Several hundred million years ago, Tibet was covered by the Tethys Sea, a vast ocean obscuring what we now know as India and Asia. Forty million years ago, pressure from the south India land mass forced the northern land mass up and the Himalayas were born. Historical Tibet covered 900,000 square miles of highland plateau, an area equivalent to the size of western Europe or one quarter of the United States. Rimmed by mountain ranges, Tibet was first inhabited by nomadic groups who entered the area two and a half to three thousand years ago. Eventually, Tibet was divided into three provinces, the U-Tsang in the central and western plateau, Kham in the east and Amdo in the northeast. Kham is the most fertile area of Tibet. U-Tsang has the highest elevation. Northern Tibet is a virtually uninhabited wilderness.
The first king of Tibet was said to have descended from the heavens by means of a sky-cord. This heavenly umbilical connection describes the establishment of the Yarlung dynasty in approxi-mately 400 B.C. Yarlung is a southern province bordering Bhutan. The Yarlung kings, revered in stories and poems, were supposed to return to the heavens upon death, leaving no earthly remains. During a political transition kings regained their mortality.
Songtsen Gampo, Tibet’s first great religious king succeeded his father, the 32nd Yarlung king in 627. Previously, Tibetans practiced the Bon religion, a shamanistic tradition. During his reign, Songtsen Gampo introduced Buddhism to Tibet, unifying the nobility and turning Tibet into a military power. The Tibetan alphabet was also created during this time. Buddhist temples were constructed and a universal code of laws was established.
In the late 700s, after Songtsen Gampo’s reign, Buddhism continued to flourish in Tibet. Padmasambhava, the Indian Buddhist master, was invited to Tibet to pacify the Bons and spread Buddhism. A Buddhist university was created. Buddhist monks were ordained and major Buddhist texts were translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan. Around 792 Buddhism was declared the state religion of Tibet.
The strength of Buddhism in Tibet fluctuated until the 11th century when teachers and practitioners came from India and many Buddhist texts were translated. In the 12th century more Buddhist institutions were established to fund monasteries. When the Mongols, led by Ghengis Khan, entered northern China, Tibetans organized and decided to appease this potentially ferocious foe. They began paying a tribute to the Mongols and were able to coexist peacefully. Eventually Tibetans and Mongols established a relationship based on the exchange of protection offered by the Mongols for religious guidance given by the Tibetans. It was under the leadership of the Mongols that the position of the Dalai Lama was established, creating a hierarchy within Tibetan Buddhism which exists today. In 1642 Mongols determined that the Dalai Lama would serve as Tibet’s primary leader.
The title "Dalai Lama" means "Ocean of Wisdom." This lofty title may only be used by someonewho has been recognized as the reincarnation a former Dalai Lama. Viewed as a manifestation of Chenrezig, the deity of compassion, Dalai Lamas profoundly influence the religious and political life of Tibetans.
Ngawang Losang Gyatso, the fifth Dalai Lama, was a particularly great ruler. He unified Tibet, centralized the government and built many monasteries. The Potala Palace was constructed during his reign. A huge monastery, located on a mountainside in Lhasa on a site where Songtsen Ghampo established a fort, the Potala Palace became home for all the Dalai Lamas. The Potala Palace represents the synthesis of the spiritual and temporal embodied in the fifth Dalai Lama.
Extremely high altitudes, vast expanses of rugged countryside and relatively few developed roads are some of the geographic features that protected Tibet from invasion and allowed life in Tibet to continue unchanged for hundreds of years. Tibetan society was composed of an aristocracy and serfs who were subdivided into categories of taxpayers and small householders. These groups lived in cities, towns and villages and farmed, traded and led businesses. Nomads, another segment of Tibetan culture, are dependent upon animals such as yaks, sheep, cattle and horses. Living in permanent winter quarters, nomads move to higher elevations in the summer and traveled to areas with grass for their animals to eat. Yaks are a source of food, clothing, transportation and shelter. Milk from dris, female yaks, is used to make butter and cheese. Hair from yaks is used to make clothing and tents. Yak hides are used to create blankets, clothing, saddles, bridles and containers for food. Yak tails have been exported to the United States for use as Santa Claus beards. There was no wheeled transport in Tibet, except for a few cars owned by the 13th Dalai Lama, until the 1950s.
