kashag, and estab lished the Tibetan politico-religious system headed by the Dalai Lama.
The administrative reform of the second stage by the Qing court began in 1792 (the fifty-seventh year of Emperor Qianlong's reign). This was the year that the Qing government drove back the Gurkhas' invasion. Because the administration of Tibetan local affairs never had any system to go by, the Kalons cheated with wild abandon in times of peace, and in times of war they were unable to do anything about defense even when a small nation like that of the Gurkhas launched an invasion. The Qing court was thus determined to overhaul the Tibetan administrative system. On Emperor Qianlong's orders, Fu Kang'an, together with Tibetan local officials, formulated an ordinance that was then submitted to the court for approval and was officially implemented in 1793. This was the famous twenty-nine-article "Imperial Ordinance for More Effective Governing of Tibet." It covered many issues, political, economic, military, diplomatic and religious. It is a programmatic document of the Qing court concerning the administration over Tibet. Four points about the administration are worthy of attention:
(1) The ordinance stipulated that the Resident Minister was to enjoy equal status to that of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Erdeni, that all those working under the Kalons should be subordinate to him regardless of their position or rank, and that their appointment, removal, promotion, demotion, material rewards and punishment needed to get the approval of the Resident Minister. The appointment of Kalons and Dapons was to be recommended by the Resident Minister together with the Dalai Lama and to be approved by the Qing court. All local criminal cases were to be reported to the Resident Minister for the record. The Resident Minister and the Dalai Lama were each to be provided with a complete list of the names of local aristocrats, officials, monasteries and people and the land under their jurisliction.
(2) It stipulated the way by which the reincarnations of the Dalai Lama, Panchen Erdeni, and other Hutuktus (Grand Living Buddhas) were to be determined. That is, a special gold urn and several ivory slips should be provided by the Qing court; the names and dates of birth of the candidates would be written in the Manchu, Han and Tibetan languages on the ivory slips, which would then be placed in the gold urn. Then the reincarnations would be officially confirmed before the image of Sakyamuni in the Jokhang Temple by Hutuktus and the Resident Minister in Tibet. When recognition was needed for only one candidate, a blank ivory slip would be put in the urn in addition to the one bearing the name of that candidate's reincarnation. If the blank slip was drawn, that candidate would not be recognized as the reincarnation, and a new one would have to be sought.
(3) It gave the Resident Minister supervisory power over economic affairs, including finance and tax revenues of the Kashag (Tibetan local government) and the ula service (unpaid labor) system. What is worth particular notice is the fact that before the early period of Emperor Qianlong's reign Tibet did not mint coins. The Tibetans used Gurkha coins, for which they exchanged silver. The Gurkhas mixed copper into silver to mint coins, making an unfair profit in doing so. After defeating the Gurkhas, Tibet began to mint coins in 1791. For this, a mint was built and coins were minted with pure silver. The new Tibetan coin was stamped with the words qian long bao zang (Emperor Qianlong's Treasury) in Chinese on the obverse side and the reverse side was stamped in Tibetan. The new coins were convertible into the Han silver at the rate of six silver coins to one tael of Han silver. Foreign coins were banned in Tibet. All the Kashag officials had to strictly observe the Resident Minister and Dalai Lama's instructions and were not to make presumptuous decisions.
(4) The powers for handling foreign affairs were concentrated in the hands of the central government; the Resident Minister in Tibet was its plenipotentiary. Correspondence from foreign countries was to be forwarded to the Dalai Lama or the Panchen Erdeni and was subject to censorship by the Resident Minister, who would then prepare the necessary replies to be delivered by courier. The Kalons were not allowed to maintain private correspondence with foreign countries. Foreign residents in Tibet needed residence permits issued to them by the Resident Minister; foreign pilgrims in Tibet also needed to have travel permits issued by the Resident Minister. The Resident Minister in Tibet was to make tours of investigation in various places each year and to inspect border defenses.
The issue for enforcement of the ordinance played an important role in stabilizing the social order and boosting the border economy. The ordinance, consolidating the Resident Minister's political position in Tibet, was an indication that the Qing's policy for Tibet had changed from one of relying on submissive Mongol Khans and supporting the Gelug Sect in order to appease Tibetans, to the institution of the office of Resident Minister in Tibet. The ordinance summed up the historical experiences of administering Tibet since the Yuan and Ming dynasties and was an important document of historical significance, demonstrating that the central government fully exercised sovereignty over Tibet. The ordinance strengthened the central government's control over Tibet, boosted its contacts among different ethnic groups in Tibet, stabilized social order and developed Tibet's economy and culture. Nevertheless, it should also be noted that the ordinance was a product of a feudal regime, representing the interests of the feudal ruling class, and that the elements of class oppression and exploitation were unavoidable. This ordinance was formulated by the Qing court to serve the Manchu aristocrats so that ethnic discrimination and oppression can also be found in it.
Strengthening of Tibet's Border Defense
During the Qing period, the border defenses of Tibet were strengthened as never before. This is revealed by the fact that the Qing troops were stationed in Tibet and helped train the Tibetan troops.
The Qing troops entered Tibet in 1718 (the fifty-seventh year of Emperor Kangxi's reign) with the aim of putting down the Dzungar Mongols' invasion and harassment of Tibet. When they reached the Nagchukha (Heihe River), they were ambushed and annihilated by the Dzungars.
In 1720 Emperor Kangxi appointed his fourteenth son Prince Yunzhen to be the commander-in-chief and to lead an army of more than 10,000 men into Tibet to quell the Dzungar invasion. This was the second military campaign into Tibet ordered by the Qing court. With the support of the Tibetan people and the assistance of Tibetan troops under the command of Khangchennas and Pholhanas, the Qing army soon achieved a decisive victory over the Dzungar troops led by Tsewang Rabten and drove them back to Xinjiang. After this rebellion was put down, the Qing court proceeded to strengthen the combat capacity of the Tibetan troops under Khangchennas and Pholhanas' command, ordering them to deploy their forces at various strategic points in Tsang and set up checkpoints at mountain passes leading to and from the regions of the Dzungars. All these measures proved to be effective deterrents against the Dzungars; from then on the Dzungars never again entered into Tibet.
In 1723 (the first year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign), Lobzang Tenzin, a Mongol Qoshot tribal leader in Qinghai, launched a rebellion against the Qing government, because he was displeased with the Qing's setting up the council of Kalons. The Qing government sent an army of two thousand men under the command of Eqi, Bandi and Zhou Ying into Tibet in anticipation of Lobzang Tenzin's expedition into Tibet.
In 1727 (the fifth year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign), hostilities broke out between rival Kalons, which led to a war between U and Tsang. In order to put down the riots, the Qing government dispatched 15,400 troops in three contingents under the command of Jalangga, Zhou Kaijie, Zhou Ying and Nan Tianxiang to Tibet during the next year. This was the fourth military expedition into Tibet. When the chaos caused by war was dispersed, the Qing government readjusted its Tibet policy, instituting the office of Resident Minister in Tibet, a post also responsible for border defense. This strengthened Tibet's defense capability, built a Tibet garrison of 2,000 men from Sichuan and Shaanxi with the Resident Ministers as its commanders, and set up a "supporting" garrison in Qamdo with 1,000 troops from Yunnan. In addition, the Qing government authorized Pholhanas to train a Tibetan army of about 15,000 cavalrymen and foot soldiers. The troops stationed in Tibet were to man checkpoints at mountain passes leading to and from the regions of the Dzungar Mongols from early summer each year until the winter, when the mountains became snow-bound. Under such circumstances, the Dzungars could not launch any surprise attack against Tibet. In 1734 the Dzungars pleaded for peace. Then "the boundaries were defined and hostilities ceased." In view of the whit that the threat to Tibet from the Dzungars had been removed and that there were difficulties in finance and transporting supplies from the interior to a large army in Tibet, the Qing government decided to reduce three quarters of the Qing troops in Tibet, that is, to keep only 500 of the original 2,000 Sichuan and Shaanxi soldiers in Tibet and to send home the rest. The Qamdo garrison of 1,000 men was reduced by half its troop strength. The troops stationed in Tibet were to be rotated every three years, a system that stayed in force until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
In 1750 (the fifteenth year of Emperor Qianlong's reign) Gyumey Namgyal launched a rebellion in Tibet. The Qing government sent Celeng, the governor-general of Sichuan Province, and General Yue Zhongqi into Tibet with troops to restore order. This was the fifth expedition of the Qing troops into Tibet. The Qing government learned from this incident that it was unfeasible to rely only on a local garrison to maintain stability, so it dispatched another 1,500 soldiers to be stationed in Tibet. Thus, the Qing troops stationed in Tibet increased again to 2,000.
In 1788 (the fifty-third year of Emperor Qianlong's reign) the Gurkhas launched their first invasion into Tibet. Tsang was utterly defenseless; the Qing government immediately sent three thousand troops to enter Tibet under the command of Bazhong, Vice-Minister of the Board of Minority Affairs, and General Ehui of Chengdu. This was the sixth military expedition into Tibet by the Qing government.
In 1791 the Gurkhas started their second armed invasion of Tibet. The Qing government sent Generals Fu Kang'an and Hai Lancha to lead a great army of several contingents into Tibet. This was the seventh military campaign the Qing government conducted in Tibet, involving a total of more than 17,000 troops. The Qing troops not only drove the Gurkha invaders out of Tibet, they compelled them to capitulate and pay tribute.
In view of the fact that the Tibetan local troops were not combat-worthy and were slack in discipline, they were routed by the enemy. The Qing government, having secured a sweeping victory, thus proceeded to overhaul the Tibetan local troops so as to strengthen their combat effectiveness. The measures taken were written into the twenty-nine-article "Imperial Ordinance for More Effective Governing of Tibet"; the main content was as follows:
(1) The system of the standing army stationed in Tibet was to be perfected. The standing army stationed in Tibet would be of two kinds: the Green Battalion and Tibetan troops.
(2) The establishment and equipment of the Green Battalion was to be the same as that in the hinterland. The troops were 646 soldiers, to be stationed at Tingri, Gyangze and some other places. In addition, there would be 782 troops stationed at military stations along the route from Tachienlu (Dajianlu) to U.
(3) The number of Tibetan troops would be three thousand, of which one thousand were to be stationed at Lhasa, one thousand at Xigaze, five hundred at Gyangze, and the other five hundred at Tingri. Each five hundred of these soldiers would be put under the command of a dapon; altogether six dapons would be installed. A dapon would have under him two officers with the rank of rupon, each in charge of 250 men; altogether twelve rupons would be installed. A rupon would have under him two officers with the rank of gyapon, each in charge of 125 men; altogether twenty-four gyapons would be installed. A gyapon would have under him five officers with the rank of dingpon, each in charge of 25 men; altogether 120 dingpons would be installed.
(4) The appointment and promotion of officers would be on the basis of knowledge, capability and battle performance, instead of their family status. Vacancies left by the officers would be filled by those of the next lower rank through promotion.
(5) Regarding the officers' pay: the dapons would not receive any pay, because they had been given estates by the Dalai Lama. The rupon would each be paid thirty-six taels of silver each year, the gyapons twenty taels, and the dingpons 14 taels. The rank-and-file soldiers would receive 2.5 shi (125 kg) of grain each year as food rations. The officers and soldiers' pay and food rations would be issued twice a year, in spring and autumn, by the departments responsible for their work. Short payment would be prohibited.
(6) Regarding the Tibetan troops' military equipment: fifty percent of it would be firearms, thirty percent bows and arrows, and twenty percent swords and spears. The Tibetan troops had a total of twenty cannons. Regular drills were maintained for the soldiers and regular inspections were made on them. Expenses for the drilling and military equipment would be provided by the Kashag government. All these measures, especially the establishment and implementation of the troops system, helped a great deal in strengthening the combat effectiveness of the army in Tibet. In the following days, it was this Tibetan army that played a major role in maintaining social order and safeguarding the frontiers. It should be added that the origin of Tibetan troops can be traced to an earlier date. At that time, there was no distinction between the soldiers and the common people. It was in 1793, when the twenty-nine-article "Imperial Ordinance" was implemented, that the system of Tibetan troops in its real sense was established.
The Rise of the Gelug Sect in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties
The Establishment of the Gelug Sect by Tsongkhapa
The Gelug Sect (Yellow Sect) evolved from the Kadam Sect. "Gelug" means "Virtuous Order." The Gelug Sect attached great importance to observing monastic disciplines, put exoteric and esoteric studies on the same footing and took self-cultivation quite seriously. It was founded in the mid-Ming (early 15th century), and developed in late Ming and early Qing. Its rise had deep social roots. It was because the Ming government implemented the policy of "granting various new offices and titles of honor to high-ranking lamas and dignitaries" and changed the Yuan's policy of relying on the Sakya Sect exclusively that gave the Gelug a chance to develop. In the late Ming and early Qing, the influence of Mongol khans spread into Tibet and, after combining with the religious influence of the Gelug Sect, ruled Tibet for a period of several decades. In addition, the Qing government deliberately supported the Gelug and carried out a policy of "appeasing the Mongol and Tibetan areas by way of patronizing the Yellow Sect." Therefore, the Gelug Sect enjoyed a rapid growth and exerted a great influence on Chinese society not only during the late Ming and early Qing but also on later generations. Both the lineages of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama belong to the Gelug Sect. Since the Gelug monks all wore yellow hats, the Gelug was also called the Yellow Hat Sect, or Yellow Sect for short.
The founder of the Yellow Sect was Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), whose original religious name was Lobzang Drakpa. He was a native of Tsongkha (now Huangzhong County) near Xining in Qinghai Province. As he enjoyed a very high reputation among the Tibetan people, his followers called him Tsongkhapa instead of his original name to show their respect for him. Tsongkhapa was born to a local official's family in 1357. His father, Nubu-mug, was an official in the post of darkhache during the late Yuan dynasty; his mother was Shangsha Ache. The parents had six children; Tsongkhapa was the fourth. Tsongkhapa took his vows as a layman at the age of three. At the age of seven he took his getsul vows before Dondrup Rinchen, a Kadam lama. In 1372 (the fifth year of Ming Emperor Taizu's reign), when he was sixteen years old, he left for Tibet and arrived at Nyethang to the southwest of Lhasa the next year. From then on he studied Buddhist philosophy extensively under the guidance of a number of eminent monks of the Sakya, Kagyu, Shalu and Kadam sects. He was noted for his scholarly attainments. In 1385 Tsongkhapa was ordained into full monkhood and after that became qualified to give sermons and recruit disciples.
In 1388 Tsongkhapa began to wear a hat in yellow, showing he would stick to the Buddhist tradition of "observing discipline and promoting virtue" and proceeded to found his new Buddhist sect. In 1393 Tsongkhapa had the Zingche Monastery in Aka Dzong renovated, and in 1399 he presided over a Monlam prayer meeting at the Zingche Monastery from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the Tibetan calendar. Thus he began his religious reform activities. In view of the fact that the monks lacked discipline and led a dissolute life, Tsongkhapa decided to set up a new monastic order and to carry out religious reform on the basis of Kadam's doctrines and his own ideology. Tsongkhapa's reforms for the revival of Buddhism met the needs of the Phagmodrupa Desi regime, then the ruling power in Tibet, so Tsongkhapa enjoyed the regime's patronage.
In 1398 Tsongkhapa wrote a letter to the Desi of the Phagmodrupa regime, Drakpa Gyaltsen, Propagation Prince of Persuasion, saying:
To rule the people with Buddhist law will obtain great achievement in this and the next life. To administer the state with this method will please all the gods and they will bestow their blessing and protection[8]
The next year, at the invitation of Drakpa Gyaltsen, Tsongkhapa went to Lhasa to give sermons. Drakpa Gyaltsen was his sponsor. After arriving at Lhasa, Tsongkhapa extensively preached his religious doctrines, advocating that monks should strictly observe discipline and study the sutras, and at the same time he did his best to renovate the Buddhist monasteries and temples. With the support of the Desi (the highest ruler of the Phagmodrupa regime) and the officials under him, Tsongkhapa had the Jokhang Temple completely renovated in 1407.
During the first through the fifteenth day of the first month of Tibetan calendar in 1409, Tsongkhapa held an exceptional grand Great Prayer Festival, also known as "the Monlam Festival," at Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. Tens of thousands of monks and laymen attended. This was another grand meeting held after the Buddhist meeting held at Toling Monastery in Ngari in the Fire-Dragon year (1076) by Gu-ge King Kyide and the prayer meeting held by Phagpa at Chumik in 1277, but it was even greater in scale than the first two and had more profound historic significance. This Monlam Festival held by Tsongkhapa proclaimed the founding of the Gelug Sect. Tibetan history acknowledges this grand meeting as the official origin of the Gelug Sect.
The Gelug Sect was quite different from other Buddhist sects prevailing at that time in Tibet, both in ideology and form. First, the Gelug stipulated many disciplines that monks had to observe strictly. The Gelug stipulated that monks had to study a number of sutras about discipline, such as "On Discipline," "Discipline of Bodhisattva," and "Fourteen Cardinal Disciplines of Tantricism." It stressed that monks were different from laymen, prohibiting monks from marrying and having children and from drinking wine and leading a dissolute life. It forbade monks from seeking gains and profits and from interfering with secular affairs. It encouraged monks to lead a tranquil life without desires. Therefore, the Gelug Sect found favor with the Tibetan people and the Phagmodrupa regime. The Phagmodrupa regime needed a religious sect with strict monastic rules to help it maintain its rule. The Gelug Sect, which rigorously abode by strict religious discipline, was destined to become the ruling sect in Tibet.
Second, the Gelug Sect advocated that monks should study classical scriptures and Buddhist philosophy assiduously. Tsongkhapa wrote many Buddhist works on the basis of Kadam doctrines and absorbed the essential elements of other Buddhist sects. After Tsongkhapa passed away, his disciples established two major reincarnation systems for the Dalai Lama and Panchen Erdeni, so that the religious lineage of the sect might be carried on and would not come to an end by the death of the master.
Third, the characteristic of the Gelug Sect is that it devoted major efforts to constructing monasteries and temples and to recruiting many disciples, and this determined it would become the most influential sect in the Tibetan and Mongolian areas. Tsongkhapa began to renovate monasteries during the process of establishing the Sect. In 1393 he was in charge of the renovation of the Zingche Monastery, and made that desolated ancient monastery take on an entirely new look. Tsongkhapa built the Ganden Monastery in present-day Dagze County to the east of Lhasa in 1409 soon after the Monlam Festival was over, with the support of the Phagmodrupa regime. Ganden was the main monastery of the Gelug Sect; Tsongkhapa and his disciples often lived here. In 1416, under Tsongkhapa's instruction, his disciple Jamyang Choje founded the Drepung Monastery in the western suburbs of Lhasa with donations from the Phagmodrupa regime. In 1418, under Tsongkhapa's instruction, another disciple, Shakya Yeshe, founded the Sera Monastery in the northern suburbs of Lhasa with bestowals and donations from the central government of the Ming Dynasty. Ganden, Drepung and Sera are called the three main monasteries of the Gelug Sect. The construction of these three monasteries played a major role in the development of the Gelug Sect.
Tsongkhapa began to give sermons and to recruit his first disciples when he was 29 years old. He began to officially recruit disciples when he was 36 years old (1392). The number of his followers increased with the years. Among Tsongkhapa's disciples, the best-known were Gyaltsab Je, Khedrup Je, Dulzin Drakpa Gyaltsen, Jamyang Choje, Shakya Yeshe, Togdan Jampal Gyatso, Jetsun Sherab Sengge, and Gedun Truppa. Of these eight disciples, Gyaltsab Je and Khedrup Je played the greatest role in assisting Tsongkhapa in founding the Gelug Sect. Gyaltsab Je was originally one of the chief disciples of Rendawa Shunu Lodro, an eminent Sakya monk. It was said that he admitted defeat in a debate with Tsongkhapa in 1397, and then took the latter as his tutor. On his deathbed, in 1419, Tsongkhapa passed the mantle of succession to Gyaltsab Je, who succeeded him as the Ganden Tripa ("Throne Holder of Ganden," i.e., abbot). The followers of the Yellow Sect regard Tsongkhapa as the forefather of the Ganden Tripa. Gyaltsab Je succeeded him as the first Ganden Tripa. Khedrup Je's original name was Geleg Palzang; he also had been one of Rendawa Shunu Lodro's disciples. On Rendawa's recommendation, Khedrup Je was also accepted by Tsongkhapa as his disciple in 1407, and he became another of Tsongkhapa's chief assistants. He succeeded Gyaltsab Je to become the second Ganden Tripa and was posthumously recognized as the first Panchen Lama by Tibetan Buddhists. Both Gyaltsab Je and Khedrup Je made great contributions to the founding of the Gelug Sect, so Tsongkhapa and these two disciples of his are honored by the Tibetans as "the revered trinity—father and sons." We can often see the trinity's murals and statues in Tibetan monasteries and temples.
Fourth, the Gelug Sect established a system of giving sermons and stipulated that prayer meetings be held from the first through the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of every year. It has become a convention since 1409 and it now has a history of more than 580 years. At these prayer meetings eminent monks gave sermons and preached exoteric and esoteric Buddhism. The sermons were all about the sutras the Gelug monks should study. Also during these prayer meetings, various debates on the sutras and examinations were held and the winners were honored with various academic degrees, such as geshe, according to their academic achievements. The annual prayer meeting was held on a large scale and lasted for a long time, so it exerted a strong influence over the people, thus augmenting the influence of the Gelug Sect so that it spread far and wide quickly.
The Gelug Sect succeeded in establishing its influence over the Tibetan people. Its followers increased in great numbers within a short time. The monasteries of the Kadam Sect all converted to the Gelug Sect; the Phagmodrupa regime also openly supported the Gelug Sect. The central government of the Ming Dynasty treated the new sect with increased respect, and twice sent envoys to Tibet to invite Tsongkhapa to preach Buddhism at the capital city of Nanjing. The first invitation came in 1408; however, Tsongkhapa could not go for he was too busy with the preparations for the Monlam Festival to be held in 1409. When the Ming court again sent envoys to invite him in 1415, Tsongkhapa could not go because of poor health after a serious illness, so he sent his disciple, Shakya Yeshe, to Nanjing in his stead. That year, the Ming government granted Shakya Yeshe the title "Grand State Tutor of Western Buddhism" and gave him many gifts. In 1434 Shakya Yeshe went again to preach Buddhism at Beijing, now the capital of the Ming empire, and the Ming government bestowed on him the title "Great Mercy Prince of Dharma." During the Qing Dynasty, the central government adopted the policy of supporting the Yellow Sect and giving recognition to the two major reincarnation systems of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, and the policy played a positive role in consolidating Qing's rule over the Mongolian and Tibetan areas.
The Establishment of the Dalai Lama Lineage and Confirmation by the Central Government
The First Dalai Lama's religious name was Gedun Truppa. He was the youngest disciple of Tsongkhapa. In the sixth year of the Wanli reign period of the Ming Dynasty (1578), the Gelug ruling lama, Sonam Gyatso, received the honorific title of "All-Knowing Vajra-Holder, the Dalai Lama" from the Mongol chieftain Altan Khan, hence the origin of the title. In the tenth year of the Shunzhi reign period of the Qing Dynasty (1653), the title of Dalai Lama was given official recognition by the Qing court. Today the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is in self-exile in India. Gedun Truppa (1391-1474) was one of Tsongkhapa's eight chief disciples. He took Tsongkhapa as his tutor in 1415 (the thirteenth year of Ming Emperor Yongle). After the death of Tsongkhapa, he took Gyaltsab Je, the second abbot of the Ganden, and Khedrup Je, the third abbot of the Ganden, as his tutors successively. So he gained all the attainments of "the revered trinity—father and sons." His fame and prestige grew each day. In 1447 Gedun Truppa founded the Tashilhunpo Monastery at Xigaze. When the monastery was completed, he became its first abbot and remained in that post for twenty-seven years until his death. Tashilhunpo was the largest monastery the Gelug Sect had built in Tsang, and it was called, together with three main monasteries in Lhasa, one of the four main monasteries of the Gelug Sect. Afterward, it became the residence of the Panchen Lama.
Gedun Truppa died in 1474 and was posthumously recognized as the First Dalai Lama. Three years later, the relatives of Gedun Truppa found a three-year-old boy in Tsang who looked much like Gedun Truppa and whose birthday coincided with the date of Gedun Truppa's death. So they proclaimed the boy to be the reincarnation of Gedun Truppa. This was the beginning of the Gelug's lineage of reincarnated Living Buddhas. The boy's religious name was Gedun Gyatso (1475-1542); after his death he was posthumously recognized as the Second Dalai Lama.
It was not the Gelug Sect, however, that instituted the lineage of reincarnated Living Buddhas. The Karma Kagyu (Black Hats), a sub-sect of the Kagyu Sect, adopted the practice as early as in 1284. Later, this system was adopted by many other monasteries. By that time the title of "Dalai Lama" had not yet come into existence. The ruling lama of the Gelug Sect was called "Drepung Trulku," meaning "the Living Buddha of the Drepung Monastery." When Gedumn Gyatso was the abbot of the Drepung Monastery, he built Ganden Photrang as his residence in the monastery. It was also the abode for the third, the fourth and the fifth Dalai Lamas. Ganden Photrang later became a synonym for the local regime established by the Fifth Dalai Lama.
Gedun Gyatso's successor was Sonam Gyatso (1542-1588). He was born at Doilung (Tohlung) in U. At the age of four he was brought to the Drepung. During the time of Sonam Gyatso, Gelug's influence was greater than that of any other Tibetan sect and thus he became the target of their attacks. The Phagmodrupa regime, Gelug's political supporter, had by now declined, and the Shingshapa family, a rising local political power, took a repressive attitude toward the Gelug Sect. In order to consolidate and expand Gelug Sect's influence, Sonam Gyatso actively sought military and political support. Meanwhile, Altan Khan, the leader of the Mongol Turned tribe, who had been granted the title of Prince Shunyi (righteousness) by the Ming court, needed the Gelug Sect to help him to maintain local social order so as to consolidate his political status in Qinghai and Inner Mongolia.
Altan Khan sent a mission to Lhasa in 1576, inviting Sonam Gyatso to meet with him and preach Buddhism in Qinghai. In May 1578 Sonam Gyatso met with the Mongol Khan in the Yanghua Temple in Qinghai. The meeting was followed by an exchange of honorific titles between the two men. The one Sonam Gyatso received from Altan Khan was "All-Knowing Vajra-Holder, the Dalai Lama," and the one he conferred on Altan Khan was equally imposing, the "King of the Turning Wheel and Wisdom." "Dalai" is the Mongolian for "ocean"; "lama" is Tibetan meaning "guru." Sonam Gyatso was the first Tibetan Buddhist monk to ever be granted the title of Dalai Lama. Sonam Gyatso became the Third Dalai Lama after his two predecessors were granted the title posthumously. From then on the Dalai lineage was established.
The Ming government did not appreciate Altan Khan's presence in Qinghai, but for a time did not know what to do about this. When they learned that the Mongol khan held Sonam Gyatso in great respect and valued his advice, they instructed Hou Donglai, governor of Gansu Province, to extend to Sonam Gyatso in 1578 an invitation for a meeting with the governor in Gansu. During that meeting, the governor was to ask the Dalai Lama to persuade Altan Khan to take his men back to Inner Mongolia. Sonam Gyatso did as the Ming governor requested and sent a letter to Zhang Juzheng, the prime minister of the Ming government, in which he said: "I pray for His Majesty and his ministers day and night and pray for universal peace...."[9] He also asked to establish tribute-paying relations with the Ming court and offered his gifts. According to the History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng, fearing that his acceptance of the letter and gifts might be considered inappropriate, reported the matter to the emperor, who told him to accept them and granted Sonam Gyatso the tribute-paying right. That the Ming court accepted the tributes paid by Sonam Gyatso amounted to acknowledging the high position he held in Tibetan religious circles, for the tribute-paying right was reserved for persons with the status of a ruling lama or state tutor.
When Sonam Gyatso was in Qinghai, he went to many places on sermon-giving trips with Altan Khan's support and he renovated old monasteries, thus boosting the role of Tibetan Buddhism in the areas inhabited by the Mongols, which exercised great influence on the Mongol people in later ages.
On his way back to Tibet in 1580, Sonam Gyatso first went to the Tibetan areas in western Sichuan and helped in the building of the Litang Monastery. In 1583, Sonam Gyatso went again to Qinghai on missionary duties there, and expanded the Kumbum Monastery in Tsongkhapa's birthplace. Altan Khan died that same year, and his family asked Sonam Gyatso to come to Inner Mongolia to pray for Altan Khan. Sonam Gyatso accepted the invitation and arrived at Hohhot in 1586 to perform prayer ceremonies in memory of Altan Khan. In 1587, the Ming government sent officials to Hohhot to grant Sonam Gyatso the title of "Dorje Chang" ("Dorje Chang" is Tibetan for "holder of the vajra") and invited Sonam Gyatso to meet with the emperor at Beijing and to give sermons there. Sonam Gyatso accepted the invitation with pleasure and left for Beijing immediately. But unexpectedly he died at Kha'otomi in Inner Mongolia in 1588 en route to Beijing.
The successor to Sonam Gyatso was Yonten Gyatso (1588-1616). After Sonam Gyatso died, the local Mongols claimed that Yonten Gyatso, Altan Khan's great grandson, was Sonam Gyatso's reincarnation, and he received the unanimous recognition of the upper strata of the Yellow Sect. It is obvious that the sect and the Mongols were in a great need of each other politically. The Gelug Sect wanted to have military support from the Mongols for resisting Shingshapa's persecution, and the Mongol princes and aristocrats wanted to have a Buddhist leader of Mongolian origin to raise their prestige. The Fourth Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso, was one of only two members in the Dalai lineage who were not ethnic Tibetans. The other was the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, who was Moinba by origin. In 1602, Yonten Gyatso went to Tibet under the escort of the representatives of the Three Great Monasteries and Mongol troops. The next year he was enthroned in the Radreng Monastery and was brought to the Drepung for monastic studies. He died in the Drepung Monastery in 1616 at the age of twenty-eight. Some Tibetan materials say Yonten Gyatso was assassinated by men sent by Tsangpa Khan, but there is no conclusive evidence to support this claim.
Yonten Gyatso's successor was Lozang Gyatso (1616-1682). The Fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso, was born in the Qonggyai region (in modern Lhoka, or Shannan) in U. His father, Dudul Rabten, was a small serf-holder and served as a dzongpon during the Phagdru regime. The upper strata of the Gelug Sect chose Lozang Gyatso as the Fifth Dalai with the aim of uniting all the aristocrats and the neutral members in U to resist Tsangpa Khan and Karma Sect's attack. The Fifth Dalai fulfilled their hopes and wishes and played an important role in the history both of Tibet and of the Yellow Sect.
During the first period of the Fifth Dalai, the Gelug Sect was faced with a very serious challenge. Tsangpa Khan at the time was the chief administrator of the Karma regime, which was in control of most of Tibet. He made an alliance with the chieftain of Chogthu Mongols in Qinghai, who were Karma Sect's followers, in an attempt to destroy the Yellow Sect. Donyo Dorje, the tusi (local headman) of Beri on the border of Sichuan and Tibet and a Bon follower, also was hostile to the Yellow Sect and wanted to wipe it out. At this critical moment, the Yellow Sect, represented by the Fifth Dalai, after careful consideration, sent for Gushri Khan, the chieftain of Mongol Qoshot tribe in the regions south of the Tianshan Mountains, in 1634 and asked him to lead his army into Tibet.
Gushri Khan also had a wish to put Qinghai and Tibet under his own control. In 1636 he wiped out the Chogthu Mongols in a surprise attack and occupied Qinghai. In 1637, Gushri Khan arrived in Tibet disguised as a pilgrim and had an audience with the Fifth Dalai and Fourth Panchen, and was granted a title "Guardian Dharma Prince of the Doctrine" by the Gelug Sect. He took his army to the border region on Sichuan and Tibet in 1639, and killed Donyo Dorje, the Beri tusi. In 1642 he destroyed the Desi Tsangpa Khan regime, the persecutor of the Yellow Sect. After conquering Tibet, and with the approval of the upper strata of the Yellow Sect, Gushri Khan confiscated all the land and serfs in the possession of the secular and clerical aristocrats who had victimized the Yellow Sect. The confiscated property was shared by the monasteries of the Yellow Sect, the aristocrats that supported or had helped the sect, and the government treasury. Thus, he won widespread support from monasteries, aristocrats and government—the three major feudal lords of Tibet. The Yellow Sect thus not only consolidated its religious and political status, but also consolidated and developed its economic status.
In 1642 the Fifth Dalai established the Ganden Photrang regime at the Drepung Monastery. Then he ordered that the Potala be reconstructed and thus gave the ancient building, first built by Songtsen Gampo, an entirely new look. A General History of U-Tsang says:
When the Fifth Dalai Lama was in charge of religious and civil affairs, he had Photrang Karpo (White Halls) built to the east and west of the Hall of Avalokitesvara. Later, Depa Sangye Gyatso had another hall, Photrang Marpo (Red Hall), constructed in the middle with Buddhist halls and living quarters above and below it.
After the reconstruction of the Potala was completed, the Fifth Dalai moved his residence there from the Drepung. He was already the abbot of the Drepung, and now he was also the abbot of the Sera Monastery. Later, this became a convention: the abbotships of the two monasteries were filled exclusively by the Dalai with a khenpo taking care of the monastic affairs on his behalf. Lhasa was the capital in Songtsen Gampo's time, but during the Sakya regime, the monastery of Sakya served as the seat of government. When the Phagdru regime ruled Tibet, it had its capital in Nedong, which the Tsangpa Khan regime moved to Xigaze. It was the Fifth Dalai Lama who moved the capital back to Lhasa again, and it has remained so up to the present.
When the Fifth Dalai consolidated his local regime, he chose the Qing Dynasty as his supporter. In 1642, after consultation with the Fourth Panchen and Gushri Khan, the Dalai sent Sechen Chogyel to Shengjing (Shenyang) to pay homage to the Qing emperor on his behalf. The emperor showed Sechen Chogyel special respect. After the unification of the whole country by the Qing court, the Fifth Dalai, on the invitation of Emperor Shun-zhi, left for Beijing in 1652 with a large entourage of 3,000 Tibetan officials and attendants for an audience with the emperor. The emperor was very pleased with the coming of the Dalai and his party and had Huangsi (Yellow Temple) specially built to accommodate the Dalai Lama and his retinue. The emperor went to Nanyuan in the capital's southern suburbs to welcome the Dalai, gave a banquet in his honor at Taihe (Great Harmony) Hall in the Forbidden City, and gave him numerous gifts of silver and gold, as well as jewelry and other valuables. On the emperor's instructions, princes of all ranks were invited to attend banquets given in the Dalai's honor. The next year the Dalai Lama asked to return home, as the climate in Beijing was affecting his health and the health of those in his retinue. On his departure, Emperor Shunzhi went to Nanyuan personally and gave the Dalai a farewell banquet in the Deshou Temple. The emperor instructed Prince Heshuo Chengze and some other high officials to accompany the Dalai to Taika.
During his stop-over at Taika the Dalai Lama received a title-conferring gold-gilt album and a gold seal of authority from the emperor through the Minister of Rites and Vice-Minister of the Board of Minority Affairs. The gold seal bore the inscription "The Seal of the Dalai Lama, Buddha of Great Compassion in the West, Leader of the Buddhist Faith Beneath the Sky, Holder of the Vajra" in Manchurian, Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan. The fifteen-leaf album contained a sentence that reads as follows:
I, therefore, bestow upon you this gold-gilt album and a gold seal bearing the title of Buddha of Great Compassion in the West, Leader of the Buddhist Faith Beneath the Sky, Holder of the Vajra, the Dalai Lama.
With this message from the Qing emperor, the title of Dalai Lama was given official recognition by the Qing court, and the Dalai's religious status in the whole country and his political status in Tibet were officially established. From then on, every new successor to the Dalai Lama was expected to get the recognition of the Qing government, and this became a convention.
After receiving the title from the Qing court, the Fifth Dalai Lama's status and prestige were greatly raised. With Qing court as his political and financial supporter, the Dalai gradually assembled a large number of monasteries. He had thirteen monasteries of the Yellow Sect built in Tibet with the money in gold and silver that he brought back from the hinterland. These monasteries were called the "thirteen ling."
The Fifth Dalai introduced rules governing the monastic organization, the appointment and removal of clerical officials, monastic studies and rituals, and the behavior of the monks. He also set ceilings on the number of resident monks who were assigned to the monasteries. The Ganden Monastery was allowed to keep 3,300 such monks; the Sera, 5,500; the Drepung 7,700; and the Tashilhunpo 3,800. These rules remained unchanged for generations.
In his later years, the Fifth Dalai devoted all his energies to writing. Among the more than thirty volumes of his work, the best known are New Interpretation of Being, The History of Tibetan Kings and Ministers, Lectures on the Course of the Order of Bodhi and The Course of Introduction to Compassion.
The Fifth Dalai Lama made contributions to safeguarding the social order in Tibet and maintaining the sovereignty of China at the juncture between the Ming and Qing. The Ladakhi king led his army to invade Ngari in 1630. Ladakh originally was one of the three parts of Ngari, and its kings were the descendants of a Tubo Tsenpo. During the Yuan Dynasty, Ladakh was under the jurisdiction of the Pacification Commissioner General Office in Ngari. The Ladakhi king invaded Ngari and widely persecuted the monks of the Yellow Sect, thus causing great chaos there. In 1681 the Fifth Dalai Lama sent troops to Ngari and defeated the king of Ladakh and pacified the frontiers of Tibet. This is worthy of praise. The Fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso, died in 1682 in the Potala at the age of sixty-six.
After the death of the Fifth Dalai, there appeared two Sixth Dalai Lamas. One was Tsangyang Gyatso, the other was Yeshe Gyatso. At this time the Mongolian and Tibetan aristocrats were engaged in a fierce power struggle over the control of Tibet. Tsangyang Gyatso was an ethnic Moinba. He was born in 1683. In 1697 he was confirmed as the reincarnation of the Fifth Dalai Lama and was taken to the Potala and enthroned. But Lhazang Khan, the administrative ruler of Tibet, strongly opposed him. So Tsangyang Gyatso was dethroned by the Qing court. Yeshe Gyatso was the other Sixth Dalai installed by Lhazang Khan. Although he was confirmed by the Qing court, he did not get the recognition of the Gelug Yellow Sect. On the other hand, although Tsangyang Gyatso was dethroned by the Qing government, the Gelug Sect has always regarded him as the Sixth Dalai Lama. Later the Qing government also gave its tacit consent. After Lhazang Khan was defeated and killed by Dzungar aristocrats in the power struggle for the control of Tibet, Yeshe Gyatso's title of the Sixth Dalai Lama was abrogated. Kelzang Gyatso, as the successor to Tsangyang Gyatso, was installed as the Seventh Dalai.
Kelzang Gyatso (1708-1757), the Seventh Dalai Lama, was born in Litang of modern Sichuan Province. In 1710 he was confirmed as the reincarnation of Tsangyang Gyatso by the representatives of the three great monasteries of Lhasa. When he was nine years old, Kelzang Gyatso was moved to the Kumbum in Qinghai. At age twelve he was granted the title of the Seventh Dalai Lama by Emperor Kangxi. At age thirteen he was enthroned at the Potala. In 1751 the Qing government officially invested the Seventh Dalai Lama with the power of administering Tibetan civil affairs. From then on appeared the Tibetan polity based on a merger of secular and clerical rule by the Yellow Sect. According to The Political and Religious History of the Tibetan People, Kelzang Gyatso
never carried himself in a haughty manner, although he held the awe-inspiring title of imperial preceptor. He was an accomplished theologian, but was always ready to learn from others. Even after he had achieved sublimity in spiritual cultivation, he remained respectful to religious discipline in whatever he did. Rich as he was, with the wealth of all Tibet in his possession, he allowed himself only one change of clothes each year.
In 1757, Kelzang Gyatso, died in the Potala at the age of fifty. After his death, Emperor Qianlong appointed Demo Hutuktu regent to act in the Dalai's place before the reincarnation was discovered and during the reincarnated Dalai's minority. (Eighteen was the legal age for him to assume office.) That was the inception of the regency practice in Tibet.
Kelzang Gyatso's successor was Jampal Gyatso (1757-1804), also known as the Eighth Dalai. Jampal Gyatso was born in Thobgyal in Tsang. At the age of five, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Seventh Dalai Lama, and he was moved to the Potala and enthroned. He assumed office at the age of twenty-three. During his lifetime there were two invasions of Tibet by the Gurkhas. During these wars, the Eighth Dalai carried out a firm resistance policy toward the invaders, displaying the patriotism of lamaist monks and making contributions to the driving out of the invaders by the Qing troops. After winning victory over the invaders, the Eighth Dalai took part in working out the twenty-nine-article "Imperial Ordinance" presided over by Fu Kang'an, which established the system of determining the succession of Living Buddhas by "drawing lots from a gold urn," and pushed the Qing court's rule over Tibet to its full bloom.
Reviewing the establishment and development of the Dalai system, it is clear that the Third Dalai Sonam Gyatso, the Fifth Dalai Lozang Gyatso and the Seventh Dalai Kelzang Gyatso played decisive roles. The Third Dalai spread Tibetan Buddhism to Qinghai and Inner Mongolia, received the title of "All-Knowing Vajra-Holder, the Dalai Lama" from a Mongol Khan, and formed the Dalai lineage. The Fifth Dalai was officially recognized by the central government, through which the Dalai Lama's religious status in the whole country and the Gelug Sect's political and economic status in Tibet were established. During the period of the Seventh Dalai Lama, the merging of religious and secular rule in Tibet was carried out, the Mongol Khan's rule over Tibet came to an end, and the political and religious affairs were handled by ethnic Tibetans themselves under the central government's jurisdiction.
The Establishment of the Panchen Lama Lineage and Confirmation by the Central Government
The Panchen Lama lineage is one of the two major lineages of incarnate lamas. It began with Khedrup Je, one of "the revered trinity—father and sons," after Tsongkhapa passed away. The lineage was actually brought into being by Lozang Chokyi (the Fourth Panchen) in 1645 (the second year of Qing Emperor Shunzhi's reign). In 1713 (the fifty-second year of Qing Emperor Kangxi's reign), the central government of the Qing Dynasty granted the Fifth Panchen, Lozang Yeshe, the title of "Panchen Erdeni" and bestowed on him a gold album and gold seal of authority, thus recognizing the Panchen's temporal and clerical status within the Yellow Sect. The lineage has now come to the eleventh generation. The Tenth Panchen Erdeni Chokyi Gyaltsen died on January 28, 1989.
The founder of the Panchen lineage, Khedrup Je Geleg Pal-zang (1385-1438), was born at Latu Toshong in Tsang. As a boy, he became a Buddhist monk at the Sakya Monastery in Tsang. In 1403 he took Rendawa of the Sakya order as his tutor and studied exoteric and esoteric Buddhism under him. On Rendawa's recommendation, Khedrup Je was accepted by Tsongkhapa as a disciple at U in 1407. He was thereby the second foremost disciple of Tsongkhapa at the latter's founding of the Gelug Sect. After Tsongkhapa died, Khedrup Je often travelled on foot to all the monasteries in U and Tsang, preaching the doctrines of the Gelug Sect that Tsongkhapa founded. He persuaded many monks of other sects to convert to the Gelug Sect, and his missionary effort attained great achievements.
Khedrup Je also was the teacher of Gedun Truppa, the First Dalai. After the death of Tsongkhapa, Gedun Truppa continued his study under Gyaltsab Je and Khedrup Je successively. After Gyaltsab Je died, Khedrup Je succeeded him as the second abbot of the Ganden Monastery. Khedrup Je devoted his whole life to helping Tsongkhapa reform Tibetan Buddhism. Besides, he had a Han-style roof with gold tiles built on a Tibetan-style hall in the Ganden Monastery, in which stood the huge silver stupa that held Tsongkhapa's remains, and he wrote the Biography of Tsongkhapa. Khedrup Je died in Ganden in 1438 and was posthumously recognized as the First Panchen Lama.
The posthumously recognized Second Panchen Lama was Son-am Choglang (1439-1504), a native of Xigaze. When he was a boy, he became a monk in the Ganden. Then he worked as the abbot of the Bengom Monastery in Tsang for many years and played a large role in spreading the doctrines of the Gelug Sect in Tsang. He was respectfully called Bengom Trulku (Bengom Living Buddha). He was especially adept at open debate, and for this was well known. He and the Second Dalai Lama, Gedun Gyatso, had no contact, though they were contemporaries. He was thirty-six years older than Gedun Gyatso.
Lozang Dondrup (1505-1566), the posthumously recognized Third Panchen Lama, was born in the same place and of the same clan as the Second Panchen. At eleven, he became a monk at the Lharintse Monastery. At sixteen, he secured a secret prescription against smallpox, which at that time was widespread in Tsang, and he gave the prescription to the masses. Many people were therefore able to survive the epidemic. Owing to this good deed, he earned a high reputation among the people. He served as the twelfth Tripa of the Drepung and the thirteenth Tripa of the Sera. He went to Qinghai and Inner Mongolia to preach Buddhism during the Wanli reign period of the Ming Dynasty. In 1587 he was granted a title "Dorje Chang" (a Tibetan word, meaning "vajra-holder") by the Ming government.
The Fourth Panchen Lama, Lozang Chokyi (1567-1662), was a native of Xigaze in Tsang. At the age of five, he was selected as the reincarnation of the deceased Sonam Choglang by the representatives of the Bengom Monastery. After repeated discussions, the monks of Bengom Monastery enthroned Lozang Chokyi as the Bengom Tripa (abbot) when he was thirteen years old, and he was called "Bengom Trulku."
When he was sixteen years old, Lozang Chokyi left for the Tashilhunpo to further his studies of Buddhist scriptures and received the academic degree of Rachen (an abbreviation of Rabjam-chenpo, an honorific title granted to learned lamas in the early period of the Gelug Sect). In 1591, Lozang Chokyi took his gelong vows in the Tashilhunpo; after that, he left for Lhasa and settled in the Ganden to study scriptures.
In 1598 Lozang Chokyi left the Ganden for the Bengom in order to take over the administration of that monastery and became concurrently the Tripa of the Ganjan Chophel Monastery. Shortly afterward, at the insistent request of the monks of the Tashilhunpo Monastery, he became concurrently the sixteenth Tripa of the Tashilhunpo. After he arrived at the Tashilhunpo, he did away with the old and set up new monastic rules and put the monastic administration in good order; thus, the Tashilhunpo took on an altogether new aspect. Besides, Lozang Chokyi established the Monlam Festival of the Tashilhunpo Monastery in 1603. It had the same activities as the festival at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.
Lozang Chokyi lived at the time when the Gelug Sect was being persecuted by Tsangpa Khan, then the head of Tibetan local authorities. Except for the Phagdru Kagyu Sect, nearly all the other old religious sects were hostile to the Gelug. Tsangpa Khan's troops more than once destroyed the Gelug's monasteries, persecuting the Gelug Sect with the most cruel measures. For example, in 1605, Tsangpa Khan led his troops to attack the Drepung and Sera monasteries and kill five thousand monks and laymen there. In addition, he forbade the Fourth Dalai Yonten Gyatso's reincarnation after the latter's death. At this critical moment, Lozang Chokyi made every endeavor to save the Gelug Sect. In order that Tsangpa Khan might lift the ban on seeking the Fourth Dalai's reincarnation, Lozang Chokyi cured Tsangpa Khan, the Gelug Sect's mortal enemy, of a serious illness.
In 1631, Tenkyong Wangpo succeeded his father, Phuntsok Namgyal, as Tsangpa Khan. He persecuted the Gelug Sect even more cruelly. So, after consulting with the Fifth Dalai and some other people, Lozang Chokyi secretly sent for Gushri Khan, the chief of the Qoshot Mongols in Xinjiang, to ask him to lead his army into Tibet to defend the Gelug Sect. With the close cooperation of the Gelug Sect, Gushri Khan finally destroyed the Tsangpa Khan regime in 1642 and restored the Gelug's influence. Thus Lozang Chokyi was gradually acknowledged to be the real leader of the Yellow Sect. Following the example of Altan Khan, who had given Sonam Gyatso the title "Dalai Lama," Gushri Khan granted Lozang Chokyi the title "Panchen Pokto" in 1645. Pan is an abbreviation of the Sanskrit word pandita, meaning "wisdom"; chen is an abbreviation of the Tibetan word chenpo, meaning "great"; and pokto means "a wise and brave man" in Mongolian. This is the origin of the title "Panchen."
During the last years of his life, Lozang Chokyi devoted himself mainly to Buddhist studies and writing, to mediating some local conflicts, and to doing good for the people. He died at the Tashilhunpo Monastery in 1662, at the age of ninety-two. Among all the Dalai and Panchen lamas, he enjoyed the longest life. Lozang Chokyi played an important role in the formation of the two lineages of the reincarnate Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas. He firmly stood for the national unification and strongly encouraged the Fifth Dalai to pay homage to the emperor at Beijing. He carried out a firm and flexible struggle against Tsangpa Khan to save the Gelug Sect. He had a close relationship with the Dalai lamas. He was the tutor to both the Fourth and Fifth Dalais. Owing to his painstaking efforts, Tashilhunpo became the largest monastery of the Gelug Sect in Tsang and it achieved the same status as that of the three great monasteries in Lhasa. After his death, all successive Panchen Lamas were concurrently the Tripa of Tashilhunpo, and this has become a convention.
The Fourth Panchen Lama was succeeded by Lozang Yeshe (1663-1737), a native of Thobgyal Shika in Tsang. After the Tashilhunpo senior monks made a careful examination, the three-year-old Lozang Chokyi was confirmed as the reincarnation of Lozang Chokyi. When he was eight years of age, the Fifth Panchen, Lozang Yeshe, took the Fifth Dalai as his tutor. The tutor-disciple relationship between the Dalai and Panchen began with the Fourth Dalai, Yonten Gyatso, and the Fourth Panchen, Lozang Chokyi. From then on, the younger was the disciple and the elder the tutor. Owing to the fact that most of the subsequent Panchen Lamas lived longer lives than the Dalais, in most cases it was the Dalai who took the Panchen as his tutor.
The period in which the Fifth Panchen Lama lived was a period full of serious conflicts between separatism and unification, most of which involved Tibet. Wu Sangui rebelled against the Qing Dynasty in Yunnan in 1674. In a letter to the Qing Emperor Kangxi, the Fifth Dalai Lama Lozang Gyatso said: "It might be advisable to cede territory to him and make peace with him." In addition, taking the opportunity of Wu Sangui's rebellion, the Fifth Dalai sent a Tibetan army to capture two cities of Yunnan—Yangdamu and Jiedamu. Taking the overall situation into consideration, Emperor Kangxi did not make known his stand on the occupation of the two cities by Tibetan troops, but instead ordered that the "military and civil officers of all levels who were sent to suppress the rebellion investigate the letters between Wu Sangui and the Fifth Dalai Lama." This shows the Fifth Dalai had already caused suspicions in the emperor's mind.
In quelling the rebellion launched by the Dzungar chieftain, Galdan, and in the struggle against the Dzungar chieftain Tsewang Rabten's invasion of Tibet, the Fifth Panchen did much better than the Fifth Dalai. The Qing emperor was aware of this; he thus tried to have more contacts with the Panchen so as to raise the Panchen's social status and to contain the Dalai Lama. In 1695 Emperor Kangxi sent an envoy to the Tashilhunpo to give many gifts and a letter of invitation to the Fifth Panchen, inviting him to Beijing for an audience. The Fifth Panchen wanted to accept the emperor's invitation, but the Depa (chief administrator of Tibet) Sangye Gyatso interfered, saying the Panchen could not go to Beijing at that time for fear of a smallpox epidemic. To maintain the internal unity of Tibet, the Fifth Panchen did not argue with Sangye Gyatso about this. Instead, he did his best to mediate the conflicts between Lhazang Khan and Sangye Gyatso. He spared no effort in patching up their quarrels and in keeping the situation from deteriorating. The Panchen Lozang Yeshe won the emperor's trust by his loyalty and righteousness.
In 1713 (the fifty-second year of the Kangxi reign period) the Qing court sent special envoys to Tashilhunpo to confer on the Fifth Panchen, Lozang Yeshe, the title of "Panchen Erdeni" and to present him with an album of appointment and seal of authority. The gold seal remains intact, but the album has been lost. The Authentic Records of the Qing Dynasty says:
The Emperor gave orders to the Board of Minority Affairs as follows: Panchen Hutuktu, being calm by nature, devotes himself to the study of Buddhist doctrines. He deserves praise. It is my order to grant him the title of Panchen Erdeni and an album of appointment and a seal of authority in the same honor as that given to the Dalai Lama.
From this it is evident that the Qing government put the Panchen and the Dalai on the same footing. The Qing government granted the Panchen the title in order that the Panchen, with his social status being raised, could better stabilize the social order in Tibet. From then on, the social status of the Panchen Erdeni was officially established. His successors also had to be confirmed by the central government, and this has become a convention.
After receiving the title, Lozang Yeshe spared no effort in stabilizing local social order. In 1717, the Dzungar chieftain Tsewang Rabten sent troops to attack Tibet, causing the chaos of a three-year war. In 1727, when a war between U and Tsang broke out, Tibet once more fell into chaos. During both wars, the Fifth Panchen acted as a mediator with his good will of unity and stability. He thus won the respect of the Tibetan people and the trust of the Qing emperor.
In 1728 (the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign period), Jalangga, the Censor-in-chief, came to the Potala to read an imperial edict regarding the Panchen to the effect that the whole territory of Tsang and Ngari were to be put under his administration "for the sake of Buddhism and worldly beings." But the Panchen declined on the ground that as a monk he should not be involved too deeply in worldly affairs, and he requested that the order be countermanded. It was only after Jalangga said that the Emperor would be angry at his refusal that he finally, not without reluctance, accepted five districts, including Lhaze, Ngamring and Phuntsoling. Since that time on there were two regimes in Tibet: one was the Tibetan local government headed by the Dalai Lama, and the other was the Panchen Larang headed by the Panchen, both being directly under the jurisdiction of the central government and being under the supervision of the Resident Minister in Tibet.
The Fifth Panchen Lama died at the Tashilhunpo Monastery in the seventh month of 1737 at the age of seventy-four. His reincarnate successor was Palden Yeshe (1738-1780).
The Sixth Panchen Lama, Palden Yeshe, was a native of Namling Dzong in Tsang. At age three, a consecration ceremony was held for him in the Tashilhunpo. When he was eleven years old, he took the Seventh Dalai as his tutor. At twenty-eight, he was officially confirmed as the Sixth Panchen by Emperor Qian-long.
The most important thing the Sixth Panchen Lama did was that he accepted Emperor Qianlong's invitation and went to have an audience with the emperor in 1780 (the forty-fifth year of the Qianlong reign period). The Sixth Panchen received the same grand welcoming ceremony as the Fifth Dalai had when the latter went to Beijing in 1652. Emperor Qianlong ordered that the Temple of Sumeru Happiness and Longevity be built in Rehe (modern Chengde, Hebei Province) for the Panchen's residence, in the same style as that of the Tashilhunpo Monastery. The emperor also sent the crown prince to meet the Panchen when he was still far from Rehe. The prince brought him to Rehe in a yellow sedan chair used by the emperor, under a detachment of the guards of honor. The emperor talked with the Panchen directly and ordered princes and dukes to accompany the Panchen at meals. He also asked the Panchen to bless the princes and princesses by touching their heads and giving princesses religious names. After arriving in Beijing from Rehe, the Panchen Lama took up residence at the Yellow Temple, where the Fifth Dalai Lama had lived. The emperor granted him a gold album and a gold seal of authority and various valuable gifts. The Panchen came to Beijing for the 70th anniversary of Emperor Qianlong's birth and presented the emperor many birthday gifts. The emperor was quite pleased with this.
Unexpectedly, the Sixth Panchen fell seriously ill three months after he arrived in Beijing. The emperor was much concerned over this. He went and visited the Panchen and ordered his own physicians to treat him. The physicians diagnosed the illness as smallpox. The Sixth Panchen Lama died on the second day of the eleventh month in 1780 at the age of forty-two at the Yellow Temple in Beijing. His body was put into a silver stupa and taken back to the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Tsang.
The Panchen Erdeni lineage now has passed through ten generations. The period from the First Panchen Lama to the first half of the period of the Fourth Panchen was duing the Ming Dynasty of China. By then the Panchen lineage was basically formed, but the title of "Panchen" had not yet been acquired. The period from the second half of the Fourth Panchen Lama, Lozang Chokyi, to the first half of the Ninth Panchen, Chokyi Nyima, was during the Qing Dynasty. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Lozang Chokyi acquired the title "Panchen Pokto" from Gushri Khan and Logang Yeshe acquired the title "Panchen Erdeni" from Emperor Kangxi. There were six Panchen Lamas living during the 269 years of the Qing Dynasty. The Ninth Panchen Erdeni, Chokyi Nyima, died in 1937. The Tenth Panchen died in 1989.
