h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear JTG, This is a really excellent com[pilation, many thanks. Chai.

Sorry, silly me, I should have put Tibet Links in the subject line, and have now done so. Anything that will help spread the action.

Cheers,

Chaiwallah

Thanks, Chai. There's no way of knowing (that I'm aware of) how many people have actually visited this page. As you can see, until now, no one has had anything to say about it. It seems the best way to raise an issue on h2g2 is to start a club. Maybe it's time for an h2g2 Friends of Tibet.

Cheers,

JTG

Dear JTG,

What an excellent idea. I've no idea how you start an h2g2 club, but certainly an h2g2 Friends of Tibet would be excellent. The good thing about it being that unlike, say, a student organisation tied to a college, the membership would be independent of location, and that's a huge plus. [While SFT seem to be very active and vital, our experience with students has been that you can put a lot of energy into supporting a student society, or group, and then the interested ones graduate, the others become less active, and you have to start all over again.]

Also, as you've seen, there are so many Tibet-related resources out there on the web that a virtual club could have a huge range of connections, and spin off into support for local TSGs ( if h2g2 club members want to make such contacts, or take part in local actions, demos etc. )

And thanks for sending the Bertie Ahern card. My TSG Ireland colleague tells me he has had about 250 emails from people worldwide saying they sent Bertie Ahern Christmas Cards, so it should be having some kind of impact. We have no way of knowing how many sent cards but didn't bother to email us to let us know.

So yes yes yes, let's start 2004 with the formation of an h2g2 Friends of Tibet. So far there have been no negative responses to the New Year Tibet Action. But one should also be prepared for the fact that there may be a time when a nationalistic Chinese student in Ireland or the UK joins h2g2 and objects to the idea that Tibet should be considered apart from China. I've faced a fair amount of that when speaking to university students here in Dublin. Post Mao, China has become vociferously nationalistic, and even some of my friends in the Falun Gong group here get upset by any discussion of Tibet. But this is gradually changing.

Cheers for now, and again, Happy New Year.

I think it's worth a try. As long as what we're about is defending human rights and based on fact, I think we can hold our own in an argument.

The key, I think, is identifying (as you did with the card campaign) the pro-Tibet isn't necessarily anti-China.Many of the human rights issues that are of greatest concern in Tibet apply just as well throughout China and much of the developing world.

Happy new Year!

JTG

Absolutely. It is very important to follow HH the Dalai Lama's example in this, in respecting "our Chinese brothers and sisters." If you're following WTN, you'll have seen the recent reports of the changing Chinese view of HH the DL and his approach, at least among the scholars. But that's a very significant move.

In my experience, even the much-persecuted Falun Gong's followers here in Ireland are very reluctant to talk about Tibet at all, and are as fiercely nationalistic as any other Chinese. But they are, slowly, becoming more politically aware, and are beginning to realise that the abuse of human rights is an abuse, regardless of the victims' nationality. It has been my policy for a long time to try to reach out to them. We have a large Chinese community now in Ireland ( the largest racial group in Ireland after the Irish! )

Can you pursue the business of setting up an h2g2 club of Friends of Tibet?

I have a meeting with my TSG colleague tomorrow morning ( Sunday 4th Jan ), and we are planning to draft an up-dated news-sheet on the current situation in Tibet and China.

Cheers,

Chaiwallah

Absolutely! I'd be happy to see what I can do about Friends of Tibet. I've got a few ideas; but I want to poke around and have a look at what makes some of the other groups a hit around here before launching into anything. There's not much worse than throwing a party and nobody turning up.

Cheers,

JTG

Agreed, go for it.( And do let me know if there's anything I can do to help.)

I had a good meeting with my colleague in TSG Ireland this morning.

The priorities for Tibet Supporters are:

1) To write to their political representatives to support a negotiated settlement without pre-conditions for Tibet.

2) In the EU to press for a Special Representative for Tibet.

3) To support pressure for a third visit to Tibet by the Dalai Lama's team of envoys.

