In ancient times, the Tibetans on the plateau
cultivated a close relationship with the Han and with other
ethnic groups from the Chinese interior. In the 7th century,
this relationship reached its peak when Srong-btsan Sgam-po
(Songtsan Gambol, the king of the Tubo kingdom who ruled the
Tibetan Plateau at that time twice sent envoys to the Tang
Dynasty emperor to propose to Princess Wen Cheng who he
later married. The Tibetans and Hans had through the
marriage of their royal families and various meetings,
formed close economic and cultural relations, laying the
groundwork for the ultimate foundation of a unified nation.
In Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the
statue of Princess Wen Cheng is still enshrined and
worshipped in the Potala Palace. The Monument to the
Alliance between the Tibetans and the Han erected in the 9th
century still stands in the square in front of the Jokhang
Temple.
Relations between Tibet and
China continued to develop afterwards. In the 13th century,
the ruler of Tibet met a Yuan Dynasty prince and officially
decided on the terms for Tibetan submission to China
including presenting the prince with map and census books,
the payment of tributes and the acceptance of rule by
appointed officials. From then on, Tibet was an official
administrative region of China. This happened 200 years
before Colombus' discovery of the Americas. In the following
several hundred years,though there were shifts in the
political power of the central government and the local
Tibetan government alike, relations between them became more
and more close, and Tibet's position as an administrative
region of China has never changed. Rulers of both the Ming
Dynasty, founded in the 14th century, and the Qing Dynasty
founded in the 17th century were directly responsible for
the appointment of Tibets' local officials, as well as for
the selection of high commissioners stationed in Tibet to
supervise local administration on behalf of the central
authorities.
The majority of Tibetans
believe in Tibetan Buddhism of which many sects developed
during Tibet's long history. After the establishment of the
Qing Dynasty in the 17th century, the emperors granted
honorific titles to the 5th Dalai Lama and the 5th Baingen
Erdeni of the Gelukpa sect in 1653 and 1713 respectively
henceforth officially establishing the titles of the Dalai
Lama and the Baingen Erdeni and their political and
religious status in Tibet. The Dalai Lama in Lhasa ruled
most of Tibet while the Baingen Erdeni ruled the remaining
area from Xigaze. The Chinese emperors also enacted
regulations stipulating that the selection of children said
to be the reincarnations of the Dalai Lama or Baingen Lama
should be reported to the imperial court for approval, and
that the central government would send high officials to
supervise in person. The discovery of the 14th Dalai Lama
who is in exile at present was indeed reported to the
central government by the Tibetan local government in the
traditional manner after the death of the 13th Dalai Lama.
In 1940 the Chairman of the national government issued an
official decree conferring the title of the Dalai Lama.
After the People's Republic of China
was founded, the central government notified local Tibetan
authorities to ''send delegates to Beijing to negotiate the
peaceful liberation of Tibet''. On 23rd May 1951, the
''17-Article Agreement'' was signed after delegates from the
central government and the local Tibetan government reached
agreement on a series of questions concerning Tibet's
peaceful liberation. The Dalai Lama sent a telegram and the
Baingen Lama issued a statement both supporting the
''17-Article Agreement'' and expressing their de sires to
''safeguard the unification of the motherland and her
territorial sovereignty.''
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