History
Tibet
Current Situation
Tibet has been inhabited for as long as 21,000 years but the nation was first unified in 618 as the Tibetan Empire. Tibet's first Emperor, Songtsen Gampo, unified the region and established a dynasty that would rule until 842.
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During the 9th and 10th centuries, Tibet was divided in the "Era of Fragmentation" before reunification. In the 13th century however, the first of many invasions took place as the Mongol-ruled Yuan Empire occupied the nation. Notably, whilst the Tibetan Kings paid tribute to China they remained an autonomous and largely independent region with their own religion, laws, leadership and way of life.
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From the 14th to the 18th century, Tibet became independent under the rule of a series of Dynasties until, in 1642, the 5th Dalai Lama, an important religious leader, became temporal ruler of the land. From 1642 until 1950, Tibet existed as an independent or autonomous region under the leadership of the Dalai Lamas. True to the concept of reincarnation present in Buddhism, each Dalai Lama is said to be the incarnation of the last as his soul passed down the generations.
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In 1937 the two year old Lhamo Thondup was announced as the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and given the regal name Tenzin Gyatso. Since then he has provided spiritual leadership to the nation and it's people.
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In 1950 however, following on from their victory in the Chinese Civil War, the People's Republic of China invaded and occupied Tibet. For a while they permitted the traditional leadership to remain in place but an increasingly draconian and disastrous rule from Beijing led to an uprising in 1959 which the Chinese Army suppressed violently, killing up to 87,000 Tibetans. Following this, the Dalai Lama and his allies fled to India where they established a government-in-exile which continues to represent Tibetans around the world today.
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​Buddhism has been an important part of Tibetan culture since the nation's founding and the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, known as the Dalai Lama, provides spiritual leadership for Buddhists worldwide. The current and 14th Dalai Lama is a famous advocate for peace and understanding, as well as for the independence of his homeland. For many years, the Dalai Lama acted as the political as well as spiritual leader of Tibet, although true political leadership lay with the democratically elected Tibetan Parliament. In May 2011 however, the Dalai Lama handed over all temporal authority to the Tibetan Prime Minister.
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Since then, Tibet has been a fully democratic nation with the government in exile holding regular elections, in which Tibetans around the world can vote for the leadership of their nation.
Nearly 70 years of occupation have had a toll on Tibet, whose resources are stripped by a government in Beijing and whose people are regularly displaced. Practice of Tibetan Buddhism is heavily restricted, it remains illegal to own a picture of the Dalai Lama or to publicly criticise the government. The military and police enforce a strict police state as any dissidence is heavily punished.
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The second most important leader in Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lama, has been imprisoned by the Chinese government since 1995 and the Chinese have imposed their own, puppet Panchen Lama in his place. He is only one of thousands of political prisoners who have disappeared under Chinese rule. There is major concern in the Tibetan community that a similar puppet will be installed as Dalai Lama following the death of the incumbent.
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Today, the Tibetan people are represented by the Tibetan Government in exile, based in India. The Chinese authority in Tibet, the Tibetan Autonomous Region, is kept under firm control of the Communist Party of China and gives no democratic or true representation to the Tibetan people.
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There are many modern groups support the Tibetan cause, in the UK perhaps most notably Free Tibet who hold regular protests and petitions against the Chinese occupation and to encourage the British Government to speak out for Tibet.
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Whilst Independence is the ultimate goal for many Tibetan activists, the Dalai Lama has said that he would accept a "Third Way" solution, in which Tibet was able to elect its own officials and operate autonomously but remained a part of China. The model used in Macau and Hong Kong, refereed to as the "One Nation, Two Systems" solution, has been proposed as a potential solution. Never the less, the Government of Xi Jinping insists that there will be no change from the status quo.
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British support for the Tibetan people has been mixed, despite close relations between the United Kingdom and Tibet from the 19th century through to 1950, there has only been spotty support since. Whilst then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with the Dalai Lama in 2008, since 2010 there has been a complete lack of support as the government pushes for further economic ties with the Chinese Government.