Comparing the Panchen lineage to that of the Dalai lineage, we can draw the following conclusions:
(1) Religiously, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama have an equal status. Both of them were Tsongkhapa's disciples and both made contributions to the cause of the Yellow Sect. However, as to the scope of religious activities, the Panchen lineage did not enjoy as much prestige as the Dalai lineage did. The six Panchens mentioned above were all natives of Tsang, while the eight Dalais mentioned above came from different places of Tibet, Sichuan, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia. As the scope of activities of the two lineages differed, the number of monasteries, manors and serfs they owned also differed. The monasteries and monks of the Panchen lineage accounted for about ten percent of the total, while those of the Dalai lineage made up about ninety percent.[10]
(2) The political status of the Dalai and Panchen was identical. They both were under the direct leadership of the central government, both were granted official titles by the emperor and both were under the supervision of the Resident Minister in Tibet. Although they had tutor-disciple relationship between themselves, they were not subordinate to one another. Nonetheless, regarding political power, the Dalai Lama is the leading factor, since he had the Tibetan local government under his control, while the Panchen Lama had only five dzong (equivalent to county) in Tsang under his jurisdiction, a territory much smaller than the Dalai's.
(3) The lineages of the Dalais and Panchens share an identical history of six-hundred-odd years. Both lineages have produced a number of eminent political-religious leaders. The Dalai lineage has come to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and the Panchen lineage has come to the Eleventh Panchen Erdeni. Judged by the personal activities of these political-religious leaders, the Panchens were more devoted to religious and Tibetan internal affairs, while the Dalais had a larger scope of social activities, combining their religious with their political undertakings. In modern history, both the lineages of the Dalai and Panchen have been patriotic, opposing imperialism and supporting the central government, although the Thirteenth Dalai fled to India for a short time and the Fourteenth Dalai is still in exile abroad.
The Influence Exerted by the Gelug Sect over Tibetan Society
The Gelug monastic group has exerted important and far-reaching influence over Tibetan society ever since its formation, although the impact was more obvious during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Gelug Sect played an active role in maintaining the unity of the motherland and stabilizing Tibetan society, but it also played a negative role in obstructing Tibet's social development.
First, the rise of the Gelug Sect strengthened the relations between Tibet and the central government; it was conducive for the central government to exercise administrative authority and ideological control over Tibet. The Gelug Sect came into being at the beginning of the fifteenth century; at that time it was only one of many sects of Tibetan Buddhism. By the middle of the seventeenth century, it had already evolved into a strong political power group. Economically, it owned a great amount of land, numerous monasteries and subjects; in a short period of a few dozens of years, its influence had spread to all areas inhabited by Tibetans in southwest and northwest China. This was because the Gelug's influence met the needs of the rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties for strengthening their rule over Tibet, and, on the other hand, this was the result of the strong support given the Gelug Sect by the rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The Ming court changed the Yuan court's policy of relying only on the Sakya Sect and canceled the Xuanzheng-yuan (Commission for Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs) and the system of Imperial Preceptor, but implemented the policy of patronizing several religious powers. The Board of Rites was responsible for contacts with Tibetan political and religious leaders, and all important matters were handled by the emperor himself.
The Qing court set up the Lifan-yuan (Board of Minority Affairs). During the first half of the Qing Dynasty, the Tibetan areas were called Tangut (a Mongolian word for the Xixia Dynasty in the Yuan Dynasty. The Manchus used this word for areas inhabited by Tibetans). The Tibetan areas in northwest China were called "Amdo" in Tibetan and those in southwest China were called "Kham." The fact that Tibet proper was called "Xi Zang" in Chinese originated during the period of Emperor Kangxi's reign. The Qing government paid much attention to the administration of Tibet. Owing to the fact that the influence of the Yellow Sect had extended to every corner of the areas inhabited by Mongols and Tibetans, the Qing government implemented a policy of patronizing the Gelug Sect so as to keep the Mongol and Tibetan areas under its control. Furthermore, by installing the post of Resident Minister in Tibet, granting titles to both the Dalai and Panchen, and supervising the procedure of "drawing lots from a gold urn" to determine reincarnations of Living Buddhas, the Qing government had the sovereignty over Tibet in its hands. It should be said that the Qing government's policy of "patronizing the Yellow Sect" was successful, because it not only put Tibet under the effective jurisdiction of the central authorities, but also enhanced the centripetal force of the Mongolian and Tibetan areas.
Second, the rise and development of the Yellow Sect was conducive to maintaining social order in Tibet. The Yellow Sect put the Tibetan local government under its direct control through its religious influence and by the merging of religious and secular rule. The ruling organization was divided into three levels: Kashag (Tibetan local government), dzong (district), and shika (manor). The social basis of the Yellow Sect was its monasteries, officialdom and the aristocrats. Through these three feudal manorial lords, the Yellow Sect rigidly controlled the Tibetan local society in political, economic, ideological, and cultural aspects. At the same time, the Yellow Sect advocated respect for discipline and encouraged austerity and simple living, thus playing an important role both in reducing social turbulence and in blunting people's fighting will. As soon as the Gelug Sect began to develop, it got financial support from the Phagmodrupa regime—then the Tibetan local authority. That the Qing rulers strongly patronized the Yellow Sect was also for this reason. The period when the Yellow Sect rose was a period that witnessed the Tibetan feudal serfdom in its ascendancy. The Yellow Sect played an important role in consolidating the system of serfdom.
Third, the rise and development of the Yellow Sect boosted both the Tibetan Buddhist and secular cultures. Ever since the time of Tsongkhapa, the Yellow Sect had stressed the importance of studying scriptures, and has gradually formed a good style for diligent and meticulous scholarship. It turned out a great number of eminent scholar-monks, constituting the majority of the Tibetan intelligentsia. The large-scale Monlam Prayer Festival and the building of a great number of monasteries not only activated Buddhist culture and expanded religious influence, it also brought about great advances in architecture, music, painting, poetry, dance and historical studies, thus promoting the development of secular culture. In places outside Tibet where the Yellow Sect played an active role, it promoted the cultural exchange between the Tibetans and the Han, Manchu, and Mongolian peoples.
Nevertheless, owing to the fact that the Gelug Sect, which rose and developed during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, met the needs of the Ming and Qing's ruling classes and became their spiritual tool for ruling Tibet, it was quite natural that it would produce a negative impact on Tibetan society, some of which brought about evil social results and obstructed the progress of Tibetan society. This is reflected mainly in the following aspects:
(1) The Yellow Sect obstructed the increase of Tibetan population and the progress of Tibetan society. The Tibetan population exceeded two million during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). One thousand years later in 1737 (the second year of Qing Emperor Qianlong's reign), it had been reduced to slightly over 957,000. In 1954, after the New China was founded, the population in Tibet was only 1,373,000, an increase of just over 400,000 in the past two hundred years. Although this was attributed to the wars and disease, religion was also a factor in hindering the multiplication of the population.
The Yellow Sect encouraged "pureness of heart" and asceticism, and monks were forbidden to get married. Thus, one-third of the Tibetans did not marry, or, two-thirds of the male Tibetans did not marry and produce offspring. According to statistics compiled by the Board of Minority Affairs of the Qing Dynasty in 1737, the Tibetan population at that time was about 957,000, among which males constituted about 450,000-500,000. The number of monks in the monasteries and temples was 316,000, making up one-third of the total population, or two-thirds of the total males.
The merging of religious and secular rule in Tibet began during the Yuan Dynasty; after the rise of the Yellow Sect in the late Ming and early Qing, the political system that combined political and religious power was increasingly strengthened and perfected. On the one hand, the combination of religion and serfdom brought about a super-stable social structure, and thus weakened the driving power of society. On the other hand, rebellions and religious wars launched by local rulers in the name of protecting religion and the struggles between different Buddhist sects seriously hindered the advance of the productive forces. All these are reasons why the civilization progress of the Tibetan regions was retarded.
(2) The Yellow Sect seriously hampered the economic development of the Tibetan society, increasing the burdens on the laboring people. The Yellow Sect stipulated that monks should not involve themselves in secular affairs and forbade them from engaging in productive labor. Thus, in the junction of the Ming and Qing dynasties, each monk had to be provided for by at least three people.
The Tibetan exploiting class was composed of three categories of feudal lords: local government officials, aristocrats, and the high clergy. The ruling monks of the monasteries had large tracts of land and a great number of serfs under their control, and their exploitation of serfs was no lighter than that of the government officials and aristocrats. Serfs had to do unpaid labor for their lords regularly every year, in addition to being forced to perform various corvee duties for local government officials. During the busy farming season, because able-bodied serfs had to perform corvee for their manorial lords, only old people and children remained to work on their "contracted fields." A General History of U-Tsang says: "It is a common scene that manorial lords and officials seize irrigating canals for their own use, and so serfs' land cannot be watered in time and thus renders crop failures."
The cruel political laws and religious disciplines, economic and extra-economic exploitation, and the feudal lords' ownership of their serfs—all these seriously destroyed the production of agriculture and animal husbandry and other industries, thus retarding the economic development of Tibet. Mao Zedong once pointed out:
In my view, Tibet is a serf society, just like the manorial system of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770-221 B.C.), where slaves are not slaves and free peasants are not free peasants; it is a serf system between the two.[11]
At the juncture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the seeds of capitalism had already appeared in the eastern coastal areas of China, while production relations and the level of productive forces in Tibet still remained in the Middle Ages.
(3) The Yellow Sect's doctrines seriously shackled people's ideology and pushed Tibetan culture and ideology into a lopsided development of mysticism and asceticism. The Yellow Sect had more appeal among the people and was more poisonous in this respect than other lamaist sects. It put more stress on meditation and abstinence, advocating that "all things are impermanent," and "there is no individual independent existence (no ego)." It claimed that sensuous desire is the root of all evil; and only by devoting oneself to the study of the scriptures (Sutras), disciplines (Vinaya) and treatises (Sastras) of the Tripitaka can one be relieved from constant transmigration and retribution. The lopsided development of Buddhist culture blurred the social enterprise spirit and damaged the development of science and technology. The Yellow Sect had a great number of deep-rooted followers, and so it played a major retarding role on society.
The rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties were quite clear about the religion. The Qing Emperor Qianlong once said: "How can there be such a thing as reincarnation!" Zhao Gui, an official working in the Board of Minority Affairs of the Qing government, pointed out:
The state patronizes the Yellow Sect not because it wants to court blessings by worshipping the religion, but because all the Mongol tribes have had a belief in the Yellow Sect for a long time. To patronize the religion may appease its followers so that they may pledge their allegiance to the government and keep the border land in peace[12]
It is thus clear that the reason for patronizing this Buddhist sect was for political purposes. Even the ruling class knew that the Living Buddha's reincarnation was impossible.
Tibetan People Stand against Western Powers' Invasion
The Invasion of Western Influences and the Opening of Tibet's Door
Western Powers' Invasion of the Countries South of the Himalayas
Western capitalist countries rose up rapidly in the seventeenth century, with the British bourgeois revolution as a landmark. As soon as it came into being, capitalism embarked on a road of external conquests and the looting of other nations. With the deepening aggression against China by Western powers, Tibet also became the target of their designs. The invasion of the countries south of the Himalayas was only a prelude to their large-scale invasion of Tibet.
To the south of the Himalayas lie India, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. As one of the centers of ancient civilizations, India had created a brilliant culture. But separatist regimes dominated the Indian peninsula for a long time after the Middle Ages. Although the Mogul Empire, established in 1526, reunified India, under the attacks of peasant uprisings and foreign intruders, India again fell into serious internal crises in the seventeenth century.
Nepal was then called Gurkha. A kingdom appeared there in the sixth century B.C. In 1776 a Gurkha named Prithvi Narayan Shah unified Nepal and established the Shah Dynasty. In 1788 and 1791 it twice invaded China's Tibet and was defeated by the Qing troops that went to Tibet, and so it acknowledged allegiance and paid "tributes" to the Qing government and became one of the Qing's vassal states.
Sikkim was called "Drenjong." It was a part of the Tubo Dynasty in the seventh century. It separated from Tibet after the ninth century, but came again under the jurisdiction of the Tibetan local government after the seventeenth century. In 1700, the Tibetan local government sent troops to dispel the Bhutanese and Nepalese troops that had intruded into Sikkim.
Bhutan was called "Brukpa," meaning "the end of Tibet"; it had been a dependency of the Tubo Dynasty up to the ninth century. During the Qianlong reign period (1736-1795) the Qing government granted the title "Nominhan" to the king of Bhutan so as to make Bhutan a vassal state of the Qing court.
The geographical locations of the countries south of the Himalayas constituted a natural barrier to the access of Tibet. Western powers had to put these countries under their direct control and occupy them before they could use them as a springboard for penetrating into Tibet. Therefore, the Western aggressors first turned their attention on subduing the states adjacent to Tibet. At that time the Qing government was waning and declining and so it adopted a passive, "none-of-my-business" attitude toward the acts of aggression that Britain was perpetrating against these countries. This, in reality, encouraged British aggression.
In May 1498 Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese, first led his ships to Calicut in south India and established a colonial settlement. Following the Portuguese, the British colonialists flocked to India. Britain established the English East India Company in 1600, which engaged in colonial activities in the Indian Ocean. In 1613, after setting up a commercial station at Surat in India, the British used this as a base for expansion into the interior of India. They set up Fort Saint George at Madras as headquarters for the East India Company. After drawing native Indian princes to their side, the British colonialists gradually expelled the Portuguese and began to regard India as their exclusive sphere of influence.
After the mid-eighteenth century, the British colonialists took advantage of the disintegration of the Mogul Empire to embark on a road of direct aggression and looting of India. The East India Company organized a big army and evolved into a military and political organization. The East India Company's troops defeated the Indians at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, occupied Bengal, and thus accelerated tremendously the process of India's colonization. They occupied Assam in 1826 and began to face China's Tibet directly. The British occupied Punjab in 1849, thus completing the annexation of the whole India. From then on, India was reduced to a British colony and became the base of British intrusions into Tibet.
After occupying India, the British did not stop their northward expansion. In 1814, hostilities broke out between Sikkim and Nepal. The king of Sikkim asked the Qing Resident Minister in Tibet for help but was refused, and the king then turned to the British for help. The British took advantage of this situation to enter Sikkim and force her to accept British protection. Thus, Sikkim was reduced to the status of a British protectorate. In 1817 Britain and Sikkim signed the Treaty of Titagarh, which stipulated that if conflicts should arise between Sikkim and Nepal again, Britain would act as the mediator.
In 1835, when border disputes did again arise between Sikkim and Nepal, Sikkim turned to Britain for mediation. Taking advantage of this situation, the British asked for rights to Darjeeling, which was located in south Sikkim and on the route between Tibet and India, for which Britain promised to pay Sikkim a rental of three thousand rupees. From then on, Darjeeling became a British strategic base for the aggression against Tibet. In 1860, the British sent troops into Sikkim under the pretext of persecution of a British tourist by the Sikkimese. When Britain defeated Sikkim, it dictated the following terms of peace: free trade by British subjects in Sikkim, the construction of roads, and Sikkim to act as the British agent in handling communication affairs with Tibet. In 1890, the British forced the Qing government to sign the "Tibet-India Treaty," which officially stipulated that Sikkim was under the exclusive protection of Britain, and that Britain was in charge of the internal and foreign affairs of Sikkim. By then Sikkim was wholly under Britain's control.
While the British were making inroads on Sikkim, they also began to extend their tentacles into Nepal. At that time, in order to resist British economic aggression, the Nepalese government announced that it was going to raise its transit duties, which caused dissatisfaction on the part of Britain. In 1814 the British invaded Nepal on the excuse of ending an internal revolt. The Nepalese government offered resistance and at the same time appealed to the Qing government for help. The Qing government not only refused to help, but reproved them for having provoked the British, saying that they were "looking for trouble." Being left without any help, the Nepalese were forced to negotiate a peace and signed the Treaty of Segolie (Sagauli) with Britain in December 1815. Under that treaty, Nepal ceded large tracts of land in the west of the country, including Kumaung, to Britain; it had to have a resident British envoy in Kathmandu; and Britain had the right to mediate between Nepal and Sikkim if any disputes should arise. Thus, Nepal began to fall under the British control. In 1846, with British support, the pro-British Rana family staged a coup d'etat and held the inheritable post of the prime minister, who had military and political powers in his hand. By then Nepal had become virtually a dependency of Britain.
The invasion of Bhutan by Britain began in the 1820s. After occupying Assam in India, the British immediately made trouble on the border between India and Bhutan, compelling the Bhutanese government to lease some important mountain passes to the British for a price of ten thousand rupees per year in 1826. In order to gain more privileges and profits, Britain launched a large-scale attack on Bhutan in 1864 and forced the latter to sign the "British-Bhutanese Treaty" at New Chula in November 1865, under which Britain obtained the trade privileges in Bhutan, the Bhutanese government ceded eighteen mountain passes on the border between Bhutan and India to Britain, and disputes between Bhutan and Sikkim were to be subject to arbitration by the British government. Thus, Britain opened up an eastern route for invading Tibet. In January 1910 Britain forced the Bhutanese government to sign a "Supplementary Treaty," under which Britain had the right to control Bhutan's foreign affairs. By now Bhutan had completely become a British protectorate.
Having thus taken over India, Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan, Britain finally established its supreme headquarters and forward positions for invading Tibet. Now that its long border line was exposed to the Western powers, Tibet was threatened to become reduced to a semi-colony or colony.
The First-Phase Invasion of Tibet by Western Powers
While Western powers were making aggressions in the countries south of the Himalayas, they also extended their tentacles of aggression into Tibet. Ever since the beginning of the seventeenth century, Western aggressive forces had left their ominous footprints there.
At the beginning, the Western aggressive forces used religious infiltration as their key strategy, i.e. they sent missionaries as pioneers to the interior of Tibet to spread Christianity, engaging in secret reconnaissance, collecting all the information they could get as a preparation for the ensuing aggression. The first Westerners to enter Tibet were Antonio de Andrade and Marcos, Portuguese missionaries. They made the difficult journey across the Himalayas and reached Tsaparang, the capital of Gu-ge Kingdom (in the present-day Zanda County, Ngari Prefecture). They got the support of the King of Gu-ge by offering him valuable gifts and established the first Western church in Tibet. Soon afterward, three more missionaries came to Tsaparang from India in the hope of further spreading Christianity. They studied Tibetan diligently and tried by every means to come close to the Tibetan masses so as to win their sympathy. Finally they found new footholds in northwest Tibet, setting up sub-churches in Rutog Dzong and Leh.
Nevertheless, the Western missionaries' activities did not get good results. The psychology, customs, and religious beliefs of the Tibetan people, who had followed Lamaism for a long time, were completely incompatible with those of the missionaries. Very few Tibetan people accepted Catholic Christianity. The local Lamaist followers were disgusted with the unrestrained activities of the missionaries in Tibet and rose up to resist their activities. In 1630, responding to the call of the Lamaist monks, the people in Tsaparang staged a revolt and overthrew the rule of the King of Gu-ge and arrested all the missionaries. In 1635 the Tibetan people finally forced all the missionaries out of the Ngari region and won the first victory of resistance against foreign aggressive forces.
While the missionaries were carrying on their activities in Ngari, they also cast greedy eyes on Tsang. Two Portuguese missionaries, Chessera and Camberver, reached Xigaze in 1628 and attempted to set up a church there. But their activities also met opposition from the local monks and their efforts came to nothing. The two people were forced to return to India in 1632.
Although meeting with repeated failures, foreign missionaries still insisted on their efforts. They finally got the permission of the central government of the Qing court to send John Grueber and Albert D'Orville, two Jesuit priests, to Lhasa by way of Beijing and Xining in 1661. Afterward, these two departed from Lhasa for India via Nepal. By this action, the foreign missionaries finally completed their exploration of the route from China's hinterland to India by way of Tibet. They made investigations of Tibet's economy and communications, and they collected information for foreign missionaries to carry out further missionary activities in Tibet.
In 1714, the Roman Catholic Church sent two more Jesuit priests, Ippolito Desideri and Emmanuel Freyre, to sneak into Tibet. When they reached Lhasa in 1716, Tibet was under the control of Lhazang Khan, leader of the Qoshot Mongol tribe. Desideri won the trust of Lhazang Khan, and lived in Lhasa and Tsetang for five years. In addition, he studied Buddhist doctrines in the Sera Monastery and worked on a book that attacked Lamaism. This caused resentment from Tibetan secular and clerical people and he could no longer stay in Tibet but had to depart for India in 1721.
Soon afterward, the Roman Catholic Church sent three Capuchin monks to Lhasa with the intention of establishing the first Catholic church there. However, the local people opposed them and their church was closed in 1745. Thus, during the hundred-odd years between 1624 and 1745, the religious infiltration by the Western forces ended in failure.
Besides the Portuguese, the Western powers that intended to move in on Tibet were Britain and Russia. From the eighteenth century on, Britain gradually took over the colonial predominance of Portugal and Holland in Asia. The British East India Company, which played a decisive role in aggression on China, was a daring vanguard in the first phase of British aggression on Tibet.
In order to collect information about Tibet, the British Viceroy in India, Warren Hastings, sent an investigative team headed by George Bogle, secretary of the East India Company, to Tibet in 1774. Prior to Bogle's departure, Hastings instructed him to make a study of the route from Lhasa to Siberia; to learn about the roads and inhabitants along the routes from Bengal to Lhasa and from Lhasa to its adjacent areas; to investigate the administration, finance and folklore of the areas, and to try to have a British trade agency set up in Lhasa. Bogle arrived at Xigaze in November of that year and stayed there for about half a year. On the one hand, Bogle tried to get the Sixth Panchen Lama to appeal to the Qing central government to open Tibet to the East India Company, and, on the other, he tried to lure the Panchen Lama into concluding a local trade agreement with the East India Company. Nevertheless, all his proposals were refused by the Panchen. The Panchen explicitly expressed the facts that Tibet was a part of China, that all of Tibet was subject to the Qing Court in Beijing, that the power to conclude such agreements rested in Beijing, and that the Tibetan local government had no right to make such a decision. Bogle gained nothing and had to return to India empty-handed.
Having returned to India, Bogle furnished the East India Company with a mass of information concerning Tibet. Warren Hastings, the British governor-general in India, then sent Turner and Samdre to Tibet on the pretext of saluting the Seventh Panchen on his enthronement. They stayed in Xigaze for three months, continuing to pester the Panchen to conclude a trade agreement between India and Tibet. Again they were refused by the Panchen's side. Tibetan officials categorically informed them that the central government of the Qing Dynasty and the Tibetan local government forbade foreigners from entering Tibet and forbade Englishmen from doing business in Tibet. Turner also gained nothing and returned to India empty-handed.
The first Englishman to reach Lhasa was Thomas Manning. He came there in November 1811 in the disguise of an Indian monk and stayed there for about four months. His aim was to investigate the Tibetan officialdom and local authorities, and he tried to sow discord between the Tibetan local government and the Qing court. Before arriving in Tibet, Thomas Manning had lived in Guangzhou for more than three years between 1806 and 1810. The Qing Resident Minister in Tibet, Yang Chunbao, was at that time working in Guangzhou and had met Manning there. After arriving in Lhasa, Manning wantonly spread separatist opinions among the local officials; Yang Chunbao discovered this plot and reported his behavior to the Qing court and Manning was expelled from Tibet.
While Britain was committing aggression against Tibet, another colonial power—Czarist Russia—also cast greedy eyes on Tibet.
Territorial expansion had always been the established policy of the Czarist government. After the 1580s, the Czarist Russian forces came across the Urals and entered Asia. Having gradually annexed the Central Asian countries and entered Siberia, Czarist Russia then bordered China. From that time on, the attempt to include Tibet in its territory became one of the important strategies of Russia's aggression against China.
As early as the mid-eighteenth century, Russia sent men to the Baikal region to gather information about Tibetan politics, geography, religion, language, etc. from among the Buriat Mongols, who were followers of Lamaism. The Foreign Ministry of the Czarist government officially established an Asian Department to take charge of aggression against China in 1819. A great number of the Eastern Orthodox missionaries, taking advantage of their being allowed to live in China, tried to make contact with high-ranking officials of the Qing court and members of the upper strata of the Mongolian and Tibetan societies. They gathered information of every description about the border areas of China by all means and in a large scale; among the best known of these persons was Yakinv Bichurin, who edited and translated into Russian A History of Tibet and Kokonor and The Present-Day Tibet: With a Map of the Route from Chengdu to Lhasa. Another was V. P. Vasiliev, whose main task was to "master the Tibetan language" and to study the history, geography, culture and religion of the ethnic minorities in the frontier regions of China. After arriving in Beijing, he compiled the ABC to the Tibetan Language, Selected Readings in Tibetan, and A History of Buddhism in Tibetan, Han and Mongolian Areas, and translated a Tibetan book, Geography of Tibet, into Russian. This book gives details on the routes from Tibet to the interior of China. It is obvious that the Czarist government was anxious to get the first-hand information about Tibet to prepare for their aggression against Tibet later on.
It is clear that gathering of information in the name of missionary activities was a major activity in the early period of Western-power aggression against Tibet; Britain was the most active in this. However, prior to the Opium War in 1840, the Qing Dynasty was an independent feudal sovereign state, and it exercised a strict and effective control over Tibet, and the Tibetan clerical and temporal upper strata had a strong inclination toward the Qing court, so that the Western powers were set back in this early period of their aggression. Therefore, the sovereignty exercised by the Qing government over Tibet did not suffer obvious damage.
The Fatuous Qing Court and the Opening of the Gate of Tibet
The Opium War in 1840 marked the decline of China from an independent feudal society into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. After the Opium War, the Qing government was weighed down by the invasion of China's eastern coastal areas by Western powers and it became powerless to handle Tibetan affairs. As a result, its administration in Tibet became increasingly slack. Owing to this fatuous policy toward Tibet, Tibet also began to embark on the road of semi-colonialism under the penetration of Western powers, just like the other parts of China. An unprecedented border crisis and social disaster began to fall upon the Tibetans.
The stupidity of the Qing policy toward Tibet was reflected first in the appointment, removal, promotion, and demotion of officials resident in Tibet. The Qing Dynasty began to show signs of decline and fall after the middle period of Emperor Qianlong's reign. Corruption and degeneration of officials became a common problem nationwide. This was also true in regard to the Qing's rule over Tibet. Most of the Resident Ministers in Tibet were incompetent and fatuous; they attempted nothing and accomplished nothing. During the twenty-one years from the twentieth year of Emperor Daoguang's reign (1840) to the eleventh year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign (1861), altogether eleven Resident Ministers were appointed, with an average tenure of office of less than two years each. They stayed in Tibet for only a short time. What they wished for was to return home safe and sound, and they remained indifferent to their work and never gave serious thought to government affairs. Especially after the Daoguang reign period, most of the officials resident in Tibet were people who had committed mistakes in other provinces and were therefore dispatched to Tibet as a punishment. For example, Qi Shan committed serious mistakes in the Opium War and was reprimanded by the emperor and removed from office before he was appointed as Resident Minister in Tibet. People of this kind often had little concern about their reputations and committed corruption without restraint. This caused complaints by the Tibetan people and fomented and deepened misunderstandings and feelings of estrangement between the Tibetan local government and the central government.
The Qing troops in Tibet were not rotated regularly and stayed there for a long time. Having lost hope of returning home to the hinterland, most of them got married and set up families in Tibet. They were not interested in military affairs; their combat effectiveness existed in name only.
Such a corrupt bureaucratic style of work could not safeguard state sovereignty. At the beginning, the Qing court stipulated that all foreign affairs should be handled by the Resident Minister in Tibet and that he was capable of dealing with the "missionary and exploratory" activities of the Western aggressive forces. But after the Opium War, most of the Resident Ministers in Tibet adopted an attitude of "making concessions to avoid trouble," performing their duties in a perfunctory manner. Qi Shan reaffirmed the power and disciplines involving foreign affairs, but this produced little effect.
The other task of the Resident Minister in Tibet was to patrol the border and supervise military affairs. But owing to the frequent removal of the resident officials and lack of funds, regular patrols of the border were not kept up and the defense of the borders became increasingly weak. Under such circumstances, it was a matter of course that the gate of Tibet was forced open by the imperialists.
The stupidity of the Qing's Tibetan policy was reflected in the handling of the Ladakh question. Ladakh is located to the west of Tibet, and it was once a part of Tibet. The Tubo prince Nyimagon established a local regime in Ngari in the ninth century. Later, Ngari was divided into three parts: Ladakh, Gu-ge and Purang.
In 1630, the Ladakhi chieftain Sengge Namgyal unified the Ngari region. In 1683, the Tibetan local government defeated the Kashmir troops that invaded Ngari and again put Ladakh under its jurisdiction. Historically, Ladakh had intimate relations with Tibet politically, culturally, religiously, and racially, and it paid tribute to the Qing government and the Dalai Lama regularly.
In 1834, the ruler of the Dogra tribe in Kashmir, with Britain's encouragement, sent Wazir and his troops to invade Ladakh and dethroned the Ladakhi ruler.
In 1841, Ladakh was once again invaded by Kashmiris. They occupied the Ngari region and tried to launch an attack into the interior of Tibet. Kalon Tseten Dorje and Dapon Pelshi, sent by Meng Bao, the Resident Minister in Tibet, led a Tibetan army of 3,000 men in a counter-offensive that ended in the killing of Wazir and the expulsion of the Kashmiris from Ngari. However, owing to the weakness and incompetence of the Qing government in guiding the war, when the Tibetan troops met the Kashmirian reinforcements in Ladakh, the battle ended in a stalemate and a peace agreement was reached. Although by then Ladakh was still under the jurisdiction of Tibet, it began to fall under the control of Kashmir. Two years later, the Kashmirian troops once again invaded Ladakh, and the Tibetan troops were forced to pull out. From that time on Ladakh was occupied by Kashmir. The British officially annexed Kashmir in 1846. Ladakh thus came under British colonial rule and was cut off completely from China.
The British occupation of Ladakh was the first important incident in modern history that humiliated China and forfeited its sovereignty over the southwest frontiers of China. However, the corrupt and incompetent Qing government viewed the British occupation of Ladakh with unconcern. And this further encouraged Britain's aggressive ambitions. Soon afterward, Britain incited Nepal to launch a military invasion into Tibet.
The conclusion of the "Tibet-Nepal Treaty" vividly exposed how decrepit and muddle-headed was the Qing government. In 1846, the Rana family, with British support, staged a coup d'etat and seized the military and governmental power of Nepal. In 1853, they took advantage of the fact that the Qing government was concentrating its forces to suppress an anti-Qing revolutionary movement known as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-1864) in the interior of China and could not spare any troops for Tibet, sent an invading army into Tibet, occupied Nyalam, Kyirong, and Dzongga, and then launched a large-scale northward invasion of Tsang. The Tibetan people heroically rose to resist the enemy, but the Qing government adopted an attitude of "making concessions to avoid trouble." They did not send reinforcements to Tibet and instead asked for a peace agreement with Nepal. Finally, the "Tibet-Nepal Treaty" was concluded on March 24, 1856. This was the first unequal treaty signed by the Qing government in Tibet.
The British, through its dependency—the Nepalese government—obtained more profits from the aggression. Article one of the treaty stipulated: the Tibetan government was to pay the sum of ten thousand rupees (amounting to 2,000 taels of silver) annually to the Nepalese government. There was no time limit to this indemnity and it became a heavy burden on the Tibetan local government. Articles three and six stipulated: Nepalese merchants could open shops in Lhasa and engage in free trade, and Tibet could not levy taxes on trade or taxes on roads or taxes of any other kind against the Nepalese merchants. From then on British commodities flowed into Tibet through Nepal in a steady stream, creating favorable conditions for Britain to dump its goods. Articles five and seven stipulated: the Nepalese government would have a resident envoy in Lhasa and enjoy consular jurisdiction. The Nepalese who had committed crimes in Tibet were not subject to the judgment of the law of China, but would be tried by the Nepalese officials resident in Lhasa. This was a serious infringement on Chinese judicial power.
Owing to the fatuousness of the Qing government, the British became insatiable. After they instigated the ruler of Kashmir and the Nepalese to make military incursions against Tibet, the British began to plan direct invasions into Tibet. From the 1870s on, Britain sent numerous "investigation teams" and "exploration teams" to Tibet. They gathered detailed intelligence about Tibet's mountains, rivers, climate, communications, products, etc., and drew up maps in preparation for their further aggression into Tibet.
In 1874 A. R. Margary, an English interpreter, was killed in Yunnan. The British imperialists, using this incident as a pretext, intimidated the Qing government into concluding the Chefoo Convention at Yantai (Chefoo), Shandong Province, in September 1876. The convention contained a separate article that gave Britain the right to dispatch men from the interior of China to India via Tibet and from India to Tibet, in which case the Chinese government would issue necessary passports and write to the local officers to take care of the British when they arrived in Tibet. Thus, Britain forced the Qing government to open the gate to Tibet.
In 1879, invoking this treaty, Britain sent some people from Sichuan to Kham and Tibet for the purpose of "travel." The Qing government dared not stop this action, but instructed the Resident Minister in Tibet to inform the Tibetan local government to let the British enter Tibet and to provide the British with an escort of Han and Tibetan soldiers.
The attitude of the Qing government that fawned on and made concessions to foreigners aroused great indignation among the Tibetan people. The Tibetan local government called a meeting to discuss the matter; all the secular and clerical headmen from U-Tsang objected to the Westerners' "exploration" in Tibet. Thus, a petition, signed by the Dalai, the Panchen and others, was sent to Song Gui, Resident Minister in Tibet, to be forwarded to the central government. They pointed out in the petition:
The Westerners, as we have learned, are by nature wicked people who defame Buddhism with wanton lies in order to destroy this religion; peaceful co-existence with such people in Tibet is, therefore, out of the question. The entire secular and ecclesiastical populace of Tibet have now taken the oath that no Westerners shall be allowed entry into Tibet, and have vowed to stand by our oath from this generation on. If any Westerners attempt to enter Tibet, troops will be sent to halt their advance and turn them back by peaceful means; should they resort to force, all the Tibetan people will fight them with all our might.[1]
The petition was tantamount to a declaration of the Tibetan people against foreign invasion. Owing to the Tibetan people's resolute attitude, the Qing government could not but to persuade the British to give up their attempt to enter Tibet. In 1880, some British risked entry into Batang in Kham. The Batang people immediately organized themselves into battle teams and threatened to halt the British advance with force. They also sent letters to all tusis (local headmen), asking them to drive out all the Westerners in their regions. The Tibetan local government also informed its officials in various places that "no Westerners shall be allowed to pass through their domain and no escort parties shall be provided for them."[2] The anti-British struggle of the Tibetan people forced the British to give up their attempt to enter Tibet.
In 1885 Britain sent Colman Macaulay, an official of the Indian Civil Service, to lead a commercial investigation team to Tibet. Under the pretext of surveying mineral deposits in Tibet, they gained a passport by cheating the Qing government. When they reached Kampa Dzong in Tsang, they were halted by the local people. Macaulay threatened to send in three thousand troops to attack them if they would not let him through, but the Kampa people persisted in stopping Macaulay's party and kept them in Kampa Dzong for several months.
This happened at a time when Britain was bent on military aggression in Burma (Myanmar), a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty. In order to lure the Qing court into agreeing on its annexation of Burma, Britain decided to make a little concession concerning the Tibetan issue for the time being. Britain agreed to cancel the article in the Chefoo Convention regarding giving Britain the right to send people to Tibet to make an investigation of routes. But the British did not want to give up negotiations on the frontier trade between Tibet and India. "The Sino-British Convention Relating to Burma" that was concluded in 1885 stipulated that China should handle the matter and persuade the local people, and that if it was possible to boost commerce, another agreement should be negotiated. The gate to Tibet was finally forcibly opened when Britain launched its first aggressive war against Tibet in 1888.
Britain and Russia Contend over Tibet
The British aggression into Tibet ran into contradictions with Czarist Russia's "southward expansion" policy. In order to contend with Britain for Tibet, Nicholai Prejevalsky, an officer with the Russian Headquarters of the General Staff, several times led "exploration teams" that intruded into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 1870 to 1884. The Czarist government not only provided financial and personnel supplies for these activities, but also sent armed Cossacks as guards for the teams. These intruders acted as tyrants, did as they pleased, and killed many Tibetans who opposed them. Prejevalsky and his band killed more than thirty Tibetans in 1884.
Britain launched its first aggressive war against Tibet in 1888. From then on the gate to Tibet was open. In fear that Britain might get the upper hand, Czarist Russia began to spread pro-Russian opinions among Tibetan personages, thus engaging in separatist activities. Exploiting the Tibetans' strong anti-British feelings, Russian spies went about among Tibetan officials saying that the purpose of the Russians' coming into Tibet was to help the Tibetans safeguard their territory, and they gave the Tibetan officials three confidential letters, promising that if Tibet was in need of immediate help, they should send the letters to Russia, which would then dispatch its troops to Tibet to aid the Tibetans.[3] This shows the evil purpose of the Russian government in interfering in Tibetan affairs with its troops.
A Russian diplomat named Badmayev submitted a report to the Czar entitled "The Pressing Task of Russia in the Far East" in 1893, in which he proposed to recruit several thousand Russians of Buriat Mongols origin and send them to China's borderland under the disguise of being merchants and pilgrims with the purpose of buying over the scums of China to stage an armed rebellion. If they succeeded, these rebels were to announce the incorporation of Xinjiang and Tibet into Russia. In this way a large tract of China's territory might "peacefully be incorporated into Russian territory." The Czar appreciated this proposal and immediately allotted two million rubles to set up the "Badmayev Commerce Company" to engage in the evil plot. As a result, a large number of Russian spies, in the guise of merchants and pilgrims, went into Tibet one after another. There were about as many as two thousand Russian Buriat monks studying in the three great monasteries of Lhasa—Ganden, Sera and Drepung —in 1889. Among them, Dorjieff played a very important role in planning to split Tibet from China. He spent the longest time in Tibet and was the most active of all the Russian Buriats in Tibet.
Dorjieff was a Siberian Buriat Mongol. He became a lamaist monk at the age of nine and then went to Outer Mongolia to study Buddhist sutras. He knew quite well of the Russian government's intentions to conquer Tibet and so he was selected by the Czar and was sent to Tibet on the secret mission. He arrived in Lhasa in 1873 and studied Buddhism at the Drepung Monastery. With strong financial support given him by the Russian government, he bribed high-ranking lamas with money under the pretext of donations and alms. In 1888 he obtained the highest Buddhist academic degree—Lharam Geshe. That same year, with the recommendation of the Drepung Monastery, he became the Thirteenth Dalai's instructor in Lamaist catechism; the Dalai was still in his minority at the time. He became a favorite of the Dalai and an important personage who could go in and out of the Potala at any time. In 1897, disregarding the regulations set down by the Qing government, the Dalai appointed Dorjieff as his foreign affairs secretary. In this capacity, Dorjieff placed about sixty Russian Buriat monks in important posts, forming a small clique around the Dalai that could exert influence on Tibetan political affairs and even the Dalai himself. While giving lessons on scriptures, he lost no time in describing to the Dalai the major trends in the world, saying that the Qing government was unreliable and that the threatened invasion by Britain from the south would pose grave danger for Tibet, and that as Russia would certainly in the future become strong enough to unify the world, the country could surely be relied upon as the patron of lamaism. Therefore, he suggested, the Dalai should make secret preparations to break free from the Qing government and turn to Russia for assistance to ward off British aggression and achieve independence.[4]
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the British imperialists threatened Tibet with war, and the Tibetan situation became quite desperate. Owing to the fact that the Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, making endless concessions to the British imperialists and not daring to assist the Tibetan people in their anti-British struggle, the Dalai ruling group was badly in need of foreign support. Dorjieff took this chance to instigate the Tibetan local authorities to seek support from Czarist Russia so as to resist British aggression. Moved by his blandishments, the Tibetan authorities considered allying themselves with Russia to resist Britain, and six times sent Dorjieff on secret missions to Russia.
In 1898, when Dorjieff first went to Russia he had an audience with the Czar Nicholas II. The latter pointed out that the Dalai should submit his request for aid in written form. To accomplish this, Dorjieff secretly led a so-called Tibetan delegation to Russia for a second time in March 1900, bringing with him an official letter from the Dalai requesting Russian aid. The Czar expressed his consent to keep up contacts with Tibet, to provide aid and protect Tibet, and granted the Dalai the title of Grand Bishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In April 1901 Dorjieff once again appeared in Russia. At an audience to him, the Czar reaffirmed that Russia would give enormous aid to Tibet and flagrantly stated that one of his great plans was to annex Tibet to Russia. Afterward, the Russian ministers of foreign affairs and finance also gave audiences to Dorjieff respectively. Dorjieff said during the interview that "the alliance between Tibet and Russia is very important in setting back the British plot."[5] Moreover, Dorjieff reached a secret agreement with the Russian government that Russia and Tibet would send representatives to St. Petersburg and Lhasa respectively. The Russian press published a series of articles boasting that Czarist Russia was the only power that could curb British aggression in Tibet.[6] They also boasted that all the northern and western regions of China were seeking the protection of Russia in the hope of getting peace and stability.
When Dorjieff returned to Tibet, the Russian government sent officers from its General Staff to escort him and dispatched a consignment of Russian arms and ammunition. At the same time, the Russian government sent two contingents of fully-armed soldiers to Tibet. With these armed contingents entering Tibet, the number of Russian spies increased rapidly in Lhasa, and their activities became arrogant.
The aggressive activities aroused the serious attention of the Qing government. The Zongli Yamen (Foreign Office) lodged a strong protest to the Russian government about Dorjieff's repeated visits to Russia, and pointed out solemnly that Tibet was China's territory, Dorjieff's activities were illegal, and that the Chinese government would never recognize any secret agreements concluded between Russia and the Tibetan local government. Britain had always regarded Tibet as part of its sphere of influence, and so it was all the more displeased with the relations between Russia and Tibet. G. N. Curzon, the British Viceroy in India, said that the Russian attempt to set up protectorate relationship with Tibet had to be stopped. In September 1901 Britain presented a note to the Russian Foreign Ministry, saying that Britain would not regard with indifference contacts between Russia and Tibet.[7] In 1902, Curzon said,
We cannot tolerate another European power interfering in Tibet. Any attempt to transfer the Chinese privilege there to Russia will surely lead to the immediate occupation of Lhasa by British Indian troops.
Soon afterward, Britain sent troops to invade the Kampa Dzong in South Tibet to stop the infiltration of Russian influence. Toward the end of 1903, Britain launched the second war against Tibet and intruded into Lhasa.
As soon as it learned of the British intrusion, Russia lodged a protest with the British Foreign Office, saying,
The Russian Government considers such an expedition into Tibet as likely to produce a situation of considerable gravity, which may oblige them to take measures to protect their interests in those regions.[8]
To this protest Britain replied in even stronger language. They said, "Should there be any display of Russian activity in Tibet, we will be obliged to reply by a display of activity, not only equivalent to, but exceeding that made by Russia."[9] Owing to the fact that relations between Russia and Japan had become very intense, and Russia was actively preparing for war against Japan in northeast China, it could not spare its forces to deal with Britain's invasion, so it had to back down. In a note sent to the British Foreign Office in April 1904, the Russian ambassador to Great Britain expressed the view that Russia would not intervene militarily even if Britain invaded Tibet.
British troops occupied Lhasa in August 1904, and the Thirteenth Dalai fled from Tibet. At the instigation of Dorjieff, the Dalai fled to Outer Mongolia in October 1904 by way of Qinghai and Gansu, intending to go to Russia. But by then the Qing court had learned of his whereabouts and had him closely watched, so Dorjieff's plot did not materialize. In May 1905, Pokotitov, the Russian minister to the Qing government, had a meeting with the Dalai at Urga in Outer Mongolia and conveyed to him the Czar's letter and gifts, once more luring the Dalai to Russia. But under the strict surveillance of the Qing officials, the plot failed.
Dorjieff was sent by the Dalai once more to Russia to sue for aid in the spring of 1905. But by then Russia had been defeated in the Russo-Japanese War and was rocking with revolution; it was too busy trying to fend for itself to spare any effort over fighting with Britain for Tibet. Therefore, Czarist Russia only offered lip service to the Dalai, and did not provide him with any practical help. So the Dalai became disappointed with Russia.
The representatives of the Russian and British governments began a talk at St. Petersburg in June 1906 about dividing their spheres of influence in Asia. After secret negotiations, they managed to produce a secret convention, called the "Convention Between Great Britain and Russia," which was signed by the two countries on August 31, 1907. It was a product, after long bargaining by the two imperialist countries, of their mutual recognition of each other's established interests in Tibet. In this Convention the two sides declared that they would maintain the status quo of Tibet, but stipulated that they only "admitted the principle of the suzerainty of China over Tibet," in the vain hope of negating China's sovereignty over Tibet. This is the first international document that bore witness to the criminal attempts of the British and Russian imperialists to deprive China of its sovereign rights in Tibet and to replace them with so-called "suzerainty." The two countries stipulated that "the British and Russian subjects of Buddhist converts may directly contact the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist representatives on purely religious affairs," which provided Dorjieff and his like with a "legal" cloak for their continuing activities in Tibet. The Convention confirmed that trade agents of Britain might establish their institutions in Tibet and that the British trade commissioner might contact the Tibetan authorities directly, etc. The Convention also enabled Britain to inhibit Russia from interfering with Tibetan affairs while Britain, with rights it had already obtained, would remain free from any restraints of the "Convention." Thus the British imperialists became an even greater threat to the security of Tibet.[10]
The Tibetans' First Struggle Against the British Invasion
British-Indian Aggressive Forces Deliberately Cause Border Disputes
After the 1850s, the British imperialists took various contemptible means to accomplish their aim of seizing territories around Tibet and thus encircle Tibet. They conducted investigation of Tibet's geography, mineral resources, transportation and communications, cities and monasteries, local conditions and customs, political and military affairs and they even tried to poke their noses into Tibetan affairs and provoke incidents. Especially after the Sino-British Chefoo Convention was signed in Yantai (Chefoo) in 1876, the number of foreigners who came in and out of Tibet increased rapidly, and so did border incidents. They occurred mainly in the areas of Tibet bordering on Sikkim and Bhutan.
Britain forcibly occupied Sikkim in 1861 and Bhutan in 1865, thus obtaining a base for their aggression against Tibet. Then the British set up tea-plantations, constructed roads and houses, and set up markets at Darjeeling in Sikkim and Kalimpong in Bhutan, thus making preparations for their aggression in Tibet. The Tibetan monks and populace clearly recognized that any invasion of the British imperialists would be not only for economic plunder but also for territorial occupation. They regarded the occupation of Sikkim and Bhutan by Britain to be just like that of "a big worm eating small ants and that Britain had long cherished the ambition of invading Tibetan territory," so they resolutely demanded that the Tibetan government never allow the British to come into Tibet. The Tibetan secular and monastic population expressed the fact that
We vow that from now on we shall never let foreigners come into Tibet, even at the risk of our lives. If they come, every route shall send troops to stop them. If they listen to persuasion, we may live in peace with each other; if they act violently, we the Tangut (Tibetan) people shall go all out to resist them regardless of any danger to our lives."[11]
The Tibetan local government also proposed to the Qing central government that the Han and Tibetan merchants in Tibet should be prohibited from going to Darjeeling to do business, and took active measures to guard against this. In order to prevent Drenjong (Sikkim) from falling completely into the British imperialists' hands, the Tibetan local government persuaded the King of Drenjong to move to Tibet so as to avoid being pressured by the British. Owing to the fact that Drenjong was a vassal state of China and its people and the Tibetans had very close relations, having an identical language and religion, the King of Drenjong left his country and moved into Tibet and repeatedly refused to return in defiance of the British aggressors' demands and lure of gain they promised. In view of the fact that the British aggressors often intruded into Tibetan territory to provoke incidents and plunder, the Tibetan local government decided in 1884 to block their entry by putting up check-posts at strategically important passes on the Tibet-Sikkim border.
Darjeeling was a place one had to go to when traveling between India and Tibet through Sikkim. In 1885 the government of British India sent a "commercial mission" and 300 soldiers, headed by Colman Macaulay, into Tibet. Arriving in Kampa Dzong in southern Tibet, Macaulay's party was halted by local Tibetans.
In 1886 the British government sent a large number of troops to the south of Drome (present-day Yadong). The Qing Resident Minister in Tibet, Wen Shuo, in his memorial submitted to the central government conveyed the Tibetan people's determination to resist the British invasion: "The entire secular and clerical populace of Tibet are resolved to resist their intrusion even if it means the extermination of every one of them...."[12] In order to guard against British intrusions from Darjeeling, the Tibetan troops and people built a walled guard-house manned by a number of soldiers on Mount Lengtu within the Tibetan territory of Renock, in 1887.
The British immediately applied diplomatic pressures on the Qing government and addressed a protest to it about the building of the Lengtu check-post by the Tibetan people. In 1887, the British government delivered a note to the Qing government saying that there was no reason that Mount Lengtu should be guarded by Tibetan troops since it was located in Drenjong, which was under Britain's protection. They further said that the building of a check-post by Tibetan troops outside their border was aimed at threatening the security of Darjeeling, and that the check-post must be dismantled and Tibetan solders withdrawn before a deadline, otherwise the British would have the check-post destroyed. In the meantime, the British aggressors sent a big reinforcement to the south of Mt. Lengtu, intensified military training, put up fortifications and built roads, determining to provoke a border conflict.
The two Opium Wars which the Qing government lost fully exposed their incompetence. Too demoralized to resist any further foreign invasion, the foreign policy of the Qing court was now one of submission to the foreign powers. Predictably, Britain's threats worked. The Qing court hastily ordered Resident Minister Wen Shuo to force the evacuation of Tibetan troops from Lengtu, saying, "In an emergency like this the argument about whether Lengtu is Tibetan or Drenjong territory is beside the point—the issue can be easily settled in the future."[13] As the Tibetan situation became more intense, the Qing government again hastily ordered Wen Shuo
to effect an immediate evacuation by means of persuasion, as he had been instructed to do several times. If Indian troops are already there, the Tibetan soldiers must be told to restrain from engaging them in battle, in view of the great disparity in strength. It is especially important that the garrison troops in Tibet, being small in number, be ordered to maintain strict neutrality so the issue will not become too complicated to make future reconciliation difficult.[14]
The Tibetan people of various social strata challenged the Qing's acceding to British pressure and declared their resolve to resist the British invasion. In February 1887, representatives from all the great monasteries and all the officials of the Tibetan local government above the seventh rank submitted a petition to the Resident Minister, saying that the reason why they set up a check-post at Lengtu was because the British were acting as if they were overlords and carried out various acts of provocation. They pointed out: "The walled guard-house is located on Mount Lengtu in Renock of Tibet; it is not within the boundary of India and it lies far from Darjeeling."
In November of that year, Regent Demo Hutuktu said to Resident Minister Wen Shuo:
With a pack of lies the British are now trying in an underhanded way to annex Tibet's Mount Lengtu to Darjeeling. This is clear proof of their dark designs; it is the land and its people that they are out to grab; they are not to be appeased through trade with them....[15]
In November and December, representatives of the three great monasteries, together with lay and monk officials and officers, twice submitted petitions to the Resident Minister opposing the Qing government's order for the Tibetan troops to evacuate Lengtu and openly criticized the Qing government's foreign policy.
In December 1887 Britain made January of the next year (1888) the deadline for the evacuation of the Tibetan troops from Lengtu, and the Qing government ordered the Tibetans to observe the deadline. Once again the three great monasteries and all the Tibetan monks and lay officials petitioned the Resident Minister, protesting the orders of the Qing government. They declared solemnly,
the deadline set by the British for the first month next year in regard to the check-post at Lengtu does not mean anything to us. We are not going to give up this part of the frontier to anyone, even if it means total extermination for us. The orders are strict, but we request Your Excellency to inform the throne that we refuse to yield to Britain's pressure.[16]
Wen Shuo, then Resident Minister in Tibet, was deeply touched by the Tibetan people's solemn and just stand regarding anti-aggression and anti-capitulation. He did not agree with the Qing government's foreign policy but sympathized with the Tibetan people in their struggle against British aggression and for self-defense. In his memorials to the Qing central government, Wen Shuo cited examples of the aggression against China by the imperialists in order to show that Britain had designs on the territory of Tibet. He noted that Mount Lengtu and its adjacent land had been part of Tibet since time immemorial, and that the establishment of a check-post there as a defensive measure was justified. If the Tibetans were compelled to withdraw from the check-post, he warned, Britain might make a reckless move and cause even greater trouble. Therefore, all preparations should be made for war so as to effectively cope with the British provocations.
On the one hand, he submitted reports to the Qing court, and on the other, he advised the Tibetan local government to send high-ranking officers to the frontier and suggested strategic counter-measures for them to use before their leaving for the front: "do not fight hard battles," do not concentrate forces to engage enemy directly, troops should be scattered, intercept the enemy in the night and burn British military supplies and grain depots.[17]
When the Qing government adopted a policy of submission to foreign powers, Resident Minister Wen Shuo, who sympathized with and supported the Tibetan people in their struggle against foreign aggression, could not but end up with misfortune. In March 1888, when Tibet's first war against the British invaders broke out, the Qing government accused him of being "preposterous and ignorant of the overall situation," dismissed him from the office of Resident Minister and ordered him to return to Beijing. Then the Qing court replaced him with Sheng Tai, a fatuous and incompetent official who did nothing but carry out blindly the Qing's policy of non-resistance to foreign powers.
Wen Shuo's dismissal produced some adverse influence on the Tibetan political situation. The fact that an official such as Wen Shuo, who acted in the interests of the nation, would be condemned greatly discouraged the fighting will of the Tibetans against British aggressors. The Qing policy of submission and capitulation to foreign aggressors put the struggle of the Tibetan people in an isolated position and under the shadow of misfortune.
Tibetan Soldiers and Civilians Heroically Fight Back on Mount Lengtu
Having finished all necessary preparations at Darjeeling, the British, on the excuse that the Tibetans had refused to evacuate Lengtu, dispatched about five hundred troops, on March 20, 1888, to launch a surprise attack on the Tibetan defenders of the Dranglam Pass border check-post at the foot of Mount Lengtu. Thus the Tibetans' first anti-British war broke out.
The Tibetan defenders with their primitive arms such as bows and arrows, broad swords, stone-throwers and home-made firearms stood firm. Taking advantage of the height of their defense position, they repeatedly beat back the far better equipped invaders and killed one enemy officer. The British invaders were compelled to retreat.
On the following day, the British invaders renewed their attack, but the Tibetan troops offered stubborn resistance with their home-made firearms and stone-throwers. During the battle about one hundred British troops were killed or wounded, while not a single casualty was sustained by the Tibetan troops.
After a few days of rest and reorganization, the British threw in large reinforcements and, under the command of General Graham, fiercely bombarded the Tibetan position with heavy guns. Although the Tibetan troops fought back heroically, their defenses were destroyed. They were hopelessly outnumbered and suffered a great loss. When they could no longer hold out, the Tibetans pulled out of Lengtu and withdrew to Narthang. To strengthen their position, the defenders built a rampart in a single night about one and a half miles long. The British attacked Narthang with heavy guns, and the Tibetans then withdrew to Dromoi Sane. When the first group of British reinforcements arrived, the Tibetan troops immediately divided forces to attack them. But after occupying Mount Lengtu and Narthang, the British invaders had to stop their advance to build roads and send for more reinforcements.
After the fall of Mount Lengtu, the Tibetan local government recruited militia reinforcements from U-Tsang and Kham. Altogether about ten thousand militia reinforcement troops were rushed to the front. These soldiers, as they passed through Lhasa on their way to the battlefield, were blessed by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama by having their heads touched by him, and they were given, for protection, specially made white umbrella wheels which had had incantations recited over them by lamaist monks. The Dalai Lama also ordered the three great monasteries of Lhasa to organize monk-soldiers for frontline duties. Meanwhile, by order of the Dalai Lama, dozens of high lamas chanted incantations in secrecy in the Potala to bring curses down upon the British army and to ensure victory for the Tibetan troops.
In August, the Tibetan troops were concentrated along the line from Phari to Yadong, confronting the British invaders in a stalemate. In order to strengthen the unified command over the frontline forces, the Tibetan local government installed Kalon Lhalu as Drenjong commander-in-chief and Tsepon Tsarong as the Phari commander-in-chief with the responsibility of transporting supplies to the front. The three great monasteries also sent chief lamas to the front to give aid. In order to recapture the lost territory, the Tibetan troops re-deployed their forces and launched three large-scale counterattacks that compelled the British army to switch from the offensive to the defensive.
