Tibet was a fully independent state until the Chinese invaded it in 1949.
Virtually all the states of the free world, including India, have denounced the violation of Tibet's territory integrity as an aggression.
At that time, Sadar Vallabhai Patel, India's then Deputy Prime Minister, declared: "This recent, sorry event (the invasion of Tibet by the Chinese) is telling us that communism is no shield against imperialism, and that communists can be good or bad imperialists, as much as anybody else. From this perspective, Chinese ambitions are not limited to the Himalayan slopes on our side alone, but include relevant parts of Assam, and even stretch to the Burma".
After strongly condemning the violation, Dr. Rama Manohar Lohia stated: "By invading Tibet, the Chinese government has not only hurt the international moral code, but India's interests as well".

Tibet has a documented historical tradition as an independent State dating back over 2.000 years, to 127 B.C.
The Tibetan empire reached its heyday between the 7th and the 10th century, when it reached into the territory of China and of other countries of central Asia.
After it was introduced into the country, Buddhism became its official religion.
The first Tibetan monastery was build in Samye. At that time, specifically in 763 A.D., the Tibetan army conquered the Chinese capital Ch'ang-an (today Xian). Around 821-822 A.D. a peace treaty was signed with China; its text was carved on columns, three of which can still be admired today, one outside the imperial palace in Ch'ang-an, one in front of the main gate of the Jokhang temple in Tibet's capital city, Lhasa, and one at the Chinese-Tibetan border on mount Gugu Meru.
Between 824 and 1247 A.D. the Tibetan empire collapsed following the assassination of king Wudum Tsen, also known as Lhang Dharma because of his persecutions of the Buddhists. The powerful Tibetan empire broke up into small principalities; for Tibet a dark age began, during which the contacts between Tibet and the neighbouring countries (including China) dropped to a minimum.

Between 1247 and 1350 A.D. Tibet was ruled by 20 subsequent Sakya Lamas; during their rule the Mongols, who had invaded many countries in Asia and in Europe, also stormed Tibet (1207) and China (1280). During this period both Tibet and China were subjected to the same political system, i.e. to Mongols' rule. The Tibetans managed to break free from the Mongols in 1358, when Phagma Drupa replaced the Sakya regime. The Chinese did the same about a decade later, in 1368, when they managed to expel the Mongols, giving rise to their own Ming dynasty.
Nowadays, China's claims that "Tibet was always part of China" are based on the time when both Tibet and China were ruled by the Mongols.
It is a ridiculous claim. Using similar arguments, India may nowadays lay claims to Burma based on both countries being once part of the British empire.

In 1642, the great fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, acquired temporal and spiritual power over Tibet. He set up the Tibetan system of government still in use today, known as Gaden Phodrang. After coming to power, the Dalai Lama visited China to ask the Chinese to recognise his country's sovereign status. The Ming emperor of China not only recognised the Dalai Lama as the head of an independent state, but also treated him as a deity on Earth. In exchange for this, the Dalai Lama used his authority to convince the belligerent Mongols to recognise the rights of the Chinese emperor. After that, a priest-supporter relationship started, an innovative element in the relationship among Tibet, China and Mongolia, which the Chinese have manipulated to pretend that Tibet was part of China. The glorious reign of the fifth Dalai Lama was followed by a period of instability and intrigues.

In 1720 the Manchu, who by then ruled over China, stepped into the Tibetan matters by sending their troops to escort the young seventh Dalai Lama, who was born in Lhasa, in Eastern Tibet.
When the Manchu troops quit Lhasa, they left behind a resident (or Amban), whose official task was to be at the Dalai Lama's disposal, while he actually safeguarded Chinese interests. This marked the beginning of Manchu interference with Tibetan matters.
The Manchu kept nominal control over Eastern Tibet until 1865, when the Tibetans regained authority over the territories they had previously lost. The Manchu stepped into Tibet once more in 1790, when the representatives (Ambans) of the Manchu emperor moved to Lhasa and tried to plot unbelievable intrigues in order to gain control of Tibetan matters.
Tibet, however, never lost its sovereign status.
All Manchu interference ceased in 1912, when the Tibetans expelled all the Chinese and Manchu troops from Lhasa and from other centres of Tibet.
In 1913, the great thirteenth Dalai Lama reaffirmed the independence of Tibet by means of a specific declaration.
The Tibetans were still subjected to heavy interference by the Gorkhas and the British, as attested by the treaties signed with Nepal in 1856, with no reference to China or to the Manchu, and with the Mongols, in Urga (today Ulan-Bator), in 1913.

