- Until 1950 Tibet was a sovereign state inhabited by a people with a distinct language, culture, religion, history and customs. In 1950 Tibet was invaded by the army of The People’s Republic of China. It is occupied by the Communist Chinese to the present day.
Escalating unrest among the Tibetan people in response to Chinese occupation culminated in the Tibetan Uprising of 1959. According to Chinese sources 80,000 Tibetans died in Central Tibet alone during and immediately after the uprising. It is estimated that since 1959, 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a direct result of Chinese incursion into the country. During 1959 many thousands of Tibetans, including the leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, sought asylum in India. The exodus of Tibetans from Tibet continues to this day.
Between 1959 and 1977 all but 12 of more than 6,000 monasteries were destroyed. Many of them were used as target practice by Chinese artillery. A thousand years’ worth of priceless Buddhist literature, religious paintings and artifacts have fetched millions of dollars on the international market in an effort by the Chinese to raise foreign currency and to wipe out Tibet’s rich heritage.
In the last decade the Chinese have stepped up their efforts to repopulate the country. Tibetans are now a minority in their own country — there are said to be at least a million more Chinese than Tibetans in Tibet today. Inducements of higher pay and other privileges continue to bring a stream of Chinese settlers into the country. The aim of this is to forcibly resolve China’s territorial claims over Tibet by means of a massive and irreversible population shift.
Tibet’s natural resources and ecology are being irreversibly destroyed. Wildlife, including the rare Tibetan snow leopard and the wild blue Tibetan sheep, has been decimated. Forests have been clear-cut and transported to China (since 1950, 68% of Tibet’s forests have been felled, causing grave concern in Bangladesh and India, now both frequently devastated by flooding.)
China severely restricts the teaching and study of Buddhism, an essential core of Tibetan culture. The Communist Party regulates the admission of monks and nuns into the monasteries and “political education” is compulsory.
Discrimination is officially and openly practised. The best medical care overwhelmingly serves the Chinese population and the best medical facilities are located in Chinese areas. Education of Chinese children in Tibet is far superior to that available to Tibetans. 70% of higher educational places are reserved for Chinese. In all but elementary classes, Tibetans are taught in Chinese.
