Background Khoshut Khanate Tibet had been ruled by a joint Gelug Yellow Hat sect and Khoshut Khanate government since 1642. The Khoshut
Mongols were originally part of the
Oirats. The Khoshut chief Toro-Baikhu won a power struggle against his uterine brother Chöükür in 1630, after which he named himself "Dai Güshi"
Taiji. A few years later, the Gelug Yellow Hat sect's 5th Dalai Lama called him to come to their aid against
Choghtu Khong Tayiji, a
Khalkha Mongol khan who aided their rivals, the
Karmapa and
Bon sects. The Oirats had already supported the Gelug since 1616 so Güshi was able to utilize their religious affiliation as call to arms. Shortly following a visit to Tibet in 1635, Güshi led a 10,000 strong army into
Kokonor and killed Choghtu. In 1637, the 5th Dalai Lama bestowed upon Güshi the title of khan, the first non-
Genghisid Mongol to claim the title. A mass migration of 100,000 Oirats to Kokonor ensued. By 1642, Güshi had defeated the king of Beri,
Donyo Dorje, and the ruler of Tsangpa,
Karma Tenkyong, uniting Tibet under the Gelug. On 13 April 1642, The 5th Dalai Lama proclaimed Güshi the khan of Tibet on 13 April 1642. A governing body known as the Ganden Phodrang, named after the 5th Dalai Lama's residence in
Drepung Monastery, was set up as a Gelug led government of Tibet in 1642. However, there are various interpretations of the nature of the Khoshut Khanate's relationship with the government of Tibet under the Gelug. Some sources say that the khan had very little to do with the administration of Tibet and only maintained a
priest and patron relationship with the Dalai Lama. Other sources describe Mongol representatives of the khan in Tibet while he ruled in Kokonor and treated Tibet as a protectorate. One source states that Güshi sat on a lower level than the Dalai Lama during the enthronement ceremony in 1642 but the Dalai Lama was merely a figurehead until the death of the governor,
Sonam Rapten, in 1657. This is implied by descriptions in other sources of an increase in "day-to-day control of... his government" by the 5th Dalai Lama after the deaths of Sonam Rapten and Güshi. One interpretation describes the granting of all temporal powers over Tibet to the Dalai Lama, but he did not possess the power to actually administrate. An office called
desi was created to carry out government while the Dalai Lama was restricted to appealing the judicial decisions of the
desi, although eventually the Dalai Lama did assert his power over the government by appointing the
desi. In this interpretation, the Khoshut khans had no say in government until the coup of 1705–6. Another source claims that the
de facto administrator of civil affairs, Sonam Rapten, was selected by the khan while the Dalai Lama was relegated to religious affairs.
Relations with the early Qing dynasty painting of the 5th Dalai Lama meeting the
Shunzhi Emperor in Beijing, 1653. In 1653, the 5th Dalai Lama visited the Qing dynasty's
Shunzhi Emperor in
Beijing. According to Chinese sources, the emperor received the Dalai Lama in the South Park and gave him a seat and a feast. They Dalai Lama offered gifts involving local products. The visit was not characterized as a court summon. According to the autobiography of the 5th Dalai Lama, the emperor descended from his throne and took his hand. The Dalai Lama sat on a seat close to the emperor and at nearly the same height. The emperor requested the Dalai Lama drink first but they drank together after some deliberation. The emperor bestowed upon him gifts fit for a "Teacher of the Emperor". The Dalai Lama was "recognized as the spiritual authority of the Qing Empire". In 1674, the
Kangxi Emperor asked the Dalai Lama to send Mongol troops to help suppress
Wu Sangui's
Revolt of the Three Feudatories in
Yunnan. The Dalai Lama refused to send troops, and advised Kangxi to resolve the conflict in Yunnan by dividing China with Wu Sangui. The Dalai Lama openly professed neutrality but he exchanged gifts and letters with Wu Sangui during the war further deepening the Qing's suspicions and angering them against the Dalai Lama. This was a turning point for Kangxi, who began to deal with the Mongols directly, rather than through the Dalai Lama. In 1677, the Tibetan government formalized the frontier between Tibet and China with Kham ascribed to Tibet's authority. About this time, some
Dzungars informed Kangxi that the 5th Dalai Lama had long since died. He sent envoys to Lhasa to inquire. This prompted Sangye Gyatso to make
Tsangyang Gyatso, the
6th Dalai Lama, public. He was enthroned in 1697. Tsangyang Gyatso enjoyed a lifestyle that included drinking, the company of women, and writing poetry. In 1702, he refused to take the vows of a Buddhist monk. The regent, under pressure from Kangxi and Lhazang Khan of the Khoshut, resigned in 1703. The Qing came as patrons of the
Khoshut, liberators of Tibet from the Dzungar, and supporters of the Dalai Lama Kelzang Gyatso, but when they tried to replace the Khoshut as rulers of Kokonor and Tibet, they earned the resentment of the Khoshut and also the Tibetans of Kokonor. , a grandson of Güshi Khan, led a rebellion in 1723, when 200,000 Tibetans and Mongols attacked
Xining. The Qing called in troops from Sichuan and suppressed the rebellion in less than a year. Polhané blocked the rebels' retreat from Qing retaliation. The rebellion was brutally suppressed.
