Early history , the first
Tirthankara of
Jainism, is considered to have attained
nirvana near
Mount Kailash in Tibet in Jain tradition. Humans inhabited the Tibetan Plateau at least 21,000 years ago. This population was largely replaced around 3,000
BP by
Neolithic immigrants from northern China, but there is a partial genetic continuity between the Paleolithic inhabitants and contemporary Tibetan populations. Zhang Zhung is considered to be the original home of the
Bön religion. By the 1st century BCE, a neighboring kingdom arose in the
Yarlung valley, and the Yarlung king,
Drigum Tsenpo, attempted to remove the influence of the Zhang Zhung by expelling the Zhang's Bön priests from Yarlung. He was assassinated and Zhang Zhung continued its dominance of the region until it was annexed by Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. Prior to
Songtsen Gampo, the kings of Tibet were more mythological than factual, and there is insufficient evidence of their existence.
Tibetan Empire In the 6th century, the king,
Namri Songtsen, began to annex neighboring tribes by force, he was later murdered, and his son
Songtsen Gampo succeeded him and quelled rebellions in various regions. Songtsen Gampo inherited his father's will and successively conquered and annexed other countries such as "Songbo" in the
Yushu area of
Qinghai,
Sumpa in the west, "
Kangguo" (called "Dongnwu Kingdom" in the
Old Book of Tang) in Qianduo (now
Chamdo), "Fuguo (Chinese:附国)" in
Ganzi, "Fanlu (Chinese:蕃绿)" in
Litang, and
Tuyuhun in Qinghai. Songtsen Gampo also led a large army to attack
Zhangzhung in 642. It took him three years to conquer Zhangzhung and sent
Khyungpo Pungse Sutse as the governor of Zhangzhung. Zhangzhung then became a vassal state of the Tibetan Empire. Songtsen Gampo also brought in many reforms, and Tibetan power spread rapidly, creating a large and powerful empire. It is traditionally considered that his first wife was the Princess of Nepal,
Bhrikuti, and that she played a great role in the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet. In 640, he married
Princess Wencheng, the niece of the Chinese emperor
Taizong of Tang China. Under the next few Tibetan kings, Buddhism became established as the state religion and Tibetan power increased even further over large areas of
Central Asia, while major inroads were made into Chinese territory, even reaching the
Tang's capital
Chang'an (modern
Xi'an) in late 763. However, the Tibetan occupation of Chang'an only lasted for fifteen days, after which they were defeated by Tang and its ally, the Turkic
Uyghur Khaganate. The
Kingdom of Nanzhao (in
Yunnan and neighbouring regions) remained under Tibetan control from 750 to 794, when they turned on their Tibetan overlords and helped the Chinese inflict a serious defeat on the Tibetans. In 747, the hold of Tibet was loosened by the campaign of general
Gao Xianzhi, who tried to re-open the direct communications between Central Asia and
Kashmir. By 750, the Tibetans had lost almost all of their central Asian possessions to the
Chinese. However, after Gao Xianzhi's defeat by the
Arabs and
Qarluqs at the
Battle of Talas (751) and the subsequent
civil war known as the
An Lushan Rebellion (755), Chinese influence decreased rapidly and Tibetan influence resumed. At its height in the 780s to 790s, the Tibetan Empire reached its highest glory when it ruled and controlled a territory stretching from modern-day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. In 821/822CE, Tibet and China signed a peace treaty. A bilingual account of this treaty, including details of the borders between the two countries, is inscribed on a
stone pillar which stands outside the
Jokhang temple in Lhasa. Tibet continued as a Central Asian empire until the mid-9th century, when a civil war over succession led to the collapse of imperial Tibet. The period that followed is known traditionally as the
Era of Fragmentation, when political control over Tibet became divided between regional warlords and tribes with no dominant centralized authority. An
Islamic invasion from Bengal took place in 1206.
Yuan dynasty The Mongol
Yuan dynasty, through the
Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, or Xuanzheng Yuan, ruled Tibet through a top-level administrative department. One of the department's purposes was to select a
dpon-chen ("great administrator"), usually appointed by the lama and confirmed by the Mongol emperor in Beijing. The
Sakya lama retained a degree of autonomy, acting as the political authority of the region, while the
dpon-chen held administrative and military power. Mongol rule of Tibet remained separate from the main provinces of China, but the region existed
under the administration of the Yuan dynasty. If the Sakya lama ever came into conflict with the
dpon-chen, the
dpon-chen had the authority to send Chinese troops into the region. rule over the region, reinforced by the rare military intervention. This existed as a "
diarchic structure" under the Yuan emperor, with power primarily in favor of the Mongols. Following the uprising, Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen founded the
Phagmodrupa dynasty, and sought to reduce Yuan influences over Tibetan culture and politics.
