The 1959 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership

BIOGRAPHY of The Dalai Lama

In the Asian drama, the tenets of the world's great religions, all cradled in Asia, and the ways of life they have inspired have profound significance. Now, Tibetan culture, singularly infused by religion, is threatened by an avowedly atheist overlordship. In leading his people and the followers of Lamaist Buddhism elsewhere to meet this challenge with courage and dignity, the DALAI LAMA seeks to preserve a faith cherished through centuries against an intrusion that cuts directly across the lines of religious belief, customary behavior and established tradition.

The youth upon whom this charge was thrust was named LHAMO THONDUP, or LA-MU-TAN-CHU as it is also written, at his birth on June 6, 1935, near Lake Koko Nor in Amdo, a district of Tibet that had been incorporated in the Chinese Province of Chinghai. The title Dalai, a Mongolian one meaning "Ocean," implying vastness and depth, by which he is best known abroad, is seldom used in Tibet where he is addressed as GYAL-WA RIMPOCHE, "Great Precious One," or KUNDUN, meaning simply "Presence."

The DALAI LAMA represents in his person the Fourteenth Incarnation or return to earth of Chenrezi (spyan-ras-qzigs), the Bodhisatva Avalokitesvara of compassion and mercy who is Patron God of Tibet. Most revered of the 1,000 Bodhisatvas who were eligible for Buddhahood but renounced Nirvana in order to help mankind find the Way, the reincarnations of Chenrezi have been incontestably the Kings of Bod, as the Tibetans call the central part of their land, since 1642.

The Thirteenth Dalai Lama before his death in 1933 gave no prophetic instructions regarding the manner of his return to earth though as his body was seated in state his head turned eastward. According to Buddhist doctrine, some time may pass before rebirth occurs, hence, during the next several years more specific signs were sought. With the ensuing series of indications in a sacred lake and divine omens from the State Oracle that the Precious Child would be found in the direction of the rising sun, one of three search groups sent out in 1937 traveled toward the district of Amdo where the great 14th century reformer of Lamaist Buddhism, Tsong-Kha-Pa, was born. Composed of three Lamas—monks who are incarnations of lesser Bodhisatvas—and one secular official, the group after long wanderings came upon a three-storied monastery with golden roofs and a nearby peasant cottage with carved gables, as had been described in the omens.

Dressing themselves in servants' clothes, the searchers entered the kitchen of the cottage where they might find the children of the family. Soon, a two-year-old boy came running in to meet them, recognized a Lama in his disguise and even named the Sera monastery he came from. On this child's birth, they learned, villagers saw a felicitous rainbow pointing toward his house. A few days later, the small boy was given the prescribed examination of identifying among several others his predecessor's rosary, drum, walking stick and teacup. This he unhesitatingly did, and when they found on his body all the marks an Incarnation of Chenrezi should bear—large ears with elongated lobes, outstanding shoulders with two peculiar moles under the blades suggesting the additional arms of Avalokitesvara, "tiger skin" spots on the legs, an imprint like a conch shell on one palm and curving eyebrows—the searchers were certain they had found the Incarnation. After reporting to authorities in Tibet and concluding lengthy financial negotiations with the Chinese provincial governor who perceived the importance of this child to the Tibetans, the four delegates with the child and his family set out for Tibet in the late summer of 1939 with a caravan befitting royalty.

Enthroned in February 1940, the not yet five year old boy received such names as Great New One, Holy One, the Tender Glory, Mighty of Speech, Excellent Understanding and Defender of the Faith and became the heart of the concentrated faith of millions in Tibet and others of the Lamaist faith in neighboring lands. The quiet dignity of the new DALAI LAMA and the gravity with which he observed his investiture lasting several days and sat for long audiences in the posture of the Buddha astonished attendants, tutors and subjects. Excepting public ceremonies of brilliant ritual when he was the central figure in whose presence eyes must be downcast and occasional visits from his family living nearby, he led a lonely, ascetic life devoted to preparation for the position he would one day assume as temporal and spiritual leader of his people. Many days he fasted and kept silence and many hours of other days were spent in prayer and intense religious study on which he was rigorously examined. A lively, alert older brother, Lobsang Samten, was his only young friend and confidant and served as his link with the outside world.

In the winter, his home was the apartments crowning the Potala, the imposing landmark of Lhasa, the "forbidden" capital of Tibet. Life in this vast monastery-palace of over 1,000 rooms named after the abode of Avalokitesvara resembled that of a medieval castle where hardly an object belonged to the present day and shrines of the holy dead added the aspect of an enormous tomb. Long flights of steps led to the great main gate, dark corridors decorated with protecting deities opened to the inner courtyard and from there tall, steep ladders gave access to the flat roof and the small golden-roofed buildings that were his residence. One of the boy's favorite recreations was to watch the activity of his capital from his roof through excellent telescopes and field glasses. Otherwise, he had little free time and few pleasures to call forth "the eager smile that lit his charming face."

His summer residence, the brighter Norbulingka, was surrounded by a splendid high-walled park. But even there the DALAI LAMA was confined to a private garden in the center of the park enclosed by a high yellow wall.

