Dramatic Events in Lhasa : « A few days earlier, I had received a letter from His Holiness who was then at Lhuntse Dzong with some of His senior officials, trying to set up a temporary government there. The letter read in part : "You have led the Chushi Gandrug force with unshakeable determination to resist the Chinese occupation army for the great national cause of defending the freedom of Tibet. I confer on you the rank of 'DZASAK' (the highest military rank equivalent to General) in recognition for your service to the country. The present situation calls for a continuance of your brave struggle with the same determination and courage." »
United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Tibet (China): Information on Chushi Gangdruk (Gangdrug) : « Chushi Gangdruk was active as a CIA-trained and - backed armed resistance group in Tibet in the 1950s and 1960s (Associate Professor of Tibetan Studies 15 Jan 2003). For the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet to India during the 1959 Tibetan insurrection against Chinese occupation, Chushi Gangdruk fighters were deployed from Lhasa in Tibet across the Himalayas into India in order to block Chinese pursuit of the Tibetan leader (Roberts 1997) (References : Associate Professor of Tibetan Studies, Indiana University. Email to the INS Resource Information Center (15 Jan 2003) - John R. Roberts, The American Spectator, « The Secret War Over Tibet: A Story of Cold War Heroism - and Kennedy Administration Cowardice and Betrayal » (décembre 1997) - NEXIS) ».
(en) Qingying Chen, Tibetan history, Pékin, China Intercontinental Press, coll. « Series of basic information of Tibet of China », , 181 p. (ISBN7-5085-0234-5, lire en ligne), p. 172-173 : « In the afternoon of that day, the rebels and most of the galoons of the Gaxag government convened the "People's Conference" in Norbu Lingka, deciding to split the central Government and openly launch the "Tibetan Independence Movement". […] As for the Tibetan officials working in the Preparatory Committee for the Founding of the Tibetan Autonomous region, they were not allowed to continue work and were required to give themselves up and repent of their errors against the "Tibetan independent country". The conference also decided to dispatch armed monks of the Sera monastery and Zhaibung monsteries to Norbu Lingka to protect the Dalai Lama. […] On the evening of March 10th, about a thousand monks of the leading three monasteries rushed into Lhasa and the Tibetan troops in Lhasa made every preparation for a war. At the same time, the rebels spread around Lhasa. The Gaxag Government opened the munitions depot and distributed arms and munitions to the rebels. »
case.edu
(en) Yan Hao (Institute of Economic Research, State Department of Planning Commission, Peking), « Tibetan Population in China: Myths and Facts Re-examined », p. 20, note 21 : « "See also the footnote in Warren Smith, Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations (Westview Press, Boulder, 1996), p. 451, which claims that the figures reportedly come from a secret 1960 PLA document captured by the Tibetan Resistance in 1966, and were published first by a Tibetan Buddhist organisation in India in 1990. It is said that 87,000 enemies were eliminated in the original document, and Smith believes that 'eliminated’ does not necessarily mean killed. However, it is hard to understand why it took 6 years for the PLA document to be captured, and 30 years for it to be published. It is also highly unlikely that a resistance force could ever exist in Tibet as late as in 1966." »
china-hiking.com
(en) Chen Qingying, Democratic Reform, 29 mars 2007, sur le site china-hiking.com : « However, on the night of March 17th, arranged by Soikang, Liu Xia and Xia Su, three Galoons, as well as Phala and Chegyam, the Dalai Lama, together with his family members and guards, totaling over 60 people, fled from the Norbu Lingka in disguise and headed for Shannan, crossing the Lhasa River. As Chairman Mao Zedong had instructed on March l2th: "lf the Dalai Lama and his retinue flee, our army should not obstruct their way. No matter if they go to Shannan or India, let them go." So, during the course of a two-week trek, they were not pursued or obstructed by the PLA. »
