Tibet travel guide

First off, there are difficulties in defining what – or where – Tibet actually is. Geographically, it covers the Tibetan plateau and spans almost a quarter of China. Politically, the place defined as the “Tibet Autonomous Region” is a vast Chinese province, which includes just over half of the Tibetan plateau. Culturally, things get even more confusing, as China is incentivising Han Chinese to settle in Tibet. There are now more Chinese in Tibet than Tibetans, making them an ethnic minority in their own country. Conversely, many ethnic Tibetans now live in exile, meaning you can encounter Tibetan villages in Nepal and Bhutan. The history of Tibet, therefore, is just as much a history of a culture, as of a region.

The Tibetan plateau has been inhabited for thousands of years by farmers and pastoralists. This vast region was split into many kingdoms, but by the 7th century it became unified, and incredibly powerful – a civilisation to rival its imposing neighbours, India and China. Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in the 8th century AD, having travelled north from India, from where Tibet took much of its cultural and spiritual influence. Buddhism replaced the native Bon religion – a shamanistic practice based on the belief of good and evil spirits in nature – although many of the Bon beliefs were retained, creating a distinct form of Tibetan Buddhism.

In the 9th century, the Emperor Langdarma came to power. He was a follower of Bon, and rejected Buddhism, persecuting Buddhists across Tibet and leading to the religion’s decline for a century. By the 900s, Tibetan and Indian teachers and monks struggled to promote Buddhism, and founded some of the country’s greatest temples and monasteries, the most culturally significant being Sakya.

Tibet became fragmented again, divided into hostile states controlled by regional warlords, resulting in civil war. In the 1240s it became part of the great Mongol Empire, though was still granted autonomous rights. Although Tibet was declared a secular state for some time, great monasteries continued to be founded across the land, including Ganden and Drepung. By this time, Tibetan Buddhists had formed several distinct sects, and one of them, Gelug pa, managed to convert one of the Mongol tribes to Buddhism. The leader of Gelug pa, Sonan Gyats, was awarded the title Dalai Lama – although two previous leaders of the sect were also recognised, meaning that although he was the first to be called the Dalai Lama, he was in fact considered to be the third. The Dalai Lama became the Mongols’ spiritual advisor, while they in turn offered him protection. The Mongols continues to support successive Dalai Lamas, including throughout the civil wars of the 17th century, when they came out in support of the fifth Dalai Lama. With their support, he was declared Tibet’s spiritual leader and a kind of priest-king.

Scandal soon followed the fifth Dalai Lama’s death, as his second in command, Desi, hid the news of his death as well as of the child next in line to be the sixth Dalai Lama. When they discovered the truth, the angry Mongols killed Desi as well as the sixth Dalai Lama, claiming he was an impostor. They installed their own leader, who was in turn rejected by the Tibetan people, and Tibet became weakened by subsequent Mongol invasions – as well as by China, who sent their own troops in as they became aware of Tibet’s newfound fragility.

In the 1800s, a new empire threatened: the British. Already ruling India, the British were not keen to invade Tibet, but wanted to ensure it was not captured by the Russians. They began to secretly map the territory and forced Tibet to sign a treaty in 1904 which would prevent them from working with Russia. This led to a revolt by Tibetan lamas, who slaughtered Chinese officials, French missionaries and local Christian converts. China, concerned by the British influence in the region, invaded Tibet in 1909 and occupied parts of the country in 1913. The British and Chinese signed a tentative treaty which divided the country into Inner and Outer Tibet – with the Dalai Lama remaining the leader of Outer Tibet and the Chinese offered some control over Inner Tibet, without it actually becoming Chinese. The 13th Dalai Lama fled to China, Beijing claimed control over Tibet and the Chinese government began to integrate Tibet into China, destroying monasteries as they went.

The Chinese forces mutinied, the Dalai Lama returned, and despite being part of the Republic of China, Tibet enjoyed relative independence although it remained relatively cut off from the rest of the world. By 1949, however, the Tibetan government became concerned with the rise of communism in Russia and China and threw out any Chinese associated with the Chinese government. The newly appointed Chairman Mao Zedong was unsurprisingly displeased by this, and sent the People’s Liberation Army into Tibet. For the next decade, China continued to assert its power over Tibet, though it permitted it to continue functioning as a traditional Buddhist society. By 1956, Tibetans began to rebel, assisted by the CIA, who were keen to quash the spread of Communism. In turn, China received the backing and military equipment from the USSR. In 1959, the Lhasa Uprising saw Tibetans flood into the capital to protect the Dalai Lama against Chinese forces. The Dalai Lama then fled to India in fear of his life. There, he formed the Government of Tibet in Exile along with many followers who joined him as he left Tibet. He has not been able to return to his homeland since.

Now controlled by the Communist Party of China as the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), Tibet saw most of its 6,000 monasteries destroyed within the next three years, along with Buddhist sites. Secular education was introduced, and Tibetan culture and religion was all but forbidden. However, most countries recognise Tibet as part of China, and do not acknowledge the Government in Exile. There have been successive waves of riots and rebellion in Tibet, which are consistently crushed with increasing force by China. The Dalai Lama himself is committed to peaceful protest, which won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and the respect of many global leaders – but Tibet’s oppression continues, and if anything, is getting worse. Han Chinese now outnumber ethnic Tibetans, travel restrictions are becoming stricter, and any kind of freedom for the Tibetan people now looks further away than ever.