Between 1911 and 1949 no country interfered with Tibetan matters. On the contrary, the independence of Tibet was confirmed by the treaty of Simla, which was signed by Tibet and British India (on the 3rd of July, 1914). In 1942, during World War II, the supply route between India and China was conquered by the Japanese. The British government asked the Tibetan government permission to open up a military supply route through Zayul (in North-Eastern Tibet), but the Tibetan government refused. Commercial delegations from Tibet visited India, the United States, the United Kingdom and China, where they were received as official delegations from Tibet.
In 1949, while applying to join the United Nations, Nepal mentioned its relationships with Tibet to prove its status as a sovereign state.
The representatives of the Tibetan government also took part in the Inter-Asian Conference held in New Delhi on the 23rd of March, 1947, and subsequently in the Afro-Asian Conference held in New Delhi in 1948.

In September 1949, communist China invaded Eastern Tibet without any provocation, seizing Chamdo on the 19th of October, 1950.
On the 11th of November, 1950, the Tibetan government protested at the UN against the Chinese aggression. Although the issue had been raised by El Salvador, the discussion on this matter was proposed at the request of the United Kingdom and of India.
On the 17th of November, 1950, although he had just turned only sixteen, H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama took over full spiritual and temporal power as the Head of the State.
On the 23rd of May, 1951, a Tibetan delegation visiting Beijing to hold talks about the invasion was forced to sign the so-called "17-point Agreement", dealing with the steps towards the peaceful liberation of Tibet, under threat of more massive military action in Tibet.
China has used this document ever since to implement its plan to turn Tibet into a Chinese colony, fully disregarding the strong resistance opposed by the Tibetan people.
On the 9th of September, 1951, thousands of Chinese troops occupied Lhasa. On the 10th of March, 1959, the resistance movement, which by then had spread all over the country, climaxed in a nation-wide uprising against the Chinese, who crushed it with a merciless use of force. Thousands of men, women and children were killed in the streets of Lhasa and elsewhere. On the 17th of March, 1959, the Dalai Lama fled from Lhasa and looked for political asylum in India. He was joined by over 80,000 Tibetan refugees. Never before in the long history of Tibet had so many Tibetans been forced to leave the country under such hardship.
Today about 130,000 Tibetan refugees are scattered all over the world.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn described Chinese rule in Tibet as the "most brutal and inhumane regime in the world". In the 1960's, after lengthy investigations, the International Juridical Committee came to the conclusion that China had committed acts of genocide in Tibet. The UN passed three resolutions (in 1959, 1961 and 1965) expressing deep worry about the violations of the basic human rights of the Tibetan people, and determined that the Tibetan people was being stripped of its inalienable right to self-determination. Despite all these condemnations, China has steady held on to its contested rule over Tibet.
During the second half of the last century, over 1.2 million Tibetans have died in Tibet due to the atrocities committed by the Chinese.
Over 6000 monasteries and educational institutions have been destroyed, and precious works of art have been removed and sold on the art markets of Hong Kong and of the Western countries. 60% of the literary, religious and historical documents have been burned up.
Tibetans have been denied the basic rights of expression, of speech, of movement, of religion and so on.
Tibetan women are subject to forced abortion and sterilisation. Tibetan children are denied their basic education and their right to be Tibetan young. 70% of the Tibetans are still illiterate. Over the last 50 years, arbitrary arrest, repression, torture, intimidation and imprisonment have become normal.
The 11th Panchen Lama Gedun Choekyi Nyima and his entire family have recently disappeared, and are believed to be under house arrest in China, just a few days after the Dalai Lama identified him (on the 14th of May, 1995) as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama; shortly thereafter Chatral Rinpoche, the abbot of the Tashi Lhunpo monastery, seat of the Panchen Lamas, was imprisoned.
The state has directly interfered with personal religious freedom, and in November of 1995 has imposed a fake Panchen Lama.
Thousands of Tibetans, most of them aged under 25, are still languishing in several Chinese jails. Nearly all Tibetans still live in their old houses, while the Chinese live in new residential areas equipped with all modern comforts.
Most Tibetans are forced to live at high altitude, while the Chinese take up all the fertile land at lower altitudes.
In Tibet, 7.5 million Chinese now outnumber 6 million Tibetans.
Tibet has been split up into 8 parts, and the area the Chinese have named Tibet Autonomous Region includes only about half of the original Tibet.
The other 5 parts have been incorporated into the neighbouring Chinese provinces. The fragile habitat of Tibet has been depleted. The Tibetan forests have mostly been razed and mineral resources have been exploited.
Wildlife, both flora and fauna, is nearly extinct, and Tibet nowadays looks barren as never before.