Every Dalai Lama before officially attaining his majority must visit the great monasteries of Drepung and Sera outside of Lhasa where he gives proof of maturity by taking part in religious discourse with learned scholars. These discussions held every day of his visits before gatherings of thousands of red-cowled monks in the shady cloister gardens are among the most intimate acts in the religious life of Lamaism. Those close to the DALAI LAMA had spoken of his intelligence, comprehension, pertinacity and industry. Well prepared for this fateful test of knowledge at the age of 14, he "debated in a clear, boyish voice but with the assurance of a grown man" and satisfied this most critical audience that he was destined to be not their instrument but ruler.

From childhood the DALAI LAMA had taken a keen interest in all that happened in his country. Now, his commendations or criticisms of the decisions of the Tsongdu, or National Assembly, gained authority. He was deeply concerned about his people and his land. The demands made on him were great. He knew he would be expected to give divine judgments and that what he ordered or did would be regarded as infallible and become part of historical tradition. Eager and determined to learn of the outside world, his particular interests were the lives of great men who led the destinies of others and men of science, education, military and cultural subjects and machines—with no instruction he took a movie projector apart to learn how it worked and put it correctly back together. He set purely entertaining books, magazines and films aside preferring informative materials on world affairs. "Here was no animated puppet," reported the one foreigner who was his tutor for a brief period in 1950, "but a clear-minded will capable of imposing itself on others."

The unique geography alone sets apart the ecclesiastical state he was "reborn" and groomed to rule as the emphatic link between the sacred and secular worlds. Occupying some 475,000 square miles from 10,000 to 16,000 feet above sea level on "the roof of the world" in the heart of Central Asia, it is bounded to the east by the Amne Machin and Minya Konka ranges, to the southeast, south, and west by the curve of the Himalayas and to the north by the Karakoram and Kunlun ranges. Six of the world's largest rivers—the Yellow and Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Brahmaputra and Indus—flow from this watershed into China, Southeast Asia, and India. The only access as late as the mid-1950's was on caravan routes over grueling 15,000-foot passes.

The population is believed to have remained the same for centuries, perhaps due to the number of celibate men in monasteries and a high infant mortality. Lacking an official census, informed estimates range from three to five million.

In the habitable areas of Tibet sudden blizzards and snow storms and at all seasons violent winds are offset by an extraordinary amount of daily sunshine, bracing air and sparse rainfall. The terrain of beautiful river valleys enfolded by spectacular mountain ranges covered from the 19,000-foot snow line with great coniferous forests, the particular latitude—in line with Algeria—and altitude create a diversity in natural surroundings and the activities of communities living in them.

The uninhabitable deserts and mountain peaks are distinct as are the great stretches of grassland in the north and northeast, where herdsmen living in yak hair tents range widely with their yaks, yak-and-cow hybrids, goats, sheep and Mongolian ponies, and the few regions devoted only to cultivation. Everywhere else is found contrasting yet complementary environments of grazing on mountain slope pastures and cultivated fields in valleys.

Contrary to the geographic impression of a high fastness, Tibet was the scene of much movement of peoples of Tibeto-Burman, Turko-Mongol, Indo-European, Chinese and Indo-Scythian stock. Emerging from these different racial types living side by side or coalesced is a distinctive predominantly Mongoloid strain of the Red Indian type with a Caucasian element. Unifying the wide assortment of elements, sub-climates, plant life and dwelling places, peoples and dialects is a clearly separate civilization—language, religion and customs—of which Tibetans are deeply conscious and protective: Chos lugs gcig, kha lugs gcig, is their phrase meaning "religious system one, speech system one."

Modern Tibetan history begins around 600 A.D. with King Songtsen Gampo (Straight Strong Deep), who ruthlessly united the numerous petty kingdoms and tribal states. Forming a powerful army, he launched upon an era of conquest. Tibetan traditional history records he was converted to Buddhism by the Chinese and Nepalese princesses he exacted in tribute as brides. Establishing his new faith as the official religion, this warring leader thereby turned Tibet away from organized belligerence. Cultural influences began to flow into the kingdom in a double current of customs, manners and classical scholars from China and from India religious scholars, art, music and drama and a written language while spoken dialects remained more closely related to Burmese languages.

Assimilated into the native animistic belief called Bon and the folklore the people clung to as heritages from their past, a distinctive form of Buddhism with a character and vitality of its own emerged known as Lamaism. A fulfilling new faith wherein every person could find the answer to his needs, it became the heart and fabric of the Tibetan way of life.

The three-tiered pattern of Tibetan society set in the ninth century remained little changed into the 20th: the nobility composed of some 200 families; the clergy numbering around 100,000 who at the top were highborn, wealthy and learned and below impoverished; and all other people, including well-to-do families owning herds or land, skilled craftsman, and laborers without property or subordinate to the nobility, monastery or State. Excepting a few rich merchants and stewards, no middle class developed for most commerce was in the hands of the State, the nobility and the clergy.

By the 12th century monasteries dominated the life and landscape of every community, and a century later the most powerful orders were vying for temporal power. Fiercely rival noble houses and tribal chieftains had been subdued and kings reduced to puppets when the abbot of the great Sakya monastery emerged from the internal feuding to start a line of Viceroy-Lamas. His preeminence was first acknowledged outside Tibet in 1244 A.D. when Koden, a Mongol prince, invited the Sakya Lama to teach religion in Mongolia. Official recognition followed from Kublai Khan, a convert to Lamaism proclaimed Khan of all Mongols in 1260 and Emperor of China in 1280. In exchange for the blessing he requested of the Sakya Lama, the new emperor granted him viceregal authority over all the 13 myriarchies—units of 10,000 households—of U and Tsang, and later the regions of Amdo and Kham.

