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British invasion of Tibet causes century of pain
No eyewitness to the barbarity of the British invaders into Tibet -- the roof of the world -- is alive after the bloody war. But the anguish lingers on the 100th anniversary of the invasion and occupation by the invading forces. At the Nalnying Monastery, Lama Qamba keeps a box of spent bullets. They were left by British invaders who looted the monastery situated in Kangmar County of the Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The 41-year-old head lama of the temple says the bullets which he collected in 1984, shall be kept and passed on from lamasery generation to serve as a reminder of the dark events of 1904. The monastery, which Qamba says boasts a history of some 12 centuries, was severely damaged during the British invasion led by Francis Young Husband in 1904, who marched his army over the border from India. Lamas in the Nalnying Monastery and residents in the neighborhood, - together with the people of the region - took up arms with Tibetan soldiers in attempt to repel the invaders at Gyangze, a county 10 kilometres from the monastery. The British had Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, in their sights..
The struggle to defend strategically important Gyangze, lasted from April to July. To ensure a clear transit, the invaders dispatched large numbers of infantry and cavalry one day in late June to assault the Nalnying Monastery, near which 300 Tibetan soldiers and 500 monks and local residents had constructed fortifications. Despite their bravery, the poorly armed Tibetan resistance was eventually overwhelmed. The aggressors burnt down the monastery's five-storey scripture hall, and its ruins today silently accuse the British of their barbarity. Qamba says 44 monks were killed in the battle. Bullet holes can still be clearly seen on the walls and wooden doors of monastery. Lama Qoinjor arrived at the Nalnying in 1984 and says he has heard many stories about the invasion from an 80-year-old lama. The one account which sticks in his mind is that of the arson attack by British troops on the five-storey scripture hall. "The scar is there and you cannot forget it," says 41-year-old Qoinjor. "It was a pity that so many scriptures and Buddha statues were lost in the war. And it took three years before the monastery had another hall built, but it could not afford the older one's magnificence. The new one is smaller, with only two storeys." There is no official lecture on the history of the monastery given to new lamas, Qoinjor says, but all the 20 lamas, old and young, know of the horror stories that took place a century ago. "Seeing the bullet holes and the ruins every day, a newcomer cannot help but asking why," Qoinjor says. Lamas in the temple hope more people become aware and remember the history of their monastery. They have proposed to the local government to declare the monastery a base for historical education for local students and youngsters. "No Tibetans, wherever he or she lives, should ever forget this period of history," says Qamba. Unforgotten history Several other temples were also assaulted and damaged by the British invaders, including Zeqen and Baiqoi monasteries in Gyangze. There are numerous stories about monks who rose up to fight against the invaders.
But he asks: "How can we forget such a mayhem unleashed on all Tibetans? As people who cherish the value of peace and tolerance, we can forgive the British, but forgetting the history would mean betrayal." To Zhandui, a researcher of Tibetan religion at the Beijing-based China Tibetology Centre (CTC), the trauma caused by the British invaders belongs to the whole world. He points out that not only Tibetans but people outside "the roof of the world" should remember the events of 1904. "As the world is still far from being peaceful, and interventionists still play Tibet like a card to serve their own good, it is quite necessary for the international community to remember the bloody British invasion and take a lesson from it," says the 39-year-old Tibetan scholar who was born and brought up in historical Gyangze. "The indelible record that a peace-loving oriental race was injured by a western power was actually a humiliation to all races," Zhandui says. Basang Wangdui, a researcher with the Academy of Social Sciences of Tibet Autonomous Region, notes that the British invasion, though disguised as "seeking negotiations on trade and so-called border problems with Tibetan authorities in Lhasa," was waged with the attempt to bring Tibet under its control and serve its strategic interest in its colonial competition with tsarist Russia. After the then British Empire forced open the door of China with its gunboats in the 1840s, and the Qing regime, the central ruler of China from 1644 to 1911, suffered continuous decline, Tibet, though isolated by its high altitude and adverse natural environment, could not escape falling prey to western colonists. Basang Wangdui points out that it was a plot by the British, who occupied much territory in south Asia, to strengthen its presence in central Asia by making Tibet a buffer zone. The British themselves made it known this was their contemptible scheme. In his book, "The Opening of Tibet'' published in 1906 by Doubleday, Page & Co, former Times special correspondent, Perceval Landon, clearly stated that the increasing Russian influence in Tibet made it imperative for Britain to take actions. Basang Wangdui observes that the wolf would always concoct a justified excuse for his malicious plan before he jumps on a lamb. "The Tibetans had encroached upon our territory in Sikkim, they had established a customs post and forbidden British subjects to pass their outposts there," said Perceval Landon in his report, referring to Tibetan shepherds who grazed their sheep in Gangba Zong, a Tibetan territory. Brutal aggression Following the deceitful excuse was a bare account on the real reason why British troops would invade Tibet. "These insults would never have given rise to the dispatch of an expedition if the Tibetans had not added injury to them by their dalliance with Russia. As it was, there was nothing else to do but intervene, and that speedily," wrote the reporter.
One legacy of the invasion, a worst consequence, researchers believe, is the so-called "Tibet issue" that gradually emerged. The British invasion, says Ngagwang Cering, a colleague of Basang Wangdui, planted the evil seeds of today's so-called Tibet issue. After studying historical documents, the Tibetan researcher and his colleagues found that there was no such a word as "independence" in the Tibetan vocabulary before the British invasion. "The concept of Tibet independence was nothing but a product of British scheme to alienate Tibet from China, and to serve the interest of the colonial empire which hoped at that time to put Tibet at its beck and call." Xu Tiebing, a professor of international relations with the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, says that while an Anglomaniac force was formed as a result of the Tibetan aristocrat class' disintegration after the British invasion, the British also began to advocate on the international stage so-called suzerain ties between the central government of Qing Dynasty and Tibet, aiming to deny the centuries-old sovereignty of China's central government over Tibet. Some Tibetan nobles were impressed by the power of guns and cannons from the war and began to turn to the British, seeking protection over their privileges and assets, Xu says. These Tibetan nobles gradually constituted to the force of the splittists who try to separate Tibet from China. At the same time, Xu notes, the power of the central government in Tibet was weakened or even crippled with the presence of the British influence after the invasion. The Tibet Viceroy sent by the Qing regime became an ornament without any influence in Tibet. But China's sovereignty over Tibet is never deniable, says Lobsang Dainzin, a Tibetan professor of the Beijing-based Central University of Ethnic Studies. When the British troops marched into Lhasa in August 1904 and forced the local Tibetan government to sign a treaty in September, the central government of the Qing Dynasty rejected and refused sign, which Losang Dainzin says, rendered the covenant illegal. However, the British invasion, which marked the beginning of foreign intervention into Tibet that never stopped in the following century, brought with it an evil consequence to the relationship between the central government of China and Tibet, says Xu Tiebing. Ngagwang Cering, a researcher with the regional Academy of Social Sciences, notes that the British incursion into Tibet and other Himalayan areas also caused border disputes with people who had enjoyed a peaceful living for centuries. So, Lobsang Dainzin echoes the view of CTC researcher Zhandui, that the whole world, not only Tibetans, should not forget the history of the British invasion. But it seems that none of those bullies in the colonial era and the interventionists in modern times have good recollections of this period of history. However, the events a century ago have become an unerasable memory to Zhandui. "I may not be able to tell detailed stories about it, but the history that took place a century ago will always be imprinted in my mind, as it has become part of my hometown like the Zongshan castle in Gyangze, which suffered a British assault during the invasion. As long as the castle stands there in serenity, it serves as a reminder to us." |
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