raised a hue and cry, threatening to tear up the 17-article agreement and deal us a blow at the very outset. At the same time reactionary rumours were also being circulated: "The Communists won't tolerate the Buddhist faith; they want to destroy all religion." "When the People's Liberation Army men come, they'll kill all the senior lamas and drown the junior lamas in the river." "The bronze Buddha in the Potala is shedding tears," and so on. Soldiers of the reactionary army committed murder, rape and robbery and tried to blame their crimes on the P.L.A. Declaring that they would starve us to death, they threatened the people, telling them not to sell us food.

In these circumstances we ordered one of our detachments then stationed in the Loka area to move quickly to Lhasa, then we called on Lokongwa and Lozong Tsashi, the real bosses of the Tibetan local government. These pro-imperialist secessionists were the leaders of the big Tibetan serf-owners and ringleaders in the plot to prevent the People's Liberation Army from entering Tibet. When Lokongwa saw me, the first thing he did was to jeer: "Commander Chang, I bet being starved is harder to bear than being defeated in battle." I asked him whether he had seen the agreement on measures for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. He shrugged his shoulders and glanced around at the other Tibetan nobles and officials, his eyes looking fierce. I pressed him further, saying that the agreement was signed by representatives of both sides and that it clearly stipulated that the Tibetan local government should give every assistance to the People's Liberation Army entering Tibet to consolidate the national defences. I asked him severely whether he knew what he was doing. I handed him the document containing the 17-article agreement written in the Tibetan language. He held the agreement as if it was red hot. He trembled with rage then suddenly bawled: "How dare you bring your troops into Tibet!" I checked an involuntary laugh. So this evil, crazed man was at last speaking the truth. The imperialists who had always backed him could no longer be relied upon, and the very foundations of serfdom were about to crash. How could Lokongwa and his like who regarded this order of things as their very lifeblood not be panic-stricken?

The reactionaries by negative example were once again proving the revolutionary truth that the people can have nothing unless they have their own armed force. At that time, S. Sinha, leader of the Indian mission in Lhasa, a setup which the Indians had taken over from the British, told Lhalu, a reactionary kaloon [highest ranking official] of the Tibetan local government: "It was all right for you to sign the agreement, but you shouldn't have let the Liberation Army in!" Taking advantage of our peaceful liberation of Tibet, Indian troops since 1951 had occupied large tracts of our territory between the illegal McMahon Line and the foot of the Himalayas. These aggressive activities serve as a tell-tale footnote to Sinha's words.

Aspirations of Tibetan People

The people warmly welcomed what the reactionaries opposed. They were indignant when they learnt that the pro-imperialist secessionists had tried to prevent the unification of China and tear up the 17-article agreement. The sharp contrast between the sentiments of the people and those of the reactionaries was clearly brought out in the case of Tibet. The Tibetan local government, the apparatus for oppressing and exploiting the toiling masses, was made up of a handful of the biggest serf-owners. In order to suppress the people's just demand to fight against imperialism and serfdom, they had all along pursued a reactionary policy that made patriotism a crime and passed the death sentence on those who fought against imperialism. It is well known that they murdered Living Buddha Rabchen and other patriots in cold blood. The scorpion pit at the foot of the Potala was the place where they did away with anti-imperialist and patriotic Tibetans both from among the upper social strata and the men and women of the labouring people. But the Tibetan people have a glorious history of resistance to imperialist aggression and of ardent love of their motherland. The incidents of 1887 and 1904 in which the Tibetan people had heroically resisted the British are well known.

Once they realized that the People's Liberation Army was their own armed force, an army fighting for their liberation and welfare, they gave the P.L.A. the most enthusiastic support. There were many memorable instances of this during our march into Tibet. The people returned to us all the silver coins which in an airdrop operation broke loose and fell into gullies and bushes. When the cotton-padded uniforms of our soldiers got soaked in the rain or torn by the trees and shrubs, Tibetan women helped dry them by the fire or patch them up for us. In no time popular support to the P.L.A. developed into a great mass movement.

There were patriotic personages of the upper and middle social strata too who had long desired to return to the fold of the motherland, and this desire grew steadily stronger. They regarded the 17-article agreement as a great treasure and spread its contents wherever they went. While the reactionaries were doing their best to withhold food from us, many ordinary people and some prominent patriotic personages sent us sacks of qingke barley under cover of night. One of them tagged a note to his sack, saying: "We Tibetans are always with you, 'new Hans' and 'Buddhist soldiers'! Go ahead and drive the imperialist wolves away."

At that time, all power in Tibet was held firmly in the hands of the upper ruling class, and the people were kept under the strictest surveillance. Our work of uniting with and educating the people had to be done, in most cases, through the united front. The British and U.S. imperialists took every advantage of this fact, so that a sharp struggle had raged ever since our troops entered Lhasa, and this struggle was centred on whether the 17-article agreement should be enforced or sabotaged.

A Bright Future for Tibet

After we had dealt firmly with the handful of proimperialist secessionists headed by Lokongwa and Lozong Tsashi and administered a blow to their arrogance, the patriotic forces headed by Ngapo Ngawang-Jigme had felt further encouraged. They declared: "With the People's Liberation Army backing us up, we are not afraid of Lokongwa's scorpion pit." We actively supported and helped expand the patriotic forces among the upper social strata of the Tibetans and concentrated on winning over the many among these upper strata who were still wavering and undecided which way to go.

As we worked to win over these elements of the upper strata, we energetically stepped up our work to influence and unite with the people and the Tibetan nationality as a whole. During our march from Chamdo to Lhasa, we had taken every opportunity to help our suffering Tibetan compatriots. We gave them medical treatment, offered them relief, helped with the building of houses and irrigation projects, issued farm loans and implements. Furthermore, in accordance with Chairman Mao's instruction that "the march into Tibet must not be supplied on the spot," we stepped up our road building and transport activities and kept our troops and the people supplied with necessities. We also reclaimed wasteland and did miracles growing crops on the "roof of the world." All this greatly encouraged the Tibetan people and gave them confidence in building a new life in Tibet.

While we were waging these struggles against the reactionaries, the two other forces of the People's Liberation Army that had set out from Chinghatively supported and helped, arrived in Lhasa and Ari after a heroic march of thousands of li across high mountains, vast grasslands and turbulent rivers. Our five-starred national flag now flew over Lhasa, Nagchuka, Gartok, Shigatse, Gyantse, Yatung and high over China's Himalayas. At the same time, Panchen Erdeni arrived in Lhasa escorted by our troops and then proceeded to his native Shigatse. This reinforced the patriotic forces in Tibet.

Everything indicated that the Tibetan people who had suffered so deeply would finally smash their shackles and achieve complete liberation. We could already see a democratic, socialist new Tibet rising on the horizon.

(This article appears on page 15, No. 52, 1962)