The line began humbly with the precocious son of a shepherd, who became the most brilliant monk of his time, sought instruction from the aged Tsong-Kha-Pa and founded the renowned Tashilhunpo monastery near Shigatse. After the death of this "Perfecter of the Priesthood," his followers put forward for the first time the belief that he had waived Buddhahood to return to help mankind and recognized the passage of his spirit into another monk who automatically became head of their order. The successor moved to the Drepung monastery near Lhasa, that, like Ganden and Sera, became a monastic university with several faculties. In 1578, the third in line received from the reunifier of all the Mongols, Altan Khan, whom he had converted to the faith, the title Dalai Lama, implying spiritual ascendancy over all others.

It remained for the forceful Fifth Dalai Lama, in 1642, to destroy the political power of the lay king of Tsang allied with the Red Hat Karmapa sect and establish supremacy of the Yellow Hats through an alliance with the Mongol Gushi Khan. In exchange for the honorific title of governor he accorded the Mongol military commander, the Dalai Lama was proclaimed spiritual and temporal head of Tibet. Acknowledged an independent monarch with the reality of political power in his hands, backed by the arms of Gushi Khan and the devotion of all Mongolia, the great Fifth went on to lay the basis for a rule that would endure through successive Chenrezi Incarnations as emanation body of the Patron God, high priest and king "endowed," in the judgment of a French journalist after a visit to Tibet in 1947, "with the most awe-inspiring power over his subjects ever vested in a politico-religious leader."

In the tradition he followed, the Fifth Dalai Lama invested his revered tutor as the Panchen Lama, considered by his wise saintliness to be the reincarnation of the Buddha Amitabha of "Boundless Light," metaphysical father of Avalokitesvara and his spiritual advisor. Given the Tashilhunpo Monastery at Shigatse as his monastic seat, his role at large was strictly theological.

Creation of continuing successions of a Bodhisatva and a Buddha in the lines of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama led to enthronement in the large monasteries of lines of lesser incarnate Bodhisatvas. The title Lama, meaning "Superior," is also given out of courtesy to a few other monks distinguished by their ascetic lives or miracles they have performed. All of the some 1,000 Lamas in Tibet must be educated in a monastery, have the right to give their blessings and are revered as saints.

In the early 18th century, when Muslim Tartars from the north seized advantage of the disorder and anarchy that followed the death of the Great Fifth to attack, the Tibetans appealed for help to the strong, new Manchu dynasty. Chinese intervention resulted in establishment, in 1720, of a loose Manchu protectorate, or suzerainty, over Tibet represented by two mandarin residents, the ambans, and a small Chinese garrison at Lhasa. The Chinese also preempted the two wealthiest districts, annexing Kham in the east administratively to their province of Szechuan and making Amdo in the northeast subject to the governor of Kansu (in 1928, Amdo became the separate province of Chinghai). Ladakh in the west was later lost first to Moghuls and, in 1842, to annexation by Kashmir. Thereafter, China defended Tibet against invasion by others, notably the Nepalese Gurkhas, but reserved the right to superintend selection and enthronement of the Dalai Lamas who from the Eighth through the Twelfth did not reach maturity. At the same time, the Manchu Emperors looked upon Lamaism with favor, set up temples and monasteries in China and Mongolia and issued often permanent invitations to their court to the two great incarnate Lamas of the Gelugpas, the established sect. Tibetan influence in cultural and spiritual matters remained strong in the annexed districts, in the frontier regions of India bordering on Tibet, in the Himalayan kingdoms and Mongolia.

In 1895, the docile Tibetan government, over protests of the surprised ambans, enthroned the Thirteenth Dalai Lama who had reached 18 under protection of a secret society of noblemen known as the Mimang. Weakened by the Anglo-Chinese Opium War in 1840 and the Taiping Rebellion in 1850-1864, the Manchus, in 1890, sanctioned by treaty British control over the internal administration and foreign relations of Sikkim, which was tributary to Tibet, and, in 1906, signed the Lhasa Convention not to encroach on Tibet nor interfere in government. A temporary occupation of Lhasa by an armed British expedition from India in 1904 resulted in a treaty wherein the British did not recognize Tibet as a fully independent nation but sovereign treatment was accorded in their subsequent relations.

The Dalai Lama who had fled to the east before the British incursion and remained to travel among Lamaist adherents in China and Mongolia, returned in 1910 to be faced with a full-scale Chinese invasion. From his second flight this time to Darjeeling in India, he returned to Lhasa within two years when revolution in China cancelled the expansionist design of the Manchus. Sensing the impending disintegration of Manchu rule, the Tibetans, in 1911 and 1912, mounted their own revolt, wiped out all Chinese garrisons and became de facto independent.

From 1911 to 1950, Tibet ruled itself in all respects as an independent nation, producing its own paper money, coinage and stamps accepted internationally. In January 1913, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama proclaimed Tibetan independence by concluding a treaty with Outer Mongolia. The Simla Convention resulting from the conference called by the British in 1913 to clarify relationships between themselves, China and Tibet recognized nominal Chinese suzerainty but forbade interference in any way and gave Tibetans complete internal authority. By Chinese disavowal of the action of their representative and refusal to sign the Convention on the basis of an unacceptable definition of the Himalayan frontiers, the Tibetans took the position the Chinese had "renounced the benefits of suzerainty" and Tibet therefore possessed full political independence de jure.