Green Standard Army troops were garrisoned at multiple places such as Lhasa, Batang, Dartsendo, Lhari, Chamdo, and Litang, throughout the Dzungar war. Green Standard troops and Manchu
Bannermen were both part of the Qing force that fought in Tibet in the war against the Dzungars. The Sichuan commander
Yue Zhongqi (a descendant of
Yue Fei) entered Lhasa first when the 2,000 Green Standard soldiers and 1,000 Manchu soldiers of the "Sichuan route" seized Lhasa. According to
Mark C. Elliott, after 1728 the Qing used Green Standard troops to man the garrison in Lhasa rather than Bannermen. According to Evelyn S. Rawski, both Green Standard Army and Bannermen made up the Qing garrison in Tibet. According to Sabine Dabringhaus, Green Standard Chinese soldiers numbering more than 1,300 were stationed by the Qing in Tibet to support the 3,000-strong Tibetan army.
1725-1761 The Kangxi Emperor was succeeded by the
Yongzheng Emperor in 1722. In 1725, amidst a series of Qing transitions reducing Qing forces in Tibet and consolidating control of Amdo and Kham, Kangchennas received the title of Prime Minister. The Emperor ordered the conversion of all
Nyingma to Gelug. This persecution created a rift between Polhanas, who had been a Nyingma monk, and Kangchennas. Both of these officials, who represented Qing interests, were opposed by the Lhasa nobility, who had been allied with the Dzungars and were anti-Qing. They killed Kangchennas and took control of Lhasa in 1727, and Polhanas fled to his native
Ngari. Polhanas gathered an army and retook Lhasa in July 1728 against opposition from the Lhasa nobility and their allies. The Qing made the region of Amdo into the province of
Qinghai in 1724, The Qing government sent a resident commissioner (
amban) to Lhasa. A stone monument regarding the boundary between Tibet and neighbouring Chinese provinces, agreed upon by Lhasa and Beijing in 1726, was placed atop a mountain, and survived into at least the 19th century. This boundary, which was used until 1865, delineated the Dri River in Kham as the frontier between Tibet and Qing China. Territory east of the boundary was governed by Tibetan chiefs who were answerable to China. Polhanas' son Gyurme Namgyal took over upon his father's death in 1747. The
ambans became convinced that he was going to lead a rebellion, so they assassinated him independently from Beijing's authority. The powers of the Qing ambans in Lhasa were greatly increased. The ambans by this time had a broad right of supervision on the actions of the government, although the Qianlong Emperor was later disappointed with their performance and decided to further enhance their status. He also used Tibetan Buddhist iconography to try and bolster support among Tibetans, whereby six
thangkas portrayed the Qing Emperor as
Manjuśrī and Tibetan records of the time referred to him by that name. The 7th Dalai Lama died in 1757. Afterwards, an assembly of lamas decided to institute the office of regent, to be held by an incarnate lama "until the new Dalai Lama attained his majority and could assume his official duties". The Seventh Demo,
Ngawang Jampel Delek Gyatso, was selected unanimously. The
8th Dalai Lama, Jamphel Gyatso, was born in 1758 in Tsang. The Panchen Lama helped in the identification process, while Jampal Gyatso was recognized in 1761, then brought to Lhasa for his enthronement, presided over by the Panchen Lama, in 1762.