(en) Chen Qingying, Democratic Reform, 29 mars 2007, sur le site china-hiking.com : « At 10 a.m., the military authorities decided to counterattack using no more than two regiments with artillery backing. At 6 p.m., the PLA seized the Medicine King Mountains, thus cutting the connection of the rebels between Norbu Lingka and Lhasa City. Then, the PLA, with artillery support, attacked Norbu Lingk from several directions. After a brief but fierce fight, the PLA soldiers destroyed the rebel headquarters. They then joined forces to besiege the downtown areas, and by the morning of March 21st, the PLA had occupied all the rebel positions apart from the Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace. »
(en) Chen Qingying, Democratic Reform, 29 mars 2007, sur le site china-hiking.com : « On the morning of March 22nd, the rebels stationed in the Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple raised the white flag and surrendered, marking the end of the rebellion. In the two day fight, 545 rebels were killed and 4,800 wounded or captured. »
(en) Jiawei Wang, Nima Gyaincain, The Historical Status of China's Tibet, chapter IX (1) « Putting Down the Armed Rebellion » : « At that time, only about 1,000 PLA troops in Lhasa could be mobilized to fight, while the rebels amounted to about 7,000, with additional aid from foreign forces. But the heroic and combat-hardened PLA officers and men fought for two days and routed 5,360 armed rebels gathered in Lhasa. »
(en) Jiawei Wang, Nima Gyaincain, The Historical Status of China's Tibet, chapter IX (1) Putting Down the Armed Rebellion : « On March 20,1959, the rebellion swept through Lhasa. Units affiliated to the Tibet Work Committee and the PLA Tibet Military Area mobilized Tibetan upper-class persons, cadres, workers and their families to temporarily move into the institutions. The seats of the Preparatory Committee for the Founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the PLA Tibet Military Area alone provided shelter for about 600-700 people, including patriotic celebrities like Pagbalha Geleg Namgyai, Namtoin Goinga Wangqug, Xoikang Tubdain Nyima and Gyainjin Soinan Gyaibo. They joined the PLA to safeguard the government institutions. Some helped carry earth and stones to build shelters; some were enthusiastic in gathering information; some joined the radio station to reveal the splittists's scheme in Tibetan language. […] Under fierce fire, the PLA troops kept shouting to the rebels through megaphones, warning them to desist. But it was fruitless. Six hours after the rebellion began, the PLA troops, its patience exhausted, was compelled to counter-attack. At that time, only about 1,000 PLA troops in Lhasa could be mobilized to fight, while the rebels amounted to about 7,000, with additional aid from foreign forces. But the heroic and combat-hardened PLA officers and men fought for two days and routed 5,360 armed rebels gathered in Lhasa. These rebels were just a disorderly mob who looked strong but were really weak, and could not effectively fight the PLA troops. […] Among the 5,360 armed rebel forces put out of action during the Lhasa attack, most were captured or surrendered. »
china.com.cn
(en) Jiawei Wang, Nyima Gyaincain, The Historical Status of China's Tibet, Chapter IX : « Tibetan People Acquired Ultimate Human Rights Through Quelling of Rebellion and Conducting the Democratic Reform » : « (1) Putting Down the Armed Rebellion. »
(en) Noam Chomsky, An exchange on the "Responsibility of Intellectuals", Noam Chomsky debates with Fryer Calhoun, E.B. Murray and Arthur Dorfman, The New York Review of Books, 20 avril 1967 : « Although it is of no relevance to the issue, I should also add that it is a bit too simple to say that "China did indeed take over a country that did not want to be taken over." This is by no means the general view of Western scholarship. For example, Ginsbergs and Mathos comment that "the March 1959 uprising did not, by and large, involve any considerable number of lower-class Tibetans but involved essentially the propertied groups and the traditionally rebellious and foraging Khamba tribes opposed to any outside public authoritiy (including sometimes that of the Dalai Lama)" (Pacific Affairs, septembre 1959). »