Imperturbably devoted to their cloistered way of life, the government made no effort to adapt in a modern world or to declare and seek diplomatic acceptance of Tibet's independence. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, however, skillfully preserved a precarious balance of forces between the British in India, aggressive Chinese warlords on the frontier of the vast border area and China's weak central government, and the Soviet Russians who, in 1927, evinced enough interest to send a Soviet-Mongol Mission to Lhasa. Internally taking much secular authority into his own hands, he strengthened his contact with the people, improved law and order, minimized bribery and corruption, introduced new merciful standards in the administration of justice and built up a small army over objection of the clergy. His insistence upon no interference by clergy in secular affairs led the Panchen Lama to flee, in the early twenties, to China, where he eventually died.

From the death of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in 1933 to enthronement of the FOURTEENTH in 1940 and his official accession in 1950, a Regent and the traditional bodies of State were instruments of a hallowed, unshakable and extremely conservative social order rigidly opposed to any change. During World War II, a foreign affairs bureau was opened, "asserting and maintaining complete independence" no forces were thrown in on the side of China, and no diplomats were sent abroad. Though intellectual and spiritual exploration were theoretically allowed, most Tibetan Buddhists were chiefly concerned with the symbols of worship. With few Tibetans exposed to or even interested in the rest of the world and no modern education, there was no conflict between religion and science. Most books were an amalgam of religious law, philosophic knowledge and wisdom gathered from experience with little objective fact. Monasteries were the custodians and institutions of learning. Introversion was reflected in the admission of almost no aliens. Even young Tibetans schooled abroad were prevented from applying their useful technical knowledge.

Experiments were not encouraged in arts, crafts or professions. Excellent craftsmen conformed, making fine religious paintings, small bronze and clay statues of Buddha, saddles, boots and silver and birch teacups imitative of accepted patterns. Celebrated weavers of carpets lasting for generations used hand spun wool and natural dyes from a bark from Bhutan, green nutshell and vegetable juices to reproduce classic designs of dragons, peacocks and flowers.

In lieu of an organized system of law courts, investigation of offenses was entrusted to two or three persons of noble rank. Capital punishment being incompatible with Buddhist belief, crime was dealt with by flogging and iron fetters on the ankles of the guilty, by public whippings, or by the cutting off of a foot, hand or nose. Penalties for political offenses were strict—the monks of Tengyeling who in the 1910's sought to come to terms with the Chinese had their monastery demolished and their names blotted out.

Medicine was in the hands of monks who criticized anyone using the modern doctors attached to the British or Chinese missions. Astronomy was an integral part of medical science. Surgery was unknown except lancing boils, but the people were advanced in the use of herbal remedies. Sanitation was primitive.

There was only one female Lama and women took no part in government but held a relatively high position in the society. Independent and responsible, they were particularly respected as entrepreneurs often managing shops while their husbands traveled.

There was no newspaper. A monthly published in Kalimpong carrying foreign but no local news in Tibetan, with a circulation of not over 500, Indian daily papers and newspapers coming from all over the world via India arrived a week after publication. For all but a privileged few able to read and with access to these newspapers, news was substituted for by songs and satires. Games were popular and feasts given great importance.

Until 1950 Tibet was governed as it had been historically on a feudal system whereby men, beasts and land in principle belonged to the DALAI LAMA, whose orders had the force of law. Acting for the FOURTEENTH DALAI LAMA was his Regent. A Kashag, or Cabinet, of four ministers called shapes was responsible only to the DALAI LAMA, or his Regent, and represented controlling power over internal administration in political, revenue and judicial matters; one was a monastic official and senior to the three civil dignitaries all of whom belonged to the highest families. Four Trungyi Chenmo comprising an Ecclesiastical Council of high monastic officials exercised authority over all monks. The three Pillars of State, the abbots of the Sera, Drepung and Ganden monasteries, played a decisive role in political life. These abbots and one other with eight government officials presided over the Tsongdu, or National Assembly of some 350 half lay and half ecclesiastical dignitaries, where no decision was taken without consent of the senior clerics, whose natural interest in supremacy of the monasteries prompted them to discourage progressive ideas.

Though lay nobles were important functionaries in the administration, a small group of Tsedrung monks had the last word; a system of dual control—at least one monastic official to every layman in all government offices—was considered insurance against the exercise of dictatorial power. All the chamberlains of the DALAI LAMA, his tutor and personal guardians were Tsedrung monks of high standing. Strictly trained at their school in the east wing of the Potala, their teachers came, according to tradition, from the famous cloister of Mondroling, specializing in Tibetan calligraphy and grammar. Membership in this secular monastic order was limited by centuries old rule to 175. With powerful patronage anyone could enter the school upon reaching the age of 18 and passing the examination. Beginning at the bottom, he might, if capable, attain to the third class. Most students came from the people and provided an important counterpoise to the influence of hereditary nobles.

