The Tibet-China Conflict

East-West Center
The Tibet-China Conflict:: History and Polemics

Author(s): Elliot Sperling
East-West Center (2004)
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Policy Studies 7
The Tibet-China Conflict:

History and Polemics
East-West Center

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P olicy Studies
A Publication of the East-West Center Washington
Editor: Dr. M uthiah Alagappa

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P olicy S tu dies 7
The Tibet-China
Conflict:
ElliotSperling

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Copyright © 2004 by the East-West Center Washington
The Tibet-China Conflict: History a n d Polemics

by Elliot Sperling
ISBN 1-932728-13-9 (onlineversion)

ISSN 1547-1330 (online version)
Online version available at:

http://www.eastwestcenterwashington.org/Publications/publications.htm
1819L Street NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 293-3995
Fax: (202) 293-1402
Email: Publications@EastWestCenterWashington.org
Website: http://www.eastwestcenterwashington.org
The Policy Studies series contributes to the Center’s role as a forum for
discussion ofkey contemporary domestic and international political,
economic, and strategic issues affecting Asia. The views expressed are
those of the author and not necessarily of the Center.
This publication is a product of the East-West Center Washington’s

Project on Internal Conflicts. For details see pages 51-59.
The project and this publication are supported by a generous contribution

from the Carnegie Corporation ofNew York.

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Contents
List of Acronyms vii
Executive Summary ix
Introduction 1
The Question of Tibet’s Historical Status 3
Evolution of the Chinese Position 5
Prevailing Chinese View of Tibet’s Historical Status 11
Evolution of the Tibetan Position 15
Prevailing Tibetan View of Tibet’s Historical Status 22
Assertions and the Historical Record 23
Conclusion 35
Endnotes 37
Bibliography 45

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Project Information: The Dynamics and Management of
Internal Conflicts in Asia 51
• Project Purpose and Outline 53
• Project Participants List 57
• Background of the Tibet conflict 60
• Map of the Tibetan Plateau 62

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List of Acronyms
PLA People's Liberation Arm y
PRC People's Republic of China
UN United Nations

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Executive Summary
This paper is a guide to the historical arguments made by the primary
parties to the Tibet-China conflict. Given the polarization that has
characterized this issue for decades, it is surprising that little has been done
to analyze or at least disentangle the strands of historical argumentation
that the parties have been using. This paper attempts to do this by relying
as much as possible on the key assertions as they have been framed in
Chinese and Tibetan sources. Chinese- and Tibetan-language materials
dealing with the historical status ofTibet are often more detailed and better
documented, and hew more closely then English-language materials do to
the thinking of the people most directly concerned with (and affected by)
the Tibet-China conflict.
The status ofTibet is at the core of the dispute, as it has been for all
parties drawn into it over the past century. China maintains that Tibet is an
inalienable part of China. Tibetans maintain that Tibet has historically been
an independent country. In reality, the conflict over Tibet’s status has been a
conflict over history. When Chinese writers and political figures assert that
Tibet is a part of China, they do so not on the basis of Chinese rule being
good rule (although they do not hesitate to make that assertion, either), but
on the basis of history. As one of China’s more well-known spokesmen once
put it, “‘Is Tibet, after all, a part of China?’ History says it is.”
The fundamental place of history in the Tibet issue is not something
imposed by outside parties. Even though the Dalai Lama and his

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X Elliot Sperling
government-in-exile appear quite at ease with accepting Tibet as a part of

China, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has pointedly accused the
Dalai Lama of duplicity, stating that his unwillingness to recognize Tibet as
having been an integral part of China for centuries renders his acquiescence
unacceptable. The centrality of history in the question of Tibet’s status
could not be clearer.
This paper looks at the evolution of both Chinese and Tibetan
positions, then at the prevailing views currently held by advocates on
either side of the issue, and finally at how the major assertions made about
Tibet’s historical status stand up against the historical record as reflected in
relevant primary-source materials in Chinese and Tibetan. Contemporary
secondary literature on the Tibet issue has until now not been based on this
sort of approach.
This paper provides new details and new insights for those concerned
with the basic historical arguments that underlie the crucial issue ofTibet’s
status. It will show that positions on the Tibet issue said to be reflective of
centuries of popular consensus are actually very recent constructions often
at variance with the history on which they claim to be based. In some areas
critical aspects ofhistory have been misconstrued by both sides.
Thus, China’s contention that Tibet has been an “integral” part of
China since the thirteenth century took shape only in the twentieth
century. Moreover, as late as the 1950s, Chinese writers were accustomed
to describing Tibet’s place in the world of imperial China as that of a
subordinate vassal state, not an integral part of China, as current Chinese
materials put it. Indeed, for quite some time after Tibet was incorporated
into the PRC, Chinese narratives of that process were often vague and beset
by contradictory chronologies.
Similarly, the Tibetan concept of a “priest-patron” religious relationship
governing Sino-Tibetan relations to the exclusion of concrete political
subordination is itself a rather recent construction. Ample evidence shows
that Tibetan religious figures entertained religious and spiritual relationships
with emperors of several dynasties, sometimes under conditions in which
Tibet was politically subordinate to the dynasty in question and at other
times under conditions in which Tibet was independent. The priest-patron
relationship was simply not a barometer ofTibet’s status, in spite of current
Tibetan use of it as such.
In addition, one of the major contentions of the Tibetan government-
in-exile—that Tibet was invaded in 1949—is a complex and ambiguous

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The Tibet-China Conflict xi
issue. The Tibetan government signaled it was under attack only in 1950,
when PRC forces crossed into the territories under the jurisdiction of
the Dalai Lama’s government. Tibetan areas outside the Dalai Lama’s
jurisdiction had already been incorporated into the PRC. The insistence
in recent decades on 1949 as the date of Tibet’s invasion is an attempt to
define these territories as part of Tibet. Complexity is added to the issue by
the fact that these territories have been significant in Tibet’s conflict with
China. Their cultural place in the Tibetan world is important; the present
Dalai Lama comes from this part of the Tibetan Plateau.

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For more than 700 years the central government of China has continuously
exercised sovereignty over Tibet and Tibet has never been an independent state.1
PRC official W hite Paper, 1992
At the time of its invasion by troops of the People’s Liberation Army of China
in 1949, Tibet was an independent state in fact and law. The military invasion
constituted an aggression ona sovereign state and a violation of international law.2
Tibetan Government-in-Exile, 1993
This paper is intended as something of a Baedeker for those attempting to

cross the contested terrain of historical arguments mustered by the primary
parties to the Tibet-China conflict. It has long been a common assumption
that the positions of both parties on the historical status of Tibet are highly
polarized. Such an assumption is understandable, given that historical
evidence is commonly at the core of most assertions about the justice or
injustice ofTibet’s contemporary status. Yet little has been done to analyze
or at least disentangle the strands of historical argumentation that the
parties have used for well over half a century now. In attempting to do just
that, this paper examines some of the major assertions made by Tibetan and
Chinese writers in support of the propositions that Tibet was historically
a part of China or historically independent of China. It is hoped that this

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2 Elliot Sperling
study will be useful to those trying to understand the conflicting views that
lie at the heart of the impasse over Tibet.
To that end, many of the key assertions on the issue are presented in
the following pages as they are framed in Chinese and Tibetan. Using those
original formulations is important in large measure because Chinese- and
Tibetan-language materials on the issue are often more detailed and better
documented, and hew more closely than English-language materials do to
the thinking of the people most directly concerned with (and affected by)
the Tibet-China conflict. The research underlying this paper is not limited
to Tibetan- and Chinese-language materials, however. English-language
materials are also used, albeit with the caveat that English-language
materials emanating from the Chinese and Tibetan sides are often more
solidly polemical and aimed at swaying third parties rather than at making
the case that Tibetans and Chinese make to themselves. Having said this,
though, it must also be acknowledged that materials produced by the
Tibetan exile community are often disproportionately in English, a result
of the very circumstance of exile in India.
This paper looks first at the evolution of both Chinese and Tibetan
positions, then examines the prevailing views currently held by advocates
on the two sides of the issue, and concludes by examining major assertions
made about Tibet’s historical status against the
p o sitio n s sa id to b e historical record as reflected in relevant primary-
reflectiv e o fc e n tu r ie s o f source materials. By and large this has not been
done in the existing secondary literature on Tibet;
p o p u la r con sen su s on th e certainly not by direct reference to Chinese- and
Tibetan-language sources. It will come as no
T ibet issu e a re a ctu a lly
shock to those interested in issues of nationalism
v e r y r ece n t co n stru ctio n s and identity to find (as this paper shows) that
positions said to be reflective of centuries of
popular consensus on the Tibet issue are actually very recent constructions
often at variance with the very history on which they claim to be based.
Other readers, however, may be surprised to find critical aspects of history
broadly misconstrued by both sides.
Among other things we will observe that China’s contention that Tibet
has been an “integral” part of China since the thirteenth century took
shape only in the twentieth century. Similarly, we will see that the Tibetan
concept of a “priest-patron” relationship governing Sino-Tibetan relations
to the exclusion of concrete political subordination is likewise a rather

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The Tibet-China Conflict 3
recent construction, one belied by the actual bonds that existed between
Tibet and several imperial dynasties.
The Question o f Tibet’s Historical Status
The status of Tibet has been a subject of contention and polemics in
one form or another for well over a century, and not simply for Chinese
and Tibetans. The British rulers of India in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries felt a strategic need to deal with the issue and, observing
the impotence of the declining Qing dynasty (1644—1911) in Tibet,
concluded that its authority there was wholly without substance. Early in
1903 Lord Curzon, then viceroy of India, characterized Tibetan refusals
to deal directly with his government out of deference to Qing authority as
part of a “solemn farce.” His verdict came to be an oft-repeated part of the
subsequent English-language literature on Tibet’s history and status:
We regard the so-called suzerainty of C hina over Tibet as a
constitutional fiction— a political affectation which has only been
m aintained because of its convenience to both parties. .. . A s a matter
of fact, the two Chinese Ambans at Lhasa are there not as Viceroys, but
as Ambassadors; and the entire Chinese soldiery by whom this figment
of Chinese suzerainty is sustained in Tibet consists ofless than 500 ill
armed men.3
The status of Tibet has been at the core of the Tibet issue for all
parties drawn into it over the past century. Regardless of third-party
pronouncements, however, the core of the conflict has been the positions
held by Tibet and China. The heart of China’s position has remained
essentially steady: Tibet is an inalienable part of China.4 At the same
time, Tibet’s government—with less than total consistency—has largely
maintained that Tibet has historically been an independent country.
In reality, the conflict over Tibet’s status has been a conflict over history.
This is not to say that the entire Tibet issue is reducable to a historical
dispute. Questions of demography, economic development, cultural and
human rights, etc., are important parts of the Tibet issue. When Chinese
writers and political figures assert that Tibet is a part of China, however,
they do so not on the basis of Chinese rule being good rule (although they
do not hesitate to make that assertion), but on the basis of history.5 One
of China’s more well-known spokesmen of previous decades formulated
the matter succinctly: “‘Is Tibet, after all, a part of China?’ History says

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4 Elliot Sperling
it is.”6 Even more manifestly, a volume published in 1986 by the Tibetan

Academy of Social Sciences and bearing a title that translates as “Tibet Is
an Inseparable Part of China” directly identified the basic argument about
Tibet’s status with the historical record: the 595-page tome consists of
almost nothing but annotated extracts from Chinese historical sources and
documents.7 The clear foundation for Chinese assertions of Tibet’s status as
a part of China is the historical record. Tibetans who advocate the justice of
Tibetan independence do so also on the basis of history, although they also
adduce a variety of other factors that divide Tibetans and Chinese, such as
language, culture, and religion.8
Thus, history must, of necessity, be the focus of this paper. It is the most
significant battleground over which those positions that are conveniently
described as “Chinese” and “Tibetan” clash. The centrality of history has
not precluded other elements from being brought into the discussion, but
the conflict over Tibet, inasmuch as it is a question of resolving a dispute
between the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and
Tibetans who contest its claim to Tibet, is a conflict over legitimacy. And
the primary witness the parties on both sides call on to support their claims
oflegitimacy is history.
Chinese writers have often presented the issue as one for which the
correct interpretation is, from the historical standpoint, self-evident. The
following statement is one of many iterations of a ubiquitous element
in many Chinese polemics and statements about Tibet: “As is known to
all, Tibet has, since the 13th century, been an inalienable part of China’s
territory.”9 But such rhetoric masks the fact that the differing present-
day positions on Tibet’s status, based though they are on interpretations
of history, lack roots going back to the historical events and periods
summoned as proof. The currently recognized positions asserting Chinese
sovereignty on one side and Tibetan independence on the other have, in
their separate ways, coalesced in their present forms only in the second half
of the twentieth century.
Effectively, the rhetorical twist “as is known to all . . . ” seeks to cut short
any serious examination of a subject that warrants sustained discussion and
engagement. To reiterate, the core of the Tibet issue is the question ofTibet’s
historical status; one’s understanding of that history obviously colors, if
not wholly decides, one’s view of the legitimacy ofTibet’s incorporation
into the PRC. And so, discussions of the Tibet issue turn back to the ur-
question: Was Tibet historically a part of China?

