New Delhi: As Dalai Lama turns 86, let’s recall the special connection the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had with the Tibetan spiritual leader.
In March 1959 Tibet’s ruler and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled his homeland amid a deadly Chinese crackdown, escaping to India in a gruelling two-week trek. There he would form a government-in-exile and demand autonomy for Tibet.
Buddhist Tibet, a vast Himalayan area of plateaus and mountains, declared independence from China in the early 20th century. But China took back control in 1951, having sent in thousands of troops. Lhamo Dhondup, chosen at the age of two in 1937 as the 14th incarnation of Tibetan Buddhism’s supreme religious leader under the name Tenzin Gyatso, was enthroned as head of state after the Chinese invasion.
His co-existence with the Beijing authorities was tense and when the Chinese authorities summoned him to an event without his bodyguards on March 10, Tibetans feared a trap that could endanger their leader. Thousands assembled at his summer palace to prevent him from leaving; thousands more demonstrated in Lhasa to demand the Chinese depart, the Dalai Lama would later say. Beijing poured more troops into Tibet: as tensions mounted, they opened fire on 17 March, targeting and eventually razing the Dalai Lama’s palace.
The revolt was suppressed by 21 March, ending in a bloodbath. The government-in-exile later claimed the Chinese army killed tens of thousands.
Timeline:
- Planning a great escape, he left the palace dressed as a soldier and met up with a group of Tibetan resistance fighters 60 kilometres (37 miles) out of Lhasa. His entourage included his mother, sister, younger brother and several top officials. They travelled for two days and two nights without stopping, on foot and on horseback.
- The group then continued on foot, walking only at night through the harsh Himalayan terrain.
- On 31 March the Dalai Lama walked across the border into the Indian state of Assam. “The Dalai Lama entered India on 31 March in the evening,” Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announced on 3 April.
- In mid-April an official statement provided details of his escape. It denied a Chinese claim that he had been forced into exile. “The Dalai Lama wishes to categorically state that he left Lhasa and Tibet and came to India of his own free will and not by force”, it said.
- India granted the Tibet leader asylum on 3 April and permission to establish a government-in-exile in the northern hill station of Dharamsala, already a sanctuary for thousands of Tibetan exiles fleeing Chinese repression. From there he launched a campaign to reclaim Tibet, gradually easing this into an appeal for greater autonomy.
- Talks between the two sides failed, China adamantly rejecting any suggestion of Tibetan autonomy and blacklisting the Dalai Lama a dangerous “separatist”. Beijing continues to be accused of political and religious repression in the region, but insists Tibetans enjoy extensive freedoms and that it has brought economic growth.
- More than 150 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest against Beijing’s presence in Tibet, most of them dying. The Dalai Lama, who gave up his political role in 2011 but remains based in Dharamsala, has gained worldwide respect for his pacifist approach, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
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