A thematic introduction to a series of articles about the history of Tibet.
Tibet remains one of the most mysterious countries in the world. Seemingly separated from the rest of humanity by the height of its plateau and its reputation for ascetic, other-worldly religious understanding, the Tibetan people are considered to be a saintly people. Their reputation is assisted by the occupation of the country by the Chinese and the occasional story that leaks out concerning the suppression of native Tibetan people by the Chinese army and the migrant Chinese people. The railway built between Qinghai and Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, is the highest in the world. It has opened the country up to rapid economic development and the inward investment by Chinese businesses. Reports coming out of the country suggest that, as might be expected, economic development is benefiting the migrant Han Chinese rather than the indigenous Tibetans. Chinese is spoken more than Tibetan and only those Tibetans willing and able to communicate in Chinese can receive any more than the most menial jobs. Then there is the spread of the ubiquitous karaoke bars and gambling joints in the backstreets of Lhasa and along the highways. These corrode the soul and spirituality.
Yet Tibet has a long and characteristic history of its own, no matter how little known it might be. It is often said, wrongly, that history is written by the victors – if that were so, then there would be a lot more known about Attila and his Huns, Genghis Khan and Khan Themur the Lame. What is true is that history can be suppressed if it is destroyed or if it is written in an inconvenient language. Genghis Khan famously adopted the rope-like Uighur script when he determined that his empire needed a language of its own to be properly run. Tibetan is also a language that has always presented a challenge even to the most expert scholars in its mysteries. Far easier to rely upon Chinese chronicles of the past, paying due attention to the biases inherent in those records.
Tibetan history merits a series of articles of its own. From the earliest days, when nomads settled the plateau, through the glorious years of the Tibetan Empire, when Tibetan armies stormed the Chinese capital of Chang’an and evicted the emperor, and on to the modern world and the country’s humbling by powerful outsiders. Existing articles in the History of Tibet include the Earliest Tibetans, When the Tibetan Armies Threatened China, the Younghusband Mission to Tibet and the Chinese Domination of Tibet. Other articles will appear shortly.