Phagmodrupa, Rinpungpa and Tsangpa dynasties Between 1346 and 1354, Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen toppled the Sakya and founded the Phagmodrupa dynasty. The following 80 years saw the founding of the
Gelug school (also known as Yellow Hats) by the disciples of
Je Tsongkhapa, and the founding of the important
Ganden,
Drepung and
Sera monasteries near Lhasa. However, internal strife within the dynasty and the strong localism of the various fiefs and political-religious factions led to a long series of internal conflicts. The minister family
Rinpungpa, based in
Tsang (West Central Tibet), dominated politics after 1435. In 1565 they were overthrown by the
Tsangpa dynasty of
Shigatse which expanded its power in different directions of Tibet in the following decades and favoured the
Karma Kagyu sect.
Rise of Ganden Phodrang and Buddhist Gelug school In 1578,
Altan Khan of the
Tümed Mongols gave
Sonam Gyatso, a high lama of the Gelugpa school, the name
Dalai Lama,
Dalai being the Mongolian translation of the Tibetan name
Gyatso "Ocean". The
5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682) is known for unifying the Tibetan heartland under the control of the
Gelug school of
Tibetan Buddhism, after defeating the rival
Kagyu and
Jonang sects and the secular ruler, the
Tsangpa prince, in a prolonged civil war. His efforts were successful in part because of aid from
Güshi Khan, the
Oirat leader of the
Khoshut Khanate. With Güshi Khan as a largely uninvolved overlord, the 5th Dalai Lama and his intimates established a civil administration which is referred to by historians as the
Lhasa state. This Tibetan regime or government is also referred to as the
Ganden Phodrang.
Qing dynasty Qing dynasty rule in Tibet began with their
1720 expedition to the country when they expelled the invading
Dzungars.
Amdo came under Qing control in 1724, and eastern
Kham was incorporated into neighbouring Chinese provinces in 1728. Meanwhile, the Qing government sent resident commissioners called
Ambans to Lhasa. In 1750, the Ambans and the majority of the
Han Chinese and
Manchus living in Lhasa were killed in
a riot, and Qing troops arrived quickly and suppressed the rebels in the next year. Like the preceding Yuan dynasty, the Manchus of the Qing dynasty exerted military and administrative control of the region, while granting it a degree of political autonomy. The Qing commander publicly executed a number of supporters of the rebels and, as in 1723 and 1728, made changes in the political structure and drew up a formal organization plan. The Qing now restored the Dalai Lama as ruler, leading the governing council called
Kashag, but elevated the role of
Ambans to include more direct involvement in Tibetan internal affairs. At the same time, the Qing took steps to counterbalance the power of the aristocracy by adding officials recruited from the clergy to key posts. For several decades, peace reigned in Tibet, but in 1792, the Qing
Qianlong Emperor sent
a large Chinese army into Tibet to push the invading
Nepalese out. This prompted yet another Qing reorganization of the Tibetan government, this time through a written plan called the "Twenty-Nine Regulations for Better Government in Tibet". Qing military garrisons staffed with Qing troops were now also established near the Nepalese border. Tibet was dominated by the Manchus in various stages in the 18th century, and the years immediately following the 1792 regulations were the peak of the Qing imperial commissioners' authority; but there was no attempt to make Tibet a Chinese province. In 1834, the
Sikh Empire invaded and annexed
Ladakh, a culturally Tibetan region that was an independent kingdom at the time. Seven years later, a Sikh army led by
General Zorawar Singh invaded western Tibet from Ladakh, starting the
Sino-Sikh War. A Qing-Tibetan army repelled the invaders but was in turn defeated when it chased the Sikhs into Ladakh. The war ended with the signing of the
Treaty of Chushul between the Chinese and Sikh empires. , a Buddhist temple complex in
Chengde, Hebei, built between 1767 and 1771. The temple was modeled after the
Potala Palace. As the Qing dynasty weakened, its authority over Tibet also gradually declined, and by the mid-19th century, its influence was minuscule. Qing authority over Tibet had become more symbolic than real by the late 19th century, although in the 1860s, the Tibetans still chose for reasons of their own to emphasize the empire's symbolic authority and make it seem substantial. In 1774, a
Scottish nobleman,
George Bogle, travelled to
Shigatse to investigate prospects of trade for the
East India Company. His efforts, while largely unsuccessful, established permanent contact between Tibet and the
Western world. However, in the 19th century, tensions between foreign powers and Tibet increased. The
British Empire was expanding its