In the chiefly agricultural economy most Tibetans were peasants engaged in heavy physical labor and nomadic herdsmen. Much of the most productive southern valley and table lands were assigned or lent to noble estates cultivated by farmer-servants and to monasteries. Barley, cultivable at 15,000-foot elevations, was the chief crop, with buckwheat, wheat, oats, millet and some rice, fruit trees and vegetables, especially peas and mustard, in considerable abundance. Nobles, the few middle class townsmen and the monasteries engaged in a substantial entrepot trade on the caravan routes to India and its Himalayan protectorates, to Nepal, China and Mongolia. Principal exports were wool, hides and skins, furs, yak tails, ponies, musk, gold, borax, salt, and religious items. Favored imports were from India and China. Considerable deposits of gold exist close to the surface and in the Changthang were scooped out with gazelle horns; modern mining was unknown.

The yak, a long-haired species of ox that can live only in high altitudes, provided butter, milk, cheese, cloth, hide for shoe leather, saddles, boats and was the beast of burden. The dzo, a cross between an ox and a yak, was also a popular draught animal, and the cows gave excellent milk prized by the wealthy. Butter-tea, made of Chinese tea flavored with salt, soda and butter, tsampa of roasted barley made into a flour and sometimes mixed with barley beer, and dried meat were the staple foods of the two daily meals most Tibetans ate.

In 1950, the tempo of life was leisurely as it had been for centuries—the people generally were not inclined to rush, overwork, nor, except in the monasteries on religious subjects, to study. The few foreign travelers, have been struck by the universal gaiety and tolerance of Tibetans. The deeply religious people expressed to one another a rare courtesy, aggressiveness for money or things was seldom seen, needs and living styles were simple, pious texts were constantly spoken, prayer wheels turned without ceasing and prayer-flags waved on roofs of houses and summits of mountain passes.

The country had no frontier posts, but the entire population was brought up to be hostile to foreigners. To invited or accepted guests, however, gifts of meal and tsampa, loads of butter, beautiful woolen blankets and the like, were proferred generously.

The seclusion of Tibet was threatened in 1943 when the Nationalist Chinese Government became alarmed that a wartime American mission to Lhasa seeking possible alternate supply routes acknowledged Tibet's unofficial position as an independent entity. Then directing from Chungking the struggle to save China from Japan, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek ordered two western warlords to invade Lhasa. They did not, and Tibet emerged from World War II peaceful and orderly.

Though informed of world conditions, Tibet's leadership appeared to ignore the reality of technological changes and the crucial problem of their own international status as the protecting balance of forces between a strong Indo-British power in the south and a divided China in the east was rapidly changing. A token effort to gain independent recognition was made in 1948 with the dispatch to India, China, the United States and Europe of a "Tibetan trade mission" using Tibetan passports over protests of the Nationalist Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Also in 1948, as the Chinese civil war heightened, the Tibetan Government politely asked the Chinese Nationalist mission and merchants to leave. Meant as a gesture of neutrality, the Chinese Communists denounced the expulsion as an affront.

Suddenly, the emergent Chinese Communist regime on January 1, 1950 proclaimed the "liberation of Tibet" as one of the "basic tasks" of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) for that year. The Tibetan reply was appointment of a mission in April 1950 to make preliminary contact with the Chinese Communists in Hong Kong with the aim of establishing better relations and reaching settlement of differences regarding neutral territory. Refused a Hong Kong visa by the British, who were anxious not to strain their own relations with the new government on the China Mainland, the mission began conversations with the first Chinese Communist ambassador to India. After talks opened in the second week of September were ended inconclusively by the ambassador on October 1, the Tibetans agreed to the Government of India's suggestion to proceed to Peking for direct negotiations. On October 24, the day the mission set out from New Delhi, the New China News Agency reported "a political mobilization directive" for the PLA to advance into Tibet "to liberate three million Tibetans from imperialist aggressors, to complete unification of the whole of China and to safeguard the frontier regions of the country."

The Tibetan Government, headed by an elderly Regent, a timorous Kashag and an ecclesiastical hierarchy steeped in the past, turned in the crisis to the Incarnation of their Patron God. Upon receiving news of defeats of small, poorly trained and equipped Tibetan forces by 40,000 troops of the 18th and 62nd Chinese armies invading on October 25 at six locations on the frontier, the authorities entreated the counsel of the State Oracle and other most famed prophetic monks. Their similar cries from trances, "Make him King," were judged the voice of the gods. On November 17, 1950, the earliest date determined propitious by the omens, the DALAI LAMA was invested with full executive powers two and a half years ahead of his majority.

The decision as to whether the young ruler should seek safety was guided by the precedent of the Thirteenth's flight in 1910 before invading Chinese and again by the State Oracle, who, in an hypnotic trance, spun with increasing rapidity two balls of kneaded tsampa in a golden basin until one fell out bearing inside the slip of paper marked "yes." Leaving Lhasa at two in the morning of December 19, the DALAI LAMA’s entourage was known within a day to be making its way south. Thousands of monks of the Jang monastery halted the caravan entreating their God-King not to leave. The DALAI LAMA, though not yet exercising his new authority, gravely explained he could be of greater effect if he did not fall into Chinese hands. Weathering sandstorm and blizzard and met at all places of habitation by people flocking for blessings, the royal party reached Yatung, its provisional destination near the borders of Sikkim and Bhutan, in 16 days. For lack of housing or seeking greater security, some members proceeded on to the Indian border town of Kalimpong. As the weeks of his absence from Lhasa lengthened to months, delegations of all classes of people came begging the DALAI LAMA to return for a deep pall had come over the land without him in his rightful residence.

