Tibet, Britain,India and China

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British Invasion and the Birth of the Myth of "Tibetan Independence"

 

The myth of "Tibetan independence," which evolved during the late

19th century, is actually the product of the imperialist invasion of

China, with the British invaders in Tibet as the chief architects.

Many Chinese and foreign works have been published to bring light to

this segment of history. These include The Source of the So-

Called¡®Tibetan Independence¡¯Activities by Yang Gongsu, a famous

Chinese Tibetologist, which tells of this period of history in an

all-round and systematic way. However, Van Praag and Xagabba go

against the current to cover and tamper the fact that the British

invaded Tibet and directed these "Tibetan independence" activities.

It is therefore of great importance to return black to white.

 

The third chapter, Tibet in the "Great Game" of The Status of Tibet

by Van Praag ventures to tell readers, but without producing any

background, that "Tibet became the unwilling object of contention

among the three great empires of Asia: Russian, British and the

Manchu Empires". between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

What is expounded in the chapter throws the readers into confusion.

 

In Xagabba's Tibet: A Political History, a brief introduction is

made to the reincarnation of the late 12th Dalai Lama and the

enthronement of the 13th Dalai Lama. Suddenly the focus shifts to

say that the government of Bangladesh sent people to Xigaze and the

British leased Darjeeling from Sikkim. But it says nothing about why

the Bangladesh government sent people to Xigaze and why the British

leased Darjeeling from Sikkim.

 

In 1600, the British colonialists set up the East India Company in

India for commercial exploitation. In 1757 when Britain defeated

Indian Bangladesh, India was reduced to the status of a British

colony. In 1849, when Britain conquered the whole of India, India

became the political and economic center of the British colonialist

system in the east and the strategic base of Britain for British

expansion in Asia.

 

During the period from the 19th to the early 20th centuries, Great

Britain was in its heyday. India emerged as "the brightest pearl in

the crown of the British Queen" and was also a "food basket" for

Britain. Britain held that India had a high role to play in

guaranteeing its long-term and maximum economic interests in the

South Asian sub-continent. In the light of India's geographical

features and surrounding environment, the British strategists

produced a proposition for the establishment of "three buffer zones,

two concentric circles and one inner lake" to provide for Indian

security. The "three buffer zones" refer to Tibet becoming subject

to British management, which would guarantee India was "free from

the China threat"; the Indian Ocean Rim, with an aim of

bringing "countries along the coasts of the Indian Ocean under

British control"; and Afghanistan, which was expected to keep

Czarist Russia away from the British holdings. The "two concentric

circles" refer to the inner circle of tribal areas in the

northwestern border of India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, the Assam State

and tribal areas in the northeastern border of India, and the outer

circle of emirates in the Persian Gulf, Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet,

and Thailand.

 

Proceeding from this strategic proposition, Britain must set out

northward from India to invade various states in the Himalayan areas

before making inroads into Tibet. At this point, Czarist Russia was

coveting Xinjiang, attempting to thrust southward into Tibet.

Czarist Russia's invasion of Tibet, however, was not as serious and

direct as the British invasion. It relied primarily on political

means.

 

The British and Russian invasions of Tibet was illegal because they

infringed upon the territorial integrity of China and undermined

China's unification. The strengthening of Chinese rule over Tibet

was legal because it helped maintain state sovereignty and was

favorable for national unification. The two are totally different in

nature.

 

It is therefore absolutely wrong for Van Praag to talk about the

scramble for Tibet between three empires--Russia, Britain and the

Manchurian Empire. It is wrong because it confuses invasions with

the invaded and illegal moves with legal moves.

 

In accordance with its established policy of expanding northward

from India, Britain leased Darjeeling from Sikkim in 1835 as

the "Summer resort" of the East India Company. Henceforth, Britain

secured a foothold in the Himalayan areas. In 1846 Britain engulfed

the Chamoli-Kashmir area in northwestern India and seized control of

Ladakh in Tibet. In 1860, the British attacked Sikkim and placed the

king under palace arrest the following year, forcing him to sign the

Anglo-Sikkim Treaty, which ceded large tracts of land to British

rule. Also in 1860, the British signed a treaty with Nepal, which

allowed British control of Nepal in greater depth. In 1864, the

British attacked Bhutan and forced the defeated Bhutan government to

sign a treaty in 1865, forcibly taking away large tracts of Bhutan's

lands. Using Sikkim as a springboard for invasion of Tibet, the

British built roads in Sikkim for a northward march conducted in

accordance with its strategy of subjecting Tibet under British

administration and freeing India from China threat.

