Tenzin Gyatso

  b. 1935 | Tibetan spiritual leader

At The Bottom

— 1959

Political dissidents were tortured, disemboweled, hacked to pieces, and dragged to their deaths behind horses.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 24-year-old Buddhist leader of the Tibetan people, had watched with horror for the past several years as the Chinese brutalized his people. Gyatso was known to Tibetans as the 14th Dalai Lama — a hereditary title given to the leaders of the Gelug sect, who were also the leaders of the Tibetan state. He had been formally enthroned as Tibetan ruler in November 1950, a few weeks after the Chinese invaded and occupied his country.  The Chinese claimed sovereignty over Tibet and soon forced the Dalai Lama to accept an agreement that handed over control of his country to the communist government in Beijing.  Though the Dalai Lama was allowed to retain his title, he was a mere figurehead, without any real authority; as a Buddhist, he resolved to try and maintain peace in his country, believing that violence could only be counterproductive.  Over the next decade, however, the Chinese waged a brutal campaign against Tibetan resistance fighters.  They bombed towns and villages, killing thousands and causing many more to flee into overcrowded refugee camps near larger cities like Lhasa.  Political dissidents were tortured, disemboweled, hacked to pieces, and dragged to their deaths behind horses.  In 1959, the Tibetan resistance became an open rebellion.  When it was rumored that Chinese military officials were going to take the Dalai Lama into custody in their quest to suppress the revolt, tens of thousands of his followers surrounded his residence at Norbulingka Palace.  After several tense days in which the Tibetan people faced down the Chinese army, army officials informed the Dalai Lama that they would soon begin firing on the crowd.  Realizing that escape would be the only means of preventing massive bloodshed, Gyatso disguised himself as a Tibetan soldier and slipped out of the palace. Three weeks later — after a difficult, mountainous trek through rainstorms and blizzards — the exhausted young man crossed the border into India, not knowing if he would ever see his homeland again.