Background and historical events leading up to the Issue

 

 The landlocked nation of Tibet is situated between two of the most populous nations of the world, India and China and is separated from India in the south by the towering Himalaya mountain range and from China in in the northeast also by extensive mountain ranges. Since the 13th century following Mongol rule, the Tibetan Plateau has been either under Chinese control or influence on and off for well over seven centuries. In 1910 the Chinese Empire led a military invasion and eventually captured the region one year later in 1911, the time of revolution in the mainland. Until the 1940's Tibet operated as an independent nation. Yet Tibet's independence was only short-lived as the situation changed upon China becoming a communist state under Chairman Mao Zedong in in the year 1949 and the subsequent birth of the People’s Republic of China.
 In the year 1951 the Tibetan Plateau was invaded by the People’s Republic of China and subsequently the current Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) escaped into northern India for asylum and eventually was followed by approximately 80,000 Tibetan follower refugees during the following months. The PRC has also destroyed numerous monasteries and historical places of both cultural and religious significance. The Tibetan capital Lhasa is now Han Chinese in majority  and governed by a pro-Chinese puppet, called the Panchen Lama of whom is not recognised by the exiled Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1989 for his peaceful resistance to the oppression of his people and a model for all oppressed peoples the world over. Since the invasion by the People’s Republic of China, Tibet has been under Chinese rule and is till this day. Tibetans feel their culture is under threat and sadly artefacts of cultural and historical significance have been destroyed. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers upon capturing the capital, Lhasa shelled the Dalai Lamas summer palace with around 800 shells destroying the ancient building as well as around 300 houses in the Palaces vicinity. Many Monasteries have been destroyed since the Cultural Revolution swept China and as a result many ancient artefacts and places of cultural and religious significance have been lost and religion has been suppressed under Communist rule.