One of the most alarming aspects of the colonial policy currently enforced by the Chinese is the unbelievable mass migration of Chinese people into Tibet.
The actual worry is that, should the colonial policy currently enforced by the Chinese succeed, the Tibetans will end up being a negligible minority within their own country, much like what happened to the Manchu (35 Chinese for each Manchu), to the inhabitants of Turkish origin (3 to 1) and to the Mongols (5 to 1). Such a policy aims at forcibly "solving" the territorial claims put forward by the Chinese by means of a massive, irreversible population transfer.
The current policy was started in 1983 as the "final solution" to the Tibetan problem, as seen by China. Deng Xiaoping and other Chinese government officials have admitted to the fact that Chinese civilians have been encouraged to move to Tibet. The enforcement of this policy has resulted in 6 million Tibetans being now outnumbered by 7.5 million Chinese.
In 1990, in the province of Amdo, which has now been turned into a Chinese province named Qinghai, Tibetan inhabitants accounted for only 20% of the total population of 4.45 million (according to Chinese statistic data), the rest being Chinese. The situation is even worse in the province of Kham, where all the most important cities, such as Dartsedo, Derge, Kanze and Markham have, according to the most recent reports, a 95-100% Chinese population.
According to these reports, today the population of Kham exceeds 3.6 million. The situation is comparatively better in the central Tibet area of U-Tsang (in the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region). Even in the U-Tsang, though, the Chinese outnumber the Tibetans in all of the main cities and towns.
The Chinese population in the U-Tsang is estimated at over 2 million. The situation is getting worse because Beijing is accelerating the migration there by moving, at this stage, more Chinese people to central Tibet.
In 1992 new Chinese immigrants settled in central Tibet. The Tibetans fear that over 1 million Chinese displaced by the huge "Three-Gorge project" will be transferred to central Tibet.
In Tibet, economic activities are rather started to attract the Chinese into Tibet than to benefit the Tibetans.