On November 7, 1950, the Tibetan Government had appealed by cable to the United Nations protesting Chinese invasion:

" . . . It is in the belief that aggression will not go unchecked in any part of the world that we have assumed the responsibility of reporting the recent happenings in the border area of Tibet to the United Nations. The problem of Tibet has taken on alarming proportions in recent times. This problem is not of Tibet's making but is largely the outcome of unthwarted Chinese ambitions to bring weaker nations on her periphery within her active domination.

"There were times when Tibet sought, but seldom received, the protection of the Chinese Empire. The Chinese, however, in their natural urge for expansion, have wholly misconstrued the significance of the time of friendship and interdependence that existed between China and Tibet as between neighbors. To them China was a suzerain and Tibet a vassal state. It is this which first aroused legitimate apprehension in the mind of Tibet regarding the designs of China on her independent status . . ."

The delegate from El Salvador, on November 18, formally called for condemnation of "unprovoked Chinese aggression" and proposed creation of a special committee to study what measures could be taken by the General Assembly to assist Tibet. The Steering Committee shelved the complaint upon the recommendation of India to whom the Tibetans had looked for diplomatic support. Subsequent Tibetan messages on November 28 and December 8 were also of no avail. India, then sponsoring Chinese Communist membership in the United Nations, took the position that Tibet and China should solve their differences peacefully between themselves, though, in a debate on the Tibetan question in the Lok Sabha on December 6, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru stated it was not clear to him from what "imperialists" the Chinese intended to "liberate" Tibet.

With Chinese troops holding in positions east of Lhasa, the Chinese Communist Government called for a negotiated settlement. The Tibetans responded in March 1951 with dispatch to Peking of a delegation with plenary powers. Pressed to supersede their authority, the delegation signed with the Chinese on May 23 a 17-Point Agreement surrendering Tibetan sovereignty for a Chinese guarantee of regional autonomy. The Chinese pledged no interference in political institutions and internal administration and protection of religious freedom. The "Tibetan Regional Government" was obliged to accept establishment of a Chinese military and administrative commission and a military headquarters in Tibet, Chinese control of foreign affairs, trade and communications and incorporation of the Tibetan Army into the PLA, and was to carry out reforms "voluntarily" without Chinese interference.

Prevailed upon by the Three Pillars of State—the abbots of Drepung, Sera and Ganden—and the decision of the gods expressed twice through the State Oracle under spirit-possession, the DALAI LAMA returned to Lhasa in August 1951.

His now fourfold role as the emanation body of the Patron God, King and high priest to Tibetans and recognized official head of a subject government to the Chinese presented him with multiple responsibilities and restraints and few opportunities. He must lead his people to preserve the basic freedom of their religion without which material progress would be meaningless—religion provided the essential climate of life itself. Restricted as had been his experience and education and against the almost insuperable weight of tradition and conservatism, the young ruler had earlier expressed himself eager also to lead his people toward a secular enlightenment that would create receptivity to certain basic reforms he was conscious his kingdom needed in order to better economic and social conditions. His foremost desire was to change radically the system of land tenure; though all land in theory belonged to him, he proposed to purchase large estates for distribution among tillers of the soil. His Government also advocated introduction of improved methods of farming and irrigation and systems of education and public health "consistent with the dignity, needs and peculiar conditions" of the people. But the Chinese had their own plans for "remaking" and "assimilating" Tibetan society.

The terms of the 1951 Agreement were soon violated, as, in turn, were Chairman Mao Tse-tung's assurances of full Tibetan autonomy to Nehru in 1953 and the DALAI LAMA in 1954, Prime Minister Chou Enlai's reiterations of these assurances to Nehru in 1956 and 1957 and the Chinese Communist Government's announcement in 1957 that no reforms would be introduced in Tibet until 1962 and "only then depending on the wishes of the Tibetan people."

Upon arrival in Lhasa in late 1951, the Chinese began preparing for far-reaching political and economic changes. Two Prime Ministers were forced to resign and the Kashag, increased from four to six members, including two well-known pro-China elements, was given authority over the ecclesiastical court. To express opposition to unsuitable policies imposed by the Chinese, the DALAI LAMA delayed following their instructions to take over as head of the Kashag contending that such an activity was inconsistent with his religious responsibilities and finally sent a minor monk to represent him. In 1952, the Chinese divided Tibet into three administrative zones and established a separate military area for the whole—placing administration of the central and western regions under the DALAI LAMA, Shigatse under the Panchen Lama and the east under a Chinese general, the DALAI LAMA’s already nominal secular jurisdiction was pruned to one half within one year.

This Panchen Lama had come to Tibet in the wake of the Chinese armies. Found and recognized as the Tenth by the Chinese Nationalists in 1949 without the prescribed examinations by Tibetan religious leaders or Tibetan approval, he was recognized by the Chinese Communists later in the same year after showing himself amenable to their influence. To minimize conflict, the DALAI LAMA asked Tibetans to accept him as a spiritual leader.

