Himalayan Times (1950)

Eight ^imaliwan mmti Julv 16- 1950

internal administration. Hut thu real
purpose ct' British imperialism was to
keep China out of Tibet su that it itself
could sneak in.

As the British troops withdrew
alter four years, Chinese • forces crossed
the border into Tibet in 1909. The 13th
Dalai Lama, the then ruler of Tibet,
tied to Darjeeling In 1911, however
history look a significant turn in China
with the fall 'of the Manchu Dynasty
and the rise of Sun Yat-scn. The 13th
Dalai Lama, linding conditions favourable,
returner] to Lhasa in 1912 He had
no reason to be favourably disposed to
the Panehen Lama who had ruled the
roo.st during his absence and was looked
upon with suspicion for his association
with the Chinese. The Panchon Lama
ultimately left Tibet for China in 1923
where be died in 1937.

During all these years, though the
Chinese lost effective control over Central
Tibet, the eastern parts of Tibet, were
incorpcrated into China's westernmost
province, thus creating two new adminis-
trative units of Sikang in the south-east
and Tsinghai in the northeast with about
20 lakhs of Tibetans living in this area.

In 1914, efforts were made for an
understanding between the British, the
Tibetans and the Chinese out of which
came the Simla Agreement which, however,
was later repudiated by China. But in
1921. the then British Foreign Secretary
Lord Curzon, informed Dr. Wellington
Koo, then Foreign Minister of China,
that henceforward Britian would regard
Tibet as an autonomous part of China.
This amount of concession to China was
agreed upon by the British after their
pressure tactics and military forces had
extracted considerable commercial and
territorial rights from the mainland of
China.

Lama-duel

The Dalai Lame XII1 was a crafty
fellow. He never concealed his pio-Btjtish
sentiment anil wrote to Briusli represen-
tative in 1922 that the British and the
Tibetans had indeed become members
of one family. Against this aspejt of
iibetan policy were pitied I'.incuen Lama
and his followers who continued to restore
Tibetan autonomy under China. After
his escape to China in 1923, the Panehen
Lamas continued living in China.

While the Dalai Lama XIII died
in 1933, the Panehen died in 1937. The
Dalai Lama was reincarnated in a 14-year
old boy (uow Dalai Lama XrVI) it/whose
name a regency of four ministers current-
ly rules 'libet.

The reincarnation of the Panehen
Lama was discovered in 1941 in a peasant
boy at a village some 100 miles from
Sining, the capital of Tsinghai. Now about
13 years old, he is the Panehen Lama
(the tenth reincarnation of Lord Buddha)
living in the Kumhum Lamaserie in the
sacred city of Thar Sze, situated in the mi-
dst of the towering mountains of Tsinghai.
To the Golden Temples of~ Thar Sze
thousands of Tibetans make) arduous
pilgrimage every year in recognition of
the holy personage of the Panehen Lama.

But tfhen the British 'had never
left Tibet alone. As late as 1943, British
Foreign Secretary Mr. Anthony Eden
told Mr. T. V. Soong of China in course
of a memorandum that Britain .accepted
China's suzerainty over Tibet if China
^respected her autonomy. By another
proposal, however, Britain asked China
riot to compete with British influence
in Central Tibet. Virtually speaking it
was a proposal for a partition of Tibet
with China getting only the eastern
portion.