Prior to the Chinese invasion, Tibet had the best environment protection system. There was no need for any formal protection of its flora, its fauna and its territory, as Tibetan Buddhists taught the people that all living creatures are interdependent and all animal and plant life forms, human beings and elements of nature, even lifeless ones, are related to each other. People lived in close harmony with nature.
Today, under Chinese rule, nature is being systematically destroyed in a way never seen before in this region. The rich natural life, with its forests and flora, mineral resources and waters have all been irreversibly degraded, and the fragile ecological equilibrium of Tibet is severely perturbed.
A study points out that the Chinese authorities have depleted the rich Tibetan reserves by felling about 54 billion dollars worth of lumber. In the province of Amdo alone, about 50 million dollars worth of lumber have been felled in 1995, and millions of acres of forest, corresponding to about 70% of the total, have been razed.
Similar conditions are prevalent elsewhere in Tibet, too, in particular in its Eastern and Southern areas. Heavy, uncontrolled deforestation is giving rise to irreversible soil erosion, thereby increasing the river sediment load and reducing the land available to farming and shepherding.
Since the major rivers of Asia originate in Tibet, the environments of Southern and South-Eastern Asia are also severely threatened, as shown by the tragic floods in India and Bangladesh. The deforestation of Tibet has also raised the risk of unbalancing the monsoon regime which, in turn, may jeopardise agriculture in India. Due to the huge inflow of Chinese migrants, the Tibetans have been forced to limit the amount of land dedicated to their shepherding, which in turn has encouraged the overexploitation of the available land. Besides a critical reduction of the yield in forage grass, such a constant overexploitation is turning Tibet into a desert at an accelerating pace.
This development model will have serious consequences on climate at a global level.
In Tibet, systematic, large scale mining was started in the early sixties, and has continued ever since. Nowadays, the Chinese authorities extract over 126 different kinds of ores, including oil and uranium.
The boundless exploitation of Tibet's mineral resources is a serious threat to the survival of whatever is left of the Tibetan rainforest. Tibet's lush nature has been virtually wiped out by the Chinese.
Most of the once widespread animal species, such as bears, wolves, wild geese, ducks, blue sheep, antelopes, snow leopards, pandas and so on, are now virtually extinct.

China has turned what was once a peaceful buffer state between India and China itself into a major military area. The occupation forces are used to control the Tibetan people and to promote the Chinese strategic goals in the region. The militarisation of the high-altitude Tibetan plateau is giving rise to deep changes to the geopolitical balance in the region, thereby generating serious international tensions.
After the invasion of Tibet, the Chinese and the Indian armies are facing each other along the Himalayan border for the first time in history. The first, bloody war between the two countries was fought in 1962, just three years after Tibet was occupied. The Indian subcontinent is further destabilised by China's support to Pakistan's nuclear ambitions, by the huge concentration of military forces, by the build-up of a nuclear capability in Tibet, by military infiltration into India and by China's sustained assistance to the military regime in Burma, specifically aimed at the construction of a navy base on the bay of Bengal.
Chinese military presence in Tibet nowadays includes 300,000 to 500,000 soldiers, out of which 200,000 are permanently stationed in central Tibet, close to the Indian border; 17 secret radar stations; 14 military airports; 5 missile bases (Kongpo, Nitri, Powo tramo, Rudok Golmu and Nagchu), mostly located close to the Indian border; at least 8 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 70 medium range missiles and 20 intermediate range missiles.
Furthermore, China is using Tibet for chemical war exercises and as a dumping ground for nuclear waste coming from other countries.
International Campaign for Tibet (an independent body based in Washington D.C., USA) recently published a report confirming the existence, within Tibet, of a nuclear site named the "Ninth Academy", located close to lake Kokonor, in the province of Amdo.

After the violent repression of the popular revolt of the Tibetan people against the Chinese occupiers, on the 10th of March, 1959, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the members of the Tibetan Government and over 80,000 Tibetans fled the country seeking political asylum in neighbouring countries. Once in exile, the Tibetan Government reorganised itself based on modern democratic principles. In order to discipline the government activities, a new Statute of the Tibetans in exile was adopted.
The Government in exile deals with all the matters relating to the Tibetans and strives to re-establish Tibetan independence; it is led by H.H. the Dalai Lama, who is supported by a President (directly elected by the people) and by his Parliament-appointed Council of Ministers. The Tibetan People Representatives Assembly works as the Parliament of the Tibetans in exile, and its members are elected by the people according to democratic principles. For the Tibetans living inside and outside Tibet, the Government in exile is the only legitimate Government of Tibet.
The Tibetan Government in exile is made up by several Ministers:
Religion, Home Affairs, Education, Finance, Security, Information and Foreign Affairs, and Health.
Three further autonomous, independent bodies exist besides these ministries, namely
the General Inspector Office, the Public Service Committee and the Electoral Committee, which are established according to a special rule contained in the Statute.
An independent Judiciary exists under the form of a Tibetan Supreme Committee for Justice.
Tibetan refugees are scattered all over the world, but most of them live in India, Nepal and Bhutan. In India they are accommodated in 22 agricultural settlements, 21 agricultural-industrial centres and 10 craft-working centres.
Over 83 Tibetan schools have been set up in order to educate young Tibetans along both traditional and modern guidelines. More than 160 monasteries and cultural centres host over 10,000 monks and nuns, and help promoting and preserving the rich Tibetan cultural and traditional heritage which in Tibet, under the Chinese rule, is facing a threat of outright extinction.
Eight non-government organisations exist alongside the various settlements and cultural institutions, namely the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan Women Association, the Cholkasum, the Ngari Association, the Ghu-chu-sum, the United Association, etc. Furthermore, in 1994 a single political party, the National Democratic Party of Tibet, was created under the auspices of the Tibetan Youth Congress.
During over 50 years in exile, the Tibetan refugees have managed to preserve their culture and their identity. Many international relief agencies dealing with the Tibetan refugees consider the Tibetan case one of the most accomplished programs of this period of world history.

