Events Leading to the 1959 Tibetan Uprising

Chinese artillery shells pummeled the Norbulingka, the Dalai Lamas summer palace, sending plumes of smoke, fire, and dust into the night sky. The centuries-old building crumbled under the barrage, while the badly outnumbered Tibetan Army fought desperately to repel the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) from Lhasa. Meanwhile, amidst the snows of the high Himalaya, the teenaged Dalai Lama and his bodyguards endured a cold and treacherous two-week-long journey into India. Origins of the Tibetan Uprising of 1959 Tibet had an ill-defined relationship with Chinas Qing Dynasty (1644-1912); at various times it could have been seen as an ally, an opponent, a tributary state, or a region within Chinese control. In 1724, during a Mongol invasion of Tibet, the Qing seized the opportunity to incorporate the Tibetan regions of Amdo and Kham into China proper. The central area was renamed Qinghai, while pieces of both regions were broken off and added to other western Chinese provinces. This land grab would fuel Tibetan resentment and unrest into the twentieth century. When the last Qing Emperor fell in 1912, Tibet asserted its independence from China. The 13th Dalai Lama returned from three years of exile in Darjeeling, India, and resumed control of Tibet from his capital at Lhasa. He ruled until his death in 1933. China, meanwhile, was under siege from a Japanese invasion of Manchuria, as well as a general breakdown of order across the country. Between 1916 and 1938, China descended into the Warlord Era, as different military leaders fought for control of the headless state. In fact, the once-great empire would not pull itself back together until after World War II, when Mao Zedong and the Communists triumphed over the Nationalists in 1949. Meanwhile, a new incarnation of the Dalai Lama was discovered in Amdo, part of Chinese Inner Tibet. Tenzin Gyatso, the current incarnation, was brought to Lhasa as a two-year-old in 1937  and was enthroned as the leader of Tibet in 1950, at 15. China Moves In and Tensions Rise In 1951, Maos gaze turned west. He decided to liberate Tibet from the Dalai Lamas rule and bring it into the Peoples Republic of China. The PLA crushed Tibets tiny armed forces in a matter of weeks; Beijing then imposed the Seventeen Point Agreement, which Tibetan officials were forced to sign (but later renounced). According to the Seventeen Point Agreement, the privately-held land would be socialized and then redistributed, and farmers would work communally. This system would first be imposed on Kham and Amdo (along with other areas of the Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces), before being instituted in Tibet proper. All the barley and other crops produced on the communal land went to the Chinese government, according to Communist principles, and then some were redistributed to the farmers. So much of the grain was appropriated for use by the PLA that the Tibetans did not have enough to eat. By June of 1956, the ethnic Tibetan people of Amdo and Kham were up in arms. As more and more farmers were stripped of their land, tens of thousands organized themselves into armed resistance groups  and began to fight back. Chinese army reprisals grew increasingly brutal and included wide-spread abuse of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns. China alleged that many of the monastic Tibetans acted as messengers for the guerrilla fighters. The Dalai Lama visited India in 1956  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹and admitted to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that he was considering asking for asylum. Nehru advised him to return home, and the Chinese Government promised that communist reforms in Tibet would be postponed and that the number of Chinese officials in Lhasa would be reduced by half. Beijing did not follow through on these pledges. By 1958, as many as 80,000 people had joined the Tibetan resistance fighters. Alarmed, the Dalai Lamas government sent a delegation to Inner Tibet to try and negotiate an end to the fighting. Ironically, the guerrillas convinced the delegates of the righteousness of the fight, and Lhasas representatives soon joined in the resistance! Meanwhile, a flood of refugees and freedom fighters moved into Lhasa, bringing their anger against China with them. Beijings representatives in Lhasa kept careful tabs on the growing unrest within Tibets capital city. March  1959 - The Uprising Erupts in Tibet Proper Important religious leaders had disappeared suddenly in Amdo and Kham, so the people of Lhasa were quite concerned about the safety of the Dalai Lama. The peoples suspicions, therefore, were raised immediately when the Chinese Army in Lhasa invited His Holiness to watch a drama at the military barracks on March 10, 1959. Those suspicions were reinforced by a none-too-subtle order, issued to the head of the Dalai Lamas security detail on March 9, that the Dalai Lama should not bring along his bodyguards. On the appointed day, March 10, some 300,000 protesting Tibetans poured into the streets and formed a massive human cordon around  Norbulingkha, the Dalai Lamas Summer Palace, to protect him from the planned Chinese abduction. The protestors stayed for several days, and calls for the Chinese to pull out of Tibet altogether grew louder each day. By March 12, the crowd had begun to barricade the streets of the capital, while both armies moved into strategic positions around the city and began to reinforce them. Ever the moderate, the  Dalai Lama  pleaded with his people to go  home  and sent placatory letters to the Chinese PLA commander in Lhasa. When the PLA moved artillery into  the range  of the Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama agreed to evacuate the building. Tibetan troops prepared a secure escape route out of the besieged capital on March 15. When two artillery shells struck the palace two days later, the young Dalai Lama and his ministers began the arduous 14-day trek over the Himalayas  for  India. On March 19, 1959, fighting broke out in earnest in Lhasa. The Tibetan army fought bravely, but they were vastly outnumbered by the PLA. In addition, the Tibetans had antiquated weapons. The firefight lasted just two days. The Summer Palace, Norbulingka, sustained over 800 artillery shell strikes that killed an unknown number of people inside; the major monasteries were bombed, looted and burned. Priceless Tibetan Buddhist texts and works of art were piled in the streets and burned. All remaining members of the Dalai Lamas bodyguard corps were lined up and publicly executed, as were any Tibetans discovered with weapons. In all, some 87,000 Tibetans were killed, while another 80,000 arrived in neighboring countries as refugees. An unknown number tried to  flee  but did not make it. In fact, by the time of the next regional census, a total of about 300,000 Tibetans were missing - killed, secretly jailed, or gone into exile. Aftermath of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising Since the 1959 Uprising, the central government of China has been steadily tightening its grip on the Tibet. Although Beijing has invested in infrastructure improvements for the region, particularly in Lhasa itself, it has also encouraged thousands of ethnic Han Chinese to move to Tibet. In fact, Tibetans have been swamped in their own capital; they now constitute a minority of the population of Lhasa. Today, the Dalai Lama continues to head the Tibetan government-in-exile from Dharamshala, India. He advocates increased autonomy for Tibet, rather than full independence, but the Chinese government generally refuses to negotiate with him. Periodic unrest still sweeps through Tibet, especially around important dates such as March 10 to 19 - the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising.

