Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
However, Tibet's brief period of independence was troubled by more than just an inabil-
ity to modernise. Conflict sprang up between the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama over
the autonomy of Tashilhunpo Monastery and its estates. The Panchen Lama, after appeal-
ing to the British to mediate, fled to China, where he stayed for 14 years until his death.
In 1933 the 13th Dalai Lama died, leaving the running of the country to the regent of
Reting. The present (14th) Dalai Lama was discovered in Amdo but was brought to Lhasa
only after the local Chinese commander had been paid off with a huge 'fee' of 300,000
Chinese dollars. The boy was renamed Tenzin Gyatso and he was installed as the Dalai
Lama on 22 February 1940, aged 4½.
In 1947 an attempted coup d'état, known as the Reting Conspiracy, rocked Lhasa. Lhasa
came close to civil war, with 200 monks killed in gunfights at Sera Monastery. Reting Rin-
poche was thrown into jail for his part in the rebellion and was later found dead in his cell,
though it remains unclear whether he was set up or not.
It was not a good time for Tibet to be weakened by internal disputes. By 1949 the
Chinese Nationalist government had fled to Taiwan and Mao Zedong and his Red Army
had taken control of China. Big changes were looming.
While lying in state the head of the 13th Dalai Lama's corpse allegedly turned repeatedly
towards the northeast, indicating that the 14th Dalai Lama would be born in Amdo.
Marco Polo and Alexandra David-Neel both wrote about the magical powers of Tibetan
monks, including the ability to move cups with their minds, travel cross-country while levit-
ating or keep warm in subzero temperatures simply through the power of their minds.
Liberation
Unknown to the Tibetans, the communist takeover of China was to open what is probably
the saddest chapter in Tibetan history. The ensuing Chinese 'liberation' of Tibet eventually
led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans, an assault on the Tibetan traditional
way of life, the flight of the Dalai Lama to India and the destruction of almost every his-
torical structure on the plateau. The chief culprits were Chinese ethnic chauvinism and an
epidemic of social anarchy known as the Cultural Revolution.
