Most people of the present generation have got used to hearing Chinese claims about Tibet as its ‘inalienable part.’ They had hardly any opportunity or even curiosity to know that Tibet was a free nation for centuries and India and Tibet enjoyed peaceful neighbourly relations until China occupied Tibet in 1950-51 and walked down to Indian Himalayas to convert it overnight from ‘India-Tibet’ border to ‘India-China’ border. And since 1959 when the Dalai Lama, the ruler and supreme religious leader of Tibet, escaped from Chinese hands and took asylum in India, the world has got used to knowing Tibet more through his peaceful and non-violent persona and Buddhism than a nation suffering from colonial occupation. So, it may sound strange to many people that Tibetan people could also be fearsome fighters, who waged decades of a bloody guerrilla war to regain their country from Chinese occupation but failed against the massive war machine of Communist China and also due to near absence of any experience and strategy to fight against an organised army.
A new book Echoes From Forgotten Mountains: Tibet in War and Peace is surely going to surprise such people. Written by famous Tibetan writer Jamyang Norbu, this book presents a very different but authentic facet of Tibet and its people. It tells the engrossing story of how Tibetan people fought vigorously against the Chinese Communist Party and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) which were far superior in terms of equipment, manpower, fighting experience and strategic wisdom. Although this is not the first ever book on this subject but Jamyang Norbu’s years long research and his own experience as a guerrilla fighter in his youth days makes it stand out as it presents many untold stories which introduce readers to the great fighting spirit of Tibet’s ordinary people including housewives, monks, nuns and nomads. He was a guerrilla soldier of ‘Chu Shi Gangdruk’ which is defunct today but has been a source of terror and fear for the Chinese and their PLA from early 1950s to mid-1970s period. Jamyang is a highly acclaimed political commentator, researcher, historian, novelist and a popular playwright which makes him the most suitable living Tibetan to write on the history of Tibetan people’s armed struggle against China. His earlier books like ‘Illusion and Reality’, ‘Buying the Dragon’s Teeth’,’ Shadow Tibet’ and ‘Don’t Stop the Revolution’ have been received quite well while his novel ‘The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes’ won the Crossword Book Award in 2000 and has been translated in over a dozen languages.
The unending stream of self-immolation by Tibetan people to give voice to the Tibetan people’s refusal to accept China’s rule over their country is an unambiguous indication of Tibetans’ resolve for freedom
A major part of his book is based on Jamyang’s personal interviews, spread over many years, with numerous individuals who were either first hand witness to Tibet’s war with China or their family members. One of his interviewees was Robert Ford (1923-2013), the only radio operator of the Tibetan Government and the only foreigner living permanently in Tibet when China’s PLA attacked and occupied a big part of Eastern Tibet. Ford told Jamyang about his discussions with General Karchung of the Tibetan Army who had faced the first attack of PLA on Oct 7, 1950, at Riwoche and was later in Chinese captivity along with Ford. Quoting from his long interviews with Ford, Jamyang points out that there was only one radio receiver at Ford’s command when PLA entered Tibet. If the Tibetan army had one more radio at Riwoche and another at Markham then the history of Tibet would have been different. “In just, possibly, a week or so, the many high passes in that region would have become snowbound………… The Chinese would have had to force their pack animals and porters through the many snowbound passes to Chamdo, and that would unquestionably have led to a disaster (for PLA)….”
A section of rare and good quality historic photos and maps add to the authenticity of this book and are useful for researchers. The photo section has some rare and interesting photos of guerrilla fighters like the teams of paratroopers who were dropped by the CIA deep inside Tibet. One can say for sure that this book is a monumental documentation of the brave armed struggle of Tibetan people against a powerful and ruthless colonial power. On the strength of my, whatsoever limited, knowledge and understanding of Tibet and the people of Tibet over the past five decades I can safely predict that this book is going to prove one of the most detailed and authentic monographs of Tibetan people’s armed struggle and their desire for national independence.
