Turning points in Modern Chinese-Tibetan Relations

1903 British invasion of Tibet. Troops under Colonel Younghusband force their way to Lhasa from India, ostensibly to open trade with the reluctant 13th Dalai Lama. The 13th Dalai Lama flees to Mongolia.

1910 In part in response to the British invasion, ~2000 Qing Chinese troops occupy Lhasa, the first imperial attempt to establish direct rule in Tibet. The 13th Dalai Lama flees to India.

1911 Collapse of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty in China.

1913 13th Dalai Lama returns to Lhasa. Sends all Chinese troops out of the city and declares independence from Republican China (the Guomindang, KMT/GMD).

1913-1950  Central Tibet under the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas' governments enjoys de facto independence. 

1949 People's Liberation Army (PLA) under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) win civil war against Republicans (KMT/GMD). CCP leaders call this the “liberation" of China and establish the People's Republic of China (PRC).

1950-51 PLA troops attack borders of central Tibet, Tibetans surrender and sign "17-Point Agreement," which acknowledged Chinese sovereignty and claimed Tibet would be protected from communist reforms.

1958-1959 Revolts in eastern Tibetan regions and in Lhasa against CCP-led reforms (land reform and collectivization) and flight of the 14th Dalai Lama to India. Thousands of lay and monastic Tibetans are arrested and imprisoned. Tens of thousands of Tibetans flee to exile in India. The Dalai Lama sets up the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE) in Dharamsala.

1960s-1970s The Great Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao Zedong across China, leads to factional violence in Tibetan regions and the destruction of most Tibetan Buddhist temples, pilgrimage sites and monasteries.

Mar. 1987-1989 Tibetan Buddhist monks' demonstration in Lhasa after Dalai Lama speech to US Congress committee begins series of protests and riots led by monks and nuns in Central Tibet.  Chinese security forces violently repress, imprison activists.

Feb/Mar 2008 During the run-up to the Beijing Olympics (August 2008), Tibetan monks and laity participate in unprecedently widespread unrest to protest deepening socioeconomic inequality across 4 provinces in China’s far west. A military crackdown ensues, along with de facto martial law.

March 2009 First self-immolation by fire protest by a young monk in Sichuan province, commemorating the protests and crackdown a year earlier. In 2011, more self-immolations by Tibetans begin an unprecedented series of such protests (159 by spring 2022, a few in the diaspora, the vast majority in the PRC).

2013 Rise to power of president Xi Jinping in the PRC and beginning of new era of increasingly authoritarian policies, as well as a renewed emphasis on cultural and political assimilation over constitutionally guaranteed minority region autonomous governance as the ideal strategy for dealing with restive minorities out west.