the dragon in the land of snows: A
History of Modern Tibet since 1947
by Tsering Shakya
Pimlico, #12.50
Perhaps the main lesson from this impressive book is the
exposure of Britain's role in the colonisation of Tibet by Communist China. When Britain left the Indian sub-continent in 1947 a number of issues were left unresolved - including the status of Tibet as a nation.
Three factors led to the assimilation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China: Tibet's innocence, China's ruthlessness and India's indifference. Tibet was in
a medieval cocoon when the
Chinese People's Liberation Army was planning the invasion in 1950. Tibet had only established diplomatic relations with its Himalayan neighbours - including British India - but these were vague and did not clearly establish Tibet's status as an independent nation.
Invading Tibet was a hugely challenging task for the Chinese as there was no Communist Party in Tibet, little sympathy for the cause and the terrain was vast and hostile. In order to succeed, the Chinese skilfully used a mixture of threats and false promises. Had the Chinese simply invaded, and had the Tibetans fought back with western support, it is unlikely that Tibet could have been conquered. By comparison, Taiwan would have been a much easier military target.
In 1950, Britain was virtually the only member of the United Nations who knew the intricacies of the Tibetan question, and when the hapless Tibetans approached this newly-established organisation for help, all members turned to Britain for advice. Instead of providing support and leadership for the Tibetan cause, Britain persuaded the key players - India and the United States - to ignore the issue and appease the Chinese. It was left to El Salvador to raise the Tibetan cause in the UN General Assembly.
The Tibetans, realising that they had been betrayed by the great powers, decided to follow Britain's advice and appease the Chinese. A 17-point agreement was signed between the two countries and Beijing promised Tibet full autonomy, religious freedom and a host of other
guarantees. These promises were
simply a manoeuvre to enable the Chinese to establish a foothold in hostile territory. Nine years later, the Dalai Lama fled to India and the systematic destruction of the Tibetan nation was able to begin.
The Dragon in the Land of Snows tells this story in fascinating detail and with great objectivity. Tibet can be described as one of the world's great unresolved conflicts, and Tsering Shakya's book is an important contribution to finding an eventual solution.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article