territories in India into the
Himalayas, while the
Emirate of Afghanistan and the
Russian Empire were both doing likewise in
Central Asia. In 1904, a
British expedition to Tibet, spurred in part by a fear that
Russia was extending its power into Tibet as part of
the Great Game, was launched. Although the expedition initially set out with the stated purpose of resolving border disputes between Tibet and
Sikkim, it quickly turned into a military invasion. The British expeditionary force, consisting of
mostly Indian troops, quickly invaded and captured Lhasa, with the
Dalai Lama fleeing to the countryside. Afterwards, the leader of the expedition,
Sir Francis Younghusband, negotiated the
Convention Between Great Britain and Tibet with the Tibetans, which guaranteed the British great economic influence but ensured the region
remained under Chinese control. The Qing imperial resident, known as the
Amban, publicly repudiated the treaty, while the British government, eager for friendly relations with China, negotiated a new treaty two years later known as the
Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting Tibet. The British agreed not to annex or interfere in Tibet in return for an indemnity from the Chinese government, while China agreed not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet.
Post-Qing period , an
outcast group, early 20th century. Their hereditary occupation included disposal of corpses and leather work. After the
Xinhai Revolution (1911–1912) toppled the Qing dynasty and the last Qing troops were escorted out of Tibet, the new
Republic of China apologized for the actions of the Qing and offered to restore the Dalai Lama's title. The Dalai Lama refused any Chinese title and declared himself ruler of an
independent Tibet. In 1913, Tibet and
Outer Mongolia concluded
a treaty of mutual recognition. The ROC continued to view the former Qing territory as its own, including Tibet. For the next 36 years, the 13th Dalai Lama and the
regents who succeeded him governed Tibet. During this time, Tibet fought Chinese warlords for control of the ethnically Tibetan areas in
Xikang and
Qinghai (parts of Kham and Amdo) along the upper reaches of the
Yangtze River. In 1914, the Tibetan government signed the
Simla Convention with Britain, which recognized Chinese suzerainty over Tibet in return for a border settlement. China refused to sign the convention. Tibet continued to lack clear boundaries or international recognition of its status. On December 20, 1941, Kuomintang leader
Chiang Kai-Shek noted in his diary that Tibet would be among the territories which he would demand as restitution for China following the conclusion of World War II.
Since 1950 , 2010. Emerging with control over most of
mainland China after the
Chinese Civil War, the
People's Republic of China annexed Tibet in 1950 and negotiated the
Seventeen Point Agreement with the newly enthroned
14th Dalai Lama's government, affirming the People's Republic of China's sovereignty but granting the area autonomy. Subsequently, on his journey into exile, the 14th Dalai Lama completely repudiated the agreement, which he has repeated on many occasions. According to the
CIA, the Chinese used the Dalai Lama to gain control of the military's training and actions. The Dalai Lama had a strong following as many people from Tibet looked at him not just as their political leader, but as their spiritual leader. After the Dalai Lama's government fled to
Dharamsala, India, during the
1959 Tibetan Rebellion, it established a
rival government-in-exile. Afterwards, the
Central People's Government in Beijing renounced the agreement and began implementation of the halted social and political reforms. During the
Great Leap Forward, over 200,000 Tibetans may have died and approximately 6,000 monasteries were destroyed during the
Cultural Revolution—destroying the vast majority of historic Tibetan architecture. In 1980, General Secretary and reformist
Hu Yaobang visited Tibet and ushered in a period of social, political, and
economic liberalization. Human rights organisations have been critical of the Beijing and Lhasa governments' approach to
human rights in the region when cracking down on separatist convulsions that have occurred around monasteries and cities, most recently in the
2008 Tibetan unrest. The central region of Tibet is now an
autonomous region within China, the
Tibet Autonomous Region. The Tibet Autonomous Region is a province-level entity of the People's Republic of China. It is governed by a People's Government, led by a chairman. In practice, however, the chairman is subordinate to the branch secretary of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 2010, it was reported that, as a matter of convention, the chairman had almost always been an ethnic Tibetan, while the party secretary had always been ethnically non-Tibetan. == Geography ==