At this critical moment when the Tibetan soldiers and civilians were organized to recover their lost territory, Sheng Tai arrived in Tibet as the new Resident Minister in Tibet. He stubbornly and stupidly carried out the Qing's foreign policy of submission to the foreign powers. The Qing government had given these instructions to Sheng Tai:
There are no other alternatives but to evacuate Tibetan troops and delimit the boundary. Although it is very difficult to convince the Tibetans of the importance of doing so, yet you have to do your utmost to convince them in the hope of reversing this lost battle.[18]
Thus, Sheng Tai spared no effort in preventing the Tibetan troops from continuing the war. He demanded that the Tibetan local government should strictly keep the Tibetan troops within bounds and not let them take rash actions.[19] He ordered the Tibetan local government to withdraw its troops from the front line to Phari to await orders, and to repatriate all the militiamen including the monk-soldiers of the three great monasteries of Lhasa.
Under the pressure of Sheng Tai, the deployment and morale of the Tibetan soldiers and civilians were greatly curtailed and the armed forces organized by the Tibetan local government were dreadfully weakened. Patriotic officers and soldiers on the front line could not get effective help, but had to fight in isolation. In the middle of August, the Tibetan troops on the front line tried to launch a counterattack when the British were short of men, but their plan was liquidated by Sheng Tai. On September 24, after their reinforcements arrived at the front, the British launched a large-scale attack and shelled the Tibetan positions with heavy artillery. Faced by the far better equipped British troops, the Tibetan troops suffered great losses and were forced to pull back. Afterward, the British invaders occupied Dzaleb, Langra, and Yadong. Thus, the first struggle of the Tibetan people against British armed aggression failed.
The main causes of the failure of the war were as follows: First, the Qing government adopted a policy of compromise and of repressing the opposition of Tibetan people in their struggle against Britain. Second, the Tibetan local government was weak and the Tibetan troops' weapons were backward. They had no good commanders and were short of experience for coping with an enemy equipped with modern weapons. Third, the Qing government could not make good use of foreign aid. By that time the Tibetans' heroic struggle in defense of Mount Lengtu had inspired the patriotic forces in Drenjong and Bhutan to rise to resist British invaders. But Sheng Tai refused the request of the Drenjong royal family and other patriotic leaders for jointly resisting Britain; moreover, he sent back 1,700 troops dispatched to Yadong to resist Britain by Bhutan by way of "offering them rich rewards and persuading them to go home."
Although the first struggle of the Tibetan people against British armed aggression had failed, the patriotism of the broad masses of the Tibetan people for safeguarding the sovereignty of China's territory left a glorious page in the history of the development of Tibetan society.
Two Unequal Treaties Signed
Under the pressure of military reverses, the Qing government authorized Sheng Tai to negotiate a peace treaty with the British army. Seeing that an opportunity of levying blackmail on the Qing had come, the British government appointed Charles Bell, the British Political Officer in India and Sikkim, as the British representative to settle issues of trade between Tibet and India and the boundary between Tibet and Drenjong (Sikkim) with the Qing representative.
Sheng Tai left Lhasa for Yadong and then Narthang at the front to hold talks with Charles Bell in October 1888. At the beginning of these talks, the British arrogantly made some demands, including the entering of Tibet for trade. Historically, Drenjong and Bhutan had always been vassal territories of Tibet, but Britain had forcibly occupied Drenjong in 1887 and put Bhutan under its control in 1865; therefore the Tibetan local government asked Sheng Tai to recover the right of jurisdiction over Drenjong and Bhutan. But the British aggressors took an uncompromising stand and would not give up their ill-gotten gains, and the talks dragged on without any result.
In January 1889, the Zongli Yamen (Foreign Office) of the Qing court appointed an Englishman, James Hart, the brother of the Commissioner-in-chief of the Customs Administration, Robert Hart, as Sheng Tai's assistant. In spite of the advice and petitions from the Tibetan secular and clerical populace, Sheng Tai, on the excuse that he did not know foreign affairs very well, delegated the negotiations with the British side to James Hart. Posing as a mediator, James Hart secretly supplied intelligence to the British. Thus the British government, through Robert Hart in Beijing, instructed James Hart as to how to manipulate Sheng Tai during the negotiations. The talks virtually became a dialogue between one group of British and another group of British. Sheng Tai was only a toy figurine to serve as a foil.
The negotiations concentrated on the following three issues: the status of Drenjong, the demarcation of the border line between Tibet and Drenjong, and traditional relations between Tibet and Drenjong. The first two issues were of substantial benefit to the British and the third was relatively insignificant to either side. The British-Indian authorities deemed that, if the British representative "would not prevent the Drenjong chieftain from sending presents and greetings to the Tibetan authorities, the issues on the protectorate of Drenjong and doing trade with Tibet might be easily solved."[20] On the other hand, Sheng Tai, on the instructions of the Qing court, dealt mainly with the insignificant issue instead of what would be of substantial benefit to the British, deeming that if "Drenjong would continue to send presents and greetings to Resident Officials and the Tibetan local government on festive occasions, concessions might be made concerning the other issues."[21] Under the pressure and sweet words of the Hart brothers, Sheng Tai gave in on most of the agenda items after a year's bargaining period.
On March 17, 1890, Sheng Tai signed the Sino-British Convention Relating to Sikkim and Tibet with his British counterpart Lord Lansdowne, the Governor-General of India, in Calcutta. The gist of the treaty was as follows:
(1) The boundary of Sikkim and Tibet was to be re-delimited. The line would commence at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier and extend to the Gurkha (Bhutan) frontier; it would follow the crest of the mountain range separating the waters flowing into the Sikkim Teesta and its affluents from the waters flowing into the Tibetan Mochu and northward into other rivers of Tibet. Thus, China lost the Giagong region of Kampa Dzong in Tibet.
(2) It was admitted that the British government, whose protectorate over the Sikkim State was thereby recognized, had direct and exclusive control over the internal administration and foreign relations of that state, and except with the permission of the British government, neither the ruler of that state nor any of its officers would have official relations of any kind, formal or informal, with any other country.
(3) On the question of providing increased facilities for trade across the Sikkim-Tibet frontier, the question of pasturage on the Sikkim side of the frontier, and the method of official communications between the British authorities in India and the authorities in Tibet was reserved for further examination and future adjustment.
After signing the Sino-British Convention Relating to Sikkim and Tibet, Britain proceeded to press the Qing government to sign a new treaty on trade, pasturage and communication. Under British pressure, the Qing government was forced, on December 5, 1893, to sign the Regulations Regarding Trade, Communication and Pasturage to Be Appended to the Sikkim-Tibet Convention of 1890. The following are the main points of the Regulations:
(1) A trade-mart would be established at Yadong on the Tibetan side of the frontier, and would be open to all British subjects for purposes of trade. The Government of India would be free to send officers to reside at Yadong to observe the conditions of British trade at that mart.
(2) British traders would enjoy trade privileges at Yadong; British goods would be exempt from duty for a period of five years.
(3) The British would enjoy consular jurisdiction at Yadong.
(4) The Tibetans who grazed their cattle in Sikkim would be subject to regulations formulated by the British government.[22]
In a word, the signing of the Convention and the Regulations severely damaged China's sovereignty over Tibet. The opening of Yadong especially brought serious damage and disaster to the Tibetan economy, for it enabled British goods to flow continually into Tibet. According to statistics, from 1893 to 1894, the trade volume at Yadong jumped from 690,000 rupees to 1.149 million rupees, approximately a double increase in a year. The imports of foreign goods to Yadong increased from 358,000 rupees to 701,000 rupees, also increasing about double. Most of the imported goods were British[23] Gold, silver and various precious local products flowed out in great quantity. British capitalists looted various raw materials such as leather and wool, buying them at low prices. The dumping of British goods onto the Tibetan market unbalanced the Tibetan economy; some Tibetan traditional handicrafts went bankrupt. The trade between Tibet and inland China also decreased yearly. Tibetan agriculture and animal husbandry also suffered to varying degrees. The signing of the two unequal treaties marked the beginning of Tibetan society being reduced to a semi-colony.
The Tibetan people resolutely opposed the two unequal treaties that brought them humiliation. When Sheng Tai came back to Tibet from India, enraged people, including monks, blocked his way and handed him protests, denouncing him for currying favor with the British and betraying the Tibetans. They declared that they would never come to terms with the British aggressors. The Tibetan local government issued orders to prohibit the Tibetans from going into trade with the British at Yadong, and the Tibetan people refused to recognize the Tibet-Sikkim boundary line stated in the treaty. They also tried to prevent the Resident Minister from sending people to demarcate the boundary and pulled down the boundary stones set there by the British. The Tibetans then continued to graze their herds on the pasture lands at the boundary. Although the struggle against British aggressors failed owing to the Qing government's non-resistance policy, the flames of indignation burning in the Tibetan people's hearts over foreign aggression were never stamped out.
The Tibetans' Second Struggle Against the British Invasion
Tibet's Lax Border Defense and the British Scheme to Split Tibet
From the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century world capitalism embarked on the stage of imperialism. During the process of the transition, Britain clearly reflected the features of colonialism and became a country of colonial imperialism. In order to export its domestic surplus capital, the British imperialists stepped up their expansionist policy. They were no longer satisfied with the political and economic privileges grabbed in the first armed invasion into Tibet in 1888. They attempted to launch another war against Tibet so as to expand their influence into Sichuan, Yunnan, and Qinghai and to link these areas with their sphere of influence in the Yangtze valley. They would then proceed to put central and southern China under their control. In order to achieve this aim, Britain made all necessary preparations for aggression against Tibet and made a series of excuses for their actions.
The British Indian government had been always brooding on how to expand their trade with Tibet. As the Tibetans had the habit of tea-drinking, the British capitalists set up many tea plantations in the mountainous areas of north India. The output of Indian tea was markedly increased toward the end of the nineteenth century owing to cheap labor, having a large supply of capital, and the low cost of processing with machines. British capitalists hoped to use tea to break into the Tibetan markets, but things went contrary to their wishes; the Indian tea did not sell well there, as Tibetans preferred Sichuan tea. The sales volume of Sichuan tea in Tibet reached 14 million hu (a dry measure used in former times, one hu is equal to one decaliter) each year and the government levied a tax on it of over 100,000 taels of silver yearly. Hundreds of thousands of Sichuan people earned their livings by planting, selling and transporting tea. In view of this, although the Qing government agreed to the importation of Indian tea into Tibet, they still adopted a policy of trade protectionism. They levied heavy taxes on Indian tea and high rentals on the houses and warehouses leased to British and Indian merchants, and prohibited foreign merchants from going northward from Yadong without permission. So the British government decided that the trade with Tibet was profitless. The opening of Yadong as a trade mart thus did not satisfy Britain's greed, and therefore the colonialists clamored for war to settle the issue.
In the meantime, the British Indian government made a fuss over the issue of the China-Sikkim border line. The British seized the Giagong region in Tibet from China with the Sino-British Convention of 1890, but the Tibetan people never recognized this treaty. They continued to graze their herds on the other side of the boundary, pulled down the boundary stones set up by the British, and prevented the Qing government officials from going to jointly delimit the boundary—all this enraged the British government and so it prepared to settle the border dispute by force.
The rivalry between Czarist Russia and British colonialism also led the British aggressors to race to control Tibet. As early as 1888, when the British troops launched the first armed invasion into Tibet, Russian spies had given some confidential letters to high-ranking officials of the Tibetan local government and told them that if Tibet was in need of immediate help, they could send the letters to Russia, which would then dispatch its troops to the aid of Tibet as soon as the letters reached them in telegraphic form.[24] Thus the Russians hoped to seize Tibet under the pretense of "aiding Tibet to resist Britain."
In 1901, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama sent Dorjieff to Russia in the capacity of "Tibet's Envoy Extraordinary." After that, Russians flocked to Tibet in the name of "scientific exploration," "investigation," "travel," and "trade." The rivalry between Britain and Russia over Tibet became increasingly acute. By 1903, the struggle became fierce. As Russia was at the time too preoccupied with problems caused by its worsening relations with Japan to make any effective counter-moves to Britain's invasion of Tibet, it had to back down. And this gave Britain the opportunity to launch an armed invasion into Tibet.
From 1899 to 1901, George N. Curzon, Governor-General in India, repeatedly wrote to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, in the hope of separating Tibet from China. His demands were rejected resolutely by the Dalai Lama. Exasperated, the British government instructed its colonial authorities: to take strong measures and to carry out armed interference in Tibet.[25]
In May 1902, Parr, an Englishman employed by the Qing government to assist in the Sino-British negotiations, wrote to the Qing Resident Minister in Tibet, informing him of the British aim of occupying Tibet. He told him:
(1) In view of the inability of the residents to run Tibet because they have no power, the Indian government is planning to conclude new treaties with authorized Tibetan officials and will not recognize the authority of the resident officials.
(2) If the Tibetan government refuses to send its representatives to the negotiations, Britain will have an excuse to enter Tibet and run it on behalf of the resident officials.[26]
In order to achieve these aims, the British Indian authorities stepped up their war preparations.
In the spring of 1903, the British Indian authorities set about providing their troops with winter clothes, camps, blankets and other equipment for high-altitude warfare; they concentrated a large number of troops in the border area and conducted military maneuvers with Tibet as their target. In May of the same year, Curzon, called in Colonel Francis Younghusband, who had worked for a long time along the Chinese border, and charged him to settle the Tibet issue once and for all. He promised to give him all the support he needed. In October, the British government officially approved a plan for a second armed invasion into Tibet.
On June 26, 1902, Claude White, the British Political Officer in Sikkim, led an armed party of 200 into Giagong, Tibet, with the aim of fomenting a border dispute. The Tibetan local government lodged a strong protest against this. The invaders retreated after completing a series of reconnaissance tasks, taking away about 500 head of sheep and 600 head of oxen that they looted from the local Tibetan inhabitants.
In July 1903 a British military force consisting of 300 troops along with another 300 supply and transport soldiers, led by Commander Francis Younghusband and Deputy Commander Claude White, invaded Kampa Dzong for the second time, demanding talks with Tibetan officials concerning the future political relations between Tibet and India. When the negotiators for the Qing government arrived, Younghusband refused to hold talks with them on the pretext that their positions were too low. The Qing government ordered that Resident Minister Yu Gang go to Kampa, but his going there was opposed and blocked by the Tibetan local government and the broad masses of monks and laymen. At the same time, the Tibetan government dispatched some 2,600 Tibetan soldiers and occupied heights and passes along a line between Xigaze and Phari and dispatched 700 Tibetan soldiers to Kampa Dzong to construct positions and organize the defense. The British invaders were forced to retreat in October.
While the British imperialists harbored ambitions to invade Tibet, the Tibetan border defense was always in a slackened situation because the Qing government adopted its policy of compromise and capitulation. In the winter of 1903, when the British army was assembling for the invasion, the Qing government still did not proceed to make any preparations for war. What is more, they ordered the Resident Minister to "stop the Tibetans immediately by way of persuasion from causing any hostilities on the border. It is extremely important that they are stopped." The Resident Minister even hoped that the British might win the war and the Tibetan army be defeated. He said: "If the Tibetans suffer another defeat, the situation will improve, for defeat will make them reserve their stand and obey our orders."[27]
The number of the Qing troops in Tibet was quite small and they were mainly stationed at Lhasa as the Resident Minister's guards. As the officers were often changed when the resident officials were changed, the combat effectiveness of the troops was very weak; the Qing troops stationed on the border were less than one tenth of the total.
The Tibetan border defense was taken mainly by the Tibetan army. The stipulated number of the Tibetan army was 3,320. It consisted of six dapons (regiment; regimental commander was also called dapon), each dapon in charge of 500 men. Each dapon also had two officers with the rank of rupon under him, and each rupon had two officers of the rank of gyapon under him, each gyapon had five officers with the rank of dingpon under him, and each dingpon was in charge of twenty-five men. The dapons were under the direct control of the Resident Minister. According to the Qing court's order, two dapons were stationed in Lhasa, another two in Xigaze, one dapon in Gyangze and still another one in Tingri. There were only 312 soldiers serving as guards for all the check-points. One dingpon with twenty-five men of the Gyangze Dapon was stationed at Gamba and the Chumbi Valley.
The Qing court's deployment of the Tibetan army was quite similar to that of the Qing troops in Tibet. They were used for quelling domestic disturbances rather than for resisting foreign invasion. A military deployment like this and the poor military equipment of the Qing and Tibetan troops made the Tibetan border defense very weak. At the time, the Qing troops stationed in Tibet were equipped with muskets, and only Tibetan officers were qualified to use these early types of guns. Tibetan soldiers only had home-made guns, spears, bows, arrows, catapults, and shields. Tibet had a standing army only in name; in fact their soldiers were people sent by various counties who were serving "soldier corvee." Their food rations and weapons were provided by the people of each county that sent them. Therefore, the Tibetan troops were under bad management and they were lacking in the ability to carry on a protracted war. In addition, the Tibetan troops were under very strong religious influence. They thought they could not be harmed by swords or bullets if they were blessed by the Dalai Lama by having their heads touched, wore "talismans" and prayed to gods for protection. Under the fierce gunfire of the enemy, they often used the tactic of advancing in big crowds. Such backward tactics unavoidably caused them great casualties. The militia recruited at wartime by the Tibetan local government were also a defense force. They were conscripted at the last moment during the emergency. These soldiers were neither paid nor provided with food rations, but had to acquire them on their own. They were lacking in training and would easily be routed by the enemy when they engaged in a battle, so they could not form an effective combat force.
The Tibetan local ruling authorities headed by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama were rather resolute in their determination and attitude against the British. They opposed making any new concessions to the British invaders, and they were determined on the issues of the boundary line, trade, and the British crossing the border line. Moreover, they refused attempts made by the British on the issue of direct contact between India and Tibet. In order to act in unison in the struggle against British invaders, the Dalai group took drastic measures and threw those who held different views into prison. Nonetheless, the Dalai group harbored narrow regionalism and the ambition of scrambling for power and profit, and so, even at this critical moment of foreign aggression, the Dalai Lama requested the Qing government for more power in Qinghai, purged the Panchen group's officials on the pretext of the need of resisting the British, and cherished illusions about Czarist Russia. All this created advantageous factors for the British invaders. As a result, the Tibetan border defense was slack and weak. Although the Tibetan people tried to offer armed resistance to the British invasion and the Tibetan local government made a public announcement in 1903 urging Tibetans of all classes to wage a resolute armed struggle against British invaders by arming themselves and joining the military forces, the fight against the enemy was lacking in a unified leadership and correct planning, and the enemy's situation was unknown. All this caused failure in the war against the British invasion.
The Battle of Gyangze and the Fall of Lhasa
When the British imperialists had completed their preparations for an armed invasion of Tibet, they decided to pin down the Tibetan garrison at Gamba and at the same time send an expeditionary force, under the command of Francis Younghusband and J. MacDonald, across the Himalayas through the Dzaleb-la Pass and push toward the Chumbi Valley, and then, after joining hands with the British troops marching north from Gamba, march toward Lhasa.
On December 5, 1903, MacDonald and Younghusband led the expeditionary army from Drenjong to the Lengtu area. The total force was 7,000 men, including 3,000 fighting men, who mainly consisted of Gurkha combat troops, Sikh infantrymen, and British pioneers stationed in Drenjong. In addition, there were an ammunition column; field hospitals; field engineer corps, telegraph, postal, and survey detachments; and a transport corps, totalling 3,000 men. The British invaders were equipped with four artillery pieces, four Maxim heavy machine-guns, and soldiers using new type of rifle. The invaders began their march into Tibet under the pretext of "escorting a British mission for negotiations."
On December 11, the British invaders crossed the Dzaleb-la Pass at the altitude of 4,300 meters; on December 13 they occupied Yadong. Owing to the fact that the Tibetan local government made a wrong judgment about the main direction of the attack by the invaders, the Tibetan main force was deployed in the Gamba region, while the Yadong region was poorly guarded. The invaders did not run into any opposition by the Tibetan army and only encountered one Han and one Tibetan official who tried to halt their advance. The British entered the town of Yadong without firing a shot and soon afterward occupied all the border areas around the Chumbi Valley.
On December 20, MacDonald, with a detachment of fighting men, started for Phari and occupied it after two days' march. They seized about 10,000 pounds of ammunition and a great amount of weapons stored there by the Phari Dzong government. The Tibetan local government hastily sent troops to defend Phari, but it was too late.
On January 7, 1904, the intruders crossed the Dang-la Pass at an altitude of 4,700 meters and continued their northward invasion. When they came near a village named Tuna, at the altitude of 4,500 meters, they met three Tibetan dapons (regiments) of about 1,500 men under the command of Lhading and Namseling. The Tibetans told them that negotiations could only be held when they withdrew to Yadong. As Younghusband had only advance troops with him and their number was small, he used dilatory tactics to wait for reinforcements. The two armies faced each other at Tuna for about two months. When a great number of British reinforcements arrived at Tuna on March 28, Younghusband declared that talks with Tibetan troops could only be held in Gyangze. On March 31, the British troops entered Chumik Shonko near the position of the Tibetan troops. When Lhading went to the front to talk with Younghusband, the British troops crept around the flanks of his army. Younghusband had machine-guns secretly set up around the Tibetan troops and then ordered them to be disarmed. Lhading refused him categorically. The British suddenly opened fire; taken unawares, the Tibetans were mowed down in cold blood by the heavy gunfire. More than 1,400 Tibetans were killed within a few minutes. This was not war, but slaughter. No Tibetan soldier offered to surrender to the enemy, fighting with swords and spears. Younghusband wrote of the battle in his book, India and Tibet:
Tibetan swordsmen made a rush upon any within reach.... For just one single instant the Tibetans, by a concerted and concentrated rush, might have broken our thin line and have carried the Mission and the military staff.
Some of the Tibetan soldiers, although wounded severely, still fought bravely and killed and wounded fifteen British officers and men.
As the Tibetan situation was deteriorating, the Qing government once again exposed its tendency toward compromise and capitulation. On December 20, 1903, the Qing government instructed the newly-appointed Resident Minister You Tai (Sheng Tai's younger brother):
Stop the Tibetans immediately by way of persuasion from causing any hostilities on the border. It is extremely important that they are stopped. Find ways to reach the frontier as soon as possible and settle the matter properly with the British.
The Board of Foreign Affairs of the Qing government also cabled the following instructions to You Tai:
We hope you will begin discussions with the British immediately as instructed by the imperial edicts, and at the same time make the Tibetans understand by persuasion that they must wait for the opening of the discussions, and that any obstacles they create may lead to large-scale conflicts.
In accordance with these instructions, You Tai acted shamelessly, fawning on Younghusband and claiming the latter was "compassionate," "showing to all the Tibetans both his sternness and mercy. All he can do to express his gratitude to Younghusband was to pray for him on behalf of all Tibetans." Meanwhile, You Tai reported to the Board of Foreign Affairs that "the British showed compassion after their victory and are still desirous of good relations with us as shown in their flawlessly worded communications." The reason of the conflict was that "the Tibetans are so obstinate and reckless that no persuasion can bring them to reason."[28]
On April 5, 1904, the British invaders pressed forward from Chumik Shonko toward Gyangze. The broad masses of the Tibetan people organized themselves voluntarily. Accordingly, when the British advanced on Gyangze, they found themselves under constant harassing attacks by the local inhabitants and their supply and transport lines were threatened. On April 11, the British invaders came near Gyangze. The Tibetan armymen and civilians organized themselves into fighting groups and went to the battlefield. Thus the biggest battle against foreign aggression in modern Tibetan history—the Battle of Gyangze—began.
The battle of Gyangze lasted for about three months, from April 28 to July 7, 1904. It might be roughly divided into two stages. The first stage was from April 28 to June 5.
Gyangze is located on the plain in the Nyangqu River valley at an altitude of 3,600 meters; it was the seat of the Gyangze Dzong (county) government. Xigaze is to its west and Lhasa to its east. The town faces the river and a mountain is at its back. On the mountain was a fortress. Owing to the Qing's policy of compromise and capitulation and the interference from You Tai and because the Tibetan local government had not taken any emergency measures against British invasion, Tibetan troops were still a distance to the south of Gyangze when the British invaders arrived near to the city of Gyangze. There were only a few soldiers guarding the fortress. As there was too great a disparity in strength, the defenders retreated of their own accord. On April 13, Gyangze fell. Many provisions kept in the storehouses, including 600,000 jin of grain, a great amount of beef and mutton, several thousand jin of gunpowder and fuses totalling several hundred kilometers in length—were all captured by the invaders. The invaders looted, burned and killed in the adjoining monasteries and villages. On April 28, over five hundred British troops, with two artillery pieces and two heavy machine-guns, attacked Nagarze on the Yamzhoyum Lake, which are on the way to Lhasa. The local garrison, who had built a stone-wall of 600 meters in length across the narrow passage, pushed back the invaders and forced them to withdraw to Gyangze.
After the fall of Gyangze, the Dalai immediately mobilized militiamen and sent them to the front. At the beginning of May, altogether 16,000 men were stationed at various passes around Gyangze. On May 3, the British Colonel Brander, leading three companies together with machine-guns and artillery pieces attacked Nagarze again. At the time only a few British troops were left behind in the town of Gyangze. Learning about this, about 1,500 Tibetan soldiers launched a counter-attack on May 4 under cover of night. After two hours of fierce battle, they recaptured Gyangze and the fortress on the mountain and surrounded 170 British soldiers, led by Younghusband, who were stationed by the Nyangqu River. At dawn the next morning, the Tibetans launched an attack on the invaders. They dashed into the enemy camp with swords, spears and home-made guns in their hands, shouting loudly. The heavy losses inflicted on the enemy by the Tibetan army left them stunned. Younghusband, breaking through the encirclement with an escort of several dozen infantrymen, fled in utter confusion.
The British troops who were pressing on Nagarze were also blocked by the Tibetans' stubborn resistance at the Karo La Pass. On May 7, the Tibetan troops wiped out eighteen invaders with one action and forced the remainder to retreat to the Gyangze area. Although these joined forces with Younghusband's remnants, they still could not extricate themselves from the predicament.
On May 24, British reinforcements arrived in the Gyangze area, and so the total number of aggressors increased to 4,600. Two days later, the British soldiers under the command of Colonel Brander stormed Bala Village, which was two kilometers away from Gyangze. For a time they were kept at bay by the defenders fighting from an advantageous geographic position. The Tibetan defenders killed twenty-three of the enemy before Bala Village fell on the afternoon of the 27th. On the 29th, the Tibetan army, with the militiamen's support, mounted a counterattack on Bala. Confronted by the stubborn resistance of the Tibetan people, Younghusband felt that his forces were not sufficient to deal with the situation, so on June 5 Younghusband, breaking through the encirclement with an escort of forty cavalrymen, left for Yadong to call for reinforcements. They twice ran into Tibetan ambushes, especially in the Kangma area, and Younghusband had a near escape. He confessed: "We were now at the straining point."
The second stage was from June 13 to July 7.
On June 13, three regiments of reinforcements under the command of Colonel Younghusband and General MacDonald started from Chumbi northward to salvage the besieged British invaders. En route they were intercepted by two Tibetan dapons (regiments) and fifteen invaders were killed. On June 23, the British reinforcements arrived in the Gyangze area. They attacked the Tibetan troops' positions and villages in the periphery of Gyangze and soon captured all the villages on the plain around Gyangze and cut off the water sources to the Gyangze fortress.
On June 28 the British launched a violent attack on the Nanying Monastery, a place of strategic importance on the road between Gyangze and Xigaze. Time and again the 1,200 Tibetan defenders beat back the enemy armed with modern weapons. At last the British demolished the monastery's walls and broke in at a cost of more than 200 casualties. Finally, the Tibetans withdrew from the battle; communications between Gyangze and Xigaze were cut off and the British besieged the Gyangze fortress.
On July 5, the British aggressors launched an overall attack on Gyangze. First, they bombarded the fortress with heavy guns, then made a feint attack on the northwest of Gyangze with six companies. When the Tibetan soldiers were lured away, twelve enemy companies intruded into Gyangze through the southeastern corner. Under cover of artillery fire, wave after wave of the enemy infantrymen charged the town proper and the fortress atop the hill. More than 5,000 defenders, armed with nothing more than rocks and home-made guns, fought heroically. They beat back enemy attacks again and again. On July 6, a part of the defenders' positions were destroyed, and their ammunition supply in the fortress was blown up by enemy artillery fire. When the enemy troops swarmed into the town a fierce hand-to-hand battle ensued. After a day and night of street battle, the town was lost. On the afternoon of July 7, a part of the Tibetan forces were compelled to break through the encirclement and retreat to Lhasa. After ten days' bloody war, Gyangze was occupied by the enemy.
Confronted by the heroic struggle of the Tibetan people, the British aggressors had to confess:
The resolution, means of defense and bravery expressed in the battle by the Tibetan people have destroyed the absurd idea that the Tibetans cannot fight. They are of dauntless heroism.... Their individual bravery defies any comparison.... The Tibetan's heroism is indisputable."[29]
No sooner had they occupied Gyangze than the British army began to prepare for its advance to Lhasa. At the time the Tibetan local government began to change its stand of resolute resistance against the British and tried to reach a compromise with them. It sent representatives to negotiate a peace with the British, but the latter turned a deaf ear. On July 9, the British government ordered its invading army to advance to Lhasa. On July 14, 2,000 cavalrymen and foot soldiers and 2,000 rear-service personnel, under the command of MacDonald and Younghusband, set out for Lhasa, bringing with them eight heavy guns. The British did not meet much resistance except for some harassment by a few Tibetans. The Tibetans did not offer resistance at Karo La either; they abandoned their position as the British came near. On July 25, the aggressors reached the southern bank of the Yarlungzangbo, which was the last natural barrier to Lhasa. But at the time nobody was guarding this gate to Lhasa. Moreover, two ferryboats were berthed on the southern bank so that the aggressors could cross the river without any trouble. Seeing that not much could be done about this situation, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama fled from Lhasa to the hinterland with a small body of retainers and officials. The British occupied Lhasa on August 3.
The Signing of the Treaty of Lhasa
After the fall of Lhasa, Resident Minister You Tai once again acted shamelessly. He called on Younghusband and brought cattle, sheep, rice and flour to his troops and gifts to his staff to reward the invaders and express his greetings, as if he had forgotten he was a grand minister in charge of the security of the borderland. He said he was most anxious to work with Younghusband to induce the Tibetans to conclude a treaty. Therefore, he and Younghusband worked together to put pressure on the Tibetan local government. After the invaders arrived at Lhasa in August, the British government warned Younghusband that September 15 was the last day they could remain at Lhasa for fear that the heavy snow in the winter would cut off their supply lines and stubborn resistance put up by the Tibetan people might bring them disaster. Owing to the fact that the Dalai Lama had fled and the Panchen Lama, although coerced to India by the British aggressors, would not hold negotiations with them, and the Lamaist monks of the three big monasteries in Lhasa were secretly engaged in anti-British activities and would not co-operate with the invaders, Younghusband was in a difficult position because he could not find a qualified Tibetan negotiator. He said: "I could only stay in Lhasa a month and a half or two months. We must be back before the winter. And thus tied, I had to set to work with all speed ... to negotiate the treaty."[30] So Younghusband lost no time in getting the negotiations for such a treaty started as soon as he arrived in Lhasa. At that time You Tai dared not offend the British aggressors; his attitude of "to sue for peace" by compromise helped Younghusband a great deal. In fact, You Tai served as Younghusband's accomplice. Under Younghusband's pressure, You Tai compelled the Tibetan delegation headed by Ganden Tri Rinpoche to hold negotiations with the British aggressors.
On September 7, 1904, at gunpoint and in the Potala which was besieged by British troops, Ganden Tri Rinpoche, who served as the Regent and acted for the absent Dalai Lama, and the representatives of the three big monasteries, had to sign the British-dictated Treaty of Lhasa, the gist of which was as follows:
(1) The Tibetan local government had to recognize the Drenjong-Tibet border delimited unilaterally by the British side.
(2) The Tibetan local government had to agree to raze all forts and fortifications and remove all armaments that might impede the course of free communication between the British frontier and the towns of Gyangze and Lhasa.
(3) The Tibetan local government had to open forthwith Gyangze and Gartok, in addition to Yadong, as trade marts. Britain would enjoy the same special privileges at Gyangze and Gartok as at Yadong.
(4) The Tibetan local government had to agree to pay a war indemnity of 500,000 pounds in seventy-five annual installments. The British government would continue to occupy Yadong until the indemnity was paid.
(5) The Tibetan local government had to agree that, without the previous consent of the British government, (a) no portion of Tibetan territory would be ceded, sold, leased, mortgaged or otherwise given for occupation, to any foreign power; (b) no such power would be permitted to intervene in Tibetan affairs; (c) no representatives or agents of any foreign power would be admitted into Tibet; (d) no concessions for railways, roads, telegraphs, mining or other rights, would be granted to any foreign power, or to the subject of any foreign power; and (e) no Tibetan revenues, whether in kind or in cash, would be pledged or assigned to any foreign power, or to the subject of any foreign power.
At the same time, British government ordered its invading army to occupy the whole of the Chumbi Valley, divided it into five districts, set up administrative, judicial, and police organizations, and fixed an amount of tax to be collected. Four companies of British troops were stationed there and about a dozen policemen were employed to maintain colonial order.
Through this treaty the British imperialists were able to derive more benefits militarily, politically and economically than they had obtained under the unequal treaties of 1890 and 1893. On September 23, 1904, the British hastily withdrew from Lhasa after the signing of the Treaty of Lhasa.
The news of signing the Treaty of Lhasa soon spread throughout the country. The Chinese people felt very indignant and expressed their strong opposition to it. Under the pressure of the people of the whole country, the Qing government ordered Resident Minister You Tai not to sign the treaty. The treaty had no legal effect since it had not been approved or signed by the Qing central government. The British government tried to press the Qing government through diplomatic channels to recognize it. In December 1904 the Qing government sent a vice-president of the Board of Foreign Affairs, Tang Shaoyi, to India for negotiations. During the talks the British side demanded "suzerainty" in an attempt to nullify China's sovereignty over Tibet, and the negotiations became deadlocked. They were resumed in Beijing in 1906. The result was a Convention Between Great Britain and China, signed on April 27, 1906, the second article of which stipulated:
The Government of Great Britain engages not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration of Tibet. The Government of China also undertakes not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet.
Thus, the British government had to recognize in effect China's sovereignty over Tibet. Moreover, the Chinese government also promised that it would pay the indemnity to the British for the Tibetans. Britain had demanded the indemnity be paid in seventy-five annual installments, so that it might occupy the Chumbi Valley for seventy-five years. But the Chinese government paid off the indemnity in three years, which compelled the British to pull out of Chumbi in 1908, seventy-two years before their original plan. Nevertheless, this treaty included the Treaty of Lhasa as an annex, and thus virtually confirmed the privileges of the British aggressors.
Although the British imperialists' plot to turn Tibet into their exclusive colony had fallen through, yet their second invasion made Tibet even more sub-colonial and established the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social order. The defeat of the second struggle by the Tibetan soldiers and people, monks and laymen, was an outcome of the Qing government's corruption and incompetence as well as of the Tibetan local government's weakness and confusion. But the great masses of the Tibetan people were determined to carry on the struggle against invaders. They smashed the plot of annexing Tibet by the British imperialists, their lofty patriotism and the heroic spirit of daring to struggle adds an illustrious page to the annals of Tibet.
New Qing Policies Toward the End of the Qing Dynasty and the Bankruptcy of the British Plot to Split Tibet
Qing Government's New Policies for the Administration of Tibet
Toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, the bourgeois revolution in China was surging forward. In order to draw the bourgeois constitutionalists to its side to oppose revolution, the Qing goveminent declared, in 1905, an institutional reform and initiated a new form of administration. By then the rule of the Qing government over Tibet had already become unstable. In order to strengthen its sovereignty over Tibet and to prevent it from falling into Britain's hands, the Qing government adopted new policies toward Tibet so as to put the Tibetan situation in order.
At the beginning of 1906 Zhang Yintang, the Qing's treaty negotiator with Britain in India on the revision of the Treaty of Lhasa, cabled a report to the Board of Foreign Affairs of the Qing court and made proposals for the improvement of Tibet's administration. In his cable he drew up the basic principle for the new policy: to separate religion from politics in Tibet. On the one hand, the Dalai and the Panchen were to be granted titles generously as religious leaders of Tibet while the management of all its internal and external affairs and all the work to implement the new measures was to be placed in the hands of officials appointed by the Chinese government. "This means the recovery of our political power in Tibet, and to achieve that goal military support is essential." He proposed that
to relieve the present tension there, an army of twenty thousand well-trained soldiers under competent commanders be immediately dispatched to Tibet via Sichuan to be posted at strategically important places there. When stability is restored and enough local soldiers are trained, the number of Han troops in Tibet will be reduced progressively each year until it drops to about five thousand, a force that will be strong enough to keep peace and order in Tibet by that time.[31]
Zhang Yintang suggested that on the basis of increasing the Qing's strength in Tibet and purging incompetent officials, "the monasterial system be kept as it is, but the government administration be reformed."[32] According to him,
this policy of favor plus strength will work to convince the Tibetans that the Chinese government is strong enough to protect them; once convinced of that, how can they possibly think of separating themselves from the rest of the country? And when the British, who take changes in our military strength in Tibet as an indication of our ability to run Tibet, find that we are capable of effective administration of Tibet and there is nothing they can use against us, they will automatically give up their designs on Tibet.[33]
The proposal made by Zhang Yintang reflected the Qing government's consideration of their sovereignty over Tibet and embodied the Qing court's intention to strengthen the administration of Tibet. Therefore his proposal was endorsed by the Qing court. In April 1906 the Qing government appointed Zhang Yintang as Vice Commander-in-chief and authorized him to "investigate conditions and put things in order in Tibet" in the capacity of Assistant Resident Minister in Tibet. Zhang Yintang reached Tibet from India via Darjeeling in July. He arrived at Lhasa on October 12. At the time the Tibetan people of all walks of life put great hopes in him. He was greeted in the outskirts of Lhasa by the representative of the Dalai Lama and four Kalons, and huge crowds of Tibetans thronged jossstick-smoke streets to give him a rousing welcome.
The first thing Zhang Yintang did was to expose the misconduct of You Tai and a dozen other corrupt Manchu and Han officials in Tibet and to denounce them to the Qing government. His charges against them heightened the Tibetan people's morale greatly. They praised the new resident official's firm hand in dealing with corrupt officials. On this basis, on January 13, 1907, Zhang Yintang officially submitted his new program for the improvement of Tibet's administration in a report to the Board of Foreign Affairs. The program, endorsed by the Qing central government, contained twenty-four articles, the gist of which was as follows:
Strengthen the central government's power in Tibet. The imperial court should select a prince and appoint him as the Chief Administrator of Tibet. The chief administrator would have an assistant who would have five officials working under him, i.e., a counselor, a deputy counselor, an advisor and two deputy advisors; they would be in charge of various administrative departments respectively. The Dalai and Panchen lamas should be granted high titles, but they should gradually disengage from the civil administrative system.
Attach great importance to the border defense of Tibet. Six thousand troops from the Beiyang New Army should be stationed in Tibet. They would be put under the authority of the Chief Administrator. Establish a new Tibetan militia of about 100,000, to be led and trained by military academy graduates. Build a firearms factory in Lhasa, and re-build the border defense forces.
Enlighten the populace. Open in large numbers Han language schools. Publish newspapers in vernacular Chinese and Tibetan to awaken patriotism in the readers and to provide them with modern knowledge.
Improve the transport and communication systems in Tibet. Build in the shortest time possible ox-cart roads between Kang-ding and Lhasa and between Gyangze and Yadong and extend telegraphic lines to Lhasa as quickly as possible.
Develop the economy. The Tibetan people should be allowed to operate metal mines and set up banks in Tibet. All the exorbitant taxes and inhuman forms of punishment in Tibet should be abolished to relieve the people of their suffering. The export of commodities should be encouraged so as to resist the infiltration of foreign goods.
The proposal and issue for enforcement of this new policy of administration in Tibet marked the beginning of a new phase of the Qing's administration in Tibet, the main feature of which was the separation of religion from politics. This was an effort by the Qing central government to safeguard and consolidate its sovereignty over Tibet. The new policy played a role in opposing British and Russian imperialism and maintaining the Qing rule in Tibet, and therefore the Tibetans to a certain extent supported it. Zhang Yintang, who was influenced by the bourgeois ideology of the West and had been revered as a patriot, put forward plans to develop Tibetan trade and handicrafts, develop education, strengthen the border defenses, etc. These plans, if put into practice, would undoubtedly benefit the stability and development of Tibet as well as its border defense.
In August 1907 Britain and Russia secretly concluded a Convention Between Great Britain and Russia. Czarist Russia acknowledged British "special interests" in Tibet, and Britain permitted the Russian spy Dorjieff to operate in the retinue of the Dalai Lama. Both sides reached an understanding: recognizing the "suzerainty" of China over Tibet in an attempt to write off China's sovereignty in the region. Under such circumstances, the new policy for the administration of Tibet was of important significance in resisting the British and Russian imperialist joint scheme to split Tibet and in maintaining the sovereignty and unity of China. Therefore, the new policy had, fundamentally speaking, positive and progressive significance.
Of course it should be noted that there were negative aspects in the new policy. This was mainly due to Zhang Yintang's chauvinism. The new policy attempted to "assimilate Tibetans" by imposing upon them the way of life of the Han people and expecting them to accept the language, habits, customs and ethical code of the Hans. All this went against the wishes of the Tibetan people. In addition, the idea of "recovery of political power" that he advocated was in fact a power struggle with the Dalai group, and this necessarily clashed with the interests of the big serf owners. This was why the Tibetan local government implemented the new policy only half-heartedly.
The Qing Government Makes Arrangements for Implementing the New Policies
Using the new program for the improvement of Tibet's administration, the Qing government proceeded to implement its new policies. These new policies began in 1906, after Zhang Yintang investigated conditions there and put things in Tibet in order, and they ended in 1912 when the Qing government collapsed and the Qing's influence in Tibet evaporated. During the new policy period, many changes took place in Tibet politically, militarily, etc. But this was just a sudden spurt of activity prior to the Qing's collapse. With the deterioration of relations between Tibetan upper strata and the Qing central government, the British imperialists took advantage of the replacement of political power in China to instigate pro-British Tibetans to dispel the Qing's influence in Tibet, to persecute patriotic monks and to make the Tibetan situation more complicated toward the end of the Qing Dynasty.
During his investigation mission Zhang Yintang ordered the Tibetan local government to establish nine bureaus to be in charge of foreign affairs, military training, finance, tea industry and salt tax collection, mining and road construction, trade and handicrafts, education, agriculture, and police. Zhang also ordered the publication of two pamphlets: Elementary Ethics and Change Tibetan Habits and Ways. These booklets were translated into Tibetan and distributed throughout Tibet as a guide to the transformation of some backward customs and to educate the Tibetan people in Confucian ideology, such as "loyalty" and "honesty."
Regarding border defense, Zhang Yintang worked out a plan for training troops and stipulated that the higher officers of the Tibetan army of and above the rank of battalion commander should be designated by the Board of the Army. He requested the Qing government to allocate modern guns for the equipping of the Tibetan troops and urged that the key point of border defense be put in the direction of Chumbi Valley. And he requested the dispatch of 2,000 crack troops to guard Chumbi, Phari, and Gyangze, 2,000 to guard Tingri and Gartok, and 1,000 to guard Lhasa. But before this plan was put into practice, Zhang Yintang was sent to India to hold talks with the British.
The new policy for Tibet included the reform of the tusi system in Kham to be carried out by Zhao Erfeng. He implemented the policy of "replacing tribal chiefs with government officials" in a large scale when he was in the post of Commissioner of Sichuan-Yunnan Borderland Affairs.
In 1896 the then Governor-General of Sichuan, Lu Chuanlin, and Resident Minister in Tibet, Kui Huan, proposed to the Qing government that the tusis in Nyarong (modern Xinlong County of Sichuan) should be replaced with government officials, but they ran into stubborn opposition from the Tibetan local government. In May that same year, Lu Chuanlin dispatched Sichuan troops to attack Nyarong, defeated the Tibetan defenders after a fierce battle and seized Nyarong. In November, Lu Chuanlin officially announced his plan of reforming the tusi system. The purpose of reforming the tusi system was to abolish the aboriginal Tibetan local political organizations, strip the tusi's privileges and appoint Han officials to take charge of the administration. This policy naturally ran into opposition by all the former Tibetan headmen. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama sent people to Beijing to lodge a complaint against Lu Chuanlin in 1897. In order to stabilize the situation, the Qing government could not but transfer Lu Chuanlin to another post, withdraw the Sichuan troops from Nyarong, and hand Nyarong over to the officials designated by the Tibetan local government. Thus, the conflict over Nyarong came to an end.
In 1904 Tibet was waging its second war of resistance against Britain. In order to strengthen the defense of Sichuan, the Qing government again issued an order for the recovery of Nyarong and put the Assistant Resident Minister Feng Quan in charge of the job. Feng Quan's first steps were to set a ceiling on the number of monks in the Nyarong region, to prohibit people from entering the monkhood for a period of twenty years, and to strip the lamaseries in the Nyarong region of their political power and take away their land and the people working on it. This caused strong opposition among the monks.
In February 1905, the monks in Batang raised a rebellion. Feng Quan and his entourage of about fifty people met their death at the hands of the rioting monks. Having learned about the riot, the Qing government immediately dispatched Ma Weiqi, Commander of Sichuan Garrison, and Zhao Erfeng, Circuit Intendant of Jianchang, to put down the rebellion. By June 1906 the Qing troops attacked and seized Batang, Xiangcheng, Yan-jing, and Daocheng one after another and stamped out the rebellion completely.
In July of that same year the Qing court promoted Zhao Erfeng to be Commissioner of Sichuan-Yunnan Borderland Affairs. Zhao actively transformed the tusi system there. The Qing court allocated him one million taels of silver needed to get the reforms underway.
Zhao Erfeng proposed to the Court the establishment of Li-hua, Dingxiang and Ba'an counties. He declared that the office of tusi would be abolished forever. Both the Tibetans and the Hans were henceforth to be subject to the jurisdiction of officials appointed by the Qing government. He ordered that every man should shave his head and wear a queue. Zhao also placed restrictions on the authority of the lamaseries; he ordered that the number of monks in each monastery should not exceed three hundred, and a register should be kept of the names and ages of the monks of each monastery. Each monastery was also to pay land taxes like other people did, and the custom of making annual donations in kind to the lamas was to be abolished.
In addition, Zhao Erfeng made economic reforms in Kham: he hired farmers to reclaim the land, had hotels built, had a tanning factory constructed in Batang and an iron-suspension bridge erected over the Nyarong River. He employed Americans to prospect for gold and employed Japanese agronomists to improve farming in Kham. Zhao sent men abroad to learn about woolen fabric looms and flour-milling machinery. Moreover, he set up a postal and communication system in Kham and set up telegraphic lines from Kangding to Qamdo and Batang and planned that the lines would be extended to Lhasa, Ngari and Gyangze. At the same time, Zhao Erfeng ordered that government-run schools be established to which all children of school age would attend. They would learn modern knowledge and the Han language. Altogether 226 schools were set up and 8,270 pupils enrolled. He also ordered that the barbarous methods of burial practiced by Tibetans be abolished, habits of cleanliness be inculcated, morality be encouraged, slavery be abolished, and that nobody would be allowed to smoke opium.
In 1908 Zhao changed Tachienlu into the Kangding Prefecture, Batang into the Ba'an Prefecture, Lihua into the Lihua Subprefecture, and Sanba into the Sanba Subprefecture. Besides, he set up Hekou, Daocheng, Gonggeling (Kungaling), Dingxiang, and Yanjing as counties. All these areas were under the jurisdiction of Kangding Circuit, which was headed by a Han official. The administrative power of tusi and lamaseries was thus taken away.
In June 1909, after subduing the resistance staged by the Derge tusi, Zhao carried out reforms in areas under the jurisdiction of the Derge tusi. He set up five counties— Shiqu (Serxu), Dengke, Dege (Derge), Baiyu, and Tongpu—each with a Han official as the county head. By now, Zhao Erfeng's reform effort in the Sichuan-Tibet borderland had been fundamentally completed. In June 1911, Fu Songmu, the acting Commissioner of Sichuan-Yunnan Borderland Affairs, proposed to the Qing court the establishment of a province and suggested the name of the new province be called Xikang, owing to the fact that the number of newly-founded prefectures, subprefectures and counties had increased after the reform. But the suggestion was put off because of the outbreak of the 1911 Revolution.
Generally speaking, Zhao Erfeng's reforms were of positive significance as they weakened the hold of serfdom there, dealt a blow at the rule of the big clerical and lay serf owners, put an end to the privileges enjoyed by the monasteries and the tusis in most places, and adopted measures to encourage economic, cultural and educational development. In addition, the reforms stabilized the situation of the Sichuan-Tibet borderland and wiped out some of the factors that might cause turmoils. In 1909 Zhao dispatched some Qing troops to Cona, Medog, and Zayu in Tibet to check British attempts to enter Zayu, and thus strengthened the border defense in Tibet to a certain degree. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this aim at reform of the tusi system was to replace Tibetan headmen with Han officials and all political power was put in the hands of Han officials and thus caused misunderstanding between the two ethnic groups that further complicated the situation in the Sichuan-Tibet borderland.
The new policies for Tibet carried out by the Qing government also aimed at stabilizing the upper strata of the religious circles and persuading the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet so as to ease contradictions between the Dalai group and the central government. As early as 1904, when the British launched their second invasion against Tibet, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, appointed Ganden Tripa as the regent to act on his behalf before he fled from Lhasa to the hinterland with a small retinue. Resident Minister You Tai took this chance to make a report to the Qing government attributing all responsibilities for the defeat in the war to the Dalai. On July 25, the Qing government ordered that the Dalai Lama be temporarily stripped of his titles, which aroused the resentment of the Dalai's followers.
The Dalai Lama with his retinue entered Outer Mongolia via Qinghai and Gansu, intending to go to Russia to seek protection. On October 20, he arrived at Urga (modern Ulan Bator) and was warmly welcomed by Jetsun Dampa, the ruling lama of Outer Mongolia. The Qing government was aware of the Dalai's intention of fleeing to Russia, and immediately ordered the Resident Minister in Outer Mongolia to pay a visit to him. At the same time, an imperial envoy was sent from Beijing to Urga to bring greetings to the Dalai from the Qing court, and to provide him with many gifts from the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu. Nominally, the envoy's task was to "call on" the Dalai, but it was in fact meant to strengthen surveillance over him. At the time Russia was engaged in a war with Japan; it was too busy to become involved in Tibetan affairs, and this shattered the Dalai's illusion of using Russia against Britain. Moreover, during the year when he was in Outer Mongolia, the Dalai Lama Thub-ten Gyatso's relations with Jetsun Dampa went sour. All this made the Dalai decide to go home.
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama thus left Urga in April 1906 on his way to Tibet. He was warmly received throughout his journey by local officials. When he arrived in Xining, in September, the Tibetan local government sent a delegation to the Kumbum Monastery to call on him and, on behalf of lay and clerical Tibetans, urged him to return to Tibet immediately. But the British government, in view of the Dalai's close relations with Russia, was afraid that his return to Tibet might harm Britain's interest there, so the British expressed their strong opposition to the Dalai's return. Under such circumstances, the Qing government was forced to make the decision to delay the Dalai's return to Tibet. So the Dalai remained in the Kumbum for over a year.
In early 1907 the Ninth Panchen, Chokyi Nyima, requested an audience with the emperor at the capital. The Dalai's group, which had long been on bad terms with the Panchen Lama, seeing that the situation was unfavorable to them, also requested an audience for the Dalai Lama. After a long period of consideration, in November 1907 the Qing government agreed to extend to the Dalai Lama an invitation to come to Beijing in the name of making pilgrimages to Wutai Mountain, but it refused the Panchen's request.
In the early 1908, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, arrived at Wutai Mountain. He then went to Beijing accompanied by the secretary of the Military Council, who was sent to Wutai by the Qing government. During his stay in Beijing, the Dalai was received several times in audience by the Empress Dowager and the Emperor. The Emperor conferred on him an additional title of "The Loyally Submissive Viceregent, Great, Good, Self-Existent Buddha of the Western Heaven." The Emperor gave many gifts to him and his entourage, at the same time reassuring him of his future status and authority in Tibet. Through these activities, the tense relations between the Qing central government and the Tibetan religious upper stratum became somewhat eased.
The new policies for Tibet of the late Qing also included political reforms to be carried out by the Resident Minister in Tibet, Lian Yu. In May 1908 Lian Yu offered his new program in regard to the administration of Tibet in a memorial he submitted to the central government. He suggested that a small military training school be set up first and that its students should include intelligent and literate Tibetan and Han soldiers from the garrison troops, and that a printing shop should be set up for the translation and publication of Chinese-language books and for the spreading of Han culture to enlighten the Tibetan people.
Soon afterward, Lian Yu and his deputy Wen Zhongyao jointly submitted a memorial to the throne. They asked to be able to train new troops, and to establish a police force, open schools, reclaim waste land, and open mines. These suggestions show that Lian Yu had already begun to implement the new policy for the administration of Tibet, which was formulated by Zhang Yintang. However, Lian Yu had great ambition but little talent; his actions did not win the understanding and support from the upper strata of the Tibetan ruling circles. For this, Lian Yu requested that the Qing government send a high-ranking officer to Tibet to help him in the reform. The Qing government, considering that Zhao Erfeng was acquainted with the borderland affairs and had made achievements in reforming the tusi system, appointed him to be the Resident Minister in Tibet and concurrently Commissioner of the Sichuan-Yunnan Borderland Affairs, and designated his brother, Zhao Erxun, to be the Governor-General of Sichuan and his backup force.
The appointment of Zhao Erfeng as the Resident Minister in Tibet immediately intensified the contradictions between the Qing central government and the Tibetan upper strata. The reforms he had carried out in Sichuan and Kham came mainly through military suppression, and he had taken strong measures against Lamaism. All he did there stirred up strong resentment on the part of the Tibetans, especially the aristocrats of the upper strata. What is more, the appointment of Zhao meant that he would promote the policy of reforming the tusi system in Tibet. The aristocrats and all big monasteries would be stripped of their rights, and the ruling power of the Dalai Lama would be seriously affected. Therefore the Tibetan aristocrats dispatched troops to Markam to block Zhao's entry into Tibet, and they repeatedly requested the Qing government to rescind the appointment. So that this appointment might not lead to grave consequences, the Qing government had no other choice but to announce that Zhao would stay in Sichuan-Kham instead of going into Tibet.
Guangxu and Cixi died one after the other in October 1908. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama then asked to return to Tibet and got the approval to do so from the central government. He left Beijing on November 28 and arrived at the Kumbum Monastery in Xining by the end of the year. There he made preparations for his return to Tibet. At the time Lian Yu thought that the Dalai's return to Tibet might exert negative impacts on his power and make it impossible for him to arrogate all powers to himself. Therefore he submitted a memorial to the Qing court, requesting that the central government send troops into Tibet so as to raise his prestige through military power and to frighten the Dalai.
At the beginning of 1909, the Qing court decided to have three thousand soldiers stationed in Tibet; of these a crack army of one thousand men led by a capable general would be sent from Sichuan and they would be under the command of the Resident Minister. According to this decision, the Governor-general of Sichuan, Zhao Erxun, sent an army of 1,700 soldiers to Tibet under the command of Zhong Ying, a Manchu aristocrat. The army consisted of three infantry battalions, one cavalry battalion, one artillery unit, one engineer corps and even a military band; they were equipped with modern weapons including sixteen big French-made guns, twenty-four machine-guns, long-distance telephones and iron ferry-boats. However, the Sichuan soldiers were recruited from among the local riffraff and unemployed; they did not observe discipline and their commander was not able to keep them in hand. The troops under the command of Zhong Ying left Chengdu for Lhasa in June, and Zhao Erfeng led three battalions to the Sichuan-Kham border to support him.
Having learned that the Sichuan troops were marching into Tibet, the Tibetan local government immediately sent a memorial to the Qing court to express their strong opposition and to demand that the Sichuan troops be recalled, that Lian Yu and Zhao Erfeng be dismissed from their posts, and to say that if these demands were rejected, the Tibetans were ready for rebellion. In the meantime, the Tibetan local government dispatched more than ten thousand Tibetan soldiers to prevent the Qing troops from entering Tibet and to cut off the Resident Minister's daily supplies for a time. However the Tibetan soldiers actually didn't put up much resistance.
The Sichuan soldiers entered Lhasa at the beginning of 1910. Seeing that the situation was critical, the Dalai Lama, who had returned to Lhasa in November of the previous year, made concessions to Lian Yu on his own initiative, promising to withdraw the Tibetan troops that had been deployed in various places for resistance and to resume all the supplies to the resident officials. But Lian Yu would not make any concession, refusing to solve the contradictions between himself and the Dalai by peaceful means and demanding that all the Tibetan officers who had put up resistance should be severely punished. This much perturbed the Dalai; the result was the radical change in his political attitude and his flight to India.