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As should become clear in the pages that follow, an examination of

the history bearing on that question forces one to engage with certain
cultural and political factors as well. Certainly, if all that were needed to
resolve matters were an unbiased examination of the historical record,
the issue would long since have been resolved to the satisfaction of all.
But alas, such is not the case, for the question of Tibet does not stand in
isolation. Indeed, to question the legitimacy of Tibet’s incorporation into
the PRC is to question the legitimacy of the idea
of the Chinese state as constructed by the Chinese T ibet’s h istory has
Communist Party; it is to raise questions against
the cultural and political nationalism that has
b eco m e a fu n d a m e n ta l
been fostered within the PRC and that has taken a n d ex isten tia l issue,
root both inside and outside official party and
governmental circles. These are no small matters.
o n e th a t has sign ifica n t
The serious implications couched in any doubts b e a r in g o n th e m od ern
about the historical validity of Tibet’s place in
the PRC are a primary cause for the vociferous
id en tity ofC h in a .
reactions from Chinese writers to such questions.
Tibet’s history has become a fundamental and existential issue, one that has
significant bearing on the modern identity of China.
This paper will examine positions adopted on the different sides of
the divide over Tibet. It will set out some of the basic arguments made by
Chinese writers and polemicists, in official and semi-official publications.
It will examine what a variety of Tibetan and pro-Tibetan writers and
figures posit as the historical case for Tibet. Additionally, it will discuss
some elements of the historical record apart from the arguments advanced
by advocates of one or the other side. Finally, it will explore the significance
and implications of the debate within a larger context.
The Evolution o f the Chinese Position
As stated above, the primary battleground for the argument over Tibet’s
status is history, and that history is often presented from the Chinese
perspective as self-evidently supportive of Chinese assertions. Arguments
have been made for at least a century about Tibet’s status as a part of China.
Although brief assertions of the rightness of Tibet’s place within China
can be traced back this far, however, a relatively intense documentary
case has been presented by China only over the last two decades with
the publication of several collections of documents meant to buttress and

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6 Elliott Sperling
clearly prove the point.10

In the twilight of imperial dynastic rule in China, the subjection of
Tibet to the Qing dynasty was still recognized by all parties, in form if
not in substance. The actual nature of Tibet’s tie to the Qing, however,
was subject to different interpretations and, as might be expected, this
imprecision made Tibet a continuing issue in Qing relations with Britain
and Russia. British officials and writers tended to refer consistently to Qing
dominance as a form of “suzerainty,” a term whose vagueness came to
bedevil later interpretations of Sino-Tibetan relations. Moreover, Curzon’s
dismissal of Qing authority was hardly a detached, dispassionate judgment:
it was set against the context of British India’s need to secure India’s
frontiers and eliminate any possibility of threats or concerns emanating
from Tibet. In effect, this required placing Tibet at least within the orbit of
British influence. The fears of Curzon and others were predicated on the
possible threat to India that might extend from Russia, with its Central
Asian interests; a threat from the Qing was hardly imaginable. And so, in
seeking to block Russian designs in Inner Asia, Britain became party to
several agreements and treaties that acknowledged Tibet’s subordination to
China.11 Present-day Chinese treatments of and statements on the status of
Tibet do not give any primary weight to these agreements, given that they
are, in the eyes of modern Chinese, the products of an era in which China
was reduced to a semi-colony by imperialist aggression.12
Tibet’s historical relationship to China was cast in its present
formulation only after the People’s Republic of China had been established.
But the Republic of China had also dealt with the issue during the time
that it held sway on the Chinese mainland (1911—49). In fact, when
negotiations to resolve the Tibet issue were attempted in Simla in 1913—
14, the Chinese delegation came with a clear statement of what it held
to be the historical status of Tibet. Accordingly, the Chinese delegation
submitted to the conference on October 30, 1913, its position thatTibet
had been incorporated into the Mongol Empire in 1206 and remained in
this relationship (i.e., that of an imperial dominion) to China during the
Ming period (1368—1644). Significantly, the Chinese statement elaborates
on the aftermath of the Gurkha invasion of Tibet, which resulted in the
Tibeto-Nepalese War of 1792—94:
so powerless and helpless were the Tibetans that they again went to
C hina for assistance. To their supplication C hina responded at once
by sending over 50,000 soldiers to Tibet; and accordingly the Gurkhas

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were driven out of the country. Tibet was then definitely placed under
the sovereignty of C hina.13
During the Republican era this basic historical claim was maintained,
albeit with some significant variation. As will be discussed later, while
Republican-era writers maintained China’s claim to sovereign rights over
Tibet, they tended to view Tibet as having been a vassal state of the Qing
rather than (as the present-day Chinese position has it) an integral part
of China. More potently, Republican pronouncements about the place of
Tibet within the Chinese nation stressed an essential link between Tibetans
and China, with the Tibetans constituting a vital part of the Chinese
people.14 Presented as a truism, this proposition was not backed up by any
sort of anthropological or biological argumentation. Its derivation from the
writings of Sun Yat-sen sufficed to legitimate it.
The fact is, such positioning did not add much to the issue or the
situation, because Tibet’s de facto status (effectively independent) simply
could not be challenged in any practical way. Instability and war in China
left the Republican governments incapable of asserting their rule over Tibet
while Britain, the only other outside power with considerable interest in
the question, was content to leave things in limbo, with Tibet void of any
threatening forces. Britain continued to pay lip service to the notion of
China having rights to a sort of impotent “suzerainty” over Tibet, but the
very vagueness of that term allowed for it to be left undefined, unspecified,
and ultimately easily ignored.15
The might of the armed forces of the People’s Republic of China, which
had weathered years of war, changed everything. W ith the establishment
of the People’s Republic, China had a government that, for the first time
since the collapse of the Qing, marshaled both
the capability and the determination to assert T ibet’s in clu sion w ith in
its domination over Tibet. For the leadership of
the PRC—particularly its intellectual cadre— the
th e C hinese sta te w as
vagaries of random conquests and submissions n ow so m eth in g to b e
in the past no longer sufficed in making sense
of history; in the environment of dialectical
a sserted ,p ro v en , a n d
materialistic historiography, Tibet’s inclusion ju s tifie d scien tifica lly
within the Chinese state was now something to
be asserted, proven, and justified scientifically. The ideological imperative
obliged the PRC to deal more specifically with the nature of Tibet’s
historical inclusion within the Chinese state. Out of this milieu eventually

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8 Elliot Sperling
evolved the interpretation that has been in place for several decades now:
the affirmation that Tibet became an integral part of China during the
period of the Mongol Empire when the Mongol rulers of China united
Tibet and China.
China’s currently constructed case has evolved partly in response to
sporadic necessity; it did not appear in its present form until some time
after the founding of the PRC. Only some years later, when international
attention was focused on the Tibet question, did the Chinese position
become more refined. Official pronouncements at the time of Tibet’s
incorporation into the PRC in 1951 noted that Tibet had been a part
of China for centuries but were otherwise unspecific about the details.16
Over the course of the 1950s, however, more emphasis was placed on
constructing a clearer historical narrative.
The inherited opinions that Chinese commentators of the Republican
period bequeathed to the new People’s Republic held that Tibet’s place
within China’s borders had been solidified during the Qing. The basis for
such judgments was something of an anathema to the new state, however,
for the common considered opinion of these writers was that Tibet during
the Qing had become a vassal state of the empire. It goes without saying
that imperial possession and domination could hardly be adduced to
support a territorial claim by a state predicating its legitimacy on Scientific
Socialism and dedicated to the anti-imperialist struggle. Nevertheless, the
colonial paradigm is what Republican-era writers were using in describing
Tibet’s place in the Chinese state; indeed, their language left no room for
ambiguity. Typically, one reads,
Thus, in both the 57th and 58th years of the Qianlong period (1792
and 1793), the relationship between C hina and Tibet was radically
reformed. China’s sovereignty over Tibet was firm ly established and
afterwards im plemented in practical terms.
From the time of the above-mentioned radical reform Tibet was

purely reduced to a vassal state of China’s. To C hina belonged not only
suzerain rights over Tibet, but sovereign rights as w ell.17
And also,
From this [i.e., the reforms of 1793], the actions and protocol
pertaining to the amban stationed in Tibet began to be equal in status
to those of the D alai and Panchen and they started to have special

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powers in ruling Tibet. From this time on Tibet was firmly established
as China’s vassal.18
These sorts of formulations simply did not stand up to the ideological

requirements of the new regime, with its avowedly anti-colonial identity.
Thus, one finds the imperial associations jettisoned in comments on Tibet
coming from the new People’s Republic. It appears, however, that the
conclusion that Tibet had become part of China during the Qing was not
at first problematic. In 1953, one of China’s better-known writers on Tibet,
Huang Fensheng preserved this basic chronological element in his
account ofTibet’s history:
In the 57th year of the Qianlong period (1792), following the dispatch
of troops to put down the Gurkha incursion into Tibet and the
subsequent m ilitary victory, the so-called “Regulations for Resolving
Tibetan (M atters)” were promulgated. They established the equal rank
of the a m b a n with the Dalai and Panchen, and his direct authority to
control political, military, religious, financial, communications, and
transportation matters. Tibet at that point became wholly a part of
China’s territory.19
The incorporation of Tibet into the PRC in 1951 was in part made
easier by the fact that the Republic of China had been quite vocal when
opportunities presented themselves in asserting that Tibet was part of
China. As a result, the status of Tibet was not at issue in the conflict
between the Nationalists and the Communists and was not, therefore,
an issue on which the supporters of one side or the other needed to take
stands. It was only the development ofTibetan resistance and the outbreak
of open revolt that brought the question ofTibet’s status to international
attention. Particularly in the years following 1959, the Tibetan revolt and
the flight of the Dalai Lama cast the Tibetan situation in such a way that
international sympathy with Tibetan aspirations for self-determination
were broader than they have been since. Chiang Kai-shek even issued
a pronouncement from Taiwan on March 26, 1959, specifically stating
that after the ultimate defeat of communism on the Chinese mainland
the Republic of China would be willing to allow the Tibetans the right of
self-determination,20 something that Republican China would never have
conceded while in power on the mainland. That right was recognized by
the United Nations (UN) in a resolution on Tibet in 1961, perhaps the
high point of international support for Tibetan independence. Today, no

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10 Elliot Sperling
country advocates that position, nor does the Dalai Lama.

The events of 1959, in which the Tibet issue was actively discussed
and considered by the international community, ultimately resulting in
its being taken up by the General Assembly of the United Nations in
the fall, brought forth a more formal and forceful statement of the PRC’s
position. In M ay 1959, only two months after the outbreak of fighting in
Lhasa, and as a clear counterweight to all of the international attention
then being accorded the Tibet issue, the Chinese government presented
its case on Tibet in a well-known volume, C oncerning the Question o f
Tibet. W ithin that volume the narrative of Tibetan history approached
its current form. C oncerning the Question o fT ib et states clearly that “[t]he
historical record proves that Tibet, during its long history, has never been
an independent country, but a part of China.”21 Indeed, within its pages
the Tibetan imperial state of the seventh to the ninth centuries—one of
the great Eurasian powers ofits time—is effectivelypresented as subject to
China, and a number of elements relating to imperial Tibet’s relationship
with Tang China are adduced to support this position. It is implied quite
clearly that Tibetan emperors had to have their titles confirmed by Tang
China in order to be legitimate rulers; the Sino-Tibetan treaty of 821—822
is cited in its inscribed form as a monument to the unity between Tibet and
China; and the Tibetan emperor Khri-gtsug lde-btsan is pointedly quoted
as asserting that Tibet and Tang China constituted one family.22 Still, the
book also states that, following a long period of fragmentation,
[t]he chaos in Tibet was brought to an end and unity was achieved
when M ongko, Emperor Hsien Tsung of the Yuan dynasty, sent an
armed force to Tibet in 1253. Tibet was then incorporated into the
Yuan Empire and it has been a part of the territory of C hina ever
since.23
In essence then, China’s response to international concern over Tibet

in 1959 elicited a new, firm formulation of the stages of Sino-Tibetan
relations. In the first stage, from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries,
Tibet was subject to China. In the second, from the thirteenth century
on, Tibet was and continues to be a part of China. This basic notion, that
Tibet became an integral part of China during the Yuan period (1271—
1368) has remained a tenet of Chinese historiography ever since. As now
structured, the narrative has Tibetans and Chinese growing together from
the Tang period (618—907) onward, with Tibet becoming an integral part

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of China during the era of Mongol rule— a status it has maintained until
the present.
To shore up this position, China began publishing a growing
number of books and articles supporting it from the early 1980s on.24
The documentary collections mentioned earlier have been particularly
important in polemics, for they have helped provide a much more
detailed description of Tibet’s historical place within China than anything
previously proposed by the PRC.
The Prevailing Chinese View of Tibet’s Historical Status
The contemporary description of Tibet’s assimilation into China as an
integral part of the country is now part of a fairly coherent narrative.
Briefly put, the Yuan-era incorporation of Tibet into China was attended
by the creation of several state bureaus and offices under the Yuan for the
purpose of ruling Tibet. Most prominently are the Zongzhiyuan
later renamed the Xuanzhengyuan which dealt with Tibetan and
Buddhist affairs, as well as three subordinate pacification offices (xuanwei
shisi W W ^ ^ l that dealt with the military and civil administration
of Tibetan areas. The most important Tibetan figure mentioned in the
literature on the subject is of course the Sa-skya-pa cleric ’Phags-pa (in
Chinese, Basiba 1235—80), the nephew of Sa-skya pandita
Kun-dga’ rgyal-mtshan (1182—1251). ’Phags-pa served as preceptor to the
Mongol emperor Qubilai Qayan and was awarded appropriate titles: first,
state preceptor (guoshi H ^ ) , and then, imperial preceptor (dishi « ) ■ Yuan
sources mention a number of titles that were bestowed on other Tibetans
and give an account of the administrative districts into which Tibet was
divided as part of Yuan administration, specifically the three large districts
constituting the greater area of the Tibetan Plateau termed chol-kha
(<Mong. colge) and the overlapping thirteen myriarchies (Ch. w anhufu
Tib. khri-skor). On certain occasions when trouble erupted Yuan
forces entered Tibet and acted in support of Yuan-Sa-skya interests. All of
this figures in various modern Chinese accounts of Tibet under the Yuan.
As described in these accounts, the Yuan-Ming transition had no effect
on China’s sovereignty over Tibet. The new dynasty continued to rule Tibet
much as the Yuan had, with certain crucial changes. To be sure, Chinese
accounts often emphasize the looser administration employed in Tibet, as
compared to that in China proper, but Tibet, they say, was unambiguously
ruled by the Ming court as a part of China. Under the Ming a wider group

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12 Elliot Sperling
ofTibetan clerics received titles and honors from the court; these titles are
presented as yet one more sign of Ming authority over Tibet. The Ming
granted titles not only to clerics but also to a variety of important Tibetan
lay figures as well. The Ming titles differed somewhat from those granted
by the Yuan; the title imperial preceptor was not
th e Yuan-M ing used, but a number of Tibetans were accorded
tra n sition h a d no e ffe c t the title dharm araja
{G n.faw ang Tib. chos-
rgyat) by the court, while others received lesser
On C hina S so v ereign ty titles- This tactic allowed the Ming to make use of
Over T ibet Tibetan Buddhism in its administration ofTibet,
much as the Yuan did. At the same time, there
was, especially during the early Ming, an important trade that brought
Tibetan horses to the Chinese interior in exchange for tea and other goods.
The Ming also implemented and regulated a system of tribute through
which the court maintained links with a variety ofTibetan figures.
In addition to the titles presented by the Ming court to various Tibetan
figures, Chinese writers also take note of certain offices established to deal
with Tibet and Tibetan affairs. Some Chinese writers point out that during
the Ming dynasty a commandery was established in Hezhou to administer
all ofTibet; it was later reorganized into two offices but continued to be
the center of Ming administrative authority over Tibet. The invitation to
the important Dge-lugs-pa leader Tsong-kha-pa Blo-bzang grags-pa to visit
court, and the subsequent honors accorded Shakya ye-shes, the disciple
who came to court in his stead, are also adduced as evidence ofTibet’s place
as a part of China during the Ming period. Following from this, Chinese
writers have taken pains to point out that the Dalai Lamas began to receive
Chinese titles from the Ming court.25
As with the Yuan-Ming transition, so too the Ming-Qing transition
is presented as an event that in no way disturbed Tibet’s position as a part
of China. The fifth Dalai Lama quickly established links with the new
dynasty, and in turn he was duly recognized by the Qing in much the same
way that Tibetans during the Ming were conferred with legitimacy through
the titles and honors accorded them by the court. As a result, China asserts
a firm degree of continuity in Tibet’s place within the Chinese state. It has
been claimed that only when the Qing recognized the title “Dalai Lama”
did the bearer acquire any legitimate political authority.26
The international position and aspirations of the Qing dynasty and its
Manchu rulers differed considerably from those of the Ming. As aspiring

