Protests and uprisings in Tibet since 1950
[1] However, not all exiled Tibetans are content with pursuing the current CTA policy of the Middle Way Approach and many expressed their frustration in 2008, against the Dalai Lama's wishes, by agitating for independence.
[citation needed] Isolated geography has naturally defined Tibet as a unique entity, however, its governance and political status have been in flux for centuries.
The minor kingdoms and tribal states of the region were first united under Songtsen Gampo to form the Tibetan Empire in the seventh century CE.
After Lobsang Gyatso's mortal passing in 1682, which was kept a secret for 15 years, there was a period of anarchy and invasions that eventually led to the establishment of Qing protectorate over Tibet in 1720 that would reach its peak in the 1790s in response to attacks by Nepal, be renewed in 1903 when the British invaded, and would last until 1912.
Kuzmin, quoting the memoirs of Soviet diplomat A. M. Ledovsky, claims that on January 22, 1950, during his negotiations with Joseph Stalin in Moscow, Mao Zedong asked him to provide an aviation regiment because he was preparing to advance towards Tibet.
Stalin approved these preparations and provided military support with Soviet pilots and airfield personnel dressed in Chinese clothes, because this aid was illegal.
The burden on farmers and peasants of supplying the troops with food led to shortages and rising prices, coupled with influenza and smallpox outbreaks, weighted heavy on the majority of Tibetans, who were only marginally surviving before.
Protests called "people's assemblies" began in Lhasa, where organizers sent letters of grievances to the government and posted anti-Chinese slogans in public places.
With the Dalai Lama in agreement, Thondup went about implementing the reforms only to meet with strong resistance from the wealthy old guard who labeled him a radical communist.
The label sparked the interests of the Chinese who invited him to Beijing to study, but instead he fled back to India, where he began working with the CIA to form and train a Tibetan insurgency.
[9] Meanwhile, open rebellion began with the massacre of a Communist garrison in Kham which left an estimated 800 Chinese dead, sparking air strikes that killed more[quantify] Tibetans.
In addition, the CIA met with the Dalai Lama's two brothers Thubten Jigme Norbu and Gyalo Thondup in India and offered to train a pilot group of six Khampas in guerrilla warfare and radio communications in Saipan.
[8][10] According to the Dalai Lama, his visit to India in November 1956, during which he met with Tibetan "freedom fighters" which included two of his elder brothers, "spoiled good relations with China."
The exiles encouraged him to stay and join their fight for independence but Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru warned him that India could not offer support.
In July 1957, the Dalai Lama hosted a large ceremony in the Potala Palace, during which he accepted a golden throne and petition from representatives of the Chushi Gangdruk Tibetan resistance movement, and in return gave them a blessing touch on their foreheads, and issued them with a talisman.
Tenpa Soepa, who was staying at a house on the night of March 10 near Norbulingka said, "When I arrived at the gate I found Kalon Sampho lying on the ground unconscious."
While they spent several months regrouping, the US failed to form a coalition of nations willing to recognize the Tibetan government-in-exile or even to find countries who would host the Dalai Lama on a tour to explain his cause.
Two groups arrived safely and even facilitated successful arms drops, but the Chinese caught on and within a month all but a few of the team members and thousands of Khampa families were massacred.
[6] At the proposal of Thundop and Gompo Tashi in early 1960, a Tibetan guerrilla base was established in Mustang, Nepal, where some 2,000 mostly ethnic Khampa amassed in such a disorderly fashion that the first year was a challenge for survival given that the US could not get food supplies to them due to a suspension of overflights stemming from the U-2 incident.
[37] It is a: non-partisan and moderate position that safeguards the vital interests of all concerned parties- for Tibetans: the protection and preservation of their culture, religion and national identity; for the Chinese: the security and territorial integrity of the motherland; and for neighbours and other third parties: peaceful borders and international relations.
[37] He sent three fact finding missions into Tibet and wrote Deng Xiaoping a long personal letter before his representatives traveled to Beijing in 1982 to open negotiations.
The periodic meetings between the Central Tibetan Administration's envoys and the Chinese government were, Tundrop felt, "like one hand clapping"[29] and so the CTA suspended them in 1994.
It further mentions that "bringing all the Tibetans currently living in designated Tibetan autonomous areas within a single autonomous administrative unit is entirely in accordance with the constitutional (Chinese) principle contained in Article 4, also reflected in the Law on Regional National Autonomy LRNA (Article 2), that "regional autonomy is practiced in areas where people of minority nationalities live in concentrated communities."
In 2008, a group of 29 Chinese dissidents urged Beijing to open direct dialogue with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
[41] In June 2012, the European parliament in Strasbourg passed a resolution commending the new CTA leadership for its commitment to resolve the issue of Tibet through Middle Way Approach.
Crowd control, shootings, beatings and arrests escalated the tensions, eventually setting off clashes between thousands of Tibetans in the Ramoche section of Lhasa and Chinese security forces.
The Tibetan chairman of the TAR government Jampa Phuntsok, who was in Beijing at the time, told the foreign press that security personnel in Lhasa had shown great restraint and did not use lethal force.
[55] The Chinese government blamed the "Dalai clique" for the uprising, the march and the Olympic protests and called TYC a terrorist organization prepared to initiate guerrilla warfare once across the border.
[64] Premier Wen Jiabao said that such extreme actions hurt social harmony and that Tibet and the Tibetan areas of Sichuan are integral parts of Chinese territory.
[76] Dr. Lobsang Sangay, a Fulbright scholar and graduate of Harvard Law School who was born in a refugee camp in India in 1968 and who has never visited Tibet, was named Prime Minister of the CTA on April 27, 2011.
