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Tibet: The Lost Frontier and Missed Opportunity
A book review by Tenzin Yangchen
French born writer, Claude Arpi, is a zealous student of the history of Tibet, China, India, and their status in international politics. He has been living in Auroville, India, where he is married to an Indian. Today, he is well known for writing authoritative books and articles about geopolitics, environment and Indo-French relations. Tibet: The Lost Frontier unfolds the history of the Roof of the World and her political contacts with two giant neighbors, India and China. Arpi notes that history of these three nations demonstrate that Tibet and China constantly had a relation on the basis of force and power while Tibet and India had more of a cultural and religious relationship based on shared spiritual values. From the emergence of Buddhism during the reign of king Lha Thothori Nyatsen in the fifth century (AD) to border issues over Arunachal Pradesh between India and China in the 21st century, this book elaborates the importance of the Tibetan plateau, which not only holds the key to the well-being of Asia, but it also has a huge impact on the relationship between India and China.
Moreover, Arpi attempts the major turning points in the history of Tibet and its relation with rest of the Asia to re-clarify the claims that China is making today to prove that Tibet was never an independent country. For instance, "priest-patron" relationship with the Mongol empire, when Goden, son of Ogedei, thought that despite the power of Yuan dynasty in Asia, Mongols would need a religion to prepare for next life. Khubilai Khan later adopted Buddhism as his empire's state religion. Thus, the cornerstone relationship continued as the lamas were given temporal power over Tibet while Tibet was given protection against outside interference. This was called "choeyon" relationship that was mainly to help relations between the Yuan and Tibet. Unfortunately, China is using this to justify sovereignty over Tibet.
The book, chronologically, contains gist of events, in which it is fully established that Tibet had handled its own internal and external affairs. For example, Arpi gives details about the Gurkha War of 1788 with Tibet over currency exchange rate and use of Nepalese coins in Tibet. Evidently, Tibetans had asked Manchus to intervene because Tibetans regarded Manchu Ambans as ambassadors of Chinese court in Lhasa. However, it is yet again unfortunate that China today argues that such a request made by the Eighth Dalai Lama to chase Gurkha troops out of Tibet makes Tibet a part of China. Like the Gurkha War, many other events have occurred throughout the history of Tibet, in which Tibet has entered into negotiations with Nepal, India, British, etc, without legally having to inform or to ask permission from the Chinese government.
Moreover, the core emphasis of the book is the crucial year of 1950, when Arpi said that the current political status of all three nations could have been different and smooth if they tried to have peaceful negotiation with good intentions. Mao's People's Liberation Army (PLA) attacked Korea and Tibet in 1950 and Tibet received no attention from the outside world in saving its sovereignty from the communist regime. Tibetan government began to realize that Tibet was under threat and sent Tibetan people like Tsepon Shakabpa to Delhi to urge Beijing to hold talks there. In the mean time, the young Dalai Lama and Tibetan government appealed to the United Nations (UN), India, Nepal, Britain, and U.S for immediate intervention, but the door was closed for from all sides. Although there were long debates in the Indian Parliament about India's policy on Tibet and tremendous efforts from El Salvador to bring the Tibet issue on the UN General Assembly agenda, no country had a strong sense of optimism over the future of Tibet. Arpi emphasizes the role of Nehru, who believed that it was more important for India to have "eternal friendship" with China rather than attempting to understand the intention behind Mao's mind. Such failure from Nehru's side had made India blind to the goals of the communists.
Tibet: The Lost Frontier contains in-depth account of Indo-China relations, exclusively obtained from the Indian government's archives. Such diligent effort from the author's side makes this book very interesting and different from others. More so, Arpi touches hard on Indo-China border issue, which people tend to avoid because of its sensitivity. Arpi suggested that the Indian government should take appropriate steps in building constructive infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh to prevent any further claims by China. Most importantly, I absolutely agree with Arpi that history and current situation of the Roof of the World, India, and China would be very different if the three nations had tried to settle the territorial disputes in 1950 with good intentions. I truly believe he had made this reasonable recommendation based on knowledge that he gained throughout his career. Thus, I, without doubt, recommend everyone to read this book, which unfolds the events that make up the current political and territorial status of Asia's three richest civilizations.
(Tenzin Yangchen has been volunteering as an intern at the Department of Information and International Relations, CTA. She is an undergrad student in Government and International Relations at Smith College, Massachusetts. The views expressed here are entirely personal. )
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