Contact is taking a holiday!

After three-quarters of a century under Chinese occupation, Tibet still hopes for genuine autonomy.

– by  Penpa Tsering, and James Himberger, 4 November

Editors’ Note: On October 27, James Himberger, the managing editor of The National Interest, interviewed Sikyong (President) Penpa Tsering of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile during the latter’s visit to Washington, DC. They discussed the legacy of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the life of the Tibetan exile community, the future prospects for Tibetan autonomy, the Dalai Lama’s succession strategy, the deterioration of Tibet’s natural environment, and even the Sikyong’s impressions of the US government shutdown. The following conversation has been edited for style and clarity.

James Himberger (JH): Sikyong Penpa Tsering, thank you for taking the time to sit down with The National Interest today during your visit to Washington, DC. Seventy-five years ago this month, in 1950, troops under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party entered Tibet and began an occupation of the region that persists to this day. Nine years later, the Dalai Lama fled to India and established a self-declared government-in-exile, which would later become the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in 2011. What are the goals of the Central Tibetan Administration?

Penpa Tsering (PT): Seventy-five years ago, on October 7, 1950, China invaded Chamdo [in Eastern Tibet]. On November 17, 1950, His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, at the age of 15, had to take over the temporal and spiritual leadership of Tibet. And then, six months later, we were forced to sign the so-called 17-point agreement. His Holiness, at a very young age, tried to live under the provisions of the 17-point agreement for eight long years. Within those eight long years, His Holiness went to China in 1954–55, met with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De, all those leaders of those times. And he also witnessed how the communist government functioned. Everything looked very orderly, but there was no freedom to speak your mind.

Then, in 1956 and 1957, His Holiness was in India. India was in its nascent democracy just ten years after independence. His Holiness went to the Indian parliament, found it quite chaotic, but everybody had the freedom to speak. So, His Holiness wanted to introduce democracy [to Tibet], not even one year after coming into exile under very difficult circumstances. It has been since 1950, as you say, it’s been 75 long years. We never imagined that we would have to live in exile for this long. So one of the main responsibilities of the Central Tibetan Administration or the Tibetan government-in-exile is to resolve the Sino-Tibet conflict peacefully.

That is why His Holiness came out with this proposal: the Middle Way. When His Holiness says “middle,” then there has to be an end to it. Without ends, there cannot be a middle. So, one end is the historical status of Tibet as an independent state, before Communist China’s invasion. The other end is the current situation of occupied Tibet, under the repressive communist government. So His Holiness is trying to find the “middle way,” which is genuine autonomy. His Holiness added “genuine” because Tibet is already known as the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, and the Tibet Autonomous Counties, in all areas where Tibetans live across all three provinces.

We are very, very committed to finding a nonviolent, negotiated, mutually beneficial solution that would be lasting. If you look at the violent conflicts today around the world, whether they’re resolving one problem now or creating more problems in the future, nobody knows. So, nonviolence is the only means of resolving problems. As Gandhi says, “an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.”

Whether we like it or not, we live on the highest plateau on earth. For centuries, [Tibet faced] China to the east, India to the south, and other countries to the west and north. We don’t have an Indian mythological god like Hanuman, the monkey god, who is supposed to have the power to lift mountains. We don’t have a Hanuman to lift Tibet out of that place and put it somewhere in the Pacific or the Atlantic near the United States. So whenever we get to go back, we have to live in peace with our neighbors. So why not seek a solution whereby everybody can live in harmony instead of fighting each other?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama always thinks about the larger interests of humanity. His Holiness also appreciates the concept of the European Union. He keeps saying that if it were not for the EU, Europeans would still be fighting each other. So, if that can be applied to Europe, then why not Tibet with China? This is the whole idea of trying to find a resolution for the Sino-Tibet Conflict. And then to keep that going, we have the Tibetan community in exile.

JH: That’s what I wanted to ask about. The CTA presides over the Tibetan exile community in India. It has its own parliament, judicial system, and elections. How do the CTA and the exile community keep their institutions cohesive without a state and territory? It’s quite a unique arrangement.