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lords of a vast inner Asian empire, the Qing rulers actively expanded their
authority and role in the region. Inasmuch as China’s narrative of Tibetan
history asserts no break in Chinese sovereignty from Ming to Qing, the
changes in Qing relations and dealings with Tibet are seen as developments
within that sovereign relationship. Indeed, the ability of the Qing court
to undertake the steps it took in Tibet are simply manifestations of that
sovereignty from the outset, not, as pre-PRC Chinese writers were wont
to observe, steps in its development. Thus, as far as PRC observers are
concerned, the various elements of Qing armies entering Tibet, Qing
officials (the well-known am ban) being stationed there, the associated
calibrations in the duties of those officials, the size of the Qing garrison,
etc., simply reflect the Chinese central government’s normal revisions
of its policies for a region that had been part of the Chinese state for
centuries.27
There is naturally far more information available about the Qing
role in Tibet, given its chronological proximity to our times, than about
preceding dynasties; consequently, Chinese writers and scholars can
describe Tibet’s place within Qing dynasty China in detail. Thus, we
can find Tibet’s status described extensively with regard to the political
use of Tibetan Buddhism and the links between Tibetan monks and the
Qing court, as well as with regard to the various administrative measures
implemented for Tibet.
Due attention is given to the 29 articles that comprised the
“Regulations for Resolving Tibetan Matters” mentioned earlier.
Promulgated by the Qing in the aftermath of the Gurkha war, these
articles dealt with a number of issues, including the elevation of the am ban
to a level equal to that of Chinese provincial governors and the resultant
interdiction against the Dalai Lama’s having direct relations with the
emperor. In effect the am ban became the required intermediaries between
the Tibetan government and the court. All of these measures are, again,
presented as further indications of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. In
recent years the specific article that imposed the court’s designated method
for choosing and recognizing the Dalai Lamas, Panchen Lamas, and other
important incarnate lamas in Tibet has received particular attention. The
court decreed that a “Golden Urn” was to be used in those cases, with the
names of the various possible candidates for recognition as the incarnate
lama being sought written down on wooden lots, one of which was to be
drawn from the urn. The controversy over the most recent selection of a

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14 Elliot Sperling
Panchen Lama has led China to publish a number of pieces defending this
means of recognizing such incarnate lamas as the only legitimate means
of doing so.28
Although the effectiveness of Chinese rule over Tibet varied as
imperialist encroachment increasingly enfeebled the Qing state, China’s
claim to Tibet, as Chinese writers note, never diminished. To the extent that
any impetus for Tibetan independence existed at this time, it is said to have
originated with imperialist powers, primarily Britain, but also tsarist Russia.
While these imperialist nations were foisting “unequal treaties” on China
to advance their colonialist ambitions, they were using similar legalistic
cover to mask their intentions of separating Tibet from China. A series of
treaties and agreements that were forced on China or negotiated between
Britain and Russia were designed to weaken Chinese rule over Tibet.29 The
most blatant step in this regard, however, was the British march on Lhasa
in 1903-4. The Tibetan defeat produced a treaty convention between
Britain and Tibet that was subsequently renegotiated between Britain and
the Qing. These treaties included the common humiliating elements of
foreign occupation of Chinese territory (the Chumbi Valley in Tibet) and
an indemnity, originally imposed on Tibet but later, in the renegotiation
with the Qing, shouldered by China.
W ithin the general narrative of Tibetan history prevalent in the PRC,
the fall of the Qing did not affect the status of Tibet. The Republic of
China, which was proclaimed at the time, retained sovereignty over all
the realms of the former imperial dynasty and in no way relinquished
any claim to Tibet. Nevertheless, Chinese writers note, the Republican
period was one in which there were distinct disagreements between the
Tibetan government and the Chinese central government, differences that
were exacerbated by British machinations aimed at detaching Tibet from
China. Still, there were patriotic elements within the Tibetan government,
including both the thirteenth Dalai Lama and the ninth Panchen Lama,
who were concerned about the unity of China. The Chinese central
government several times sent officials to meet and discuss the relationship
between itself and the Tibetan local government. Indeed, the Dalai Lama
indicated that he hoped to improve those relations.30 However there were
some factions in the Tibetan local government who were swayed by the
British and who, up until the Peaceful Liberation ofTibet, were convinced
that they could separate Tibet from China. These dreams proved empty
and Tibet was finally reunited with China in 1951.31

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The Evolution o f the Tibetan Position

What constitutes the Tibetan narrative of Sino-Tibetan relations is, frankly,
far less detailed, though also less homogeneous than the Chinese narrative,
given that there has not been a highly centralized
effort in Tibetan exile society to delineate the t h e p o in t in tim e a t
details of Tibet’s relationship to China. Indeed,
even something as basic as the point in time at w h ich T ib e tfin a lly fe ll
which Tibet finally fell under PRC domination u n d er PRC d om in a tio n
has differed in various accounts. Many of the
seams still show in the case that Tibetans in exile has d iffe r e d in va riou s
have constructed for Tibetan independence—as a cco u n ts
they do with the Chinese case.
Much of the Tibetan advocacy on the subject of Tibet’s historical
status is striking, both for the preponderance of English-language source
materials used as the basis for its arguments, and for the extent to which
Tibetans dealing with the issue produce their arguments in English. This
use of English is not universal, however; the large historical account ofTibet
by Rtsis-dpon Zhwa-sgab-pa Dbang-phyug bde-ldan drew extensively on
Tibetan historical sources, many quite rare at the time it was written. Yet
even that account was originally published in a shortened English version
years before the fuller two-volume Tibetan text appeared.32 In most other
writings on Tibet’s status coming from the Tibetan side, the predominance
of English is a product of location— the happenstance of exile in India,
where English is the established language of modern scholarship and
research. It has meant, however, that Tibetan source materials form a
more meager part of the evidentiary case made by Tibetan exiles. In
comparison, Chinese writers make ample use of Chinese source materials
in their assertions. (They make use of Tibetan sources as well, albeit often
in translation.)
This lack of Tibetan-language sources reflects itself in the tenor of the
discussion on the Tibetan side. Whereas present-day Chinese writers evince a
desire to proffer a case that has the air of scientific exactitude in terms of dates
and events, striving, for example, to place Tibet’s incorporation into China
in the Yuan period, the Tibetan view has often seemed unclear and centered
around less-tangible notions. There is no small amount of irony attached
to this, for the Tibetan delegation to the Simla conference of 1913—14 is
well known for having attended armed with substantive Tibetan literary and
archival evidence concerning both Tibet’s status and its boundaries.

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16 Elliot Sperling
In subsequent years, however, a vagueness set in, with regard to both

delineating Tibet’s status internationally and structuring its dealings with
pre-1949 China. A recurring element that is still an important part of the
case Tibetans have been making is what is conventionally termed in English
the “priest-patron” relationship (in Tibetan, m chod-yon). As we will see, for
many Tibetan writers the entire relationship of Tibet to China hinges on
this concept, one so specific to the Tibetan Buddhist world, so they say, that
it is difficult to relate it to Western notions of sovereign authority.
As just noted, the Tibetan delegation came to Simla in 1913—14 with
a researched statement about the extent of Tibet’s territories and frontiers.
There was no hesitancy in their assertions that Tibet was a country separate
from China. As to whether it had been a vassal state or not under the
Qing, the Tibetan representative, in a statement dated October 10, 1913,
contended that “Tibet and China have never been under each other
and will never associate with each other in [the] future.”33 The Chinese
representative responded with his own statement on October 30, proposing
a settlement that would require agreement “that Tibet forms an integral
part of the territory of Republic of China.”34 The meaning of “integral
part” is somewhat colored by the concessions China was willing to make:
Tibet would not be converted into a Chinese province and would conduct
its foreign and military affairs under Chinese guidance.35
In the Tibetan statement one also finds reference to the priest-patron
relationship as the unique basis for historical relations between Tibet and
China:
The relations between the M anchu Emperor and the Protector, Dalai
Lam a the fifth, became like that of the disciple towards the teacher.
The sole aim of the then Government of C hina being to earn merits
for this and the next life, they helped and honoured the successive
D alai Lamas and treated the monks of all the monasteries with respect.
Thus friendship united the two countries like the members of the same
family. The Tibetans took no notice of their boundary with C hina for
they thought that the actions of the latter were all meant for the good
o fT ib et.36
This concept, that Tibet’s ties to the Qing were essentially of a priest-
patron nature, is alluded to in the desperate cable sent by the Tibetan
government to the United Nations on November 11, 1950, following
the entry of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into the area of the

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Tibetan Plateau under the jurisdiction of the Dalai Lama’s government:

The Chinese, however, in their natural urge for expansion, have
w holly misconstrued the significance of the time of friendship and
inter-dependence that existed between C hina and Tibet as between
neighbours. To them C hina was suzerain and Tibet a vassal State. It is
this which first aroused legitimate apprehension in the m ind of Tibet
regarding China’s designs on its independent status.37
For centuries the priest-patron relationship has been a real institution

in Tibetan history, linking secular rulers with Tibetan hierarchs.38 But in
some iterations, such as those just cited, the argument essentially turns
on an acceptance of the position that Tibet’s relationship to the dynastic
states that ruled China was not one of sovereign power ruling over Tibet’s
territory and people, but rather a simple relationship between emperors
and the Tibetan lamas who guided and instructed them. During China’s
Republican period, when the Dalai Lama’s government did exercise
independent rule and authority over Tibet, the Dalai Lama on at least
one occasion proposed to the Chinese government that the priest-patron
relationship be the basis for resolving the Tibet issue.39
The Tibetan government did not otherwise pay much attention to the
historical case for Tibet’s independence, nor did it expend much energy
in asserting it in any detail, until the crisis of 1950. Prior to that time,
the Tibetan government had made some demonstrations of the practical
reality of Tibetan independence, but a structured, historically-grounded
argument beyond the position presented at the Simla conference was not
put forward. W ith Tibetan acquiescence to the Seventeen-Point Agreement
of 1951, Tibet formally became part of the People’s Republic of China and
the question ofits historical status essentially fell dormant.
Only with the events of 1959 did Tibetans return to putting together a
historical defense ofTibet’s status as an independent state. As already noted,
due in part to the circumstances of exile, that defense is multifarious, at
times inconsistent, and often more reflective ofWestern ideas and accounts
of Tibet than of indigenous Tibetan evidence and documents.
After 1959, when the Dalai Lama began to constitute a government
in exile, there was an urgent need to make an approach to the UN. On
September 9, 1959, the Dalai Lama addressed a letter to the UN secretary-
general, laying out an argument for Tibetan independence:
I and m y Government wish to emphasize that Tibet was a sovereign

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18 Elliot Sperling
state at the time when her territorial integrity was violated by the
Chinese Armies in 1950. In support of this contention the Government
of Tibet urge the following:
First, no power or authority was exercised by the Government of
C hina in or over Tibet since the Declaration of Independence by the
13th Dalai L am ain 1912.40
All other points made in the letter also relate to events of the twentieth
century, such as Tibet’s neutrality in World War II and the contention that
the ability of Tibetan delegates to travel to various countries on Tibetan
passports in the 1940s constituted recognition of Tibet’s sovereign status.41
The lack of reference to any Tibetan documents is indicative of the fact that
the Tibetan government, in approaching the UN after 1959, sought out
and worked with several non-Tibetan advisers and made much use of the
work of the International Commission of Jurists, which published its first
report on Tibet in 1959-42
W ith the suppression of the Tibetan uprising of 1959, contact
between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama’s government, now
a Tibetan government-in-exile, effectively ceased. The historical status of
Tibet was dealt with by the Tibetan government as part of its international
representation, more or less along the lines of argumentation already
described. There was no real engagement with Chinese arguments for some
decades; Tibetan pronouncements on the case for Tibetan independence
T ib eta n p ro n o u n cem en ts reflected an emphasis on twentieth-century

events, as already mentioned, or on evidence
on th e c a s e fo r T ibetan from Western sources. Hugh Richardson, who
had helped the Tibetans in their dealings with the
in d ep en d en ce r eflecte d UN after 1959, produced a history ofTibet that
a n em phasis on stressed the case along similar lines. Moreover, he
tw en tieth -cen tu ry even ts was among those who helped interpret the priest-
patron relationship for Western readers in a way
that came to be repeated and echoed in later writings. Stating that this was
a “purely Central Asian concept,” he noted,
It is an elastic and flexible idea and not to be rendered in the cut-
and-dried terms of modern western politics. There is in it no precise
definition of the supremacy of one or the subordination of the other;
and the practical m eaning of the relationship can only be interpreted in
the light of the facts of the moment.43

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In the same year that Richardson’s history appeared, the Dalai

Lama published an English-language autobiography that also lamented
the inability of Western lexicons to adequately reflect the nature of this
relationship:
Suzerainty is a vague and ancient term. Perhaps it was the nearest
western political term to describe the relations between Tibet and China
from 1720 to 1890; but still, it was very inaccurate, and the use of
it has misled whole generations of western statesmen. It did not take
into account the reciprocal spiritual relationship, or recognize that the
relationship was a personal m atter between the Dalai Lamas and the
M anchu Emperors. There are m any such ancient eastern relationships
which cannot be described in ready-made western political terms.44
Rtsis-dpon Zhwa-sgab-pa—whose history of Tibet drew from a

wide range of Tibetan sources—also reinforced the Tibetan position that
the priest-patron relationship was something so specific to Tibet that its
significance was close to impossible for Westerners to appreciate. His
original text in Tibetan is worth quoting on this subject:
Taking together the two edicts, one presented by [the M ongol prince]
Godan Qan to Sa-skya pandita, and one by Q ubilai Qan to ’Phags-pa
rin-po-che, the first resembles one given by a lord to a subject, while
the latter is like one offered by a patron to a lama. T hat is exactly how
we Eastern peoples would consider it. The lam a acts and teaches in
a way that spreads the doctrines of the dharma and brings peace to
beings. The patron must attend to the financial requisites so that this
m ay continue in the long term. Thus we can describe the Priest-Patron
relationship between Tibet and M ongolia as having existed along these
lines. However, this cannot be explained according to Western forms
of political behavior. If Westerners seriously analyze the account above
[i.e., the author’s account of the relationship between ’Phags-pa and
Q ubilai], then the Qan’s professing that he would not go against the
wishes of ’Phags-pa rin-po-che was an explicit recognition that ’Phags-
pa was the highest power in Tibet. Similarly, the manner in which the
Qan requested the dharma o fhim , showed him respect, requested his
teachings when he conquered Southern China, offered him a seal and
high titles, accompanied him enroute to A-mdo, and carried out a
[census] investigation in Tibet because it was the command of the lama;
all reveal n o tju st that the two countries engaged in m utual cooperation

