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Some Thoughts on the Current State of Sino-Tibetan Historiography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

A. Tom Grunfeld
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Extract

Dawa Norbu's contribution to these pages (“The 1959 Tibetan Rebellion: An Interpretation,” The China Quarterly, No. 77, March 1979, 74–93) bears a significance beyond its purely academic insights and its subsequent expansion of our knowledge of a major event in Sino-Tibetan history. Mr Norbu's presence among the scholarly ranks represents a noteworthy turning-point in the direction the historiography of this field of study is heading and consequently how future scholars will view Sino-Tibetan history. Before commenting directly on his article, I would like to make some observations on the state of the discipline itself.

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The China Quarterly , Volume 83 , September 1980 , pp. 568 - 576
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Copyright © The China Quarterly 1980

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References

1. For a wealthy refugee's view of old Tibet see Taring, Rinchen Dolma, Daughter of Tibet (London: John Murray, 1970)Google Scholar: “ It is interesting that the people were so contented… ” (p. 8), “… but most of the people were smiling, content, honest, and loyal” (p. 9). “ In Tibet everything was done alike for rich and poor” (p. 41). For what the refugees think Tibet is like now seeTshering, Gyatsho, “Tibet's problems of spirit and survival,” The Tibet Society Bulletin, Vol. 8 (1974), pp. 8–26Google Scholar: “ In short, the present situation in Tibet is one of almost unrelieved gloom. The people in Tibet are living out a terrifying nightmare; torture and death loom on every hand ” (p. 15). The Chinese view is succinctly put inGreat Changes in Tibet (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1972)Google Scholar: “Before liberation Tibet was hell on earth, where the labouring people suffered for centuries under the darkest and most reactionary feudal serfdom” (from the “Editor's Note,” unpaginated), and Wen, Chen, “The Kesung people's commune speeds ahead,” in Great Changes in Tibet (p. 41)Google Scholar: “Under reactionary feudal serfdom, the serfs were treated as chattels and were in a condition of hereditary servitude. They led a life worse than beasts of burden Since then… [t]he people are full of joy and a thriving atmosphere reigns everywhere.”

2. This is certainly the most bizarre of the many practices said to be prevalent in Tibet. Vivid photographs of life-sized statues depicting this event can be seen inWrath of the Serfs — A Group of Life-Size Clay Sculptures (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1976)Google Scholar. While the refugees have angrily denied that this ever happened there is some substantiating evidence to be found inSirBell, Charles, Tibet Past and Present (London: Oxford University Press, 1927)Google Scholar. He reported that a stupa being used as a boundary marker between Tibet and Bhutan contained an urn which houses the blood and bodies of an 8-year-old girl and a boy “… who had been slain for the purpose ” (p. 80).

3. A series of the earlier ones (1966–67) can be found inTibet 1950–1967 (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1968), pp. 600–700Google Scholar.

4. Most notable has been the work of Dr Melvyn C. Goldstein. For an incomplete but largely comprehensive list of his writings see Grunfeld, A. Tom, “Roof of the World,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 9, No. 1 (01–03 1977), pp. 58–67Google Scholar.

5. Patterson and Caroe have been quite prolific, however. Good examples of their work are: SirCaroe, Olaf, “Tibet: the end of an era,” Royal Central Asia Journal, Vol. 47 (01 1960), pp. 22–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Patterson, George N., A Fool at Forty (Waco, Texas and London: World Books, 1970)Google Scholar. For Beijing's views see: Stuart, and Gelder, Roma, The Timely Rain. Travels in New Tibet (London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., 1964)Google Scholar; Strong, Anna Louise, When Serfs Stood Up in Tibet (Beijing: New World Press, 1965)Google Scholar; Senanayake, Ratne Deshapriya, Inside Story of Tibet (Colombo, Ceylon: Afro-Asian Writers' Bureau, 1967)Google Scholar; Suyin, Han, Lhasa, The Open City. A Journey to Tibet (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1977)Google Scholar.

6. “Articles of Incorporation of The Tibet Society, Inc.,” The Tibet Society Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1 (01–06 1967), pp. 5–6Google Scholar.

7. This was true at least for the annual meetings I attended in Boston (1974), Toronto (1976) and New York (1977) and I expect it has been true for all the others as well.

8. A slight change was perceptible when Prof. Bharati, Agehananda took over as editor in 1974. In his “Editorial preface to this issue” (The Tibet Society Bulletin, Vol. 8, 1974, p. 1)Google Scholar he wrote: “ The Bulletin is not the organ of any power elite nor of any segment of political leadership; it does not print sermons; it has no axe to grind. It hopes to be a clearing-house for solid information about Tibet;…” It is a sad commentary on the state of the scholarship in this area that this promise has been left unfulfilled in the pages of The Tibet Society Bulletin.