Other early impact was felt in rapid construction of roads between centers in Tibet, and two highways connecting to China were completed for truck traffic in 1955—one from Sining extending 1,200 miles over terrifying terrain and the other from Tatsienlu via Kangtze to Chamdo over a new route crossing dozens of mountain ranges, countless rivers and gorges. By 1953, two airfields were built and many more were under construction. While the DALAI LAMA and progressive Tibetans welcomed better roads that would shorten the normal journey of three months to outlying districts, they deplored the conscription of labor from China and of Tibetan men, women and children to build them.

The electricity generating station and 300-bed hospital in Lhasa, dispensaries elsewhere, and schools owned by the Chinese initially were looked upon favorably except by arch conservatives.

Establishment of a People's Bank in Lhasa facilitated reorganization of trade toward China. Beginning with wool and salt, trade and commerce became increasingly Chinese monopolies. This and confiscation of privately owned lands and buildings alienated the nobility, merchants and traders, and producers of trade goods to whom depressed prices were paid. Nor did extensive propaganda gain adherents to socialization among ordinary Tibetans. At a mass meeting of the "proletariat" in Lhasa after a serious lecture on the rights of the working class, refreshments and a silver dollar given to each person in attendance, the workers' spokesmen told the presiding Chinese general the people had no grievances but would like to express the hope that the doctrines of Lord Buddha would be encouraged and the DALAI LAMA and their great monasteries would keep their sacred positions.

Peasants who were indebted to landlords and monasteries thanked seed loan teams for seed and told them that their fathers before them had managed to get seed for their fields as they would and their children after them and they would be happier if the Chinese had not come. Moreover much of the seed did not germinate. Similarly, advice and offers of help by veterinary teams were not welcomed by sheepherders who said the Indians had liked their wool as it was and paid them better. Even the large military force reportedly felt isolated among the "hostile and unpredictable people."

Refugee accounts indicate the people believed the DALAI LAMA was doing all he could—"Young only in the years of his body," it was said, "he has shown in mind and spirit the wisdom and faith of Chenrezi," Blocking and delaying with finesse, expressing only tactfully phrased and mild rebukes, he sought especially to protect monasteries and the priesthood. The most precise, deliberate and most widely resented campaign of the occupiers was against the Tibetan Lamaist Church in keeping with their announced philosophy that "communism is atheism." While the Chinese were destroying numerous religious monuments, taking monastic treasures, and encouraging monks to marry in betrayal of their vows, Tibetans grew closer to their Lama leaders, finding their only real comfort in prayer and hope from their religion. Learned Lamas worked tirelessly to keep their groups informed, intact and faithful. Monks making constant pilgrimages were the couriers in an ecclesiastical communications network. Cooperating were the revived Mimang, the secret society of nobles, and the Tshogpa, or People's Party formed after the first Chinese attacks, that rallied the people to resist the Chinese-controlled district officials.

Seeking to soften the Chinese thrust, the DALAI LAMA acquiesced in the Chinese request for him and the Panchen Lama to attend in Peking in July 1954 the National People's Congress. Thousands of Tibetans crowded into Lhasa as word spread of his intended departure. Distrustful of Chinese intentions, the people implored him not to leave. Their almost hysterical demonstration of faith in his presence turned to silent dejection as he left. Traveling in his own caravan, the DALAI LAMA was taken by the escorting Chinese general on the new route to Chamdo, requiring over the then unbuilt portion an arduous three-week traverse of storm buffeted, perilous terrain. Upon reaching the end of the motor road in China, he was taken in style by his first jeep, plane and train rides to the capital, often allowed to stop to bless Lamaist and Buddhist throngs enroute. In Peking, he was housed royally, had numerous meetings with Chairman Mao and received many visitors. A deputation that came from Tibet in early 1955 to report the widespread unease felt by his absence refused to return without him, and he also had begun to feel homesick. His return in July 1955 was greeted far inside the border of China by Tibetans whose numbers grew as the caravan proceeded toward Lhasa.

Since his accession, the DALAI LAMA, like his predecessors, was not dependent upon information from leading officials but gave private audiences to a variety of people to learn the state of his land. Finding conditions in Tibet worsened, he insisted upon accepting the invitation the Chinese had refused for him to join celebrations in India of the 2500th anniversary of Buddha's enlightenment. His arrivals in a caravan of 150 horsemen in Sikkim in November 1956 and by plane in New Delhi were greeted by throngs seeking his blessing. Taking the opportunity to report personally to Prime Minister Nehru the actual situation in his country, he argued that morality could not be compromised. Chinese road building into Ladakh and establishment of airfields and military bases in western and southwestern Tibet by then threatened India as did Chinese references to their "historical claims" in the border territories of Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and eastern Kashmir. Nehru advised the DALAI LAMA to return to Tibet after receiving from Prime Minister Chou En-lai, who was visiting New Delhi at the same time, assurances that the Chinese would "respect Tibetan religious and social customs." Remaining to visit more holy places and meet with Tibetan refugees, the DALAI LAMA was then asked to leave after Chou En-lai came again to India in February 1957. Departing from Gangtok on February 15, he announced he would now oppose the Chinese openly and insist upon evacuation of all occupying troops, a return to the status of 1950, reinstatement of the two Prime Ministers and abandonment of all reforms.

In Tibet resistance to the Chinese gathered force. With completion of the highways to China an at first popular youth movement became the conduit for trucking children between the ages of eight and 16 to China for technical education and indoctrination. Seeing hundreds of their youth being lured away, Tibetan parents and clergy organized a strong opposition to education of their children in irreligious ways. Taunts and stones were thrown at Tibetan cadres working with the Chinese. Chinese armored cars were seen on the streets of Lhasa to quell the populous.

