Dateline Tibet

Le Monde Diplomatique, April 2008

1642 – The Dalai Lama comes to power thanks to Mongol support.

1720-1792 – Tibetan rulers call on China to expel the Mongols, then the Nepalese.
1904 – The United Kingdom, which occupied part of China, recognises Tibet’s sovereignty.

1914 – The Chinese fail to activate the accord signed by them, the British and the Tibetans.

October 1950 – Chinese troops enter Lhasa.

10 March 1959 – Start of an uprising against Chinese occupation with thousands of victims. The Dalai Lama flees to Dharamsala in India.

1965 – Beijing creates the Autonomous Region of Tibet.

1966-76 – Cultural revolution: the monasteries are destroyed and monks persecuted. Beijing restores the right to practice religion only in 1980.

1979-84 – The Dalai Lama is permitted to send four investigative missions to Tibet. Tibetan political delegations visit Beijing in 1982 and 1984.

8 March 1989 – Beijing imposes martial law in Lhasa after three days of anti-Chinese riots causing dozens of deaths. In October the Dalai Lama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1996 – The Dalai Lama suggests unconditional negotiations on the future of Tibet, whose recognition China rejects.

2002-03 – Informal dialogue takes place.

2004 – Beijing publishes a White Book on the ‘modernisation of Tibet’ which denounces the ‘Dalai Lama and his clique’.