Lian Yu took the opportunity to arrogate all powers to himself. He made great efforts to effect political reform in Tibet and decided to separate the government and the church in Tibet before any new Dalai Lama was installed. By this separation the Dalai would be in charge of Tibetan religious affairs while the Resident Minister would be in command of trade and foreign affairs, with the power to make decisions on the basis of the instructions of the central government. The Dalai would also be barred from interfering with his authority. Moreover, in a memorial to the court dated December of 1910, Lian Yu suggested making structural adjustments to the Tibetan government and an increase in the number of Han officials being placed in key government positions. He suggested that the position of the Assistant Resident Minister be abrogated, that two councilors be installed, one for U and the other for Tsang, councilors who would assist the Resident Minister in handling administrative affairs. He also suggested that the areas west of Lhasa be provided with a commissioner to be stationed in Quxu; those south of it be provided with another commissioner to be stationed in Jomda, and that north Tibet also be provided with such an official. They would be in charge of local political, economic and cultural affairs. But a revolution broke out in the hinterland on October 10, 1911, which overthrew the rule of the Qing government and so Lian Yu's reform ended in smoke.
British Scheme to Split Tibet and the Dalai Lama's Exile
After the two aggressive wars against Tibet the British realized that they could not achieve their aims through military action alone. So they changed their maneuvers from military aggression to attempts to draw the Tibetan upper strata to their side, sowing dissension between Tibetan local authorities and the Chinese central government in the hope of estranging Tibet from China and plunging it into a semi-independent status.
At first, the British tried to rope in the Ninth Panchen, attempting to replace the Dalai, who had an anti-British attitude, with the Panchen. The Ninth Panchen, given the religious name Chokyi Nyima, was born to a poor family at Nangxian (Dakpo) in U in 1883, and was enthroned as the Panchen Erdeni in 1892. Taking advantage of the Dalai's absence from Tibet, the British imperialists ordered Captain O'Connor, who was at the time British Trade Agent at Gyangze, to go with an escort of over fifty soldiers to Xigaze to pay a visit to the Ninth Panchen in September 1905. O'Connor told the Panchen that the British Prince of Wales would soon be visiting India for an important gathering and that the Prince would like to meet with the Panchen while he was there. The Panchen declined, saying he could not do so without the signed approval of the Qing central government. O'Connor insisted on the Panchen's going to India and threatened British military might if he did not. He implied that the British army would be used to subjugate Xigaze and the Tashilhunpo Monastery. Under this pressure from O'Connor, the Panchen said that he had no objection to going to India. He immediately made a report about the matter to Resident Minister You Tai.
Zhang Yintang, the Qing's negotiator to the treaty talks in India, sent a telegram to the Board of Foreign Affairs pointing out that the aim of the British in compelling the Panchen to go to India was to dethrone the Dalai and to gain control of Tibet and that this was a matter of cardinal importance. He asked the Board to put You Tai on the alert and to instruct him to do all he could to frustrate this sinister attempt. But You Tai didn't know what to do except to tell the Panchen to persist in his refusal. He did not give the Panchen any practical help or support. Thus the Panchen left Xigaze for India in October 1905 under the escort of British soldiers. The Qing government immediately sent a telegram to Zhang Yintang, instructing him to notify the British Indian government that the Chinese government would not recognize any treaty or agreement reached between the Ninth Panchen and the British Indian government.
After the Panchen arrived in India, the British Indian government treated him as if he was a sovereign, attempting to maneuver him into asking for Britain's help in making Tibet independent and putting Tibet under British protection. The British hoped that, when he returned to Tibet, the Panchen would declare such independence for all Tibetans on the grounds of China's inability to administer Tibet. The British Indian government formulated a concrete plan for this. They would send the Panchen back first to Tsang and then to Lhasa, and then force the Tibetans to install him on the throne of the Dalai Lama.
At the time the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, was in exile in the hinterland of China, and he was at odds with the Qing central government. The British hoped to foment discord between the Dalai and the Panchen, to force the Qing government to depose the Dalai and support the Panchen, and to install the Panchen as a British agent. Nevertheless, the Ninth Panchen had always attached great importance to maintaining good relations with the Dalai, and he took an identical position with the Dalai in regard to the two armed struggles against British invasion. He was very careful in his talks with the British Prince and the governor-general of India not to let the British take advantage of him, and so they were unable to carry out their conspiracy.
The Ninth Panchen returned to Xigaze in January 1906. The British imperialists still did not drop their plot altogether and sent Charles Bell to visit the Panchen at Tashilhunpo soon afterward. At the time Zhang Yintang was carrying out the Qing reforms in Tibet. Seeing that the central government attached so much importance to Tibetan affairs, the Panchen became still the more resolute in resisting the pressures put on him by the British. The British plot to bribe the Panchen into their service had by now gone bankrupt. After that the British imperialists changed their maneuvers to concentrate their efforts on bribing the Lhasa aristocratic group, headed by the Thirteenth Dalai, into their service. They gave bribes to high-ranking aristocrats and officials and their families and offered medical and other conveniences to them. They told the Tibetans how Britain had made India prosperous, and, at the same time, had kept the Indian social system and religions practices intact. At the time the Sino-Indian trade volume was increasing rapidly, and more and more Tibetan aristocrats were becoming dependent on the British economically. The fact that the victims of the two wars of resistance against Britain were mainly commoners and that the war indemnity was being paid by the central government prevented the aristocrats from clearly seeing the danger of British aggression. Especially the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, who was taking refuge in the interior of China and had just changed his political stand, saw no danger in an alliance with Britain.
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso (1875-1933), was a native of Langdun of Dakpo in U. During the two wars of resistance against Britain, he opposed the British invasion. During the second struggle against the British, when their army reached Chisul Dzong, only sixty kilometers from Lhasa, the Dalai fled from Lhasa. He attempted for a time to go to Czarist Russia to get help and was thus stripped of his title of "Dalai Lama" by the Qing government. This angered him against the government. Since he could not go to Czarist Russia for shelter and his contradictions with the Qing government could not be solved, he thought that only by changing his attitude toward Britain could he return to Tibet to take charge of the Tibetan administration. This prompted his political change from an anti-British stance to one of accepting Britain as his patron.
In 1908, while he was still on the Wutai Mountain en route to Beijing, the Dalai wrote a letter to John Jordan, the British minister at Beijing, saying that he was going back to Tibet to take charge of Tibet's administrative and religious affairs and sincerely hoped to restore a friendly relationship with the Indian government. Having sounded out the Dalai's attitude, Britain continued its efforts to draw him over to their side. After the Dalai reached Beijing, Jordan made a special visit to him. The Dalai said to the British envoy that the unfortunate happenings in the past were not what he wanted and that it was his cherished desire that Tibet and India would always get along with each other in a spirit of peace and friendship. He then asked Jordan to convey his wish to the British government. Jordan, in turn, indicated to him that the British government also hoped to establish a "peaceful" and "friendly" relationship with Tibet. At the same time the British government sent Colonel O'Connor and a Sikkimese prince to the Chinese capital for the purpose of drawing the Dalai to their side. Finally, the Dalai and the British reached an agreement to the effect that the Dalai guaranteed that he would no longer maintain his anti-British stance and that Britain was not opposed to the Dalai's going back to Tibet.
Consequently, after returning to Tibet in 1909, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama placed his reliance on Britain because of Lian Yu's hostile attitude toward him and the threat of Sichuan soldiers entering Tibet. He wrote a letter to the British minister in Beijing, expressing his good intentions toward Britain and his hope that Britain would help him in case of necessity.
When the Sichuan soldiers caused conflicts with the Tibetans in Lhasa in February 1910, it was quite natural for the Dalai to rely on Britain to stand against the central government. On February 12 he fled from Lhasa to Yadong. He went straight to the residence of David Macdonald, the British Trade Agent at Yadong, and asked for British protection. He entered British India on the morning of February 21 under the escort of Macdonald and British armed guards.
That was what the British had long sought. They thought it was a golden opportunity to estrange the Tibetans from the Hans and to tear the region apart from China. As soon as the Dalai crossed the border from Yadong on his flight to India, the British government held a secret meeting in Calcutta to discuss what to do about the Dalai Lama. They decided to utilize this opportunity to strengthen the so-called Tibetan-Indian friendship by according good treatment to the Dalai Lama. They provided him with a house on the outskirts of Darjeeling, and paid for his board and lodging.
In March 1910 the Dalai and his entourage left Darjeeling for Calcutta in the company of Charles Bell, the British political representative in Sikkim. He met with Minto, the governor-general of India, in Calcutta. At this meeting the Dalai went so far as to claim that the Qing government should be held responsible for the two British invasions of Tibet in 1888 and 1904 and that he desired the withdrawal of Chinese influence under British pressure, so that Tibet might conduct negotiations, as an "equal state," with the Qing government. Thus the Dalai embarked on the road of separating Tibet from China.
Once the British imperialists had the Dalai in their pocket, they made use of him to try to sever Tibet from China. Under the pretext that "Tibet and India were neighbors and had very close relations with each other," the British lodged a protest with the Chinese side against Qing troops being stationed in Tibet and the removal of the Dalai's title by the Qing government, thus brutally interfering in the internal affairs of China. In June 1910 Britain sent two infantry battalions with four guns to the Indian-Tibetan border. It threatened that if the Thirteenth Dalai returned to Tibet and turmoil ensued, the British Indian troops on the border would enter Tibet to protect them.
The British plots to sever Tibet from China aggravated the already serious situation in Tibet and put Tibet into a formidable crisis. However, owing to the opposition of the people of the whole country, the restrictions made in the 1907 British-Russian agreement, which prevented Tibet from becoming British monopoly, and the Qing government's launching of a series of new policies and strengthening their sovereignty over Tibet—all these nullified the British plots to separate Tibet from China, and the Dalai returned to Lhasa by the end of 1912.
The Qing Government's Influence in Tibet Withers Away
In the fall of 1911 a revolution broke out in China, which brought about the collapse of the Qing Dynasty that had ruled over China for 268 years. The British imperialists took this opportunity to urge the Dalai Lama to stage anti-Han riots all over Tibet as part of their plot to tear the region away from China. Soon after the eruption of the revolution, the governor-general of British India, Minto, paid a special visit to the Dalai in Darjeeling. After that, the Dalai sent Dazang Dadul to Tibet on a secret mission to organize an armed rebellion in Tibet.
At the time splits took place within the ranks of the Qing officials and troops stationed in Tibet. The royalists in collusion with the serf-owners organized a royalist army with the Resident Minister Lian Yu as the commander. They extorted money from the local government and jeopardized the Tibetans lives and property. Meanwhile the Sichuan troops at Yadong, Gyangze, Xigaze and Phari mutinied in succession. The troops, without a unified command, soon collapsed. Some sold their weapons and ammunition to the local Tibetans and then returned to China via India.
In March 1912, when there was nothing left in Lhasa for them to loot, the Sichuan soldiers under Zhong Ying turned to the Sera Monastery. But the attackers were repulsed by the monastery's monks. By then the Tibetan local government had recruited more than ten thousand new soldiers to make up for the heavy casualties inflicted on the Tibetans by the Sichuan army. For many days on end these soldiers, under the command of Xie Guoliang, a former Sichuan troops' commander who had defected to the Tibetan side, engaged Zhong Ying's troops in a fierce battle. A group of serf-owners issued a proclamation on behalf of the Dalai Lama ordering people "to drive out all Hans from Tibet." The purpose in issuing this order was to separate Tibet from China. This proclamation soon produced a Tibetan militia of more than ten thousand with Dazang Dadul as its commander-in-chief. The militia, under his unified command, attacked the Sichuan troops at Lhasa, Xigaze and Gyangze.
By then the Qing Emperor Xuantong had declared his abdication from the throne (on February 12, 1912), and the Qing government had collapsed. The Provisional Government at Nanjing, with Dr. Sun Yat-sen as its head, was not strong enough to extend its power to Tibet, while the Beiyang warlord group, with Yuan Shikai as its head, was scrambling for power with Dr. Sun and had no time to attend to Tibetan affairs. Thus Tibet was in a vacuum state, and the central government could not control it.
In March 1912, five thousand Tibetan troops attacked the Sichuan troops at Gyangze. Owing to the shortage of food and reinforcements, the defenders were in a very difficult position. Macdonald, the British Trade Agent at Yadong, took the opportunity to mediate between the two sides and compelled the defenders to hand over their weapons and ammunition in exchange for traveling expenses to return to the hinterland of China via India. Soon afterward, the Sichuan troops at Xigaze were also forced to put down their arms.
In April, Dazang Dadul dispatched a great number of troops to close in on Zhong Ying's Sichuan soldiers at Lhasa in a general offensive. Britain then decided to close the Sino-Indian border, its purpose being to support the Tibetan forces. By now the communications between Tibet and Sichuan and Yunnan had been cut off; all the documents of the Chinese officials in Lhasa and the supply of the troops had to be shipped through India. Therefore the close of the Sino-Indian border cut off the connection between the Chinese forces in Tibet and the central government, and broke off the possibility for provisions and military supplies reaching the Han soldiers. As was expected, after a few days of fierce fighting in Lhasa, the Sichuan troops suffered a great many casualties and their provisions and funds were running short. They also had a severe shortage of ammunition. Under these circumstances, they had no alternative but to accept the offer made by the Gurkha representative in Tibet, Kapotin, at the behest of Britain to "mediate" a truce. Subsequently, terms for a peace were agreed upon. They were as follows: (1) The Sichuan army was to hand over its arms and ammunition to the Gurkha representative to be stored up in Tibet. These arms and ammunition were not to be removed from the place of deposit without the joint permission of the Han, Gurkha and Tibetan representatives. (2) All the Sichuan troops were to be demobilized and to return to China via India; but the officials appointed by the central government were to remain in Tibet and could retain a small number of guards. In the middle of August, the Sichuan troops handed over to the Tibetan troops roughly 1,500 mausers of various types, three guns, one machine-gun and eighty boxes of cartridges. In September, the Sichuan troops began to leave Tibet for home.
Zhong Ying was appointed the Resident Commissioner in Tibet by Yuan Shikai's government, but the Tibetan Pro-British elements refused to recognize him and urged him to leave Tibet. Zhong Ying refused to go because he had not been given permission to leave Tibet. A battle again erupted between the two sides. Zhong Ying had only about two hundred troops under his command, and they were short of food and cartridges, and so were in the more difficult position. After the Gurkha representative "mediated" for a second time, Zhong Ying and his guards left Tibet and arrived in the hinterland of China in March 1913. By now all the officials and troops stationed in Tibet had been expelled by the pro-British Tibetan separatist forces; the connection between the local government of Tibet and the central authority was thus temporarily cut off.
After the central government's forces were compelled to leave Tibet, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama returned from India to Tibet under a British armed escort at the end of 1912. At the same time British officials publicly announced that the British government wishes to see an autonomous Tibet under China's suzerainty over Tibet and that China would not interfere in Tibetan affairs and that the Dalai Lama could achieve his object by all means.[34]
With the support of British imperialists, a small number of pro-British elements brazenly announced the independence of Tibet in November 1912, brutally and cruelly suppressed patriotic priests and laymen and called for clearing Tibet of every single Han-Chinese. By now the Tibetan independence activities instigated by Britain had reached the limit.
However, the broad masses of the Tibetan people would not resign themselves to imperialists' slavery. In the Tibetan "independence" farce, many Tibetans waged a bitter struggle against the British imperialists and pro-British separatist elements. A section of the higher-status aristocrats were also unwilling to be the henchmen of imperialists, and did not want a disruption of the connections between Tibet and the central authority. The Panchen's followers and the tens of thousands of monks in the Drepung and Tengyeling monasteries maintained the unity of the state and opposed such separatisrn. Some of them took up arms to fight pro-British rebels. The Ninth Panchen had consistently stood for a "republic" and gave the Hans financial aid; this led to a rupture of his relations with the Dalai. There were quite a few high-ranking officials in the Tibetan local government that took the patriotic stance, some of them even lost their lives because of this. Even Charles Bell, a British imperialist at the time in Tibet, had to admit to the existence of this sentiment. He said: "There is undoubtedly a pro-Chinese party in Tibet among the officials, the priests, and the people."[35] This clearly indicated that the Tibetan people were patriotic and firmly against imperialists' plot to split China. The campaign for the so-called independence ran against the fundamental will of the Tibetan people, and this explains why the plot of splitting China was nothing but a farce and could not be realized. The common struggle of the Tibetan and Han peoples guaranteed that Tibet would not fall into foreigners' hands when China was in the critical junction of governmental change. Their struggle maintained the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of the motherland and thus left a glorious page in the history of the Chinese nation.
Tibet under Semi-Colonial Status in the Period of the Republic of China
The Beiyang Government's Rule in Tibet During the Early Period of the Republic of China
Dr. Sun Yat-sen's "Republicanism of Five Ethnic Groups" and the Tibetan Situation During the Early Period of the Republic of China
On January 1, 1912, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was founded at Nanjing, and the name of the state was changed to the Republic of China (ROC). A bourgeois republic came into being. Sun Yat-sen published his plan for all the ethnic groups of China to build the republic, promulgated the policy of the Provisional Government toward minor ethnic groups, abolished the Qing Dynasty's oppression and discrimination against national minorities, and declared that all ethnic groups in China were equal. He announced that
the Hans, Manchus, Mongols, Uygurs and Tibetans are one person, this is the unity of all ethnic groups; all the areas inhabited by the Hans, Manchus, Mongols, Uygurs, and Tibetans are one state, this is the territorial integrity.
"The Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China," which was formulated under Sun Yat-sen's direction, clearly stated that all the territory of the ROC, including Tibet, and all the citizens of the ROC were equal, regardless of race, class or religious belief. It pointed out that all ethnic groups enjoyed the same status and all citizens were equal, and that the people of all ethnic groups had the right to vote and stand for election, had freedom of residence, speech, publication, assembly and association, and enjoyed freedom of religious beliefs. Sun Yat-sen also said: "From now on, the five great peoples shall make concerted efforts to administer the country ... and they shall love each as brothers so as to enjoy the happiness of the republic." Sun Yat-sen's idea of "a republic of five ethnic groups" was the ideological weapon of the bourgeois democratic revolution; it combined the overthrow of the Qing government with the political equality of all peoples, which produced a positive influence on the maintenance of the unity of the motherland and facilitated a stable situation in the borderland. Although it was only a fantasy to be able to create "a republic of five ethnic groups" in semi-colonial and semi-feudal China, yet the fact that he put forward this idea was a matter of historical progress, which created conducive conditions for the stabilization of situation in Tibetan areas during the early period of the Republic of China.
After the eruption of the 1911 Revolution, Tibet fell into chaos. Violent quarrels broke out within the ranks of the Sichuan troops stationed in Tibet and they divided into two sections. The Resident Minister Lian Yu organized a task force for the protection of the Manchu monarchy, and a section of the Sichuan army led by Xie Guoliang defected to the Kashag. The two sections fought with each other since they held different opinions about the fall of the Qing Dynasty and about the prospects for the Sichuan army in Tibet. In order to win his soldiers' support, Lian Yu demanded from the Tibetan local government a big sum of money on the pretext that they would go back to Sichuan to protect the Qing monarchy, and he gave his soldiers three-month pay in advance. But Lian Yu did not move the troops back to Sichuan after he got the money. His soldiers, with their pockets bulging, took to whoring and gambling and caused much trouble to the Tibetan inhabitants.
The British imperialists took advantage of the change of regimes in inland China and the internal conflicts in the Sichuan army to step up their activities to split Tibet from China. After the governor-general in British India, Minto, held a secret meeting with the Thirteenth Dalai, the latter sent Dazang Dadul to Tibet on the secret mission of organizing an armed rebellion in Tibet, and Dazang Dadul was appointed as the commander-in-chief of a militia. In the meantime, the British imperialists sent troops to the Indian-Tibetan border with the intention of giving support to the Tibetans. Shored up by the British, a part of big serf-owners issued a proclamation on behalf of the Dalai Lama, ordering the Tibetans to drive out all the Hans. A Tibetan militia of more than ten thousand under the command of Dazang Dadul attacked the Sichuan troops and resident Han-Chinese officials at Lhasa, Xigaze and Gyangze, driving them out of Tibet in a planned way.
After this, the Sichuan army withdrew from Tibet and returned to inland China via India. The military and administrative systems under the control of the Resident Minister in Tibet of the former Qing government had by now collapsed and the situation in Tibet increasingly deteriorated. Taking advantage of the fall of the Qing government and the internal affairs in China being in chaos, the British imperialists attempted to instigate the independence of Tibet. Britain proposed to the Tibetan authorities that
Britain would provide Tibet with all the armaments it needed after it declared independence.... In return for Britain's help with its independence, Tibet was to put the management of its financial and military affairs in Tibet under the supervision of British representatives.... Britain would defend Tibet against the troops of the Chinese Republic on their approach to Tibet ... and Tibet would adopt an open-door policy and grant the Britons the right to travel in Tibet without restriction[1]
However, Britain's attempt to gain control of Tibet in this way failed. In March 1912 the Senate of the Provisional Government at Nanjing proclaimed the "Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China," which stipulated explicitly that Tibet was a part of the territory of the Republic of China. This was a proclamation to the world that the Republic of China possessed sovereignty over Tibet.
By then Dr. Sun Yat-sen's idea of "the republic of five ethnic groups" had already spread to Tibetan areas. Influenced by the uprising of the Sichuan Association for the Protection of Railway Rights, the Tibetans at Songpan and Wasi (modern Wenchuan) rose up to combat the Qing troops. Tibetans and Hans in Daofu also rose up to oppose the Qing's rule, as did the Tibetans at Xiangcheng, Litang, and Danba. By the beginning of 1912, people of all the social strata in Tibet responded actively to the Revolution of 1911, and those with bourgeois democratic thinking elected representatives from military, political, and commercial circles to form a representative institution, in preparation for setting up a provisional new political regime. Nevertheless, their struggle against the Qing court failed because of internal conflicts within the ranks of the Sichuan troops stationed in Tibet and because of the interference of pro-British Tibetan elements.
On February 12, 1912, the Qing Emperor Puyi abdicated. Soon afterward, Yuan Shikai usurped the fruits of the victory of the revolution of 1911. In April of the same year, Sun Yat-sen was removed from his post as Provisional President and the Nanjing Provisional Government was moved to Beijing. Yuan Shikai set up the Beiyang Government in Beijing and put the central government under his control. However, he was unable to establish a stable rule throughout China. Although the bourgeois revolutionaries headed by Sun Yat-sen were forced to hand over the central regime, still keeping Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui, Guangdong and four other provinces under their control and more than a hundred thousand troops, the form of a democratic republic and the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China remained. The revolutionary forces of the people had suffered losses, yet the democratic political atmosphere was still very strong and Yuan Shikai dared not publicly cast aside Sun Yat-sen's idea of "the republic of five ethnic groups."
Nevertheless, in order to strengthen their administration over the Mongolian and Tibetan areas and to guard against Tibet falling into British hands, the Beiyang government established, in 1912, the Office of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, but then, in July renamed it of the same year, the Bureau of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1914 this Bureau was expanded and renamed as the Board of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs under the State Council. It enjoyed the same status as other ministries and its duty was to handle the affairs in ethnic minority areas. It had a chairman, vice-chairman, advisors, directors, secretaries and other posts, and it had offices in charge of civil affairs, religion, translation, and border defense. But the establishment of the special institution did not calm down the Tibetan situation.
At that time the situation in Tibet was critical; taking advantage of the change of regimes in China, the British imperialists instigated some Tibetan separatists to split Tibet from China. In August 1912, Yuan Shikai appointed Zhong Ying to be the Resident Commissioner in Tibet, but Zhong was expelled from Tibet. Under such critical circumstances, the Beiyang government decided to send troops to Tibet to quell the rebellions. The Sichuan Military Governor, Yin Changheng, was ordered to lead Sichuan troops into Tibet, and the Yunnan Military Governor, Cai E, was ordered to lead troops from Gyalthang (now Zhong-dian) to Kham.
Nevertheless, owing to the fact that Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government wanted to gain the recognition of Western powers for their regime and that they wanted to get loans from the foreign bank consortium, they backed down in face of intimidation from the British imperialists and ordered the Sichuan army to halt its advance. This stipulated their Tibetan policy as follows:
Military means are to be abandoned in dealing with Tibet so as to prevent British interference, the Dalai Lama is to be the only man to communicate with and the Tibetans are to be pacified so that they may eventually be removed from British influence...
They also declared that the Dalai Lama would be given back his title as a means of pacifying the Tibetan people, that envoys would be sent to Tibet to explain the underlying significance of republicanism, that no changes would be made in the Tibetan social system against the will of the Tibetan people, and that all the treaties concluded with Britain by the Qing Dynasty would be honored[2]
At the time the Beiyang government intensified its official contacts with the Tibetan local authorities. A number of Tibetan patriotic monks and laymen, in the hope of maintaining normal relations between Tibet and the motherland, widely publicized the new policy and "the republic of five ethnic groups" in various ways. Lobzang Dondrup, a Mongolian official, whose ancestors had been Tibetan officials for generations, sent people to Tibet "to announce the founding of the republic, the policy of preferential treatment of ethnic Mongolians and Tibetans and the principles of the republic of five ethnic groups." For this the Dalai Lama appointed Lobzang Dondrup his resident representative in Beijing, and sent men to hand over a letter to the Bureau of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs of the republican government to express his support for the republic of five ethnic groups.[3] After receiving the letter, on October 28, 1912, the republican government decreed the restoration of the title of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and invited him to Beijing to discuss state affairs.
Meanwhile the government issued a decree granting an honorific title to the Ninth Panchen Erdeni. Afterward, Yuan Shikai issued a Law on the Organization of the Parliament of the Republic of China and the quota of Tibetan deputies from Tibet and Qinghai to be elected, regarding Tibet as equal to the other provinces.
At the beginning of 1913, the Dalai himself with other Tibetan officials publicly denied a widespread rumor that Ngawang Dorjieff, on behalf of the Dalai Lama, had contracted a Mongolian-Tibetan Agreement at Urga (present-day Ulan Bator), which stipulated that both Mongolia and Tibet would announce independence and would offer assistance to each other when necessary.[4] After the Sichuan army halted their western expedition, the Dalai sent men to Xinjiang and Tachienlu to discuss terms for the restoration of ties between the Hans and Tibetans through Xinjiang Military Governor Yuan Dahua and Sichuan Military Governor Yin Changheng respectively.[5] Both the Tibetan authorities and the republican government were making efforts to restore normal relations. The broad masses of the Tibetans also hoped earnestly that the Tibetans and Hans might live in harmony and make their joint efforts to build the Republic. When the Republic was established and the purport of "the republicanism of five ethnic groups" was expounded among the Tibetan people, the monks at the Drepung Monastery and other clerical and secular officials expressed their support for the new regime. In 1912, when the Thirteenth Dalai Lama convened a conference of Dzong and Shi chieftains in Lhasa to solicit their opinions about what attitude Tibet should adopt toward the new regime, the greatest part of the deputies advocated that the long historical relations with inland China should be maintained and should not be changed rashly.[6] It can be seen that the spread of the idea of five ethnic groups republicanism had laid a foundation for the continuation of the unity between Tibet and the Motherland.
In April 1913 Yuan Shikai appointed Lu Xingqi as Acting Resident Commissioner in Tibet in the hope of strengthening contacts between the republican government and the Tibetan authorities. Owing to British opposition, Lu Xingqi was never able to go to Tibet. Nevertheless, both the republican government and the Tibetan authorities were still exploring ways to restore normal relations through direct or indirect means by letters and telegrams, and the Tibetan situation was turning gradually for the better. The spread of Sun Yat-sen's idea of the republicanism of five ethnic groups played an important role in stabilizing the Tibetan situation and safeguarding the unification of China.
Beiyang Government Army's Expedition to Tibet and the Wars on the Sichuan Border
Owing to the riots in Tibet at the beginning of the Republic, the Sichuan Military Governor Yin Changheng sent a telegram to the Beiyang government on May 12, 1912, asking the government to send troops to quell the riots. In the telegram he said:
If Tibet falls, the frontiers will be hard to defend, and if the frontiers fall, the whole country will be in danger.... The only way out is to send crack troops from Sichuan and Yunnan to Tibet for emergency aid.
In a telegram to Yuan Shikai dated May 16 of the same year, Cai E, the Yunnan military governor, said:
U and Tsang of Tibet concern the interest of the whole country. Should Tibet split off, Sichuan and Yunnan will be in the danger of being conquered... I am anxious about the dangerous situation on the frontiers. You are urgently requested to arrange to save the frontiers from danger.
The Tibetan separatist forces at that time were attempting to split Tibet from China with the help of the British imperialists. They instigated the deposed tusis (aboriginal chieftains) of the Tibetan areas in the Sichuan borderland, who had lost their ruling power when the Qing government reformed the tusi system in Kham, to raise a rebellion in May 1912.
With the support of the British imperialists and Tibetan "militiamen," the armed rebels on the Sichuan border soon overthrew the new regime established there, killing or expelling Han soldiers and officials, killing ethnic Tibetan officials who had supported or joined the new regime, regaining their lost power, blatantly announcing their "independence," and carrying out a terrorist policy in the Tibetan areas on the Sichuan border.
The Han troops stationed there had by then lost their support owing to the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Some ran home voluntarily, some disbanded their troops spontaneously, and those remaining were isolated in about a dozen places, short of provisions and ammunition and with very low morale and combat effectiveness. In just two months, the greatest part of prefectures and counties on the Sichuan border fell into the hands of the armed rebels. Traya (east of present-day Chagyab), Jankha (east of present-day Markam), Xiangcheng, Daocheng and Litang fell one after another. Batang and Qamdo were encircled; Hekou (present-day Yajiang of Sichuan) was in imminent danger, and communications between Sichuan and Tibet were cut off. The western borderland of Sichuan was in danger of falling into the hands of the British imperialists.
The people of all ethnic groups in China strongly condemned Britain for its support of the pro-British Tibetans in their attempts to split China and they vehemently attacked in speeches and writing the compromising policy of the Beijing government. The military governors of Yunnan and Sichuan also urged the Beijing government to send troops to Tibet to quell the riots. Under the pressure of the public opinion throughout the country and owing to the need of unifying the Republic, the Beijing Government finally decided to dispatch troops to Tibet, and on June 14, 1912, formally ordered Yin Changheng, the military governor of Sichuan Province, to crush the rebellion in Tibet, and ordered Cai E, the military governor of Yunnan Province, to dispatch Yunnan troops to Tibet as reinforcement. In order to prevent Britain from interfering with China's domestic affairs, the Beijing government informed the British minister in Beijing that the military operation was solely aimed at putting down the rebellion in Tibet, and expressed the hope that Britain would maintain strict neutrality in this matter[7]
After receiving the order, Yin Changheng formulated his plan for the western expedition. In the first stage, he would take the principle of moving into Tibet by northern and southern routes. First he would put Litang, an important town on the Sichuan border, and Qamdo, a strategic place on the way to Tibet, under his control, and then he would send troops southward to recover lost land. In the second stage, he would send several hundred crack troops as vanguards from Tachienlu to Lhasa; other troops would follow. At the same time envoys would be sent to Lhasa to ask the Dalai to throw off Britain's control and to maintain the unification of the motherland. The Yunnan Military Governor, Cai E, acting on Beijing's order, marched northward via Zhong-dian to support Batang so as to safeguard the Yunnan border, appointed Yin Chengxian, the chief of staff of the Yunnan troops, as the commander of the western expedition, and so completed his strategic deployment[8]
During the first ten-day period of July 1912, the Sichuan and Yunnan troops marched forward according to the fixed plan. Yin Changheng started off from Chengdu with 3,000 troops, advancing at double speed. He ordered the regiment commander Zhu Senlin to lead three battalions as pioneers to take the south route, marching from Tachienlu directly to Litang; his aide-de-camp Liu Ruilin was to lead the Kuai Shuli Battalion on the northern route so as to assist Qamdo via Garze. His headquarters, with three battalions stationed at Ya'an, was to act as the occasion demanded. When the northern and southern routes of Sichuan troops reached Tachienlu, Yin Changheng went to Tachienlu in person to mobilize the troops. Afterward the armies of the two routes marched forward. In August, Liu Ruilin of the northern route led the Kuai Shuli Battalion in a march at double speed to capture Dawu and Nyarong (present-day Xinlong County of Sichuan). Liu Ruilin left a part of troops to defend the two towns and then took a unit to Batang as reinforcement. He himself led three battalions to rescue Qamdo. By that time the defending troops at Batang had been encircled for three months, their water sources had been cut off and they had run out of ammunition and food supplies; the situation for them was critical. When the reinforcements arrived, the Batang encirclement was relieved after attacks were launched from within and without. When Liu Ruilin's troops approached Qamdo, the Tibetan troops encircling the city fled without a fight, and the siege of Qamdo was thus lifted.
Zhu Senlin's troops on the southern route also successfully accomplished their assigned task. First, they defeated the Tibetan troops at Hekou. On August 12 and 14 they removed obstacles on the road of advance and approached Litang, Batang and Qamdo, stationing troops there to safeguard the towns. Thus the strategic tasks of the first stage of the Sichuan troops' western expedition were completed.
Yin Chengxian, the commander of Yunnan's western expeditionary army, set off from northwest Yunnan to assist Batang via Yanjing. On the night of August 26, he launched a sudden attack on Yanjing and defeated the Tibetan troops there. Yanjing was thus recovered. When the Yunnan troops were marching on toward the Sichuan border, Yin Changheng, the warlord of Sichuan, was afraid that his influence in Sichuan might be threatened by the Yunnan troops' coming into Sichuan. He did everything he could to prevent the Yunnan army from going to rescue Batang, asking them to go directly to Lhasa instead.[9] After the Yunnan troops recovered Yanjing, Yin again sent telegrams to prevent their marching on. Although Cai E sent several telegrams to the Beijing government, asking for perrnission to continue his march to the Sichuan-Tibet border, so as to recover Batang, Litang and Tibet as soon as possible, the Beijing government didn't grant it. They were afraid that a fight might break out between Cai E's and Yin Changheng's two armies. So they sent a telegram to Cai E in September, asking him to focus attention on the Yunnan border only, leave a small contingent of troops at the front line, and withdraw the rest to Yunnan. Thus the Yunnan troops' campaign to put down the rebellions ended. The strategic plan of the first stage of the western expedition was fundamentally achieved, and the first attack of Tibetan troops on the Sichuan border was defeated.
The successive victories of the western expedition put the British imperialists and the pro-Britain Tibetans into great fright. On August 17, 1912, the British Minister in Beijing, John Jordan, acting on the instructions of his government, threatened Yuan Shikai with the fact that the British government would not only withhold its recognition of the Republic of China, but would militarily assist Tibet in winning its independence.[10] At the time Yuan Shikai was eager to become the emperor of China and he needed British support and "recognition," so he yielded to the British threat. During the last ten-day period of September he ordered the Sichuan troops to take Jomda as the border and halt their march into Tibet; thus a good opportunity to reestablish Chinese control in Tibet was lost.
Between the end of 1912 and the beginning of 1913 the Tibetan troops once again attacked Sichuan troops via Bomi. The Sichuan troops in Traya, Jankha, Yanjing, Nandun (about 40 km northeast to Yanjing) and Batang became encircled by the Tibetans. Yin Changheng mobilized reinforcements to rescue them from the siege. The Tibetan troops, being defeated, retreated to the west of Jiayu Bridge (in the northeast of present-day Lhorong County, Tibet) to bide their time. Yin Changheng ordered his troops to strengthen their line of defense in Qamdo, Batang, Litang and Garze; in addition 600 troops were ordered to move around the Xiangcheng area so as to pin down the Tibetan troops there. In the spring of 1913, the Tibetan troops repeatedly attacked Jiayu Bridge and Jankha, and after being defeated, retreated to Yendum Thang (to the west of Traya). Soon after this, the Sichuan troops successfully launched a sudden attack on Yendum Thang; more than ten thousand Tibetan troops retreated westward. Thus the second attack of the Tibetan troops ended in defeat.
Although the Sichuan troops had repulsed the second assault of the Tibetan troops, Xiangcheng and its adjacent areas were still under the Tibetan troops' control. Xiangcheng is located to the south of Batang and Litang, near to the Yunnan border; it played an important role in stabilizing the Sichuan border and Yunnan area. The Tibetan troops had three or four thousand cavalrymen stationed there and a few artillerymen with one quick-firing cannon made in Japan and one mountain cannon made in Germany. On average every two or three men had a rifle; the others used locally-made firearms or swords and spears.
Yin Changheng decided to push on in the flush of victory and to dispatch troops from Chengdu to attack Xiangcheng. On April 2, 1913, Yin appointed Sun Shaoqian as the commander-in-chief and formulated a plan for attacking Xiangcheng. The troops would advance along two routes. The left route would consist of three infantry battalions, two artillery companies and a machine-gun platoon, with Liu Chengxun as the commander. They were to set off from Litang to approach Xiangcheng via Daocheng. The right route would be composed of three infantry battalions, plus an artillery unit and a medical team. They were to attack Xiangcheng by way of Lamaya and Huozhuxiang. The two groups began to march on Xiangcheng according to the established plan during the second half of April.
The right route soldiers won the first battle at Donggong and the army's morale was high. On June 25 they occupied Lenglong-wan and Menkanshan and thus cleared the way to Xiangcheng. The left route army occupied Lapo on April 25 and approached Daocheng. At 6 a.m. on May 10 Liu Chengxun ordered two infantry battalions and two artillery companies to attack the outer defense line of Daocheng; by 3 p.m. the periphery of the town was cleared, the defenders of Daocheng fled in disorder; Daocheng was thus recovered. The Sichuan troops followed up their victory by hot pursuit; the Tibetan troops retreated to Xiangcheng. From June 19 onward, Liu Chengxun concentrated his forces and occupied the Lola Monastery, an important grain depot for the Tibetan troops, and compelled the Tibetan troops to draw back to Nisiding, the last defense line before Xiangcheng. By now the two branches of Yin Changheng's army formed a pincers-like encirclement of Xiangcheng from Lenglongwan and Yuwa.
On June 25 the right route troops attacked Xiangcheng, and the left route troops set off from Nisiding to join in the attack. The two troops soon occupied Xiangcheng.
In July, Xiong Kewu, a division commander of the Sichuan army, in order to respond to Sun Yat-sen's call to join in the campaign against Yuan Shikai (i.e. the Second Revolution), which had broken out in Jiangxi and Jiangsu provinces, ordered the Liu Chengxun detachment to come back to Chengdu from Xiangcheng. Thus the situation in the Sichuan border again became dangerous. The pro-British Tibetans supported the old reactionaries in staging armed rebellions as an attempt to recapture their lost land. In order to deal with the critical situation, Commander-in-chief Sun Shaoqian ordered the troops to safeguard strategic places, and at the same time offered amnesty and enlistment to the Tibetan soldiers at Xiaxiangcheng, but without success. From October 31 on, Xiangcheng was encircled by Tibetan troops for more than twenty days. The encirclement was lifted only after reinforcements arrived. It was not until the beginning of 1914 that the Sichuan troops recovered Xiaxiangcheng and other places, and the Sichuan border situation was stabilized.
For a long period of time after 1913, owing to the failure of the bourgeois revolution of 1911, China saw separatist warlord regimes throughout the provinces and tangled warfare among these warlords. From 1913 to 1917, wars repeatedly broke out between the Sichuan troops and the Yunnan troops, between Sichuan and Guizhou, and between different factions among the Sichuan warlords. The pro-British Tibetans took advantage of this situation to provoke border conflicts. By then the Simla Conference had ended, and Britain was helping the Tibetan local government to expand the number of Tibetan troops, thus attempting to create the "independence" of Tibet by military force.
After 1914, Britain helped the Tibetan local government establish the Headquarters for Tibetan troops, with pro-British Dazang Dadul as the commander-in-chief and Teji Trimonpa as his deputy. They expanded the Tibetan army from three thousand to over ten thousand soldiers. In addition, the British set up a military school at Gyangze, set up a machine factory at Trapchi, and selected a number of Tibetan young aristocrats to be sent to Britain and India to study military science. In 1914, when the situation on the Sichuan border calmed down a little, Britain urged the pro-British Tibetans to make preparations for a further eastward invasion. In September the Kalon Lama was appointed as the chief administrator of Xikang; he and Tsogowa Dapon were dispatched to deploy troops in Jamda. In October Khyun-gram Dapon with three hundred armed men were dispatched to and stationed in Tsoba Sogu. They were to wait there for an opportunity to stir up border clashes.
A war broke out between the Sichuan and Yunnan warlords in the spring of 1917. Peng Risheng, the Sichuan general, transferred two battalions from the troops stationed in the Qamdo, Riwoqe and Tsoba Sogu areas to attack Tachienlu, but he was defeated by the Yunnan troops. Soon after, the garrison general on the Sichuan border, Yin Chengxian, was replaced by Chen Xialing. Britain considered this a good opportunity and immediately supplied the Tibetan troops with 5,000 rifles and 5,000,000 bullets.[11] The Tibetan troops were ordered to attack the Sichuan border, and war thus broke out again.
In January 1918, the Tibetan troops stormed and captured Riwoqe. The Sichuan frontier troops were forced to retreat to Qamdo and Traya. Peng Risheng then requested Chen Xialing to send reinforcements, but Chen refused his request and so the outer defense line of Qamdo was lost. Seeing that there was no way out, Peng and his men laid down their arms and surrendered. Having captured Qamdo, the Tibetan troops divided into two parts and pushed eastward. The border army fled in utter confusion and withdrew from seven counties: Derge, Danko, Sershud, Baiyu, Gongxian, Wucheng, and Ningjing. The Sichuan border had again fallen into a desperate situation.
Chen Xialing, who had been afraid that Peng Risheng's influences might be expanded and so had refused to assist him, now sent a message to the Dalai Lama suggesting a cease-fire, but his suggestion yielded no result owing to objections from the pro-British elements. The Tibetan troops pushed on in the flush of victory, setting out from Derge to Garze and Nyarong. In July, Chen Xialing ordered Regiment Commander Zhu Xianwen to launch a counter-attack. After more than twenty days of fierce battles at Rongpatrag in the southwest of Garze, Zhu's troops managed to establish their position on the east bank of the Nyarong River, and held this against the Tibetan army across the river. In August 1918, after Chen Xialing sent another negotiator to Lhasa, the Dalai agreed to a cease-fire to be negotiated by Han, Tibetan and British representatives. The British imperialists instructed Eric Teichman, a British deputy consul, to the Sichuan border, to act as a mediator. An agreement was reached that from October 17 to 31, 1918, the Sichuan troops would withdraw to Garze and the Tibetan troops, to Derge. This ended the Sichuan border war.
The war was an armed conflict between the central government and the Tibetan local government. It was purely a domestic affair, not "a war between China and Tibet." The war was caused by the British imperialists and pro-British Tibetans' attempt to split Tibet from China. Therefore, it was necessary for the central government to dispatch troops to put down the rebellion. The western expedition crushed the British imperialists and pro-British Tibetans' arrogance, thwarted their scheme to separate Tibet from China, and helped maintain the unity of the motherland. The majority of the Tibetan clerical and secular officials and the broad masses stood for normal relations between the Tibetan local government and the central authorities. There were many examples demonstrating that the Tibetan secular and monastic population supported the Sichuan troops.
Nevertheless, the situation of the civil war on the Sichuan border was rather complex. The Sichuan warlords took the advantage of it to compete for spheres of influence, and there occurred some oppression of national minorities. Moreover, the Sichuan troops were lax in discipline. They did not show sufficient respect for Tibetan customs and habits and did not pay attention to distinguishing the pro-British elements from the patriotic secular and clerical officials, and this hurt the Tibetan people's feelings. This was caused by the class nature of the Beiyang government and the Sichuan warlords.
The Simla Conference and the Position of the Beiyang Government
The Simla conference was a plot hatched by the British imperialists with the aim of separating Tibet from China. The plot began with the British preventing the Beijing government from sending troops to Tibet. In June 1912, after Yuan Shikai made the decision to send troops to Tibet to put down the rebellions there, the Sichuan Military Governor Yin Changheng led his troops to Qamdo and then halted his western expedition owing to Britain's objections. Yin Changheng had planned to hold a meeting with the representatives of the Tibetan local government at Qamdo to discuss the problems concerning the restoration of ties between Tibet and the central government. This was a domestic affair of China. But in order to undermine the Qamdo meeting, the British imperialists unexpectedly suggested that the Beiyang government, headed by Yuan Shikai, send delegates to India to attend a so-called tripartite conference of China, Britain and Tibet.
On August 17, 1912, Britain presented a note to Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government emphasizing that the British government could not recognize China's sovereignty over Tibet and demanding the conclusion of a new treaty to replace the old one. It took this as a prerequisite for its diplomatic recognition to the government of the new Chinese republic. On September 7, British Minister Jordan, acting on the instructions of his government, lodged a protest to the effect that if the government of the Republic of China insisted on sending armed forces into Tibet to put down rebellions, the British government would not only withhold its recognition of the Republic but would militarily assist Tibet in winning its independence.
By then the war in Sichuan border had already broken out. When the western expeditionary forces won many victories in succession, the British government instructed Charles Bell (British political representative in Sikkim) to meet with Lonchen Shatra, a pro-British Tibetan separatist, and told him how to haggle with the Chinese representatives at the conference and collect documents concerning the boundaries between the Han and Tibetan regions to support their claim for the "detachment" of Tibet from China.[12] After they had made all necessary preparations, the British imperialists threatened that if the Beiyang government refused to come to the conference and conclude a new treaty regarding Tibet, Britain would negotiate such a treaty directly with the Tibetan government. Under such pressure, the government of the Republic of China agreed to the proposed tripartite conference. With regard to the conference site, China suggest Beijing or London, while Britain insisted on its choice of Darjeeling in India. Finally, it was agreed that the conference be held in Simla, India.[13] The Beiyang government was forced to agree to attend the conference before the name, content, discussion items and procedure and purpose of the conference were decided.
The tripartite conference of China, Britain and Tibet opened at Simla on October 13, 1913 (the second year of the ROC). Representing China were Commissioner of Tibetan Affairs Chen Yifan and Assistant Commissioner Wang Haiping. The British representative was Arthur Henry McMahon, secretary of the Indian Foreign Office. His assistants were Archibald Rose, previously of the British consulate in China, and Charles Bell, British political representative in Sikkim. Tibet was represented by Lonchen (Silon) Shatra, who was assisted by Teji Trimonpa, Khenchung Tampa Dargye and Rimshi (official of the fourth rank) Tado. A representative from each of the three great monasteries was also present at the conference. Before leaving for the conference, Charles Bell had met with Lonchen Shatra in Gyangze. Bell advised him to bring with him all the documents he could collect bearing on the Tibetan relationship to China in the past and on the former's claims to various prefectures and counties that had from time to time been occupied by China.[14] Bell also instigated Lonchen Shatra to raise the question of Tibetan independence for the conference to discuss.
At the outset of the conference, the British imperialists instigated the Tibetan representatives to raise a six-point proposal, demanding that (1) Tibet become independent; (2) Tibetan territory include Qinghai, Litang, Batang and the region as far as Tachienlu; (3) the India-Tibet trade regulations signed in the nineteenth and thirty-fourth years of the reign of Emperor Guangxu be revised by Britain and Tibet without the participation of China;[15] (4) China not post officials in Tibet; (5) as the monasteries in China and Mongolia recognized the Dalai Lama as their religious leader, all their abbots be appointed by the Dalai Lama; and (6) all the taxes illegally collected in Nyarong be returned to Tibet and the losses sustained by Tibetans be compensated for[16]
In a counter-proposal, the Chinese representative Chen Yifan reaffirmed that Tibet was an integral part of China. As for the rights the Chinese central government formerly enjoyed in Tibet, the proposal stated that the Tibetan people should respect them, as should Britain. The proposal said that China would not convert Tibet into a province on the condition that Britain would not undertake to annex Tibet or seize any part of the Tibetan territory. The proposal insisted that the Chinese Resident Commissioner in Tibet should have an escort of 2,600 men to be stationed in Lhasa, that Tibet's foreign and military affairs should be placed under the control of the Chinese central government and that, without the consent of the central government, no foreign countries should be permitted to communicate directly with Tibet. As for the recognition of the Dalai Lama as the leader of Buddhism in China and Mongolia, the proposal said that the matter could be negotiated later. On the issue of revising the Sino-British trade regulations of 1893 and 1908, the proposal said that any changes in them must be preceded by consultations among all parties concerned. The proposal refused to accept a boundary by which only Qamdo and the region east of it were to be placed under Chinese rule. Obviously, the central government took a negative attitude toward the proposal raised by the Tibetan local government, making no concessions on the matter of sovereignty over Tibet and its boundary. Neither side was ready to yield and the negotiations reached an impasse.[17]
Seeing that the uncompromising stand of the Chinese side would make it impossible to realize the proposal raised by the Tibetan side, the British representative, posing as a mediator, offered an eleven-point "compromise" program with the aim of separating Tibet from China and putting it under British control. The "compromise" program was actually a trap set for the Chinese representatives. Under this program, Tibet, Qinghai, Xikang and the Tibetan areas in Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan were to be called Tibet: the areas west of the Jinsha River were to be termed Outer Tibet while those east of the river, Inner Tibet. Outer Tibet was to be detached from China and Inner Tibet was to be placed under the joint administration of China and Tibet. After much argument and concession, the Chinese representatives proposed that:
The areas north of the Dangla Range, Qinghai within its original boundary, Adunzi, Batang and Litang remain under the rule of the interior government of China, and the land east of the Nujiang (Salween) River, including Derge, Nyarong, Qamdo and the Tsoba Sogu, should form a special district and retain the original name of Kham.[18]
The British side also made some concessions, proposing that the part of Qinghai that was included in Tibet should be included in the territory of Qinghai, and that Jinchuan, Tachienlu and Adunzi should be excluded from Inner Tibet and incorporated into China, while Nyarong and Derge should be made a part of Inner Tibet. But they still maintained that Outer Tibet should be separated from China. The Chinese representatives emphasized that Tibet was an integral part of China, while the British and Tibetan representatives would not make any concessions on this matter.
On April 27, 1914, Britain presented a draft treaty based on the eleven-point "compromise" program and tried to get the Chinese representatives to sign it. The chief provisions of the draft treaty were:
1. Tibet would be divided into two zones, Outer Tibet and Inner Tibet. The former was the part nearest to India, including Lhasa, Xigaze and Qamdo; the latter the part nearest to China, including Batang, Litang, Tachienlu, and a large portion of eastern Tibet.
2. Chinese suzerainty over the whole of Tibet would be recognized, but China would agree not to convert Tibet into a Chinese province.
3. Great Britain would agree not to annex any portion of Tibet.
4. The autonomy of Outer Tibet was to be recognized. China would agree to abstain from interference in its administration, which was to rest with the Tibetans themselves. China also would agree to abstain from sending troops, stationing civil or military officers (except as in 6 below) or establishing Chinese colonies there. Britain was to abstain from all these things throughout the whole of Tibet, but to retain her Trade Agents and their escorts.
5. In Inner Tibet the central Tibetan Government at Lhasa was to retain its existing rights, which included, among other things, the control of most of the monasteries and the appointment of local chiefs. But China was not forbidden to send troops or officials or to plant colonies there...
6. A Chinese Amban was to be re-established at Lhasa with a military escort limited to three hundred men.
7. The escorts of the British Trade Agencies in Tibet were not to exceed three-fourths of the Chinese escort at Lhasa.
8. The British Agent at Gyangze was authorized to visit Lhasa in order to settle matters that could not be settled at Gyangze.[19]
A map of Tibet was attached to the treaty, showing the boundary between Outer and Inner Tibet in red and blue lines.
The Simla Treaty was to divide Tibet into Inner and Outer Tibet. Although it was stipulated that the central government of China still maintained its rights in Inner Tibet, its sovereignty was to be replaced by suzerainty. Although Outer Tibet nominally obtained "autonomy," should any disputes arise between the central government of China and Tibet, the final decision would be made by the government of British India. The British might engage in trade freely and China could not put any limit on such trade. The internal administration of Tibet was to be temporarily put under the supervision of the British Indian government. All this actually would separate Tibet from China and make it a colony of the British Indian government.
Chen Yifan, intimidated by the British aggressors, initialed the draft treaty without the approval of the central government on April 27, 1914. When news about this reached China, the whole nation was outraged. Public opinion denounced Chen as "a muddle-headed official who betrayed the country and disgraced the people," and demanded that the central government not to approve the treaty. The nationwide protest prevented Yuan Shikai from ratifying it. He ordered Chen by wire not to sign the final instrument, and on May 1 sent a note to the British minister in Beijing to the effect that China would not accept the treaty. On July 3, 1914, the British and Tibetan representatives signed the final document. On behalf of the Chinese government, Chen Yifan declared in a formal note of protest to Britain that China "will never accept any treaty regarding Tibet concluded between Britain and Tibet without the approval of the Chinese government."[20] The treaty was thus signed only by British and Tibetan representatives; so the Simla conference broke down.
It is worth noting that on March 24 and 25, 1914, before the conference broke up, the British representative McMahon exchanged letters with the Tibetan representative Lonchen Shatra Paljor Dorje behind the Chinese representatives' back. McMahon drew a line on a map to show the boundary demarcation between Tibet and British India. The line started from the northeast of Bhutan and went eastward to the junction of Tibet and Yunnan with Burma, thus incorporating the three districts of Monyul, Loyul and Zayul of China's Tibet, with a total area of 90,000 square km, into the territory of British India. The so-called McMahon Line was never raised openly at the conference; it was a dirty trick. It was as late as 1937, 23 years after the Simla Conference, that this line was smuggled into a collection of treaties supposedly published in 1929. Unfortunately, this line remains a standing problem relating to the Sino-Indian boundary.
The Simla Treaty and the so-called McMahon Line were illegal. Neither the Yuan Shikai's government nor the successive central governments of China recognized it. The Simla Treaty and the so-called McMahon Line did much harm to the sovereignty of China and to Tibet, and it made even the Tibetan upper strata feel that the matter brought shame on themselves. After Shatra Paljor Dorje returned to Tibet, he was removed from his post by the Dalai Lama.
Afterward, the British government several times tried to lure the Beiyang government into reopening a tripartite conference of China, Britain and Tibet. But the patriotic May Fourth Movement broke out in 1919, and the Beiyang government incurred censure from various quarters throughout the country. On September 5, 1919, the Beiyang government sent telegrams to the provinces asking for their opinions about the Tibetan problem. Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai and Gansu all published open telegrams to the nation expressing their opposition to reopening any tripartite conference. The Chinese students studying in Japan held a demonstration to oppose the division of Tibet into Inner and Outer Tibet.
In 1919 the Beijing government sent a mission to Tibet and established direct contacts with the Dalai Lama. It instructed the governor of Gansu to send Zhu Xiu and Li Zhonglian to Tibet as special envoys to make friendly contacts with the Dalai for the purpose of defusing the crisis. The envoys arrived in Lhasa in November, 1919, and exchanged views with the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. The Dalai said that he would not have turned to Britain had it not been for the high-handed treatment he received from the Ambans, and he assured Zhu Xiu that he was all for the motherland and would work for the well-being of the five ethnic groups.[21] Zhu Xiu and his party returned to the hinterland in April 1920, bringing back gifts and letters from both the Dalai and Panchen lamas.
By then the Beiyang warlords had split into two groups—the Anhui clique and the Zhili clique— and a war between the warlords of these two cliques—had just ended. The Beijing government was weak politically, but the political atmosphere had already become clear. In 1922, Dondrup Wangyal, the representative of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, arrived at the capital of Beijing, had an interview with President Li Yuanhong, and expressed the Dalai's intention of being subject to the central authorities. Thus the relations between the Tibetan local government and the central government resumed, and Britain's attempts to split Tibet from China ceased for the time being.
The National Government's Administration over Tibet
The Establishment of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs and the Resident Tibet Office in Nanjing
The National Government was established in Nanjing on April 18, 1927. On December 29, 1928, General Zhang Xueliang, who had been ruling the roost in northeast China, struck his flag and declared that he would submit to the Nanjing National Government. The rule of the Beiyang warlords thus came to an end, and the Kuomintang regime formally unified the whole of China.
After gaining power in China, Chiang Kai-shek relied on foreign imperialists and carried out a policy of class repression and the oppression of national minorities, opposing communism and the people. Nevertheless, owing to his need to maintain his rule, he became well informed about the border crises that had happened since the end of the Qing Dynasty and also about the wish of the people of all ethnic groups for national unification, and he formulated some new policies, such as the study and publicity of the national minorities' rights and status and the economic and cultural exchanges between the borderland and hinterland, making an investigation of the geography and natural resources of the minority areas, and a study of the measures for handling domestic minority problems. All this attracted the attention of various social circles with an interest in border problems and the national minorities inhabiting the borderland, especially those concerned with Mongolian and Tibetan problems. Conversely, the study provided a theoretical basis for the central government to formulate its policies of administration in the areas inhabited by national minorities. It should be said that during the whole period of the Kuomintang rule, the Kuomintang government at Nanjing took Mongolian and Tibetan problems seriously.