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20 Elliot Sperling
and showed the highest respect to each other, but also that neither one
was subordinate to the other. Thus, on the basis of this Priest-Patron
relationship, [we see that] up through the end of the Qing or M anchu
era in 1911, the Iron-Pig Year of the 15 th rab-byu ng, there existed
between Tibet and C hina activities commensurate with a m utual Priest-
Patron relationship as described above.45
Almost none of those who approached the question of Tibet’s status

from the Tibetan side dealt with the sort of institutional issues—the
structures of Qing authority in Tibet, the rules and offices for dealing
with Tibet that pertained in earlier dynasties— that are a noticeable part of
Chinese studies and polemics. In effect, taking their lead from Zhwa-sgab-
pa, the consensus developed that the priest-patron relationship was the
primary institutional structure for understanding the historical relationship
between Tibet and China. In the 1980s, the Tibetan government-in-exile
turned to a longtime Tibet supporter, Michael C. van Walt van Praag, a
lawyer with a degree in international law, to provide a fundamental legal
case for Tibet, one that also took into account Tibet’s historical relations
with China. The book he eventually produced, The Status o f Tibet, was
strongly supported by the Tibetan government-in-exile (which had it
translated into Tibetan), and van Walt became the exile government’s
adviser on relevant legal issues.46 As such, his book, as much as anything
else, effectively came to represent the official Tibetan exile position.
The Status o f Tibet gave great weight, not surprisingly, to the need to
understand that status through the lens of the priest-patron relationship,
referred to throughout as “Cho-yon” (Tib. m chod-yon). We see once more
in this account an insistence that the relationship could not be adequately
contained within conventional international legal terminology. According
to van Walt,
This relationship formed the basis for the future unique relation not
only between the Yuan Emperors and the Tibetan Sakya Lamas but also,
in more recent history, between the M anchu Emperors and the Dalai
Lamas.47
... [T]he religious C ho-yon relationship cannot be categorized or
defined adequately in current international legal terms and must be
regarded as a su i gen eris relationship. .. ,48
The conclusion that m ust be reached, therefore, is that M anchu-
Tibetan relations in the eighteenth century, while form ally and solely

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[emphasis added] based on the C ho-yon relationship, included features

prim arily characteristic of protectorate arrangements— though they
were often conceived in terms of tributary relations by the Qing court.
As the formal source of government remained in Tibet; as Tibet was not
conquered or annexed by the Emperor but, rather, was taken under his
protection; and as the nature ofM anchu interference in Tibetan affairs,
specifically its foreign affairs, did not differ from that characteristic
of protectorate relationships and the extent of actual interference was
lim ited and by no means continuous, the State of Tibet never ceased to
exist. The exercise of sovereignty by the Tibetans was restricted by the
M anchu involvement in the affairs ofTibet, but that did not result in
the extinction of the independent State, which continued to possess the
essential attributes of statehood.49
The basic Tibetan position on the historical status ofTibet that is laid
out here has pretty much been maintained intact by Tibetans in exile. Two
years before the publication of The Status o f Tibet, van Walt authored a
pamphlet for the Tibetan government-in-exile that put it rather succinctly
at the outset: “Tibet existed as an independent state for almost two thousand
years before the communist Chinese troops invaded and occupied the
country.”50 The historical argument advanced by many Tibetans in exile
continues to maintain that Tibet had always been independent, until China
marched in in the middle of the twentieth century. A 1999 study of Tibet’s
relations with the Qing published by the Department of Security of the
Tibetan government-in-exile concluded, “The essence of an analysis of the
actual relationship between Tibet and the Manchus finds that Tibet did
not belong to the Manchus and the situation in Tibet was not one of actual
Manchu administration.”51
One of the only institutional innovations of the Qing that is really
addressed by Tibetan writers and commentators has been the recognition of
incarnations through a system of drawing lots from the Golden Urn, which
was imposed as part of the 1793 measures instituted to reform Tibetan
affairs. It is effectively dismissed, with Zhwa-sgab-pa saying that in choosing
the Dalai Lamas in the following decades it was either not used, or a pretense
was made of having used it.52 Van Walt, in turn, maintains that the edict
ordering the use of the Golden Urn was virtually without effect.53
In essence, then, Tibetan exile writers generally do not deal with the
institutional structures or, indeed, the institutional records of the dynastic
states created in China. Thus, they describe Tibet’s relations with the

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22 Elliot Sperling
Mongols and with the Yuan court from the sole perspective of the Sa-
skya-pa sect’s interactions with Mongol rulers. Tibetan dealings with the
succeeding Ming dynasty are given only glancing notice at best. Early Qing
relations with Tibet are described in the manner just recounted—i.e., from
the standpoint of the priest-patron relationship, exemplified largely by
Manchu interest in the Dalai Lamas.
The one minor exception to the general view of Sino-Tibetan relations
is represented by the small booklet on the subject authored by Tashi
Tsering and published in 1988 by the Department of Information and
International Relations of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Tashi Tsering
acknowledges the reality of the Mongol occupation of Tibet, seeing it as
commensurate with the situation that prevailed in other countries under
Mongol domination. But he states that the Mongols did not make Tibet
a part of China proper. He also elaborates on the nature of Ming-Tibetan
relations, noting that there was no Ming domination over Tibet. 54 He is
also more nuanced than other Tibetan writers about the Qing:
Thus while the Tibetans viewed the relationship with the Manchus as
one of priest and patron, the M anchu viewed it as one of vassal and
overlord. However it m ay be described, it was a weak and ceremonial
relationship throughout its duration.55
The Prevailing Tibetan View o f Tibet’s Historical Status

Writings from the Tibetan side do indeed tend to emphasize the lack of
effective Qing authority in Tibet, regardless of the actual administrative
structures in place. They point to the inability of the Qing to effectively
intervene in several crises, including the Younghusband expedition (the
1903-04 British march on Lhasa) and a variety of internal Tibetan political
conflicts. In this and some other respects, the Tibetan narrative hews closely
to the views of earlier British writers for whom the Qing hold on Tibet
seemed tenuous and loomed largely as an impediment to legitimate British
dealings with Tibet. Curzon’s remarks, cited at the beginning of this paper,
constitute the most well-known example of that point of view.
In addition, almost all who write from the Tibetan exile perspective
adduce the thirteenth Dalai Lama’s declaration of Tibet’s independence
from China, made in 1912, as yet one more item bolstering the case
for Tibetan independence. They also place some stress on subsequent
developments that they view as demonstrative ofTibet’s independent status

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over the next several decades. These include Tibet’s contacts with several
foreign countries and particularly the visits ofTibetan delegations to several
countries in the aftermath of World War II, using Tibetan papers as their
official travel documents.56
In the current Tibetan narrative, Tibet’s independence was violated
when China invaded Tibet in 1949. This date was fixed only over the
course of the 1980s, however. Previously, China was said to have invaded
Tibet in 1950, i.e., at the time the People’s Liberation Army attacked across
the line separating those parts of the Tibetan Plateau under the jurisdiction
of the Dalai Lama’s government from the Tibetan territories that were
under Chinese control as provinces or parts of provinces. Thus we find the
Dalai Lama, in the letter he wrote to the UN secretary-general in 1959,
stating that the territorial integrity of Tibet was violated in 1950. This was
also the date that appeared in most commentaries on the Tibet issue. The
Dalai Lama repeated this in his first autobiography (“from 1912 until the
fateful year of 1950, Tibet enjoyed complete de facto independence of
any other nation”57) and also in another letter to the secretary-general in
I960: “Between 1912 and 1950 there was not even a semblance of Chinese
authority in Tibet. ... As the head of the Tibetan
Government I say that what happened on October In th e cu rr en t T ibetan
10, 1950 was a flagrant act of aggression on the
n a rrative, T ibet’s
part of China against my country.”58 This date for
the PLA’s invasion of Tibet came to be generally in d ep en d en ce w as
accepted outside the PRC, though here and there
v io la te d w h en China
(as can be seen below) the date of 1959 has even
been given, implying that it was the Chinese in v a d ed T ibet in 1949.
suppression of the Tibetan revolt and abolition of
the Dalai Lama’s government that constituted the real break with Tibet’s
earlier status.
Assertions and the Historical Record
How accurate are the claims that have been used to build the core cases that
have been made about the status ofTibet? It should already be obvious that
many of these claims have far shorter pedigrees, so to speak, than many
might imagine simply from looking at the most recent elucidations of the
cases for Tibet’s status as either a part of China or an independent state.
They are relatively recent constructs. This is not to dismiss them out of
hand, but it imposes the task, where possible, of measuring these claims

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24 Elliot Sperling
and views against extant source materials and earlier interpretations of

Tibet’s relationship to China.
At the outset we have interpretations that have formed over the course
of the last century but that purport to present a view that developed much
earlier. We can start most conveniently with the basic premise in the Chinese
argument: the notion that Tibet became an integral part of China during
the period of Mongol rule. What is most striking is that one does not find
this interpretation at all in the centuries of Chinese historiography that lay
between the Yuan period and the establishment of the PRC. This is not to
deny the reality of Mongol domination of Tibet, but that domination is
something quite different from Tibet’s being a part of China.
Official Chinese historiography has recorded, over the course of
several dynasties, the shape of China. The geographic range of the state
is delineated quite clearly in the chapters on geography (dilizhi
in the respective official dynastic histories. And Tibet is simply not found
within the Chinese state during the Yuan.59 As a result, there is something
quite interesting about assertions regarding Tibet’s incorporation into Yuan
China: there is no agreement as to when this happened. The 1992 white
paper published by the Information Office of the State Council of the
PRC dated it to after the establishment of the
T ibet is sim p ly n o t fo u n d Yuan central government (the same document
w ith in th e C hinese sta te dates the establishment of centralized Yuan rule
to 1279)-60 A volume brought out under the
d u r in g th e Yuan auspices of the Propaganda Department of the
Tibet Autonomous Region Party Committee
{Xizang zizhiqu da n gw ei xuanchuanbu put it
somewhat differently:
In 1271 the M ongol Qanate designated Yuan as the title of their state
and established a central political authority for the great unity of
all of China’s regions and nationalities. The Tibet region became an
administrative area under the direct control of the central government
of China’s Yuan Dynasty.61
And in another study of Tibet’s history we read,

The im plementation ofYuan rule and administration ofT ibet started
approximately in the mid-thirteenth century. In 1264 Q ubilai moved
his capital to Beijing and in the same year established the Zongzhiyuan
within the central government. The full name of the Zongzhiyuan is the

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Shijiao Zongzhiyuan (“Supreme Control Commission for Buddhism”)

and its establishment was wholly a product of the unique ingenuity of
the M ongol rulers. It was an office with a double function: 1) to handle
the responsibility for managing Buddhist affairs for the whole country,
including the Han regions; and 2) to directly govern the Tibetan
nationality areas.62
There is a degree of vagueness in many Chinese comments on the

question of Tibet’s incorporation into China during the Yuan, and
indeed the whole question of Mongol rule over Tibet is complex. As one
study of Tibet’s status says, “a general outline of the actual rule and full
administration of the Tibetan area by the central authority of the Yuan
Dynasty involves historical facts that are too numerous to mention and
cannot be set out here one by one.”63 As a result, most Chinese sources
present a narrative of only the basic events in the evolution of Tibet’s
domination by the Mongols and by the Yuan dynasty. But the fact remains
that being subject to the Yuan (as Tibet indeed was) is not ipso facto the
same thing as being a part of China. The analyses that have come out of
the PRC are uniform in not entertaining the possibility that the Yuan was
an empire with constituent elements that were not integral parts of China.
In contrast, the interpretations of Yuan history produced outside China
overwhelmingly view the situation as one of a Mongol Empire; Qubilai
Qayan, for instance, clearly presented himself as the ruler of such. W ithin
this context, then, there is no formal act or incident that appended Tibet
to the Chinese portion of the empire. And when the Yuan collapsed and
the Ming wrote the previous dynasty’s history, the official geographical
description of the Yuan naturally omitted Tibet as Chinese territory.
Several works produced in China do, however, engage explicitly with
the positions of Zhwa-sgab-pa and van Walt.64 And here they are on
firmer ground, for the priest-patron relationship, invoked as if to deny a
relationship of political subordination, presents less than a full picture of
Tibet’s historical relationship with China. The priest-patron relationship
has been a feature ofTibetan political and religious life for centuries. It has
existed under a variety of circumstances that linked Tibetan clerics with
both internal and external rulers and powers. The priest-patron relationship
has been present during periods in which Tibet was subordinate to secular
powers acting as religious patrons (e.g., Qubilai Qayan), as well as during
periods in which those powers had no real political authority in Tibet—
indeed, such was the case with the dynasty that succeeded the Yuan, the

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26 Elliot Sperling
Ming dynasty.
The general opinion evinced in most modern Chinese accounts ofTibet
during the Ming is, as already mentioned, that the Ming simply maintained
the system that had been established by the Yuan for the administration of
Tibet with some modifications. In part this meant the granting of titles
to important Tibetan figures, so as to maintain a hierarchical system of
ranking. In addition, much as the Yuan had established various offices for
administering Tibetan affairs, so too, Chinese commentators note, did the
Ming establish offices for handling Tibetan affairs. The administration of
Tibet under the Ming is described in one volume as follows:
At the beginning of the M ing Dynasty, the Xi’an branch regional
m ilitary commission was established at Hezhou to govern the Tibetan
areas of the whole country. Afterwards this was changed and there were
established a M do-khams branch regional m ilitary commission and
an Dbus-Gtsang branch regional m ilitary commission, dividing up
the administration of the Tibetan areas. ... The Mdo-khams branch
regional m ilitary commission was centered around Xining, in Qinghai,
and governed the A-mdo Tibetan region. .. .The sphere of governing
authority of the Dbus-Gtsang branch regional m ilitary commission
encompassed the greater part of present-day Tibet.65
This description more or less reflects what is depicted in the relevant

Chinese records, particularly the M ing shilu, in an entry for August
23, 1374.66 In this entry there is an interesting passage recounting the
elevation of a Chinese official, Wei Zheng ^ ^ , 67 from the position of
commander (Ch. zhihuishi of the Hezhou guard to that
of regional military commissioner (Ch. duzhihuishi He was
now the highest ranking official in Hezhou and, we are told, given general
governing authority over Hezhou, Mdo-Khams, and Dbus-Gtsang—i.e.,
all ofTibet. The import of this is considerable, if one is to assume that the
Ming dynasty continued to dominate Tibet as the Yuan had, for this makes
Wei Zheng the most powerful political figure in Tibet at the beginning of
the Ming, a proposition that is, on its face, farcical. Wei Zheng is wholly
unknown in Tibetan historical literature. More to the point, the offices
bearing the names of Mdo-Khams and Dbus-Gtsang were not established
in Tibet proper but remained in the border regions around Hezhou and
Xining They were not in any way a part of the actual political power
structure ofTibet.

