China consolidated its military occupation of Tibet forcing the Tibetan government to sign the ’17 Point Agreement’.

15,000 unarmed Tibetan women came together and rose up against the forced occupation of Tibet by the communist Chinese government.

Three resolutions raising grave concern at the suppression of fundamental human rights in Tibet were passed by the UN.

Chairman Mao’s communism campaign led to the destruction of 6,000 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and cultural sites.

In response to China’s rejection of the Dalai Lama’s ‘Peace Plan’, large protests broke out in Lhasa.

Nine monks from Drepung Monastery staged a protest in the centre of Lhasa Barkhor

Widespread protests broke out in Lhasa with tens of thousands of Tibetans taking to the streets. Chinese used brutal force to quell the protests, expelling all foreigners and declaring martial law.

Six year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognised as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama. He was kidnapped by Chinese authorities becoming the world’s youngest political prisoner. He remains missing today.

China was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics

Tibetan Uprising – Protests broke out in Lhasa and rippled across Tibet. Hundreds of Tibetans were killed and over 2,000 arrested.

In February 2009 a young monk named Tapey set fire to himself in Ngaba, eastern Tibet.

Over the next 9 years, more than 150 Tibetans in Tibet self-immolated, protesting China’s rule in Tibet, the majority dying as a result.

Rights experts have analysed that torture in Tibet is endemic and is used systemically and routinely by Chinese authorities against Tibetans in custody. An alarming number of Tibetans continue to die in custody or shortly after release from detention, and incriminating signs of torture and other clues to the reasons for death raise serious concern.

Further reading

Chinese government policies are forcing three out of four Tibetan students into a vast network of colonial boarding schools, separating 800,000-900,000 children aged 6-18 from their families and communities. This number does not include an additional, unknown number of four- and five-year olds. The schools are a cornerstone of Xi Jinping’s campaign to eliminate Tibetan identity and supplant it with a Chinese nationalist identity in order to neutralize any resistance to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule.

Further reading