9. Concerning the Question of Tibet (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1959)Google Scholar.

10. This is an estimate provided to me by a highly reliable source whom I prefer to leave unidentified for the present.

11. The visitors to date have been a highly mixed bag of individuals from the former Shah of Iran's twin sister, former CIA head George Bush and, most ironically, Lowell Thomas to Han Suyin, Felix Greene and Neville Maxwell. Thomas visited Tibet in 1949 as an unofficial envoy of U.S. President Truman and had been acoused by the Chinese of conspiring to help the Lhasan aristocracy achieve their goal of independence from China. In addition, as of this writing, there have also been trips by two Tibetan refugees who returned to visit their families: “First visitor to Tibet,” Tibetan Review, Vol. XIV, No. 3 (01 1979), pp. 5, 21Google Scholar; “Tibetan refugee from Switzerland visits Tibet,” Tibetan Review, Vol. XIV, No. 5 (03 1979), pp. 6–7Google Scholar.

12. Preparations for former U.S. President Nixon's visit to China led to the shelving of a United States Information Agency propaganda film supporting the refugees' cause and also appears to have been the cause of the final demise of covertU.S. military and financial support: “U.S. said to delay film about Tibet,” The New York Times (26 12 1971), p. 21:1Google Scholar. Mullin, Chris, “Tibetan conspiracy,” Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 98, No. 36 (5 09 1975), pp. 30–34Google Scholar.

13. Norbu, Dawa T., “Editorial: armed struggle in the offing,” Tibetan Review, Vol. XI, Nos. 1 & 2 (01–02 1967), pp. 3–4Google Scholar, 7. A Correspondent, “A fighting call from Tibetans,” Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 91, No. 12 (19 03 1976), p. 24Google Scholar.

14. “Communist Party of Tibet in exile,” Tibetan Review, Vol. XIV, No. 4 (04 1979), p. 6Google Scholar.

15. See letters in Tibetan Review, Vol. XIV, No. 5 (05 1979), p. 29Google Scholar.

16. Norbu, Dawa, Red Star Over Tibet (London: Collins, 1974), p. 11Google Scholar.

17. Ibid. p. 9.

18. His Holiness the Lama, Dalai, My Land and My People (London: Panther, 1964), pp. 152–53Google Scholar.

19. Ibid. p. 155.

20. Norbu, , “The 1959 Tibetan rebellion: an interpretation,” p. 87Google Scholar.

21 ibid p. 92.

22. Patterson, George N., Tibet in Revolt (London: Faber & Faber, 1960)p. 93Google Scholar. Mullin, , “Tibetan conspiracy,” p. 31Google Scholar.

23. Memo from Edward, Brig. Gen.Landsdale, G. to Maxwell, Gen.Taylor, D. entitled “Resources for Unconventional Warfare in S.E. Asia” (07 1961)Google Scholar. InSheenan, Neil, et al. (eds.), The Pentagon Papers (New York: Bantam Books, 1971), p. 137Google Scholar.

24. Tibetans were trained in the United States (Colorado), Taiwan and the American-administered Micronesian islands. SeeSheenan, et al. (eds.), The Pentagon Papers, p. 138Google Scholar; Mullin, , “Tibetan conspiracy,” pp. 32–33Google Scholar; Wise, David, The Politics of Lying (New York: Vintage Books, 1973), pp. 238–62Google Scholar.

25. Patterson, , Tibet in Revolt, p. 122Google Scholar. Weissman, Steve, “Last tangle in Tibet,” Pacific Research and World Empire Telegram, Vol. IV, No. 5 (07–08 1973), p. 5Google Scholar.

26. “Intelligence: golfing khampas,” Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 91, No. 8 (20 02 1976), p. 5Google Scholar.

27. Mullin, , “Tibetan conspiracy,” pp. 33–34Google Scholar.

28. Lama, Dalai, My Land and My People, p. 176Google Scholar.

29. Mullin, , “Tibetan conspiracy,” p. 33Google Scholar.

30. B. N. Mullik, who was the Director of the Indian Intelligence Bureau during this time, does not mention covert U.S. aid to Tibetans in his study of that period although it remains unclear whether it is because he knew nothing of it or rather because that information remains classified. Mullik, B. N.My Years With Nehru: the Chinese Betrayal (Bombay, Allied Publishers, 1971)Google Scholar.