1779-1793 In 1779, the 6th Panchen Lama, fluent also in
Hindi and
Persian and well disposed to both Catholic missionaries in Tibet and
East India Company agents in India, was invited to Peking for the celebration of the Emperor's 70th birthday. The "priest and patron" relationship between Tibet and Qing China was underscored by Emperor prostrating "to his spiritual father". In the final stages of his visit, after instructing the Emperor, the Panchen Lama contracted
smallpox and died in 1780 in Beijing. The following year, the 8th Dalai Lama assumed political power in Tibet. Problematic relations with Nepal led in 1788 to
Gorkha Kingdom invasions of Tibet, sent by
Bahadur Shah, the Regent of
Nepal. Again in 1791,
Shigatse was occupied by the Gorkas as was the great
Tashilhunpo Monastery, the seat of the Panchen Lamas which was sacked and destroyed. During the first incursion, the Qing Manchu
amban in Lhasa spirited away to safety both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, but otherwise made no attempt to defend the country, though urgent dispatches to Beijing warned that alien powers had designs on the region, and threatened Qing Manchu interests. At that time, the Qing army found that the Nepalese forces had melted away, and no fighting was necessary. After the second Gorka incursion in 1791, another force of Manchus and Mongols joined by a strong contingents of Tibetan soldiers (10,000 of 13,000) supplied by local chieftains, repelled the invasion and pursued the Gorkhas to the
Kathmandu Valley. Nepal conceded defeat and returned all the treasure they had plundered. The Qianlong emperor was disappointed with the results of his 1751 decree and the performance of the
ambans. Another decree followed, contained in the
29-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet of 1793. It was designed to enhance the
ambans' status, and ordered them to control border inspections, and serve as conduits through which the Dalai Lama and his cabinet were to communicate. Imperial China seized more power from the Tibetan authorities with each intervention on behalf of the Dalai Lama, and with this decree China created a much stricter form of
indirect rule in Lhasa. , 9th Dalai Lama, with lamas and monks, and
ambans inattendance, around 1808. The 29-article decree instituted the Golden Urn system which contradicted the traditional Tibetan method of locating and recognizing incarnate lamas. The same decree also elevated
ambans above the Kashag and above the regents in regards to Tibetan political affairs. The decree prohibited the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama from petitioning the Chinese Emperor directly whereas petitions were decreed to pass through the
ambans. The
ambans were to take control of Tibetan frontier defense and foreign affairs. Tibetan authorities' foreign correspondence, even with the Mongols of Kokonor (present-day Qinghai), were to be approved by the
ambans, whom were decreed as commanders of the Qing garrison, and the Tibetan army whose strength was set at 3000 men. Trade was also decreed as restricted and travel documents were to be issued by the
ambans. The
ambans were to review all judicial decisions. The Tibetan currency, which had been the source of trouble with Nepal, was to be taken under Beijing's supervision. The 29-article decree also controlled the traditional methods used to recognize and enthrone both the incarnate Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, by means of a lottery administered by the
ambans in Lhasa. The Emperor wanted to control the recognition process of incarnate lamas because the Gelug school of the Dalai Lamas was the official religion of his Qing court. Another purpose was to have the Mongol grand-lama Qubilγan found in Tibet rather than from the
descendants of Genghis Khan. With the decreed lottery system, the names of candidates were written on folded slips of paper which were placed in a golden urn (Mongol
altan bumba; Tibetan
gser bum:Chinese
jīnpíng:金瓶). According to Warren Smith, the 29-article decree's directives were either never fully implemented, or quickly discarded, as the Qing were more interested in a symbolic gesture of authority than actual sovereignty; the relationship between Qing and Tibet was one between states, or between an empire and a semi-autonomous state. However,
Elliot Sperling states that the subordination place of Tibet within the Qing Empire by this time was beyond dispute. Despite this attempt to further control Tibet's secular and spiritual ruling classes, the Emperor's urn was not always used or politely ignored in such cases. The Tibetans left some question regarding the urn's usage to highlight Tibetan autonomy when the Qing powers were strong, but Qing emperors had the final say in recognizing new incarnations through the system of the Golden Urn. At times, the selection was approved after the fact by the Emperor. The Emperor's urn was formally used at other times, and there was suggestion that the Tibetans were more willing to employ the urn to maintain a semblance of Qing's protection when the imperial power was weaker. The 11th Dalai Lama was selected by the Golden Urn method. While the 12th Dalai Lama was recognized by traditional Tibetan methods, he was confirmed by the urn. There was an open pretense that the urn was used for the 10th Dalai Lama, when it was actually not used.
