How China First Conquered Tibet
The battle over Tibet between the Qing Dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate
The modern history of Tibet is one defined by its relationship with its larger neighbor, China. The People’s Republic of China considers the territory to be historically Chinese and has cracked down on calls for greater autonomy and/or independence, sometimes with lethal force.
Many Tibetans, on the other hand, reject the idea that Tibet is an integral part of China, and consider the current administration to be an occupying force systematically destroying their culture and way of life. Chinese programs to “Sinicize” the province have been accused of propagating cultural genocide, and their interference in the selection of the next Dalai Lama threatens the integrity of Tibetan Buddhism.
But how did this tumultuous relationship begin? To understand how and why Tibet became inexorably incorporated into China, we must turn the clock back to the early 18th century, when a dispute over the succession of the Dalai Lama escalated into a war between the Qing Dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate.
Setting The Stage
Before we can delve deeper into how the Qing occupied Tibet, it is vital to first understand Tibet’s unique political system during the 17th and early 18th centuries.
Beginning in 1642, Tibet operated under a priest-patron relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Khoshut Khanate. This system, known as the Ganden Phodrang, had the Dalai Lama rule from the Potala Palace in Lhasa as the political and spiritual authority over all of Tibet.
This authority was reinforced by the Khoshut, an Oirat Mongol tribe who invaded Tibet in 1642. The Khoshut Khan served as the chief patron of the Dalai Lama, and his armies served as the military branch of the Ganden Phodrang. In return for his patronage, the Khoshut were allowed to settle with their herds on the Tibetan Plateau. The Khans generally did not interfere in the religious and political affairs of the Ganden Phodrang, allowing this dual system of government to prosper throughout the 17th century.
In 1697, however, this priest-patron relationship would be brought to the test with the ascension of Tsangyang Gyatso, the 6th Dalai Lama. Unlike his predecessors, Tsangyang preferred the life of a layman over that of a monk, indulging in wine, women, and writing love poetry.
Despite his unconventional lifestyle, Tsangyang was popular among the Tibetan masses and Mongol converts. But the 6th Dalai Lama’s renunciation of monasticism soon drew the ire of Lazang Khan, the concurrent Khoshut Khan. Besides questioning whether or not Tsangyang was the true reincarnation of his predecessor, Lazang desired to overtake the Dalai Lama as the dominant half of the Ganden Phodrang, and Tsangyang’s lifestyle gave him the excuse he needed to act against him.
Lazang also benefited from having the blessing of the Kangxi Emperor of Qing China, who regarded Lazang’s plot as an opportunity to spread Chinese influence in Tibet. With his permission, Lazang launched a coup on June 28th, 1706, that saw Tsangyang seized from the Potala Palace and sent to exile in China, where he died while traveling to Beijing.
In his place, Lazang installed a boy named Yeshe Gyatso as the true 6th Dalai Lama, with Tsangyang being labeled as an imposter. Yeshe would go on to accept his monastic vows and was praised for adhering to the moral principles of Tibetan Buddhism.
But few Tibetans recognized his dubious claim of being the true reincarnation of his predecessor, and the Buddhist clergy never accepted him. Today, Yeshe Gyatso holds the distinction of being the only pretender Dalai Lama, and he is not included in any official lists of the Dalai Lamas.
The Dzungar Invasion of Tibet
The Tibetan people were not the only ones to reject Yeshe Gyatso’s claim to the title of Dalai Lama. The Dzungars, cousins of the Khoshut who resided in what is now the Chinese province of Xinjiang, viewed the pretender as a mere puppet of Lazang Khan and a method by which the Qing could influence the politics of Tibet.
The crisis in Tibet also represented a threat to the authority of Tsewang Rabtan, the reigning Khong Tayiji, or “Crown Prince” of the Dzungar Khanate. It was the 5th Dalai Lama who first granted this title to the Dzungars, and every successive Crown Prince relied on the Dalai Lama’s support to legitimize their right to rule. As such, Tsewang Rabtan could never tolerate a Qing-sponsored imposter who could potentially unravel the spiritual ties keeping his nomadic empire united.
The situation only continued to deteriorate when rumors began swirling of a young boy in the province of Kokonor who displayed all the signs of being a reincarnated Dalai Lama. This boy, later to be named Kelzang Gyatso, had been born in 1706, the same year the 6th Dalai Lama had died following his overthrow. For the Tibetan people, this was living evidence that Yeshe Gyatso was an imposter and Kelzang the true the successor of the 6th Dalai Lama.
Realizing that the existence of Kelzang would unravel his control over the Ganden Phodrang and Tibet as a whole, Lazang Khan banned the boy from entering Tibet, and the Kangxi Emperor assisted him by keeping the boy under house arrest “for his own protection”.
But Lazang Khan could not silence the Tibetan people, and the Buddhist clergy began openly calling for the Dzungars to intervene in the situation and restore the rightful Dalai Lama. Tsewang, who had already been preparing to invade Tibet, was more than happy to oblige.
In the summer of 1717, Tsewang’s brother Tsering Dondub invaded Tibet with an army of 10,000 Dzungar horsemen. The Dzungar army forsook taking the easier path to Tibet through Kokonor in favor of traversing some of the most inhospitable mountain ranges in the world with limited supplies, allowing them to take the Khoshut entirely by surprise. Lazang’s forces were scattered, forcing the Khan to barricade himself with his false Dalai Lama in the Potala Palace.
Lazang Khan intended to hold out until some promised Qing reinforcements could arrive, but on November 30th the Dzungars entered Lhasa and proceeded to sack the Tibetan capital. Three days later, the Potala Palace was breached, with Lazang falling in battle and Yeshe captured and deposed.
