The Cultural Revolution in Tibet was the extension into Tibet of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
In 1966, the Cultural Revolution broke out in China.Marie-Claire Bergère, China from 1949 to the Present Day, 2000, p. 119. In June 1966, an extraordinary session of the Communist Party committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region decided to extend the Cultural Revolution to Tibet.
In November 1966, the Red Guards—mainly Tibetans from certain universities in Beijing—arrived in Tibet. Often combining their revolutionary work with visits to their families, they spread the Cultural Revolution to villages and pastures across the Tibetan Plateau.
According to Pierre-Antoine Donnet, from 1966 onward the Red Guards systematically, methodically, deliberately, and comprehensively destroyed Tibetan civilization. According to the Chinese writer Wang Lixiong, the authorities in Tibet often attempted to restrain radical actions; for example, the People's Liberation Army consistently supported the more conservative factions against the rebels. Temples and monasteries survived best in non-peripheral areas and cities where the authorities were still able to exercise some degree of control. In his response to Wang Lixiong, the Tibetan historian Tsering Shakya points out that he places the blame on the victims, whereas this mass movement spared no one in Tibet or in China.
History In the eyes of the ideologues of Maoism, Tibet was far from being completely "liberated". In her book Mémoire interdite. Témoignages sur la Révolution culturelle au Tibet, the writer Woeser reports the address by Premier Zhou Enlai on 15 October 1966 at the Central Institute for Nationalities: "The Tibetan region has been liberated three times. The first time in 1951, when the Liberation Army intervened so that Tibet could rejoin the great family that is our nation; the second time in 1959, when, following the uprisings, serfdom was abolished as part of economic reforms; the third time during the Cultural Revolution, when the lamas were able to emancipate themselves.
The Cultural Revolution markedly began in Tibet with the banning of the Monlam festival in February 1966. Led by Wang Qimei, the Cultural Revolution Committee was established in May in Lhasa.
Split among the Red Guards: the "Alliance" versus the "Rebels" According to Melvyn C. Goldstein, as cited by Daniel Berounsky, in Lhasa in 1968, supporters of Mao and his slogans split into two antagonistic factions. One faction, the "Alliance" (Nyamdre), brought together supporters of the local authorities of the time because the situation in Tibet required special treatment. The second faction, the "Rebels" (Gyenlo), created at the instigation of itinerant Red Guards from inland China, felt the need to struggle against certain officials, in line with Mao's statement that "the bourgeoisie had infiltrated the party, the government, the army and cultural circles." A third force, the People's Liberation Army, remained outside this factional struggle.
According to the Tibetan writer Woeser, author of Mémoire interdite. Témoignages sur la Révolution culturelle au Tibet, the "Rebels" faction was led by Tao Changsong, a Han Chinese from Yangzhou who had been assigned to a secondary school in Lhasa in 1960. From September 1968 to October 1976, he served as vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Melvyn C. Goldstein indicates that at the beginning of 1968, more than 300 cadres, including leaders such as Tao Changsong of the Gyenlo faction, Liu Shaoming of the Nyamdre faction, and Ren Rong, the military commander, went to study sessions in Beijing.
For Kim Yeshi, there were no real ideological differences between the two factions. They reflected the "power struggles raging in China" and grievances accumulated at the local level. The conditions for a "civil war" existed in Tibet.
Jokhang Temple was one of the two bases of the Tibetan Red Guards belonging to the Gyenlo faction. In June 1968, the People's Liberation Army came out of its reserve and attacked this stronghold, resulting in the deaths of 12 Gyenlo militants and two soldiers.Daniel Berounsky, "Review of On the Cultural Revolution in Tibet: The Nyemo Incident in 1969", Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines, vol. 40, 1 December 2009: "The first violent conflict between the Nyamdre and Gyenlo factions occurred in Lhasa in June 1968. The PLA did not follow the rule of non-intervention in this exceptional case and attacked two strongholds of the Gyenlo faction: the Financial Compound and the Jokhang Temple. The attack resulted in the death of twelve Gyenlo activists and two soldiers."
In 1969, armed uprisings broke out in several parts of Tibet. According to Wang Lixiong, Tibetans were fighting to defend their land and herds, which were to be transferred to the people's communes.Woeser, Forbidden Memory: Testimonies on the Cultural Revolution in Tibet, translated by Li Zhang and Bernard Bourrit, Gallimard, 2010; Wang Lixiong, Reflections on the Tibetan Question, pp. 487 ff.
Melvyn Goldstein reports, regarding the Nyemo incident, the various types of slogans used: in addition to shouting "no more grain sales," "no communes," "freedom for trade," and "all power to the gods," more political slogans also appeared, such as "Tibet is independent".Melvyn C. Goldstein, Ben Jiao, and Lhundrup Tanzen, On the Cultural Revolution in Tibet: The Nyemo Incident of 1969, University of California Press, 2009, p. 169. For the Tibetan historian Tsering Shakya, this was a nationalist uprising aimed at ridding Tibet of the "oppressor"."Response to Wang Lixiong: Tibet Under the Boot", Courrier International, 1 October 2003.