In the excellent list of links you posted, ICT's website in the USA and Free Tibet Campaign's website in the UK are the best from the action and information point-of-view.

The ICT site has a very good action section which is very easy to use. SFT also serves up a lot of ready-to-launch action campaigns via email along similar lines.

I've been doing some tinkering today with a 'homepage' of sorts for h2g2 Friends of Tibet (A2170982). I've taken the liberty of using your text (Journal Entry) for our first 'Current Project' - a name I prefer to 'campaign' or 'action' because it seems more in accord with the h2g2 community ideal, as I see it. I'd like to do a bit more arranging before launching the thing officially: add some more features; more Projects, such as Panchen Lama Project, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche Project, etc.

I've tried to convey a sense of serious purpose without, hopefully, coming across as yikes-ably militant. Let me know what you think.

Dear JtG,

This is absolutely excellent. I am in awe at the speed, skill and efficiency you have displayed in getting the h2g2 Friends of Tibet site up and running. What more can I say?

I've had a chat with Neil, my TSG colleague, and he has recommended some slight changes in the charter, so here it is, slightly altered.


To promote awareness and understanding of the Tibetan issue through friendly discussion.

To share information on the present situation in Tibet.

To support His Holiness the Dalai Lama's, and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile's initiatives in promoting free, open, and constructive dialogue as a realistic, non-violent means of resolving the Tibetan issue.

To examine His Holiness the Dalai Lama's message of constructive dialogue as a practical alternative to armed conflict.

To examine ways in which governments and international bodies, such as the UN and the EU, should promote negotiations without pre-conditions beween the Chinese Government and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.





It is important that we emphasise the non-violent aspect of the Tibetan struggle- as you have done- because of the current "war on terrorism," whose "warriors" such as Blair and Bush, totally ignore those who struggle non-violently, while condemning violence!

Also, the Chinese keep trying to make the whole business a personal Dalai Lama issue, while he keeps insisting that it is the TGiE and the Tibetan people who are important, so we need to follow his lead in this.

We should include the EU, because in Europe all the EU governments hide behind each others coat-tails, so one is usually dealing with the EU as well as one's national gov't. Though it seems that most of the EU countries still have unilateral talks with the Chinese as well.

This is all just a matter of careful phrasing. Basically, you have done a stunning job. Thank you so much.

It occurs to me that in the Quick Facts section, we could have a brief item on the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, and the fact that it is the only democratically elected body representing the opinions of any Tibetan people.

Also it has just popped into my head that we should have a section called "Travelling to Tibet? Do's and don'ts." More and more people are going there, and it is important that they don't get Tibetans into trouble, and also that they don't get misled by the generally Chinese guides.

I'll check some details and reply again here later.
Cheers,

Chaiwallah

Hi JtG,

I thought it would be good if we had our own "Brief Chronology of Tibetan History," as part of the site, rather than needing to be dug out of the Free Tibet Campaign link. So I have lifted it from their site, and re-edited it a bit, because there were some significant gaps, esp the UN General Assembly Resolutions on Tibet which were passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965, but which have been quietly ignored since then.

So here's the chronology. I presume you can copy it directly from here to the FoT pages.

