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Persecution of the Khampas

  • Khampas: nomadic yak herdsmen of Tibet.
  • They were forbidden by Chinese authorities to roam the pasture lands with their yak herds.
  • Told they were farmers- forced to live with their herds in communes.
  • Khampas were also instructed to follow the socialist science of animal rearing.
  • Chinese experts stated that yaks did not need to be grazed over a wide area, so must not be moved from the communes.
  • Result: animals became malnourished- Tibetan's supply of milk, cheese and meat dried up.
  • Yak hair became useless.
  • Hundreds of thousands of Tibetan people began to die from malnutrition and cold.

Tibet's man-made famine

  • The Tibetan rising in 1959, coincided with the development of a famine across China.
  • The PRC chose deliberately to extend the famine to Tibet- no reason in nature for the famine.
  • The famine that ravaged Tibet between 1959 and 1962, was spread by the authorities as part of their programme for destroying Tibetan resistance.

The destruction of Tibetan farming

  • Traditional Tibetan farming had two main forms: the rearing of yaks and sheep by nomadic herders and the growing of barley by farmers.
  • Tibetan people had never gone hungry.
  • Chinese occupiers demanded 'communal and socialist farming techniques created by Chairman Mao' to be adopted in Tibet.
  • This demand resulted in the destruction of Tibet's food production.
  • Farmers were forced to grow wheat and maize instead of barley- new crops grew poorly in the Tibetan climate.

The Famine in Tibet

The Panchen Lama's Report (1962)

  • Panchen Lama: second in spiritual authority to the Dalai Lama.
  • Between 1959 and 1963, he went on a secret tour of Tibet to discover the truth about the famine.
  • He led this enquiry after realising that the Communits party were churning out lies about the conditions in Tibet.
  • In each region that he travelled through, he recorded the number of persons who had been imprisoned, executed or starved to death.
  • His calculations (published in a formal report in 1962) showed that:
  • 20% of the population had been jailed- an average of 80-100 for each village.
  • half of these died while in prison.
  • The report included eye witness accounts, detailing the brutality of the Chinese authority on the Tibetan people and their way of life.
  • Tibet was the province that suffered the most during the famine- losing a quarter of its four million people.

  • The famine in Tibet was a man made disaster, since the death toll was intended- it was an act of genocide by the Chinese government.

Destruction of Tibetan culture

The report's authenticity

  • Originally the Panchen Lama had been sympathetic towards the Chinese in Tibet and welcomed the PLA into the region.
  • Zhou Enlai later admitted that the report was a fair and accurate portrayal of what the Chinese had done in Tibet.
  • 1 million Tibetans died.
  • Of the 3 million Tibetans who survived there were few who did not suffer humiliation and degradation as their ancient way of life was destroyed around them.
  • Mao appeared to have a particular hatred for Tibet.
  • Once the Tibetan resistance fighters were crushed by the PLA, the chinese occupiers set about the destruction of the cultural, social and religious identity of Tibet.
  • Tibet was renamed Xizang.
  • The public practice of Lama, was prohibited along with political meetings and the teaching of Tibetan languages and history in schools.
  • Chinese aim: eradicate Tibet as a nation and as a culture.

Mao's response to the report

  • Panchen Lama sent a copy directly to Mao.
  • Mao dismissed it as a collection of lies and distortions.
  • He had the Panchen Lama (a 'big class enemy') arrested and ordered the suppression of the report.
  • Officials responsible for the PRC's propaganda department were instructed to rebut the major claims against the Chinese in Tibet.
  • Officials verdict was that:
  • the stories of famine were totally without foundation,
  • the truth was that Tibet had experienced the same abundant harvests as all the other provinces of China.
  • Despite this massive effort, reality was that they were guilty of making things up.

Test

The flight of the Dalai Lama

How did the Chinese achieve their aim?

How many people died in the famine of Tibet?

What was Tibet renamed?

What were the causes of the famine?

What happened in 1959?

Why was the Dalai Lama significant?

Who are the Khampas?

Who was the Panchen Lama?

  • The severity with which the Tibetan resistance was suppressed in 1959, led to the exit of the Dalai Lama from Tibet.
  • He chose to leave the country, rather than wait for his inevitable removal by the Chinese.
  • As an exiled, but free man he would have the advantage of being able to voice the plight of the Tibetan people to the outside world.
  • The Dalai Lama became a potent symbol of Tibetan resistance.
  • Chinese government sponsored a mass migration of people from other parts of China to Tibet.
  • The new settlers were predominantly Han- the government clearly wanted to fill Tibet with people whose alien way of life would swamp the local Tibetan culture.
  • Mandarin Chinese was imposed as the official language of Tibet.

What was Mao's response to the Panchen Lama's report?

The 1959 Tibetan Rising

  • Despite the pressure it came under, the Tibetan resistance movement was not destroyed.
  • After its defeat in 1950, it went underground.
  • In 1959, it re-emerged to organise a national rising against Chinese occupation.
  • Chinese response: send PLA units to suppress demonstrations
  • Chinese forces, particularly attacked the Tibetan religion.
  • Those that were allowed to remain as religious houses had to accept total control by the Chinese state.
  • It became an arrestable offence for Tibetans even to mention the Dalai Lama in public

The Famine in Tibet

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