columbia.edu
(en) A. Tom Grunfeld, Tibet and the United States [extract], XVIII IPSA World Congress, Québec, Québec, 1er-5 août 2000 : « In March 1959 the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa in a revolt still shrouded in some mystery. The Dalai Lama and his supporters claim that the revolt was entirely spontaneous. Unfortunately virtually all the documentation from every possible source remains highly classified. I have argued that the circumstantial evidence points to a planned uprising by either the CIA or the Khampa leadership or both. »
Tibet Information Network, « Retrospective: Political Statements by the Panchen Lama », 1990-1991 « 87,000 people are reported to have been killed in the year after the Uprising for their involvement, according to a reported broadcast on Radio Lhasa in 1960. »
freetibet.org
Selon le site de Free Tibet Campaign et l'ancien site du Bureau du Tibet de Londres, ce sont 300 000 Tibétains qui sentourent le palais du dalaï-lama pour l'empêcher de partir et d'être enlevé ; cf. [1] : « On 10 March 1959, fearful that the Chinese intended to kidnap the Dalai Lama and take him to Beijing, 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Norbulinka palace. »
friendsoftibet.org
« Before the invasion… and after » : « According to a document captured by the guerrillas fighting the Chinese army, 87,000 deaths were recorded in Lhasa between March 1959 and September 1960. »
Jacques Chirac, Dans le temps présidentiel, 2e volume de ses mémoires, 2001 (livre électronique Google).
(en) Jamyang Norbu, « The Tibetan Resistance Movement and the role of the CIA », p. 186-196 dans Resistance and Reform in Tibet, éd. Robert Barnett, Shirin Akiner, 1994 : « Phala planned and organised the Dalai Lama's escape using Atha and Lhotse with their radio transmitter to keep the Americans informed of developments in the escape plan, and later during the actual escape itself / […] two Lithangwas - who had been parachuited near Samye some time before the outbreak of the revolt in Lhasa / […] agents the CIA had in Lhasa »
(en) Thomas Laird, The story of Tibet : conversations with the Dalai Lama, New York, Grove Press Distributed by Publishers Group West, (ISBN0-8021-1827-5, lire en ligne), p. 335 : « According to Chinese sources, the PLA killed 86000 Tibetans ».
Nicola Schneider, « From state feminism to individual projects: some theoretical and empirical reflections on female emancipation in Tibet : Presentation given at the IATS 2019, Paris (INALCO) », HAL Open Science, Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l'Asie Orientale, , p. 3 (lire en ligne)
Pierre Haski, journaliste à Libération, « Tibet. Le soutien ambigu des États-Unis au dalaï-lama », sur Rue89, nouvelobs.com, : « Dans les années 50, la CIA a secrètement appuyé une guerilla tibétaine pour s'opposer au pouvoir communiste chinois, aux débuts de la guerre froide. Une épopée méconnue, racontée dans un livre, Orphans of The Cold War (les orphelins de la guerre froide) de John Kenneth Knaus, un ancien de la CIA personnellement impliqué dans ce programme clandestin. Entre 1957 et 1961, les Américains ont entrainé des guerilleros tibétains dans les montagnes du Colorado, avant de les envoyer combattre les Chinois sur le « toit du monde ». Une base arrière avait même été installée au Népal ».
nytimes.com
query.nytimes.com
(en) « World News Briefs; Dalai Lama Group Says It Got Money From C.I.A. », The New York Times, October 2, 1998 : « The Dalai Lama's administration acknowledged today that it received $1.7 million a year in the 1960's from the Central Intelligence Agency, but denied reports that the Tibetan leader benefited personally from an annual subsidy of $180,000 ».
peopledaily.com.cn
english.peopledaily.com.cn
(en) « Tell you a true Tibet - How Does the 1959 Armed Rebellion Occur? », People's Daily Online, (lire en ligne).