19th century The Qing government was alarmed by the British defeat of Nepal in the
Anglo-Nepalese War and the re-establishment of a British resident in Nepal's capital
Kathmandu because the Nepalese, in an effort to obtain aids from Qing China, gave false information to the Qing government, claiming that the British demanded free passage through Nepalese territory to Tibet and that they were ordering Nepal to transfer her tribute from China to the
Indian government (then under the
British East India Company). In order to learn more about what had occurred, Qing China dispatched an imperial high commissioner to Tibet in charge of a small military force. When the Qing imperial commissioner discovered the truth, he declined to aid Nepal and instead restricted himself to expressing his desire that the Indian government could decide it was time to withdraw its resident from Kathmandu. The Qing imperial commissioner let the matter go and left for China proper in 1817 after the British said they would do so if China sent a resident to Nepal to stop Anglo-Nepalese tensions. In 1837, a minor Kham chieftain
Gompo Namgyal, of
Nyarong, began expanding his control regionally and launched offensives against the
Hor States,
Chiefdom of Lithang,
Kingdom of Derge, the
Kingdom of Chakla and
Chiefdom of Bathang, Qing China sent troops in against Namgyal in 1849 but the campaign was unsuccessful. In the
Treaty of Thapathali signed in 1856 that concluded the
Nepalese-Tibetan War, Tibet and Nepal agreed to "regard the Chinese Emperor as heretofore with respect." Michael van Walt van Praag, legal advisor to the
14th Dalai Lama, claims that 1856 treaty provided for a Nepalese mission, namely
Vakil, in Lhasa which later allowed Nepal to claim a diplomatic relationship with Tibet in its application for United Nations membership in 1949. However, the status of Nepalese mission as
diplomatic is disputed and the Nepalese
Vakils stayed in Tibet until the 1960s when Tibet had been annexed by the People's Republic of China for more than a decade. In 1841, the
Hindu Dogra dynasty attempted to establish their authority on
Ü-Tsang but were defeated in the
Sino-Sikh War (1841–1842). In the mid-19th century, arriving with an
amban, a community of Chinese troops from Sichuan that had married Tibetan women settled down in the Lubu neighborhood of Lhasa, where their descendants established a community and assimilated into Tibetan culture. Another community, Hebalin, was where Chinese Muslim troops and their wives and offspring lived. In 1879, the 13th Dalai Lama was enthroned, but did not assume full temporal control until 1895, after the
National Assembly of the Tibetan Government (tshongs 'du rgyas 'dzom) unanimously called for him to assume power. Before that time, the
British Empire increased their interest in Tibet, and a number of Indians entered the region, first as explorers and then as traders. The British sent a mission with a military escort through Sikkim in 1885, whose entry was refused by Tibet and the British withdrew. Tibet then organized an army to be stationed at the border, led by Dapon Lhading (mda' dpon lha sding, d.u.) and Tsedron Sonam Gyeltsen (rtse mgron bsod nams rgyal mtshan, d.u.) with soldiers from southern
Kongpo and those from Kham's
Drakyab. At a pass between Sikkim and Tibet, which Tibet considered a part of Tibet, the British attacked in 1888. Following the attack, the British and Chinese signed the 1890
Anglo-Chinese Convention Relating to Sikkim and Tibet, which Tibet disregarded as it did "all agreements signed between China and Britain regarding Tibet, taking the position that it was for Lhasa alone to negotiate with foreign powers on Tibet's behalf". Qing China and Britain had also concluded an earlier treaty in 1886, the "Convention Relating to Burmah and Thibet" as well as a later treaty in 1893. Regardless of those treaties, Tibet continued to bar British envoys from its territory. Then in 1896, the Qing Governor of Sichuan attempted to gain control of the Nyarong valley in Kham during a military attack led by
Zhou Wanshun. The Dalai Lama circumvented the
amban and a secret mission led by Sherab Chonpel (shes rab chos 'phel, d.u.) was sent directly to Beijing with a demand for the withdrawal of Chinese forces. The Qing Guangxu Emperor agreed, and the "territory was returned to the direct rule of Lhasa". Before the British invasion force arrived in Lhasa, the 13th Dalai Lama escaped to seek alliances for Tibet. The Dalai Lama travelled first to Mongolia and requested help from Russia against China and Britain, and learned in 1907 that Britain and Russia signed a non-interference in Tibet agreement. This essentially removed Tibet from the so-called "Great Game". The Dalai Lama received a dispatch from Lhasa, and was about to return there from Amdo in the summer of 1908 when he decided to go Beijing instead, where he was received with a ceremony appropriately "accorded to any independent sovereign", as witnessed by U.S. Ambassador to China William Rockwell. The Anglo-Tibetan treaty was followed by a 1906
Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting Tibet, by which the "Government of Great Britain engages not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration of Tibet. The Government of China also undertakes not to permit any other foreign State to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet." Moreover, Beijing agreed to pay London 2.5 million rupees which Lhasa was forced to agree upon in the Anglo-Tibetan treaty of 1904. As the Dalai Lama had learned during his travels for support, in 1907 Britain and Russia agreed that in "conformity with the admitted principle of the 1904
suzerainty of China over Tibet", (from 1904), both nations "engage not to enter into negotiations with Tibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese Government." led to an uprising by monks at a Batang monastery in the Chiefdom of Batang. The British invasion through Sikkim triggered a Khampa reaction, where chieftains attacked and French missionaries, Manchu and Han Qing officials, and Christian converts were killed. French Catholic missionaries Père Pierre-Marie Bourdonnec and Père Jules Dubernard were killed around the
Mekong. In response, Beijing appointed army commander
Zhao Erfeng, the Governor of
Xining, to "reintegrate" Tibet into China. Known of as "the Butcher of Kham" on a
punitive expedition. His troops executed monks destroyed a number of monasteries in Kham and
Amdo, and an early form of "sinicization" of the region began. Later, around the time of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, Zhao's soldiers mutinied and beheaded him.
