THE REVOLT IN TIBET

by Frank Moraes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 25, 1959

This is both an account of the rebellion which broke out in Tibet in March of 1959 a few days after the Dalai Lama had fled to India and a short political history of Tibet. has been a theocracy since the eleventh century when the religious strength of Lamaism began to assert itself and throughout its history this isolated and impenetrable country has asserted its independence whenever China has been weak and unwillingly accepted Peking's authority when the Chinese were overwhelmingly strong. In 1911 after the Manchu dynasty collapsed the Dalai Lama declared Tibet independent and until 1951 that country functioned as independent. The author traces Tibet's social and religious structure before the Communist invasion, the growth of Lamaism, which is not very different from Indian Buddhism, the procedures governing the selection of the Dalai Lama and he examines in some detail the relationship between China, Tibet and India. He discusses Nehru's policy which has been one of appeasement toward China while respecting Tibet's autonomy and he feels that India's attitude in 1950 when the Tibetan appeal came before the U.N. was both equivocal and inexcusable. ""Like Czechoslovakia twelve years before Tibet was sold down the river."" Moraes does not believe that India deliberately aided China in absorbing Tibet but he thinks that India's non-interference was a colossal blunder. The fate of Tibet unmasked China and Moraes ventures the opinion that if any good at all is to result from the event it will be as a lesson to Asia. A competent piece of journalism. The author includes a report of an interview with the Dalai Lama.

Pub Date: Jan. 25, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1959

Categories: NONFICTION