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{{Weasel|date=November 2008}}
{{Weasel|date=November 2008}}
{{main| People's Liberation Army invasion of Tibet (1950–1951)}}
{{main| People's Liberation Army invasion of Tibet (1950–1951)}}
In the decades preceding 1950 Tibet was a fully independent nation for a short period of time, with own [[Tibetan people|people]], [[Tibetan language|language]], [[Tibetan culture|culture]], and religions ([[Tibetan Buddhism]] and [[Bön]]). They also printed their own currency and postage, and conducted international relations with foreign countries. It had three provinces [[Amdo]], [[Kham]], and [[Ü-Tsang]]. Since the invasion in 1950, China reorganized the area entirely, by joining several Tibetan prefectures to the Chinese provinces [[Yunnan]] and [[Gansu]] and dividing the rest of the area into the regions: [[Sichuan]], [[Tibet Autonomous Region]], and [[Qinghai]].<ref>Burbu, Dawa (2001) ''China's Tibet Policy'', Routledge, ISBN 978-0700704743, pp 86-99</ref>
In the decades preceding 1950 Tibet was a fully independent nation, with own [[Tibetan people|people]], [[Tibetan language|language]], [[Tibetan culture|culture]], and religions ([[Tibetan Buddhism]] and [[Bön]]). They also printed their own currency and postage, and conducted international relations with foreign countries. It had three provinces [[Amdo]], [[Kham]], and [[Ü-Tsang]]. Since the invasion in 1950, China reorganized the area entirely, by joining several Tibetan prefectures to the Chinese provinces [[Yunnan]] and [[Gansu]] and dividing the rest of the area into the regions: [[Sichuan]], [[Tibet Autonomous Region]], and [[Qinghai]].<ref>Burbu, Dawa (2001) ''China's Tibet Policy'', Routledge, ISBN 978-0700704743, pp 86-99</ref>


China calls the invasion a ''peaceful liberation''; Tibetans call it ''[[colonization]]''. In view of the fact that no Tibetan asked for the change of power, most historians consider it an occupation. {{Fact|date=November 2008}} Many{{Fact|date=November 2008}} socialists also have noted that the Chinese have followed the pattern of an imperial power. <ref>http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=14452</ref>
China calls the invasion a ''peaceful liberation''; Tibetans call it ''[[colonization]]''. In view of the fact that no Tibetan asked for the change of power, most historians consider it an occupation. {{Fact|date=November 2008}} Many{{Fact|date=November 2008}} socialists also have noted that the Chinese have followed the pattern of an imperial power. <ref>http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=14452</ref>

Revision as of 02:46, 4 December 2008

The sinicization of Tibet is the change of Tibetan society to Chinese standards, by means of cultural assimilation, migration, and political (communist) reform. Sinicization on the one hand is the consequence of the presence of a majority of Han Chinese in Tibet and on the other hand an active policy of the central government of the People's Republic of China. The active policy intends to make Tibet an integral part of the Chinese republic and to control Tibetan ambitions of independence.[1][2]

Change of power

Main article: People's Liberation Army invasion of Tibet (1950–1951)

In the decades preceding 1950 Tibet was a fully independent nation, with own people, language, culture, and religions (Tibetan Buddhism and Bön). They also printed their own currency and postage, and conducted international relations with foreign countries. It had three provinces Amdo, Kham, and Ü-Tsang. Since the invasion in 1950, China reorganized the area entirely, by joining several Tibetan prefectures to the Chinese provinces Yunnan and Gansu and dividing the rest of the area into the regions: Sichuan, Tibet Autonomous Region, and Qinghai.[3]

China calls the invasion a peaceful liberation; Tibetans call it colonization. In view of the fact that no Tibetan asked for the change of power, most historians consider it an occupation. [citation needed] Many[citation needed] socialists also have noted that the Chinese have followed the pattern of an imperial power. [4]

Failed crops

The economy of Tibet is dominated by subsistence agriculture, that is agriculture with a destination to provide for one's family proper only. For this reason the entrance of 35.000 Chinese troops in the 1950s weighted heavily on the food supplies in Tibet. At Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama's visit to Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1954, Mao informed that he would migrate 40.000 Chinese farmers to Tibet.[5][6]

In the 1960s Chinese authorities forced Tibetan farmers to cultivate corn, in stead of barley which originally is the crop of the Himalaya region, resulting in the first famine in Tibetan history. The harvests failed as the farmers had predicted and thousands of Tibetans starved from hunger.[7][8]

Cultural Revolution

File:Destroy old world.jpg
Chinese poster saying: "Smash the old world; establish a new world." A Red Guard crushes the crucifix and Buddha; 1967
Main article: Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution was a revolution staged by the central government between 1966 and 1976 of students and laborers of the Chinese communist party, intending to preserve Maoism as the leading ideology of China. Next to that it was a means to eliminate the political opposition against Mao.[9]

The Cultural Revolution took place in entire China and as a result Tibet suffered great excesses as well. National guards attacked civilians that were seen as traitors of communism. Thousands monasteries were looted and destroyed. Monks and nuns were forced to leave their monasteries to live a normal life and anyone who resisted it was imprisoned. The prisoners were forced to hard labor, were maltreated, tortured, and even executed. Prisoners were raped, beaten with sticks, and were treated with electric shocks. In this sphere of chaos and paranoia thousands met their death.[9][10]

Migration of Han-Chinese

The central government of the People's Republic of China issues an active migration policy of Chinese to Tibet, being lured with attractive bonuses and favorable living conditions. Since the end of the 1990s there are more Chinese than Tibetans in Tibet. 2003 the population consists of an estimate 6 million ethnic Tibetans and 7,5 non-Tibetans.[2][11]

Anno 2008 in the capital Lhasa live 400,000 people, [12] mainly Chinese. In 1959 only 5,000 inhabitants were living there.

April 1991 the fourteenth Dalai Lama describes the situation as follows: "The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us."[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ Burbu, Dawa (2001) China's Tibet Policy, Routledge, ISBN 978-0700704743, pp 100-124
  2. ^ a b Samdup, Tseten (1993) Chinese population - Threat to Tibetan identity
  3. ^ Burbu, Dawa (2001) China's Tibet Policy, Routledge, ISBN 978-0700704743, pp 86-99
  4. ^ http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=14452
  5. ^ Xinhua (30 August 2005) Ngapoi recalls the founding of the TAR
  6. ^ Thomas, Lowell Jr. (1959) The Silent War in Tibet, Doubleday & Company Inc
  7. ^ Shakya, Tsering (1999) The Dragon in the Land of Snows, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0712665339
  8. ^ Stein, Rolf (1972) Tibetan Civilization, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-0806-1
  9. ^ a b MacFarquhar, Roderick & Michael Schoenhals (2006) Mao's Last Revolution, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-02332-1, p. 102
  10. ^ Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Foundation (1997) Chinese rule in Tibet: establishment, administration and maintenance, Chapter 6
  11. ^ Pinteric, Uros (2003) International Status Of Tibet, Association for Innovative Political Science, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  12. ^ EN.TIBET.CN (11 January 2008) Tibet gives concern for vehicle exhaust.
  13. ^ BBC News (20 May 2008) Profile: The Dalai Lama
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