1959: The uprising

Since the 1950 ‘Chinese invasion of Tibet’ (as the Tibetans call it) or the ‘Peaceful Liberation of Tibet’ (as the Chinese define it), the area has been under the Communist Party of China. In 1956, growing opposition to China’s socialist policies spread to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. On March 1, 1959, the Chinese government invited the Dalai Lama to a play at the Chinese military headquarters but insisted that he couldn’t come with his escorts. Some accounts of the events of the uprising say Tibetan authorities feared the Chinese would abduct the Dalai Lama. On March 10, 1959, an estimated 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the palace of the Dalai Lama to stop the ‘abduction’. On March 17, two artillery shells landed near the Dalai Lama's palace. On March 31, the Dalai Lama crossed over to India and set up the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. He was followed into exile by about 80,000 Tibetans. According to the Tibetan government in exile, an estimated 86,000 Tibetans died in the events surrounding the uprising.

The issues

While the primary point of dispute is the legal status of Tibet, over the years, there have been economic and ethnic disputes too.

n China says Tibet has officially been part of China since the mid-13th century. Tibetans say the region was an independent kingdom for many centuries. After a military conflict between China and Tibet, Tibet declared itself independent in 1912. In 1950, China and a Tibetan delegation signed a treaty, called the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, ceding sovereignty to China. The two sides have different views on the treaty.

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