The Inequalities Of Lung Cancer Prevalence On Terms Of...

The scientific community in the twentieth century has seen a dramatic expansion in medicine and public health. Through these expansions, it is noted that health outcomes are affected not only by biological factors, but also by the disparities that individuals face due to the occupancy of opposite ends of the social spectrum. Such health inequalities are applicable to smoking-related health issues like lung cancer. The aim of this essay is to describe the inequalities in lung cancer prevalence in terms of socioeconomic status. The four explanations will be used to explain the existence of the inequalities behind this health issue. Smoking is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. The exposure to tobacco smoking negatively impacts the health of an individual over time by increasing the risks of developing diseases of the respiratory and circulatory systems (Ministry of Health, 2005). In particular, smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. With repeated exposure, inhalation of tobacco into the lungs causes a build up of tar, altering lung tissue (Cockerham, 2007; Marmot and Wilkinson, 2006). This direct use of tobacco accounts for the death of 5 million people around the world. In the United States, 444,000 deaths per year are attributed to smoking, were 13 years of life lost for a male smoker and 14.5 years lost for a female (Cockerham, 2007; WHO, 2012). In New Zealand, tobacco use is the main cause of preventable death, contributing to around 4600 deathsShow MoreRelatedSmoking Is The Primary Cause Of Preventable Diseases Essay1978 Words   |  8 Pagesconditions, ranging from cancers in the respiratory tract and cardiovascular diseases to psychiatric disorders (Kuper, Adami Boffetta, 2002). Smoking is found to be disproportionately more prevalent among the disadvantaged individuals in society (Marmot Wilkinson, 2006). 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What is the meaning of Women Empowerment Free Essays

In the middle of the 18th century, women empowerment was greatly demonstrated through boycotts and uprisings. Not only women from the lower class suffered, but women from the middle class suffered as well. Lower class women who were working in factories would work the same amount as their male counterparts, get constantly mistreated and would still get paid lower than men. We will write a custom essay sample on What is the meaning of Women Empowerment? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Middle class women had to always listen to their husband and never go against them. There were a lot of stereotypes between the freedom of men and women. Because of these stereotypes, this caused women to rebel and most women were very well aware of their subordinate status in their community and applied several feminist movements. One women who showed high representation of women empowerment was Abigail Adams. Abigail was the wife of president John Adams and had five children. Since she was married to the president, she was always left alone at the house taking care of all her five children as well as their farm. Since her husband was hardly home, she got very bored doing the same activities everyday. Abigail indicated many concerns, through a letters to her husband, about women and how they are being treated in society. Abigail wrote several letters to her husband, but one of her letters stated that â€Å"Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.† He letter was one of the first steps to to fight for women’s rights and freedom. She exclaims that men should not have all the power in their homes because they would all become oppressors. Abigail also told her husband that if women did not get equal rights, they would rebel and not pursue the laws where they had no voice or representation in. Lastly, she emphasized the fact that John Adams needs to remember the rights of women when the Declaration of Independence was being written. How to cite What is the meaning of Women Empowerment?, Papers