1942: Tibet

With the severance of the Burma Road by Japan, the United Nations sought new methods of bringing supplies into China. Late in June 1942 it was understood that the British and Chinese governments had made representations in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, concerning the development of pack transport routes through that country as a link between China and India.

In Sikiang, a far western Chinese province, The People's Daily, first Tibetan newspaper to be published in China, appeared on Feb. 3. It was edited by the secretary of the former Panchen Lama with the assistance of Tibetans from Sikiang, Tibet and Nepal. The object was to develop closer understanding between Tibetans and Chinese.

1941: Tibet

There were further signs in 1941 of a political rapprochement between China and Tibet, increasingly evident since the death of the old Dalai Lama in 1933 and enthronement of the Chinese candidate as the new Dalai Lama in 1940. In January two representatives of the Reting Hutukhtu, Regent of Tibet, after making the long overland journey from Lhasa, conferred with China's government leaders in Chungking for several weeks. In September it was announced at Chungking that the postal service connecting West China with Lhasa, which had been suspended in 1918, would shortly be restored. The Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission of the Chinese government ordered its offices in Changtu (Chamdo) and Tehko (Gonchen) to purchase horses and hire couriers in readiness for resumption of the mail service to Lhasa. From Chungking, on July 1, also came news that the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, second most important Tibetan spiritual dignitary who had died late in 1937, had been discovered at Lihua, 90 miles west of Tachienlu. A special council of Tibetan lamas had formally notified the Lhasa government of this event. The child, named Tuden Dochi, was reported to have been born on Dec. 2, 1937, the approximate date of the former Panchen Lama's death, which occurred at Kantse on the Tibetan-Chinese border during his attempted return to Tibet after an exile of 13 years.

1940: Tibet

The outstanding event of the year 1940 in Tibet was the installation on Feb. 22 of Ling-erh Tanchu, the six-year old Chinese boy from Kokonor, as temporal head of the only theocracy in the world today. He will be the fourteenth Dalai Lama to rule Tibet, and is believed by the Tibetans to be the reincarnation of the thirteenth Dalai Lama who died at Lhasa in December 1933. He will rule as 'His Holiness, the Precious Dalai Lama, Owner of All Living Things in the Snowy Country.'

The enthronement ceremony took place in the fabulous golden-roofed Potala Palace-Monastery-Fortress, which stands on a high hill overlooking the central Lhasa plain.

The day was marked throughout the country by pious rejoicing and festivities, and Lhasa presented a colorful scene of medieval splendor as the long ceremonial procession moved slowly from the Summer Palace of Norbhu Lingka to the Potala, three miles away. Little Ling-erh himself, dressed in scarlet brocaded robes and wearing a yellow satin cap on his shaven head, sat behind thin golden curtains on a gold palanquin which was supported on four long poles held by priests clad in brilliant scarlet robes and wearing yellow hats. In the procession were the highest religious and lay dignitaries of Tibet, including the Regent, who actually will govern the country for the next twelve years or until the boy reaches the age of eighteen.

Jechen Hutuktu, the regent, is known to be friendly with the Chinese government at Chungking, and, as a symbol of Tibetan allegiance to China, a portrait of the late Chinese leader, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, was unveiled as part of the enthronement ceremonial. During the ceremonies, General Hu Ching-hsin, Chairman of the Mongolian-Tibetan Affairs Commission at Chungking, sat at the left of the new Dalai Lama, being thus accorded equal status with the enthroned ruler.

Of late years, and especially since the death of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, who had proclaimed Tibet an autonomous state in 1912, relations between China and Tibet have greatly improved and high hopes are held by the Chinese for increasingly active cooperation between the two countries. A friendly attitude on the part of Tibet is particularly important to the Chungking régime now, since Japan has declared its intention of creating a Special Tibetan Administrative District under the puppet government of Wang Ching-wei, set up at Nanking, China on March 30, 1940.

Trade relations between Lhasa and Chungking already have been greatly improved and negotiations are now under way for the development of Tibet's vast mineral resources by the Chinese government. It is even expected that Tibet will give some sort of active help to Chungking in its fight against Japan.