The Tibetan ethnic group, like the Mongolians, occupied an important place in China and was of significance in the then ethnic relations. Compared with other ethnic groups in the borderland, the Tibetans and Mongolians were the most populous and occupied the largest area of habitation. Ever since the end of the Qing Dynasty, they had been invaded and instigated by imperialists and so had had repeated conflicts and disputes with the central government, neighboring provinces, and even with foreign imperialism. Within their own ethnic groups, there occurred many struggles owing to religious problems or the distribution of rights and benefits. Thus, many historical issues remained unsettled. After the establishment of the Nanjing Kuomintang government, areas inhabited by other ethnic groups were converted into provinces, and their affairs were under the direct administration of provincial governments. So the setting up of a special institution for handling Mongolian and Tibetan affairs by the central government was put on the government's agenda.
In 1928, the Nanjing government changed the Board of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs of the former Beijing government into a Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs under the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan of the Kuomintang government. The commission had a chairman, a vice-chairman, and twenty members; among them, six were members of the standing committee, who were responsible for day-to-day affairs. Three departments were set up under the commission, which took charge of internal affairs, Mongolian affairs and Tibetan affairs respectively. Under each department there were several administrative offices. In addition, there were also a compilation and translation office, an investigation office, and a research office for the political and religious systems in the borderland. Besides, it had the following as its attached institutions: a Mongolian-Tibetan Monthly Press, a Mongolian-Tibetan News Agency, a Mongolian-Tibetan hostel, a Beiping Mongolian-Tibetan School, a Beiping Management Committee of Lamaseries, a Mongolian-Tibetan Political Training Class, resident Tibet offices in Beiping and Nanjing, resident Panchen's offices in Nanjing and Beiping, a resident Joint Office of Mongolian Leagues and Banners in Nanjing, Zhangjiakou pastureland and Shahukou pastureland[22]
The Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs was in charge of policies and government affairs, while regular and concrete matters were taken care of by the ministries and commissions under the central government. For example, the Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Education under the Ministry of Education was in charge of the management of Mongolian and Tibetan education, the Kuomintang Organization Department was responsible for the organizational work in Mongolian and Tibetan areas, etc. All relevant ministries set up special institutions for Mongolian and Tibetan affairs. Thus the central government fundamentally set up a whole system for the administration of the Mongolian and Tibetan areas, which reflected the fact that the central government of the Kuomintang attached great importance to the Mongolian and Tibetan problems, and thus provided necessary conditions for solving all the Tibetan problems that had appeared since the founding of the Republic of China. The establishment of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs was timely and necessary.
A series of changes occurred in Tibet before and after the founding of the National Government in Nanjing. On the one hand, the Thirteenth Dalai had already resumed contacts with the Beiyang government in Beijing, but he had misgivings and suspicion about the newly-founded National Government in Nanjing. On the other, Britain was particularly unhappy about the resumption of contacts between Tibet and the central government and so intensified its infiltration into Tibet politically, economically, militarily and culturally, which infringed on the interests of the monasteries, aristocrats and common people, thus causing a strong anti-British sentiment among the Tibetans.
Britain sent Charles Bell, the British political officer in Sikkim, to Tibet in October 1920. What Bell tried to do in Lhasa was to drive a wedge between the Dalai and the central authorities, attempting to create a "greater Tibetan state." For this, he made a series of proposals to the Dalai, such as expanding of the Tibetan army, increasing taxation, buying equipment from India, opening mines, opening a British school to train aristocrats' children, opening banks, and putting the Tibetan finance and economy under his control. Bell's proposals, especially the proposed imposition of new taxes, ran into stiff opposition from lay and clerical Tibetans, and particularly the three great monasteries. In February 1921, not long after Bell's arrival in Lhasa, more than twenty thousand monks from the three great monasteries gathered at the Jokhang for the annual Monlam festival. When it was reported that the monks were ready to stage a riot and kill the Englishmen in Lhasa, troops were sent by the Dalai to suppress them. Five days after the outbreak of this violent incident, five thousand monks of the Drepung Monastery decided to attack Lhasa to drive out the Englishmen. But before they could leave their monastery, three thousand troops sent by the Dalai had surrounded it and disarmed them. Bell finally came to the conclusion that:
Affairs of this kind are apt to turn against the foreigner of alien religion who has penetrated into the land. The priestly classes, scenting in the foreign influence a menace to their religion and themselves, are especially inclined to be hostile[23]
Bell could not realize the British plot; he left for India in 1921.
The British imperialists were worried about the strong popular anti-British sentiment in Tibet that persisted even after Bell's departure. They hoped that a new contingent of police they trained might bring the thoughts and actions of the Tibetan people under their control. Regardless of bitter opposition from the monasteries, the Dalai had asked the British Indian government to help organize the police force. The Tibetan people had always taken religion as their criterion for behavior and disliked this innovation. On the one hand, "the rank and file of the new force were practically conscripts, sent in by owners of great estates, who, naturally, did not part with their good men,"[24] and it was difficult to carry out the training of them. On the other hand, the Lhasa townspeople hated the police force because the new police were apt to be somewhat overbearing and prone to make arrests on the slightest pretext. The Lhasa citizens naturally detested the new guardians of the law. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama's plan to put Tibet under the control of police ended in failure.
Afterward, the British imperialists came up with an even more vicious plot. They recruited some young pro-British officers from the Tibetan army, and instigated them to overthrow the Kashag in a coup and replace it with a government of young army officers. Ever since the Dalai informed the Beiyang government that "originally, he did not mean to turn to Britain ... and that he was all for the motherland," the British Indian government had always wanted to get rid of him. Tsarong Kalon was chosen to lead the conspiracy. He and a group of young officers formed a clandestine clique in the British-run military academy at Gyangze and planned to strike when the time came. But before they could do so, one of the officers in the clique informed the Dalai of the conspiracy. Immediately the Dalai removed Tsarong from his position as commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, dismissed all the young officers in this clique from their posts and closed down the British-run military academy at Gyangze.
The British imperialists' outright interference in Tibet's internal affairs became an immediate threat to the Dalai's position and the interests of the class represented by the Dalai. By now the Nanjing National Government had been established; although the Dalai was not sure if Tibetans would be treated on terms of equality, he decided to send men to resume contacts with Nanjing in the hope of seeking support from the central government.
Therefore, in the winter of 1928, the Dalai sent Khenpo Lozang Pasang, his resident representative at Wutai Mountain, to Nanjing to interview Chiang Kai-shek and feel out the National Government's attitude toward the Dalai. Chiang wrote a letter to the Dalai, in which he expressed his concern for and sympathy toward Tibet, pointing out that "the spirit of nationalism is the way to achieve freedom and equality of the Chinese nation."[25] This letter was taken to Tibet by Lozang Pasang. That was the beginning contacts between Tibet and the Kuomintang government.
In March 1929 the Thirteenth Dalai sent Konchok Jungne and Tsultrim Tenzin as his representatives to Nanjing to tell Chiang Kai-shek that the Dalai harbored no hostility toward the Han people, that Tibet's contacts with British India could not have been avoided because it was one of the countries bordering on Tibet, and that the Dalai would welcome the Ninth Panchen's return to Tibet. In addition, the Dalai made a special statement to Chiang Kai-shek saying that "he would not turn to the British and would not betray the central government of China."[26]
In July 1929, the Kuomintang government put out feelers by sending Liu Manqing to Lhasa. A woman employee at the Office of Civil Affairs, Liu was sent on this mission as a representative of Gu Yingfen, the director of the Office. Liu arrived in Lhasa in the spring of 1930. On March 28, she had an interview with the Dalai, during which the Dalai was noncommittal. A second interview did not take place until May 5, after Liu announced, toward the end of the previous month, that she was returning to the interior.
During the second interview the Dalai talked about a wide range of subjects and asked Liu to report what he said to the Kuomintang government. He hoped the new government would attach importance to Tibet and continue to give Tibet practical assistance. What he expected most of China was real unity and peace. He said,
As for Xikang, I would like you to tell the government that it should replace the sadistic army officers there, who subject my people to brutal treatment, with an honest civil official of clean reputation. I am ready to withdraw the Tibetan troops there at any moment. As the place is Chinese territory, there is no need to argue which one of us owns it. Resorting to force ... would be as senseless as a quarrel between two brothers.
The British, indeed, have a mind to draw me to their side. Nevertheless, I know the importance of guarding the national sovereignty and I have never surrendered a bit of it in spite of the necessity of having to deal with them, their characters and customs being so different from ours. When China is internally consolidated, the Xikang-Tibet question can be easily settled in a conference[27]
As for sending Tibetan delegates to a national assembly meeting convened by the Kuomintang government in Nanjing, the Dalai said that a few young men would go to the conference. All he asked the government to do was to provide Tibet in the near future with weaving and leather-manufacturing machines together with skilled workers. This again shows that the Dalai recognized Tibet as a part of the territory of China and that the Xikang-Tibet question was an internal affair of China, and that he upheld the unity of the motherland.
In December 1929, the Nanjing National Government appointed Konchok Jungne as the "Goodwill Commissioner to Tibet." He took a letter from Chiang Kai-shek to the Dalai as well as an eight-point draft program "for the settlement of the Tibetan question" worked out by the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs and wanted the Dalai's answer to it. The Kashag made a concrete response to each of the eight points, reaffirming that Tibet would from then on make an even greater effort to give full support to the central government, that the area under Tibet's jurisdiction should be the same as before, that Tibet would still exercise a combination of religion and politics, and that for the purpose of protecting itself against aggression Tibet hoped that the central government would supply it with arms. There was a question as to whether the Dalai Lama had any intention of establishing an office in the capital of Nanjing for the convenience of keeping closer contacts. The Kashag answered: "At first, offices are to be set up in Nanjing, Beiping, and Xikang. If and when such offices are required for other places, applications will be filed accordingly."[28]
Konchok Jungne returned to Nanjing with these replies in August 1930, after having smoothly fulfilled his task. This shows that the Tibetan local authorities and the central government had achieved a common understanding on matters of principle. In order to solve the problems involved, there was a need for regular and sincere consultations between the Tibetan local authorities and the central government. It was therefore necessary to set up a bridge to link Tibet and the central government. Afterward, the central government sent another mission to Tibet to hold consultations with the Dalai for the purpose of solving the Tibetan question and this brought about good results to a certain degree. So the Dalai appointed Konchok Jungne as Tibet's chief resident representative in Nanjing.
At the beginning of 1929, the Panchen Lama moved his office from Beiping to Nanjing. In 1930 a Mongolian-Tibetan conference was held in Nanjing, the Kashag was asked to send its representatives to Nanjing to attend the conference. The Kashag sent Tsultrim Tenzin and others there to set up the Tibet Office in Nanjing in 1931; the National Government set up its counterpart in Lhasa on April 1, 1940. The establishment of the Dalai's Tibet Office and the Tibet Office under the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs marked the normalization of relations between the Tibetan local authorities and the central government[29]
The National Government's Handling of the Civil War Between Xikang and Tibet
The civil war between Xikang and Tibet was a part of the British plot to create a "greater Tibetan state." At the instigation of British imperialists, the pro-British Tibetan force continuously expanded its territory into neighboring provinces. This civil war was also related to the inappropriate handling of a Nepalese-Tibetan war by the Nanjing Kuomintang government, which touched off indignation among the Tibetan upper circles. The increasingly improved relations between Tibet and the Nanjing government threw the British imperialists into panic, and so they instigated an armed invasion of Tibet by Nepal in December 1929. They attempted to force the Dalai to drift away from the central government by "mediating" the war in the hope of separating Tibet from the motherland and putting Tibet under their control.
Nepal had long been under British control, and it was subject to the British Indian government. Nepal had also always had trade and religious contacts with Tibet and Nepalese merchants in Tibet were exempted from taxation. In 1929 when the Dalai, because of financial difficulties, decided to terminate the exemption and impose taxes on the Nepalese merchants in Tibet, the Nepalese resisted openly. In the ensuing public agitation, the Dalai had one of the protesters arrested. But the protester managed to escape and took refuge in the Office of the Nepalese Resident Representative in Tibet. Soon after the Dalai learned where he was hiding, he had him captured and shot. This led to a dispute between Nepal and Tibet. The British imperialists took advantage of this incident to order Nepal to launch an armed invasion into Tibet. The king of Nepal acted as the British wished because refusing such a formidable power as Britain was out of the question for him. He ordered twenty-four Sokpo (equivalent to county magistrates) to build roads for military motor-vehicles going to Tibet; he had arms, ammunition and food procured; pack animals requisitioned; and over twenty thousand Nepalese soldiers on active service in India recalled. In December 1929, following mobilization orders, an expeditionary army led by Nepal's crown prince set out for Tibet.
At the time Tibet was defenseless along its border with Nepal as most of its troops were massed on the eastern front in Xikang. The Dalai, hearing reports of the approaching invaders, asked the Kuomintang government for aid. The Kuomintang government knew quite well that the invasion of Tibet by Nepal was masterminded by Britain, but wanting to avoid conflict with Britain and to keep domestic situation stable, it only tried to appease the Dalai by sending Ba Wenjun, a counselor of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, to Nepal to investigate the cause of the conflict. Ba was well received in Nepal and was told that the hostilities between Nepal and Tibet were entirely the work of the British imperialists, and that Nepal fought the war against its will, for Nepal, a tiny kingdom, had no choice but to bow to the might of Britain.[30]
When the Nepalese troops were pressing on to the border, the Kuomintang government assumed an ambiguous attitude toward assistance to Tibet. The Dalai was anxious to remove the danger on the border, so he turned to Britain and asked it to mediate between Tibet and Nepal. This was what the British imperialists had hoped; he had fallen into their trap. In January 1930 Britain sent its Political Officer in Sikkim and a mission from the Indian government to Lhasa to mediate the Nepalese border conflict. The result of the mediation was that Britain ordered the Nepalese troops to stop their invasion of Tibet on the condition that the Dalai would order the Tibetan troops to launch an attack against Xikang. Britain thus once more provoked conflicts between Tibet and the central government, causing great damage to the unity between the Hans and the Tibetans.
In June 1930, the Tibetan troops stationed in Derge, Xikang, taking a dispute between the Dargye Monastery and the headman of Beri as an excuse, attacked the Sichuan garrison troops at Garze. The conflict was caused by a dispute over the ownership of fifteen households of servants, which had been loaned to the Living Buddha of Beri, Nyara Trulku, by the former headman of Beri. Nyara Trulku enlisted the support of the Dargye in his effort to win domination over the headman of Beri. He offered the Dargye Monastery the fifteen households of servants. When the Beri headman raised objections, the Dargye occupied Beri by force. The Sichuan troops, rushing to the scene to restore peace, were held up by the Dargye troops entrenched across the river. The Tibetan army stationed at Dargye, instead of helping to effect a withdrawal of the Dargye troops, provoked a war with the Sichuan troops. The Dalai sent his troops beyond the boundary of Tibet defined at the tripartite conference of Britain, Sichuan, and Tibet in October 1918 and attacked Garze, and the Xikang-Tibet war broke out. When the Tibetan troops occupied Nyarong (Zhanhua), they took its magistrate, Zhang Cipei, his subordinates and their families as prisoners, more than thirty of them in all, and bundled them off to Qamdo. Tibet's invasion of the Xikang region occurred at a time when the local warlords of Sichuan were locked in battles among themselves. This accounted for the abandonment of Garze and Zhanhua by the garrison troops at the approach of the Tibetan troops.
Following the fall of Garze and Nyarong, the Sichuan local authorities asked the Kuomintang government to negotiate with the Dalai for a halt of the attack by the Tibetan army. The British imperialists then decided that the time had come to put pressure on the Kuomintang government and ordered their Foreign Office to inform the Kuomintang's ambassador to Britain that the British government was willing to "negotiate" the dispute and help to find a peaceful solution. In reply, the Chinese ambassador said, "The dispute between the central government and Tibet is China's internal affair; therefore we decline any offer of mediation."[31]
In April 1931, the Kuomintang government appointed Tang Kesan, an official of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, to investigate the case in Garze and adjacent areas, and they sent a telegram to the Dalai through his representative in Nanjing, Konchok Jungne, asking him to order a stop to the attack and send persons to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the issue. In May, the Dalai cabled his reply, saying that he had ordered a cessation to the military action, pending negotiations with representatives of the central government toward a peaceful settlement. Near the end of that month, Tang Kesan was told in Xikang by the Kuomintang government to proceed to Garze for talks with the Dalai-appointed representative, Dapon Khyun-gram. But when Tang reached Luhuo, he was told in a letter by Khyungram that he, the dapon, was not a representative to any negotiations, but was merely in charge of his reception. Some time later, Tang received a letter from Kalon Menkhab Todpa, Tibet's chief representative at Qamdo, in which the Kalon said, "I have the honor to inform you that I have been authorized to attend to matters concerning the Xikang incident." Tang then wrote to the Kalon that he was eager to meet him in Garze and get the talks underway. It was a long time before Tang was told in a letter from Kalon Menkhab Todpa that he could not meet with him because he was no longer a representative and was handing the job over to his successor. Once again the talks were thus delayed.
It was not until the spring of 1932 that Dapon Khyungram was empowered by the Dalai to enter negotiations with Tang Kesan. The talks produced a draft cease-fire agreement. Its main points were: (1) Garze and Nyarong were to be garrisoned temporarily by Tibetan troops. (2) Dawu and Luhuo were each to be garrisoned by two hundred Han troops, and Garze and Nyarong were each to be garrisoned by two hundred Tibetan troops. The two armies were to refrain from attacking each other. (3) As the Dargye Monastery was formerly under the jurisdiction of the Garze Monastery, all the disputes with Beri were to be referred to Khyungram for unprejudiced arbitration. (4) All captured officers and men were to be repatriated; all expenses incurred during their captivity were to be paid by the Sichuan army.
What the draft agreement was aimed at was the acceptance by the Sichuan army command of a permanent occupation by the Tibetan army of the territories it had seized. As such, the agreement when made public caused a wave of protests in Xikang by its entire population, and the peace talks were stopped. Owing to internal conflicts between the Sichuan and Xikang warlords, the Tibetan troops continued to occupy Garze and Nyarong for more than two years.
Having stirred up a civil war between Xikang and Tibet, in order to increase the contradictions between Tibet and the central government and between ethnic Tibetans and other ethnic groups, the British imperialists then instigated the Dalai to extend the civil war into Qinghai so as to put Tibet under its permanent control.
In August 1931, J. L. K. Weir, the British political officer in Sikkim, arrived in Lhasa. Sent by the British imperialists, he came with the purpose of enlarging the war Tibet was fighting in Xikang by getting the Tibetans to attack Jyekundo (present-day Yushu) in Qinghai. The Dalai, shortly after meeting with him, put Drungyig Chemo (secretary-general) Ngoshiwa Thubten Gedun in charge of military and administrative affairs in Jyekundo. The Tibetan troops began their assault on the defense zones in Jyekundo in January 1932. This time the pretext for the attack was a land dispute between the local Ganden and Dudtsi Dil monasteries.
Zurmang of Jyekundo was administered by the Ganden Monastery. Ninety years before when the monastery joined the camp of the Yellow Sect, the Dalai, as requested by the monastery, appointed a Khenpo as its supervisor. The Khenpo, with the powerful Ganden Monastery behind him, grew increasingly domineering. In a display of defiance against this evil-doer, the inhabitants refused the corvee his monastery assigned them. In retaliation the Ganden forcibly took away the crops grown in the nearby fields. For over a decade after that the Ganden Monastery monks would come each year to take possession of the crops, as if they owned the land. As the land was in the possession of the Dudtsi Dil Monastery of the Older Sect and of the Zurmang tribe, the Dudtsi Dil monks and some of the tribesmen appealed several times to the Jyekundo garrison headquarters and the magistrate for justice. They won the case, but the Ganden then took the dispute to the Dalai, who then instructed the governor-general of Qamdo to look into the matter. Soon, the representatives of the governor-general of Qamdo went into negotiations with the local authorities of Jyekundo, but nothing came of the talks. In 1931, the new garrison commander of Jyekundo, Ma Biao, declared that as the land over which the dispute had arisen was clearly in the territory of Qinghai, Tibet had nothing to do with its settlement. Then Tibet, having become unbearably arrogant by its military victory in Xikang, sent a large body of troops to the Jyekundo area in the name of protecting the Ganden Monastery.
In December 1931, the Tibetan governor-general demanded the withdrawal of Qinghai troops from Greater and Lesser Zur-mang, warning that the troops and residents there must not resist the Tibetan troops in any manner. Ma Biao, refusing to be provoked, reported the demand to the provincial government. Then Secretary Wang Jiamei, who was sent by Division Commander Ma Bufang, and the headmen of Jyekundo went to meet the Tibetan governor-general. They told the Tibetan, among other things, that as Qinghai and Tibet had always lived in peace and never held anything against each other, armed conflicts between them should be avoided by all means. The Tibetan governor-general, pretending to accept these views, agreed to meet again the following year at a place mutually agreed upon to discuss the dispute between Zurmang and the Ganden. But on March 24, 1932, the Tibetan army made a surprise attack on Greater and Lesser Zurmang using heavy fire power.
The Tibetans attacked Qinghai with a much superior force of more than four thousand men against only a little over five hundred of Ma's troops. The garrison troops sustained heavy losses, and the survivors retreated to Jyekundo. On April 3 Nangqian fell to the Tibetans. Then the victorious Tibetans continued their advance until they laid siege to Jyekundo. Because Ma Bufang feared that the loss of Jyekundo would imperil the whole of Qinghai, he ordered the defending troops to hold on at any cost, and at the same time appealed to Chiang Kai-shek for aid in arms and money, and assembled troops for reinforcement.
In July 1932, when the newly assembled Qinghai troops reached the battle front at Jyekundo, they mounted a counter-offensive, during which they put the Tibetan troops to rout, recovering not only Nangqian, but Shiqu, Dengke and the other county seats east of the Jinsha River in Xikang that had been lost to the Tibetans since 1920. The sweeping victory scored by Ma's troops at Jyekundo and their penetration into Xikang brought about quick, dramatic changes in the war situation in Xikang. The Tibetan army in Garze and Zhanhua had to retreat to the west of the Jinsha River because its flanks were now fully exposed to attack and its supply and communication lines could be cut off any time. Liu Wenhui dispatched a brigade of his troops to coordinate the attack by the Qinghai troops on Zhanhua and Garze. The brigade, taking advantage of the Tibetan troops' withdrawal to the Jinsha, recovered Garze, Zhanhua, Derge and other county seats, winning back all the territories east of the Jinsha that had been lost to the Tibetans, and setting up its positions to face those of the Tibetans across the river.[32]
After the Tibetan army retreated to the west of the Jinsha, Ma Bufang in his telegrams to Chiang Kai-shek and Liu Wenhui proposed a pincer attack by the victorious Qinghai and Xikang armies on Qamdo. This development prompted the British charge d'affaires in China to make a presentation in person to the Foreign Ministry of the Kuomintang government. Citing the Simla Treaty, he said that the proposed attack on Qamdo would be an act of aggression against Tibet, and threatened that the military action, if taken, would produce grave consequences. To this the Foreign Ministry replied: "As China did not sign the Simla Treaty, the document is invalid." But still, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Qinghai and Xikang forces to halt military action pending peace negotiations with the Dalai. The Dalai, knowing that his position had been weakened by the repeated defeats of the Tibetan army and the loss of all the territories Tibet had grabbed east of the Jinsha, and beset by the impoverishment of Tibet and strong anti-war sentiments among the people as a result of ceaseless war, proposed peace talks with the Kuomintang government.
On October 8, 1932, Deng Jun and Jiang Yuwen, negotiators authorized by Liu Wenhui, met with their Tibetan counterparts, Dapon Khyungram and Dapon Kyibuk, at Gamtog. The negotiators reached a six-point cease-fire agreement. Its main points were:
(1) The outmost line of defense for the Han troops was to run along the upper and lower reaches of the east bank of the Jinsha River; the outmost line of defense of the Tibetan army was to run along the west bank of the river.
(2) The time for the withdrawal of the combat troops for both sides was from October 8 to October 28; the outmost line of defense after the withdrawal was to be located in Baiyu (Palyul), Dengke (Danko) and Dege (Derge) for the Han troops, and in Renda, Tongpu (Tangphug) and Wucheng for the Tibetans. The number of troops stationed in each of the places was not to exceed two hundred.
(3) From the day the cease-fire went into effect and the troop withdrawal began, communications between the two sides were to be restored, and the traders and people of both sides were to be allowed to travel without restrictions.[33]
The peace talks between Qinghai and Tibet, however, dragged on for a long time; it was not until June 15, 1933, that a truce was finally signed. The main points of this accord were:
(1) The Khenpos of the Ganden Monastery were to be nominated by the monks of the monastery for approval by the Dalai Lama. Their powers were to be limited to religious matters as traditionally was the case, and they were prohibited from interfering in political affairs.
(2) The religious powers of the Chenko and Damthog monasteries were to be returned to the dzodpa, but neither side was to station its troops in either of the two places.
(3) When a peace accord was reached, the Tibetan side was to withdraw its troops first, to be followed by the withdrawal of Qinghai troops within fourteen days. Both sides were to evacuate within one month's time all the troops that had been added to those originally stationed where they were. After the withdrawal, the troops of both sides were to be kept within their areas and were not to violate the other's territory.
(4) Both sides would protect all the monasteries and temples.
(5) Both sides would protect traders and people traveling between Qinghai and Tibet.
(6) All the officers and men taken prisoner by the Qinghai troops were to be returned to the Tibetan side following the signing of the accord.[34]
With that, Tibet's second invasion of the Xikang region, instigated by the British imperialists, ended in failure.
After the Xikang-Tibet civil war came to an end, in order to defeat thoroughly the British plot of creating a "greater Tibetan state," the Kuomintang central government put the plan of establishing a province of Xikang on its agenda. The plan had been brewing ever since the end of the Qing Dynasty. It was imperative under the circumstances. Xikang was at the junction of Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Qinghai. Historically it had no clear boundary, and the areas under its jurisdiction varied during the different dynasties. During the Qing Dynasty, Xikang included the areas under the jurisdiction of Qamdo, Garze, Kangding, Ya'an and Xichang. Xikang was Tibet's passageway to the hinterland and so it was important strategically. Many different ethnic groups inhabited the area, including the Tibetans, Qiangs, Yis and Hans, with the Tibetans in the majority. This area had close relations with Tibet politically, economically, culturally, religiously and customarily. Therefore, the British imperialists tried by every possible means to incorporate the Xikang area into the territory of the "greater Tibetan state."[35]
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when Zhao Erfeng was transforming the tusi system in the Sichuan borderland with great force, he thought of establishing the province of Xikang so as to strengthen the rule of the central authorities over the area.
At the beginning of the R.O.C., Yuan Shikai's government appointed a supervisor (Jing Lue Shi) to handle the Sichuan border affairs; later, when the Sichuan border special zone was established, the supervisor was replaced by a military commander.
After the National Government was founded at Nanjing, the Xikang area became the bone of contention between the Tibetan upper circles and warlords. In the military conflicts that occurred between Xikang and Tibet, between Tibet and Qinghai and between Sichuan and Yunnan, the area of Xikang changed hands repeatedly. The prolonged warfare and the contention for power in Xikang plunged the people there into an abyss of misery. Most of the people, both lay and clerical, sincerely hoped that the central government would adopt practical measures to create a peaceful environment there, especially to guard against the pro-British Tibetan influences in the area. Therefore, in 1929, the National Government adopted the plan of establishing a province of Xikang with the aim of strengthening their rule over the area. Nevertheless, a series of important events that followed, such as the war between Chiang Kai-shek and the Guangxi warlords, Chiang Kai-shek's attacking the Red Army, and the Shenyang incident of 18 September, 1931, which led to the Japanese invasion of China's northeast, made it impossible for this plan to materialize.
In 1932 the Kuomintang government sent Kelzang Tserim, the Kuomintang's specially appointed official, to Ba'an. He announced the formation in Ba'an of a "Committee for the Establishment of Xikang as a Province" and a "provincial army of Xikang." But he also raised the slogans "Xikang for the people of Xikang" and "Expel the Sichuan army." It was only after the civil war between Xikang and Tibet had ended and the Tibetan troops had withdrawn to the west of the Jinsha River that he was transferred to Nanjing to take another post.
At a conference on the defense of the western regions held by the National Government, the Panchen Lama also proposed the establishment of a Xikang provincial government without delay.
In 1936 Liu Wenhui was appointed chairman of the Committee for the Establishment of Xikang as a Province; he began to prepare for the formation of the province. Afterward, the National Government issued a "Statement for the Setting Up of the Committee for the Establishment of Xikang as a Province" and suggested a seven-point proposal for the committee to follow: "To develop communications, investigate the natural resources, demarcate the boundary, establish local systems, formulate educational principles, improve the self-defense ability, and recruit talented people from outside."[36]
Soon after, various plans were made and investigations were carried out extensively. Four large scientific research teams were organized one after another in Xikang and more than 1,500 research papers, investigation reports and proposals were published.[37] All this provided a scientific basis for the establishment of Xikang as a province; the conditions for its establishment were becoming increasingly ripe. After the death of the Thirteenth Dalai, the contacts between Tibet and the central government strengthened, and the Xikang provincial government was officially established in 1940, with its capital at Kangding. The province was rescinded in 1955 after New China was founded.
The National Government's Mediation of the Contradictions Between the Dalai and Panchen Factions
Contradictions between the Thirteenth Dalai and the Ninth Panchen had long existed. These contradictions between the two great incarnations had an important bearing on the sovereignty of China and the unity and stability of Tibet. So the mediation between the two incarnates became one of the important aspects of the National Government's administration over Tibet.
The contradictions between the Thirteenth Dalai and the Ninth Panchen were fundamentally caused by the British imperialists sowing discord between them. The Ninth Panchen, Chokyi Nyima, once studied under the tutorship of the Thirteenth Dalai, Thubten Gyatso. In the first phase of resistance against British invasion at the end of the Qing Dynasty, they both shared a common view and had good relations between themselves. For a long time the two great incarnations respected and supported each other. Ever since Emperor Yongzheng (r. 1723-1735) and Qian-long (r. 1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty, their status and rights had been clearly established. The Panchen Lama exercised his administrative and religious functions and powers in the Tsang region, while the Dalai did so in the U region. After the 1911 Revolution, the Qing Resident Minister in Tibet was expelled and the original ruling order was disrupted. The British imperialists then intensified their efforts to sow discord between the Dalai and Panchen. The British tried to persuade the Panchen to split Tibet, but the Panchen refused. So the pro-British elements in the Kashag tried to attack and weaken the Panchen in every way.
As early as 1915, the Kashag appointed two Jidzongs (governors-general of Tsang) for Xigaze to be in charge of the Tsang region, including the areas under the jurisdiction of the Panchen. The Jidzongs not only blatantly interfered in the monastic affairs of the Tashilhunpo, but also levied various taxes for the Kashag in the areas under the Panchen's rule. The Panchen refused their order, citing the precedent that during the Qing Dynasty only the Tashilhunpo had the right to collect taxes and land rents in this area to the exclusion of the Kashag. The incident increased the contradictions between the two parties.
In October 1920, the Kashag sent men to the Tashilhunpo to collect taxes on wool, yak tails, hides and salt; the Tashilhunpo sent five representatives to Lhasa to request a tax exemption, but the Kashag turned them down. In 1921, the Kashag set up an army-grain office. The office was in charge of fixing the amount of grain to be levied from various areas in Tibet for the army's use. When the Tashilhunpo officials were told that their quota was 10,000 khal (approximately 140,000 kilograms), or a quarter of the total levies of grain, they became even more dismayed. In October, two representatives sent by the Panchen arrived in Lhasa. They asked the Kashag to exempt the Tashilhunpo from such levies, but they were turned down once more. So antagonism developed between the Dalai and the Panchen factions.
The direct cause of the Panchen's flight to the hinterland was that some of his ministers had been summoned to Lhasa by the Dalai in 1923, and they had been thrown into prison. Knowing that reconciliation was no longer possible, the Panchen left the Tashilhunpo secretly on November 15, 1923, and fled northward under the cover of darkness, accompanied by fifteen high-ranking monks.
With the Panchen gone, the Dalai took over the Tashilhunpo and put it under the control of the Kashag. He appointed a Dzasa Lama to take charge of the administrative and religious affairs in place of the Panchen. The Dzasa Lama's responsibilities were: (1) collecting taxes in gold, silver and grain in the areas under the Panchen's jurisdiction for use by the monasteries and their monks, (2) fixing the ula (corvee-service) quotas for the dzongs and shikas (manorial estates) under the Tashilhunpo's rule, and (3) collecting surtaxes in grain, wool and salt in the areas under the Tashilhunpo's jurisdiction and turning them to the Kashag for military use[38] After the Tashilhunpo was taken over, the Kashag treated the people in the Panchen's domain very badly. The people of the Tsang region were groaning under the burden of the new taxation imposed by the Kashag. The officials sent by the Kashag to the Tashilhunpo issued orders that all taxes and arrears of revenue were to be exacted to the last farthing. All this increased the people's grievances against the Dalai and brought grave results.
In order to escape the pursuing soldiers, the Panchen and his party traveled non-stop for seven days and nights. After learning that the Panchen had fled, the Kashag sent troops to intercept the Panchen's party. But soon the pursuers had to give up because they did not know what route the Panchen was following, and heavy snow was closing all the roads in the mountains.
In March 1924, when the Panchen arrived in Gansu, he was warmly welcomed and graciously treated by the governments at all levels and leading personalities of various circles. The Beiyang government sent a special envoy to invite the Panchen to Beijing. The people of all ethnic groups in China, especially the Tibetan people in the northwestern and southwestern provinces, showed their sympathy and respect for the Panchen and for his anti-imperialist and patriotic stand, and his being persecuted by the Kashag. They delivered letters and telegrams inviting the Panchen to preach the doctrine of the Buddha and expressed their sympathy and support for him.
After arriving in Beijing, the Panchen still had to handle a lot of administrative and religious affairs concerning the Tsang region and other areas inhabited by Tibetans, so he set up the Panchen's Council of Khenpos in Beijing to deal with the administrative and religious affairs. This institution did a lot of good service conducive to the motherland for the Panchen. Soon afterward the Panchen set up a permanent office in Beijing so as to keep better contacts with the central government. The Panchen went to Beijing to seek the help of the motherland for his return to Tibet and its guarantee against persecution. But he came there at a bad time; with the country torn apart by civil wars between northern and southern warlords, the central government was not able to do anything to relieve Tibet of its problems. Under these circumstances, the Panchen was compelled, during his exile, to keep moving from one place to another so as to engage in administrative and religious activities in Inner Mongolia, north China and northeast China.
After the National Government was founded at Nanjing in 1927, a superficial unification appeared in the country and the improvement of the relations between the National Government and Tibet began to evolve. This development rekindled the hope of the Panchen faction for returning to Tibet, and was taken by them as an indication that the Kuomintang government might be counted on for help. In February 1929, the Panchen established official relations with the Kuomintang government when it granted his request for the opening of an office in Nanjing headed by Lozang Gyaltsen. The establishment of the Panchen's Office in Nanjing was accompanied by a declaration, which said emphatically:
Historically and geographically, it is impossible for Tibet to be independent of China, and China without Tibet would be weakened. Therefore, unity will benefit China and Tibet alike while separation will certainly bring harm to both.[39]
When Nepal invaded Tibet toward the end of 1929 at the instigation of the British imperialists, the Panchen, then staying in Shenyang, sent a delegation to the Kuomintang government with a request for permission to organize a guard to join in the war for the defense of Tibet. He asked the Kuomintang government to provide the guard with rifles, ammunition, uniforms and funds for army pay, but his request was not granted. Then, in a letter dated July 23, 1930, to Chiang Kai-shek, Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang, the Panchen wrote in detail of his thoughts and feelings after his escape to the interior, and once again asked the Kuomintang government to help him return to Tibet.
On May 10, 1931, the Panchen gave a lecture to the third session of the New Asia Society in Nanjing. His topic was "Tibet Is China's Territory." He cited many historical examples to prove that Tibet was a part of China and called for the unity of all ethnic groups in the country to stand against foreign invasions. At the time the Kuomintang government was carrying out a foreign policy of compromise and capitulationism and a domestic policy of suppressing the Communist Party of China and democratic progressive forces; it simply could not solve the Tibet issue. So the Panchen's return to Tibet was again put aside.
The Nanjing Government began to mediate in the Dalai and Panchen's dispute when it renewed contacts with the Dalai. At the time the Panchen was warmly received by the government at all levels and by the masses of the people in the interior, which made the Dalai uneasy. He feared that the Panchen's return to Tibet with the support of the central government and the people of the motherland might bring harm to his status, and so soon afterward he restored his relations with the National Government. The Dalai also hoped that the National Government might support Tibet and help him to consolidate his power and status. This created conditions for the settlement of the contradictions between the two Living Buddha factions. As early as 1928 and the following years, the National Government sent representatives more than once to Tibet to hold talks with the Dalai. Each of these delegations tried to patch up the discord between the two factions during their talks, nevertheless, the mediation did not achieve good results, owing to a lack of mutual understanding.
In 1931 the Kuomintang government asked Tibet to send its delegates to a national assembly meeting in Nanjing to draft a constitution for the so-called period of preparation for democratic rule. Both the Dalai and the Panchen factions sent delegates to the meeting. The Dalai group sent six delegates and three nonvoting delegates, and the Panchen group sent four delegates and five nonvoting delegates. The Panchen arrived in Nanjing from Shenyang and attended the meeting at the invitation of the National Government. During the meeting, the four delegates representing the Panchen—Lozang Tsultrim, Lozang Gyaltsen, Lozang Wangyal and Wang Lejie—submitted a proposal for "the restoration by the central government of the former administrative system in Tibet." The gist of the proposal was as follows:
Since ancient times Tibet has consisted of three parts: Tsang, U, and Kham. The Dalai and the Panchen have been the leaders of the Yellow Sect in U and Tsang for several centuries. The government of the Qing Dynasty made it a custom to post its senior resident official in U and assistant resident official in Tsang. Since the founding of the Republic of China, the interior regions and Tibet have been beset with one problem after another, one result of which has been the Panchen's flight to the interior. It has been nine years since the Panchen left Tibet. With a view to achieving the unity of the country and stability in the frontier region, we submit the following proposal for the deliberation at the national assembly:
1. Exercising leadership for the Yellow Sect has always been the main concern of the Dalai and the Panchen, the two religious leaders of Tibet, and matters of administration in both U and Tsang are handled in consultation with the resident officials. The government, therefore, is requested to install, by referring to the former system, two officials for the separate administration of Tibet, with one of them posted in U and the other in Tsang, acting at the same time as commanders of the garrison troops in Tibet. This arrangement will prevent either U or Tsang from trying to dominate the other.
2. As our country did not sign the Simla Treaty, Tsang will not have the obligation to accept any future treaties that U may conclude unilaterally with Britain without the participation of China.... Henceforth, all negotiations with foreign countries should be conducted by the central government, and Tibet should not be allowed to conclude any treaty without permission so that the territorial sovereignty of the country may not be violated.
The above recommendations for the administration of the internal and external affairs of Tibet are the key to the solution of the Tibet issue. There are other issues to be dealt with, such as communications, taxation and the legal system, which need thorough reform, but they can wait and will not be elaborated upon here until the separate administration of U and Tsang and the relations with the central government in the field of internal and external affairs are restored.[40]
This proposal for the solving of the Tibet issue was of great significance, for it affirmed the central government's administration over Tibet. Nevertheless, the national assembly did not adopt any resolution on Tibet; all it did about the issue was to draft Article 80 for the national constitution, which said in vague language that "the forms of local government in Mongolia and Tibet shall be determined by a separate set of laws to be made in the light of the conditions existing there."[41]
On July 1, 1931, the Kuomintang government officially conferred on the Panchen the title of "Great Master of Infinite Wisdom, Defender of the Nation and Propagator of the Doctrine," together with a gold seal and a certificate of the title. At the same time he was made the recipient of an annual stipend of 120,000 yuan. The granting of this title to the Panchen to the exclusion of the Dalai greatly offended the latter as well as the Kashag. They ordered the Tibet Office in Nanjing to start a campaign against the Panchen and protested the treatment that the Kuomintang government had accorded the Panchen. On May 20, 1932, Konchok Jungne, Tibet's chief representative in Nanjing, and Ngawang Gyaltsen, another Tibetan representative, raised four demands with the Executive Yuan of the Kuomintang government and the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs. Their demands were:
1. Withdraw from the Panchen the title, seal and title certificate;
2. Stop the Panchen's stipends and the payment for his accommodations;
3. Confiscate the arms and ammunition the Panchen has purchased; and
4. Order an immediate shut-down of all of the Panchen's offices in the interior.
Meanwhile, the Tibet Office in Nanjing made public a declaration by the three great monasteries and Tsongdu, which condemned the Panchen.
Shortly after this, Lozang Gyaltsen of the Panchen's Office in Nanjing made a counter-statement on behalf of the Panchen, in which the Dalai was accused of eight crimes. Both sides accused each other. The national assembly meeting thus did not yield good results on the Tibet issue.
In January 1932, the Tibetan army launched an attack on Jyekundo (Yushu) in Qinghai. On September 18, a conference on the defense of the western regions, attended by representatives from the military commands of Sichuan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, was called in Nanjing to discuss plans to cope with the situation arising from the second invasion of the Xikang region by the Tibetan army. The conference claimed that if the contradictions between the Dalai and Panchen factions could not be settled, there would be no safety and security in the western regions, and so the settlement of the contradictions between the two was put on the agenda of the conference. The Panchen in a speech offered a twelve-point plan to the conference for the solution of the Tibetan question, reiterating that Tibet was a part of China, that the central government should be in charge of Tibet's external affairs, that all the treaties that Tibet had concluded with foreign countries but that had not been recognized by the central government were null and void, that a line of demarcation between U and Tsang should be determined by the central government without delay, that a Xikang provincial government should be established immediately, that before the Panchen returned to Tibet, Ximeng in Qinghai should be made available for the followers of the Panchen to settle in and it was to receive from the central government a monthly fund of 100,-000 yuan as previously determined, that the central government was requested to give the Panchen permission to organize and train two guard regiments and to provide them with weapons and pay, and that the central government was requested to provide five radio transmitters and twenty long-distance buses to facilitate communications and improve transportation, etc.
Konchok Jungne, the Dalai's representative, also gave a speech to the conference. He said that a peaceful settlement of the conflict could be easily arranged with the Dalai in Tibet by impartial, high-ranking officials authorized for this purpose by the central government, that the Dalai and the people would be glad to see the Panchen back any time he returned to Tibet, that the grudges they held against each other were fueled by the malicious lies of shady characters, and that there were rumors that the Panchen would return with a big army; if that was true, he could not say for sure that the crisis would not worsen.
What Konchok Jungne said indicated that the Dalai had changed his attitude toward the Panchen and proposed the Tibetan question might be solved under the guidance of the central government. Especially his promise of the Panchen's return to Tibet was a step forward for the settlement of the question.
In December 1932 the Kuomintang government asked the Panchen to come to Nanjing for another visit so they could discuss with him matters concerning Tibet and his return home. At the same time, the government officially announced the Panchen's appointment as Western Borderland Publicity Commissioner. On December 24 the Panchen was inaugurated. Shortly after that, Ngachen Rinpoche Tenzin Gyumey, Secretary-General Lozang Gyaltsen (Wang Lejie) and Letsanpa Lodrung Gyal left for Tibet via India by sea. They were to discuss with the Dalai matters concerning the Panchen's return to Tibet. They arrived in Lhasa in April 1933. The Dalai accorded the emissaries impressive hospitality. He told them that he had realized that all the unhappy things were caused by the mutual distrust and suspicion of their aides. He expressed his desire for the Panchen's early return.
The negotiations between the representatives of the two sides reached an agreement by which the Kashag would restore to the Tashilhunpo the four dzongs of Lhaze, Ngamring, Phuntsoling and Khamba and a number of manorial estates, and each of the four dzongs were to be run jointly by two dzongpons, one appointed by the Kashag and the other by the Tashilhunpo, until the Panchen returned. Then the Kashag would recall its dzongpons, restoring all political and religious powers to the Tashilhunpo on the condition that the Kashag would continue to levy taxes and corvee in the areas under the jurisdiction of the Tashilhunpo, a condition which amounted to the de facto recognition of the Kashag's control over the Tashilhunpo[42]
At the time the Dalai was making great efforts to improve monastic discipline within the Yellow Sect, and he also had become aware of the British plot to annex Tibet, so he hoped for a situation of unity inside Tibet. Therefore he made some compromises on the issue of the Panchen's return to Tibet.
Nevertheless, while the dispute between the Dalai and the Panchen tended to relax somewhat and progress was seen in the settlement of the Tibetan issue, the Thirteenth Dalai passed away on December 17, 1933. By the rules set by the former Qing government, the Kashag sent a telegram to the Tibet Office in Nanjing, asking it to inform the Kuomintang government and the Panchen (who was then in Outer Mongolia) of the death of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. The telegram to the Panchen read:
We are forwarding the following telegram from the Silon and the Kashag to the Panchen Lama through the Tibet Office in Nanjing: "The Buddha of Great Compassion, the Khanchen Dalai, passed away in early evening on the 17th [December 17, 1933]. Offerings were presented in his memory by your representative, the Ngachen Lama, as required by custom. You are requested to pray in memorial services for the fulfillment of his wish for an early rebirth.
Accordingly, large-scale religious services in memory of the Dalai were organized by the Panchen. According to The Great Master Panchen Lama:
All the staff of the Panchen's headquarters were grieved to learn of the Dalai's death, and the Great Master himself was overwhelmed by especially deep sorrow. He immediately sent Khenpos of all ranks and the section chiefs of his office to the monasteries in Qinghai, Xikang, Mongolia and Tibet and to the major temples on Wutai Mountain to conduct religious services in memory of the Dalai. He funded these activities with 100,000 yuan from his stipends. At the same time he requested the central government in a telegram to generously award the Great Master Dalai with posthumous titles and honor his memory with the highest possible form of respect.... The Panchen personally wrote for use in all the monasteries prayers for the return of the Buddha Dalai.
The Kuomintang government treated the death of the Dalai with great reverence. In December 1933 it granted the Dalai the posthumous title of Great Master of Patriotism, Magnanimity, Benevolence and Sagacity. On February 15, 1934, it called a large memorial meeting in Nanjing. The Panchen also attended the meeting to pay homage to the memory of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
After the Thirteenth Dalai Lama died, the Tibetan Kashag government unanimously elected Radreng (Rating) Rinpoche Thubten Jampal as the regent in charge of the local administrative and religious power and submitted a report for approval by the central government. The National Government conferred the title of "Buddhist Master of Patriotism and Universal Doctrine" on Radreng Rinpoche. During Radreng's regency, the representatives of the three great monasteries and the temporal and clerical officials of the Kashag expelled the pro-British elements, frustrated their plot of usurping power and sabotage, and thus stabilized the Tibetan situation. So the National Government decided to send an emissary to Tibet to offer condolences for the late Dalai Lama and to hold talks on a series of problems, including the problem of the Panchen's return to Tibet.
In April 1934, the National Government sent Huang Musong, a high-ranking official, from Nanjing to Tibet. When Huang Musong and his party arrived in Lhasa in August of that year, he was given a warm welcome by the Kashag. Huang Musong offered condolences for the Dalai, and officiated at the title-granting ceremony for the late Dalai. He then officiated at another ceremony to confer the Buddhist Master title on Radreng. He was held in esteem by the lay and clerical officials and populace of Tibet.
During his stay in Lhasa, Huang Musong held several talks with the Kashag and conveyed to the Kashag the National Government's opinion about the Panchen's return to Tibet and proposals for resolving the Tibetan issue. After negotiations, the Kashag agreed that a Lhasa Office under the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs would be established in Lhasa, with Liu Muchen, a member of the Commission, to be left behind in Tibet as its director. The National Government agreed to run a primary school and establish a transceiver station, a clinic and a weather station in Lhasa, thus greatly strengthening the contacts between the central government and Tibet.
Huang Musong left Lhasa on November 28, 1934, via India for Nanjing. In a report he submitted to the National Government after his return to Nanjing, Huang gave a detailed account of his mission to Tibet. The National Government thought the time was thus ripe for the Panchen to return to Tibet. At the time the Kuomintang was holding the Fourth Plenary Session of the Fourth Central Executive Committee at which it was decided that an armed escort would be dispatched to accompany the Panchen back to Tibet, and it appointed Cheng Yun as the special escort envoy (later, Cheng was succeeded by Zhao Shouyu) to take charge of preparations for the Panchen's return to Tibet.
Afterward, the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs formulated several orders and regulations concerning the administration of the Tibetan areas. In 1935 the National Government revised "The Organizational Outline for the Tibet Office in Nanjing," stipulating that the office should be put under the supervision and guidance of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs. It formulated Regulations Concerning the Administration of Lamaseries. It also stipulated that the Central Broadcasting Station should increase its Tibetan language programs. In 1936 the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs formulated "The Regulations for the Reincarnation of Lamas," in which concrete rules were made concerning the reincarnation procedures for the Dalai, Panchen and other prominent Living Buddhas.
On September 21, 1936, the National Government issued "Instructions for the Special Escort Envoy Accompanying the Panchen on His Journey Back to Tibet," which restated: the central government's sovereignty over Tibet and the Tibetan local government's rights; the central government would grant Tibet autonomy and a program for the autonomy would be drawn up; the central government respected Tibet's religion; the central government allowed Tibet to keep its traditional system of government and church; the political status of the Dalai and the Panchen, as well as their temporal and religious powers should remain the same as before; the administrative divisions of Xikang and Tibet should for the time being remain the same as before and all questions about the delimitation of boundaries between Xikang and Tibet would be discussed and settled in the future; communications should be restored immediately; the central government would post its resident officials in Tibet as state administrators and directors of regional autonomy, etc.[43] Soon after, the Office of the Publicity Commissioner for Tibet, the Office of the Panchen's Headquarters, and the Office of the Special Escort Envoy were established.
At the time the Panchen had already begun preparations for his return to Tibet. On March 11, 1935, he sent to Chiang Kai-shek a plan for his return. Its main points are as follows: the National Government was urged to produce guidelines for the settlement of the Tibetan issue through pressure and persuasion; the central government was to give financial assistance for the repair of damaged monasteries and temples and to build badly needed highways connecting Qinghai, Xikang, U and Tsang; this would be followed by the establishment of telegraphic and postal offices, and by the setting up of primary schools; an armed escort as a guard of honor was essential to his party when he returned to Tibet.[44]
The Kuomintang government revised the plan submitted by the Panchen and called it "A Preliminary Plan for the Construction of Tibet." After this was finalized by the Executive Yuan, the plan was sent to the Panchen's Council of Khenpos through the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs as a reply to the Panchen's proposed plan. The key points of construction were in the areas under the Panchen's jurisdiction.
However, when the preparations for the Panchen's return to Tibet were ready, the Kashag changed its attitude toward his return. The Kashag made known its stand regarding the Panchen's return. It sent men to the Panchen to welcome him, but at the same time declared that the Panchen was not permitted to take a single "Han official or soldier" into Tibet or he might expect stiff opposition to his re-entry. The Kashag also sent a telegram to the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs openly objecting to the sending of troops into Tibet by the central government.
In June 1936, the Panchen arrived at the Labrang Monastery in Gansu. He was greeted by the representatives of the three great monasteries who had come to welcome him back to Tibet. Arriving at the same time were more than three hundred welcoming representatives from the Tashilhunpo. They brought with them an official communication from the Kashag to the Panchen, which said that in order to avoid conflict, the Han officials and soldiers of the central government in the Panchen's escort had to stop at the border; they would not be allowed to enter even an inch on the Tibetan side of the border.
The Panchen's Council of Khenpos held that what the Kashag said in this letter merely represented the opinion of a handful of those in power, not at all the opinion of the people; and therefore the Panchen would make no changes in his plan and would enter Tibet the following spring.
On December 18, 1936, the Panchen reached Jyekundo. Another welcoming representative sent by the Kashag also arrived there. He repeated to the Panchen what the Kashag said, warning him that he was to "return with a light escort, unaccompanied by Han officials." Meanwhile, a letter from the headman of Qamdo reached the Panchen. It said:
I had all the transportation facilities ready for you until recently, when I was instructed by the Tibetan government not to provide you with any such facilities. Please do not proceed any farther west for the time being.
The Panchen Headquarters referred the problem to the Kuomintang government. But with the outbreak of the anti-Japanese war, the Kuomintang government was not able to attend to matters connected with Tibet; they merely suggested a halt in the journey to Tibet in their reply telegram to the Panchen Headquarters and the Office of the Special Escort Envoy. Soon after the envoy received this telegram, he sent a communication to the Panchen. He asked the Panchen to send a telegram to the Kashag through the representatives of the three great monasteries, telling them in clear-cut language that the Office of the Special Escort Envoy must fulfil its task of escorting the Panchen to Tibet. He continued: "If there is no response from the Kashag or if its response is negative, it may be advisable to stop your journey for the present moment."
After the representatives of the Panchen Headquarters and of the three great monasteries went into consultation with the Kashag, the Kashag agreed to let the envoys of the central government into Tibet on the condition that they leave Tibet after a rest period of a few months following the accomplishment of their mission, and that there must be an "international guarantee" of their withdrawal. In September 1937, the three great monasteries and the Kashag sent telegrams to the Panchen's Council of Khenpos respectively. As these telegrams showed, the three great monasteries and the Kashag dropped the condition of an "international guarantee," but demanded that the Panchen "obey the orders of the Lhasa government" and insisted that the Panchen promise to send all the "Han officials and soldiers" back to the interior. All these terms were unacceptable to the Kuomintang government and the Panchen's faction. The Panchen thus agreed on October 1, 1937, in a communication to Special Escort Envoy Zhao Shouyu, to suspend his journey. With this the issue of the Panchen's return was temporarily dropped.
Frustrated in his efforts to return to Tibet, the Panchen became seriously ill and died in the Lhagyal Photrang of the Jyekundo Monastery in Qinghai on December 1, 1937. He escaped to the interior in 1923 and lived in various parts of the motherland for fifteen years until his death in Qinghai. He never managed to return home again.
The Panchen's failure to return was caused by the behind-the-scenes manipulations of the British imperialists. In 1934, when British government learned that the Panchen was soon to go back to Tibet, the British minister to China, Alexander Cadogan, and the British consul Teichman twice visited the Panchen in Nanjing. They told him that he was expected to return to Tibet by sea. This was a trick; if the Panchen was to return by sea, he would not be able to take "Chinese officials and soldiers" into Tibet. On November 9, 1935, Cadogan lodged a "protest" with the Foreign Ministry of the National Government, alleging that the dispatching of Chinese troops to Tibet would violate Article III of the Simla Treaty. On November 27, a secretary of the British embassy went to the Foreign Ministry of the National Government to express an opinion of the same content. The Foreign Ministry refuted the charges, stating that the Chinese government had never signed the Simla Treaty and so it would not be restricted by the terms of the treaty. On August 17, 1937, the British minister to China sent a message to the Foreign Ministry that Britain objected to the Panchen's entry into Tibet with a guard of honor.
The aim of the British government's obstructing the Panchen's return to Tibet was to put the Tibetan local government under its control. When Huang Musong went to Tibet to pay homage to the late Dalai's memory, the British government also sent a delegation of their own to Tibet, headed by a man named White. The British delegation claimed that it had come to offer condolences for the Dalai and to join in the ceremonies in his memory, but the real purpose of their presence in Lhasa was split Tibet and to undermine the unity between the Han and Tibetan peoples. The negotiations between Huang Musong and the Kashag led to the establishment of the Lhasa Office under the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, which was taken by the British imperialists as an excuse to ask for the establishment of a similar office of their own in the city, and their request was granted by the Kashag. This fully exposed the true face of the British imperialists and of their obstruction to the Panchen's return to Tibet. The pro-British separatists in the Kashag were ready to serve the imperialists as their running dogs, to betray the interests of the Tibetan people and of the motherland, and to make the Tibetan situation worse.
After the death of the Panchen, the National Government ordered the entire staff of the Council of Khenpos to move the remains of the Panchen to Garze in Xikang where they would be kept temporarily. At the same time it sent Dai Chuanxian, president of the Examination Yuan, to Garze to offer a religious tribute and condolences for the late Panchen. In 1940, with the consent of the Kashag, Secretary-General Wang Lejie (Lozang Gyaltsen), Dronyer Jampal Langda and more than four hundred others, sent by the Council of Khenpos, brought the remains of the Panchen to the Tashilhunpo Monastery where they were enshrined[45]
The National Government's Resistance Against British and American Activities to Split Tibet from China
Following the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945), the National Government moved its capital from Nanjing to Chongqing. During the period of the war, the Chongqing National Government maintained its jurisdiction over the Tibetan areas and the movement of personnel. In 1938, under the auspices of the Regent Radreng Rinpoche, the search group sent by the Kashag found the reincarnation of the late Thirteenth Dalai in Qinghai. The Lhasa government reported this to the central government according to precedent. The National Government sent Wu Zhongxin, chairman of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, to Tibet as its representative to preside over the confirmation and enthronement ceremonies of the Fourteenth Dalai. Wu arrived in Lhasa at the beginning of 1940. He examined the reincarnation and on behalf of the National Government, approved the omission of the confirmation formalities for the candidate reincarnation, and agreed that the enthronement ceremony could be held on February 22, 1940. The reincarnation was the present Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. Following the custom established in the Qing Dynasty, Tenzin Gyatso, after his enthronement, sent men to Chongqing to express thanks to the National Government.