Although the 7th Dalai Lama remained in Qing hands, it now appeared that the Dzungars were ready to not only replace the defeated Khoshut as the military wing of the Ganden Phodrang but to directly incorporate Tibet into their Empire.
For the Kangxi Emperor, however, such an arrangement was unacceptable. A Dzungar Khanate stretching from Siberia to Tibet could grow strong enough to threaten the Qing’s dominion over Mongolia, and the loyalty of the Qing’s Buddhist subjects could be brought to the test should the Dzungars free Kelzang from his house arrest. The Qing had already mobilized a relief army in order to rescue the Khoshut; now, they were ordered to march into Tibet and free it from Dzungar occupation.
The Qing Intervention
When the Qing relief force departed for Tibet in 1718 under the command of the viceroy of Szechwan, they proceeded to make a series of disastrous military mistakes. First, the Qing lacked the necessary supplies for the 1,000km march to Lhasa, and the inhospitable nature of the Tibetan plateau left them with little opportunity to live off the land.
After disease and starvation had thoroughly weakened the soldiers, the army was forced to halt at the Salween River, only a few days away from Lhasa. The Viceroy chose to fortify his position and replenish his supplies via foraging parties before resuming the march.
This proved to be his second major mistake- the Dzungars were closer than he anticipated, and the foraging parties alerted them of the Qing army’s presence. The Qing also chose to build their fortified camp on an open field, where the Dzungar cavalry would have the advantage. This also meant that the camp could easily be encircled and cut off from its supply lines.
When the Dzungars and Qing finally met each other in the Battle of the Salween River, the Qing were routed from the field and forced to retreat into their fortified camp. There, the Dzungars starved them until dwindling supplies compelled them to accept an offer of surrender. When the Qing army left their camp, the Dzungars broke their word and slaughtered them down to the last man.
Infuriated at the annihilation of the Qing expedition, the Kangxi Emperor decided to leave nothing to chance for his second attempt. Raising an army of more than 300,000 men, this second invasion force departed for Tibet in 1720. Additional forces were deployed to Turkestan to keep Tsewang Rabtan occupied.
As it turned out, this vast display of force was unnecessary- when the Qing army arrived in Lhasa that September, the Dzungars were already gone. Although they were initially welcomed as liberators, the Dzungars ruined any goodwill they had with the Tibetan people through their outrageous actions: sacking Lhasa, pillaging the Potala Palace, raping and murdering native Tibetans, and massacring rival schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan partisans fought a guerilla war against the hated Dzungar occupation, ambushing their patrols and cutting them off from any reinforcements. When news arrived that over 300,000 Qing soldiers were marching on Lhasa, even the bravest Dzungar commanders knew they had no chance of victory with their diminishing forces. By the time the retreating Dzungars returned to their homeland, less than a quarter of their initial invasion force of 10,000 survived.
After the Qing consolidated their position in Tibet, Kelzang was brought out of house arrest and installed as the 7th Dalai Lama, bringing an end to the succession crisis. Yeshe, the imposter 6th Dalai Lama, was deported to China, where he died in 1725. With Lazang dead and Kelzang’s legitimacy confirmed, the Kangxi Emperor had little use for the imposter.
Conclusion
The victory of the Qing Dynasty over the Dzungar Khanate led to the creation of a new order in Tibet, one that would define the relationship between Tibet and China well into the modern day.
The Ganden Phodrang was reestablished, with the Qing Emperor taking the place of the Khoshut and as patron and military defender of the Dalai Lama. The Dzungars, having lost the support of their head of faith, lacked the strength to contest this new arrangement, though they would continue to menace the Qing until their destruction and genocide in 1758.
It is here that the modern controversy over Tibet first arose, as the Tibetans and Qing had very different interpretations of their new relationship. The Qing considered Tibet to be a vassal state and an addition to what they considered to be the geographical extent of China. This view that Tibet was a part of a greater Chinese whole continues to be held by the modern PRC.
Tibetans, on the other hand, viewed their relationship with the Qing as the continuation of the priest-patron relationship they had with the Khoshut, and they considered themselves to be otherwise functionally independent. Therefore, when the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people considered their relationship with China to be officially annulled, and all remaining Chinese troops in the province were expelled by 1913. The Republic of China and later the PRC never recognized this independence, however, and the region was occupied by the PRC in 1951.
Now, in a foreboding example of history rhyming, China is once again interfering in the succession of the Dalai Lama through their control over the Panchen Lama. It is the Panchen Lama who confirms the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation and successor following his death, but the Chinese have raised their own imposter to the position, with the true Panchen Lama’s fate remaining unknown.
By controlling the Panchen Lama, the PRC could nominate a Dalai Lama far more accepting of their occupation of Tibet. Of course, few Tibetans recognize this puppet Panchen Lama as legitimate, and the current 14th Dalai Lama is even considering ending the cycle of reincarnation as a means of keeping the office from being a mere stooge of the PRC.
Through the continued oppression of the Tibetan faith and culture, along with the ongoing controversy regarding succession, the future of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism may seem bleak. But, as seen with the battles between the Khoshut, Dzungars, and Qing over the region, the history of Tibet is defined by rapid, unpredictable change where the conquests of one year could easily be undone in the next.
And it is important to remember that the Tibetan people will not sit around passively for whatever fate awaits them; after all, it was the Tibetans who first invited the Dzungars to invade, and it was the Tibetans who drove them out before the Qing even arrived. While we cannot predict what the final outcome of the long struggle over Tibet will be, we can be certain that the Tibetan people will fight to have a say over their own future.
Works Cited:
Grousset, R. (2010). The Empire of the Steppes; a History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press.
Perdue, P. C. (2010). China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia. Belknap.
