Tibetans in China: From Conflict to Protest

Abstract

Although conflicts between various Tibetan and Chinese empires and kingdoms date back centuries (in 763 a Tibetan army captured the Tang capital of Chang’an), the modern conflict – i.e., between the now-exiled Tibetan Government and the PRC – began in the waning years of the Qing Empire (1644–1911) when the global order was on the brink of a major transformation. In the early twentieth century, Tibet was a self-governing protectorate of the Qing Empire, receiving military support from Beijing when needed in exchange for religious advice and legitimation from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the head of the Tibetan Government in Lhasa and an important leader of the Tibetan Buddhist faith (Oidtman 2018). Tibet also usefully served the Qing as a highland buffer between China and the British Empire in South Asia. Although there were occasional conflicts, the relationship between Lhasa and Beijing – a relationship described by the 13th Dalai Lama as that of “patron and priest” (Shakabpa 1984) – was mutually convenient and relatively stable during the nineteenth century