Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FOUR RIVERS, SIX RANGES: THE KHAMPA RESISTANCE
Following a failed rebellion against new Chinese rule in the late 1950s, a core of Khampa
fighters managed to regroup in Lhoka, in southern Tibet, and in a rare moment of
Khampa unity formed an organisation called Chizhi Gangdrung (Four Rivers, Six Ranges),
the traditional local name for the Kham region. Soon 15,000 men were assembled.
The Khampa's cause attracted attention from abroad and, before long, Tibetan leaders
were liaising with CIA agents in Kolkata (Calcutta), arranging secret meetings through
dead letter drops. The first batch of six Khampa agents trekked over the border to India,
were driven to Bangladesh and then flown to the Pacific island of Saipan, where they were
trained to organise guerrilla groups. Agents were later parachuted behind enemy lines in-
to Samye and Lithang.
In 1957, guerrilla attacks were made on Chinese garrisons and road camps, and in 1958,
700 Chinese soldiers were killed by guerrillas near Nyemo. The movement met with the
Dalai Lama in southern Tibet when he fled Lhasa in 1959 as the CIA readied three plane-
loads of arms - enough for 2000 people. The flight of the Dalai Lama to India marked a
setback for the resistance and the focus switched to a base in Mustang, an ethnically
Tibetan area in Nepal, where initially at least the Nepalis turned a blind eye to the move-
ment.
Between 1960 and 1962 more than 150 Tibetans were sent to Colorado for training. Yet
the resistance was living on borrowed time. By the mid-1960s CIA funding had dried up.
By 1972 the international political climate had changed; US President Richard Nixon's vis-
it to China and the coronation of Nepal's pro-Chinese king left the Khampas out on a limb.
Moreover, the resistance was riddled with feuds - most of the Khampa rebels had always
been fighting more for their local valley and monastery than for any national ideal. In 1973
the Nepalis demanded the closure of the Mustang base and the Dalai Lama asked the
rebels to surrender. It was the end of the Khampa rebellion and the end of Tibetan armed
resistance to the Chinese.
Around Bāyī
Bönri
MOUNTAIN
( )