A Brief Chronology of Tibetan History

416 BC Nyari Tsenpo founds first Tibetan dynasty in Yarlung valley.
602 AD Namri Songtsen, lord of Yarlung, becomes the first king of a unified Tibet.
620-49 Reign of King Songtsen Gampo; Tibet grows into an empire.
641 Songtsen Gampo marries his second of many wives, Chinese Princess Wengchen.
670 Prolonged warfare between Tibet and Tang China begins.
763 Tibet captures Changan, the Tang capital; tribute paid to Tibet. Tibetan king invites Buddhist teachers from India and China.
792 Exponents of Indian and Chinese Buddhism debate at Samye monastery.
821 China-Tibet Peace Treaty: "Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China".
842 King Langdarma assassinated; Tibet splits into several states.
1073 Sakya monastery founded; start of Red Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
1206 Chingis Khan elected first ruler of united Mongol clans.
1234 Mongols led by Ogodai Khagan defeat Junchen and conquer north China.
1247 Grand Lama of Sakya submits to Mongols; beginning of priest/patron relationship between lama and khan.
1261 Tibet reunited with the Grand Lama of Sakya as king.
1279 Final defeat of Sung by Mongols; Mongol conquest of China complete.
1350 King Changchub Gyaltsen ousts Sakya and founds a new secular dynasty.
1368 China regains its independence from the Mongols under Ming dynasty.
1409 Tibetan monk Tsongkhapa founds the Gelugpa (or Yellow Hat) sect.
1578 Gelugpa leader receives the title of "Dalai Lama" from Altan Khan.
1640 Gushri Khan, leader of Qoshot Mongols, invades and conquers Tibet.
1642 Gushri Khan enthrones the 5th Dalai Lama as temporal ruler of Tibet.
1644 Manchu overthrow Ming, conquer China, and establish the Qing dynasty.
1653 "Great Fifth" Dalai Lama meets Qing Emperor Shunzhi near Beijing.
1682 Fifth Dalai Lama dies; death is concealed for the next 14 years.
1717 Dzungar Mongols invade Tibet and sack Lhasa; 5th DL's tomb looted.
1720 Qing forces drive out Dzungars and install Kesang Gyatso as 7th DL.
1721 Qing emperor declares Tibet a tributary state; first Ambans sent.
1724 A Qing territorial government is created for Kokonor (Amdo).
1792 Qing troops enter Tibet to drive out Gorkha (Nepalese) invaders. A ban on visitation by non-Chinese foreigners is imposed.
1854-56 Nepal defeats Tibet; peace treaty requires Tibet to pay tribute.
1904 British troops under Colonel Younghusband enter Tibet & occupy Lhasa.
1910-12 A Qing army led by General Zhao Erfeng invades and occupies Tibet.
1911 The Urga Living Buddha proclaims the independence of Mongolia.
1912 Last Qing emperor abdicates; Republic of China claims Mongolia, Tibet.
1913 Dalai Lama proclaims Tibet independent; paper money and coins issued.
Mongolia and Tibet conclude a treaty of mutual recognition.
1914 Britain and Tibet agree to McMahon Line in a treaty signed in Simla.
1915 Three way treaty between Russia, China, and Mongolia signed at Khiakta.
1918 Tibetan army, led by British-trained officers, defeats Chinese army.
Tibet and China sign a peace treaty; China refuses to ratify treaty.
1919-21 Mongolia occupied by a pro-Japanese faction of the Chinese army.
1921 Ungern Sternberg's White Russians oust Chinese and conquer Mongolia.
Soviet army and pro-Soviet Mongols drive Whites out of Mongolia.
1921 Soviets recognise Mongolia with Living Buddha restored as monarch.
1924 Mongolian People's Republic proclaimed; Urga is renamed Ulan Bator.Chinese President Sun Yat-sen Calls for "self-determination for all national minorities under Chinese rule."
1928 Chiang Kaishek defeats the northern warlords and reunites China.
1931 Tibet gains territory in fighting with China; truce is signed.
1933 13th Dalai Lama dies; Reting Rimpoche selected as Tibetan regent.
1937 Britain publishes Simla Convention and begins enforcing McMahon Line.
1940 14th Dalai Lama is enthroned; Chinese delegation attends ceremony.