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Similarly exaggerated is the significance of the titles that were granted

to Tibetans by the Ming. These titles (which have already been noted
above) were honors that conveyed prestige and recognition, but they did
not confer political authority. In point of fact, the grant of titles in China
to foreigners was not unusual; it was a well-known tool of statecraft. But
in the case of three Tibetan hierarchs who were accorded the title fa w a n g
or dharmaraja, Chinese commentators essentially present the bestowal of
these titles as both a mark of Chinese sovereignty and a political measure
by which the Ming exerted control over Tibetan Buddhism.68 These three
fa w a n g were honored as such because they traveled to the Ming court,
where they performed rites and conferred initiations upon the emperor
(specifically, Ming Chengzu and Ming Xuanzong Thus
their prestige and positions were established well before they ever went to
China. Lest there be any doubt about the authority of the Ming court in
these matters, there is the aforementioned case of Tsong-kha-pa Blo-bzang
grags-pa, one of the most important figures of
the period. Invited to the court of Chengzu, he These titles...w ere
simply refused to go and sent a disciple instead
h on ors th a tc o n v e y e d
(who later became one of the th teefa w a n g).
As for the lesser titles awarded Tibetans p r e s tig e a n d recogn ition ,
during the Ming, many of these were given to
b u tth e y d id n o t co n fe r
figures active along the Ming-Tibetan frontier.
But others were awarded to figures inside Tibet p o litic a l auth ority.
who were still not subordinate to the Ming court.
There is no indication at all in Tibetan sources—or in Chinese sources,
for that matter—that any of those inside Tibet exerted power or acted
on behalf of the Ming court. Bluntly put, there was no Ming political
authority over Tibet—no ordinances, laws, taxes, etc., imposed inside
Tibet by the Ming.
If the substantive significance of these Ming structures is misrepresented
in Chinese writings, the Qing institution of the Golden Urn is not
accorded its true import in Tibetan writings. As we have seen, the use of
the urn was imposed in the wake of the Gurkha war with Tibet at the end
of the eighteenth century. The Qing had slowly taken on an increasingly
dominant role in Tibet, so much so that by the end of the eighteenth century
the subordinate place ofTibet within the Qing Empire was beyond dispute.
The memoirs of one of the Tibetan ministers involved in the Gurkha war
and implicated in its escalation are telling. Summoned to Beijing for an

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28 Elliot Sperling
inquest, he makes clear in his own account the fact he was unambiguously
a subject of the Qing emperor whom he describes as “the dharmaraja, lord
of all below heaven and above earth the Manjus'ri emperor.69 It is simply not
possible to chalk Qing-Tibetan relations up to a priest-patron relationship
on a personal level with no element of political subordination.
The use of the Golden Urn is particularly contentious, because it
represents the intrusion of Qing authority into the selection of important
lamas, most prominently the Dalai Lamas. Nevertheless, it is clear from
Tibetan sources that its use was required for some time, at least.70 In the
early nineteenth century, a survey of all contemporary incarnations was
compiled that specified which ones had actually been selected by means
of the Golden Urn.71 The survey list makes it clear that the Golden Urn
was not limited to the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The fourteenth
Karma-pa, Theg-mchog rdo-rje, is also noted as having been chosen
through its use.72 There can be little doubt that the Qing had the authority
to impose the use of the Golden Urn. Nor can there be any doubt about
the real authority in Tibetan affairs exerted by the offices and officials
that the Qing posted in Tibet. It is of course true that for most of the
nineteenth century Qing authority there was weak. But that authority was
still acknowledged by the Dalai Lama’s government until 1912, when the
thirteenth Dalai Lama declared Tibet to be free of China.
It should be clear that much of what is claimed by both sides in the
Tibet-China conflict comes down to rather recent constructions of history.
Bearing this in mind, it may be useful to look further at some of these
constructions within the context of the larger issues that they both respond
to and reflect. A glance at four of the more obvious instances in which the
historical record is at variance with current assertions ought to illustrate to
some extent the factors at work. These have largely been examined above,
but additional comments about them as they appear set against other issues
of culture, politics, or identity should shed more light on the way in which
they have become such considerable impediments to attempts at dealing
with the issue ofTibet’s status.
Integral Part ofC h in a or Vassal State?
Not only is the notion that Tibet has been an integral part of China since
the Yuan dynasty a twentieth-century idea, into the 1950s the predominant
view was that Tibet’s relations with late imperial China were best described
as those of a vassal, something quite opposite to an integral part of a
country. As we have already seen, Chinese writers, well into the early years

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of the PRC, saw the full implementation of Chinese sovereignty in Tibet

coming only after the Gurkha war. This is starkly different from what has
now become received wisdom in the PRC, namely that Tibet’s place as an
integral part of China dates to the Yuan. Moreover, even when speaking
of the Qing period and Tibet’s status under the Qing, the terms used
by these earlier writers cannot be said to point to something “integral”
to the Chinese state. Rather, they point to a Tibet that is a tributary or a
dependency—i.e., something that cannot be called “integral.” This is not
to say that Tibet was not subject to the Qing or that the international
community during the Qing period did not accept that fact. But the Qing
state in its day was viewed as an empire, as indeed it was an empire. And
the terms that we see being used to characterize Tibet within the Qing
realms are terms that speak of a part of an empire, not an “integral” part
of China. The Qing rulers maintained some very clear boundaries between
their rule of China on the one hand and their rule of regions such as Tibet
or Mongolia on the other. Indeed, both regions fell under the jurisdiction
of the Lifanyuan (commonly translated as “Court of Colonial
Affairs”), a bureau that also handled Qing relations with Russia into the
nineteenth century. When Zhao Erfeng the last major Qing
official dealing with Tibetan affairs, took up the military pacification of
the eastern Sino-Tibetan borderlands, he described his enterprise there as
a colonial one, comparable to those of the British, French, Japanese, and
Americans in Asia and Africa.73
The terms used to describe Tibet under the Qing ( fa n b a n g ^ ffi, fan shu
etc.) are generally translated as “vassal state” or something similar.74
A recent article maintains that fan sh u are not like other tribute-paying
regions in that the former fall under the full sovereign administration of
China,75 but that is not the point; though an imperial power can exercise
full sovereign rule over a subject country, this in itself does not make that
country an inalienable or integral part of the imperial country.
Setting aside the issue of fan sh u , however, it is still manifestly clear
that Chinese writers have come to view pre-eighteenth-century Tibet as
firmly under Chinese sovereignty only during the last five decades. This
change has been part of a larger enterprise of defining China and the
Chinese people in a new way, one in which elements of past imperial
domination have been suppressed and previously subject peoples fitted
into the category of “national minority.” In the case ofTibet, where the
historical memory encompasses a sense of nationhood and a knowledge

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30 Elliot Sperling
of a time when Tibetans presided over a Tibetan state, administered by a

Tibetan bureaucracy using Tibetan-language administrative documents
and tools, the persistence of tensions is not surprising. The category of
“national minority” ultimately reduces Tibetans to a par with a variety
of other groups, many numbering just tens of thousands or fewer, and
having no similar national history or consciousness. Yet this definition
of the Chinese nation has been created and successfully inculcated in
the general population of the PRC. Now, regardless of past history, most
Chinese do indeed feel that Tibet belongs to China and has been an
inseparable part of the country since ancient
C hinese w riters h a ve times.
co m e to v ie w p r e - This cultural sense of what is rightly China’s
is also bound up with the notion that any attempt
eigh teen th -cen tu ry T ibet to separate Tibet from China is ultimately the
a s fir m ly u n d er C hinese result of foreign machinations or incitement
derived from earlier imperialist policies that
so v ereign ty o n ly d u rin g sought to divide up China. The sense of popular
th e la s tfiv e d eca d es grievance this plays on has commonly been
marshaled in books and essays pointing to the
imperialist provenance of Tibetan independence.76 Indeed, the Chinese
response to non-Chinese writers and scholars who see Tibet as possessing
a historical identity separate from China has been to tar them with the
colonialist label. But the fact is, Tibet was historically not a part of China;
rather, Tibet’s subordinate relationship to the Qing is more aptly described
with the feudal terminology of vassalage that Chinese writers previously
used for it.
The Priest-Patron Relationship
The priest-patron relationship coexisted with Tibet’s political subordination
to the Yuan and the Qing. There is simply nothing to substantiate the
notion that the priest-patron relationship excluded political domination.
It existed, as we have seen, between Tibetan hierarchs and emperors of the
Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, including periods in which the Ming and
Qing did not exercise authority over Tibet. Nevertheless, it has become
common for Tibetan exile commentators to see the relationship as uniquely
personal and ideas ofTibet’s subordination to Yuan or Ming emperors as a
misunderstanding of that fact.
Here, too, we have a cultural notion at work as a national idea is defined
anew. In this case the process is a complex one, involving in part Tibetan

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interaction with the West and the assimilation of modern ideas about Tibet
as an exceptional realm of a uniquely religious culture. One sees this idea
developing through an increasing de-emphasis, among the exile leadership,
on the “national” aspects of what had once been
a movement for independence (and that, to be T here is sim p ly n o th in g
honest, remains as such among most Tibetan to su b sta n tia te th e
exiles and activists). At the higher levels of the
Tibetan government-in-exile it has devolved into n otion th a t th ep r ies t-
a movement for cultural preservation. As if taking p a tro n rela tion sh ip
a cue from Western fantasies of Tibet as the place
wherein all is centered around spiritual pursuits, e x clu d ed p o litica l
the Tibetan exile authorities are increasingly given d om in a tion .
to speaking of Tibet largely as a global religious
and spiritual resource, for which independence as a nation is unimportant.
The present exile prime minister, Samdhong Rinpoche, told the New York
Times as much in July 2002.77 As a result, one encounters an increasingly
muddled view of the nature of Sino-Tibetan relations in some quarters
of the Tibetan exile leadership. Against this background the impetus to
make religion the overwhelming core of Tibet’s identity—again, partially
in response to non-Tibetan expectations—would seem to have fostered an
inability in some quarters to understand the hard political facts of Tibet’s
ties with the Yuan and Qing courts.
The Golden Urn
The Golden Urn was used to select Tibetan incarnations during the Qing,
but its invocation in the recognition of contemporary incarnations is a
selective response to political exigencies. In spite of exile interpretations
to the contrary, the Golden Urn lottery was used in Tibet in the cases of a
number of incarnations. But its revival as a present-day device cannot be
seen as anything but cynical. The use of the Golden Urn was not constant
by the late Qing, and it subsequently fell into disuse. It was, after all, a
Qing device imposed on the Tibetan Buddhist authorities. One cannot but
note, somewhat wryly, that after almost a century of rhetoric on the part
of both the Republican and the Socialist governments of China depicting
the policies of the Qing upper strata as divisive and oppressive toward the
borderland or minority peoples, the PRC has chosen to resurrect this one
particular Qing institution, specifically with regard to the recognition of
the Panchen Lama, maintaining that it is absolutely necessary in choosing
an incarnation. (It goes without saying that there has not been a rush

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32 Elliot Sperling
to restore any other Qing institutions across modern China.) But given
what we know about the use of the Golden Urn, it is interesting to note
that although the fourteenth Karma-pa was recognized through the use
of the Golden Urn at the beginning of the nineteenth century, all reports
of the recognition and enthronement of the seventeenth Karma-pa in
1992 indicate that this was not the case with him.78 The revived use of
the Golden Urn is meant to impart legitimacy to
[th e G olden U rns] PRC control over the incarnation of high lamas
by creating the perception of historical continuity,
r ev iv a l as a p r esen t-d a y with a particular eye to PRC supervision of the
d e v ice ca n n o t b e seen as recognition of the Dalai Lama’s next incarnation.
The use of the Golden Urn is one of the few
a n y th in g b u t cy n ica l elements of imperial dynastic rule that can be
called on to reinforce the modern Chinese notion
that China’s central governments enjoyed primacy in Tibetan affairs from
the Yuan period up to the present. The notion that Tibet somehow warrants
the restoration of this element of Qing rule is best viewed as part of a larger
struggle to bring history and historical precedent to bear on the legitimacy
ofPRC policies and rule in Tibet today.79
The Invasion Question, or What Constitutes Tibet?
Tibet was not invaded by China in 1949, nor were Tibetans ignorant of
the name of their country. These last two points—purposely phrased so
as to raise eyebrows—are connected once more with the attempt to define
a specific vision of a nation. They are useful in pointing out the degree of
ambiguity, contradiction, and even strained illogical invention that goes
into such an enterprise.
The first point relates to the idea of what Tibet is, exactly. We have
already noted that in 1950, when the PLA attacked across the frontier
separating the territories under the Dalai Lama’s jurisdiction from other
parts of the Tibetan Plateau, the Tibetan government claimed that China
had launched an invasion of Tibet. Only in the 1980s was it decided to
set 1949 as the year of the invasion. The reason, very obviously, was to
assert a political claim to all of the contiguous territories on the Tibetan
Plateau inhabited by Tibetans. This elicits the natural question of why the
Tibetan government did not make the claim of invasion in 1949. One is
hard pressed to imagine Tibet’s being invaded in 1949 while its population
remained oblivious of the event. In fact, the territories involved (generally
speaking, the Tibetan-inhabited regions outside the modern Tibet

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Autonomous Region) had been removed by the Qing from the jurisdiction
of the Tibetan government in the early eighteenth century. In the first half
of the twentieth century, they had become parts of Chinese provinces
(something the Qing had not done with them) and were generally under
the domination of provincial warlords. The ties of culture, language, and
religion between these areas and Lhasa remained largely unimpeded.
Indeed, the present Dalai Lama and the previous Panchen Lama were
both born in these regions. Thus, an accommodation with this situation of
divided political regimes on the Tibetan Plateau was in place. Many people
in the Tibetan government were largely ignorant of what the implications
of this were in terms of modern nationalist aspirations. Clearly, it was
the coming to terms with that sentiment in the aftermath of 1959 that
disabused certain figures in the exile community of the viability of a Tibet
with imprecise borders and status.
Essentially, the vagaries of the situation on the Tibetan Plateau
before 1950 were such that the Tibetan government accommodated an
arrangement with Chinese provincial powers in which much was informal
and left unarticulated in official agreements. The Tibetan government had
long been accustomed to this state of affairs and discretion was often part
of it. Not that the Tibetan government had written off the eastern portions
of the Tibetan Plateau: their status had been part of the brief brought
by the Tibetan delegation at the Simla conference, and earlier decades
had seen serious conflict there. But there was no urgent sense that Tibet
had been invaded when, in 1949, civil and military officials of the PRC
replaced the rulers in the area who had been part of the Chinese Republican
presence there. So obtuse was the Tibetan government in those years about
questions of sovereignty that it had even been able to persuade some in
Lhasa that its signing of the Seventeen-Point Agreement in 1951 still left
Tibet independent.80 Thus there was no claim of a 1949 invasion until the
1980s, even though the backbone of the 1959 uprising comprised Tibetans
from the very areas in question (those that lay outside the jurisdiction of
the Dalai Lama’s government); certainly one cannot dispute their identity
as Tibetans.
In due course the Tibetan government-in-exile began to backtrack in
order to build a vision of Tibet that reflected the new sense of nationalism
that grew out of the 1959 revolt and the years of exile that followed. Yet a
pamphlet on Tibet’s status published by the Dalai Lama’s New Delhi office
not long after the 1959 uprising gave 1950 as the date of the invasion.81