 

(1) First British Invasion

 

In the 1860s, the British invaders in Sikkim started to build roads

and bridges leading to Tibet. They also sent recruited vagrants

across Rina by the Tibet-Sikkim border to Mount Lungdo to explore

paths. When they were spotted, they were stopped by locals. The

British then sent people to the area north of Mount Lungdo, building

roads and blockhouses. In the face of the imminent British invasion,

the Gaxag government, in disregard of the compromising policies

adopted by the corrupt Qing court, dispatched troops to Mount

Lungdo, where they put up barriers and built blockhouses by which

stood statues of Buddhist guardians. The British claimed this

constituted a Tibetan invasion of Sikkim and told the Qing court

that the Gaxag government of Tibet must withdraw its troops from

Mount Lungdo in a given period of time or the British would station

troops there too. In the face of the arrogant British, the Qing

court, which feared border wars, decided to "Suffer wrong in pursuit

of the overall general interest." It demanded the Gaxag government

of Tibet withdraw its troops from Mount Lungdo.

 

The Gaxag government and the three major monasteries refused to do

so by pointing out that Mount Lungdo was Tibetan territory instead

of the Sikkim territory. Qing Dynasty High Commissioner Wen Shu saw

through the British intentions and supported the Gaxag government in

their fight against the British. While sowing bad blood between the

Qing court and the Gaxag government, the British did their best to

win over the Qing court in a joint political fight against the

Tibetans, who stood for resistance against the British. In the

meantime, the British massed some 2,000 troops south of slopes of

Mount Lungdo, ready to launch an attack northward. On the Tibetan

side, two Duiboin generals were sent to lead 900 Tibetan troops, and

the militias were mobilized. They were deployed on Mount Lungdo and

to its north. Galoon Lhalu Yexei Norbu Wangqu was appointed the

chief commander.

 

On March 20, 1888 (the seventh day of the second month of the

Tibetan calendar), the British troops attacked the Tibetan troops at

Mount Lungdo. Tibetan official Doje Renzin and the Tibetan troops

and militia rose to resist, killing some 100 British invaders in the

first battle. They suffered from heavy losses in the ensuing battles

and were forced to retreat to Yadong and Pagri, leaving Mount Lungdo

in the control by the British. The Qing court dismissed Wen Shu, the

Qing High Commissioner stationed in Tibet, who had supported the

Tibetan struggle against the British invasion, and appointed

obedient Sheng Tai to take his place as the Banbai Minister. In

disregard of obstructions from the Qing court, the 13th Dalai Lama

and the Gaxag government of Tibet mobilized some 10,000 Tibetan

troops and militiamen and battled the British invaders from June

through October, in an attempt to recover Mount Lungdo.

 

Following the instructions from the Qing court to the letter, the

new High Commissioner stood in the way of the Tibetan troops and

militia. This, plus the poor equipment of the Tibetan troops and

militiamen, led to failure. The British troops crossed the Zhelilha

mountain pass, and penetrated Rinqengang and Chunpi in Yadong.

There, they kidnapped and put under palace arrest the Sikkim king

then living in Chunpi. At that time, Sikkim maintained such good

ties with Yadong of Tibet that the Sikkim king spent winters in

Gangtok, now capital of Sikkim, and summers in Chunpi of Yadong.

According to An Outline of Tibet written by the Japanese scholar Y.

Narita, who reached Yadong and Mount Lungdo in the post-war period,

stated: "When I passed that place, my servant said pointing at the

old battlefield: During the battles two years earlier, dead bodies

littered the ground and blood converged into streams. Bones were

piled into hills. Alas! This tells of the causalities suffered by

the Tibetans!" (Ya Hanzhang: Biography of the Dalai Lama, p.103)

 

As the year 1888 was the Year of Earth Mouse on the Tibetan

calendar, the Tibetans refer to these battles as the War of the

Earth Mouse Year.

 

After the end of the first British invasion of Tibet, the decadent

Qing court yearned for peace talks with the British. In the winter

of 1888, the Qing court sent Sheng Tai to Yadong to negotiate peace

with the British. Under British pressure, Sheng Tai retreated step

by step, seeking peace through the sale of his country. He joined

British Indian Viceroy P.C. Lansdowne to sign the Anglo-Chinese

Convention Relating to Sikkim and Tibetan Calcutta in 1890, which

obligated the Qing government to recognize the British government's

protectorate over Sikkim, formerly under the jurisdiction of China's

Tibet.

 

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