Conflict with China increased in the early 20th century. In 1910 Chinese troops invaded Lhasa and the 13th Dalai Lama fled to India. The following year the Ching dynasty fell and the Republic of China was formed after a civil war. The 13th Dalai Lama returned to Tibet after China was expelled. In 1949 Mao Tsetung led the communist revolution that created the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The following year the Red Guard invaded Eastern Tibet. Khampa guerrillas resisted and the following year a 17 point agreement was signed in Peking. Resistance to Chinese occupation continued, especially in eastern Tibet, and erupted on Lhasa in an uprising in 1959. At that time 87,000 Tibetans died and the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso fled to India. In 1965 Tibet was named the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) by the People’s Republic of China. Amdo and Kham were incorporated into China, becoming the Quinghai and Sichuan provinces respectively.
A mass exodus of Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama out of Tibet. Since then approximately 131,000 Tibetans have become exiles. Most Tibetans have resettled in Tibet’s neighboring countries, India (approximately 110,000), Nepal, (approximately 15,000) and Bhutan (approximately 1,460). Two thousand Tibetans have moved to Switzerland; other European countries have fewer than a hundred Tibetans. Approximately 1,560 Tibetans now live in the U.S.A. and 560 in Canada. Tibetans are one of the smallest ethnic groups in the U.S.A. They are frequently mistaken as Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and Native Americans.
The United States government has experimented with a series of programs designed to aid Tibetans living in exile. Tibetans were sent to Colorado to be trained as guerrilla forces by the C.I.A. That program was abolished by President Nixon in 1974 as he worked to establish an amicable relationship with the PRC. In another program, the U.S. government studied yak herding in Alaska to create a familiar environment for Tibetans. That project was dropped over concerns regarding competition for natural resources. A program was established in Maine in 1966 where Tibetans were trained and hired as loggers. They lived together at the logging camp and received instruction in English, history and geography. Their close proximity to each other allowed the Tibetans to maintain their culture while learning about the U.S.A. That program ended in 1971 with the onset of a recession in the timber industry.
The Tibetan United States Resettlement Project (TUSRP) was founded in 1989 after the Dalai Lama deemed cultural survival possible for Tibetans in the United States. Twenty- one cluster sites were established in eighteen states where conditions were considered viable for the Tibetans, usually due to the previous establishment of Tibetan cultural sites by monks, scholars and lay people. Participants in the project were chosen by lottery; many left family and loved ones to start a new life in America. TUSRP helped to house the Tibetans, find them employment and give support as the refugees found their footing on new home soil.
Since his exile in 1959 Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, has become a world leader of renown. A world traveler, he has met with the United States government leaders several times. In 1989 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Publishing books, leading Kalachakra (see section 3) initiations and giving many interviews with the press, His Holiness advocates Buddhist principles and nonviolence as a means of developing understanding which leads to world peace. For Tibetans everywhere the Dalai Lama is a paragon of cultural identity. In fact as Tibetans all over the world adopt new identities in an effort to assimilate successfully into the cultures in which they now find themselves, the tenets of Buddhism and their national religion become a central focus in their efforts to maintain their culture.
As exiled Tibetans spend more time in the U.S.A. and elsewhere, they are able to establish stronger cultural traditions within their new communities. In addition to practicing the artistic traditions of thangka painting, stone masonry, carpentry and metal work, Tibetans form traditional dance troupes, play traditional music, sing Tibetan songs and recite Tibetan folk tales. Language is central to any culture’s continuity and as Tibetan dialects expand to include words from their new homes’ languages, Tibetan language instruction is offered at most new resettlement sites.
Key Terms
Questions for Discussion/Classroom Activities
1. What is culture? How is a culture affected by moving from one country to another?
2. What roles do leaders play in terms of influencing the lives of their citizens? What leaders do you admire and why?
3. What role does religion play for most Tibetans? What role does religion play for other cultures?
4. How has the Tibetan diaspora affected life in the United States?
5. How important are national boundaries in world politics? Why?
6. What do you think about the Tibetan situation? Do you see a way to resolve conflict between the PRC and Tibet? What is it? Conduct a research project to explore the Chinese perspective and the Tibetan perspective. Discuss the pros and cons of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
7. How does religion interact with politics? Why is this so important in understanding Tibetan history? How is this similar to or different from the relationship between religion and politics in the U.S.?