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34 Elliot Sperling
When reprinted in 1987, the date had been changed to 1949.82 The
introduction by the Tibetan government-in-exile’s Office of Information
and International Relations to the survey of Sino-
T ibetan g o v er n m en t Tibetan relations by Tashi Tsering speaks of “the
a cco m m o d a ted a n Chinese invasion and occupation in 1959,” with
“invasion and” whited out.83
a rra n gem en t w ith If this shows some rather sloppy stitching
C h in esep ro v in cia l in the Tibetan construction of what Tibet is,
the inclusion of Tibet within the Chinese vision
p o w er s in w h ich m u ch of China has also produced some bizarre twists
w as in fo rm a l a n d le ft of logic. One such twist relates to language and
stems from the same motivation that is at work in
u n a rticu la ted in o fficia l the Chinese revision of the term Han ^ (IX)—a
a greem en ts synonym for Chinese now marshaled in order
that “Chinese,” an otherwise ethno-linguistically
specific designation, can be applied to Mongols, Tibetans, and other
national minorities. The Tibetan language has never treated the term for
China, Rgya-nag, as meaning anything other than the country neighboring
Tibet to the east. Its field of meaning does not encompass Tibet, much as
the Tibetan name for Tibet, Bod, does not encompass China. An article
from China’s Tibet, published in 1991 to commemorate the signing
of the Seventeen-Point Agreement, described some of the translation
problems that arose during the agreement’s negotiation. It contained a
telling comment: “In [the] Tibetan language, there was no word which
meant ‘China.’”84 The author, who worked as a translator during the
negotiations, then notes that the Chinese name for China had to be
transliterated to provide a usable term. In effect, since the Chinese position
was that Tibet had been an integral part of China for centuries, the only
possible interpretation for this anecdote, if one takes it at face value, is that
the author considered Tibetans to be ignorant of the name of their own
country. Of course that ignorance is an invention; what the Tibetans were
unaware of was the beginning of a process of molding and manipulating a
new Tibetan identity.
But this process was part of the construction of China and the Chinese
identity. Because of the authoritarian underpinnings of that construction,
questions about the validity of the historical case behind Tibet’s
incorporation in the PRC become fraught with existential overtones. If
Tibet is presented as an “integral” part of China, the implications for the

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integrity of a China so constructed are fundamental once the legitimacy

of that position is undermined. Thus, the simple realization that certain
elements in the contemporary vision of China are modern contrivances
and hardly a legacy handed down from time immemorial has very serious
ramifications. One might carry the thought further: calling this vision into
question also raises issues about the political structures that derive from a
fixed notion of China and the Chinese identity; in its own way this raises
issues about a government that stakes so much of its legitimacy on its
perceived ability to deliver a specific vision of China.
Conclusion
The historical status of Tibet is hardly a small matter of clarifying some
textual misunderstandings; were that the case, this paper might indeed
be welcome to all parties. The issue has a resonance well beyond that;
the positions of the parties to the Tibet issue are imbued with questions
of political and national identity and grounded in decades of polemical,
diplomatic, and military struggle. The facts as established by recourse to
the historical record are wont to be subject to divergent interpretations;
some elements are emphasized, others ignored. W hy then acknowledge
these facts?
For one thing, there is the sheer necessity—and natural impetus—to
know as much as can be known of the path that has lead to the current
situation. This understanding is central to any attempt to gain control over
the issue; even if the parties to it have different views of the historical facts,
we still need to know what those facts are, as well as the manner in which
they are being disputed.
Then there is the reality that the fundamental place of history in the
Tibet issue is not something imposed by outside parties. Even though the
Dalai Lama and his exile government appear quite at ease with accepting
Tibet as a part of China, the PRC has pointedly accused the Dalai Lama
of duplicity, stating that his unwillingness to recognize Tibet as having
been an integral part of China for centuries renders his acquiescence
unacceptable.85 The centrality of history in the question of Tibet’s status
could not be made clearer.
Therefore, it does matter whether the Yuan dynasty made Tibet a part
of China in the thirteenth century. The Dalai Lama’s refusal to accede to
this proposition has, on the face of it, become one of China’s primary stated
reasons for the impasse over the Tibet issue. In this context it matters, too,

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36 Elliot Sperling
that Chinese commentators into the 1950s held that Tibet had been a
vassal state of the Qing.
Similarly, the use of the Golden Urn in recognizing Tibetan
incarnations is a significant issue. It is clearly meant to impart legitimacy to
Chinese control over the incarnation of high lamas (with a particular eye
to the Dalai Lama’s next incarnation) through the
The cen tra lity o fh is to r y establishment of historical continuity. The PRC,
in th e q u estion ofT ib et's in excoriating the Dalai Lama for not accepting
its use of this Qing procedure is consciously
statu s co u ld n o t b e m a d e manipulating a historical element in Sino-Tibetan
clearer. relations. It is impossible to ignore China’s desire
for historical precedent here as a legitimizing
element for its administration ofTibet.
Both the question of the priest-patron relationship as one exclusive of
political subordination and the status of territories outside the control of the
Dalai Lama’s government on the eve ofTibet’s incorporation into the PRC
are likewise questions that still provoke strong, official pronouncements
meant to assert historical antecedents to legitimize or contest current
circumstances. As we have seen, the presentation of Tibet’s relationship
with imperial China as a religious one, with no acknowledgement accorded
the attested subordination ofTibet to the emperors of the Mongol Yuan
and Manchu Qing dynasties, is a misrepresentation of the historical record.
There is a bit more ambiguity about the territorial identity ofTibetan areas
outside the jurisdiction of the Dalai Lama’s government, but it remains a
fact that in 1949, when those areas were taken under the administration
of the PRC, the Tibetan government did not claim its territory had been
invaded.
In spite of all this, one might still say the status ofTibet, whatever it
was in the past, is now settled, and the incorporation ofTibet into China
has long since been a fait accompli. But settled issues have the capacity to
rear up unexpectedly and catch the political state of affairs unaware. And
it is then that history becomes vital. It would be sensible to have a grasp of
that history before the fact.

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Endnotes
1 Tibet—Its O wnership a n d H um an Rights (1992),p . 17.
2 Tibet: P rovin g Truth From Facts (1993), p. 1.
3 Papers R ela tin gto Tibet (1904): 154—55-This early-twentieth-century assessment did
not preclude Britain from avowing in 1950—when it no longer wanted to be party
to the Tibet issue—that Tibet’s status vis-a-vis China was actually unclear. The
judgments of other third parties regarding Tibet’s relations with China have also
fluctuated during the twentieth century.
4 What PRC publications render in their English versions as “integral” or
“inalienable” is a Chinese term that has the more literal meaning o f “inseparable”
(Ch. b u k efen ge
5 There are innumerable examples of these sorts of writings that can be adduced; two
well-known examples are 100 Questions (1989), and Tibet—Its O wnership (1992).
6 Epstein (1983): 15.
7 Xizang shehui kexueyuan e tal. (1986).
8 Again, there is a variety of examples that can be cited, but one may see, typically,
Tibet: P rovin g T ruthjrom Facts (1993).
9 “On ‘Tibetan People’s Right to Self-Determination’” (1990): 2. Cf. “What Is
It” (1990): 21—22: “Everyone with some knowledge of Chinese history knows
that China is a unified, multi-national country and was created by the concerted
efforts of all its 56 ethnic groups, Tibetans included, over a long term historical
development. As early as the 13th century ... Tibet was incorporated into the
territory of China. . . . ”
10 A number of volumes have been published in the PRC aimed at providing
documentation for China’s position, such as Xizang shehui kexueyuan et al. (1986);
Bod rang-skyong-ljongs yig-tshags-khang (1995); and the important seven-volume
collection Zhongguo Zangxue yanjiu zhongxin et al. (1994). Other works present

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38 Elliot Sperling
a wide array of materials that, if not clearly supportive of a case for Chinese
sovereignty over Tibet from the thirteenth century on, do provide a wealth of
materials on Tibet’s interactions and dealings with China’s dynastic governments.
Among these are works in both Chinese and Tibetan, including the four-volume
collection of Tibet-related extracts from the standard Chinese dynastic histories,
Chen Xiezhang et al. (1982—93); as well as Gu Zucheng et al. (1982) and (1985);
Bod-ljongs yig-tshags khang dang krung-go’i Bod-kyi shes-rig zhib-’jug lte-gnas
(1997); Bkra-shis dbang-’dus (1989); and two different collections bearing the same
title: Bod rang-skyong-ljongs spyi-tshogs tshan-rig-khang and Krung-dbyangs mi-
rigs slob-grwa’i Bod-rig-pa’i zhib-’jug khang (1986); and Krung-dbyangs mi-rigs
slob-grwa’i Bod-rig-pa’i zhib-’jug tshogs-chung (1989).
11 For the texts of these various agreements see Lamb (1966): 237—64.
12 See Wang Gui et al. (1995): 173—202.
13 Boundary Question (1940): 7—8. In addition to the nonhistorical subjugation of

Tibet in 1206 by Chinggis Qayan, one finds in the same statement the fanciful
notion of a Chinese expedition entering Lhasa in the seventh century.
14 Dreyer (1976): 16-17.
15 Goldstein (1989): 715-16.
16 This vagueness is reflected most clearly at the beginning of the text of the
“Seventeen-Point Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet,”
signed by representatives of the Dalai Lama’s government and the central
government of China on M ay 23, 1951: “The Tibetan nationality is one of the
nationalities with a long historywithin the boundaries of Tibet.” See Bod rang-
skyong-ljongs yig-tshags-khang (1995), doc. 100.
17 X i e B i n ( 1 9 2 6 ) : 2 0 - 2 1 : ^ ^ K E + t A ® ¥ ( - t A ^ ¥ , - t A H ^ , ) &
18 W angQinyu(1929):13:
19 Huang Fensheng (1953): 111: — tA —
20 Xian Z o n g to n g jia n g g o n g g a o X iza ngtongbao (n.d.): 1. The English translation

states (p. 6), “I wish to affirm emphatically that in connection with the future
political status and institutions of Tibet, as soon as the puppet Communist regime
on the mainland is overthrown and the people ofTibet are once again free to
express their will, the Government will assist the Tibetan people to realize their own
aspirations in accordance with the principle of self-determination.”
21 C on cern in gth e Q uestion o f Tibet (1959): 195
22 Ibid., 188—89. Note that the book erroneously gives the name of another emperor,
“Khri-lde tsug-ldan,” i.e., Khri-lde gtsug-brtan, who reigned a century earlier.
23 Ibid., 190.

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24 All of the general histories of Tibet published during this period give support in one
form or another to Tibet’s status as a part of China since the Yuan period. These
include Dung-skar Blo-bzang ’phrin-las (1981); Rgyal-mo ’brug-pa (1995); Wang
Furen and Suo Wenqing (1981); Chab-spel Tshe-brtan phun-tshogs and Nor-brang
O-rgyan (1990); Thub-bstan phun-tshogs (1996); Zangzujianshi bianxiezu (1985);
and Huang Fensheng (1985). This last work is by the same author cited in note 19.
It was edited for posthumous publication, and the editor notes that revisions and
additions were specifically needed with regard to the author’s account of the Yuan,
Ming, and other periods. Unlike Huang Fengsheng (1953), this work conforms
more to the interpretation that Tibet came under Chinese rule during the Yuan
and not the Qing. However, owing perhaps to an editing slip, Tibet is said to have
become simply a vassal state of China during the period ofMongol rule (p. 224).
Several other works are more specifically focused on the establishment of Chinese
sovereignty over Tibet during the Yuan. Among this group are W angjiaw ei and
Nima jianzan (2000); Wang Gui et al. (1995); Deng Ruiling (1989); and Zhang
Yun (1998). These titles represent a very small portion of the output of Chinese
historians of Tibet. It should be stated that, controversial and politicized issues such
as the status of Tibet aside, there is a tremendous amount of valuable and original
research on Tibetan history that is being done by many of the scholars cited here
as well as by a much larger number who have not been cited. Indeed, it is nigh
impossible to carry out serious research on Tibetan history without taking into
account the work of contemporary Tibetan and Chinese historians.
25 See Zhu Xiaoming and Suo Wenqing, eds. (1999). The text is unpaginated;
the information is in the text of the beginning section, titled “The Conferment
ofHonorific Titles upon Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas by the Central
Government through the Ages.”
26 Loc. cit.
27 See, for example, Che Minghuai and Li Xueqin, eds. (1996).
28 See, for example, Wang Yuping (1996): 29—33; Wu Yuncen (1996): 34—42; Liao
Zugui, Chen Qingying, and Zhou Wei (1995): 38—46; Ainam (1996): 6—9; Doje
Cedain (1996): 2—6; S hishiB anchan zhuanshi
xiezhen (1996): 93—128; and Guo Xin (n.d.): 61—68.
29 See Zhou Weizhou (1984): 147—205; Yang Gongsu (1992): 72—150; Wang Yuanda
(1993): 229-319; and Zhou Weizhou (2001): 249-371.
30 Wang Furen and Suo Wenqing (1981): 184—85.
31 Zhou Weizhou (1984): 553—92.
32 Zhwa-sgab-pa Dbang-phyug bde-ldan (1976).
33 B oundary Q uestion (1940): 3.
34 Ibid., 9.
35 Ibid., 10.
36 Ibid., 1.
37 T ibetin the U nitedN ations (n.d.).
38 On the concept in general, see D. Seyfort Ruegg (1991).
39 Such, at least, is the impression generated by the account of the Dalai Lama’s
responses, in 1930, to questions on Sino-Tibetan relations posed by an envoy sent