In December 1955, the Chinese had introduced "land reforms." In a drive for collectivization, cultivated lands, cattle and sheep of the monasteries were transferred to "farm cooperatives." These measures, leaving monasteries with no means of carrying out their religious activities, touched off the first major revolt and Chinese retaliatory bombings of villages during the spring of 1956. Reported in Nepal and India in May and June, the outbreak received brief reference in the Peking press in August stating that "military measures against the rebels were necessary." A second revolt in the spring of 1957 was described by the Chinese Communist press as "waging armed struggle against counter-revolutionary bandits."

Inauguration in April 1956 of a "Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet" subordinate to the Chinese State Council further fanned Tibetan resentment. The DALAI LAMA reluctantly became Chairman with the Panchen Lama as first vice-chairman.

In the face of widespread resentment and open rebellion, the Chinese Communists announced reforms would be postponed for at least six years until "Tibet was riper for socialism." In a tactical shift to conciliation, most Chinese civilians and party workers were removed and forced labor was abolished in some areas. This temporary retreat ended in late 1957 with arrival in Lhasa of a five-man mission to "weed out reactionaries" who "come in the way of modernizing Tibet on socialistic lines."

In early 1956 the Chinese Governor had declared "Tibet is a huge area, but it is too thinly populated. Efforts must be made to raise its population from its present level of three million to more than 10 million." The Tibetans had viewed the first wave of Chinese immigration as early as 1951 with alarm. Now, the Chinese Communist Government appealed to their youth to go and colonize the "frontier areas" and settlers came in large numbers. Increasingly, Chinese were placed in control of all key positions in government and the economy.

Added to these immigrants were hordes of Muslims from the north brought in to establish cities with Chinese names in a ''reclamation of wastelands" program. These newcomers were concentrated in the area the Chinese also called "the treasure house of Tibet"—the Tsaidam Basin and the mountains of northeast Tibet, where Russian geologists, in 1957, discovered rich deposits of oil, gypsum, iron ore and manganese. In a year their tents gave way to huts, an airfield was built and an electric power station for small factories uprooted from China's east coast.

Tibetan granaries had been full when the Chinese armies and waves of immigrants arrived bringing only "empty bowls and chopsticks." As production fell off with the upset of the agricultural system, Tibetans faced famine.

Looking upon imposition of communism against their will, immigrants outnumbering their population, alienation of their children, subversion of their culture and insistence upon considering their land a region of China as threats to their very existence as a distinct nationality, Tibetans of diverse groups united. Lamas and monks joined the guerrilla warfare though the cost was Chinese destruction of many monasteries. The DALAI LAMA resisted Chinese pressure to send his personal bodyguard to eastern Tibet to quell the revolt of the turbulent Khampas. He also refused to proceed immediately to Peking.

Still meticulously observing courtesy, the DALAI LAMA accepted an invitation of the Chinese military commander to attend a cultural show. Upon learning that the Chinese had not observed the rigid protocol of addressing him only through the Kashag but had sent a message directly to the DALAI LAMA ordering him to appear unattended on an earlier date, Lhasans began to converge on the Norbulingka to protect their GREAT PRECIOUS ONE. Their fears mounted with arrival of a plane they suspected had come to abduct him and reinforcements to strengthen the Chinese garrison. The decision of his ministers that he should not attend the function was followed by the more fateful one of the State Oracle that he should flee as Chinese mortars were fired in the directions of the Norbulingka and Potala.

Leaving the Potala on March 13, 1959, singly and in small groups clad as ordinary folk and monks, the DALAI LAMA and his retinue, including members of his family, made first for a rendezvous some miles north of Lhasa then turned south toward India. They moved rapidly by horse, crossed fast rivers on yak-skin boats, and on foot scaled precipitous passes known best to their relays of Khampas who supplemented the DALAI LAMA’s own palace guards. Along his route out of Tibet and into northern India, his people thronged for his blessings. On arrival at the Indian border on March 13, a regiment of the Assam Rifles took over from the Khampas to safeguard his journey to exile in Mussoorie.

From his temporary headquarters, the DALAI LAMA appealed to the United Nations and the world press to help his nation. He disclosed that between 1955 and 1959, 65,000 Tibetans were killed and at least 10,000 children deported to China. Some 13,000 monks had been arrested and many forced to violate their vows. Denying that he was kidnapped by Khampas and smuggled into India under duress, he emphasized that he had left Tibet of his own free will to carry his country's fight to the world.

Even in this extremity, his declaration at a press conference in Mussoorie on June 20, 1959, was a dignified plea for peace: "Although recent actions and policies of the Chinese authorities in Tibet have created strong feelings of bitterness and resentment against the government of China, we Tibetans, lay and monk alike, do not cherish any feelings of enmity and hatred against the great Chinese people. We wish to live in peace and ask for peace and goodwill from all the countries of the world. I and my government are, therefore, fully prepared to welcome a peaceful and amicable solution to the present tragic problem, provided that such a solution guarantees the preservation of the rights and powers which Tibet has enjoyed and exercised without any interference prior to 1950."

August 1959 Manila

(with additions in 1972 on traditional Tibetan society and events leading to the Dalai Lama’s exile)

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