During his stay in Lhasa, Wu Zhongxin officially renamed the Special Envoy Office set up by Huang Musong as the Lhasa Office of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs. The Lhasa Office kept rather good relations with Radreng (Rating), the regent of the local government. The regent was a man with anti-imperialist tendencies. When he was at the head of the Lhasa government, he weakened the Tibetan separatist forces by maintaining the unification of the motherland and the unity of all ethnic groups of China and by resisting the foreign forces interference in the internal affairs of Tibet. So the British and American imperialists were unhappy about the regent and tried to force him out of office.
At the time, the United States of America had joined Britain as one of the foreign infiltrators. The American imperialists took advantage of their status as an allied nation in the war against Japan to force their way into Tibet. By that time the Japanese imperialists had occupied all of China's seaports, and the National Government in Chongqing put forward a plan, in 1941, to build a China-India highway, which would go through the eastern part of Tibet. The United States took advantage of this proposal to send a great number of military personnel into Tibet. In September of the same year the Tibetan local government refused the plan, but the Americans hung on and would not clear out. From then on, the American and British imperialists colluded with each other, lured and instigated a few pro-imperialist elements to persecute Radreng Rinpoche, illegally set up a "Foreign Affairs Bureau," and sent men to attend the "Asian Relations Conference" which was called in New Delhi. All these separatist activities were aimed at achieving the "independence" of Tibet.
The first separatist activity engineered by the British and American imperialists was the persecution of Radreng Rinpoche. They nursed a grievance against Radreng because of his close ties with the Kuomintang government, and so they instigated a smear campaign by their lackeys, saying that Radreng would soon have a three-year "misfortune" and so should leave office temporarily and meditate in confinement to ward off evil spirits. That he was elected an alternate member of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee at its sixth national congress further angered the imperialists. Under the coercion of the American and British forces, Radreng, in 1941, requested and obtained from the Kashag a three-year leave of absence. He then turned his duties over to his tutor, the Taktra Rinpoche, and retired to a life of quietude at his monastery, the Radreng Monastery, in northern Tibet.
Taktra, aged 70, was a minor Living Buddha of low status. After he came into power, it was not long before he became a tool of the pro-imperialist separatists as a result of the pressures they brought upon him from all sides. When the three-year leave of absence expired, the pro-imperialists refused to let Radreng resume office. They cooked up stories that "Radreng was planning a coup with the Sera monks to overthrow Taktra by force," that "Radreng was planning to flee to Xikang," etc. They were so base that they trumped up charges of "treason" against him with false evidence forged by treacherous separatist elements. On April 14, 1947, a high-ranking official, sent by the Kashag, went with two hundred soldiers to arrest Radreng in his monastery. Radreng, totally unaware of the plot against him, was arrested, taken to Lhasa and put into prison.
During his imprisonment, Radreng was subject to questioning by the members of the Tsongdu. He categorically denied the "treason" charges and reiterated that Tibet had to keep contacts with the central government. The Tibetan pro-imperialist separatists could not subdue Radreng, and so, acting on the British imperialists' instigation, had Radreng strangled to death in his prison cell on May 7, 1947.
The National Government was much concerned with the arrest of Radreng. It contacted the Kashag by wire to the effect that (1) they should preserve the doctrine of Buddhism and refrain from bombarding monasteries; and (2) Radreng deserved leniency as he was the holder of the title of hutuktu granted him by the central government, and had rendered valuable aid in the discovery of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. But the Kashag ignored this message.[46]
However, many Tibetan monks launched a struggle to rescue Radreng. After Radreng was brought to Lhasa, several hundred armed monks from the Je Dratsang of the Sera Monastery, led by Dratsang Khenpo Ngawang Gyatso, stormed into Lhasa in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Radreng from prison. This was followed by a siege of the Sera by Tibetan soldiers, who engaged the monastery's monks in a fierce battle over two days and one night. The monks were defeated. Ngawang Gyatso and over a dozen followers broke through the encirclement and fled to Xikang.
The murder of Radreng infuriated the monks of the Radreng Monastery. Five hundred of them took up arms and killed the sixteen soldiers stationed at the riverside residence of the former regent. Then a battle raged between more than a thousand soldiers sent by the Kashag to attack the Radreng Monastery and the monks entrenched there. The monks held out against the Kashag troops for seven days and nights until they were finally overwhelmed by the attackers and surrendered. Yeshe Tsultrim, Radreng's Solpon Khenpo, leading a small party of about a dozen men, broke through the encirclement and fled to Xining. After they took the Radreng Monastery, the soldiers plundered it of all its treasures, gold, silver and grain. Radreng's riverside residence was razed to the ground. The Kashag stripped Radreng of the title of hutuktu. Most of the estates of the Radreng Monastery were confiscated. Chocho Tsering, the Fourteenth Dalai's father, a close friend of Radreng's, was poisoned to death by the pro-British elements[47] The Radreng incident was engineered by pro-imperialist forces who were instigated by the Americans and British. Thereafter the Tibetan government's administration was under the control of the pro-imperialist forces.
That the Kashag announced the establishment of a "Foreign Affairs Bureau" was another American and British plot directed toward Tibetan "independence." Not long after the Taktra Rinpoche became the acting regent, Surkhang and his like were promoted to the position of Kalon. Thus the pro-imperialist separatists exercised control over the whole Kashag and they staged a farce of Tibetan "independence." In the summer of 1943, the Kashag, in a surprise move, announced the establishment of a "Foreign Affairs Bureau" and notified the British and Nepalese resident representatives in Lhasa and the Lhasa Office of the National Government that from then on the Kashag would no longer be available for direct contact on any matters; they should be referred to the "Foreign Affairs Bureau" before being forwarded to it. This move was intended to turn the Lhasa Office of the National Government into a "foreign" mission and show that Tibet was "an independent country." After learning of this, the National Government adopted an uncompromising stand. It officially notified the Kashag that the "Foreign Affairs Bureau" must be canceled, otherwise troops would be sent into Tibet and that the government would not hesitate to settle the question with armed force. It instructed its Lhasa Office in a telegram to maintain the usual procedures in its communications with the Tibetan authorities and not to have anything to do with the "Foreign Affairs Bureau." The instructions pointed out that by creating the bureau, Tibet was trying to change its traditional relationship with the central authorities; therefore, the instructions said, the representatives must persist in their position even if their persistence might lead to a stalemate. So when the Kashag tried to force the representatives of the National Government to make contact with the "Foreign Affairs Bureau," threatening to cut off their supplies if they refused, the representatives stood their ground and frustrated the attempt[48]
That the American and British imperialists were plotting to create an "independent Tibet" is also shown by the way they instigated the Tibetan local government to send representatives to attend the "Asian Relations Conference." In March 1947, the "Asian Relations Conference" under the control of the imperialists was called in New Delhi, India. All the Asian countries were invited to participate, and Tibet was also invited as a "country." Deliberately, the imperialists had the "lion in the snow mountains" standard of Tibetan Buddhism displayed as Tibet's "national flag" at the conference, side by side with the national flags of the other participating countries. What was even more outrageous was that a map of Asia in the conference hall showed China without Tibet. The Chinese delegation lodged a strong protest before the chairman of the conference against this interference in the internal affairs of China and ignorance of China's dignity and sovereignty, and they demanded that the conference amend the two mistakes so as to pay respect to China's sovereignty. Owing to the struggle of the Chinese delegates, the chairman amended the two mistakes; the imperialists and Tibetan separatists' plot thus ended in failure.
Another scheme for creating an "independent" Tibet instigated by the British and American-imperialists was the instructing of the Kashag to organize a trade mission to visit the United States and Britain for "trade" surveys. The U.S. imperialists had started their inroads into Tibet long before the end of World War II. In September 1942, the U.S. government sent Lt. Col. Ilia Tolstoy to Tibet with a delegation. They brought gifts and a letter from President Roosevelt to the Dalai Lama. The delegation, after its arrival in Lhasa in December 1942, went into secret talks with the Kashag. The delegation stayed in the city for more than five months until their departure in March 1943. That was the beginning of contact between Tibet's separatist forces and the U.S. imperialists.
In October 1947, the Kashag organized a trade delegation to visit the U.S. and Britain for "trade" surveys. The delegation, headed by Tsepon Shakabpa, with Khenchung Changkhyim (a Phari tax officer) and Rimshi Pangdatshang (governor of Dromo) as its members and Dapon Surkhang as interpreter, represented an illegitimate diplomatic effort by the imperialists and the Tibetan separatist forces to win the recognition for Tibet as an "independent country" by the governments of Britain and the United States. The delegation ran into two technical problems that had to be solved. One of them was the passport and visa problem, as Tibet had no "diplomatic relations" with the U.S.; foreign exchange was the other because Tibet had no trade relations with foreign countries and therefore did not possess any foreign currency. These problems took the delegation to Nanjing in early 1948. The Kuomintang government tried to dissuade the delegation from making their trips, and said that if they insisted on going, they must carry Chinese passports. Ignoring the warnings of the Kuomintang government, the delegation contacted U.S. Ambassador John L. Stuart secretly. Through Stuart, the delegation obtained visas for the U.S. from the U.S. Consul-General in Hong Kong with the illegal "passports" issued by the Kashag. For foreign exchange, the delegation sold to Indian businessmen in Hong Kong an export license for raw silk that the Kuomintang government had issued to the Kashag. In July 1948 the delegation arrived in Washington, D.C.
When they were in Washington and San Francisco they issued statements to the press and talked to reporters, not hesitating to betray the interests of the Tibetan people and the motherland in order to win the favor of the United States and to beg for U.S. aid. When the Tibetan "trade" delegation was in the U.S., it was well received and supported by a few anti-Chinese elements in the U.S. government and Congress. They promised to give Tibet economic "aid" and to provide the Tibetan pro-imperialist forces with funds, but they did not make known their position on the issue of China's sovereignty over Tibet. After staying in the U.S. for about three months, the Tibetan trade delegation went to London, and after a short stay there, went on to France, Switzerland, Italy and India. They returned to Tibet in March 1949.[49]
After the news that the U.S. had granted entry visas to the Tibetan delegation was made known, people from all walks of life in China condemned this attempt to split the motherland by the pro-imperialist Tibetan forces, their betraying of the motherland and the interests of the Tibetan people, and their behavior in damaging the unification of the motherland and unity between all the ethnic groups of the country. They protested against the American government for its interference in China's domestic affairs and its infringement upon China's sovereignty. Under the pressure of public opinion, the National Government also made protests against the U.S. and British governments, and ordered its Chinese embassies in the U.S. and U.K. to negotiate with the states to which the envoys were accredited, asking them to stop their actions that violated international conventions and blatantly interfered in China's internal affairs. The National Government also asked the Tibetan "trade" delegation to come back immediately and prohibited it from engaging in activities to split the motherland. Owing to the strong protests of the Chinese people, no country recognized the "independence" of Tibet.
The spring of 1949 witnessed radical changes in China's domestic situation; the Kuomintang government was on the verge of collapse. Nevertheless, the tottering National Government still insisted on the sovereignty of China over Tibet. On June 3, 1949, the acting president of the National Government Li Zongren issued a decree for official recognition of the reincarnation found in Qinghai as the Tenth Panchen and permission to omit the confirmation formalities. On August 10, the National Government sent Guan Jiyu, head of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, as a special envoy to attend the Tenth Panchen Chokyi Gyaltsen's enthronement in the Kumbum Monastery at Xining. This move played an important role in resisting the American and British plot to split Tibet and in checking the Tibetan separatist forces.
Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Feudal Struggle of the Tibetan People in the New-Democratic Revolution
The Red Army Passes Through Tibetan Areas and Its Influence
Beginning with the May Fourth Movement in 1919, China entered the new-democratic revolution period characterized by anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism. The Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded in 1921 and grew rapidly; under its leadership the people of all ethnic groups in China launched anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles and thus opened a new chapter of the Chinese revolution.
The Communist Party of China has always paid much attention to relying on and mobilizing the people of all ethnic groups to liberate themselves and to overthrow the oppression and exploitation put on them by imperialism and feudalism. After the failure of the 1927 Revolution, the CPC put forward a basic theory for solving the ethnic minority problems, and formulated a correct policy toward the ethnic minorities. A national Soviet congress was convened at Ruijin, Jiangxi, in the Central Soviet Area, which was under the leadership of the CPC, in December 1931. All the documents and reports issued by this congress dealt with policies toward the ethnic minorities during the new-democratic revolution. The congress adopted "The Outline of the Constitution of the Soviet Republic of China," the fourteenth article of which stipulated:
All ethnic groups in China, including the Hans, Tibetans, Mongolians, Huis and Uygurs are equal.... The Chinese Soviet regime must help all the weak and small ethnic groups to free themselves from the oppressive rule of the imperialists, Kuomintang warlords, princes and dukes, lamas, and tusis (local chieftains), so that the people may get complete liberation.... The Soviet regime should work for these national minorities to develop their own ethnic culture and language.[50]
This was the CPC's first official document formulated in the form of a constitution which touched upon policies toward the national minorities. The policies embodied the equality and unity of the national minorities and reflected the CPC's revolutionary spirit of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism during the stage of the new-democratic revolution. The policies served as a guideline for the Red Army when it went through the Tibetan areas and mobilized the Tibetan people to take part in the new-democratic revolution.
The Japanese invaders created the September 18th Incident in 1931 that shocked the world, launched an aggressive war against China and occupied the entire northeast of China. National contradictions soon became prominent. But owing to the fact that the Kuomintang government headed by Chiang Kai-shek launched several counter-revolutionary campaign of encirclement and suppression against the revolutionary base areas, and Wang Ming's "Left" opportunism that led to the failure of the fifth counter-encirclement-and-suppression struggle, the revolutionary base areas suffered great losses. The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was compelled to carry out a strategic movement and advance northward to resist the Japanese aggressors. From October 1934 to October 1936, the First[51], Second[52] and Fourth[53] front armies of the Chinese Red Army carried out the famous Long March, a major strategic movement of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, which succeeded in reaching the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi after traversing eleven provinces and covering 25,000 li, or 12,500 kilometers.
During the Long March, the three main forces of the Red Army all passed through areas inhabited by Tibetans in compact communities in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Xikang, Gansu and Qinghai over the period from April 1935 to October 1936. Deep class friendships were established between the Red Army and the Tibetan people in those areas, and they jointly established a local "Bodpa government," which pointed out the correct direction of liberation to the local people. The people of different ethnic groups, including the Tibetans and Hans who inhabited in those areas, also made great contributions to the successful Long March of the Red Army.
The times that the three forces of the Red Army entered the Tibetan areas varied and their routes were not the same. The First Front Army, under the leadership of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, left the Central Soviet Area in October 1934 and reached Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, in January 1935. The CPC held an enlarged Central Politburo meeting in Zunyi, which established the leading position of Mao Zedong in the whole Party, thus putting an end to the domination of Wang Ming's "Left" adventurist line in the Party's central organs. The meeting decided that the whole of the Red Army should continue its northward march to the front of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Afterward the First Front Army fought its way across the Jinsha River at Jiaoping Ferry in Yunnan and arrived at Anshunchang in Shi-mian County, Sichuan Province. After that, they fought their way across the Dadu River, seized the Luding Bridge by a surprise attack, crossed over Mt. Jiajin, the first great snowcapped mountain on the Long March, reached Maogong (in present-day Xiaojin County of the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province) in the Tibetan-inhabited area and joined forces with the Fourth Front Army which had already arrived there.
The Fourth Front Army stayed in the Tibetan areas the longest time. In March 1935, the Fourth Front Army, which was in the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base area, in order to support the Long March of the Party Center and the First Front Army, initiated a campaign to fight its way across the Jialing River and begin its Long March westward under Commander-in- Chief Xu Xiangqian. In the middle of May, it entered Maoxian, Lifan (present-day Maowen and Lixian of the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) and Maogong, and joined forces with the First Front Army at Maogong in the middle of June.
Before the two armies effected the joining of forces, the Fourth Front Army, under the leadership of Zhang Guotao, established the Northwest Federal Government of the Chinese Soviet in the Tibetan-inhabited areas in the Sichuan-Xikang region. After the two armies joined forces, the Central Committee of the CPC decided to continue the northward march. But Zhang Guotao mistakenly thought the Chinese revolution was in a "general retreat" stage and so opposed marching northward; instead, he advocated a retreat to the Tibetan areas in Sichuan and Xikang. From the 22nd to 28th of June, the CPC called a Central Politburo meeting at Lianghekou in Maogong County. The meeting criticized Zhang Guotao and adopted "The Decision Concerning the Present Strategic Principles," insisting on the northward march for the resistance against the Japanese invaders.
The two main forces of the Red Army crossed three great snow-covered mountains—Mt. Mengbi, Mt. Changban, and Mt. Dagu—with firm and persistent revolutionary spirit and reached Mao'ergai in Songpan County. From the 4th to the 5th of August, another Central Politburo meeting of CPC was held at Shawo near Mao'ergai in the Songpan Tibetan area. The meeting adopted "The Decisions on the Political Situation and Tasks After the Joining of Forces of the First and the Fourth Front Armies," once again confirming the correctness of the Lianghekou meeting and deciding that the two main forces of the Red Army should continue to march northward to complete the task of strategic movement.
After the Shawo meeting, the Red Army divided into two contingents. The Right Route Army, with the First Front Army as its main force, set out from Mao'ergai to Baxi. Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others, it went through the boundless marshlands and grasslands, reached Wuqi Town in north Shaanxi, joined forces with the North Shaanxi Red Army, and brought its Long March to a victorious end in October 1935.
The Left Route Army, with the Fourth Front Army as its main force, set out from Drokji (present-day Barkam County) northward and captured Aba. After reaching Aba, they returned southward to the Sichuan-Xikang border region under the leadership of Zhang Guotao. In October 1935, Zhang Guotao established a pseudo central committee of the CPC at Dromu in western Sichuan and withdrew the troops to the Garze area of Xikang Province (present-day Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture). After Zhu De, Ren Bishi, He Long and other leaders' arduous struggle and persuasion, the Left Route Army finally broke away from Zhang Guotao's line and marched northward together with the Second Front Army. They left Garze in the beginning of July, 1936, and reached Huining County of Gansu in October by way of Aba, Baxi and Lazikou. After that they went to north Shaanxi. Owing to Zhang Guotao's mistakes, the Fourth Front Army had to go through the grasslands three times and cross the snow-covered mountains four times, as well as fight successively at Aba, Barkam, Greater Jinchuan, Lesser Jinchuan, and Garze. They stayed in the Tibetan areas as long as one year and five months.
The Second Front Army of the Red Army entered the Tibetan areas from Yunnan. The Second and Sixth armies broke through the Kuomintang's encirclement in November 1935 and began their Long March. They set out from Sangzhi County in Hubei Province, went through the central and western Hunan and through Guizhou Province, and arrived at Gyalthang (present-day Zhongdian County, Yunnan Province), an area where the Tibetans lived in concentrated communities, on April 30, 1936. With the help of the ethnic Tibetans, they successively went through seven Tibetan areas and towns, twenty-three townships and 114 villages that were high above sea level, covering a total distance of 400 li. On May 14, 1936, they left Yunnan and entered Xikang, went through Daocheng, Batang and other areas, reached Rongpatrag in Garze in June and there joined forces with the Fourth Front Army. On July 2, the Second Army, the Sixth Army and the 32nd Corps were reconstituted as the Second Front Army.
After the Second and the Fourth front armies joined forces, Zhang Guotao was compelled to rescind the pseudo central committee. The leaders of the two front armies convened a meeting, which made a decision to march northward and to join hands with the Party Center. So the two armies marched northward together and went through the Tibetan areas in Gansu in August. In October, the First, the Second and the Fourth front armies joined forces in Huining, Gansu Province, which brought the Long March of the Red Army to an end.
During the Long March, the three main forces of the Red Army went through Tibetan-inhabited areas in Yunnan, Xikang, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. Although they stayed in the Tibetan areas for only a little more than a year, they played a specially important role in the history of the development of the Tibetan people.
First, they disseminated revolutionary ideas and sowed the seeds of revolution among the Tibetan people. The Tibetan people are one of the ethnic groups that have experienced the heaviest ethnic and class oppression in the history of China. The successive feudal ruling classes in China adopted a view of Han chauvinism and carried out policies of ethnic oppression and discrimination that resulted in the Tibetan areas lagging far behind the Han areas politically, economically, and culturally, and fomented feelings of estrangement between the Tibetans and Hans.
Before the Red Army passed through the Tibetan areas, these were the vulnerable spots of the Kuomintang's rule and were spheres of influence for provincial warlords and local forces. The warlords and the Nanjing government had no confidence in each other, and contradictions existed between them and the local Tibetan chiefs and ruling lamas (Living Buddhas). Such contradictions resulted in the Sichuan-Tibet conflict of 1930, the Qinghai-Tibet conflict of 1931, and the tangled warfare among the warlords of Sichuan, Xikang, Yunnan and the Tibetans in 1932. In the last case, the Tibetan local government, taking advantage of the failure of Xikang warlords, sent troops to attack Xikang and seized Gyalthang (Zhongdian) in Yunnan. During the successive years of warfare, the broad masses of the Tibetan people suffered great losses in lives and property, and life was hell on earth for them. They could only pray to Buddha for "protection."
When the Red Army passed through the Tibetan areas, they disseminated the ideas of revolution and showed the local people that those who oppressed them were not the Han people, but the reactionary government and the local headmen, that the Tibetan people must fight for their own emancipation under the leadership of the Communist Party. In 1936 the Tibetan peasants in Gyalthang carried out a revolt against various exorbitant taxes and levies; in 1938 the Tibetan masses in Golog, Qinghai Province, rose up and wiped out a Kuomintang regiment; in 1940 the herdsmen in Nagqu in northern Tibet rose up to oppose exorbitant levies ordered by the dzongpon. They seized him and paraded him through the streets to expose him before the public. All these struggles reflected that the class consciousness of the Tibetan people had been enhanced and that they now dared to rise up and oppose the reactionary forces that oppressed them.
Second, the Tibetan people began to have a better understanding of the Communist Party and the Red Army, and of the Party's policy toward national minorities and toward religion. The Kuomintang reactionaries had carried out a lot of propaganda and spread rumors and vicious slanders among the Tibetan people, saying that the Red Armymen would "kill everybody and burn everything," "take others' property and wives as their own," and that "they were as terrible as demons." They even bribed local headmen to compel the Tibetan masses to hide in the mountains, forbade them to work for the Red Army as guides or interpreters, and forbade them to sell grain to the Red Army, in an attempt to isolate the Red Army in the sparsely-populated Tibetan areas, where material supplies were few, the climate was harsh and the local language was different.
In order to lay bare the enemies' lies, the Red Army explained to the Tibetan people the Party's policies and its proposal for resisting the Japanese invaders, and they publicized the Red Army's character and tasks in every village and town they passed through. Guan Xiangying, one of the leaders of the Second Front Army, told the Tibetan monks in Derong County, Xikang Province that the Red Army was the troops of the poor people, not the Kuomintang[54] The Red Army soldiers put up posters and slogans everywhere, disseminated leaflets propagating the ideas that "the Red Army is a good friend of the Tibetans," "the poor of the Hui, Tibetan and Han are of one family," "the Communist Party is a Party that will liberate the Hui and Tibetan peoples from misery," "the Red Army is the troops of workers and peasants and it will surely protect the interests of the Hui and Tibetan peoples," "people have the freedom to chant scriptures and worship Buddha," and "the Red Army would respect the religion of the Tibetans."[55]
In order to unite with the Tibetan people and mobilize the Tibetan people and to carry out the Party's policies toward national minorities, the Red Army would send people to make investigations of the local social economy and customs whenever they reached a new place. When the Fourth Front Army reached Garze, they sent people to make investigations concerning the local Tibetans' customs, habits, language, social system, family, religion, marriage and funeral rituals and taboos, and then compiled a series of "Situation Bulletins." In addition, the Red Army sent work teams to remote, thickly forested mountains to visit the deceived Tibetans, publicize the Party's and the Red Army's general and specific policies, patiently explain to them the ideas of revolution that the Tibetan, Han, and all other ethnic groups of China were equal in status, and that they should salvage the country and nation from danger and disaster. With the Red Armymen's efforts, the Tibetan people gradually came to know that the Red Army was a revolutionary force that would salvage the whole of the Chinese nation.
Marxism holds that during the epoch of imperialism and the proletarian revolution, problems concerning ethnic minorities are a part of the issues to be dealt with by the proletarian revolution. The Communist Party of China, with Marxism as its guiding ideology, attached much importance to the issue of national minorities, and took the goal "to achieve freedom and liberation for all oppressed ethnic groups" as the starting point of its policies toward the national minorities[56] Thus it held that all national minorities should get rid of slavery and achieve liberation as goals closely linked with the ultimate victory of the Chinese revolution. Because of this, long before the Red Army entering the Tibetan areas, the Party and Red Army had issued a series of instructions, decisions, and notices so as to make preparations for carrying out ethnic work. For example, on November 9, 1934, the General Political Department of the Red Army issued "Instructions on the Work Among National Minorities," which pointed out that it was necessary to win over national minorities because "it plays a decisive role in fulfilling our strategic tasks," that "it is imperative to explain to all the soldiers the importance of winning over the national minorities," "it is absolutely forbidden to cause any harassment to the national minorities," and "it is necessary to mobilize all soldiers to publicize the Red Army's policies, especially those about autonomy for minority peoples and ethnic equality, to the broad masses of the national minorities." Moreover, "efforts should be made to recruit members of the ethnic minorities into the Red Army."[57]
After entering the Tibetan areas, the Fourth Front Army issued "A Letter to the Tibetan and Yi Peoples in Northwest Sichuan," "A Letter to Tibetans and Huis," "The Communist Red Army's Stand Toward Tibetans," and "Ten Rules to Be Observed by Red Army Soldiers Toward the Tibetan People." These proclamations were conducive to a general awakening of the Tibetan people and to the Red Army's smooth and safe passage through the Tibetan areas. After entering the Tibetan areas in Yunnan and Xikang, the Red Army declared that the Tibetans and other national minorities were to enjoy the same rights as the Hans, that ethnic oppression and discrimination were to be prohibited, and that nobody was to be allowed to call Tibetans "barbarians." It appealed to the people of various ethnic groups to unite with and love each other as brothers and sisters, and to fight against the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang warlords and against the Japanese imperialists. The Red Army stipulated that the troops were prohibited from entering temples and monasteries, taking away the Buddha images, shrines or incense-burners of the Tibetan people, or tearing down the magic incantations the Tibetans posted on the doors and the sutra-streamers planted on roofs beside the villages and on the hills. The Red Army put up warnings in the Tibetans' barley fields so that none of the troops would violate these rules. The Red Army observed strict discipline; wherever they went, they built good relations with the masses, were concerned for them and helped them overcome their difficulties; they spoke politely, paid fairly for what they bought, and respected the Tibetans' habits, customs and religious beliefs. All this constituted a sharp contrast with what had been done by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and thus laid bare the absurd and wicked slanders fabricated by the Kuomintang, and dispelled the doubts in the minds of the Tibetan masses. They began to treat Red Army soldiers as their beloved friends. Moving scenes of the support given to the Red Army soldiers appeared everywhere. The Tibetans came back from remote forested mountains one after another, extended their regards to the Red Army soldiers and brought grain to them. Some of them worked as guides and interpreters for the Red Army, actively helping them to carry out publicity work. Some joined the Red Army, while others helped to transport wounded soldiers and grain. The monks in the Beri Monastery in Garze handed over 134 dan (a unit of dry measure for grain, equivalent to one hectoliter) of highland barley, and 22 dan of beans as "grain for supporting the Red Army" for half a year. In addition, they sold 15 horses and 19 yaks to the troops. When the Red Army was leaving, the Tibetan people prepared grain, fur, hot peppers, etc. to help the soldiers to climb over snow-covered mountains and grasslands. Many Tibetan youths joined the army. For example, more than 200 people joined the Red Army together in the Gamba area of Maowen County, Sichuan Province; altogether there were 271 people who joined the army in Danba County. Some Tibetan soldiers, such as Tian Bao, Yang Dongsheng, and Drashi Wangchuk later became well-known generals.
Third, people's political regimes were established for the first time in Tibetan history, which demonstrated to the Tibetan people the correct way to liberation. On the basis of the increasing class consciousness of the Tibetan people, the Red Army appealed to them to rise against the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang and feudal manorial lords, and to establish their own revolutionary regimes. The Tibetan people actively responded to the appeal; under the Red Army's help, a series of Red regimes were established. In the summer of 1935, Tibetan Soviet regimes were set up in Maogong and Wabo Ridge (present-day Heishui County) in northwestern Sichuan; in the autumn of 1935, Soviet regimes at the county, district, and township levels were established in Drosgyal Dzoshan; and the Suiqing County Soviet, Chonghua County Soviet, and Gelegesha[58] government were set up in the Aba Tibetan area. The Gelegesha government had the Tibetan regimes in Suiqing, Chonghua, Maogong, Barkam and Danba under its jurisdiction. In the spring of 1936 when the Fourth Front Army arrived at Garze, it established Bodpa (Tib., meaning "Tibetans") autonomous governments at the county, district and township levels in both Dawu and Luhuo counties.
On May 1, 1936, the first national Bodpa Congress was convened in Garze; 700 delegates from 16 counties—Derge, Garze, Dawu, Luhuo, Zhanhua (Nyarong), Taining, Yajiang, Litang, Palyul, Danko, Sershud, Tongpu, Greater Jinchuan and Lesser Jinchuan—attended the congress. On May 5, the congress solemnly declared the establishment of the Central Bodpa Autonomous Government of the Chinese Soviet; Dorde, a Tibetan from Derge, was unanimously elected as the chairman of the government, Dargye and Kongsa from Garze were elected vice-chairmen. At the inaugural meeting, Zhu De, Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army, gave a speech to the Tibetans about the Party's policies toward national minorities and the reasons for resisting the Japanese invaders, and he expressed his warm congratulations on the founding of the Bodpa Government.
The Bodpa Government formulated its administrative program: Overthrow the rule of warlords and bureaucrats, and overthrow imperialism; carry out ethnic equality and autonomy; make the Tibetan areas prosperous and liquidate Chiang Kai-shek's forces; separate administration from religion, practice freedom of religious faith, and freedom for monks to return to secular life; organize the masses to engage in production and develop industry and commerce; abolish all exorbitant taxes and levies and usury; liberate the serfs, protect the women and children, and abolish ula unpaid labor; form a permanent alliance with the Red Army, unconditionally supply the army with provisions, horse feed and wool; send guides and interpreters for the army, and provide other services for the front; rescue and arrange for wounded Red Army men, etc.
The Bodpa Autonomous Government was the first Red political power of national minority autonomy under the leadership of the Party and Red Army. Most of the leaders of the regime were elected through democratic consultation among the Tibetan people. The majority of them were Tibetan serfs, but representatives from other social strata were also included, and so the leading group was characteristic of the revolutionary spirit and had an extensive representation. The revolutionary political power enjoyed warm support among the broad masses. The Bodpa Government set up a Tibetan Cadre School at Garze, which trained and brought up a great number of Tibetan cadres[59] The Tibetan cadres became the link between the Party and the Tibetan people. Under the leadership of the Bodpa Government, the Tibetan people, in spite of the Kuomintang's white terror, took care of wounded soldiers, actively carried out the support-of-troops-in-the-front activities, and made great contributions to the Red Army's northward march.
In short, when the Red Army passed through the Tibetan areas during the Long March, they popularized revolutionary truth among the masses, organized the masses, armed the masses, helped the Tibetan masses to set up revolutionary political power, and helped the Tibetan people for the first time understand the truth of the proletarian revolution and find the leading force in their struggle for liberation. The Tibetan people clearly understood that "only the Red Army's road was the road to their liberation."[60]
Role of Tibetan Soldiers and People in the Movement Against Japanese Invasion and for National Salvation
Tibetans, diligent and brave, have a great patriotic tradition of resisting foreign aggression. Mao Zedong pointed out, "The Tibetan people love the motherland and oppose foreign aggression."[61]
Soon after the September 18th Incident of 1931, the Japanese imperialists occupied northeast China and the Chinese nation was at a critical moment of a life-and-death struggle. Although the Japanese invaders had not put Tibet under their direct control, yet the Tibetans understood that they shared a common destiny with others of the Chinese nation and that they had no other choice than to link their destiny closely with that of other ethnic groups of the motherland. Thus, the Tibetan clerical and secular populace resolutely stood together with the people of the motherland, and united with them as one to oppose the enemy. This was reflected in the following aspects.
A. Setting up national salvation organizations that actively appealed for support for the War of Resistance. After the outbreak of the September 18th Incident in 1931, the Tibetan compatriots in Nanjing set up a "Resist-Japanese-Aggression-and-Save-the-Country Association of Fellow Tibetans from Xikang and Tibet Residing in Nanjing" on October 7 of the same year. Konchok Jungne and Wu Mingyuan, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso's chief representatives in Nanjing, and Lozang Gyaltsen, Director of the Ninth Panchen Erdeni Chokyi Nyima's office in Nanjing, Norna Rinpoche and Songming Rinpoche from Xikang attended the initiation meeting. The meeting made the decision that the people in the Tibetan areas should take part in activities to resist Japanese aggression and save the country. They published an open telegram to the people of all ethnic groups in China to unite in the resistance against Japan. The meeting decided to hold a demonstration in Nanjing on October 10 in opposition to the Japanese aggression. The meeting also issued "A Letter to Compatriots of the Whole Country," appealing to people throughout the country to defend the motherland and be ready to suffer death for this sake. They expressed the determination that they preferred death to surrender in the struggle against the enemy.[62]
After the establishment of the Resist-Japanese-Aggression--and-Save-the-Country Association, the Tibetans in Beijing also published open telegrams to the whole country to express their concern for the destiny of the motherland and their determination to carry the war against Japanese invasion through to the end. Kelzang Tsering, a well-known Tibetan in Beijing, also expressed in a telegram his determination to die in honor rather than live in dishonor, reflecting the death-defying spirit of the more than 100,000 Tibetans in Xikang in the resistance against aggression.
In December 1938 the Kuomintang bigwig Wang Jingwei turned traitor and went over to the enemy. This caused great indignation among the people of the whole country; they all condemned him for seeking personal gain by betraying the country. Tibet also set off a movement to denounce Wang Jingwei. In March 1939, the citizens of Lhasa published a telegram to the nation, solemnly pointing out:
Traitor Wang Jingwei betrayed his party and brought disgrace to his ancestors. He concluded several secret agreements with the enemy, humiliating the nation and forfeiting its sovereignty. The whole country has felt strong indignation against his evil plots. We, the citizens of Lhasa, have long declared our determination in the War of Resistance and we are irreconcilable with this traitor to the country. Here we send this public telegram to condemn him.[63]
This telegram exposed Wang and other capitulators' ugly features and expressed fully the patriotism of the Tibetan people; and their staunch spirit encouraged the people of the whole country in the war against Japan.
B. Carrying out sutra-chanting and prayer activities to express their faith in winning the War of Resistance Against Japan. When the Japanese imperialists created the January 28th Incident in Shanghai, the broad masses of the Tibetan people hated the Japanese imperialists' aggression all the more and they joined the movement of resistance against Japan one after another. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama and the Ninth Panchen Erdeni immediately ordered hundreds of thousands of monks in all the great monasteries of Tibet to hold sutra-chanting meetings to curse the invaders and pray for victory in the War of Resistance.
After the death of the Thirteenth Dalai, Radreng Hutuktu clearly expressed his support for resistance against Japan and saving the country. He led the clerical and secular populace to hold three big-scale prayer meetings, "chanting sutras for winning victory over the enemy and cursing the Japanese invaders."[64]
In May 1933, the Ninth Panchen published an open telegram to the nation from Beilemiao in Suiyuan Province, solemnly condemning the Japanese imperialists for
they, despite generally acknowledged truth and treaty of alliance, are invading our country, depending on their military power.... I am indignant at their mean actions. Although I am a monk, yet I dare not lag behind others in saving the country. I have summoned more than a thousand monks to chant sutras piously, given alms for setting up religious altars to pray for peace and to mourn over the officers and soldiers fallen in battles on the front.[65]
In addition, he went to Inner Mongolia without concern for his own safety. Wherever he went, he met with the local monks and led them to engage in sutra-chanting activities, praying for victory in the War of Resistance. Meanwhile, he also took advantage of his prestige to call local aristocrats together, and exposed to them the crimes committed by the Japanese invaders so as to arouse their patriotism. He called on people "to unite to resist aggression and to protect the nation." On the eve of and in the first period of the War of Resistance, he went several times to Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Sichuan and other places to call on the monks in big monasteries to hold prayer meetings "to chant sutras for the safety of the country, for peace, and for mourning the officers and soldiers who died for the country." Even when he was seriously ill, he was still planning to call all eminent monks in Xikang together to chant the Yamantaka Sutra so as to prevent the people of China from disaster. A few days before his death, he had "A Letter to the People in the Western Provinces" written in both Chinese and Tibetan, expressing his hope that the broad masses of people would be united as one to consolidate the rear areas and to complete the great cause of resistance against Japan and saving the country.[66] The sutra-chanting activities carried out under the leadership of eminent monks had great appeal to the people in the Tibetan areas. They mobilized the Tibetan people, and encouraged them to show concern about and support for the War of Resistance of the motherland against Japan.
C. Making donations of money and materials to support the front. After the anti-Japanese war broke out, the Tibetan people launched an unprecedentedly large-scale movement to gather donations of money and materials for the front. They knew clearly that
in order to drive the enemy out of the country, the five main ethnic groups of China [Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Uygur and Tibetan] must be united as one; those who have money should donate money, and those who have no money shall defend the country with their bodies[67]
The Tibetan people were concerned about the security of the country. They went to the Tibet Office of the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs to inquire about the war situation, and did their best to make donations to support the anti-Japanese war.
On October 28, 1938, the Ninth Panchen made a donation of 30,000 yuan and bought 20,000 yuan worth of government bonds. Moreover, he persuaded the staff of his headquarters to enthusiastically make donations.
In the summer of 1938, well-known Tibetan personages such as Khyungram Hutuktu, Kunga Hutuktu and Kelzang Tsering sponsored and organized a "Publicity Group of the Xikang and Tibetan People for Resistance Against Japan" and a "Delegation of the Xikang People Sent to Convey Greetings and Appreciation to the Officers and Men at the Front." They went to Chongqing and major war zones to convey to the soldiers their sincere solicitude. As soon as they arrived in Chongqing, they immediately handed over the gold and silver decorations (six pieces of gold ornaments, 20-odd kilograms of silver ornaments, and 100-odd silver dollars) to the government. Meanwhile, on behalf of the people of Xikang and Tibet, they expressed their determination to continue to do their best to make contributions to the country, and to be a powerful backing for the soldiers at the front."[68] The following year, the head of the delegation, Kelzang Tsering, and others paid a visit to Zhou Enlai at the Eighth Route Army Office in Chongqing and presented him with a silk banner and a katag to show their sincere gratitude and solicitude to the officers and men fighting at the front. Afterward, they made a donation of 120 bolts of first-grade phrug (Tibetan woolen cloth).
In May 1939, the Ninth Panchen's headquarters and Tibetan secular and clerical organizations set up a fourteen-member "Delegation Sent to Convey Greetings and Appreciation to the Officers and Men at the Front." The delegation made a donation of 5,000 yuan for purchasing medicines.
At the most difficult and critical time during the War of Resistance, the Tibetan people enthusiastically made donations of materials for the soldiers at the front. In November 1939, after winter had set in, the officers and men at the front were living in very bad conditions. People from all walks of life in Kangding and the Tibetan areas in Qinghai started a movement to collect winter clothes. The Tibetan people made donations of various local special products, furs, and medicines to help the officers and men to tide over the difficulties. In October 1944 the Tibetan clerical and secular populace made a donation of five million yuan, a great support for the War of Resistance.
D. Joining the army and taking part in the war. In 1931, when the Tibetans in Nanjing set up Tibetan Volunteers Corps for Resistance Against Japan, the Tibetan people in Xikang also organized volunteers corps. In December 1938, in view of the fact that the motherland was in need of armed forces, monks of the Drepung Monastery suggested that orders be issued to recruit soldiers from Xikang and Tibet to defend the interests of the nation. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, many Tibetan youths from Xikang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu joined the army. There were also many Tibetan youths in the Chinese expeditionary troops fighting in Burma.
In the spring of 1943, Tibetans at Yeliguan in Lintan, Gansu Province, organized a "Volunteers Corps to Resist Japanese Aggression and Save the Country" together with the local Hans and Huis. They kept up the struggle for ten months, and their influence spread to more than twenty adjacent counties. Afterward, quite a few cadres from this corps joined the army of resistance against Japan in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia revolutionary base, which was under the leadership of the CPC.
Tibetan People's Struggle Against the Serf System
During the period of the Republic of China (1911-1949) Tibet still had a society of feudal serfdom. Serfs and serf-owners were the two main classes antagonistic to each other. The latter was composed of local government officials, aristocrats and the high clergy (the three major categories of feudal lords). The feudal lords owned almost all the land in Tibet and deprived the serfs of subsistence, and so the serfs were tied to the land of feudal lords. The serfs were thus owned by the serf-owners. They had no political rights or personal freedom. They and their children were freely given away as gifts or donations, sold or exchanged for goods. In 1943, a high-rank aristocrat named Tsemon Norbu Wangyal sold 100 serfs to a monk official of Kagyu Khangsar in the Drigung area for a price of only four silver dollars each. Besides, he gave 400 serfs to the Kundeling Monastery as a way of payment for his debts.[69]
Under the serfdom in Tibet, not only did the local regime at various levels set up judicial institutions, but the big monasteries, manorial lords and tribal chieftains also had the right to judge cases and had their own private prisons. The serfs had to do corvee for manorial lords and local government and pay taxes and land rent (accounting for more than 70 percent of the income from agriculture and animal breeding). The masses of serfs lived in extreme poverty, and epidemic diseases prevailed among them. The class contradictions were very sharp. The serfs never stopped their resistance, and the forms of their struggle were various.
Being slack in work. This was a prevailing form of the serfs' struggle against the serf-owners' exploitation. The manorial lords generally kept 70 percent of their land under their own management and rented out the rest to their serfs. The serf tenants also had to till the land managed by the manorial lords, using their own farm animals and tools. The entire harvest on the land managed by manorial lords belonged to the lords alone. So the serfs worked slowly as a form of struggle.
Presenting petitions or lodging complaints. This form of struggle whipped up public opinion to a certain degree. The struggle of presenting petitions was common among the serfs; the contents of their petitions were mostly about delaying the date of completing corvee, requesting a reduction in the amount of corvee duties, or asking for a replacment of the manorial lord's agent on the estate. Sometimes the demands might be granted through peaceful petitions. For instance, when the serf-owners of the Bengom Monastery near Xigaze collected land rent paid in kind, they used bigger measurements than ordinary ones. The serfs were strongly opposed to this and they sent representatives to reason things out with the monastery and thus forced it to cancel the bigger measurements. Another example is that of the manorial lord of Lhagari. After taking back his land from the thralpas (serf tenants doing unpaid labor for serf-owners) in the Rong area, he continued to order the thralpas to do unpaid labor. This caused several hundred serfs to present petitions, and the manorial lord had to return half of the land to the thralpas. Part of the petitions submitted to the Kashag, the Tibetan local government, were documents of complaint. For instance, Pawo Drangdul, a tribal chieftain in Nagqu, took away several hundred yaks of the Ngapa tribe when he went there to collect debts. This caused great indignation on the part of the herdsmen. They lodged a complaint with the Kashag; the Kashag made a judgment that the herdsmen had to pay the principal but not the interest. Pawo Drangdul had to return 11 horses, 90 yaks, 200 sheep, one tent and some jewelry and silver ornaments, and he lost his hereditary title as well.
The serfs had to do numerous corvees for the manorial lords. They were owned by serf-owners, just like the means of production. They had no political rights or personal freedom. They and their children were freely given away as gifts or donations, sold, or exchanged for goods. Their marriages had to be approved in advance by their manorial lords. Serfs who married out of the manorial estate had to pay ransom money to their lords. Those who could not perform corvee or went out to seek a livelihood elsewhere had to pay "corve taxes" to show their dependence on the lords. The manorial lords generally kept a greater part 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 lords. If a serf lost his ability to work, his thralkang field, livestock and farm tools would be confiscated by the lord. The property of those who died without issue was confiscated. The serfs had to do corvee for the manorial lords and the local government and had to pay taxes in kind and cash.
All the manorial lords in old Tibet practiced usury. They forced their serfs to accept usurious loans. It was common for the serfs to have heavy loan debts. The rates charged by the manorial lords were so high that many debtors were unable to discharge their debts, and even their children were unable to do so. Thus the debts became "descendants' debts." Investigation conducted in the Langtang, Pando, and Katsel Dzong showed that forty out of the fifty households in the Langtang Dzong were in heavy debt, all of the 166 households in Pando were in debt, and the majority of households in Katsel were also in debt. Therefore, it was common for the serfs to resist the payment of debts.
Fleeing from home was another common form of resistance adopted by the serfs. In order to prevent the serfs from fleeing away, the Tibetan local authorities stipulated that those who captured a runaway household slave would be rewarded with half the things the runaway serf brought with himself, the other half would be given to the owner of the runaway serf. The runaway serf would be flogged or even condemned to death.[70] Nevertheless, fleeing was often the only way the serfs could improve their situation. For example, there were 60 households in the Reda district of Chido Dzong in Tsoba Sogu in northern Tibet in 1941, but two-thirds of the serfs had run away before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951. The Lumaling Village in Gongbo'-gyamda was located on the route between Lhasa and Qamdo, a route on which official travelers were many. All the seventeen serf households there fled deep into the mountains owing to the frequent corvee services they had to perform. According to statistics, the number of runaway households in Maizhokunggar and three other places around 1949 accounted for 45 percent of the total households. The number of runaway households in four villages in Chagyab Dzong of Qamdo reached 39 percent from 1935 to 1949. Because so many serfs had fled, many villages and fields were deserted, which dealt a heavy blow to the economic interests of the serf-owners.
Taking up arms, killing Tibetan officers and soldiers and rising in rebellion was still another form of resistance. This was the most violent form adopted by the serfs against oppression. Where there was oppression, there was resistance. In 1918, 150 households of herdsmen in Chido Dzong of Tsoba Sogu, in an effort to resist the exploitation of the local government, killed the Dzongpon and disarmed 45 Tibetan soldiers. The rebellion staged by the Bomi people in 1926 was the most extensive rebellion staged by the Tibetan people in the 20th century. At that time, the Tibetan local government sent Tibetan troops to Bomi to allot ula corvee and to register the area of land. The soldiers raped local women. All this made the local people nurse strong hatreds in their hearts. More than three thousand of them gathered together and surrounded the camps of the Tibetan troops. They killed Takla Dapon, a company commander and more than thirty soldiers. The struggle against oppression staged by the herdsmen in Mema Dzong in Amdo in 1929 lasted for more than one year. About 120 herdsmen went into the mountains to confront the Tibetan soldiers. In 1931, an aristocrat named Tsepa was killed in Gyadul district of Lhunze Dzong in Shannan. There were more than thirty villages in the Gyadul district with many households and rich material resources, and it was under the direct jurisdiction of the Tibetan local government. But Tsepa bribed the government officials to get the rights of administration over Gyadul. The people of Gyadul had long before learned that Tsepa was cruel to his serfs in his manorial estates, so they were resolutely opposed to his taking over the administration of Gyadul. They held meetings to discuss how to deal with Tsepa and they came to the conclusion that only by killing him would they rid themselves of Tsepa's enslavement. On October 30, 1931, when Tsepa had completed the hand-over procedure in Gyadul and was ready to return to his Sharpa manorial estate, the local people prepared an ambush for him on the road he was to take. They attacked his party with knives, clubs, and stones; Tsepa was killed on the spot. After this incident occurred, the local government suppressed the people. Nevertheless, the local serfs were not frightened; they continued their struggle for twenty-two years before they got the final victory.
The struggles of the Tibetan people in opposition to feudal serfdom ran through the whole history of the Tibetan feudal society. Although these struggles met with bloody suppression by the three categories of feudal lords, they shook the rule of feudal serfdom to its very foundation, demonstrated the firm and indomitable spirit of the Tibetan people, and constituted an important part of the new-democratic revolution of China.
Peaceful Liberation and Birth of New Tibet
Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
The Founding of New China Opens the Path to the Liberation of the Tibetan People
The founding of the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing on October 1, 1949. This was a great victory in the struggle of the Chinese people for national independence and against the feudal rule, and it was also the great victory of the new-democratic revolution led by the Communist Party of China with the aim of overthrowing the three big mountains (imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, which weighed like mountains on the backs of the Chinese people before Liberation). The People's Republic of China is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship, led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. The birth of New China marked a dramatic change in the relations between various ethnic groups of China. The first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), held in September 1949, adopted the Common Program of the CPPCC, a document serving as the country's provisional constitution. It stipulated that "all ethnic groups in the People's Republic of China are equal in their rights and duties" and "the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China should be responsible for carrying out the People's War of Liberation through to the end, to liberate the whole territory of China, and to complete the cause of the unification of China." Mao Zedong also pointed out: "Ours will no longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation. We have stood up."[1] Therefore, the founding of the People's Republic of China not only led the people of various ethnic groups in China into a brand-new historical period, but also opened up a broad road to the liberation and rebirth of the Tibetan people.
The founding of New China opened a new chapter in the annals of Tibet. On the day that the People's Republic of China was founded, the Tenth Panchen Erdeni Chokyi Gyaltsen sent a telegraphic message to Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central People's Government, and Zhu De, Commander-in-Chief of the People's Liberation Army, to pay his respects to them and express his warm welcome and support. He said in his message:
For generations, the Panchen has been treated most generously and bestowed with many honors by the state. For more than twenty years, I have never slackened my efforts to defend the territorial integrity of Tibet, but nothing has been achieved, for which I feel most guilty. I am now staying in Qinghai, waiting for the order to return to Tibet.[2]
The Panchen warmly congratulated Chairman Mao and Commander-in-Chief Zhu on the founding of the Central People's Government, believing that it would surely bring happiness to the people and would make the nation stand on its feet again, and that the liberation of Tibet was only a matter of time. In a telegram of reply to the Panchen, Mao Zedong and Zhu De said:
The Tibetan people love the motherland and oppose foreign aggression. They disagree with the policy of the Kuomintang reactionaries and desire to be a member of the big family of a united, strong and prosperous New China where all the ethnic groups are equal. The Central People's Government and the Chinese People's Liberation Army will certainly comply with this wish of the Tibetan people[3]
Sangye Yeshe (alias Tian Bao), an ethnic Tibetan member of the CPPCC, published an article in the People's Daily, stressing that Tibet was a part of China and appealing to the Tibetan people to fight against the U.S. and British plots to obstruct the liberation of Tibet. Following the founding of New China, the Tibetan people expressed their highest respects to the Central People's Government and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and expected an early liberation of Tibet and areas inhabited by the Tibetans in other provinces.
In March 1950, Xikang Province was liberated. The PLA men exposed the rumors and slanders cooked up by the reactionaries and upper-stratum Tibetans against the CPC and PLA with their own model behavior and actions. The Tibetan people then began to have a clear and correct understanding of the PLA and gave them a warm welcome and support. The Central People's Government conscientiously carried out and implemented the Party's policies toward national minorities, religion and the united front, and thus abolished the estrangement and misunderstanding between the Tibetans and Hans. In accordance with the development of the situation in the whole country, the Central People's Government issued the order to liberate Tibet in December 1949. At the same time, it asked the Kashag to send representatives to hold talks with the central government in the hope of bringing about the liberation of Tibet by peaceful means. This decision met with the support of the people of the whole country. Patriots of the Tibetan upper strata, represented by Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, vigorously endorsed the idea that representatives be sent to Beijing to hold talks; the majority of the Tibetan people agreed with and supported this.
In order that the Tibetans might have a clear understanding of the Party's policy toward national minorities, the Central Ethnic Affairs Commission held a symposium on the Tibetan issue in January 1950. It explained the CPC Central Committee's decision and proposition for the peaceful liberation of Tibet and extensively solicited the opinions about it from the Tibetans taking part in the symposium. The Tibetans held that the central government's order to liberate Tibet and the general and specific policies for Tibet reflected the basic interests and strong desires of the Tibetan people. These policies received the full support of the Tibetans participating in the symposium.
During the second half of 1950 several delegations were sent by the Central People's Government to visit national minorities in various parts of the country. They informed the local people about the new policy toward minority peoples. The Northwest and Southwest China sub-delegations of the central authorities went deep into the Tibetan-inhabited areas to convey greetings to the people. They were warmly welcomed by the Tibetan secular and clerical populace. These visits by the central authorities' delegations deepened the understanding between the Party and central government on the one hand and the Tibetan people on the other, strengthened the relations between the central government and the Tibetan areas and facilitated unity within Tibet and the unity between the Han and Tibetan peoples.
In January 1951 a ceremony was held to mark the returning of temporal power to the Fourteenth Dalai. In a letter he wrote to the Central People's Government, the Dalai said:
Now all the Tibetan people have asked me to hold temporal power. I was duty bound to accept their request... I have decided to realize the people's wishes by peaceful means... I will send delegates to settle the Tibet issue with the Central People's Government[4]
This shows the Fourteenth Dalai had accepted the central authorities' proposal and agreed to hold peaceful talks.
Imperialists' Plot to Obstruct the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
Just before and after the birth of New China, the Western imperialists took advantage of the fact that the Kuomintang had lost control of Tibet and that the PLA had not yet entered Tibet to further intensify their scheme to achieve the "independence" of Tibet, and so frustrate the peaceful liberation of the region.
After the Second World War, the international situation changed dramatically. The war sapped the vitality of Britain and made it lose its supremacy over the world, which it had had for some 200 years, while the U.S., which had got rich in the war, had by now become the "overlord" of the world. Nevertheless, the British and U.S. imperialists jointed hands to instigate a small number of pro-imperialist separatist elements in Tibet to create a series of incidents of anti-communism and "independence."
The U.S. imperialists had started their inroads into Tibet long before the end of the Second World War. In September 1942, the U.S. government dispatched Lt. Col. Ilia Tolstoy to Tibet with a delegation. It brought gifts and a letter from President Roosevelt to the Dalai Lama. The delegation stayed in Lhasa for more than five months, during which they engaged in secret talks with the Kashag. That was the beginning of the contacts between Tibet's separatist forces and the U.S. imperialists.
Instigated by the U.S. and British imperialists, a Tibetan trade mission illegally went abroad on the eve of Liberation. In a statement issued to the press soon after their arrival in San Francisco in July 1948, the mission said:
We have come here to establish friendly relations with your country... Tibet is surrounded by three countries: the Soviet Union to the north, China to the east and India to the south. We cannot possibly show favor to any one of them by granting it special privileges and ignoring the other two. That is why we deny them any such privileges.... We hope to obtain from the U.S. government a loan of eight million U.S. dollars to back the Tibetan currency. We also hope your country will supply us with large quantities of machinery and electrical equipment in exchange for our medicinal materials and wool.
Later in Washington, the missibn said to reporters, "The relations between China and Tibet are merely religious. China has no jurisdiction at all over the Tibetan people; what passports we use for foreign travel are none of China's business."[5] All these statements exposed their attempt to influence international opinion with the help of the U.S. and British imperialists, in the hope of separating Tibet from the motherland.
By the spring of 1949, the political scene in China had completely changed. The three major military campaigns—Liaoxi-Shenyang, Beiping-Tianjin and Huai-Hai had ended in the annihilation of the main forces of the Kuomintang army; the People's Liberation Army had swept across the Yangtze River, liberating Nanjing and Shanghai. The liberation of the whole country was only a matter of time, and the Tibetan people were about to put an end to the imperialists' control and aggression to which they had been subjected for more than half a century. However the U.S. and British imperialists would not give up their designs on Tibet. On their instructions, the Tibetan separatist forces evacuated the Tibet Office in Nanjing just before the liberation of the city by the People's Liberation Army, and on February 8, 1949, the Tibetan authorities, in a surprise move, told the Lhasa Office of the Kuomintang government to "evacuate immediately its personnel and their families to the interior as a necessary measure to prevent the spread of communism." At the same time they seized the Lhasa radio station, put government organizations stationed in Tibet and their staff members under armed surveillance, and pressed them to leave Tibet. In addition, the Kashag gave notice over the radio station in Kalimpong in India to the Commission of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs of the Kuomintang government, saying:
To make sure that no Communists remain in Tibet in disguise, we are asking all the personnel of the central authorities stationed in Tibet to evacuate. We have already informed them and their families that they must return to the interior within a specified time.