The "Nyemo Incident" and the "Buddhist Red Guards" (Melvyn Goldstein) According to Melvyn C. Goldstein, Ben Jiao, and Tanzen Lhundrup, after their expulsion from Lhasa, Gyenlo activists shifted to the region of Nyemo, located between Lhasa and Shigatse, where they found support by exploiting peasant discontent over grain production taxes and by advocating the dismantling of the people's communes, all framed in the communist terminology of struggle against the reactionary capitalist line.Daniel Berounsky, "Review of On the Cultural Revolution in Tibet: The Nyemo Incident in 1969", Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines, vol. 40, 1 December 2009: "After the conflict, the Gyenlo activists started to intensify their search for support in rural areas. One of them was Nyemo (Snye mo), located between Lhasa and Shigatse (Gzhi ka rtse), in Tsang (Gtsang). Although originally most of the local people from Nyemo supported the Nyamdre faction, and at the same time somehow the status quo, Gyenlo made use of the general discontent of the local people concerning the production taxes hidden behind euphemistic names such as 'patriotic government grain' and 'sales grain.' In particular, the second tax impoverished farmers: the tax was fixed as a portion of yields, and kept increasing largely due to exaggerated yields, which were meant to demonstrate 'socialist progress.' The promise of a suspension of the grain taxes on the part of Gyenlo and at the same time dismantling the people's communes found fertile ground in Nyemo and apparently also in other rural areas. Such promises were of course officially formulated in communist terminology as a struggle against the 'reactionary capitalist line.'"
According to Melvyn Goldstein, in Nyemo, a former nun, Trinley Chödrön,Born in 1938 and died in 1969, at the age of 31. joined the Gyenlo faction. She declared herself to be possessed by the goddess Ani Gongmey Gyemo, the tutor of the hero in the Epic of King Gesar, after undergoing the ritual of "opening the gates of the veins," while also describing herself as the "right arm of Chairman Mao." While she was motivated by a desire to restore monasteries, for the leaders of the Gyenlo faction she was primarily a means of attracting more supporters. The Gyenlo forces in Nyemo adopted the unofficial name "Army of the Gods of Gyenlo," and the official name "Headquarters of Peasants and Herders." Soon surrounded by around thirty "hero-warriors" claiming to be possessed by figures from the epic of King Gesar, Trinley Chödrön came to be regarded as the goddess Ani Gongmey Gyemo herself.
In June 1969, over the course of three weeks, around thirty people were mutilated (by having their hands or legs cut off) or killed by these "hero-warriors" following Chödrön's instructions: individuals who doubted her supernatural powers, opponents of the Gyenlo order, and people who had harmed the monastic community. These events were followed by the killing of a group of unarmed soldiers and cadres in Bagor district during the anniversary of the "Jokhang massacre." This success encouraged the "Army of the Gods of Gyenlo" to attack a military detachment in the county. However, despite the khatas believed to protect them from bullets, several attackers were killed, while the others retreated in disillusionment. From that point, the movement collapsed: some rebels fled into the mountains to avoid capture by the People's Liberation Army, which had surrounded their headquarters. The nun, who had taken refuge in a cave, was captured. Thirty-four rebels were executed, 28 imprisoned, and 48 placed under public surveillance. Thus ended what Melvyn Goldstein et al. call the "Nyemo Incident".Daniel Berounsky, "Review of On the Cultural Revolution in Tibet: The Nyemo Incident in 1969", Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines, vol. 40, 2009.
The "Nyemo uprising" (Kim Yeshi) According to Kim Yeshi, in opposition to the establishment of the people's communes, Tibetan uprisings broke out, including in Nyemo. The nun Trinley Chödrön and her followers attacked the People's Liberation Army and killed fourteen cadres and soldiers. Chinese authorities observed that Trinley Chödrön's demands targeted "enemies of the faith" rather than the "agents of capitalism," the designated targets of the Cultural Revolution. The rebellion, described as one of "extreme violence," rallied hundreds of supporters and spread to eighteen counties. It was both a reaction to the Cultural Revolution and an expression of Tibetan resistance "to the attacks carried out over a decade against their identity and culture." The Chinese suppressed the revolt; Trinley Chödrön and fifteen of her followers were executed.Kim Yeshi, Tibet: A History, Yale University Press, 2009.
"Tibetan nationalist uprising" According to Ann Riquier, during a wave of Tibetan nationalist uprisings, Trinley Chödrön, who acknowledged leading a rebellion from eastern to western Tibet that gathered 30,000 people, was publicly executed in 1969.Ann Riquier, "Tibet: Female Resistance".
According to a Tibetan who witnessed her execution, the nun Trinley Chödrön, originally from the village of Pusum in Nyemo, was considered an emanation of Labja Gongmo, a sacred bird from the Epic of King Gesar.
"Dismantling of feudal strongholds"