If there is a place where time seems to stop, that place is the Tibet. A magical, spiritual place, wrapped in that mysticism that it gives off, helped by a setting of incredible beauty such as the Himalayas. Its culture, its people, its religion, its language, everything seems extraordinary. Behind a country that breathes peace, there is a culture that has practically not evolved over the centuries, with an indigenous language and a religion that has marked its evolution in history. Tibet – History, Culture and Language of Tibet, Let’s make a brief review of the history of a country that, although pacifist, has managed to maintain its principles despite everything.
Geographic Situation of Tibet
currently called Tibet Autonomous Region, despite calling itself autonomous, it really belongs to the People’s Republic of China.
The Tibet region is located on the Tibetan plateau, northeast of the Himalayas in Asia. Tibet is the highest region on this planet, its average altitude is 4,900 m, in fact it is in the Tibet region where Mount Everest, of 8,848 m, right on the border with Nepal.
history of tibet
The Tibetan Plateau is known to have been inhabited for at least 21,000 years. But an invasion of Neolithic immigrants from North China, around 3,000 B.C. C., was replacing the original population.
Culture Zhang Zhung, was the first of which there are written texts, it was a native people of Amdo that was forced to emigrate. It is believed that the beginning of Bon Religion, it took place among the Zhang Zhung people, a shamanistic and animistic religion, predating Buddhism.
About him 1st century, a neighboring kingdom that inhabited the Yarlung valley, tried to eliminate the influence that was beginning to have in the region the Bon religionexpelling his priests from the kingdom, but the only thing King Drigum Tsenpo achieved was to lose his life, while the Zhang Zhung continued to expand their domain until it was annexed by Songtsen Gampo, who would become the founder and first emperor of the Tibet Empire.
The Tibetan People
The history of Tibet begins with the unification carried out Songtsen Gampo, maintaining under the same government, all the towns that inhabited the valley of the Yarlung river, resulting in the founding of the Tibetan Empire.
He introduced many improvements and expanded his territory creating a very powerful empire. He had two wives, the first a princess Nepali called Bhrikuti and a second wife princess wenchengniece of Taizong of Tnang, the powerful Chinese emperor, who enriched the empire by introducing things from both cultures.
After the passage of different kings, the Tibetan people were converting to Buddhismuntil it became established as the official religion of the state almost at the same time that the power and territorial extension of Tibet increased until it crossed the borders, reaching in the year 763 to what it is today Xi’an, capital of the Tang dynasty. But this occupation of Xi’an lasted a few days, being defeated by the Tang army.
The chinese little by little they were recovering their possessions in Central Asia, while the Tibetans were losing more and more possessions. But after defeats like the one in the Battle of Talas disputed with the Arabs and the Garluq and after the An Lushan military rebellion in the year 755, he managed to resurface the Tibetan influence.
The Tibetan Empire reached its height during the years 780-790when his possessions spread over Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, China, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
Finally, between the years 821 and 822, China and Tibet signed a peace treatyWritten in both languages, this treatise was inscribed on a stone pillar in the Hokhang temple in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Thus the centuries passed, until the mid-nineteenth century, when one can speak of the fragmentation of Tibet. The succession to the imperial throne caused a civil war, leaving political control divided into two parts, one for the warlords and the other controlled by the tribes of the region, but without much authority.
Mongol dynasties
The different incursions that the Mongol armies exerted on the Tibetan territory, concluded with the Mongol domain, in the thirteenth century, who founded two new dynasties Yuan and Chingin addition to the indigenous Ming dynasty.
The dinasty Yuan, ruled Tibet through the Office of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, within the office was an administrative department in charge of finding dpon-chen (administrators), this was appointed by the Lama as a spiritual representative, since the predominant religion among both Mongolians and Tibetans was Buddhism. Despite all the government of the region was a secular government.
The appointment made by the Lama would then have to be confirmed from Beijing by the Mongol emperor. Until in the sixteenth century, altan khansupported the religious government of the Dalai Lama.
Chinese empire
When in the eighteenth century, China sent a commissioner to the capital of Tibet, Lhasa to take charge of the Tibetan government in the name of China, was not very well received by a sector of the population, getting killed. This fact caused the chinese army invaded tibet putting down the revolutionaries and appointing a new commissioner.
From that moment on, a contingent of two thousand Chinese soldiers would remain in Tibet, to maintain order and ensure the work of the new commissioner.
It has remained so until 1904, when the interests of Britain, clashed squarely with Chinese interests. Great Britain needed Tibet border opening cin India, at that time, an English colony. Ended with the invasion by a British contingent of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
The peace treaty was signed in 1906, according to which the region of Tibet became a British protectorate. A treaty that two years later would be broken in favor of another signed by China, Great Britain and Russia, by which se returned China’s sovereignty over Tibet. Getting for the first time in 1910, exercise the central Qing power, the government directly over Tibet.
The Independence of Tibet
It is a brief period covering the years 1912-1950. When China in 1911, proclaims the republic, the troops that were permanently in the Tibet region were called back to China, this fact was an opportunity for the Dalai Lama to restablish your control and to sign in 1913, an agreement of recognition of Independence of China.
In 1914, representatives of Tibet and Great Britain secretly, they signed an agreement whereby Tibet would be an independent region of China and in return the British would get a piece of land in possession of Tibet, north of India, called Arunachal Pradesh.
But after the indian Independence, it claimed the territory of Arunachal Pradesh since it placed it within British territory by the signed treaty. China, alleging that the treaty was invalid since it did not bear its signature, rejected this claim, nor did it recognize the independence of Tibet, since for China it was still a Chinese protectorate, ending this dispute in 1962 with the war between China and India.
With the Xihai Revolution and the outbreak of First World War, Tibet ceased to be of interest to the rest of the world, including China. Thus coming to take over the government of Tibet, without international opposition, the 13th Dalai Lama.
The Chinese Invasion
The Chinese invasion began in 1950, when the Chinese army defeated the small and weak Tibetan army, forcing in 1951, the Chinese government to sign a Plan for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet. The Liberation Plan intended a joint administration of the Chinese government and the Tibetan government.
A reform of the land law was carried out, until now in the hands of the Lamas. But this Plan did not extend throughout the Tibetan territory, since the regions of Kham and Amdo they were considered Chinese provinces and not under the protectorate, so the reforms did not reach these two regions.
In 1956, as a consequence of these reforms and backed by the US, the riot broke out in both regions. These riots were militarily suppressed, causing a large number of Tibetan victims. At that time both the Dalai Lama like his collaborators, they saw forced to flee to Indiafrom where they continued to support the Tibetan struggle, until in 1969 Tibet stopped receiving support from the Western powers.
The Dalai Lama had been able to escape to India, however the Panchen Lama he was imprisoned in the capital Lhasa. To the international community, China presented him as the head of the Tibetan government, but he was just a front.
In the year 1969, China dispossessed the land of the Lama, while introducing a secular education, leaving Buddhism aside. In the Chinese Cultural RevolutionTibet suffered great damage to its heritage, destroying Buddhist temples and monasteries and killing its monks.
In 2008, after the celebration of the Beijing Olympics and taking advantage of the showcase that the games were worldwide, the Tibetan protests began with the aim of regaining support for their independence.
Japan and the US supported the Tibetan movement, even going so far as to consider non-participation in the Olympics if a dialogue path was not opened. There were statements from Chinese intellectuals, absences at the opening of the games such as that of the French President and even the Secretary General of the UN.
From then on, different protests took place until in 2010, a new and terrible way of protesting against Chinese abuses began, this form of protest was burn to the bonzowhich caused international stupor and Chinese apathy.
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