Throughout these years, H.H. the Dalai Lama has travelled all over the world talking about the tragedy of Tibet and spreading a gospel of peace and non-violence. In recognition for his contribution to the world peace and harmony, in 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
During the past few years, the issue of Tibet has commanded growing attention at the international level. Tibet Support Groups have been established in more than 40 countries, and Students for Free Tibet movements have been set up at several schools and universities to foster support to the Tibetan issue. The parliaments of several countries have passed resolutions supporting Tibet. Two World Parliamentarian Conference on Tibet (WPCT) have been held, one in New Delhi and one in Lithuania, while a third one is currently being organised.
Many countries have submitted appeals to China, asking it to respect the basic rights of the Tibetan People.

IAfter about two decades, the Chinese authorities communicated, through their official channels in Hong Kong, their desire to establish some ties with H.H. the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Government in exile and the Dalai Lama answered favourably; this resulted in a series of visits by some Delegations, which were aimed at ascertaining Tibet's actual situation and at organising exploratory missions to China. Throughout these negotiations with the Chinese, the Tibetan Government adopted an unaffected and sincere attitude. H.H. the Dalai Lama has endeavoured by all means to try and take Chinese interests into account through various initiatives, such as the 5 Point Peace Plan of 1987 and the subsequent Strasbourg Proposal of 1988. Instead of showing a positive attitude, the Chinese authorities have tried to reduce the Tibetan issue to a matter of private interests of H.H. the Dalai Lama.
The Chinese authorities' attitude became clear in September 1992, when they drafted the so-called White Paper on the Tibetan situation. Not only did this document reiterate the usual Chinese claims over Tibet, but it also twisted the history of Tibet in order to make it fit China's current political interests.
Consequently, in his declaration of the 10th of March, 1994, H.H. the Dalai Lama stated: "I have done all I could to reach an agreement with the Chinese". His Holiness also added: "Should this effort fail, I will not be in the position to keep supporting this policy with a clear conscience. It will be my duty to consult with my people about the future course of our struggle for freedom".
Based on these political guidelines, the Tibetan Government in exile set up a referendum on 4 alternative points on which the Tibetans needed to base their choice of the future course of action.
The four points were:
1) The middle path,
2) Independence,
3) Self-determination, and
4) Resistance
After defining the above 4 options for the referendum, the Government decided to hold the referendum in August 1996, then put it off by over a year at the request of the people.
For two full years, Tibetan People Representatives and non-government organisation members took active part in an education program for the people aimed at stimulating discussions about the four options by means of rounds of conferences, working labs, workshops and symposia.
After several meetings and discussions with intellectuals and former members of Centrex, the largest non-government organisation in exile, i.e. the Tibetan Youth Congress, ended up promoting a campaign for the withdrawal of the referendum, as in their opinion times weren't ripe to have the Tibetans go to the polls.
Before reaching the planned poll time, the Government surveyed the opinions of the people, over 66% of which turned out to be against the referendum. The Parliament in exile thus carried a motion supporting the decision made by the people.