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Draft:Tibet Famine (1960–1962)

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The Tibet famine of 1960 – 1962 occurred at the same time as the Great Chinese Famine. Although the the Chinese famine is fairly well understood, there is little agreement among sources and not much data about the extent of mortality in Tibet from the famine, nor the reasons for it. This is partly due to the lack of credible figures from Tibet in the 1960s.[1]

In China, the Great Leap Forward was an economic campaign begun in 1958 by Mao Zedong, and resulted in the Great Chinese Famine of 1958 to 1962. Fifteen million lives are estimated to have been lost in China during the campaign.[citation needed]

According to testimony by Tibetans, some living in exile, Tibet experienced a famine between 1960 and 1962. According to the Tibetan government in exile (TGE), the famine affected all Tibetan regions, including Kham, Amdo, and Ü-Tsang.[2][better source needed] In 1962, in a report known as the 70,000 Character Petition written by the 10th Panchen Lama and addressed to the Zhou Enlai of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party spoke critically of the role of Chinese authorities in the resulting famine and suffering of Tibetans.[3]

Causes

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Many sources ascribe the famine in Tibet to the Great Leap Forward economic campaign of 1958 to 1962, which was the cause of the Great Chinese Famine which caused approximately fifteen million deaths. This is the position of Tibetan opposition groups. However, some sources say it was due chiefly to the interruption of cross-Himalaya trade between Tibet and India resulting from the 1962 Chinese decision to terminate the Sino-Indian trade agreement.[4]

Mortality

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Mortality from the Famine varies among sources.

According to the Tibetan government in exile (TGIE), mortality due to the famine affected the three former Tibetan provinces. The count of deaths linked to the famine include 131,072 in Ü-Tsang, 89,916 in Kha, and 121,982 in Amdo.[citation needed]

In 1993, Bernard Kouchner mentioned 413,000 Tibetans who died of starvation during one of the “agrarian reforms”.[5]

The same figure is quoted by the demographer Yan Hao and referenced in a work by Barry Sautman. However, the total figure does not correspond to the sum of the individual figures givens for the three provinces.

According to Barry Sautman, in an interview published on April 19, 1991, the Dalai Lama reportedly said that 200,000 Tibetans died of starvation, less than half of the figure initially put forward. For Professor Sautman, these discrepancies are hardly surprising: some of the statistics are based on quotations referring to documents which contain no figures or which have not been made public by the emigrants.[6][page needed]

Barry Sautman quotes Tsering Shakya, author of a history of modern Tibet,[7] who gives much lower numbers for the nummber of famine deaths, or ascribed them to other causes, such as from the revolt against Chinese repression.[6]

1962 petition of the 10th Panchen Lama

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Main article: 70,000 Character Petition

After the 14th Dalai Lama was exiled in 1959, the 10th Panchen Lama was offered the presidency of the preparatory committee for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). In 1960, the Chinese leadership appointed him the vice-presidency of the National People's Congress, making him their spokesperson for their Tibetan policy. As part of this role, the 10th Panchen Lama visited several Chinese regions; “everywhere he saw only misery and desolation”.[8]

At the beginning of 1962, he inspected the Tibetan regions of Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, then went to Gansu and Xinjiang. In Sichuan, he questioned the report of the local authorities concerning the areas of Kardzé and Ngaba, declaring: “the conditions of existence and production of the masses are not as good as you claim. Men, women and children have died of starvation in large numbers”.[9]

In 1962, he met some Westerners in Lhasa, the capital. He confided in them his desire to "fulfill his revolutionary duty to the people" and to "live the life of a good Buddhist." The Panchen Lama returned to Peking on Mao's orders. During this trip, crowds of Tibetans implored him to "put an end to their sufferings and the privations endured". In Beijing, he directly asked Mao Zedong to “put an end to the exactions committed against the Tibetan people, to increase food rations, to provide care for the elderly and the infirm and to respect religious freedom”. Mao listened but no action was taken.

1964 human rights report

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A report by the International Commission of Jurists entitled "Continued Violations of Human Rights in Tibet" was published in December 1964. Based on accounts of Tibetan refugees who had fled to India, the report revealed "the continued mistreatment of numerous monks, lamas, and other religious figures, resulting in death by excessive torture, beatings, starvation, and forced labor..."[10] Following this report and a appeal of the Dalai Lama, the question of Tibet was introduced in the form of a new United Nations resolution supported by the same countries as in 1961, joined by Nicaragua and the Philippines.[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Le Houérou, Fabienne (2014). Humanitarian Crises and International Relations 1959-2013 (reprint ed.). Bentham Science Publishers. p. 29. ISBN 1608058344.
  2. ^ "Center for Research on Tibet | Case Western Reserve University". Center for Research on Tibet. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  3. ^ "FROM THE HEART OF THE PANCHEN LAMA (Major Speeches and a petition: 1962–1989)" (PDF).
  4. ^ Khan, Sulmaan Wasif (2015). "4". Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy: China's Cold War and the People of the Tibetan Borderlands. New Cold War history (illustrated ed.). University of North Carolina Press. p. 106. ISBN 146962110X. OCLC 907238159 – via Hoopla. The famine that hit Tibet in 1962 remains deeply misunderstood; it is either conflated with the agricultural policies of the Great Leap Forward, or politicized in accounts of Sino-Tibetan relations. Neither view goes far enough in comprehending its causes. The Tibetan famine was not the inevitable result of the PRC's occupation of Tibet (as Tibetan opposition groups maintain), and though disastrous agricultural policies pursued despite warnings of the consequences played a role, there was one more crucial factor which ensured that Tibet went hungry. This was the deliberate decision, in 1962, to terminate the Sino-Indian trade agreement, even though local officials warned that the consequences could be starvation and political unrest. Central authorities ignored these reports.
  5. ^ Le Nouvel Obs (21 April 2008). "1993 : Quand Bernard Kouchner préfaçait un livre sur le Tibet" [When Bernard Kouchner prefaced a book about Tibet] (in French).
  6. ^ a b Sautman, Barry; Dreyer, June Teufel (2006). Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development, and Society in a Disputed Region. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-1354-7. OCLC 56590699. Cite error: The named reference "Sautman-2006" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ Shakya, Tsering (1999). The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947. Emergent Village Resources for Communities of Faith (illustrated ed.). Columbia University Press. p. 356. ISBN 9780231118149. OCLC 40783846.
  8. ^ McKay, A. (1999-02-01). "Shorter notice. Histoire du Tibet. Deshayes". The English Historical Review. 114 (454): 235–236. doi:10.1093/ehr/114.454.235. ISSN 0013-8266.
  9. ^ Barnett, A. Doak (2019-04-17), "The Panchen Lama", China on the Eve of Communist Takeover, Routledge, pp. 230–235, doi:10.4324/9780429035968-17, ISBN 978-0-429-03596-8, S2CID 198074070, retrieved 2023-03-13
  10. ^ ICJ (December 1997). "Tibet: human rights and the rule of law" (pdf). International Commission of Jurists (report). Geneva: International Commission of Jurists. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  11. ^ "Tibet: human rights and the rule of law". International Commission of Jurists. 1997. Retrieved 2023-03-13.

Further reading

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