1959 Tibetan Uprising

Tibetans slaughtered during Uprising

By the late 1950s it was clear to Tibetans that China had no intention of honouring a pledge made in 1951 to respect Tibetan autonomy. Tibetan resentment of China’s occupation simmered and it was clear that a revolt against Chinese rule was brewing.

On 10 March 1959, fearful that the Chinese intended to kidnap the Dalai Lama and take him to Beijing, 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Norbulinka palace. Over the next days the Uprising grew. On 12 March 5,000 Tibetan women marched through the streets of Lhasa holding aloft banners demanding Tibetan independence. Tension escalated further as Tibetans erected barricades in Lhasa’s streets whilst Chinese forces mounted machine-guns on Lhasa rooftops. It is estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 well-armed Chinese troops were in Lhasa while heavy Chinese artillery had been placed strategically outside the city.

On 19 March the Chinese started to shell Norbulingka, prompting the full force of the Uprising. On 21 March 800 shells rained down on the palace, slaughtering thousands of Tibetan men, women and children. Even the main monasteries - Drepung, Ganden and Sera - were shelled, destroying precious scriptures and other monastic treasures. Over a few days more than 86,000 Tibetans in central Tibet were killed by Chinese armed forces.

The Dalai Lama had fled Lhasa on 17 March disguised as a soldier. Writing decades later in his autobiography 'My Land and My People', he wrote: “The first thought in the mind of every official within the Palace….was that my life must be saved and I must leave the Palace and the city at once……Everything was uncertain, except the compelling anxiety of all my people to get me away before the orgy of Chinese destruction and massacre began”. After two weeks of perilous flight the Dalai Lama crossed the Indian border on 31 March. The Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, announced on 3 April that the Government of India had granted the Dalai Lama asylum.