 When China occupied Tibet in 1950 to "liberate" Tibet from its "economic backwardness" of feudal and religious traditions, the effects were devastating. Tibetans were dispatched to labour camps, monks and nuns were executed or imprisoned, thousands of monasteries and temples were destroyed, and communist propaganda was forced upon the Tibetan people. An estimated 130.000 Tibetans are living in India today. The vast majority travels to India through Nepal (where some 14,000 Tibetans are exiled), but a few go through Myanmar (Burma) or straight through India's northeastern parts. Travel is undertaken mostly by foot, and in groups of 5-15 persons because of safety issues. |
China’s broken promises to Tibetans cloud the TAR’s 60th Anniversary
September 9, 2025, marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of an entity labeled as “Tibet Autonomous Region” (TAR), a province-level administrative division in the 
People’s Republic of China (PRC) that encompasses roughly half of Tibet. While Chinese state media is striking a predictably upbeat tone on the anniversary, the reality is that Tibetans have little to celebrate.
“For our brothers and sisters in Tibet, the last sixty years have lurched from one calamity to another,” said International Campaign for Tibet President Tencho Gyatso. “Instead of forcing Tibetans to put on a performance of staged gratitude, China must change course and put the interests of the Tibetan people ahead of their own compulsive need for power and control.”
| Earlier this year, 28 European nations issued a joint statement at the United Nations condemning China’s escalating repression in Tibet: “The human rights situation in Tibet continues to be dire ... [including] reports that Tibetan schools teaching Tibetan language and culture have been shut down and that the Chinese authorities have insisted that all students attend state schools[.]” The world is beginning to recognize that Tibetans are not just working toward their own freedom — they are on the front lines of defending universal human rights and values against China’s repression. But this struggle isn’t theirs alone. It belongs to all freedom-loving people regardless of nationality, religion, or location. |
Sixty years of false “autonomy”
The PRC’s invasion of Tibet and subsequent illegal occupation were accompanied by promises of regional autonomy, freedom of religious belief, the development of Tibet’s languages, and a clause stating that there would be no compulsion on the part of China’s government over Tibet.
These promises were immediately violated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After the Dalai Lama’s 1959 flight from Tibet, all pretenses were discarded, and in 1965 the Chinese authorities unveiled the “Tibet Autonomous Region”. In the time since, no Tibetan has ever been appointed to rule the TAR as the Party Secretary; every single Party Secretary has been Chinese, a list which includes prominent human rights abusers such as Chen Quanguo (the architect of China’s mass internment campaign in East Turkestan/Xinjiang) and hyper-corrupt cadres such as Wu Yingjie (recently arrested and sentenced to accepting over ¥343 million in bribes).
Over the last sixty years, the "Tibet Autonomous Region" has been the scene of the near-total destruction of Tibetan Buddhism ...
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