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40 Elliot Sperling
from China given by Tieh-tseng Li (I960): 153. Note that the author states (p.
274) that the Dalai Lama’s statements, including his remark that relations between
China and Tibet could be restored “if the Central Government would treat the
patronage relationship between China and Tibet with sincerity and good faith as it
previously did,” are translated from the official Chinese translation of the Tibetan
text of the Dalai Lama’s responses, itself copied “word for word from the archives of
the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission.”
40 Truth a bou t Tibet (n.d.): 13.
41 Ibid., 14.
42 Q uestion o fT ib e ta n d th e Rule o fL a w (1959). The Indian jurist Purshottam
Trikamdas did the preliminary research for the group’s “Legal Inquiry Committee
on Tibet.” He later contributed the historical introduction to Tibet in the U nited
Nations, published by the Dalai Lama’s New Delhi bureau (and cited in note 37).
43 Richardson (1962): 42.
44 Dalai Lama (1964): 68.
45 Zhwa-sgab-pa Dbang-phyug bde-ldan (1976): 301: Go^dan
panditorphubbdi ’j a ’-sa dangf K ubda’i Kh
j’ a ’-sagnyis'bsdur n al dang-po dedpon-pos f rjes^ma de
sbyinddag-gis bla-m arphubba Ita-bu z h ig
bsam'blogtong'StangS'kyangde'rangyod'cing/ bla-ma thog-nas bstan^pa -
p a dang/ ’gro^ba bde-ba’i bka’^slob dangmdzad-p

d p a b ’b yor thog-nas deyn n-n asyu n -dugnas-pa’i zhu-dgos-pa Itar/
B od fdang Sog-po’i dbar-gyi m ehod-yon-gyi zhigyin z e d ’o n-
kyangN ub-phyogs-pa’i srid -d on -gyi ’g ro-stangs th og b yed
z h i g y o d ' d u g / N u b - p h y o g s - p a ' i s h o s g o n g - g i zhib-cha z h ig
K hang'gis P hags-pa rin-pO'che’i thugs d a n g zhus-pa de-ga-rang-
nas B od'kyi dban g-cha mtho^shos P hags-pa n yid -la yod -p a
khas'len z h u syod -p a dangfd a -d u n gR b a n g-gis chos zhu^stangs dang/gus^zhabs zhu-
stangs/Sman'tse’i y u l len-dus b k a slob zhu-s f mtshan-stod-kyi
tshig-don/ A -rnddiyubbarphebs skyebdu
dban g'la ch a d z h a g-ste Bod^du zhib-gcod-pa sogs rgyabk hab
p h a n 'tsh u n g n y isgcig 'p h a n g cig 'g ro g s dangf byas^pa ma^gtogs/
rgya b k h a b gcig'gi 'og-tu geig-m ed 'p a gsa b p or mtshon^pa d ed ta r
ba ’d i gz h b la b z h a gste B o d dangfR gya-n aggnyis
lca gS 'p h a gl9 H lor C h in g-n ga m M a n -ju gon g-m d i dus-rabs
tshun m eh od 'yon 'gyi ’b reb b a ’i b y a d a gong-m tshung
46 See Jamyang Norbu (1989): 91—92. We may note too that van Walt was slated to
be part of a proposed team the Tibetan government-in-exile put together in the
late 1980s to negotiate with China; his inclusion elicited a refusal from the PRC to
entertain formal discussions of the Tibet issue with any non-Tibetans or a team that
included non-Tibetans in its ranks.
47 Van Walt van Praag (1987): 5.
48 Ibid., 12.
49 Ibid., 127.
50 Van Wait-van Praag (1985): 1.

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51 B od dang,fM a n -ju i ’breB bar dpyad-pa’i gta m dus-skabs (1999): 124: B od

d an gM a nyu i ’b reBba d n gos'b yu n gk h a gd a byas-pdi snying-por/ B od
M a n -ju i khongs-gtogs m in-pa dang/ B odM an-ju s d n go ssu ’d zin-skyongmO’-byas-pa’i
gnas-lugs gtan'la'phab'payin'zhing/ .
52 Zhwa-sgab-pa 669—70 and 678—79.
53 Van W altvan P raag(1987):125—26.
54 Tashi T sering(1988):5—7.
55 Ibid., 11-12.
56 Reference has been made above to the Dalai Lama’s 1959 statement in this regard.
The travels of Tibetan representatives have been especially invoked by Zhwa-sgab-
pa, who was a member of one of these missions. The first edition of the English-
language version ofhis history of Tibet included a facsimile reproduction ofhis
traveling papers with the various foreign visas and related stamps on it.
57 Dalai Lama (1964): 72.
58 Ibid., 244 and 247.
59 See the geography chapters in Song Lian (1976): 58:1345—63:1585.
60 Tibet—Its O wnership (1992): 3—4: “In the mid-13th century, Tibet was officially
incorporated into the territory of China’s Yuan Dynasty. Since then, although
China experienced several dynastic changes, Tibet has remained under the
jurisdiction of the central government of China. ... The regime of the Mongol
Khanate changed its title to Yuan in 1271 and unified the whole of China in 1279,
establishing a central government which, following the Han (206 BC—220) and
the Tang dynasties, achieved great unification of various regions and races within
the domain of China. Tibet became an administrative region directly under the
administration of the central government of China’s Yuan Dynasty.”
61 D anzeng(1996):25:1271 +
62 Zhao Ping and Xu Wenhui (2000): 82-83:

1264 ^,
63 W an gG u ietal. (1993): 70:
64 See, for example, Wang Gui et al. (1993), which is meant specifically as a rebuttal
ofboth books, as well as W angjiawei and Nima jianzan (2000); and Bod rang-
skyong-ljongs «Bod-kyi srid-don rgyal-rabs» blta-bsdur mchan-’god tshogs-chung
(1996).
65 Wang Furen and Suo Wenqing (1981): 82:

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42 Elliot Sperling
66 See Gu Zucheng (1982): 29—30. It should be noted that the three military
commissions mentioned were established at the same time, with the Mdo-Khams
and Dbus-Gtsang units deriving from what had previously been designated guard
(Ch. w ei units for the two areas.
67 On Wei Zheng, see his biography in Zhang Tingyu et al. (1974): 134: 3905—6.
Note that for a long period he used the surname Wei, which was that ofhis
adoptive father; as a reward for service rendered to the M ing dynasty at Hezhou, he
was given imperial permission to use his original surname, Ning
68 Wang Furen and Suo Wenqing (1981): 83; and W angjiaw ei and Nima jianzan
(2000): 28-30.
69 See Sperling (1998): 333.
70 See Dar-han Blo-bzang ’phrin-las rnam-rgyal (1998): 34, for a telling instance
in which it was ordered that the Golden Urn be used in selecting the tenth Dalai
Lama.
71 B od d a n g! B ar-kham sl R gya S ogbcas-k yi
(1991): 281-369.
72 Ibid., 292.
73 Wu Fengpei (1984): 48. Zhao’s comments are found in a 1907 memorial on
measures to be taken in Khams. Cf. the memorial of the am ban Lianyu who,
two years later, likewise compared the necessary Qing tasks in Tibet with the colonial
enterprises of the British, Americans, French, and Dutch (Wu Fengpei 1979: 88). I
am grateful to Tashi Rabgey for pointing out Lianyu’s remarks to me.
74 A s in ^ C hinese'E nglishD ictionary (1985): 184.
75 Zhang Zhirong (2000): 428—29. Cf. the author’s somewhat labored attempt
to draw a hard and fast distinction between the term and waifan
Nevertheless, the latter term is also generally understood to indicate a vassal state.
76 E.g., Yang Gongsu (1990).
77 Crossette (2002): “‘Political separation from China is not important,’ [Samdhong
Rinpoche] said. ‘W hat is important is to restore Tibetan civilization. Tibet is not
simply a nation or state. It is a unique cultural and spiritual heritage. It could be
preserved within China—or it could not be preserved even if we were separate from
China. Our basic objective is to preserve it in future for the benefit of all humanity,
all sentient beings. China is not our enemy. ... China is a people who need our
cooperation, who need our guidance, spiritually. It has been so for more than 1,000
years.”
78 See Blo-bzang shes-rab et al. (1993?); and Zhou Dunyou (1993) 7: “After the
death of the 16th Living Buddha Garmapa, the Curpu Monastery sect adherents,
following his testament and religious practices and rituals, found his successor,
the reincarnated soul boy Ogyain Chilai, in Qamdo Prefecture of the Tibet
Autonomous Region in M ay 1992.” The article gives a detailed account (pp. 8—9)
of the installation ceremony with no mention of the Golden Urn.
79 For more on the Golden Urn, see Elliot Sperling, “The Recognition of Tibetan
Incarnations: Qing Dynasty Regulations and Their Significance for Modern Sino-
Tibetan Relations,” unpublished paper presented at the conference “Tibet in the
Contemporary World,” University ofBritish Columbia, Vancouver B.C., April 19,
2004.

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80 See “True Copy” (1952): 2.

81 Status o f Tibet (n.d.): 9.
82 Status o f Tibet—A B riefS um m a ry (1987): 10.
83 TashiTsering (1988): i.
84 HuangM ingxin (1991): 13.
85 See, e.g., “Dalai Lama Holds Firm on Tibet” (1998).

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157.35.73.206 on Thu, 25 Nov 2021 15:34:23 UTC
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Project Information

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3
The Dynamics and Management o f Internal Conflicts in Asia

Project Rationale, Purpose and Outline
ProjectDirector: MuthiahAlagappa
Principal Researchers: Edward Aspinall (Aceh)

Danilyn Rutherford (Papua)
Christopher Collier (Southern Philippines)
Gardner Bovingdon (Xinjiang)
Elliot Sperling (Tibet)
Rationale
Internal conflicts have been a prominent feature of the Asian political
landscape since 1945- Asia has witnessed numerous civil wars, armed
insurgencies, coups d’etat, regional rebellions, and revolutions. Many
have been protracted; several have far reaching domestic and international
consequences. The civil war in Pakistan led to the break up of that
country in 1971; separatist struggles challenge the political and territorial
integrity of China, India, Indonesia, Burma, the Philippines, Thailand
and Sri Lanka; political uprisings in Thailand (1973 and 1991), the
Philippines (1986), South Korea (1986), Taiwan, Bangladesh (1991), and
Indonesia (1998) resulted in dramatic political change in those countries;
although the political uprisings in Burma (1988) and China (1989) were
suppressed, the political systems in these countries as well as in Vietnam
continue to confront problems of political legitimacy that could become
acute; and radical Islam poses serious challenges to stability in Pakistan,
Indonesia, Malaysia, and India. In all, millions of people have been killed
in the internal conflicts, and tens of millions have been displaced. And the
involvement of external powers in a competitive manner (especially during
the Cold War) in several of these conflicts had negative consequences for
domestic and regional security.
Internal conflicts in Asia (as elsewhere) can be traced to three issues—
national identity, political legitimacy (the title to rule), and distributive
justice— that are often interconnected. W ith the bankruptcy of the socialist
model and the transitions to democracy in several countries, the number
of internal conflicts over the legitimacy of political system has declined
in Asia. However, political legitimacy of certain governments continues
to be contested from time to time and the legitimacy of the remaining
communist and authoritarian systems are likely to confront challenges in

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54
due course. The project deals with internal conflicts arising from the process
of constructing national identity with specific focus on conflicts rooted in
the relationship of minority communities to the nation-state. Here too
many Asian states have made considerable progress in constructing national
communities but several states including some major ones still confront
serious problems that have degenerated into violent conflict. By affecting
the political and territorial integrity of the state as well as the physical,
cultural, economic, and political security of individuals and groups, these
conflicts have great potential to affect domestic and international stability.
Purpose
The project investigates the dynamics and management of five key internal
conflicts in Asia—Aceh and Papua in Indonesia, the Moro conflict in
southern Philippines, and the conflicts pertaining to Tibet and Xinjiang in
China. Specifically it investigates the following:
1. W hy (on what basis), how (in what form), and when does group
differentiation and political consciousness emerge?
2. What are the specific issues of contention in such conflicts? Are these
of the instrumental or cognitive type? If both, what is the relationship
between them? Have the issues of contention altered over time? Are the
conflicts likely to undergo further redefinition?
3. When, why, and under what circumstances can such contentions lead
to violent conflict? Under what circumstances have they not led to
violent conflict?
4. How can the conflicts be managed, settled, and eventually resolved?
What are policy choices? Do options such as national self-determination,
autonomy, federalism, electoral design, and consociationalism exhaust
the list of choices available to meet the aspirations of minority
communities? Are there innovative ways of thinking about identity and
sovereignty that can meet the aspirations of the minority communities
without creating new sovereign nation-states?
5. What is the role of the regional and international communities in the
protection of minority communities?
6. How and when does a policy choice become relevant?
Design
A study group has been organized for each of the five conflicts investigated
in the study. W ith a principal researcher each, the study groups comprise
practitioners and scholars from the respective Asian countries including the

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5
region or province that is the focus of the conflict, the United States, and
Australia. For composition of study groups please see the participants list.
All five study-groups met jointly for the first time in Washington, D.C.
from September 29 through October 3, 2002. Over a period of four
days, participants engaged in intensive discussion of a wide range of issues
pertaining to the five conflicts investigated in the project. In addition to
identifying key issues for research and publication, the meeting facilitated
the development of cross country perspectives and interaction among
scholars who had not previously worked together. Based on discussion at
the meeting five research monograph length studies (one per conflict) and
twenty policy papers (four per conflict) were commissioned.
Study groups met separately for the second meeting. The Aceh and Papua
study group meetings were held in Bali on June 16-17, the Southern
Philippines study group met in Manila on June 23, and the Tibet and
Xinjiang study groups were held in Honolulu from August 20 through
22, 2003. The third meeting of all study groups was held from February
28 through March 2, 2004 in Washington D.C. These meetings reviewed
recent developments relating to the conflicts, critically reviewed the first
drafts of the policy papers prepared for the project, reviewed the book
proposals by the principal researchers, and identified new topics for
research.
Publications
The project will result in five research monographs (book length studies)
and about twenty policy papers.
Research M onographs. To be authored by the principal researchers, these
monographs present a book-length study of the key issues pertaining
to each of the five conflicts. Subject to satisfactory peer review, the
monographs will appear in the East-West Center Washington series Asian
Security, and the East-West Center series C ontemporary Issues in the Asia
Pacific, both published by the Stanford University Press.
Policy Papers. The policy papers provide a detailed study of particular
aspects of each conflict. Subject to satisfactory peer review, these 10,000
to 25,000-word essays will be published in the EWC Washington Policy
Studies series, and be circulated widely to key personnel and institutions
in the policy and intellectual communities and the media in the respective
Asian countries, United States, and other relevant countries.

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56
P ublic Forums
To engage the informed public and to disseminate the findings of the project
to a wide audience, public forums have been organized in conjunction with
study group meetings.
Two public forums were organized in Washington, D.C. in conjunction
with the first study group meeting. The first forum, cosponsored by the
United States-Indonesia Society, discussed the Aceh and Papua conflicts.
The second forum, cosponsored by the United States Institute of Peace,
the Asia Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and the
Sigur Center of the George Washington University, discussed the Tibet and
Xinjiang conflicts.
Public forums were also organized in Jakarta and Manila in conjunction
with the second study group meetings. The Jakarta public forum on Aceh
and Papua, cosponsored by the Center for Strategic and International
Studies in Jakarta, and the Southern Philippines public forum cosponsored
by the Policy Center of the Asian Institute of Management, attracted
persons from government, media, think tanks, activist groups, diplomatic
community and the public.
In conjunction with the third study group meetings, also held in
Washington, D.C., three public forums were offered. The first forum,
cosponsored by the United States-Indonesia Society, addressed the conflicts
in Aceh and Papua. The second forum, cosponsored by the Sigur Center
of the George Washington University, discussed the conflicts in Tibet and
Xinjiang. A third forum was held to discuss the conflict in the Southern
Philippines. This forum was cosponsored by the United States Institute of
Peace.
F unding Support
This project is supported with a generous grant from the Carnegie
Corporation ofNew York.