Program of integration of Tibet to the rest of China (1905–1911) From 1905, China temporarily took back the control of Tibet as suzerain power, until the
1911 Revolution which marked the collapse of the Qing Empire and the installation of the
Republic of China. After obtaining the departure of the British troops in return for an indemnity payment, the Qing dynasty, although weakened, decided to play a more active role in the conduct of Tibetan affairs. To preserve its interests, it implemented, from 1905 to 1911, a program of integration of Tibet to the rest of China at the political, economic and cultural levels. Plans were laid to build a railway line connecting Sichuan to Tibet, to form an army of six thousand men and to secularise the Tibetan government by creating non-ecclesiastical governmental commissions. A mint was to be established, roads and telephone lines were to be built and local resources were to be exploited. In Lhasa, a Chinese school opened in 1907 and a military college in 1908. A Chinese postal service with five post offices was established in central Tibet and the first stamps were issued (with inscriptions in Chinese and Tibetan). In 1909, a bilingual newspaper, the
Vernacular newspaper of Tibet, the first of its kind, was printed in Lhasa on presses imported from Calcutta. It appeared every ten days and each issue was printed in 300 or 400 copies. Its objective, at the same time educational and of propaganda, was to facilitate the administrative reforms engaged by Lian Yu and Zhang Yintang. This program was however reduced to nothing by the outbreak of the 1911 Revolution, the collapse of the Qing empire and the elimination of Chao Ehr-feng. For Hsaio-ting Lin, the series of reforms initiated by Chao Ehr-feng can be seen as the first attempt at state-building by modern China in its southwestern marches. Before the collapse of the Qing Empire, the Swedish explorer
Sven Hedin returned in 1909 from a three-year-long expedition to Tibet, having mapped and described a large part of inner Tibet. During his travels, he visited the 9th Panchen Lama. For some of the time, Hedin had to camouflage himself as a Tibetan shepherd (because he was European). In an interview following a meeting with the Russian czar he described the situation in 1909 as follows: "Currently, Tibet is in the cramp-like hands of China's government. The Chinese realize that if they leave Tibet for the Europeans, it will end its isolation in the East. That is why the Chinese prevent those who wish to enter Tibet. The Dalai Lama is currently also in the hands of the Chinese Government"... "Mongols are fanatics. They adore the Dalai Lama and obey him blindly. If he tomorrow orders them go to war against the Chinese, if he urges them to a bloody revolution, they will all like one man follow him as their ruler. China's government, which fears the Mongols, hooks on to the Dalai Lama."... "There is calm in Tibet. No ferment of any kind is perceptible" (translated from Swedish).
Qing collapse and Tibet independence In February 1910, the Qing General sent another army to Tibet during
its attempt to establish direct rule. After the Dalai Lama was told he was to be "arrested", he escaped from Lhasa to India and remained for three months. Reports arrived of Lhasa's sacking, and the arrests of government officials. He was later informed by letter that Qing China had "deposed" him. After the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet at a location outside of Lhasa, the collapse of the Qing dynasty began due to the
Wuchang Uprising in October 1911. After the Xinhai Lhasa turmoil the Qing
amban submitted a formal letter of surrender to the Dalai Lama in the summer of 1912. On 13 February 1913, the Dalai Lama declared Tibet an independent state, and announced that what he described as the historic "
priest and patron relationship" with China had ended. The
amban and China's military were expelled, and all Chinese residents in Tibet were given a required departure limit of three years. All remaining Qing forces left Tibet by 1913. ==See also==