Tibet is still without a spiritual ruler, or Panchen Lama, and search is now being made for a successor to the late Panchen Lama, who, after long exile in China, died on his way back to Tibet in 1937. His spirit, according to Tibetan belief, entered into the body of some infant born at the moment of his death, and by means of the usual mystic rituals, it is expected that within the next year or two the child will be found into whose body the spirit of the departing spiritual leader of the Tibetans entered.

1939: Tibet

The long search that has been going on for a successor to the thirteenth Dalai Lama, who died in 1933, ended in February 1939, when it was announced that three six-year-old boys had been found, all of whom were born at the time the Dalai Lama died, and that the usual ritual would be carried out to determine which child was the reincarnation of the late ruler. Two of the children were discovered near Lhasa, and another in the Province of Kokonor, or Chinghai, northeast of Tibet. At Lhasa, in October 1939, in a colorful and mystic ceremonial, the names of the three boys were written on pieces of paper which were rolled up and placed in a golden urn. Then, amid burning incense and the chanting of Buddhist scriptures by high lama priests, one of the rolls of paper was withdrawn from the urn by a Chinese envoy from the Chungking Government, while the three small candidates, with shaven heads, and attired in splendid red robes, stood by in silent wonderment. The name on the roll was that of the boy from Kokonor, son of a prosperous landowner and cattle herder, named Tanchu, who was thereupon proclaimed the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Lama Tanchu, though born in the Chinese Province of Chinghai, is pure Tibetan. During his minority the child will be under the care and tutelage of Tibetan priests and thoroughly instructed in the Buddhist scriptures, and a regent will rule the country. The present Regent is head of a group which is friendly to China and seeks closer relations with that country. Tibet is nominally a part of China, but relations between the two countries, until late years, have been strained. In February 1939, speaking at Chungking, a high official of the Chinese Government referred to Tibet as one of the great 'back territories,' upon whose resources China could rely. The attitude of the Chinese Government towards Tibet, while entirely friendly, is firm. Although China is willing to allow Tibet full control over its internal religious and political affairs, it is urged that foreign relations, international trade and defense should be under the jurisdiction of the National Government of China. A Chinese radio station in Lhasa is now in constant communication with Chungking. A Chinese school, the first of its kind in that country has been established and others are to follow, where the rudiments of a modern education will be taught.

1938: Tibet

As the New Year came in Tibet, ancient rites were again being held in the strange religious and political struggle that has been going on there since 1933, to determine who will be absolute ruler of this mysterious land. The Dalai Lama, who was political ruler of Tibet, died in 1933; and since then the country actually has been ruled by a group of his followers called Gudras, although a regent had been appointed to take temporary charge of affairs. It was these Gudras, who, at the beginning of the year and later, were testing the truth of the claim that the Dalai Lama was reincarnated in the body of a baby boy discovered at Jyekundo by the followers of the Panchen Lama. The latter, who was spiritual head of Tibet, died on his way back to Lhasa in November 1937. He had been living in exile in China, whither he had been driven by the Dalai, since 1924. The future religious and temporal peace of Tibet will depend largely on whether the ritual tests by the lama priests favorable to the Gudras confirm the reincarnation supported by the followers of the Panchen Lama, or declare that the latter are mistaken. So far, no decision has been reached.

The regent appointed after the death of the Dalai Lama died early in August 1938, and there has been considerable turmoil since then, as the country has been left with practically no government except that of the Gudras. These supporters of the old Dalai Lama recently have been reported to be sympathetic to the Young Tibet Party, which favors the modernization of Tibet; and if the program of this group is carried through, it will probably mean a renewal of the old three-cornered struggle between Great Britain, Russia, and China for a dominant place in Tibetan affairs. The country is very rich agriculturally and is reported to contain fabulous mineral resources. Most of its trade today is carried over the ancient camel caravan routes which lead to the northern provinces of India.

Late in August, there was an army rebellion against what governmental authority remains in Tibet. This was crushed, however; but the rebel leader escaped. The real cause of the rebellion has not been made clear, but conditions seem still to be disturbed.

Late in November, the Government at Lhasa pledged its support to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in his struggle against Japan's invasion.