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7
ProjectDirector
Muthiah Alagappa
Aceh Study Group Michael Ross

Edward Aspinall University of California, Fos Angeles
University of Sydney
Kirsten E. Schulze
P rin cip a l R esearcher
Fondon School ofEconomics
Saifuddin Bantasyam
Rizal Sukma
Hum an Rights Forum - Aceh
CSIS Jakarta
Harold Crouch
Paul Van Zyl
Australian N ational University
International Center for Transitional
Ahmad Humam Hamid Justice
Care H uman Rights, Aceh
Agus W idjojo
Bob Hadiwinata Former C hief of Staff for Territorial
University of Parahyangan, Indonesia Affairs
Government of Indonesia
Konrad Huber
Concil on Foreign Relations Sastrohandoyo Wiryono
C hief Negotiator for the Government
Sidneyjones
of Indonesia in the peace talks with
International Crisis Group, Jakarta
the Free Aceh Movement
T. Mulya Lubis
Daniel Ziv
Fubis, Santosa and M aulana, Jakarta
USAID, Jakarta
Marcus Meitzner
USAID, Jakarta
Kelli Muddell
International Center for Transitional
Justice
Papua Study Group

Danilyn Rutherford Benny Giay
University of Chicago The Institute for Human Rights
P rin cip a l R esearcher Study and Advocacy, Jayapura
Ikrar Nusa Bhakti Barbara Harvey

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (FIPI), Former D eputy C hief of Mission for
Jakarta the U .S. Embassy in Indonesia
Richard Chauvel Rodd McGibbon

Victoria University, Melbourne USAID, Jakarta

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58
Papua Study Group (continued) Barnabas Suebu

Octavianus Mote Former Governor o flrian Jaya
Yale University .
Agus Sumule
Samsu Rizal Panggabean Universitas Negeri Papua, Amban
Gadjah M ada University, Yogyakarta
John Rumbiak
ELS-HAM, Jayapura
Southern Philippines Study Group

Christopher Collier Abraham S. Iribani
Australian N ational University Assistant Secretary, Department of the
P rin cip a l R esearcher Interior and Local Government
Government of the Philippines,
Robert F. Barnes
M anila
USAID, Philippines
M aryju d d
Noemi Bautista
The W orld Bank - Philippines
USAID, Philippines
Macapado Muslim
Saturnino M. Borras
M indanao State University
Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
Fatima, General Santos C ity
Jesus Dureza
Amina Rasul-Bernardo
Presidential Assistant for Mindanao,
Asian Institute of Management,
Davao C ity
M anila
Alma Evangelista
Steven Rood
United Nations Development
The Asia Foundation, Philippines
Programme, M anila
David Timberman
Eric Gutierrez
USAID, Washington, D .C.
Institute for Popular Democracy
Michael Yates
Carolina Hernandez
USAID, Philippines
Institute for Strategic and
Development Studies, M anila
Tibet Study Group

Elliot Sperling Shulong Chu
Indiana University Tsinghua University, Beijing
Yongbin Du
Allen Carlson Chinese Center for Tibet Studies,
Cornell University Beijing

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9
Tibet Study Group continuted

Mark D. Koehler Tashi Rabgey
U .S. Department of State Harvard University
Carole McGranahan Tseten Wangchuk

University of Colorado at Boulder Voice of America
Warren W. Smith, Jr
Radio Free Asia
Xinjiang Study Group

Gardner Bovingdon Susan Shirk
Indiana University University of California, San Diego
Stan Toops
Jay Dautcher M iam i University
University of Pennsylvania
Nury Turkel
Arienne Dwyer American University
University of Kansas
Nabijan Tursun
Talant Mawkanuli Radio Free Asia
Indiana University
Shengmin Yang
James Millward Central University for Nationalities,
Georgetown University Beijing
Other Participants
Allen Choat Charles Morrison
Asia Foundation, Hong Kong East-West Center
Chester Crocker H ollyMorrow

Georgetown University U .S. Department of State
Stephen Del Rosso Hadi Soesastro

Carnegie Corporation ofN ew York CSIS Jakarta
Pauline Kerr Sheila Smith

Australian N ational University East-West Center
Federico M. Macaranas Arun Swamy

Asian Institute of M anagement, East-West Center
M anila
Barbara Walter
Christopher McNally University of California, San Diego
East-West Center

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60
Background of the Tibet Conflict

Tibet has been a focus of international concerns for close to a century.
Tibet’s contested status as an independent state or autonomous region, the
conditions prevailing within its territory—indeed, even its very borders—
have all been the subject of controversy and sometimes violent struggle.
In 1911, when the Qing, China’s last imperial dynasty, collapsed,
Tibet emerged as a d e fa cto independent state. That independence was not
recognized by China, nor was it formally and unambiguously acknowledged
by Britain, India or any other state. Nevertheless, under the government
of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet did effectively function independently of
China, with the requisites generally expected of states. However, with
the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Tibet’s de
fa cto independence came to an end. In October of 1950, the People’s
Liberation Army, already in control of Tibetan-inhabited territory outside
the jurisdiction of the Dalai Lama’s government, crossed the line into
territory controlled by the Tibetan government; and Tibet was formally
incorporated into the People’s Republic of China by means of an agreement
signed in M ay 1951. Friction, ambiguous expectations and interpretations
of Tibet’s status under that agreement, and the harsh and often brutal
implementation of Chinese socialism in Tibetan-inhabited areas in the
eastern portions of the Tibetan Plateau, all worked to spark a revolt in the
1950s that led ultimately to fighting in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and the
flight of the Dalai Lama and well over 100,000 Tibetans into exile, mostly
in India and Nepal. Subsequent decades witnessed the implementation of
Chinese policies on the Tibetan Plateau that followed what often seemed
like radically different directions: the establishment of a Tibet Autonomous
Region in 1965, the attempt to suppress a separate Tibetan identity in
the 1960s and 1970s, economic liberalization and a relative loosening of
cultural and religious restrictions in the 1980s, repression of any signs of
separatist tendencies and allegiance to the Dalai Lama in the 1990s, etc.
Such ambiguities and apparent contradictions have served to exacerbate the
Sino-Tibetan relationship.
Internationalization of the Tibet issue followed upon resolutions
passed by the U.N. General Assembly in 1959, I960 and 1961, one
of which explicitly supported the right of the Tibetan people to "self
determination." The result of this history has been to place legitimacy at
the foundation of many of the other aspects of the Tibetan issue. Thus,
more than half a century after the incorporation of Tibet into the PRC,

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61
questions of economic development, cultural freedom, human rights,

and demographics in Tibet all stand against the background of questions
about the legitimacy of Chinese rule in the region. This sense of contested
authority is further supported as much by China’s protestations that there is
no issue ofTibet (while at the same time insisting that the Dalai Lama must
acknowledge that Tibet has historically been a part of China) as it is by the
activities and pronouncements of Tibetan exiles relating to Tibet’s right to
independence or—on the part of the Dalai Lama— "real autonomy."
Attempts to resolve the Tibetan issue since the late 1970s have focused
on formal and informal contacts and discussions between representatives
of the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile on the one hand, and the
Chinese government on the other. These have taken place periodically over
the last twenty-five years, with no real resolution. Over the last two years
such contacts have revived again, but even the nature of those contacts is
disputed by both parties. For more than a decade the Dalai Lama has been
able to meet with several world leaders who, at his urging, have periodically
called on the Chinese government to approach or respond to him in an
attempt to resolve the Tibetan issue.
Since 1988 the Dalai Lama has conceded the point of Chinese
sovereignty and pressed Western governments to work for the preservation
of Tibetan culture; and in 1989 the Dalai Lama was accorded the Nobel
Peace Prize for his activities in support ofTibet. Nevertheless, the process
of dialogue and confidence building remains at an impasse, and there is a
lingering pessimism about any resolution of the Tibetan issue during the
Dalai Lama’s lifetime.

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I ■;—99WE
i— i
80 O'O'E 100W E
it ITS
Map of the Tibetan Plateau MONGOLIA

Umrnqi
>» f Xinjiang
Gansu Nei Mongol A. R

-40 0’0-N 4Q W N -
Qinghai
Kumburn
r> r\ 1
Chamdo
-30 W N 30 V O
l NEPAL 1
Kathmandu BHUTAN
Kunming
C BA NG LA D ESH
Yunnan
INDIA
V IE T N A M
-20 V O N
Kilometers
SOW E f
ffl N 100T ° “
% Cities and Towns
N TAR Boundary
N Historical Tibet (est.)

Note: Kham region is largely divided
between 1he TAR and Sichuan Province
with smalter portions in Qinghai and
Yunnan; Am do region includes most of
Qinghai with small portions also in
Sichuan and Gansu.
Note: Map boundaries and locations

are approximate. Geographic features
and their names do not imply official
endorsement or recognition by the UN.
© 2004 by East-West Center

www.eastwestcenter.org

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List o f Reviewers 2003-2004
The East-West Center Washington would like to acknowledge the

following who have offered reviews of manuscripts submitted for
publication in the Policy Studies series.
Patricio Nunes Abinales Sidney Jones

Kyoto University International Crisis Group
Muthiah Alagappa Stephanie Lawson
East-West Center Washington University of East Anglia
Dewi Fortuna Anwar David Leheny
Indonesian Institute of Sciences University of Wisconsin
(LIPI) Geoffrey Robinson
Edward Aspinall University of California-Los
The University of Sydney Angeles
Robert Barnett Michael Ross
Columbia University University of California-Los
Gardner Bovingdon Angeles
Indiana University Danilyn Rutherford
Leslie Butt University of Chicago
University of Victoria Yitzhak Shichor
Allen Carlson The Hebrew University of
Cornell University Jerusalem
Jay Dautcher Anthony Smith

University of Pennsylvania Asia Pacific Center for Security
Studies
Brigham Golden
Columbia University Warren W. Smith
Radio Free Asia
Reuel Hanks
Oklahoma State University Elliot Sperling
Indiana University
Eva-Lotta Hedman
University of Oxford Barbara Walter
University of California-San Diego
Paul Hutchcroft
University of Wisconsin

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East-West Center
The East-West Center is an internationally recognized education and
research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to
strengthen understanding and relations between the United States and
the countries of the Asia Pacific. Through its programs of cooperative
study, training, seminars, and research, the Center works to promote a
stable, peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific community in which the
United States is a leading and valued partner. Funding for the Center
comes for the U.S. government, private foundations, individuals, cor
porations and a number of Asia Pacific governments.

Established on September 1, 2001, the primary function of the East-
West Center Washington is to further the East-West Center mission
and the institutional objective of building a peaceful and prosperous
Asia Pacific community through substantive programming activities
focused on the theme of conflict reduction in the Asia Pacific region
and promoting American understanding of and engagement in Asia
Pacific affairs.

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A bout this Issue Previous Issues:
The status o f Tibet has been at the core o f Policy Studies 1
the Tibet-China conflict for all parties The A ce h Peace Process: W hy it Failed
Dr. Edward Aspinall, University of Sydney
drawn into it over the past century. China
Dr. Harold Crouch, Australian National University
maintains that Tibet is an integral part o f
China, while Tibetans maintain that Tibet has Policy Studies 2
historically been an independent country. In The Free A ce h M ovem ent (G A M ):
reality the conflict over Tibet's status has Anatomy of a Separatist Organization
been a conflict over history. W hen Chinese Dr. Kirsten E. Schulze, London School of
writers and political figures assert that Tibet Economics
is a part o f China, they do so on the basis
Policy Studies 3
o f history. The People's Republic o f China
Security Operations in Aceh:
has pointedly accused the Dalai Lama of
Goals, Consequences, and Lessons
duplicity, stating that his unwillingness to
Dr. Rizal Sukma, Centre for Strategic and
recognize that Tibet has been an integral International Studies - Jakarta
part o f China for centuries renders his
attempts to compromise on the Tibet issue Policy Studies 4
unacceptable. The centrality o f history in Beijing's Tibet Policy:
the question o f Tibet's status could not be Securing Sovereignty and Legitimacy
made clearer. This paper is a guide to the Dr. Allen Carlson, Cornell University
historical arguments made by the primary
Policy Studies 5
parties to the Tibet-China conflict. It draws
The Papua Conflict:
on the key assertions about the issue as
Jakarta's Perceptions and Policies
they have been framed in Chinese and
Dr. Richard Chauvel,Victoria University-Melbourne
Tibetan to examine the extent to which Dr. Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, Indonesian Institute of
positions on the Tibet issue that are Sciences
thought to reflect centuries o f popular
consensus are actually very recent construc Policy Studies 6
tions, often at variance with the history on A Violent Separatism in Xinjiang:
which they claim to be based. A Critical Assessment
Dr. James Millward, Georgetown University
Forthcoming Titles
"The M o r o Conflict: Landlessness and
Misdirected State Policies"
Mr. Eric Gutiereez, Institute for Popular Democracy
Dr. Saturnino M. Borras, Institute of Social Sciences-
The Hague
"Southern Philippines and the International

W ar A g a in st Terror"
Dr. Christopher Collier, Australian National University
About the Author

Dr. Elliot Sp e rlin g is A s s o c ia t e P ro fe sso r and C h a ir o f th e D e p a rtm e n t o f C e ntra l Eurasian
Stu die s at Indiana U n iv e rsity at B lo o m in g to n .
IS B N 1-932728-12-0

157.35.73.206 on Thu, 25 Nov 2021 15:34:23 UTC

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Editor: Dr. M uthiah Alagappa

Editor, Policy Studies

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The Tibet-China Conflict: History a n d Polemics

ISBN 1-932728-13-9 (onlineversion)

Online version available at:

This publication is a product of the East-West Center Washington’s

The project and this publication are supported by a generous contribution

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government-in-exile appear quite at ease with accepting Tibet as a part of

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PRC official W hite Paper, 1992

Tibetan Government-in-Exile, 1993

This paper is intended as something of a Baedeker for those attempting to

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it is.”6 Even more manifestly, a volume published in 1986 by the Tibetan

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As should become clear in the pages that follow, an examination of

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clearly prove the point.10

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From the time of the above-mentioned radical reform Tibet was

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These sorts of formulations simply did not stand up to the ideological

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country advocates that position, nor does the Dalai Lama.

In essence then, China’s response to international concern over Tibet

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The Evolution o f the Tibetan Position

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In subsequent years, however, a vagueness set in, with regard to both

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Tibetan Plateau under the jurisdiction of the Dalai Lama’s government:

For centuries the priest-patron relationship has been a real institution

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T ib eta n p ro n o u n cem en ts reflected an emphasis on twentieth-century

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In the same year that Richardson’s history appeared, the Dalai

Rtsis-dpon Zhwa-sgab-pa—whose history of Tibet drew from a