The Mysteries of History (March 10 Edition)
China Threatens the Dalai Lama
1959 — Tibetans Protect the Dalai Lama from Chinese Forces
public domain image from wikimedia commons
On this date in 1959, Tibetans had had enough and rebelled against China, who had been occupying Tibet for about a decade. At first, the Tibetans had reluctantly acquiesced to being colonized, more or less, until the Chinese started threatening the Dalai Lama (full name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso), the leader of their Tibetan form of Buddhism. When it seemed as if the Dalai Lama might be abducted by the Chinese, 300,000 Tibetans surrounded their religious leader’s summer palace, preventing him from being spirited away.
Although heavily outnumbered by the Chinese forces who killed tens of thousands of men, women, and children, the Tibetans were able to evacuate the Dalai Lama to India, where he arrived by the end of the month, followed there by tens of thousands of his followers. The soon-to-be 90-year-old has been ruling from there in exile ever since.
Questions: How many Dalai Lamas have there been? If and when the current one dies, who will take his place? What is China’s current relationship with Tibet, and vice versa?