1941 Reting is replaced as regent by Taktra; the two secretly agree to rotate office between them.
1942 US army officer presents young Dalai Lama with letter from US President F.D.Roosevelt.
1943 Britain affirms that Tibet is "already self-governing and determined to retain [its] independence".
1946 The Republic of China recognises the Mongolian People's Republic.
1947 British mission in Lhasa transferred to a newly independent India. Reting is arrested for plotting to assassinate Regent Taktra. Former Regent Reting dies in prison, apparently poisoned.
1947-49 Tibetan Trade Mission travels to India, Britain, U.S., and China; the mission is received by the British Prime Minister Attlee.
1949 People's Republic of China is proclaimed by Chinese Communist Party. New Chinese government affirms recognition of Mongolia.
1950 Red China invades Tibet; Tibetan army destroyed in battle at Chamdo.
1951 17 Point Agreement between China and Tibet( guarantees Tibetan autonomy and the Dalai Lama's position ). Chinese occupy Lhasa.
1955 Kham is detached from Tibet and administered directly by the CCP
1956 Tibetans in Kham and Qinghai (Amdo) begin revolt against CCP rule.
1957 The United States begins to arm the Tibetan resistance via CIA.
1959 Anti-Chinese revolt spreads to Lhasa; 14th Dalai Lama forced to flee to India. UN General Assembly led by Irish Foreign Minister Aiken passes resolution on Tibet.
1960 A report by the International Commission of Jurists concludes that,"acts of genocide [have] been committed in Tibet in an attempt to destroy the Tibetans as a religious group."
1960-62 Tibet experiences its first famine as grain is seized by the PLA during China's disastrous Great Leap Forward, leading to deaths estimated between 30 and 60 million.
1961 UN General Assembly passes second resolution affirming Tibet's right to self-determination.
1962 China-India War: China advances beyond McMahon Line, then withdraws.
1963 The Tibetan Government-in-Exile writes a democratic constitution for a future liberated Tibet.
1965 China sets up Tibet Autonomous Region in U'Tsang and western Kham. UN general Assembly passes third resolution affirming Tibet's right to self-determination.
1966-69 Cultural Revolution: Red Guards rampage destroys most of the remaining Tibetan temples and monasteries.
1969 Fighting among Red Guard factions; PLA intervenes to restore order.
1971 The United States cuts off military aid to the Tibetan resistance.
1974 Nepal forces the Tibetan resistance to leave its base in Mustang.
1979 China allows delegation from Government-in-exile to visit Tibet.
1980 CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang visits Tibet and promises to "restore the Tibetan economy to its pre-1959 level."
1982 Solzhenitsyn calls the CCP regime in Tibet "more brutal and inhuman than any other communist regime in the world."
1987 Police fire on a massive pro-independence demonstration in Lhasa. Dalai Lama outlines "5-point Peace Plan for Tibetan self-government within China.
1988 Qiao Shi, China's security chief, visits Tibet and vows to "adopt a policy of merciless repression". In Strasbourg, France, Dalai Lama elaborates Peace Plan.
1989 Dalai Lama receives Nobel Peace Prize. Chinese kill over 100 Tibetans in Lhasa riots. Martial Law imposed in March. ( Tiananmen Square massacre, Beijing in June.)
1990 Martial Law lifted after 13 months.
1992 China declares Tibet "open" to foreign investment.
Chen Kuiyuan is named CCP leader for Tibet and calls for a purge of those party members who "act as internal agents of the Dalai Lama clique".
1993 Residents of Lhasa protest against price increases and the charging of fees for formally free medical services.
1994 Potala Palace, DL's traditional residence, is restored and reopened.
1995 China denounces the six-year old boy recognised by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, and imposes its own candidate.
1996 China bans the displaying of photographs of the Dalai Lama

