Red Guards in Tibet

The Red Guards in Tibet

On August 8, 1966, the decision was issued to start the Great Cultural Revolution by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Red Guards were dispersed throughout China, at this time Tibet formed their own Red Guard in Lhasa.  This began the Cultural Revolutions destruction of Tibetan prayer flags, religious art, and sacred texts. In September 1966, Red Guards from Xianyang and Beijing began to arrive in Lhasa. These Guard came from the Tibetan Nationality Institute and joined with local Red Guards to intensify the campaign against the “four olds” and class enemies.  Public “struggle sessions” were held by the Red Guards against “reactionaries” or “capitalists”, in which people were beaten, and publicly shamed. Zhang Guohua and the Regional Party Committee wanted to minimize the Red Guards access and criticism of the party leaders. On September 19, 1966 The Red Guards created and distributed big character poster that openly advocated the bombardment of the Regional Party Committee to many counties in Tibet. In November 1966 there was a city wide debate hosted by ten revolutionary organizations this was to decide whether the Regional Party Committee had been “implementing a bourgeois reactionary line”. This divided Lhasa into two factions both who claimed to be true followers of Mao Zedong, Gyenlo and Nyamdre. The State Council in Beijing once again gave instructions that banned the exchange of revolutionary experiences in Tibet, this was ignored. On December 4th, 1966 the State Council announced regulations requiring the Red Guards who were still in Lhasa to leave Tibet and return to their own localities by December 20th. Beijing Red Guards in Lhasa were given permission to stay by the Central Cultural Revolution Group, headed by, Jiang Qing. Red Guards ousted Party leaders and took over their positions. In 1968, Mao sent People’s Liberation Army troops into Tibet gain control. This resulted in a series of public executions. In 1969 the People’s Liberation Army disarmed the Red Guards all across China.

Sinicization of Tibet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet

The Red Guards in Tibet

Dreyer, J. (1968) ‘China’s Minority Nationalities in the Cultural Revolution’, The China Quarterly, 35, pp. 96–109. doi: 10.1017/S0305741000032124.

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Heaslet, Juliana Pennington. "The Red Guards: Instruments of Destruction in the Cultural Revolution." Asian Survey 12, no. 12 (1972): 1032-047. doi:10.2307/2643022.

History of Tibet (1950–present) is the article I am reviewing. This week's assignment if I understand it correctly is to post a bibliography on the articles talk page and my sandbox that will help with the issues of the article.

Bibliography

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Heath, John B. Tibet and China in the twenty-first century: non-violence versus state power. Saqi Books, 2005.

Norbu, Dawa. Red star over Tibet. Sterling Publishers Pvt., Ltd., 1987.

Smith, Warren W. "The nationalities policy of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist transformation of Tibet." Resistance and Reform in Tibet (1994): 51-75.

Sperling, Elliot. "Tibet and China: The interpretation of history since 1950." China Perspectives 3 (2009): 25.

Yeh, Emily T. "Modernity, Memory And Agricultural Modernisation In Central Tibet, 1950–1980." Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the IATS, 2003. Volume 11: Tibetan Modernities. Brill, 2008.