, (Excerpts from Tibet - Its Ownership And Human Rights Situation published by the Information Office of the State Council of The People's Republic of China) : « On February 7, the Dalai Lama took the initiative and said to Deng Shaodong, deputy commander of the Tibet Military Area Command, and other officers, "I was told that after its return from studies in the hinterland, the Song and Dance Ensemble under the Tibet Military Area Command has a very good repetoire. I would like to see its show. Please arrange it for me." »
phayul.com
Claude Arpi, « We cleared the route for the Dalai Lama », 2 avril 2009 : « His Holiness stayed for one night there. At that time, you had CIA-trained radio operators? There were two men who were handling radio transmissions. They were Tibetans? Yes, they were Tibetans. (…) Everybody felt happy that His Holiness could get asylum in India. When we first reached India, there was fighting everywhere in Tibet. The only thought at that time was to seek more training and to get ammunition support and then to fight against the Chinese in Tibet. We had no other aim. Either through war or through dialogue, we had to seek independence. Our thoughts were very short-sighted that time. It is why, we started the [guerilla] Mustang Operation [in Nepal] and 22 Regiment [the Special Frontier Forces under the Government of India]. Almost 100 Tibetans were trained by CIA and parachuted into Tibet where the Tibetans were fighting. But because hundreds of thousands of Chinese had entered Tibet, the operation could not be sustained. »
(en) Gazeta Wyborcza, « Interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama », phayul.com, 12 avril 2007 : « The number of people killed in military action according to the report of one Chinese military official, was 87’000 just between March 1959 and September 1960, and that is only around Lhasa area. And Amdo, Kham are more populated. Some entire nomads' populations disappeared, included children. »
(en) Ngapoi Ngawang Jigmi, On the 1959 Armed Rebellion, dans China Report, August 1988, vol. 24, p. 377-382 : « (…) on the question of the 1959 armed rebellion, it is sometimes still claimed that an invitation to the Dalai Lama to attend a performance in the auditorium of the Tibetan Military Command was a 'plot' to 'kidnap' him and other Tibetan leaders and take them by plane to other parts of China, and that in these circumstances armed rebellion was justified as a way to protect him. This runs completely counter to the facts (…). I am an eyewitness to the events of 10 March 1959. It was actually the Dalai Lama himself who wanted to attend a performance at the auditorium of the military command ».
(en) A Great Deception: The Ruling Lamas' Policies, Western Shugden Society, 2010, 288 p., p. 159 : « Yet European visitors in Lhasa shortly after this ‘wanton destruction’ describe little damage to the city, the Potala, the monastery of Sera or the Norbulingka. Indeed, in 1962 the Gelders attended a holiday celebration in the grounds of the Norbulingka and reported no signs of serious damage. The book of their travels includes a photograph of one of them sitting on the steps of the Dalai Lama’s favourite residence in the palace, the Chensel Phodrang, with all its contents meticulously preserved. (Note 160 : Gelder, illustration facing 160) ».
(en) T. D. Allman, « A Myth foisted on the western world », Nation Review, (lire en ligne) : « The truth is that the Dalai Lama's departure from his own capital was engineered by the CIA American agents who flew air cover for the Dalai Lama's party, dropping supplies and money, and strafing Chinese positions. Color films of this operation were taken (…). This and other documentary evidence makes it clear that it was the Americans who wanted the Dalai Lama to leave Tibet, not the Chinese who wanted to dethrone him ».
On trouve 300 000 Tibétains sur l'ancien site du Bureau du Tibet de Londres, cf (en) History leading up to March 10th 1959, 1998, récupéré via wikiwix sur l'ancien site du Bureau du Tibet de Londres (tibet.com) : « The invitation provoked 300,000 loyal Tibetans to surround the Norbulinka palace, forming an human sea of protection for their Yeshe Norbu (nickname for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, meaning "Precious Jewel") ».
Michel Peissel, Les Cavaliers du Kham, guerre secrète au Tibet, Robert Laffont, Paris, 1972 (OCLC11833732)
xinhuanet.com
news.xinhuanet.com
(en) Ngapoi recalls the founding of the TAR, chinaview.cn, 2005-08-30 : « March 10, 1959 Armed rebellion broke out in Lhasa » (traduction : « la révolte armée du 10 mars 1959 éclata à Lhassa »).
