few heroes - 26th Oct '08

Been reading Tibet, Tibet, by Patrick French. Interesting tales of his travels and the history of the nation.

Longing for the landlord's daughter
Blossoming in youthful beauty
Is like pining for peaches
Ripening on the tall peach trees

The 6th Dalai Lama

He is revered even though he refused to complete his monkhood vows and was a drinker and womaniser, amongst other things.

Tibet was under the emperor of China from 1720, though in name more than actual governance. China helped fund the restoration of the Potala in that century. The Panchen Rimpoche, in one of his incarnations went to Peking and, refusing to bow in obeisance, knelt before the ruler. Neither pleasing himself or the emperor. That was the thirteenth Panchen, I believe.

The British battled their way to Lhasa in 1904, under Colonel Younghusband, to find the embodiment of the government, the Dalai Lama, had fled. It seems they set up camp for the coming years and established good relations with the officials, Lamas and the Dalai himself.

Britain supplied Tibet with some weapons as defense against Sino aggression but never fully recognized them as a sovereign nation, instead using the region as a buffer zone against the Chinese and Russians potentially coming in through Xinjiang, Kham etc towards colonial India. The Simla treaty between the British and the Tibetans, which drew up the McMahon boarder line between India and Tibet, was not signed by China. Therefore leaving controversy to this day.

America also failed Tibet in seeming to support them and their cause, training fighters, only to forget them and this tool for stirring up strife for political gain, after 1972 when Nixon and Mao met. Support for Taiwan also diminished.

It was about politics, pragmatism... not an ethical cause. When it didn't aid British and US interests then the Tibetans were left to their own devices. That's the nature of politics and humanity in general. There are few heroes, sadly.