Tibetan space in Indo-Sino conflict

There is a saying that “wherever one feels happy, that place is your home”. In that spirit, India has been a second (spiritual) home for the Tibetans, who first came to exile-in-India in 1959, after the failed uprising against communist China’s Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA). Thousands of Tibetans followed His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal head[1] of Tibet, who has tried his level best to bring about a truce between the Tibetan government and communist China as per the 17-point agreement. The latter was signed by representatives of the Tibetan government, under duress, keeping in mind the large presence of military personnel of communist China inside Tibet. But it has failed because communist China acted against the principles of the agreement. The Indian government and its people have done the maximum compared to other nations, to help the Tibetans. His Holiness always describes Indians as the Guru and Tibetans as their student, because the rich Nalanda Buddhist tradition was introduced in Tibet by Śāntarakṣita, one of the top Nalanda scholars who was invited by the Tibetan emperor, more than a thousand years ago.

Tibet occupation was the precursor to the recent border tension between India and China, because it meant the peaceful India-Tibet border turned into the Sino-Indian border. Had Tibet been not occupied, India wouldn’t be sharing its border with China but with Tibet. And history tells us that Tibet has been a zone of peace and shared very good relations with India for centuries. In fact, for the Tibetans, pre-dominantly Buddhist people, a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to the holiest land of Bodhgaya where Buddha Shakyamuni attained enlightenment, is considered very significant from the religious point of view. Communist China’s strategy is to occupy the palm of the hand that is Tibet and extend the five fingers which are Ladakh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. The Chinese army entered Tibet promising to liberate Tibet from a feudal system and make Tibetans prosperous. Interestingly, Tibetans themselves helped the Chinese built a road linking China to Tibet and Tibetans were showered with silver coins. In the end, Chinese troops, trucks, tanks, machine guns came using the same link road and Tibet was occupied.

China always considers Tibet as one of the core issues marring the Sino-Indian bilateral relationship. Now, India should also consider Tibet as one of the core issues and resolve the Tibetan issue. The only long-term and permanent solution for the border disputes between the two big nations is to resolve the issue of Tibet and restore Tibet to its traditional status of peace zone. Tibetans have expressively made it clear that they do not want independence but a meaningful autonomy as per the Chinese Constitution. Historically, Tibet was an independent country and China’s own historical accounts are evidence, wherein they clearly mention three equally powerful emperors: the Tibetan emperor, the Chinese emperor and the Mongolian emperor.

But in the present reality, the common goal is more important than the individual states’ sovereignty. The European Union is a classic example. Hence, the Middle Way policy, which was propounded by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and supported by the majority of the Tibetans through a referendum, means foregoing both extremes, to restore the historical position of Tibet as an independent country and the current hard-line repressive policies of communist China under which Tibetans are immensely suffering. A middle way, where Tibetans are provided meaningful and genuine autonomy to preserve their rich cultural heritage, including their language; practice Tibetan Buddhism, which is the direct lineage of the ancient Nalanda tradition; and protect the Tibetan environment, which fulfils the interest not only of the six million Tibetans but of the whole world. The Tibetan plateau is called the Third Pole, particularly for the whole of Asia, as major rivers originate from Tibet. The Indian government should press China to resolve the Tibet issue through the Middle Way policy because the policy does not separate Tibet from mainland China and Tibet being an autonomous land is specified in the Chinese constitution.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, in his address to members of the United States Congress in Washington D.C. on 21st September 1987, proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan for Tibet:

1. Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace.
2. Abandonment of China's population transfer policy, that threatens the very existence of the Tibetans as a people.
3. Respect for the Tibetan people's fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms.
4. Restoration and protection of Tibet's natural environment and the abandonment of China's use of Tibet for the production of nuclear weapons and dumping of nuclear waste.
5. Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples.

His Holiness further elaborated on the last point of the Five-Point Peace Plan in his address to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 15 June 1988. In 1989, His Holiness was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet. Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace means a demilitarized zone, which implies no more confrontation between India and China on the border like it had been before the illegal occupation of Tibet.

There are many people who are curious as to why His Holiness has not made any statement on the ongoing border incursion from the Chinese army. In the watershed moment, in the year 2011, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama devolved full political authority to the elected political leader Dr. Lobsang Sangyay. Actually, since 2001 the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamsala already achieved an elected political leadership and His Holiness’s political position was one of being semi-retired. His Holiness had made it clear that whether the Dalai Lama institution should continue or not, is up to the Tibetan people and in any case, if the Dalai Lama institution is to continue, it will perform only a spiritual role.

Hence, the incumbent elected President of the CTA, Dr Lobsang Sangay, has regularly appeared whenever he is invited on different television news channels and has also put forward his views, on behalf of the Tibetan people, on the current border tension. Dr Sangay has said that for the past 70 years, Tibetans have been warning the world, particularly Tibet’s neighbouring countries, that what happened to Tibet can happen to others as well. But no one paid heed. Now the Chinese army incursions into India clearly shows that Tibetans were not wrong. It is very important to know Tibet’s history of occupation to understand China and its expansionist policy. Many Indian leaders, like the late Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, had said that China is India’s number one potential threat.

Unlike the past centuries, this 21st century should be a peaceful century where all the disputes are solved through the means of dialogue only. His Holiness the Dalai Lama time and again says that 21st century should be a century of dialogue. Hence, a dialogue is the only solution to the border tension between the two of the most populated countries of the world but at the same time, learning lessons from the Tibetan narrative, India should deploy her best forces and advance military ammunition to protect her sovereignty because China is not at all trustworthy.

[1] Voluntarily, Happily and Proudly retired in the year 2011.

{The author Tenzin Yangphel is a subject to the Government in Exile of Tibet at Dharamshala. He has completed his bachelor's in law from Delhi.}