The great betrayal of Tibet

BOOK REVIEW

- DAMMU RAVI

China's attack on Tibet in October 1950 represents a tragic chapter in modern history. The invasion not only underlined the failures of the United Nations but also posed infinite security consequences for India, writes veteran scholarly diplomat Ambassador Dilip Sinha in Imperial Games in Tibet: The Struggle for Statehood and Sovereignty.

The book attempts to disseminate a historical perspective of how Tibet became an abandoned kingdom in exile.

Ambassador Sinha uses archival evidence to persuasively establish Tibet's independent status historically as a kingdom enjoying vibrant religious and cultural contacts with China. The mighty Ming dynasty that ruled China for over three centuries, during which parts of the Great Wall of China were built primarily to thwart Mongol attacks, is said to have held Tibetan spiritual leaders in great reverence. At the beginning of the Qing dynasty in 1653, the 5th Dalai Lama, accompanied by 3,000 monks, visited China to meet Emperor Shunzhi. The British officers' accounts of the times validate the author's contention that Chinese suzerainty over Tibet was in name only and the common objective for both, if any, was to keep foreigners out of their territories.