Cultural Revolution

Following the flight of the Dalai Lama into exile and the brutal crushing of the uprising in March 1959, Tibet sunk into what would be the most brutal period in its entire history. Like in the rest of China, all private and monastery lands were turned into communes, and peasants were forced to “overthrow?their “aristocratic oppressors? in other words publicly condemn and beat everybody who had previously possessed any land or held any position of authority. They were also forced to loot and destroy over 99% of Tibet’s 6000 monasteries and all nobles, monks and suspected “traitors to the motherland?were imprisoned, tortured or killed. Over 1.2 million people (one sixth of Tibet’s population) died as a direct result of Chinese occupation. Communes were forced to grow products for shipment to China, such as wheat instead of traditional barley crops. Due to misuse and overuse of land, Tibet plunged into the first famine in its recorded history. In 1960, the International Commission of Jurists published a report that confirmed that China was committing genocide in Tibet, and was guilty of violating 16 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

While the majority of the devastation in Tibet occurred shortly after 1960, a renewed wave of persecution was initiated in 1966 and would last until Mao’s death in 1976. This period is known as the Cultural Revolution. Its goal was to completely eradicate the “medieval and superstitious?culture of Tibet (and all of China) in favor of an idealistic communist paradise. In reality this meant complete destruction of traditional Tibetan culture. Tibetans in communes and prisons were continuously subjected to thamzing (“struggle sessions? in which they were forced to “confess their crimes?and report on others, who would then be beaten or killed. Various forms of torture and death were common, including vivisection, group beatings, starvation, electric cattle prod being placed in mouths, crucifixion, disemboweling, burying alive, burning, dragging behind galloping horses and being thrown with hands and feet bound into icy water. Women were treated especially brutal with reports of rape and cattle prods being placed in women’s vaginas.

After Mao’s death, the late 1970’s saw a mild relaxation of China’s policy in Tibet. The Gang of Four, which included Mao’s wife, was blamed for the “excesses of the Cultural Revolution? Many political prisoners were released and people were once again allowed to privately practice religion. Then in the early 1980’s travelers were once again allowed into Tibet, and for the first time in decades reports of some of the atrocities of the cultural revolution were reported to the world.

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