We might also include a short section called:

China's Claim to Tibet.

China claims Tibet's territory, not as a result of the invasion of 1949-1951, but by "historical right." This "right" ignores all the treaties signed between the two countries, and the fact of Tibet's conquest of China in the Tang dynasty.

The usual events cited are:

1) The marriage of King Songtsen Gampo to Princess Wengchen in 641 AD.
In fact she was only the second of his many wives, and was taken as part of the peace treaty he imposed on the Chinese after his victory over the Tang armies.

2) The fact that Tibet submitted to Mongol leader Godan Khan after the Mongols conquered North China in 1240. The Mongols finalised their conquest of China in 1270, and ruled China directly, while leaving Tibet to govern itself under the Sakya Lama-kings. China's claim to Tibet because both countries were invaded by the Mongols is as logical as saying that Ireland should rule India because both were invaded and colonised by Britain.

3) The fact that the Mongol Emperor Altan Khan bestowed the title of Dalai Lama on Gelugpa leader Sonam Gyatso in 1578.

4) The presence of "ambans" in Lhasa during the Qing dynasty. Again, the Manchurians had conquered China, founding the Qing dynasty, but they did not conquer Tibet. The ambans were ambassadors, not governors. By the mid 19th Century the Qing had little influence in Tibet. The last ambans were kicked out of Tibet in 1912.

The new republic of China "claimed" Tibet and Mongolia as the last Qing Emperor, Pu Yi, abdicated. However, Tibet and Mongolia both proclaimed their independence and recognised each other in the Treaty of Urga signed in 1913.

In 1914 Britain recognised Tibet as an idependent nation at the signing of the Simla agreement, which established the McMahon Line as the border between Tibet and India.

At this time, of the three Tibetan provinces ( U-Tsang, Amdo and Kham ) Kham fell under the influence of Chinese warlords, who were defeated and expelled by the Tibetans in 1918. Chiang Kai-shek signed a truce with Tibet in 1933, and in 1934 China was allowed to open a diplomatic mission in Lhasa, the first since the expulsion of the ambans in 1912.

All of which shows that China did not treat Tibet as an integral part of its own territory before the invasion of 1949-1951. As Irish Foreign Minister, Frank Aiken said at the UN General Assembly in
1959: "Looking around this assembly, and looking at my own delegations, I think how many benches would be empty in this hall if it had always been agreed that when a small nation or a small people feel in the grip of a major power no one could ever raise their voice here; that once there was a subject nation, then must always remain a subject nation.Tibet has fallen into the hands of the Chinese People's Republic for the last few years. For thousands of years, or for a couple of thousand of years at any rate, it was as free and as fully in control of its own affairs as any nation in this Assembly, and a thousand times more free to look after its own affairs than many of the nations here."

The fact of the matter is that Tibet, historically, is a distinct nation, racially, linguistically, and culturally, separated from China not just by these factors, but also by virtue of its geographical location, the vast high plateau surrounded by the Himalayas, the Karakorams, the Kunlun, and Tanggla mountain ranges. Its political identity was also distinct, and independent, before the PRC invasion and occupation of 1949 which reduced Tibet to the status of a Chinese colony.

Excellent ideas! I must hang up for a bit, but I'll try to incorporate them tonight.

Thanks for the information that's great stuff!

JTG

Hi JtG.
I was thinking of maybe posting the "China's Claims to Tibet" piece as a guide entry, just as another way of bringing some attention to Tibet. What dya think?

Also, on the links page, would it be possible to place the Free Tibet Campaign link more prominently, because (a) it's an excellent site with good information, and (b) being British, it's local to most of the UK h2g2 users.

Meanwhile I'm trying to collate all the most relevant info into one page for our political heads!!!!!!

Sure, I think it's a good idea to make the major subjects separate Entries so that they are listed in the search index. I'll tie them all to the main page with a link at the top of each Entry.

I have to go over the links. They are all live, as far as I know; but some should be updated. The US State Dept. report, for example, should be replaced by a newer one, if there is one. I'll make sure to give Free Tibet Campaign a good spot.

How do you feel about writing up "China's Claims" and submitting it to Peer Review? We can use the submitted version, over which you retain the power to edit as you see fit, or we can opt to use the Edited Entry when it comes out.

I can use the material you've already provided if you'd rather not go that root. Right now, it's about bedtime though.

Cheers,

JTG

Sure thing JtG.

I'll do a bit of re-writing later this evening. Just now I have to work on getting a brochure finished for my day job ( pottery ) for posting off tomorrow. I think it is worthy of a journal entry as an explication of a current and significant political topic.

I note from China reports I got today that Taiwan and China seem to be heading for at least an idealogical confrontation over Taiwanese independence.