Remembering The Uprising

March 10 marked the 51st anniversary of  Tibetan’s occupation by the people’s Republic China:
Emotions ran high as hundreds of Tibetan in Gangtok and Kalimpong marched in observance of their date in 1959, when Tibetans held people’s Liberation Army while still officially a sovereign nation.

By the late 1950s it was clear to Tibetans that China had no intention of honouring a pledge made in 1951 to respect Tibetan autonomy. Tibetan resentment of China’s occupation simmered and it was clear that a revolt against Chinese rule was brewing. On 10th march 1959, a fearful that the Chinese intended to kidnap the Dalailama and take him to Bezing, 300000 Tibetans surrounded the Norbulinka palace. Over the next days the Uprising grew. On 12th March 5000 Tibetan women marched through the streets of Lasha holding aloft banners demanding Tibetan independence erected barricades in Lasha’s streets whilst Chinese forces mounted machine-guns on Lasha rooftops. It is estimatd that between 30,000 and 50,000 well-armed Chinese troops were in Lasha while Chinese artillery had been placed strategically outside the city. On 19th March the Chinese started to shell Norbulingka, prompting the full force of the Uprising. On 21st March 800 shells rained down on the palace, slaughtering thousands of Tibetan men, women and children. Even the main monasteries Drepung Garden and Sera were shelled, destroying precocious scriptures and othere monstic treasures. Over a few a few days more than 86000 Tibetans in the central Tibet were killed by Chinese armed forces.

The Dalai Lama had fled Lasha on 17th March disguised as a soldier. Writing decades later in his autobiography “My Land and My People” he wrote “ The first thought in the mind of every official within the Palace…..Everything was uncertain, except the compelling anxiety of all my people to get me away before the orgy of Chinese destruction and massacre began”. After two weeks of perilous flight the Dalai Lama crossed the Indian border on 31st March.

The Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, announced on 3rd April that the Government of India had granted the Dalai Lama asylum.

Text Taken From “Talk Sikkim” Magazine, April Issue. 2010