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http://en.tibet.cn/newfeature/oldlhasa/text/t20050427_26511.htm
The Final Dirge
by: Ma Lihua 2005-04-27 14:18:07
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The seeds of "Tibetan independence" which Britain had been tending finally began to sprout when Taktra Rimpoche, the regent who ruled Tibet following the death of the 13th Dalai Lama, arrested and executed in 1947 Reting, a patriotic Living Buddha, accusing him of "being too pro-Han" and three himself into the embrace of Britain.
After World War II ended in 1945, a pro-Han and anti-British feeling began to grow in Tibet. When the Central Government led by the Kuomintang convened the National Assembly to amend the Constitution in Nanjing, the government of Tibet sent a delegation to attend the conference, but in the name of "Thanking the Allies Delegation," to express its gratitude to the Allies and the Nanjing government for their war effort. The act typically reflected the mentality of the ruling elite of Tibet. It was obviously self-contradictory, and the result naturally turned out to be just the opposite of what was intended.
The delegation first went to India, where it consulted with the British governor of India and the ambassador of the United States to India. The British wrote a letter to the Gaxag government to dissuade it from sending the delegation to Nanjing, and the delegation turned to the Chinese Embassy in India for help. The delegates were warmly welcomed by the embassy officials, who helped them get to Nanjing on time. Though the delegates did not applaud or cast votes as requested by the Gaxag government, their presence in itself indicated that Tibet was part of China. After the assembly, they toured Beijing, Shanghai and other places of interest. It was one year later, in 1947, that the delegation returned to Tibet.
Meanwhile, Britain had persuaded the authorities in Tibet to send a delegation to the Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi. The Tibet government complied, and the arrival of the delegation was hailed by the major Indian newspapers. Hugh Richardson, the commercial attachè at the British Embassy in New Delhi, suggested that if the delegation had its own flag it would be claiming to represent an independent country. He wasted no time in notifying the Gaxag. But Tibet had no national flag, and so the Gaxag sent its army's flag, which showed a lion against a back ground of snowy peaks.
Another dilemma concerned a national anthem for Tibet. One of the Tibetan delegates sang a song called The Beauties of the Plum Flower River, which was then played at the conference. This was originally a song popular in Shanghai in the 1920s to 1930s. Later on, it somehow got into Tibet and was used as the Tibetan army song with new words in praise of the Dalai Lama. Now all of a sudden it served as a "national anthem."
The Indian government, which was soon to shake off the colonial fetters imposed on it by Britain and become independent, inherited the British legacy and secretly supported those who were plotting the "independence" of Tibet. It hoisted the so-called national flag of Tibet together with those of other countries, and hung a map of China which did not include Tibet in the conference hall. A strong protest by China got them removed.
In 1948, the Gaxag government organized a trade mission to visit India, Britain and the United States. The economic objective was to purchase gold or obtain hard currency to back the Tibetan currency, and establish direct trade relations between Tibet and Britain and the United States. Its political task was to win support form big powers to support Tibet's "independence" and membership of the United Nations. But it encountered various handicaps. The first issue was the visa problem, for Tibet had no passports or diplomatic relations with other countries. Finally, the Gaxag issued makeshift passports and the delegation got visas in Hong Kong. The delegation's request for a loan of two million US dollars was rebuffed, and it could get no country to back its claim of " independence" for Tibet.
In 1949, the Gaxag government organized another delegation to the West, hoping to win military support. But even before it had left Tibet, Britain and the United States indicated that it would not be welcome.
About this time, another Tibetan delegation was waiting to meet representatives of the People's Republic of China in India. The delegation asked Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, to mediate between Lhasa and Beijing. Nehru gave a categorical reply that if Tibet insisted on total independence, agreement would be difficult to reach.
By that time, Tibet had been dropped from the list of foreign aid recipients of India and Britain. But suddenly the United States began to show a special interest in Tibet. This was a result of the collapse of the Chiang kai-shek regime, and the US realized that Tibetan separatists might be used to contain the People's Republic of China. |
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发表于 2008-4-13 17:22
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