Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibet Relations

By Warren W. Smith, Jr.

Westview Press

 

 

This is a heavy tome coming in at 700 pages not including a vast bibliography,

index, a preface, and maps. This book is not for the casual reader but is a must

for all Western supporters of Tibet. It will give the reader exact detailed information

on the history of Tibetan Nationalism and Chinese – Tibetan relationships

from before recorded history to the mid 1990’s.

 

After the preface the book begins with geographical information on how

the land mass started forming when the Indian sub continental plate joined the

Eurasian plate (13 -25 million years ago); the plateau reached

1,000 meters 2 - 4 million years ago and has been growing ever since.

The next three chapters are dense with information about Tibetan origins.

Numerous clans, tribes, family groups are named with dates and places

where these groups inhabited. Unfortunately it is hard to remember

all these groups and although there are four maps none of them show

the ancient place names or the inhabitants. Also over time all the

this otherwise outstanding work; the book needs more maps!

 

“Tibetan mythological sources speak of four or six original tribes of Tibet.

The four tribes which appear in most sources, and to whom precedence is

usually given, are the Don (lDon), Ton (sTon), Se and Mu (rMu). Each of these tribes

is also associated with states foreign to the central Tibet state and

they are often referred to in that connection: Don with the Minyak, Ton with the Sumpa,

Se with Azha, and Mu with Zhangzhung.”  Who? What? Where? When? There are

literally hundreds of names of tribes from what is now Mongolia, China, Tibet, Turkestan

and a host of other countries that have changed names many times. Information on

how they warred or intermingled or shared boundaries is all included.

 

The consolidation of the first Chinese state under the Ch’in dynasty (221 – 207 B.C)

was in Northern China as the tribe or tribes before the Ch’in moved from hunting and

gathering to agriculture and pastoralism. Now these first northern tribes had something

to protect and they brought their expanded families together and soon peoples on the

frontier as well into their sphere. This is when the meglo-manical mindset of the people

that later would be named Chinese began. With their way of life needing protection they

thought themselves better that those who continued with hunting and gathering and

those others were considered barbarians. They also believed that all barbarians should

be assimilated with them. The barbarians were dumb and ill informed that the way of life and culture of the Northern Chinese was better and if they just accepted it they would be assimilated.

 

But not all the so-called barbarians desired assimilation, so the Northern Chinese thought of another way to bring them into their sphere: any barbarian who traded with them or fought against them over land and boundaries were thought to be assimilated whether they liked it or not. The Northern Chinese, later known as the Ch’iang, were the best people on earth and no one dare disagree.

 

Later in 629 Songsten Gampo’s son Namri consolidated the Yarlung Tibetan State with its capital in Lhasa and continued the process of territorial expansion. A few years later the Tibetan attacked the Ch’iang and defeated them. However the Ch’iang state in their history books state that the Tibetans brought gifts for them and apologized for their actions. It was the Ch’iang’s inability to accept defeat and even though they were defeated they still felt the Tibetan had been assimilated. Thus began Sino - Tibetan relations and the lying and fake news commenced.

 

The Yarlung State fell in 842 and there was no longer any central authority in Tibet until 1247 when the Mongols dominated the area. During this time the central state in what we now call China also fell apart. At the same time Buddhism gained prominence all over in what we now called Tibet and the Cho Yon tradition was established and became the foreign relations pattern for Tibet. It was the priest patron relationship that typified Cho Yon.  The first time this was established with a Buddhist Lama and the Mongol Khan. Later the Chinese would state that this relationship was only possible with Chinese leadership and that both Mongols and Tibetans were assimilated even though they lost wars with Mongols and Tibetans. This was to be their M. O. for the next few thousand years.

 

When Kublai Khan died sectarian conflicts arose all over Tibet, Mongolia and China. Soon Tibet came under the sway of the Ch’ing especially after the Fifth Dalai Lama died. He had successfully kept the Ch’ing at bay, but after his death there was no one to carry on his work. Starting in 1792 the Ch’ing dynasty started a long slow decline, while in Tibet no strong leader appeared to take control. The Eight Dalai Lama died in 1840and the Ch’ing wanted to use the Golden Urn method to select the Ninth Dalai Lama but Tibetans revolted and it was never used – although Chinese history states that this date began the tradition of the Golden Urn.

 

As the Ch’ing declined the belief that they were besieged and everyone was against them was propagated to the people and propaganda reared its head for the first time as the Ch’ing clinged to their last ounce of power. The Thirteenth Dalia Lama was born in 1876 and confirmed in 1879 without any interference from the Ch’ing. At the same time Nationalism as a political ideology occurred in both China and Tibet as they wanted to change their relationship. In March 1904 Colonel Younghusband and a British regiment made their way into Tibet and all the way to Lhasa. Concurrently another group known as the Han formed and superseded the Ch’aing and assimilated them and all tribes of Northern China under one people.

 

It is now that most western Tibet supporters know the rest of the story and we still have 550 pages to go as Warren Smith quotes directly from Chinese documents, United Front Work Department reports, CCP resolutions, and newspapers, British Foreign Office cables and memos, U. S. State Department cables and memos, and Indian government machinations to tell the sad, tragic story of a country left alone to be gobbled up by a Communist regime.

 

If what has happened to Tibet and continues to occur is anybody’s fault or is everybody’s fault. Yes the Indians, the British, the Americans, and the Tibetans all made mistakes, miscalculations and were timid and tired from WW2 and the crisis in Korea. However if we are to fault anyone let us lay the blame on the government of the Chinese Communist Party.

 

The book ends with Mr. Smith stating that even if the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party changed in the next few generations what is happening in Tibet will continue because all Chinese people have been indoctrinated with the propaganda that Tibet is an inalienable part of China for the last 200 years.

 

Warren W. Smith is a research historian at Radio Free Asia and a leading expert on China’s control policies in Tibet. He is the author of Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations (1996), China’s Tibet? Autonomy or Assimilation (2008) and Tibet's Last Stand: The Tibetan Uprising of 2008 and China's Response (2009).