As the Kuomintang government was then fleeing in great panic, it was completely beyond their ability to do anything about the matter. So its personnel and their families left for home via India in three batches by the specified time.
Apparently, the "Hans, go home!" incident was intended by the Tibetan separatist forces, who engineered it at the instigation of the U.S. and British imperialists, to sever all political ties between Tibet and the motherland. It also represented their vain attempt to check the advance of the People's Liberation Army into Tibet and sever Tibet from China. The Indian News Agency, voicing the opinion of the British imperialists, said in a dispatch that Tibet had never accepted China's suzerainty, and that the issue had been a source of "disputes." A British news dispatch of the same day alleged that Britain had never accepted "China's claim" that Tibet was part of China and was under its jurisdiction. The United Press of the U.S. reported from Washington on August 14 that the American foreign affairs authorities said that the Tibetan authorities were trying to break free of "China's nominal suzerainty" by exploiting the plight of "the Chinese government."[6]
The Chinese people, however, carried out a resolute struggle against the British and U.S. plot to sever Tibet from China. The Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily published commentaries or editorials, exposing the imperialists' plot in Tibet and stating that "the Chinese people were determined to liberate Tibet." This threw the U.S. and British imperialists into confusion. The British mission in Lhasa had already been handed over to the Indian government, and the British head of the mission, Hugh Richardson, was going to retire in 1949, to be replaced by an Indian official. However, following the "Hans, go home!" incident, the Indian government suddenly announced that Richardson was going to stay with the mission for one more year. Richardson was an "old Tibet hand" and a vicious aggressor; he masterminded the "Hans, go home!" campaign and most of the other incidents. That explains why the British imperialists and the Indian authorities decided to prolong his stay in Tibet.
To aid the Tibetan separatists in their vain attempt to resist the liberation of Tibet by the People's Liberation Army, the U.S. imperialists sent Lowell Thomas to Tibet in early August 1949. Posing as a "radio commentator," Thomas, an arch-spy, spent two months in Lhasa and then went home. According to Yershov, who wrote an article entitled "The Imperialist Conspiracy Against Tibet":
When Thomas returned to Calcutta on October 10 he said that the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan regent and the foreign minister had come to the unanimous conclusion that they were capable of containing Communism, and that they "hoped to get outside help." When Thomas arrived in New York on October 16, he said that the Tibetan rulers "hoped that the U.S. would provide them with modern weapons and military advisers." According to U.S. press reports, the U.S. was prepared to recognize Tibet as an independent country, would support Tibet in its application for U.N. membership and provide the government of the Dalai Lama with military aid.
In his book Out of This World, Lowell Thomas wrote of the talks he had with the Kashag in Lhasa.
The ministers [members of the Kashag] came to the point directly: "If the Communists strike Tibet, will America help? And to what extent?" To this Thomas replied, "The Chinese Communists, if they invade, probably will do so by way of the northern plateau and eastern desert, from the Kham and Lake Koko Nor region. By either of these routes it is about six hundred miles to Lhasa. The first two hundred miles would be simple. But from then on it might not be too difficult for skillful guerrilla forces to harass an invader, cut his supply lines and make his venture too costly[7]
Thus, engineered by the U.S. and British imperialists, the Tibetan pro-imperialist separatists recruited soldiers, imposed levies of money and grain among the people, and deployed a large number of troops in Qamdo and Nagqu in an attempt to check the advance of PLA to liberate Tibet.
Moreover, a handful of separatists from the Tibetan upper circles, headed by Regent Taktra Ngawang Sungrab and with the support of foreign forces, carried out reactionary propaganda, spreading various "reasons" why they would check the advance of the PLA into Tibet. The so-called Foreign Affairs Bureau of Tibet even issued a "warning" to the Central People's Government, demanding that the Central People's Government order the PLA to stop its advance into Tibet. The United Press reported, in January 1950, that the Tibetan authorities, to show their "independence," were planning to send a "goodwill mission" to the United States, Britain, India, Nepal and Beijing. What was behind this report was an attempt to get the Tibetan authorities to ask Britain and the United States to interfere with the liberation of Tibet by the PLA. In a statement published by the Xinhua News Agency, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of China denounced and exposed this intrigue; he said:
Everyone in the world knows that Tibet is part of Chinese territory and no one has ever refuted that. The Lhasa authorities have no right to authorize any "mission," still less to show their "independence"... If the Lhasa authorities send an unlawful "mission" at the instructions of the imperialist aggressors against the wishes of the Tibetan people for disruptive activities in betrayal of the motherland, such a treasonable act will not be tolerated by the Central People's Government of China, and any country accepting such a mission will be regarded as hostile to the People's Republic of China.
When the Panchen's Council of Khenpos learned of the "goodwill mission," it immediately sent a telegram to the Central People's Government pointing out it was a scheme instigated by imperialists and expressing, on behalf of the Tibetan people, that they would struggle against the imperialists' plot of severing Tibet from China. They said, "We vow to serve the people and the motherland by providing leadership for Tibetan patriots and mobilizing the Tibetan people in general in our effort to assist the Liberation Army." Owing to the resolute struggle of the people of the whole country, the Kashag's mission dropped its idea of asserting Tibet's "independence" by visiting foreign countries.
What it would like to do now, the Kashag said, was to send a mission to Hong Kong to hold talks with negotiators from the Central People's Government. Its purpose was to keep the People's Liberation Army out of Tibet through negotiations, with the intention of playing for time and strengthening its defense. But contact between representatives of Tibet and the Central People's Government was the last thing the British and U.S. imperialists wanted to see happen. In a dispatch from London, dated June 14, 1950, the United Press quoted the British Foreign Secretary as saying that Britain would not accept "the claims of the Chinese Communist Party on Tibet" and that the delay in granting the Tibetan mission entry visas into Hong Kong had been caused by Britain's suspicion of its intentions.
With the attitude of the Tibetan upper ruling circles seeming to ease up somewhat, the Central People's Government decided to use peaceful means to help the Tibetan people with their liberation. In July 1950, the Central People's Government sent Taktser Rinpoche from Qinghai and Getag Rinpoche from Xikang to Tibet to meet with the Dalai Lama. Taktser Rinpoche tried to go to Tibet by sea but failed to get there owing to imperialists' obstruction.
Getag Rinpoche, the vice-chairman of the Xikang Provincial People's Government, was a well-known patriot. He was held up in Qamdo on his way to Lhasa. But he insisted on going to Lhasa to remove the misunderstanding and doubts the Kashag had about the central government. On August 21, Robert Ford, a British intelligence agent, had Getag poisoned to death. In order to destroy the criminal evidence, the Tibetan authorities immediately had his body cremated.
Such outrages by the imperialists made the Chinese people quite angry. The murder of Getag Rinpoche made Tibetan patriotic compatriots very sad; they asked the PLA to march into Tibet at an early date. The Central People's Government ordered its troops to march to the eastern bank of the Jinsha River and be prepared for battle. On August 31, it informed the Tibetan negotiation mission, which was still in India, to arrive in Beijing by the middle of September and begin peace talks; otherwise, the mission would be held responsible for delaying the peace talks and the consequences that would follow. Simultaneously, the Chinese government presented a note to the Indian government saying that the Chinese People's Liberation Army was going to carry out their military operations as scheduled, and hoping that the Indian government would help the Tibetan mission to come to Beijing immediately.
By then India had already gotten rid of its colonial shackles and become an independent state after the Second World War. Although India was one of the first countries to establish relations with New China, instigated by the U.S. and British imperialists it actively involved itself in Tibetan affairs. On October 21, 1950, the Indian government sent a note to the Foreign Ministry of China, attempting to halt the advance of the People's Liberation Army into Tibet with deceptive promises of support for the admission of China into the United Nations. On October 28, 1950, the Indian government sent another note to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. On the one hand, it tried to absolve the Tibetan separatists from guilt, and on the other, it called the righteous and lawful advance into Tibet of the People's Liberation Army an "invasion," attempting to put the responsibility for possible bloodshed on the Chinese government. To these notes the Central People's Government of China made clear its solemn stand on the question; it pointed out that Tibet was an integral part of Chinese territory, that the question of Tibet was entirely a domestic affair of China and no foreign interference would be tolerated, and that it was unwise to obstruct the participation of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations.
In still another note sent to the Chinese Foreign Ministry on November 1, 1950, the Indian government, in addition to defending its position with regard to what China said in its previous reply, said darkly that the sending of the People's Liberation Army to Tibet had "greatly added to ... drift toward general war," and asked China to adhere to some of the special privileges that India had inherited from Britain in Tibet. The Central People's Government of China categorically repudiated the note. On November 16, 1950, the Chinese government in its reply pointed out:
The Tibetan question is entirely a domestic affair of China. The Chinese People's Liberation Army must enter Tibet, liberate the Tibetan people, and defend the frontiers of China. This is the firm policy of the Chinese government.... What is now threatening the independence of nations and world peace is precisely the forces of those imperialist aggressors. The entry into Tibet by the Chinese People's Liberation Army is thus an important measure to maintain Chinese independence, to prevent the imperialist aggressors from dragging the world toward war, and to defend world peace[8]
While the Indian government, under the instigation of the imperialists, tried to entangle China diplomatically, the imperialists themselves also raised a hue and cry, trying to create international support for severing Tibet and to force New China to submit. During the first half of 1950, the first batch of American firearms and ammunition were transported to Tibet via Calcutta to be used in checking the advance of the PLA. On November 1 that same year, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson openly slandered China, calling the liberation by the Chinese people of their own territory of Tibet "aggression," and saying that "the U.S. would regard it as most unfortunate and serious." On November 15, the American New York Times in its editorial urged the U.N. "to interfere in the Tibetan issue." On the same day El Salvador, a small South American country, put forward a motion at the U.N. General Assembly, asking it to form a committee to work out "appropriate measures" for the adoption by the General Assembly of a way to deal with the Tibetan question. The Kuomintang's Central News Agency reported from Lake Success on the same day that "it is believed in Lake Success that the U.S. is the originator of El Salvador's motion." Meanwhile, the Tibetan separatist elements, at the instigation of the British imperialists, raised the so-called Tibetan issue to the U.N. through a "complaint" to the organization. Immediately, Britain gave it its support. The Reuters reported from London on November 14 that Britain would give its full support to "Tibet's complaints" that had reached the Security Council "against the interference by the Chinese Communists." Owing to the solemn stand of the Chinese government and the opposition of the countries that upheld justice, this plot soon ended in failure.
In October 1950 the PLA began the Qamdo campaign. The liberation of Qamdo came as a great shock to the ruling circles of Tibet and threw them into chaos. A handful of separatists, headed by Regent Taktra, abducted the eighteen-year-old Fourteenth Dalai Lama to Drome (present-day Yadong) and from there they planned to take him abroad to live in exile. At the time the Central People's Government was arguing strongly on just grounds with the Indian government. This made the Tibetan separatists believe that seeking refuge with the Indian government was not a sure guarantee, so they stayed at Drome to see how the situation would develop.
In November 1950 the Tibetan authorities held meetings to discuss how to deal with the situation. Many of the Khenpos and Kalons close to the Dalai were against the Dalai's flight to India, and stood in favor of negotiations with the Central People's Government. Regent Taktra was forced to step down, returning temporal power to the Fourteenth Dalai. Taktra died of illness soon after his falling out of power. In February 1951, after coming to power, the Dalai sent to Beijing a five-man negotiating team with Kalon Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme as the chief delegate. The delegates left for Beijing in two batches by way of Xikang and India respectively. With this, the plot of the British and U.S. imperialists to block the peaceful liberation of Tibet ended in failure.
Conclusion of the "Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet"
Proceeding from the practical conditions, historical and religious, in Tibet, the Central People's Government advocated a policy of the peaceful liberation of Tibet at the beginning of 1950 when New China had been founded and the greater part of national territory had been liberated. In order to implement the policy of the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the Central People's Government, when it ordered the People's Liberation Army to march into Tibet, notified the local government of Tibet to send delegates to Beijing to conduct talks for the conclusion of an agreement on measures for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. Nevertheless, the Tibetan upper ruling group headed by Taktra Rinpoche did not respond to the call. It was only after the Dalai Lama assumed temporal power that a five-man delegation was sent to Beijing in February 1951. The delegation was headed by Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, with the Tibetan troop commander Dzasak Khemey Sonam Wangdu, Drungyig Chemo (monk official) Thubten Tenthar, Khenchung Thubten Lekmon, and the Second Dapon Samposey Tenzin Dondrup as delegates.
On April 22, 1951, the three delegates who came by way of Xikang arrived in Beijing. On the 26th of the same month, the two delegates who came by way of India and Hong Kong also arrived in Beijing. The delegates were given a warm welcome at the railway station by Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and several thousand people. Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De and other leaders of the central government received the Tibetan negotiators respectively and explained to them the Chinese Communist Party's policy toward national minorities. The Panchen Lama and the officials of his Council of Khenpos also arrived in Beijing in April 1951 and expressed their wishes for peace to the central government. The Central People's Government appointed representatives with full powers to conduct talks with the delegates of the local government of Tibet. The delegates of the Central People's Government were Li Weihan (chief delegate), Zhang Jingwu, Zhang Guohua and Sun Zhiyuan.
The talks began in a friendly atmosphere on April 29, 1951. Both parties reached consensus on a series of matters of principle. However some problems were solved only after many twists and turns. For example, on the question of the People's Liberation Army marching into Tibet, the Kashag had instructed the Tibetan delegation not to give consent to it and India's Nehru also had given "instructions" to the same effect, so the Tibetan delegation said they could not accept the item and thus the negotiations reached an impasse. At the time, the delegates of the central government did not force the Tibetan delegates to accept this, but proposed only that the meeting be adjourned for two days. During those two days, arrangements were made for the Tibetan delegates to visit places of interest and watch theatrical performances. The Tibetan delegate Thubten Tenthar said in his reminiscences:
During these two days, the more performances we watched, the more anxious we became. We suspected that the People's Liberation Army might take advantage of the two-day recess to drive straight into Lhasa.
So the Tibetan delegation asked Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme to ask about the central authorities' intention. In order to dispel the Tibetan delegates' doubts, the delegates of the central government explained to them the purpose and the good style of work of the PLA. They showed the Tibetan delegates historical documents of the Qing Dynasty to prove that there were precedents for the central government sending troops into Tibet. After painstaking explanations, the problem about the PLA entering Tibet was resolved. As a result of the talks, both parties concluded the "Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" on May 23, 1951, and subsequently made it public. The agreement consisted of seventeen articles. The Tibetan delegation immediately sent a telegram to the Dalai Lama and the Kashag, reporting to them the content of the agreement, the main points of which were as follows:
(1) The Tibetan people shall unite and drive out imperialist aggressive forces from Tibet; the Tibetan people shall return to the big family of the motherland—the People's Republic of China.
(2) The local government of Tibet shall actively assist the People's Liberation Army in entering Tibet and consolidating the national defense.
(3) In accordance with the policy toward national minorities laid down in the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Tibetan people have the right to exercise regional autonomy under the unified leadership of the Central People's Government.
(4) The central government will not alter the existing political system in Tibet, nor will it alter the established status, functions and powers of the Dalai Lama. Officials of various ranks shall hold office as usual.
(5) The established status, functions and powers of the Panchen Erdeni shall be maintained.
(6) By the established status, functions and powers of the Dalai Lama and of the Panchen Erdeni are meant the status, functions and powers of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and the Ninth Panchen Erdeni when they were on friendly and amicable terms.
(7) The policy of freedom of religious belief laid down in the Common Program of the CPPCC shall be carried out. The religious beliefs, customs and habits of the Tibetan people shall be respected, and lamaseries shall be protected. The central authorities will not effect a change in the income of the lamaseries.
(8) Tibetan troops shall be re-organized step by step into the People's Liberation Army, and become a part of the national defense forces of the People's Republic of China.
(9) The spoken and written language and school education of the Tibetan people shall be developed step by step in accordance with the actual conditions in Tibet.
(10) Tibetan agriculture, livestock raising, industry and commerce shall be developed step by step, and the people's livelihood shall be improved step by step, in accordance with the actual conditions in Tibet.
(11) In matters related to various reforms in Tibet, there will be no compulsion on the part of the central authorities. The local government of Tibet should carry out reforms of its own accord, and when the people raise demands for reform, they shall be settled by means of consultation with the leading personnel of Tibet.
(12) Insofar as the former pro-imperialist and pro-Kuomintang officials resolutely sever relations with imperialism and the Kuomintang and do not engage in sabotage or resistance, they may continue to hold office irrespective of their past.
(13) The People's Liberation Army entering Tibet shall abide by all the above-mentioned policies and shall also be fair in all buying and selling and shall not arbitrarily take a needle or thread from the people.
(14) The Central People's Government shall have centralized handling of all external affairs of the region of Tibet; and there will be peaceful coexistence with neighboring countries and the establishment and development of fair commercial and trading relations with them on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect for territory and sovereignty.
(15) In order to ensure the implementation of this agreement, the Central People's Government shall set up a military and administrative committee and a military area headquarters in Tibet, and apart from the personnel sent there by the Central People's Government shall absorb as many local Tibetan personnel as possible to take part in the work.
Local Tibetan personnel taking part in the military and administrative committee may include patriotic elements from the Local government of Tibet, various districts and various principal monasteries; the name list shall be set forth after consultation between the representatives designated by the Central People's Government and those of various quarters concerned, and shall be submitted to the Central People's Government for appointment.
(16) Funds needed by the military and administrative committee, the military area headquarters and the People's Liberation Army entering Tibet shall be provided by the Central People's Government. The local government of Tibet should assist the People's Liberation Army in the purchase and transport of food, fodder and other daily necessities.
(17) This agreement shall come into force immediately after signatures and seals are affixed to it.
The signing of the agreement brought an epoch-making change in Tibetan history and the history of relations between the Tibetan ethnic group and its motherland. It enabled the bitterly distressed Tibetan people to become free of imperialist aggression and shackles. It served as a new basis for unity between the Dalai and the Panchen, for Tibet's advances in political, economic, cultural and educational fields, and for the improvement of the living standards of the Tibetan people.
The agreement immediately drew warm response from the Tibetans and the people of all other ethnic groups across the land. Mao Zedong received the Tibetan delegation at the Huairentang Hall in Zhongnanhai, the seat of the Central People's Government, on the following day after the signing of the agreement. The Tibetan delegates presented to Mao Zedong the letter and gifts from the Dalai. Mao Zedong said to Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme:
It is not for becoming officials or doing bad things that we, the Communists, will help you Tibetans to develop the culture and economy in Tibet. If any ethnic Han cadres dare to bully Tibetans, please complain to us.[9]
The Panchen Erdeni and the staff of his Council of Khenpos issued a statement expressing their support for the agreement. The Southwest China Military and Administrative Committee, the Northwest China Military and Administrative Committee, and the People's Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in their cables to Chairman Mao, Sangye Yeshe, Chairman of Xikang Province, in his talk, and all democratic parties in their joint statements warmly hailed the signing of the agreement and the rebirth of the Tibetan people.
The Central People's Government appointed Zhang Jingwu as its resident representative in Tibet. Before his leaving Beijing for Tibet, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai briefed him on his tasks. On July 16, Zhang met with the Dalai at Yadong in Tibet and passed on a letter from Mao Zedong to him that conveyed Chairman Mao's praise of the Dalai's patriotic attitude in sending a negotiating team to Beijing for the conclusion of the agreement. Zhang also explained to the Dalai and members of Tibetan upper circles the Chinese Communist Party's policy toward national minorities and the seventeen-article agreement. Zhang and his party arrived in Lhasa on August 8.
The Dalai returned to Lhasa in the middle of August. In the last ten-day period of September, the local government of Tibet convened a meeting at which Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme briefed the participants on the conclusion of the peace accord and the sincerity of the central government for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. After discussion, all the officials participating in the meeting unanimously endorsed the seventeen-article agreement. In a telegraphic message to Chairman Mao on October 24, the Dalai expressed his support for the agreement on measures for the peaceful liberation of Tibet, and his determination to help the People's Liberation Army to consolidate national defense, wipe out the forces of imperialism in Tibet, and safeguard the territory and sovereignty of the motherland.
The People's Liberation Army Enters Tibet
In order to drive imperialist forces out of Tibet, complete the great cause of unifying the motherland and liberate the Tibetan people, the Central People's Government instructed the Southwest Sub-bureau of the CPC Central Committee, on January 2, 1950, to prepare immediately to march into Tibet with a part of the Second Field Army as the main force, with Northwest Sub-bureau playing a supporting role. The Southwest Sub-bureau and the Southwest Military Area Command decided on January 6 that Zhang Guohua and Tan Guansan should lead PLA units to carry out the task of liberating Tibet with both military and political struggles.
On January 28, Commander Liu Bocheng, Vice-Commander He Long, and Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping of the Second Field Army communicated to the troops that they were to march to liberate Tibet and told them of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman Mao Zedong's instructions that they should take Tibet's complex historical background and political situation into consideration, implement conscientiously the CPC's religious and national minorities policies, respect the Tibetan people's religious beliefs and folk customs, carry out seriously the united front work, win over the members of Tibetan upper circles, and unite with the masses and protect patriotic law-abiding monks. Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping pointed out that whether the Party's general and specific policies were resolutely implemented was of great significance to the success of their march into Tibet. On February 15, the Southwest Sub-bureau of the CPC, the Southwest Military Area Command and the Second Field Army issued the order of political mobilization for the liberation of Tibet to the troops that were to march into Tibet.
In accordance with the political mobilization order, the whole section of the army that was to march into Tibet had begun various preparations in light of the Tibetan geography, political situation, folk customs, and religious beliefs in February, and all the preparation work was fundamentally completed by August 1950.
While all these preparations were being vigorously undertaken, the People's Liberation Army sent out advance troops in March of the same year. Their task was to make investigations and do research, to provide material for the headquarters by which to make policies, to make clear the march route, and to create conditions for the victorious march of the main force. After the preparations were completed, the main force began to march into Tibet and they reached Dengke, Derge and Batang along the eastern bank of the Jinsha River and Gongshan and Dechen (Deqin) and part of the force reached Yushu in Qinghai and Yutian in Xinjiang by early October 1950.
At the time the upper strata of the Tibetan ruling clique were still reluctant to accept the policy of peaceful liberation and intensified their work in arms expansion and war preparations. The Tibetan Kashag government, headed by Taktra Rinpoche, set up several emergency institutions, strengthened the headquarters of the Tibetan troops, expanded the original fourteen dapons (a dapon was analogous to a regiment) to seventeen dapons, imported a great amount of arms and ammunition and transmitter-receivers from abroad, and employed foreign military instructors to train local military corps. As to the military deployment, except for a part of Tibetan troops that were deployed in Ngari and Nagqu, the main forces were concentrated in the Qamdo area.
Qamdo, a city of strategic significance, is the eastern gateway to Tibet. The Tibetan local government had its main forces stationed there, trying to block the People's Liberation Army march into Tibet by relying on the natural barriers of the Jinsha River and the Hengduan Mountains. The Southwest Military Area Command decided to launch a Qamdo campaign to wipe out the Tibetan reactionary local armed forces, and so the headquarters organized two military groups. The northern group was to adopt flanking tactics and occupy Enda, thus cutting off the enemy's route of retreat to Lhasa; the main forces would launch a frontal attack on Qamdo after crossing the Jinsha River; and a scout company would feign an attack on Derge. The southern group, after crossing the Jinsha River, would capture Ningjing (modern Markam) and Bangda, cutting off the enemy's route of retreat from the southwest to Lhasa; a unit of the PLA was to capture Yanjing, thus cutting off the enemy's route of retreat to Zayu.
The attack of the defense line of the enemy on the western bank of the Jinsha River by the PLA men on October 6, 1950, raised the curtain on the Qamdo campaign. The enemy had thought that the turbulent Jinsha River and the snow-capped mountains could block the PLA troops. But a platoon of PLA men, under the cover of heavy gunfire, forced their way across the river and occupied the enemy's position. Simultaneously, other PLA units also crossed the river and penetrated into the enemy's rear area by marching at an average speed of 120-170 li each day. They all reached their destinations in time and thus completed the encirclement of Qamdo.
On October 19, the PLA soldiers approached Qamdo. After a series of fierce battles, the commander of the Qamdo garrison, together with four dapons and his headquarters with a total of 2,700 men, surrendered to the People's Liberation Army. The Qamdo campaign ended on October 24 after eighteen days of fighting. After fighting more than twenty battles, the PLA troops wiped out six whole dapons and the majority of three dapons (one dapon had staged an uprising)—a total of 5,737 Tibetan troops. Four British intelligence agents including Robert Ford were captured alive. In addition, the PLA captured a lot of arms, ammunition, and military supplies. Qamdo, the political and economic center in east Tibet, was thus liberated.
During the Qamdo campaign, the PLA strictly implemented the Party's religious and national minorities policies, abided by the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.[10] They won the Tibetan people's trust and love with their exemplary deeds. Many Tibetan soldiers, who were guarding strategic forts and passes, crossed over to the side of the PLA. A total of more than 3,000 Tibetan soldiers surrendered to the PLA men of their own accord along the roads. Kelzang Wangdu, the commander of the Ninth Regiment, which was guarding the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, defected from the Tibetan army together with his troops at Ningjing.
The victory of the Qamdo campaign crushed the illusions of the foreign aggressive forces and the Tibetan reactionary upper circles; it was a heavy blow to imperialists and the Tibetan pro-imperialist separatists. It expanded the CPC and PLA's political influence and accelerated the split within the Tibetan ruling group, thus paving the road for the peaceful liberation of Tibet.
On May 25, 1951, the Central Military Commission issued an order that the Southwest Military Area and Northwest Military Area commands were to send troops into Tibet from three directions. According to the order, the troops were to set off in July and August from Xinjiang, Northwest China and Southwest China and were to march into Lhasa, and Gar and Burang in Ngari respectively. All the PLA units arrived at their destinations in time, after overcoming various difficulties along the road. The advance troops that set off from Qamdo arrived in Lhasa on September 9, 1951, and the main force arrived there on October 26. A PLA unit crossed the snow-covered Kunlun Mountains and desolate and uninhabited grasslands; it arrived and was stationed in Burang of Ngari on August 3, 1951. Another PLA unit went across Bayanhar Mountains, crossed the Tongtian River and then crossed over the Tangula Mountains to arrive in Lhasa on September 1, 1951. Still another unit of troops arrived in Zayu on October 1, 1951. On December 20, the troops marching to Tibet held a grand victorious joint-force ceremony in Lhasa. By then Tibet was peacefully liberated.
In accordance with Chairman Mao's instructions for "building highways while marching to Tibet," the PLA troops, while marching into Tibet, conducted a survey and built highways; they built the 2,255-km Sichuan-Tibet highway and the 2,100-km Qinghai-Tibet highway[11] This was warmly welcomed by the Tibetan people along the roads. Afterward, the PLA men entered and garrisoned in important towns such as Gyangze, Xigaze, Lhunze and Yadong. In accordance with the seventeen-article agreement, the Tibetan Military Area Command of the People's Liberation Army was officially established in February 1952. Thus, the historical task of the peaceful liberation of Tibet was completed and the reunification of the motherland's mainland was realized.
Democratic Reform and the Steady Development of Tibet
The Central People's Government's Principle of "Exercising Prudence and Making Steady Progress"
After Tibet was peacefully liberated, the Central People's Government adopted the strategic principle of "exercising prudence and making steady progress." The purpose of implementing this principle was to unite with all the forces that could be united, to realize a democratic reform by peaceful means and to build a stable and prosperous new Tibet.
In January 1952, the Tibet Work Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was established, with Zhang Jingwu as the secretary, Zhang Guohua, Tan Guansan and Fan Ming as the deputy secretaries. Under the unified leadership of the Tibet Work Committee, the "CPC Central Committee's Instructions About the Work Principles in Tibet" were earnestly implemented.
The Tibetan separatists, however, would not resign themselves to their defeat. They organized a so-called People's Conference with Acting Regents Lukhangwa Tsewang Rabten and Lozang Drashi playing a role behind the scenes. A part of the Tibetan troops, monks and hooligans were urged to make petitions and trouble in Lhasa. Flying in the face of the seventeen-article agreement, they encircled the residence of the representatives of the central government and attacked patriotic anti-imperialist personages. After the Tibet Work Committee revealed their plot, the Dalai and Kashag had to declare the dissolving of the "Conference" and the dismissal of the two Acting Regents who instigated and supported it.
According to the stipulation in the seventeen-article agreement that "the Central People's Government shall handle all external affairs for the area of Tibet," a foreign affairs office of the Central People's Government was established in Lhasa in September 1952 to handle such affairs under the leadership of the Foreign Ministry.
From December 1953 to April 1954, the Chinese and Indian delegations held talks in Beijing on the issue of the relations between China and India in Tibet. They concluded and signed the "Agreement of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of India on Trade and Communications Between Tibet of China and India." This stipulated that China would set up trade agencies at New Delhi, Calcutta and Kalimpong in India, and India would set up three trade agencies at Yadong, Gyangze and Gartok in Tibet of China. In the agreement, the Chinese and Indian governments advanced five principles of "mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence."
The Tibet Work Committee conscientiously implemented the Central People's Government's principle of "exercising prudence and making steady progress," developed the patriotic anti-imperialist united front in Tibet, and helped to bring about unity between the Dalai and Panchen lamas. In December 1951, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama sent a telegram to the Tenth Panchen Erdeni from Lhasa, in which he said he was looking forward to the latter's early return to Tibet and to working together with him for a new Tibet.
The Panchen, with all the officials of the Council of Khenpos and their families, left Xining for Tibet on December 19, 1951. Before their departure, Xi Zhongxun, the vice-chairman of the Northwest Military and Administrative Committee, on behalf of Mao Zedong and the Central People's Government, came from Xi'an to Xining to see the Panchen off. The Panchen and his entourage under the escort of Ya Hanzhang, secretary-general of the Tibet Work Committee, arrived in Lhasa on April 28, 1952. On the same day a meeting took place between the Panchen and the Dalai in the Potala. Officials representing the Dalai and the Panchen negotiated, on the basis of the peace agreement, the restoration of the Panchen's status, functions and powers; the negotiation resolved successfully the problem of the internal disunity in Tibet, which had lasted for more than thirty years. From then on, the relations between the Panchen and the Dalai were resumed. The Panchen and his entourage went through Gyangze and arrived at the Tashilhunpo Monastery, Xigaze, on June 23. In 1954, the Dalai and Panchen went to Beijing together to attend the First National People's Congress (NPC). At the Congress the Fourteenth Dalai was elected vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, and the Tenth Panchen, a member of the Standing Committee of the NPC.
Thus, after several years of painstaking ideological work, closer relations between the Tibetan local authorities and the central government were built, and the unity between the Hans and Tibetans was strengthened. The State Council then called a meeting at which representatives of the Tibetan local government, the Panchen's Council of Khenpos and the Qamdo People's Liberation Committee unanimously agreed to set up a preparatory committee for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region after repeated consultations and discussions. On March 9, 1955, the State Council approved the forming of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region was officially set up at a meeting held in Lhasa from April 22 to May 1, 1956. The Dalai Lama was elected chairman; the Panchen Lama and Zhang Guohua, vice-chairmen; and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, the secretary-general. The Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region was an administrative organ in the area of Tibet under the leadership of the State Council. Its main tasks were as follows: organize preparations for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region, make arrangements for local capital construction and other affairs, and create the conditions for the official establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. After setting up the Preparatory Committee, the Tibetan local government and the Panchen's Council of Khenpos were still acting under the direct leadership of the State Council, but they were to do the work assigned to them by the Preparatory Committee. The Preparatory Committee had its branch offices in Shannan, Lhasa, Xigaze, Nagqu, and Ngari.
Tibet at the time was still a feudal serf society with a theocratic government. A social system such as this was the basic reason for Tibet's poverty and backwardness and for its being oppressed by the imperialists. If feudal serfdom could not be thoroughly overthrown and socialist transformation gradually carried out, the Tibetan people would not embark on the road to socialism and move toward prosperity. Therefore the seventeen-article agreement made an explicit stipulation about Tibet's democratic reform: the local government of Tibet was to carry out the reforms of its own accord.
However, for various reasons the democratic reform was not carried out. First, a number of members of the Tibetan upper circles had misgivings about the reform. Second, a part of the people did not have a clear understanding about the reform. Third, reactionary groups in the Tibetan upper circles, under the pretense of race and religion, sowed dissension and fomented feelings of estrangement between the Tibetans and Hans. In short, for a few years after the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the conditions for carrying out the democratic reform did not exist either in the Tibetan upper circles or among the masses of the people. Therefore, starting from the actual situation in Tibet, the CPC Central Committee and the Central People's Government adopted the principle of "exercising prudence and making steady progress."
In 1952 Mao Zedong pointed out in his "Directive on the Policies for Our Work in Tibet":
We must do our best and take proper steps to win over the Dalai and the majority of his top echelon and to isolate the handful of bad elements in order to achieve a gradual, bloodless transformation of the Tibetan economic and political system over a number of years[12]
In order to win over the majority of the upper strata to support the reform, the central authorities worked for this through various methods. For example, they organized people to study the seventeen-article agreement, and to visit different cities in the hinterland with the aim of making them aware that the prosperity of Tibet could only be achieved through the democratic reform. Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai and other leaders of the central authorities patiently inculcated in the Tibetan upper-class personages a better understanding of the importance of the reform. Mao Zedong pointed out:
The old system in Tibet is not a good one; it brings no good to the Tibetan people, because it cannot increase the size of the population nor increase the wealth of the people.... You don't want to make any progress at all, and we wholly disapprove of you.[13]
He pointed out that to sit on the volcano of serfdom was unsafe, since one might feel the earth was shaking everyday. Reform should be carried out through consultation among Tibetans. Things could wait while the Tibetans remained unconvinced. In order to dispel their worries, Mao Zedong cited quite a few democratic personages in the hinterland as examples, explaining that they still lived in very good conditions after the social reform. Moreover, Mao cited the story of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, to inspire them, saying: "Sakyamuni was an aristocrat too. He was a prince, but he carried out reforms together with his people and enjoyed the support of the people, so the people keep him in memory."[14]
In April 1956 when the Preparatory Committee was founded, the Central Government Delegation headed by Chen Yi, vice-premier of the State Council, went to Lhasa to extend its congratulations. Chen Yi made extensive contacts with the personages of the Tibetan upper strata, explaining to them that the result of reform would gradually raise the living standard of the people of all strata, and that the state would adopt appropriate methods to guarantee that the political status and living standard of the aristocrats would not be lowered during and after the reform. He repeatedly explained to the upper-circle personages that reforms in Tibet should be carried out through consultation among the Tibetan leaders and Tibetan people with methods suitable for Tibet. The Han cadres would only help them to do so, but never take on what ought to be done by the Tibetans, and the central government would never force the reform on them.
The final solution of the issue of democratic reform had to rely on the Tibetan people themselves. The majority of the Tibetan people was composed of a million serfs. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the serfs gradually came to understand the importance of reform. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) men and other cadres working in Tibet carried out the Party's line and policies in an exemplary way; they served the Tibetan people whole-heartedly with attitudes that had never before been seen in Tibetan history. They built roads, developed trade, gave out loans interest-free, helped to restore farming and animal breeding, provided relief to the people in disaster areas, treated patients free of charge, bought the overstocked wool at a high price, supplied tea at low prices, and established government-funded primary schools. The Xikang-Tibet and Qinghai-Tibet highways were open to traffic in 1954; the Xinjiang-Ngari Highway was open to traffic in 1957. Air service between Beijing and Lhasa began in 1956.
The good deeds done by the PLA men and cadres working in Tibet constituted a sharp contrast to the exploitation and oppression done by the Tibetan feudal government, feudal troops and feudal upper strata; this provided the people with food for thought and drawing comparisons between them. In 1954, water from melting ice in the upper reaches of the Nyangqu River ran over the banks and floods inundated the areas of Xigaze and Gyangze. The Communist Party's local organs distributed relief food and tents, and the central government allocated a fund for relief, while the Gyangze Chikyap (Governor) of the Tibetan local government provided the peasants and herdsmen with mildew and rotten grains at usury rates. The Nagqu district suffered the disaster of a snowstorm in 1956, which caused death to more than half of the cattle and sheep of some tribes; the local CPC organizations distributed food for relief and helped the herdsmen to tide over their difficulties. The PLA men building highways showed solicitude for the Tibetans who participated in the road-building and paid them their monthly wages, but their manorial lords took away their wages, and even swore at and hit them. The peasants and herdsmen reflected upon all this and came to understand that the manorial lords lived off their sweat and blood, and thus their class consciousness was enhanced. They knew from their own experiences that only by carrying out a democratic reform under the leadership of the Communist Party could they free themselves from the shackles of serfdom, and so they strongly demanded the democratic reform. In their letters to the local Party organizations and the PLA, many serfs expressed their desire for reform. One of them said, "We are peasants. We are desirous of a reform more anxiously than others. We are really happy at hearing that the democratic reform will be carried out in Tibet. We support the reform and hope the reform will be carried out, and the sooner the better."
After a period of patient persuasion, the patriotic personages in the Tibetan upper strata came to gradually understand the importance of reform and agreed to the reform in varying degrees, while the broad masses of peasants and herdsmen strongly demanded it. Nevertheless, the reactionary ruling group of the Tibetan upper strata, regardless of the Party's persuasion and the strong demands of the serfs, opposed the reform through various methods. Before and after the founding of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region, members of the illegal "People's Conference" restored their activities. They opposed the founding of the Preparatory Committee and the democratic reform.
In the second half of 1956, the ruling group of the upper strata issued a "secret order" to every monastery and dzong, asking them to oppose the democratic reform in the name of "monks" and "the masses of the people." Some reactionary Khenpos of the Lhasa's three great monasteries issued a reactionary announcement in the name of "the three great monasteries," demanding the maintenance of the old system. A handful of reactionaries started rumors, sowed dissension between the PLA and the people, and frightened the people, saying: "The noses of those who demand democratic reform and make contact with the PLA soldiers will be cut off, their eyes gauged out and their whole families killed."
In the same year, a handful of separatists in the Tibetan ruling group, taking the opportunity of the Dalai and Panchen lamas going to India to attend the 2,500th anniversary of Sakyamuni's nirvana, attempted to stage riots in Lhasa and other towns and simultaneously instigated the Dalai in India to put forward a call for the so-called independence of Tibet. In reality, they wanted to push the Dalai along the road to betraying the motherland and the Tibetan people.
In view of the fact that the conditions were not good for the democratic reform at that time, the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong decided not to proceed with reform in Tibet during the Second Five-Year Plan (1958-1962).[15] Whether the reform should be conducted after the Second Five-Year Plan period would be decided after consultation with the Tibetan upper strata at that time. In January 1957, when Zhou Enlai stopped over in Lhasa on his way to visit India, he conveyed to the Dalai and the Panchen the decision made by the CPC Central Committee and Mao. But the people in the upper strata thought the central government was weak and easy to bully and so they adopted various plots and even armed rebellions to oppose reform and thus embarked on the road to split the motherland and betray the Tibetan people.
Victory of Quelling the Armed Rebellion
The Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was signed in May 1951 and the People's Liberation Army was stationed in Lhasa the same year. Nevertheless, some people in the Tibetan ruling group made strenuous efforts to oppose the democratic reform, trying to maintain the serf system forever so as to perpetuate their own interests. They deliberately violated the seventeen-article agreement, redoubled their efforts to sever Tibet from the motherland and actively prepared for an armed rebellion. In March and April 1952 the Acting Regent Lukhangwa and Lozang Drashi secretly supported the so-called People's Conference to offer opposition to the agreement, demanding that the PLA men withdraw from Tibet. In 1955 Kalon Surkhang Wangchen Geleg killed hundreds of government cadres and ordinary people in Tibetan areas in Xikang and staged an armed rebellion. In May 1957 Kalon Neushar Thubten Takpa and Shekar Gyumey Dorje (Shasur) set up a rebellion organization called "Four Rivers and Six Ranges." Shortly afterward, they organized the so-called Religious Garrisons. They agitated people by demagogy, stood against the central government and against the democratic reform, and the rebellion became more acute.
In May 1958 the reactionaries in the upper strata set up their rebel base at Shannan. From then on they sent armed rebels to harass Qamdo, Dengqen, Nagqu and other places, disrupted communications, burned, killed, raped and looted wherever they went, and attacked the central government's resident offices and PLA units in the locality. They also spread rumors in an attempt to oppose the Dalai Lama's attending the first session of the Second National People's Congress.
In February 1959, during the Monlam Festival in Lhasa, they attempted to stage a general revolt but failed. Afterward, the Dalai said he would go to watch a performance staged by an art troupe in the auditorium of the Military Area Command on March 10. The reactionaries spread rumors that "the Dalai's life was in danger" and surrounded Norbulingka where the Dalai was staying. Tan Guansan, the acting representative of the central government, wrote three letters to the Dalai on March 10, 11 and 15 respectively, expressing his concern for the safety of the Dalai, showing understanding and sympathy for him, and asking him and the then Tibetan Kashag government to check the revolt. The Dalai also wrote three letters in reply to Tan Guansan on March 11, 12 and 16, saying: "The illegal acts of the reactionary clique were a serious incident meant to sow discord between the central government and the local authorities; I am now doing my best to deal with this."[16] But a handful of the upper-class people persisted in waging the rebellion, and convened a "People's Conference" in Norbulingka, at which they decided to tear up the seventeen-article agreement and wage an armed rebellion on March 10. On the evening of the same day the rebels in the suburbs of Lhasa moved in small groups to the downtown area. The Tibetan troops stationed in Lhasa together with the rebels raced to all strategic places and built fortifications. The upper-class reactionaries opened arms depots and distributed weapons to the rebels.
On March 17, a handful of rebel leaders left Lhasa to go to the Lhunze County in Shannan and announced the founding of a "Tibet Independent State," with Lhunze as its temporary capital. On March 18, the rebels pasted a notice in the name of "the Enlarged People's Conference of the Tibetan Independent State," in which they put forward the slogans of "Drive Out the Hans," "Independence to Tibet," etc. They declared the founding of a "Headquarters of Voluntary Religious Guards," killed the Tibetan officers who opposed rebellion, and sent troops to surround the offices of the Tibetan Military Area Command and resident offices of the central government in Lhasa. On March 19, the number of rebels concentrated in Lhasa reached about seven thousand, and they put the highway from Norbulingka to the downtown and the majority of streets and houses in the downtown under their control. At 4 a.m. on March 20 the rebels entrenched in Lhasa launched an all-out attack on the PLA. At the same time the rebels who had assembled in Tsetang, Dengqen, Zhamog also launched violent attacks on the local CPC and government institutions.
The revolt, staged by the Tibetan upper ruling group to oppose social reforms and to maintain feudal serfdom in an attempt to split the motherland, was designed and supported by foreign imperialists and expansionists. According to an American named Hall, back in 1957 the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had selected six young Tibetans from those living abroad and sent them secretly into Tibet after training them as intelligence agents. The CIA trained a total of 170-odd "Khampa guerrillas" and air-dropped them into Tibet in several batches.[17] In May 1958, the CIA sent two secret agents with a transceiver to the headquarters of Ngadrutsang Kongbo Drashi to be in charge of keeping contacts with the CIA.[18] Shortly afterward, the U.S. imperialists air-dropped 20 light machineguns, two mortars, 100 rifles, 600 hand-grenades, 600 mortar shells and about 40,000 cartridges to the rebels at Chigu. In addition, they transported secretly by land a batch of weapons and ammunition to the rebels.[19] On the night of March 17, the rebel leaders such as Kalon Surkhang, Neushar and Shasur, with the Dalai under their duress, fled to Shannan, and then to India after their revolt failed.
In order to consolidate the unification of the motherland, maintain the unity of the people of various ethnic groups in China and liberate the Tibetan working people, the central government resolutely decided to suppress the rebellion and issued orders for the PLA troops to do so. The PLA soldiers were ordered to launch an all-out counterattack against the rioters at 10 a.m. on March 20, 1959, thus beginning the prologue to the Lhasa campaign. With the effective support of local patriotic monks and laymen and the coordination of militiamen, the PLA broke the enemy forces into many pockets after two days of fierce fighting and wiped out the armed rebels in Lhasa, destroying their headquarters; the PLA captured about 4,000-odd enemy troops, 8,000 rifles and pistols, 81 machineguns, 33 cannons, and 10 million cartridges. At the same time, the PLA troops stationed in Xigaze, Gyangze, Nagqu and Ngari, under the leadership of local Communist Party committees, disarmed the rebellious Tibetan troops and took over the local reactionary government, thus putting the big towns in Tibet under the control of the PLA troops. The victory scored by the PLA in the first battle disrupted the plans for the revolt of the Tibetan reactionary group and dismantled the command center of the armed rebellion for the whole of Tibet.
After quickly quelling down the revolt in Lhasa, the PLA began to march southward on April 8. They crossed the Yarlungzangbo River by three routes, and mopped up the enemy in the area of Shannan, which had been a den of rioters for a long time. The rebels there colluded with the foreign imperialists, accepting their weapons and air-dropped materials to engage in rebellious activities. The PLA, with the help of the Tibetan people, wiped out the rebels' den in Shannan in ten days, and then blocked the border and cut off the main route that imperialists and foreign reactionary forces had been using to offer aid to the rebels. On April 25 the People's Daily published an editorial entitled "Hail the Major Victory Scored in Quelling the Bandit Rebels in Shannan, Tibet," pointing out:
The great victory in putting down the rebellion in the area of Shannan is a fatal blow to the Tibetan traitors, as well as a heavy blow to the foreign imperialists and expansionists. The victory has not only strengthened the unification of the country and the unity among the people of various ethnic groups, but it has also consolidated our national defense on the southwestern border and safeguarded the integrity of the territorial sovereignty of our country.
After winning the Shannan campaign, the PLA began to march to areas west of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway in north Tibet on May 22, where they searched, pursued and wiped out 4,000-odd rebels during the first ten days of July. On August 17, the PLA attacked and wiped out the rebels in the area of Meka. In one year the armed rebellions in Lhasa, Shannan, Gyangze, Dakpo and Nagqu were fundamentally extinguished.
In 1960 the PLA continued to fight the rebels and wiped out their main forces in the following four areas: between Enda, Dengqen, Lhari, and Zhamog; between Wenquan, Nagqu, and Baqen; between Zhongzha, Saga, and Zori, and the area to the southeast of Qamdo. The agents air-dropped by American imperialists and Kuomintang reactionaries were captured; thus, the enemy's attempt to build so-called guerrilla bases was crushed. From the second half of 1960 onward, the PLA launched an all-out attack on the rebels and the rebellion in Tibet was fundamentally extinguished by March 1962.
The reason the PLA could suppress the armed rebellion in the whole region of Tibet within two years was that they resolutely implemented the policies formulated by the central government, i.e. the policy of combining political persuasion with military campaigns, with stress on the former; the policy of mobilizing the masses; the policy of strictly distinguishing between the common people and the rebels; the policy of dealing with the common rebels and their chiefs and die-hard elements in different ways; and the policy of offering more lenient treatment to those who were captured or surrendered. During the period of suppressing the rebellion, great attention was paid to protecting the masses and their property, including their cattle and sheep. The PLA men did their best to help the masses to develop their production and build up their homes. All these unheralded actions gave the people a deep impression, so they actively participated in the counter-rebel struggle, served as guides for the PLA, helped to transport materials, gave the PLA men information about the rebels, helped the PLA men to summon rebels to surrender, and some even organized themselves of their own accord to search for the rebels. All this sped up the completion of the task of quelling the rebels.
After the Dalai fled abroad, he completely renounced the patriotic stand that he had previously expressed and he engaged in numerous activities to split the motherland. In 1959 the Dalai advocated that "Tibet is an independent state" and, later, established a so-called Tibetan government in exile in Dharmsala, India, with himself as "the head of the state," and he kept levying an "independence tax" on Tibetans residing abroad. In September 1960 the Dalai clique reorganized the "Religious Garrisons of Four Rivers and Six Ranges" in Mustang, Nepal, with Ngadrutsang Kongbo Drashi as the commander-in-chief, which carried on military harassment activities along the Chinese border for ten years. The Dalai repeatedly made anti-China statements on the Voice of America, attacking China's policies toward national minorities and religion and the policy of family planning, vilifying the Communist Party of China for "violating human rights." The separatist activities of the Dalai and his followers have enjoyed encouragement and support from international anti-China forces. The Dalai was given an opportunity to give an anti-China speech in the U. S. Congress in 1987, and he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. He traveled to many countries, advocating the separation of Tibet from China. In the hope that he might renounce separatism and return to a stand of patriotism and unity, the central government preserved his position as a vice-chairman of the National People's Congress until 1964.
On December 28, 1978, Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "The Dalai Lama may return, but only as a Chinese citizen.... We have but one demand—patriotism. And we say that anyone is welcome, whether he embraces patriotism early or late."[20]
On May 19, 1991, Premier Li Peng of the State Council of the P.R.C. pointed out: "The central government's policy toward the Dalai Lama has been consistent and remains unchanged.... We have only one fundamental principle, namely, Tibet is an inalienable part of China. On this fundamental issue there is no room for haggling."[21]
The consistent policy of the Chinese government is that "China's sovereignty over Tibet brooks no denial. Of Tibet there could be no independence, nor semi-independence, nor independence in disguise."[22]
The Launching of the Democratic Reform
The victory in suppressing the rebellions brought about great changes in the political situation and in the balance of class forces in Tibet, creating the conditions for carrying out the democratic reform in Tibet. "The Decision of the Second Plenum of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region on Carrying Out the Democratic Reform" analysed the situation as follows:
The dens of the armed rebels have been destroyed, and the criminal acts of the upper reactionary cliques have been exposed and hated by the broad masses. They have been isolated among the people, and the former reactionary local government of Tibet has been dissolved. On the other hand, the broad masses of the laboring people resolutely demand democratic reform; the patriotic progressive upper class personages also support the reform actively, and a great number of local Tibetan cadres are growing up and so the conditions for democratic reform have matured.[23]
The CPC Central Committee and the State Council, in accordance with the changes of Tibetan situation and the strong demand of the majority of monks and lay people and patriotic personages of the upper strata, formulated a policy of "carrying out reforms while suppressing the rebellion." The democratic reform was carried out step by step in a planned way. The democratic reform in Tibet was an important component of the new-democratic revolution led by the Communist Party of China. Its purpose was to overthrow the rule of feudal serf-owner class, to change the feudal serf-owners' ownership to the individual ownership of the farmers and herdsmen, to turn Tibet from feudal serfdom into a people's democratic new Tibet, to liberate and develop the productive forces and to improve people's livelihood. It was a great revolution that would thoroughly bury the system of feudal serfdom.
During the process of the democratic reform, the Communist Party relied on the exploited and oppressed masses of people, united with patriots in all fields, and united with all forces that could be united. It formulated concrete policies according to different situations in the farming areas, pastoral areas, monasteries and towns, thus guaranteeing the smooth progress of the reform.
(1) Democratic Reform in the Farming Areas
Before the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the serf-owner class that made up 5 percent of the population owned all the arable land and pastures, as well as the overwhelming majority of livestock, farm tools, houses and other means of production. Owing to the fact that serf-owners held all means of production and had the former local regime as their support, they were able to oppress and exploit the broad masses of serfs and other laboring people and so made the Tibetan people lead an extremely miserable life. This form of feudal serfdom seriously retarded the development of productive forces in Tibet. Only by abolishing the ownership of serf-owners and feudal serfdom could the productive forces be liberated and the development of Tibet be achieved.
The Communist Party began carrying out the democratic reform while fighting the rebels. In the farming areas, a campaign of "against three evils" and "two reductions" was launched. The "against three evils" meant a struggle against the rebellion, unpaid corvee service and slavery; and the "two reductions" meant a reduction in rent and interest. All the means of production belonging to those serf-owners and their agents who participated in the rebellion were confiscated, and the serfs who rented land from them were entitled to keep all their harvests for that particular year. The means of production belonging to those serf-owners and their agents who did not participate in the rebellion was not confiscated but were purchased by the state. Rent for the land was reduced.
The campaign of "against three evils" and "two reductions" was carried out smoothly. The task of the campaign was completed among a population of 450,000 in 51 counties within a few months. The enthusiasm of the masses ran high.
On this basis, political power was established, peasant associations were set up, and the masses were called to do a good job in production and manage their livelihood well. The democratic reform in the farming areas overthrew the land ownership of the serf-owner class; the land and other means of production were distributed to the serfs. The ownership of serfs by feudal lords was abolished. The serfs' dream of acquiring land came true at last and they were filled with exultation.
(2) Democratic Reform in the Pastoral Areas
Before the democratic reform, animal husbandry was an important component of the economy of the Tibetan feudal serf system and the manorial lords. Nearly all the grazing land was owned by the three major categories of feudal lords, so the herdsmen had to depend on the feudal lords and became their slaves. The manorial lords enjoyed various privileges in the livestock breeding areas and exercised cruel slavery and exploitation over the broad masses of herdsmen. The herdsmen had to do corvee for the manorial lords and local government and pay various kinds of taxes. Therefore, the majority of the herdsmen strongly demanded the carrying out of democratic reform in the pastoral areas.
The policy of the reform in the pastoral areas was as follows: the animals owned by manorial lords and herd-owners who participated in the rebellion were confiscated and distributed among the herdsmen; no struggle was waged against those who did not participate, their stock was not redistributed and no class differentiation was made.
A campaign of "against three evils" and "two benefits" was carried out in pastoral areas. Here the "against three evils" referred to the struggle against rebellion, unpaid corvee services, and slavery and the "two benefits" referred to the implementation of the policy of mutual benefit to both herd-owners and herdsmen. Its purpose was to lighten the exploitation of the herdsmen by herd-owners, abolish personal dependency between them, safeguard the herdsmen's political rights and improve their livelihood. The herd-owner should now make a contract with his herdsmen and give them wages. Both parties would get benefits from it. To implement the policy of "against three evils" and "two benefits" brought into play the initiative for production both of the herd-owners and herdsmen. The animal husbandry in Tibet was soon restored and further developed after the democratic reform. Practice proved that the policy was absolutely correct.
(3) Democratic Reform in the Monasteries and Temples
Reforms in the monasteries and temples were one of the important aspects of the democratic reform in Tibet, where the high clergy was one of the three categories of feudal lords. Monasteries occupied over one third of the land and controlled a great number of cattle and sheep, and they had hundreds of thousands of serfs and slaves under their control. In addition, the feudal lords in the monasteries exploited economically the broad masses of peasants and herdsmen in the name of religion. Some monasteries had become centers for armed rebels.
Nevertheless, Buddhism exercised a very great influence over the broad masses of the people. Therefore the Communist Party had to adopt a very prudent attitude in carrying out the democratic reform in monasteries. The Party insisted on the principle that politics should be separated from religion; that religion should not interfere with administration, judicature, or education, and practiced the policy of freedom of religious belief. The purpose was, on the one hand, to abolish the feudal exploitation privileges of the high clergy and monasteries and, on the other, to protect the freedom of religious belief, monasteries that were law-abiding, and cultural relics.
The concrete measures for carrying out the democratic reform in the monasteries were to launch a movement "against three evils" (rebellion, slavery and feudal privileges) and of "working out three accounts" (accounting for political persecution, accounting for oppression by the higher strata, and accounting for economic exploitation). Four things were done in this respect:
First, a campaign was launched against the rebellion. As to the monasteries and high-ranking monks who had participated in the rebellion, the people were fully aroused to expose their crimes, wage a struggle against them, treat them in accordance with the policy toward rebels, and ferret out all the rebels and counterrevolutionaries hiding in the monasteries. Second, a campaign was launched to oppose the feudal privileges and feudal system of exploitation by the monasteries. The serfs and poor monks all demanded feudal privilege and exploitation be abolished. So the privileges enjoyed by the monasteries, such as setting up illegal courts and prisons, punishing the poor at will, keeping weapons privately, confiscating commoners' property or exiling them, forbidding monks to return to a secular life, interfering with commoners' marriages, and meddling in cultural, educational and public health affairs were abolished. The pastures, manorial estates and other means of production of the monasteries that had participated in the rebellion were confiscated. Third, a system of democratic management was set up in the monasteries. The democratic management committees of the monasteries were composed mainly of poor monks. Their task was to manage the public affairs and funds of the monasteries and to organize the production and arrange for the monks' livelihood. Fourth, the policy of freedom of religious belief was implemented. Protection was given to patriotic and law-abiding monasteries, to monks' political rights and personal freedom, and to buildings, sutras, Buddhist images, and all religious objects and decorations of monasteries. Monasteries were allowed to engage in lawful commercial activities, transportation and handicrafts; and the sutra-study and sutra-debate system and the examination system in the monasteries were not interfered with.
The completion of the democratic reform in the Tibetan monasteries not only abolished the feudal privileges and feudal system of exploitation by the high priests and monasteries, and thus greatly lessened the religious burden on the serfs and other laboring people, but also comprehensively advanced the laboring people's political understanding, thus furthering the liberation of the broad masses politically, ideologically and economically. The reform also played a great educative role for the religious personages in the upper strata who were patriotic and law-abiding and had not participated in the rebellion.