PT: It’s all thanks to the government of India, which allows us to function there, and also the visionary leadership of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. As I mentioned before, my parents and grandparents never thought that we would have to live in exile for this long. Even during the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama, there was the [1903–04] invasion of Tibet by British India, the Younghusband Expedition, and the 13th Dalai Lama had to flee into Mongolia and then into China. He came back to Tibet in 1909. Three months after that, the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1910, and then the 13th Dalai Lama had to flee to India. So at that time, of course, the Qing dynasty fell. There was a lot of chaos in China also, and we kicked out every single Chinese soldier and official from Tibet. And His Holiness, the 13th Dalai Lama, returned to Tibet in 1912.

We thought that would be similar to the 14th Dalai Lama’s time. But unfortunately, we felt many countries were getting decolonized, getting independence after the Second World War; we became enveloped in the fervor of communism that was sweeping the Soviet Union and China. We became a victim, and we became colonized. Today, of course, China talks about “one hundred years of humiliation,” “Western colonization of China,” but China does not talk about China’s colonization of Tibet, Mongolia, and others.

So, his holiness established this government in exile, which is today known as the Central Tibetan Administration. Today, the population of Tibet is roughly 7.5 million Tibetans. And in exile, we are only about 130,000–140,000, and out of that, 70,000 are in India. Now, about 10,000 [are] in Nepal, and then 50,000–60,000 in the rest of the world across 26 countries. Over the years, we developed all the democratic institutions in exile, and we registered all our institutions with the Indian government in conformity with its laws.

Today, we have our parliament, our Supreme Justice Commission, which functions more like an arbitration [board], because we don’t handle criminal cases; they have to go through Indian courts. And we have the cabinet of seven ministries or departments, with independent bodies such as the election commission, the public service commission, and the auditor general’s office.

So, in fact, we are, I can say for sure, the only government-in-exile with a fully functional democratic polity. And whenever we travel outside, there are people who say they want to learn this from us, how to function in exile.

On the one hand, the main responsibility is resolving the Sino-Tibet conflict, and to do that, you need this administration in Dharamsala [in India] to keep our people together. And then when you do that then you also have welfare activities for Tibetan rehabilitation, overseeing the monasteries and nunneries in exile, which we have managed to reestablish that were destroyed by China in Tibet. Then we have our health programs, security, finance, and international relations. All those seven departments. This shows the resilience of the Tibetans over so many years, despite so many adverse conditions.

There is also the fact that His Holiness knows that he will not live forever. If we have to struggle in exile for a long time. And that is why he introduced democracy. That’s also why, when His Holiness is not here, it will be a huge setback for us, but the struggle can go on with democratically elected leadership. I’m a very ordinary person. Because of His Holiness’ vision, now we also have the opportunity to serve our people, and I think that adds to our resilience.

JH: Since President Xi Jinping came to power in China in 2013, the People’s Republic has doubled the pace of internal repression within China, not just in Tibet: the forced assimilation of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and the trampling of the relative autonomy in Hong Kong. Now, is Tibetan autonomy, the goal that you’ve outlined, really possible with a government that repeatedly demonstrates its commitment to a very rigid sort of party-state uniformity and the submission of China’s constituent communities? 

PT: If people look at history, then they will find that the Taiwan case is completely different. Hong Kong is different. Tibet is different. So I mentioned the 17-point agreement, but there are also questions among Chinese intellectuals as to who are the real Chinese. Is it only the Han Chinese? Are Mongols Chinese? Are the Tibetans Chinese? Are the Manchus Chinese?

Those questions have always been there. If Mongols are Chinese, then they can claim half of the world, because Genghis Khan and his successors invaded many parts of the world. So in that sense, even if you speak to a Chinese person today, they would not consider Tibetans as Chinese. Just yesterday, we were driving in an Uber car. It was a Chinese Uber driver. He was referring to Tibet as very high, and the Tibetan people considered themselves very close to God because of the altitude of Tibet. I said that’s not because of the altitude: it’s here in the mind. Click here to read more.