Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910)

Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910)
Date 1910 Location Tibet Result Qing victory
Belligerents
Qing Dynasty	Tibet
Commanders and leaders
Zhao Erfeng Zhong Ying	13th Dalai Lama

The 1910 Chinese expedition to Tibet or the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1910[1] was a military campaign of the Qing dynasty to establish direct rule in Tibet in early 1910. The expedition occupied Lhasa on February 12 and officially deposed the 13th Dalai Lama on the 25th.[2]

History

Qing rule of Tibet was established in the early 18th century after the 1720 Chinese expedition to Tibet.

After the British expedition to Tibet in 1904 and the Sino-British treaty in 1906, the Qing sent the 1910 expedition to Tibet to assert full control. As Professor Dawa Norbu stated, the British expedition and Treaty of Lhasa forced China to establish firm military control over Tibet. Afterwards, the Dalai Lama then fled to India.[3]

In the late winter of 1910, the Qing government in Beijing was furious with the 13th Dalai Lama. His government, having witnessed the dissolution of its domains in Khams by Qing administrators, and fearing that the amban in Lhasa was going to eliminate its temporal authority, cut this imperial officer off from the sustenance that the Tibet government had guaranteed him in a prior agreement with the Qing court. When a relief column arrived in Lhasa from Sichuan to break the amban out of his isolation, the Dalai Lama fled for British India.[4]

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution and the Xinhai Lhasa turmoil in 1911–1912, the Qing dynasty collapsed and was succeeded by the Republic of China (1912–1949).

See also

• Tibet under Qing rule
• Xinhai Lhasa turmoil
• Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720)
• 1905 Tibetan Rebellion
• Zhao Erfeng
• Tibet (1912–51)

References

1. Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History, by Canyon Sam, p258
2. Melvyn C. Goldstein. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State.
3. 1949-, Dawa Norbu (1999). Tibet : the road ahead. New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers India. ISBN 9788172233617. OCLC 68481965.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
4. Max Oidtmann, Playing the Lottery with Sincere Thoughts: the Manchus and the selection of incarnate lamas during the last days of the Qing, Academia.edu, 40 p., p. 1.