Tibetan History

Key Tibetan Dates, Post 1950

1950: Radio Beijing announces that, "The task of the People's Liberation Arms for 1950 is to liberate Tibet." 40,000 Chinese troops invade Tibet in October, unprovoked and with no accepted legal basis for the claims of sovereignty.  15 year old Tenzin Gyatso is given full powers to rule as the 14th Dalai Lama


1951: China undertakes the 17 Point Agreement to refrain from interfering with Tibet's Government and society following negotiation by the Dalai Lama.


1952: Mao Zedong promises the Dalai Lama that the Chinese will leave Tibet once liberation is complete


1959: Tibetan National Uprising. Tibetan resistance results in a severe crackdown by the Chinese authorities and widespread brutality. An estimated 430,000 Tibetans are killed (China estimates 87,000 killed). 100,000 Tibetans flee with the Dalai Lama into exile in India


1960-1962: 340,000 Tibetan Peasants and nomads die in Tibet's first recorded famines following the agricultural reforms of Mao's "Great Leap Forward"


1965: China formally inaugurates on of Tibet's three provinces as the 'Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)


1966: Thousands of Buddhist monasteries are destroyed and tens of thousands of Tibetans are sent to labour camps during the Cultural Revolution


1980s: The Dalai Lama starts to make political speeches abroad, international support for Tibet Grows


1987: Tibetans begin a new era of protest. Hundreds of monks and nuns are imprisoned for peaceful protests.


1988: The Dalai Lama puts forward the Strasbourg Proposal in which he calls for genuine autonomy for Tibet rather than independence


1989: Martial law is imposed in Tibet to curb protests. The Dalai Lama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize


1995: Six year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, recognised by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama disappears. China selects and enthrones another child. 


1996: China launches patriotic re-education campaign: includes the removal of Dalai Lama photos from monasteries


2000: The 17th Karmapa flees Tibet, into exile in India.


2002: Formal contact re-established between Chinese Government and the Dalai Lama's envoys. China releases a number of high profile Tibetan political prisoners. 


2003: Former Tibet Party Secretary Hu Jintao become President of China


2005: Talks between China and Dalai Lama's envoys are held in Bern, Switzerland. 


2008: The Olympic Games are held in China, despite the world-wide protests about Human Rights issues.

2011 - 2013: Self immolations and increasing protests On 16 March 2011 a young monk from Kirti Monastery named Phuntsog set himself on fire in Ngaba. Since then, there have been over 100 self immolation protests. These acts, along with other significant protests over the last few years, demonstrate Tibetans' fundamental rejection of Chinese rule.


For more information regarding any of these issues please click the link below to be redirected to another page on our site.
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15 year old Tenzin Gyatso sitting above his crest. Shortly after he was formally recognised as the 14th Dalai Lama
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Tibetan women surround the Potala Palace to protest Chinese rule (17 March 1959).
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Pope John Paul II shakes hands with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of more than six million Tibetans, during a private meeting on (9 October 1980.
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Gadhun Choekyi Nyima, 11th Panchen Lama, shortly before his disappearance in 1995.
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Ogyen Trinley Dorje the 17th Karmapa flees Tibet
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A campaign poster from 2008 raising awareness of the plight of the Tibetan people.

Asiatic Researchers

The link below will take you to an eighteenth century account of a journey to Tibet published by the Asiatic Society in 1798. This ebook is completely free to read online. The account of the journey begins on page 207.