At the time when the democratic reform was carried out in farming and pastoral areas and in monasteries, the campaign "against three evils" was also launched in cities and towns. Policies for protecting industry and commerce were adopted; remaining reactionary forces and bad elements that were hiding in some enterprises were cleared out, and so social order was stabilized. All this was conducive to the restoration and development of industry and commerce.
The democratic reform in Tibet was completed over a period of two years and achieved great victory, one of historic significance. The process thoroughly destroyed the reactionary rule of the three categories of manorial lords and established people's democratic political regimes. According to the State Council's order, the original Tibetan local government and the Tibetan troops were disbanded; people's political regimes were established at various levels.
The democratic reforms fundamentally destroyed the economic basis for the feudal serfdom and set up a system of individual ownership by peasants and herdsmen. The three manorial lords could no longer enslave the peasants and herdsmen; the million serfs were thus emancipated.
The democratic reform also cultivated and trained a large number of Tibetan cadres. The former serfs became leaders, who led the people in building a new life.
Finally, the democratic reform brought forth the initiative of the Tibetan people and stimulated the growth of the local economy.
Counterattack in Self-defense on the Sino-Indian Border
A large-scale armed conflict erupted along the Sino-Indian border in October 1962. It was provoked by the Indian government over border issues.
The Chinese and Indian people have had friendly contacts with each other for more than two thousand years, but the borderline between the two countries has never been officially delimited. Both countries have respected each other's sphere of administration, and so a traditional customary line has been gradually formed. This line is divided into three sections—western, central and eastern, with a total length of about two thousand kilometers. The western section is between Xinjiang and Tibet in China and Ladakh; the central section is between Ngari of Tibet and Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh of India; and the eastern section is to the east of Bhutan. In the past, the Chinese and Indian people both respected this traditional customary line. That the boundary between China and India became a problem was caused by the imperialists and colonialists before the independence of India.
In the 19th century, after the British imperialists reduced India to the status of a colony, it made the southwestern and northwestern border regions of China its targets for aggression and attempted to sever Tibet from China. At the beginning of the 20th century, British India put its plan of aggression into effect, and repeatedly reached out its tentacles into China's Tibet. Taking advantage of the fact that the Chinese central government was weak and incompetent at that time and combining high-handed measures and cheating, Britain engineered the Simla Conference in 1914. The British representative, Arthur Henry McMahon, and the representative of the Tibetan local government, Lonchen Shatra Paljor Dorje, by way of a secret exchange of documents and without the knowledge of the Chinese representative, Chen Yifan, drew a so-called McMahon Line to the north of the traditional customary line of the eastern section of the Sino-Indian boundary. The line was 860 kilometers long and incorporated vast areas of what was traditionally part of Tibet into the then territory of India, a British colony. The total amount of land inserted into India was 90,000 square kilometers and included the three areas of Monyul, Loyul and Lower Zayu, which had long been under the jurisdiction of China's Tibet, with a population of about 440,000. For a long time after the Simla Conference, the British Indian government dared not officially publish the document or change the delineation of the traditional customary line on its maps. The successive central governments of China never recognized the McMahon Line. It was only in 1954, years after its independence, that the Indian government established a so-called Northeast Frontier Agency north of the traditional customary line. In that same year the official maps published by the Indian government used the McMahon Line for the first time as a fixed boundary, and the words "boundary undefined," which appeared on every map that had been published in India before this, disappeared.
The Chinese government's position toward the Sino-Indian boundary question is well known to all. Starting from the position of maintaining the traditional friendship between the Chinese and Indian peoples, and taking into consideration the fact that the boundaries between the two countries had never been officially defined and that the Sino-Indian boundary issue was created and left behind by the British imperialists when the peoples of the two countries were powerless, the Chinese government's consistent stand has been to seek a fair and reasonable solution through friendly consultation in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation. Before a solution is reached, both parties should maintain the status quo and do their best to ensure peace and tranquillity on the border between the two countries. No party should act unilaterally, still less try to change the status quo of the border by force. The Chinese government does not recognize the McMahon Line, but in order to solve the problem through negotiations, Chinese troops would not go across that line.
Nevertheless, after its independence in 1947, the Indian government adopted an expansionist policy. It inherited the British imperialists' legacy of invading Tibet. It not only regarded the Chinese territory that had been occupied by the British imperialists as Indian territory, but also did what the British imperialists had not done—went across the traditional customary line and pushed northward.
In 1951, taking advantage of the fact that China was occupied with her efforts for the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the Indian government seized the large areas north of the traditional customary line and south of the illegal McMahon Line in the eastern section of the Sino-Indian border. The territory which had been illegally encroached upon by India covered a total area of 90,000 square kilometers and is equivalent in size to Fujian Province in China or three Belgiums or nine Lebanons.
Then 1954, the Indian troops outrageously went over the traditional customary line and occupied 2,000 square kilometers in the central section and 33,000 square kilometers in the western section.
From March 1959 onward, taking advantage of the armed rebellion staged by the reactionary clique of the Tibetan upper strata, the Indian government enhanced its invasion of Tibet. Disregarding the strong protests from the Chinese government and the resolute resistance of the local people, the Indian troops pushed northward from the McMahon Line, which led to a situation that deteriorated with each day and soon caused armed conflicts.
On August 25 in the same year, the Indian troops who had crossed the McMahon Line provoked the first armed conflict in Makyidun area of Tibet. On October 21, about 61 Indian frontier policemen invaded China to the south of Kunga-La pass in the western section on the Sino-Indian border, creating the second incident of bloodshed.
In September 1962, the Indian troops who had crossed the McMahon Line occupied the Kaijinang area of China and built up their fortified points near to the Chinese border sentries. They shot at the Chinese frontier guards and created several more bloody incidents.
On October 5, the Indian Defense Ministry proclaimed that it had set up a new army under the "Eastern Military Region," and appointed Lieutenant General Kaur as the commander.
On October 12, Indian Prime Minister Nehru blatantly betrayed the spirit of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which were proclaimed at the Bandung Conference, and ordered the Indian troops to clear away all the Chinese troops stationed in their own territory from the so-called Northeast Frontier Agency. In the early morning of October 20, the Indian troops stationed along the Sino-Indian boundary, in accordance with Nehru's orders, launched a coordinated large-scale offensive on the eastern and western sections of the Sino-Indian border. Chinese frontier troops had no other choice than to start a counterattack in self-defense.
The counterattack on the Sino-Indian border went through two stages.
The first stage—the Kaijinang campaign.
The Kaijinang area of the eastern section was the main area of the counterattack in self-defense launched by the Chinese frontier troops. India had 6,000 troops in this area, including the 7th Brigade of the 4th Division and the 4th Artillery Brigade. Having consolidated their position in the occupied territory of China, they attempted to push northward from the Kaijinang River to realize their ambition of making the "Tatala (Mt. Latse) ranges the border." In order to thwart Indian troops' attempt, the Chinese frontier guards put their main direction of attack on the right wing of the Kaijinang area. At 10 a.m. on October 20, 1962, the Chinese troops crossed the Kaijinang River, thus starting the prologue to the counterattack in self-defense. After the battle began, the Chinese troops advanced smoothly. It took only 17 hours and 50 minutes for them to conclude the Kaijinang campaign, having recovered the Chinese territory occupied by India to the south of the Kaijinang River, north of the Dali River and east to Bhutan and west to Tawang. Afterward, the Chinese troops pursued and attacked the enemy by several routes and soon put Dongxin Bridge, Tawang, etc. under their control, and thus created a favorable situation for the next campaign. In order to play a supporting role in the counterattack on the eastern section, the Chinese frontier troops in Xinjiang launched attacks on the invading Indian troops on October 20 and soon eliminated the 37 strongholds the Indian troops had illegally built in the Chinese territory.
On October 24, in order to stop the border conflicts and settle the border question in a peaceful way, the Chinese government made three suggestions in a statement: (1) Both sides affirm that the Sino-Indian question must be settled peacefully through negotiations. Before a settlement is reached, the Chinese government hopes both sides will respect the actual control line between China and India. The armed forces of both sides should withdraw 20 kilometers from this line so as to separate the armed forces of the two sides. (2) Under the circumstance that the Indian government agrees to the above-mentioned suggestion, the Chinese government will, through negotiations, withdraw its frontier troops in the eastern section to the north of the actual control line. Simultaneously, both the Chinese and Indian sides will guarantee not to cross the actual control line in the central and western sections. (3) The Chinese government's consistent stand is that the Chinese premier and Indian prime minister should hold talks again to seek a friendly solution to the Sino-Indian border question.
In accordance with this statement, the Chinese frontier troops stopped their counterattack on the invading Indian troops on October 28. Nevertheless, the Indian government flatly refused the Chinese government's suggestions and proclaimed the whole nation was under a "state of emergency." It formed an emergency cabinet, issued mobilization orders, publicly asked the U.S. for military aid, and moved troops from all over the country in a bid to engage China in another military confrontation. In mid-November two Indian divisions, including nine brigades and engineer, artillery, and armored troops, were deployed in the Sino-Indian border area. With its total forces increased from 22,000 to 30,000, the Indian troops again launched fierce attacks on the Chinese frontier troops on November 14. In view of this, the Chinese frontier troops had no other options but to continue to carry out their counterattack in self-defense.
The second stage—the campaign in the Se La (pass), Dirang Dzong, and Bomdi La (pass).
The Indian troops were mainly deployed in the Tawang and Walong areas. In order to resist the invading Indian troops, the Chinese frontier troops began to launch counterattacks in Se La, Bomdi La and Walong areas on November 16. On November 21, the Chinese frontier troops advanced to Junggundi, near to the traditional customary line, completing their task of counterattacking. At the same time, the Chinese frontier troops in the western section also launched fierce counterattacks on the morning of November 18 and scored a series of victories by the 20th of the same month. During the two stages of counterattack in self-defense, the Chinese troops wiped out about 8,700 Indian troops, while they also suffered a certain number of casualties.
With the aim of putting an end to the worsening situation and promoting the realization of the three suggestions, the Chinese government issued a statement on November 21, announcing that from the zero hour of November 22 the Chinese frontier troops would cease fire along the whole Sino-Indian boundary line, and from December 1 the Chinese frontier troops would further withdraw to 20 kilometers from the actual control line of November 7, 1959. The Chinese government returned all the arms and ammunition and all other war materiels to the Indian side on its own initiative, and released and repatriated all Indian prisoners of war.
The Realization of Regional National Minorities Autonomy in Tibet
The Policy of Regional National Minorities Autonomy of the Communist Party of China
Tibet has occupied a unique position in history; its social, economic and geographic conditions also have their specific characteristics. Therefore the Tibetans in Tibet have the right to exercise regional autonomy and to enjoy the right of self-government. The third article of "The Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" stipulates:
In accordance with the policy toward national minorities laid down in the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Tibetan people have the right of exercising national minorities regional autonomy under the unified leadership of the Central People's Government.
The Qamdo People's Liberation Committee was established after Qamdo was liberated. After the establishment of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region in April 1956, the Tibetan local government and the Panchen's Council of Khenpos still maintained their original ruling power. The Tibetan local committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was set up in 1959. It consisted of representatives from various circles. It fully reflected the fact that it was an organization of the patriotic united front, which carried out consultations on political affairs. Thus it preliminarily changed the political system of the feudal lords' dictatorship, which combined the temporal and spiritual authority in the Tibetan local regime.
In old Tibet, all rights went to the feudal lords. The local government Kashag was composed of monk and lay officials, and the former had more say than the latter. On important matters, opinions of the ruling lamas of the three big monasteries (Ganden, Sera and Drepung) and four other monasteries (Kundeling, Tengyeling, Tsomoling and Tsechokling) had to be solicited. In order to change such a situation, the Tibetan Work Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region did a lot of work in setting up Tibetan local autonomous organs and establishing a patriotic united front.
During the process of quelling the rebellion, the State Council issued an order on March 28, 1959, that the original Tibetan local government should be dissolved and that the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region should be reorganized. The Panchen Erdeni Chokyi Gyaltsen was appointed the acting director of the Preparatory Committee, with Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme as the vice-director and concurrent secretary-general, while the 18 members of the Preparatory Committee who had participated in the rebellion, persons such as Surkhang Wangchen Geleg, Neushar Thubten Takpa, and Shekar Gyumey Dorje (Shasur), were dismissed from their posts. The functions and powers of the original Tibetan local government were taken over by the reorganized Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region, which was in essence a people's democratic regime.
In 1961 the State Council approved the rescission of the Panchen's Council of Khenpos, which had helped the Communist Party and the People's Government to do a lot of things conducive to the Tibetan people in the implementation of the seventeen-article agreement, safeguarding the unification of the motherland, strengthening the unity between ethnic groups, suppressing the rebellion, and many other aspects of the development of Tibet. With the changing situation, it had now fulfilled its historic mission. The Qamdo People's Liberation Committee was also rescinded after fulfilment of its historical tasks.
With the brilliant victories gained in the suppression of rebellion and in the democratic reform, the broad masses of the Tibetan peasants and herdsmen stood up and became the masters of their own destiny. Production witnessed rapid development, people's livelihood was gradually improved, social stability and unity among different ethnic groups were maintained, and all this enhanced the trust and love for the central government by the people of all ethnic groups throughout Tibet. The organizations of political power at the grass-roots level made big progress. From the first half of 1960 to the second half of 1961, commissioner's offices were set up in the seven prefectures of Tibet and a municipal government was set up at Lhasa. Organizations of political power in the 72 counties, 270-odd districts and 1,300-odd townships in the whole of Tibet were established one after another. Time was thus ripe for the official establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Official Establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region
Seeing that the time was now ripe for the implementation of regional national minorities autonomy, the National People's Congress adopted a resolution in August 1965 approving the proposal submitted by the State Council for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. From September 1 to 9, the inaugural meeting for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region was held in Lhasa. The central authorities showed pro-found concern for the meeting. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council sent a delegation to Lhasa to celebrate the occasion together with the people of various ethnic groups in Tibet.
Of the 300-odd representatives to the meeting, the majority were laboring people, the others were patriotic personages from the upper strata or religious personages. About 220 representatives were Tibetans, five were Moinbas, eleven were Huis, Lho-bas, Naxis and Nus. The minority representatives made up more than 80 percent of the total.
At the inaugural meeting Zhang Guohua, the first secretary of the CPC Tibet Autonomous Region Committee, gave a political report entitled "Hold High the Great Red Banner of Mao Zedong Thought, Strive for the Great Victory of Socialist Revolution and the Construction of a Socialist New Tibet"; Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, acting director of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region, made a speech entitled "A Work Report of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region."
The representatives to the meeting elected a Chairman, vice-Chairmen, and members of the People's Council of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was elected chairman; Zhou Renshan, Palbala Geleg Namgyal, Guo Xilan, Sherab Dondrup, Yang Dongsheng, Langdun Kunga Wangchuk, Tsogo Dondrup Tsering and Sengchen Lozang Gyaltsen were elected vice-chairmen. Dawa Drashi Phuntsok and 28 others were elected members. On September 9, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme announced the official establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the successful conclusion of the meeting.
The establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region proclaimed the total collapse of the regime of feudal serfdom, the beginning of the era in which the people became masters of their own destiny, and the end of the days when the three categories of feudal lords could cruelly oppress serfs and slaves.
The Training of Tibetan Cadres
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council have always paid great attention to the training of Tibetan cadres. As early as November 1950, the Chinese government approved the establishment of a training program for minority cadres. The "Decisions of the State Council on Helping Tibet to Carry Out Construction," issued in March 1955, made specific provisions on training cadres from among the Tibetan people. Mao Zedong repeatedly pointed out that there should be not only administrative cadres but also specialized personnel in all fields trained from among the Tibetans, including pilots, engineers, drivers, geologists, meteorologists, etc. Zhou Enlai pointed out that Tibetans and other minority peoples should make up over 70 percent of the total number of cadres in the Tibet region.
In accordance with the instructions from the central authorities, the Party organizations at all levels in Tibet did a lot of work in training Tibetan cadres. First, Youth League schools, Party schools, colleges, and special or technical secondary schools were set up for the training of Tibetan cadres. Second, a Tibetan class was set up at the Central Party School, which has turned out a sizable number of leading Tibetan cadres; a Tibet-oriented training class was set up in the Kunming Army College, which has turned out many qualified Tibetan officers. Third, a great number of Tibetan students were selected and sent to schools and colleges in the hinterland to study. Fourth, special classes were set up in colleges and universities in 18 provinces and municipalities for the training of Tibetan students, and this was an important source for Tibetan cadres in Tibet.
The ranks of Tibetan cadres were growing steadily. By 1965, when the Tibet Autonomous Region was established, there were a total of 16,000 ethnic minority cadres, including more than one thousand in leading posts. The number of Tibetan cadres working in Tibet has been growing dramatically.
In Tibet, it is of great significance to train and use ethnic minority cadres.
(1) It may help realize equality between different ethnic groups and help the national minorities to become masters of their own lives. If great efforts are not made to train a large number of Tibetan and other ethnic minority cadres and help them work in leading posts, then regional national minorities autonomy will become a mere formality, and the matter of the minority people becoming masters of their own destiny cannot be guaranteed.
(2) It is conducive to maintaining close ties between the Party and the masses. Minority cadres are not only familiar with the history, customs, thinking and sentiments of their own ethnic groups, but are also fluent in their own native languages and possess detailed knowledge of the geography and natural resources of their localities. They may convey their people's demands to the Party in time; they are the bridge that links the Party and the people.
(3) It is conducive to the implementation of the Party's line and policies. Ethnic minority cadres were born and brought up on their native soil, and they know quite well their own people. When implementing the Party's line and policy, it is easy for them to combine the Party's line and policy with the characteristics of the localities, and thus avoid making mistakes of subjectivism and dogmatism and avoid making mistakes by copying mechanically in disregard of specific conditions or messing things up by giving wrong orders. They are a decisive factor in making a good job in ethnic work.
(4) It is conducive to speeding up economic and cultural development. Promoting a great number of talented Tibetan and other ethnic minority cadres to leading posts will bring the initiative of the Tibetans and other minority peoples into full play and quicken the pace of socialist construction in Tibet, thus realizing the common prosperity of various ethnic groups. It can be seen that Tibetan and other ethnic minority cadres are the backbone forces of the socialist construction in Tibet.
(5) It is conducive to national defense. Tibet is of strategic importance due to its location on China's southwestern frontier. It borders on Myanmar, India, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and Kashmir. The border line is as long as 4,000 kilometers. Many Tibetans and members of other ethnic minorities are living in the border areas. To devote major efforts to developing education surely would better unite the people of various ethnic groups and consolidate national defense so as to safeguard the security and unification of the motherland.
At present, a new framework of the ranks of cadres has been formed in Tibet. Statistics compiled at the end of 1990 show that minority cadres totaled 37,000, or 66.6 percent of all the cadres in Tibet, which met the requirement set by late Premier Zhou Enlai that the Tibetan cadres should make up two-thirds of the total. A great number of competent, talented and professional Tibetan and other minority cadres are on leading posts. The principal leaders in the people's congresses, governments, and political consultative conferences at all levels are Tibetans. Tibetan and other minority cadres made up 71.7 percent of the total of cadres at the Tibet regional level; 69.6 percent at the prefectural level, and 74.8 percent at the county level.[24] The ranks of Tibetan and other minority specialized personnel were growing steadily. By the end of 1990, Tibetan specialized cadres totaled 17,000, accounting for 62 percent of all the specialized cadres in Tibet. They independently administer educational, scientific, cultural, public health and physical culture affairs in their respective fields.[25]
Implementation of Various Policies Concerning Regional National Minorities Autonomy
The basic aim of regional national minorities autonomy is the realization of self-government. After the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the leading organ increasingly made itself complete and perfect. At the beginning, the leading organ of the region was the People's Council. It was both a legislative body and an administrative body. During the ten-year period (1966-1976) of chaos, generally known as the "cultural revolution," the system and policy of the regional national minorities autonomy was seriously undermined.
The Revolutionary Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region was set up in September 1968. After the Third Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee held at the end of 1978, the system and policy of the regional national minorities autonomy was restored and developed. The building of the organs of autonomy entered a new phase. At the Second Session of the Third People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region, held in August 1979, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was elected chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet People's Congress, and Tian Bao chairman of the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
At the Third Session of the Third People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region in April 1981, Yang Dongsheng was elected chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress, and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme chairman of the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the same year, People's congresses of the prefectures, cities, and counties throughout the Region was convened one after another, and the standing committees of the people's congresses and governments at all levels were also set up. At present, the minority deputies, the great majority of whom were Tibetans, make up more than 95 percent of the total number of the deputies to the people's congresses at the county-level and over 82 percent of the total to the people's congress at the autonomous region level.
To make local laws and regulations is one of the rights of self-government. Since the promulgation of the "Law on Regional National Minorities Autonomy" in 1984, the people's congress and its standing committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region have adopted more than 60 local laws and regulations, including "Rules for Implementation of the Electoral Law of People's Congresses at All Levels in the Tibet Autonomous Region," "Special Modifications of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China," "Special Modifications of the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China," and "Interim Rules for Implementation of the Public Security Regulations of the People's Republic of China."
Tibetan citizens have the right to use their own language in criminal proceedings. Moreover, the principal officials of judicial departments at all levels in Tibet are all Tibetan. The People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region adopted a series of flexible measures in accordance with local conditions and needs, such as giving preferential policy to stock-breeding industry, reducing or remitting agricultural and animal-husbandry taxes, supporting the local handicraft industry, and developing Tibetan economy, culture and education. The promulgation and implementation of these local laws and regulations fully reflected the rights of self-government exercised by the Tibetan People's Government.
Before the democratic reform in Tibet, silver dollars and paper money issued by the former Tibetan local government was the operating currency. The People's Bank of China set up an office in Lhasa in 1952, exercising a unified financial management. In 1956, the silver dollars were prohibited from circulation. After the former Tibetan local government was dissolved in the drive to suppress the rebellion in 1959, the former Tibetan currency became invalid. From then on, the Renminbi has been used in the whole region of Tibet. Since the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the state has given enormous aid, including financial aid, to Tibet in all fields. From 1952 to 1990, the central government allotted 17.77 billion yuan in subsidies to Tibet and never levied one yuan from Tibet.
It is the policy of the Chinese government to respect and protect the freedom of all minorities to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. The seventeen-article agreement stipulates: The spoken and written language and school education of the Tibetan people shall be developed step by step in accordance with the actual conditions in Tibet.
After the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1956, it made a decision that all official documents that were to be transmitted to lower levels should be written in both the Tibetan and Han (Chinese) languages. In September 1965, soon after the Tibet Autonomous Region was established, its "Organic Rules" stipulated: The people's congresses and leading organs at all levels in the Autonomous Region shall use both the Tibetan and Han languages in carrying out their functions.
Tibetan language courses are offered in all the schools, from colleges for national minorities to middle schools and primary schools; both the Tibetan and Han students are required to learn Tibetan. The Tibet Daily (Tibetan language edition) has been published every day since April 1956. Also the Tibet People's Broadcasting Station has presented programs in Tibetan every day ever since January 1960. The first Tibetan modern drama troupe was established in 1961, and it helped bring forth the establishment of quite a few amateur Tibetan drama troupes. The Tibetan People's Publishing House has published more than 170 titles since its establishment in 1972. The Compilation and Translation Bureau of the Autonomous Region has further promoted the comprehensive use of the Tibetan language and script since its founding in 1985. To make Han-language films available to the Tibetan people, many news reels, scientific and educational films, and features have been dubbed in Tibetan.
In July 1988 the First Session of the Fifth People's Congress of the Autonomous Region made a special survey on the question of how to promote and develop the Tibetan language and made concrete suggestions; thus it further promoted the use and development of the Tibetan language. After the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the democratic reform was realized and the system of regional national minorities autonomy was implemented, which led to the emancipation of the million serfs and the Tibetan people, and they became masters of their own destiny. Today the Tibetan people enjoy full and comprehensive democracy, freedom and human rights, which has never been seen before in Tibetan history
Struggle for a Socialist New Tibet
The Tibetan People Embark on the Socialist Road
After the democratic reform in Tibet in 1959-1960, the central authorities adopted the policy of "exercising prudence and making steady progress" in Tibet. Mao Zedong pointed out in 1961 that since Tibet had undergone the reform of its social system, from feudal serfdom to individual ownership by peasants and herdsmen, there should be a period of stabilization. Now only mutual aid teams would be set up, and co-operatives would not be set up so that the peasants and herdsmen might have a stable life and improve their livelihood. Under the direction of Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, the strategic principle of "exercising prudence and making steady progress" toward Tibet was formulated, which stipulated that no socialist transformation would be carried out in the following five years. Soon afterward the CPC Tibet Work Committee worked out two concrete policies: "Twenty-six Rules for Work in Rural Areas" and "Thirty Rules for Work in Pastoral Areas." The period from 1961 to 1965 witnessed a rapid growth in the farming and stock-breeding industries of Tibet and a big rise in the people's living standards. People called this period the "golden age" of Tibet[26] All this created favorable conditions for the socialist transformation in Tibet, which was absolutely necessary; there were several reasons for it.
First, it might speed up the Tibetan economy and gradually extinguish the factual inequality between ethnic groups. Before the liberation of Tibet, owing to the oppression and exploitation of feudal serfdom and imperialist invasions, the Tibetans, Moinbas, Lhobas, Dengs (Mishmis) and Sharpas in Tibet lagged behind economically, farming production stagnated, local finance ran into a crisis, serfs and other laboring people were living in extreme poverty, and the growth of the population was very slow.
After the peaceful liberation of Tibet and democratic reform, feudal serfdom was thoroughly abolished, and the ownership of feudal lords was changed to individual ownership by peasants and herdsmen. Productive forces were liberated; farming and stock-breeding saw a great development. However, the individual-ownership economy of the peasants and herdsmen was in want of funds and means of production. It was not easy for them to maintain production, still more difficult to expand the scale of their production. In order to expand the productive forces, it was necessary to carry out the socialist transformation of agriculture, animal husbandry and handicrafts in Tibet. Only by socialist transformation could the social productive forces be developed, the factual inequality between Tibetans (including other minorities in Tibet) and other fraternal ethnic groups in the rest of China be gradually eliminated, and genuine equality between all ethnic groups be achieved.
Second, socialist transformation might prevent a polarization of the society and help to achieve a common prosperity for the peasants and herdsmen.
The victory of the democratic reform thoroughly abolished feudal serfdom, changed the ownership of feudal lords to individual ownership by peasants and herdsmen and gradually liberated the social productive forces, and the productive enthusiasm of peasants and herdsmen rose higher than before. However, under the individual economy, the main means of production such as land and pastures were owned by individuals. This was likely to result in polarization. In order to prevent this occurrence, it was necessary to carry out the socialist transformation of the individual ownership by peasants and herdsmen; to turn the land, pastures and other means of production into collective ownership; and to raise the productive forces. Only in this way could the various ethnic groups in Tibet embark on the road to common prosperity.
The socialist transformation of Tibetan agriculture, animal husbandry and handicrafts was necessary and the conditions for carrying it out were ripe. This might be seen in the following aspects. From 1961 to 1965 a total of more than 20,000 farming and stock-breeding mutual-aid teams were formed in Tibet. The six years after the democratic reform saw bumper harvests in agriculture and an increase in stock-breeding, which provided material basis for the socialist transformation. In 1965 the output of grain in Tibet increased to 290.725 million kilograms, an increase 88.6 percent higher than in 1958 before the democratic reform; the total number of animals increased to 10.01 million head, an increase of 54.1 percent over 1958[27] The ranks of cadres coming from Tibetan and other minorities were growing. People of the middle and lower strata had ideological preparations for the socialist transformation to various extents.
In view of the situation mentioned above, the Central Committee of the CPC issued "Instructions Concerning Carrying Out Socialist Transformation in Tibet" in August 1965, approving the carrying out of the socialist transformation in Tibet in a planned way under a unified leadership. The CPC Tibet Autonomous Region Committee, in accordance with the spirit of the instructions from the Central Committee of the CPC, issued a document entitled "Suggestions on Some Questions Concerning Socialist Transformation in Rural and Pastoral Areas." A vigorous socialist transformation movement was thus unfolded on the Tibetan plateau on a spectacular scale.
The socialist transformation drive in the Tibet Autonomous Region was carried out under particular conditions, and so there were many unique practices that were different from those in the hinterland. The means of production belonging to those serf-owners who did not participate in the rebellion were not confiscated but bought over by the state. Class education, socialist education, and patriotic education were carried out in the rural and pastoral areas. On this basis, Party organizations at all levels led the Tibetan people to embark on the socialist road of mutual aid. More than 20,000 farming and stock-breeding mutual-aid teams were set up by peasants and herdsmen by August 1965. The characteristics of the mutual-aid teams were that the mutual aid was based on private ownership. The mutual aid of such a lower form was expected to develop into a higher form. Beginning in August 1965, the Tibet Autonomous Region paid great attention to consolidating, upgrading and developing the mutual-aid teams, and at the same time they began to set up farming and stock-breeding producers' cooperatives on a trial basis and began to set up people's communes group after group. More than 150 people's communes were set up in 1966. After 1967, the socialist transformation drive in Tibet entered its high-tide period. By 1970 more than 1,070 people's communes had been established in all the prefectures and counties throughout Tibet. But owing to the influence of "Leftist" guidelines, the mutual-aid teams were changed directly into people's communes, instead of from the farming and stock-breeding producers' cooperatives of the elementary form into advanced producers' cooperatives. The structure of the people's commune was of two-level ownership, with the production team as the basic accounting unit. The size of a production team was generally about thirty households. By 1975, the socialist transformation of agriculture and animal husbandry had been basically accomplished.
Soon afterward, the socialist transformation of handicrafts was also carried out. The transformation of Tibetan handicrafts was realized by way of mutual aid and cooperation. On the principle of voluntary participation, the scattered handicraftsmen were organized. The ownership of individual handicraftsmen was gradually changed into socialist collective ownership through handicraft production groups, handicraft supply and marketing cooperatives and handicraft producers' cooperatives. By the end of 1976, the 30,000-odd handicraftsmen in twenty-six trades had set up 380 cooperatives, realizing the socialist transformation of the handicraft industry.
It took ten years—from 1965 to 1975—to accomplish basically the socialist transformation of agriculture, animal husbandry and handicrafts, realizing the transition from individual ownership to the socialist public ownership of the means of production. This was a great change in the history of Tibet. From then on, the various ethnic groups inhabiting Tibet, like the other fraternal ethnic groups in the other parts of China, had embarked on the road of socialism.
The great victories of socialist transformation changed the former relations of production, further liberated and developed the social productive forces, and brought about a great advance in agricultural production and livestock breeding. The grain output in Tibet increased from 313.5 million kilograms in 1966 to 440 million kilograms in 1975, and the number of livestock from 18 million head to 21 million head.[28]
The accomplishment of socialist transformation in Tibet indicated that Tibetan society had entered the initial stage of socialism. It proved that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the ethnic groups of pre-capitalism might overstep the stage of capitalism and enter directly into a socialist society.
Nevertheless, the socialist transformation in Tibet was carried out during the ten years (1966-1976) of the "cultural revolution." Owing to the wrong guiding ideology, serious "Leftist" mistakes occurred in the process of the socialist transformation of the agriculture, animal husbandry and handicraft industries, enthusiasm of the masses was seriously fettered and dampened, the economic structure that combined agriculture with animal husbandry was destroyed, and livelihood was made difficult for the masses. The organizational form of the people's commune was no good either. Nevertheless, the socialist transformation changed the individual ownership of peasants and herdsmen to socialist collective ownership; this achievement must be fully affirmed. The materialization of the socialist transformation in the Tibet Autonomous Region reflected the great creativity and historical initiative of the Tibetan people and made the people of all ethnic groups throughout Tibet embark on the socialist road. This was a great change that had never before been seen in the history of Tibet.
The Tibetan People Cure the Wounds Made by the "Cultural Revolution"
Beginning with the "May 16 Circular" issued by the CPC Central Committee in 1966, the "cultural revolution" was launched throughout the country. In August of the same year, Mao Zedong convened and presided over the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the CPC, at which the "Decision on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" was adopted. From then on a ten-year-long state of turmoil ran rampant throughout China, which came to an end only after the downfall of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. The "cultural revolution" was a dire disaster to the Party, the nation and the people of all ethnic groups throughout China. The area of Tibet was no exception.
During the "cultural revolution," like other places of China, a "Leftist" tendency appeared in the work in Tibet. The "Leftist" theory that "the essence of the ethnic issue is a question of class struggle" was advocated, and it was applied everywhere with disregard for the differences in time, place, and conditions. Estrangement between ethnic groups, a legacy of history, was indiscreetly regarded as class struggle. Thus the implementation of the Party's policy toward national minorities was disrupted; the complexity of ethnic problems was overlooked, the Tibetan language and culture and customs did not receive the adequate respect and attention they should have received, the positive factors regarding the patriots in religious circles and the masses of Buddhists were neglected and their negative factors were overstressed. All this led to the result that the Tibetans were forbidden to engage in religious activities, the vast majority of monasteries and temples were destroyed, and a great number of important cultural relics were scattered and lost. The Party's work in the united front and religious circles was greatly damaged. Patriots in the upper strata suffered persecution. In the drive to set up people's communes and the movement to learn from Dazhai Village in agriculture, the policies carried out in Tibet copied dogmatically every practice in the' hinterland despite the actual conditions of Tibet. All this seriously damaged the enthusiasm of the masses, created a great negative impact on the development of production, and made it difficult for the people to earn a living. This also created serious wounds to the relations between the Hans and Tibetans. The practice of this "Leftist" tendency did not change until after a period following the fall of the "Gang of Four" in October 1976.
Beginning in 1980, the CPC Central Committee strengthened its guidance on the work in Tibet. The Tibet Autonomous Region began to put things right, curing the wounds done by the "cultural revolution." In March 1980 the secretariat of the CPC Central Committee convened a Work Conference on Tibet; leaders of relevant departments attended the conference. Shortly after, the CPC Central Committee transmitted the "Summary of the Work Conference on Tibet" to departments concerned, at the same time reaffirming the ideological line that everything should proceed from actual conditions, and pointing out:
Under the new historical conditions; the central task and the objectives of the Tibet Autonomous Region are as follows: "Give first place to the Tibetan cadres and Tibetan people, strengthen the unity between the cadres and people of all ethnic groups; mobilize all positive factors; proceed from the actual conditions of Tibet, cure the wounds caused by Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" by every possible means; develop the national economy, promote the living standards and cultural and scientific level of the people; build up the borderland; consolidate frontier defenses; and make Tibet thriving, prosperous and plentiful step by step in a planned way.[29]
It also pointed out:
Today, when the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country have carried out socialist transformation, the relations between the people of various ethnic groups are those between laboring people. Therefore, the statement that the essence of ethnic problems is class struggle is wrong.... To regard rashly the estrangement between different ethnic groups, which was a legacy of history, as class struggle cannot consolidate ethnic unity, but, instead, can be taken advantage of by our domestic and foreign enemies.[30]
In May 1980, Hu Yaobang, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, and Wan Li, Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Vice-Premier of the State Council, entrusted by the Central Committee, made an inspection tour of Tibet. They exchanged views comprehensively with personages of various circles, discussing with them how to rapidly improve people's living standards and how to build a united, affluent, and civilized new Tibet. They gave important instructions concerning the work in Tibet, which won warm welcome and support from the Tibetan people of all circles, Party and government cadres, employees and workers of enterprises, and the PLA soldiers stationed in Tibet.
The Party Committee and People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region unflinchingly carried out the instructions of the Central Committee.
First, the cadres throughout the whole region conscientiously studied the Central Committee's instructions, carried out discussions about practice being the sole criterion for testing the truth, clarified their ideological line, and made clear the direction of advance.
Second, great efforts were exerted to make remedies with regard to cases in which the charges were false or which were dealt with unjustly or incorrectly. Under the guidance of the relevant departments of the CPC Central Committee, the regional government redressed many injustices, and solved many problems left over from the past. More than 1,700 patriotic personages were reassigned to work, and a great many who had been involved unjustly were rehabilitated. Thus, estrangements were eliminated, and the people's enthusiasm for building a socialist new Tibet was aroused.
Third, the Party's policies toward national minorities and their religious beliefs were again conscientiously carried out. The leadership of the regional government was readjusted; a great many qualified Tibetan cadres were promoted to leading posts at various levels. The policy concerning freedom of religious beliefs was correctly implemented. The normal religious activities of the masses, monks and nuns enjoyed respect and protection. All normal religious activities and the religious festivals of all religious sects were restored. The monasteries and temples that were destroyed in the "cultural revolution" were restored with funds provided by the government. At present the number of monasteries and temples and other sites for religious activities throughout the region has reached 1,425, and there are a total of 34,000-odd monks and nuns.[31] Owing to the implementation of the Party's policy of freedom of religious beliefs, the Tibetan religious personages and common believers support the Communist Party and the socialist system all the more enthusiastically and they all take an active part in the economic and cultural development of Tibet.
Fourth, according to the policy of readjusting, restructuring, consolidating and improving China's economy, the central government has introduced a set of special policies to enable the Tibetan people to recoup their strength and shake off poverty. The policies include remission of taxation on collective and individual producers for a long time to come; authorization of private use of land and livestock by households for a long time to time while the public ownership of land, forests and grasslands is upheld; protection of the peasants and herdsmen's right of determination in production and encouragement of a diversified economy based principally on household operations; free disposal of farm and animal by-products in the market, and encouragement of individual and collective industrial and commercial enterprises. All these have brought forth the initiative of the Tibetan people and have stimulated the growth of the local economy. After setting things right, the Tibet Autonomous Region has entered a new historical phase of political stability, economic prosperity, and strong unity between the various ethnic groups.
The Reform and Opening in Tibet
After the Third Plenary Session of the Party's Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, the focal point of the whole Party's work shifted to economic development. On the basis of having brought order out of chaos in 1980, Tibet also gradually shifted its focal point of work to economic development. The CPC Central Committee convened the Second Work Conference on Tibet in 1984, and then issued several documents to guide Tibet's work. The CPC Central Committee formulated a series of special policies for opening the Tibet Autonomous Region to the outside world and pointed out the correct way for building a unified, affluent, civilized, and socialist new Tibet.
The main gist of the special policies and measures formulated by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council for the Tibet Autonomous Region is as follows:
1. Adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts; everything should proceed from the actual conditions of Tibet.
2. Continue to correct and overcome the "Leftist" influences, and simultaneously guard against Rightist tendencies.
3. Strive to strengthen the unity between ethnic groups, resolutely safeguard social stability and unity in Tibet and the motherland's unification, and oppose separatism.
4. Strive to improve production; to develop productive forces should be the center of all kinds of work so as to make the 2.19 million people of different ethnic groups inhabiting the area of 1.2 million square kilometers of Tibet become rich as soon as possible.
To sum up, these policies were to pay special attention to two major tasks—maintaining a normal situation and developing the economy, to ensure the stability and unity in Tibet, ensure a sustained, stable and proportional development of the economy, and to ensure a big rise in the living standard of the people.
The Party committee and the people's government of the Tibet Autonomous Region resolutely implemented the principles and policies of reform and opening to the outside world formulated by the central authorities, and carried on an all-round reform of the Tibetan economic structure.
In the farming and stock-breeding areas, under the condition that land, forests and pastures remain state property, diverse household-based management systems are allowed. The policies include remission of taxation on collective and individual producers for a long time to come. In the pasture areas, herdsmen are allowed to keep their own animals and buy and sell them as they like over a long period of time. In the agricultural areas, farmers may likewise use the land and independently run farming enterprises.
In industry and commerce, while state-owned industrial and commercial enterprises are required to do a good job, policies are aimed at developing individual and collective enterprises. Commodity circulation was thus shifted from one channel to multichannels.
More preferential treatment is given here than in other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities with regard to opening to the outside world. For instance, all foreign exchange earned remains at the disposal of the autonomous region; the tax rates on the import and export of the commodities of Tibet are lower than the national unified tax rates. Efforts are made to encourage investment from other provinces and from abroad. Efforts are also made to encourage foreign trade and border trade.
As regards the political structure, Tibet began to change its structure of the integration of government administration with people's commune management in 1984, and established township people's governments. During 1987 and 1988, based on principles that were to be conducive to economic development, unity of ethnic groups, the interests of the masses of the people, and the consolidation of national defense, the administrative divisions in Tibet were readjusted to strengthen the organizations of political power at the grass-roots level and to promote economic development.
Stability and unity were an important condition for the economic and social development of Tibet. Under the favorable situation of reform and opening, a handful of Tibetan separatists took advantage of the relaxed and free political climate, and after plotting for a long time, staged a series of riots with the aim of "independence for Tibet" in September 1987 and afterward. They engaged in beatings, smashing, looting and burning and have caused great losses to the lives and property of the Lhasa people, seriously disrupting the political situation of stability and unity and normal social order. This was a
serious political struggle for maintaining the unification of the motherland, upholding Communist Party leadership and sticking to the socialist system.... It has been the continuation of the long-term struggle between separatism and anti-separatism since the imperialist invasion of Tibet[32]
After the first such incident happened, the Party Committee and the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region did a lot of work but produced little effect. Proceeding from the basic interests of the people of various ethnic groups living in Tibet, the State Council resolutely proclaimed martial law in Lhasa from the zero hour of March 8, 1989, in accordance with the sixteenth item of the eighty-ninth article of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. The Party Committee and the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region dispatched nearly 300 Tibetan and Han cadres to enter and be stationed in the Drepung, Sera, and Ganden monasteries, and in the Jokhang Temple and all the neighborhood offices in downtown Lhasa. The martial law enforcement troops strictly carried out all relevant policies of the Party, strictly distinguished between the enemy and the people, made a distinction between the handful of separatists and the ordinary people, and effectively brought the beating, smashing, looting, and burning activities to an end, thus puncturing the arrogance of the separatists.
On May 1, 1990, the State Council lifted the martial law in Lhasa because the situation had calmed down there. Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "There are those who want to split Tibet from the big family of China, to carve it out. I don't think they are capable of doing so."[33] History has proven that even in the old days when China was poor and weak, the separatist activities supported by imperialists could not succeed; now when our motherland is growing stronger with each passing day, such activities are doomed to failure. This struggle proved that only when Tibet unswervingly embarked on the socialist road under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, could there be a bright future for Tibet; only by carrying out the policy of reform and opening could prosperity and progress be brought to the Tibetan people.
In 1989 the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government formulated "A Tentative Strategic Plan for Tibet's Economic and Social Development," stipulating a policy of opening up to both domestic provinces (or regions) and foreign countries, opening up inside-regional, domestic and international markets, exploiting suitable natural resources, developing key areas and key industries, and reducing the gap in economic development between the area of Tibet and other areas of the motherland. This laid a solid foundation for the common prosperity of the Tibetans and other ethnic groups in Tibet.
Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, flew to Tibet and made a week-long inspection tour in Lhasa, Xigaze and other places in July 1990. In the company of the Party and government leaders of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Hu Jintao, Radi and Gyaltsen Norbu, the Political Commissar of the Chengdu Military Area Command, Gu Shanqing, and the Tibetan Military Area Commander, Jiang Hongquan, etc., he went deep into the agricultural and pasture areas, factories, schools, hospitals, and army barracks to make comprehensive contacts with the masses of the people, patriotic personages from all walks of life, PLA men, and armed policemen. Jiang fully affirmed the great achievements of the socialist revolution and construction made during the forty years since the peaceful liberation of Tibet. He also pointed out that the central authorities would continue to carry on specific policies and flexible measures in Tibet, further stabilize the situation, and step up the economic development of Tibet.
The PLA troops stationed in Tibet have made great contributions to the construction and defense of the new Tibet. During the past four decades, the troops built 17,400 kilometers of highway, accounting for 70 percent of the total existing highways; built four airports, 149 medium-sized and small power plants and 137 schools, and laid 1,200 kilometers of petroleum pipelines.[34]
Tibet has also received support and aid from the central government. During the forty years since Liberation, the central government has given 15.7 billion yuan to Tibet in the form of financial grants, and 4.27 billion yuan in capital construction investment, a total of 20 billion yuan. From 1959 to 1991, the central government transported to Tibet 4.58 billion yuan worth of industrial products, 1.388 million tons of commodity grain, and 2.815 tons of petroleum end products. The central government allocated 111 kilograms of gold, 2,000-odd kilograms of silver and a special fund of 6.7 million yuan for the renovation of the joint stupa of the Fifth to the Ninth Panchen Erdenis; the stupa was renovated under the guidance of the Tenth Panchen Lama. Furthermore, the state allocated 40 million yuan in one lump sum for the repair of the Potala Palace.
During the period of 1974-1988, 2,969 teachers of various academic subjects were sent to work in Tibet from other provinces. By the end of 1990, more than 140 classes for Tibetan students had been opened in other provinces. According to a survey conducted in 1991, Tibetan students studying in the hinterland had reached 9,800. In order to improve medical work and public health in Tibet, more than 3,000 medical personnel were sent from a dozen of inland provinces and municipalities to Tibet from 1973 to 1991. Engineers, technical personnel and skilled workers have also been sent to Tibet to help with socialist construction.[35] Some other provinces and municipalities built 43 major construction projects in the region, all of which were completed and put into use around 1985. These projects symbolized the unity between Tibet and other provinces and municipalities and fraternal ethnic groups, and they promoted the development of the Tibetan economy.
Reform and opening to the outside world have changed Tibet beyond recognition. The natural economy, closed-up economy, or self-reliance economy have broken down and begun to shift to commodity economy, or opened-up economy. According to statistics in 1990, the gross national product (GNP) of the region had reached 2.217 billion yuan, national income had reached 1.742 billion yuan, gross output value of industry and agriculture had reached 1.024 billion yuan, and the total value of retail commodities had reached 1.5 billion yuan. This was something never before seen in Tibet. Agriculture and animal husbandry developed steadily. In 1990, the total output of grain for the whole region reached 555 million kilograms, the total number of livestock reached 22.8 million head, and the gross output value of agriculture and animal husbandry reached 789 million yuan; they were 3.6 times, 2.3 times and 4.4 times the numbers for 1952 respectively. The annual per capita net income of the peasants and herdsmen reached 430 yuan, and the overwhelming majority of them had enough food and clothing. Modern industry also saw a rapid development. Starting from scratch, Tibet's industry boasted more than several hundred enterprises by 1990, covering power generating, mining, architecture, light industry, woolen textiles, printing, machinery, repairs, etc. The total output of industry reached 235 million yuan, 166 times that of 1965.[36] Many kinds of Tibetan handicrafts such as phrul (a kind of tweed), carpets, Tibetan-style knives, bowls, boots, cushions, aprons, and gold and silver ornaments enjoy a warm welcome among ethnic Tibetans and other ethnic minorities; some products enjoy great prestige both at home and abroad.
Transport facilities also grew rapidly. According to the statistics of 1990, several major trunk roads were built, including the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, and the China-Nepal Highway. A network of motor roads fanning out from Lhasa has also been formed, extending to almost all the counties. The total length of roads open to traffic in Tibet has reached 21,695 kilometers, making 98.7 percent of the counties and 77 percent of the townships accessible by automobiles.[37] Air lines from Lhasa to Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Golmud, Xi'an, Lanzhou and Kathmandu have been opened, which have put the Tibetan Plateau, once an isolated place, within easy access. Foreign trade and border trade have seen rapid growth. In 1986 the total of export and import trade of the region reached 110 million yuan, and exports earned US$5.34 million in foreign currency; in 1987 exports exceeded the planned quota of earning US$6 million in foreign currency. Ever since 1980, tourism has developed swiftly as a key industry of Tibet; by the end of 1991, Tibet had received 190,900 overseas tourists, including Hong Kong and Macao compatriots, and made good contributions to earning foreign exchange for Tibet.
The overall economic development has raised the living standards of the Tibetan people, and the quality of the Tibetan population has been improved obviously. In 1990 the cash income of the urban dwellers in Tibet reached 1,683.81 yuan per capita. According to a sample investigation conducted in Lhasa, there were 88 color television sets, 84 recorders, 24 refrigerators, and 42 washing machines in every 100 households. The fourth national census conducted in 1990 showed that the total population in the area of Tibet had reached 2.196 million, among whom 2.096 million were ethnic Tibetans. Both the population of the whole region and that of the ethnic Tibetans had doubled, as compared to the pre-Liberation period. The life-span had risen from an average of 36 years in the 1950s to the present over 64 years. The cultural quality of the population had greatly improved; the percentage of illiterates and semi-illiterates in the population dropped from 95 percent in 1951 to 44.43 percent. By 1990 there were 2,485 colleges, middle schools and primary schools in the region, with a total enrollment of 175,000. In addition, there were altogether 17 scientific research institutes in Tibet, with 26,000 professionals and technicians, of whom 54 percent were Tibetans.[38] If the period from 1961 to 1965 is eulogized as the "golden age" of Tibet, then we may say that since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee in 1978 Tibet has witnessed another "golden age" in its history.
On May 23, 1991, the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the Seventeen-Article Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, the CPC Central Committee, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission dispatched congratulatory telegrams to Tibet and sent a Central Delegation, headed by Li Tieying, to Lhasa. The Lhasa people of all walks of life held a grand celebration meeting at which Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress, pointed out:
The practice of revolution and construction during the forty years after the peaceful liberation of Tibet has proved that, first, the unification of the motherland and national unity are the basic guarantee for the development and prosperity of Tibet; second, only under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and by taking the road of socialism could Tibet have a bright future; and third, to understand Tibet accurately and in a comprehensive way and to proceed from the actual conditions of Tibet when engaging in every kind of work is the ideological line and work method we should stick to for a long time to come.[39]
Hu Jintao, Party Committee Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region; Radi, executive Vice-Secretary of the Regional Party Committee; and Gyaltsen Norbu, Chairman of the Regional Government, jointly published an article in the journal Qiu Shi, pointing out that the tremendous historic changes and great achievements gained in the forty years since the peaceful liberation of Tibet have attracted worldwide attention. They said:
If we take the road of socialism unswervingly under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, we can surely do a good job in the construction of Tibet and realize a common development and common prosperity with other ethnic groups of the motherland[40]
New Economic and Social Developments in Tibet and Their Prospects
The local economy of Tibet is an important component of the economy of the national minorities of China, as well as an important component of the national economy of China. The development of Tibetan society is also closely linked to the development of the Chinese nation. After a dozen years of reform and opening to the outside world, notable achievements have been made in the local economy and social developments in Tibet. Under the unified arrangement and leadership of the central government, the Tibetan Autonomous Regional Government, adhering to the principle of "seizing current opportunities to deepen the reform and opening and promote development," has initiated plans for reforming the systems of finance, taxation, pricing and circulation. It firmly gives priority to agriculture and animal husbandry in all its economic work. It has readjusted the industrial structure. Under the conditions of optimizing the economic structure, promoting quality and efficiency, it has been doing its best to step up the development of the national economy, to improve the living standards of the people, and to push forward the overall progress of society.
In 1995, Tibet's gross national product (GNP) reached 5.25 billion yuan (according to prices of the year), a 10.6 percent increase over that of 1994, if calculated in constant prices. Among them, primary industry saw an increase of 4 percent, secondary industry saw an increase of 21.3 percent, while tertiary industry saw an increase of 13.4 percent; the industrial structure gradually became rational. Education, science, technology and other social undertakings vigorously developed. An investment of 74.18 million yuan was put into capital construction of educational institutions. Houses of 200,000 square meters were built; 25 middle schools and 175 primary schools were newly built or rebuilt. The enrollment of school-age children reached 70 percent, 3 percentage points higher than that of the previous year, and total enrollment of primary and secondary school students reached 290,000, 10.8 percent higher than the previous year. In 1995, the living standard of the people was further improved. The per-capita income of farmers and herdsmen saw an 8.3 percent increase over that of 1994, and the per-capita income of urban residents was 11.2 percent higher than that in the previous year. Markets were prosperous, and the total volume of retail sales reached 2.65 billion yuan, 17.8 percent higher than the previous year[41]
The new achievements in the Tibetan local economy and social development have laid a sound foundation for the goals set for the end of this century and the year 2010. From now on, the government of the autonomous region will be leading the people of all ethnic groups in the region to uphold Deng Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and the basic line of the Communist Party of China. It will also be acting in the spirit of the Third Work Conference on Tibet of the central government in handling correctly the relationship between reform, development and stability; actively pushing forward the changes in the economic system and the methods of economic growth; conscientiously carrying out the strategy of boosting Tibet through science and education; stepping up the program of reform and opening to the outside world; creating conditions for the sustainable, rapid and healthy development of the national economy and for the all-round progress of the society, so as to lay a solid foundation for the fulfilment of the Ninth Five-Year Plan.
The developing of local industry is the key to the development of the Tibetan people. The late state president Liu Shaoqi (1895-1969) once said: "The key for national minorities to develop into modern ethnic groups is, apart from social reform, to develop modern industry in their respective localities."[42] Zhou Enlai also once pointed out: "Industry is essential to prosperity. A nation cannot become prosperous without industry."[43] The Tibetan Autonomous Regional Government attaches great importance to developing industry, speeding up the construction of energy resources, communications and transport, and post and telecommunications. The total industrial output reached 613 million yuan in 1995, up 46 percent over the previous year according to the 1990 constant price. Industrial development will create material conditions for the Tibetan economic development and social progress. Judging by the present situation in Tibet, industrial development will have a bright future there. Tibet has rich natural resources. Its environment is fundamentally not polluted, and the structure and distribution of its population are rather rational. So it has advantageous conditions for sustainable development. Ever since the peaceful liberation of Tibet, particularly during the past dozen years of reform and opening, the Tibetan local industrial system has taken initial shape, which is closely related to the people's daily lives.
According to the Ninth Five-Year Plan and the long-term goal set for 2010, along with great efforts put into the development of energy resources and communications and transport, great efforts will need to be exerted in readjusting the existing industrial enterprises, so as to gradually carry out technical transformation and the raising of their economic efficiency. In order to modernize Tibetan industry, it is also essential to build up or expand the medium and small enterprises of forestry industry, construction materials, mining, food processing, etc. Special importance should be attached to the utilization of Tibetan water resources, geothermal energy, solar energy and wind power resources, so that industry and agriculture can be provided with electricity, heat, light and mechanical power. By the year 2010, a mechanism should be established so as to be closely linked with the market economy system and to boost science and technology. The technological level in industrial production should reach the 1990s level of the hinterland provinces; a few branches of industry with Tibetan characteristics should reach the advanced level of the nation and of the world.
Agriculture occupies an important position in Tibet. Although Tibetan agriculture has a long history, its material and technological basis is rather weak. The development of Tibetan agriculture should proceed from the reality and characteristics of Tibet, that is, to make full use of the long periods of sunshine, great varieties of temperature between day and night, and rich water resources. Besides, good seeds and biological technology should be adopted so as to speed up the modernization of agriculture. To boost the development of agriculture and animal husbandry is the primary task for economic development and social stability. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, great efforts should be made to carry out the comprehensive development in agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry. By the end of this century, scientific and technological knowledge will spread to over 60 percent of rural areas, and the contribution of science and technology to economic development will reach 40 percent and over. By the year 2000 the total value of agricultural output should reach 3.11 billion yuan, with an annual increase of 5 percent. The total grain output should reach one million tons and the total output of rapeseeds should reach 50,000 tons.
The development of animal husbandry will exert direct impact on the overall development and progress of the Tibetan economy. Mao Zedong once pointed out: "A national economy without animal husbandry is an incomplete national economy."[44] Two-thirds of Tibetan territory is pastureland; Tibet has 1.24 billion mu of natural pastureland, of which 800 million mu is usable. As animal husbandry is particularly important to the development of Tibet, the Autonomous Regional Government attaches great importance to the development of livestock breeding and is placing increasingly more input into it. The main targets of Tibetan animal husbandry for the year 2000 are that the total dairy produce will reach 250,000 tons, the total meat produce will reach 125,000 tons, and the per capita income of farmers and herdsmen will reach 1,200 yuan. In the rural and pasture areas, 480,000 people will get out of poverty; and 1.4 million people will reach a well-off living standard, amounting to 65 percent of the total population in rural and pasture areas. The clothing, food, dwelling and communication and the quality of life of the farmers and herdsmen will thus be markedly raised.[45]
During the process of developing the local economy, the governments at all levels will exert great efforts to simultaneously promote socialist material development and cultural and ethnical progress, comprehensively carry out the Party's policy of religious freedom and strengthen the management of the monasteries and monks and nuns, so as to create a stable environment for social progress and for the improvement of people's living standards.
In short, during the process of upgrading the local economy and social progress, the Tibetan people will unswervingly take economic development as the central task. All other work will be carried out around this task. Tibetan society is marching forward; the broad masses of the people and cadres of all ethnic groups in Tibet are safeguarding social stability, working hard and building Tibet thriftily. It is believed that a united, prosperous, civilized socialist new Tibet will stand lofty and firm in the foreseeable future, like the towering Mt. Qomolangma, on the roof of the world.
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