1959 REBELLION

It was the rebellion that forced the central government, which had decided to suspend democratic reform in Tibet, to change its mind.

On the morning of March 10, 1959, Lhasa's streets were full of armed officers of the Dalai Lama's army and rebels fleeing from Sichuan to Lhasa, Wang remembered.

They urged ordinary people to gather in front of the Norbu Lingka, the palace garden where the 14th Dalai Lama spent summer days, to save him from "being poisoned by the PLA", "being kidnapped to Beijing by helicopter", he said. "They were ridiculous rumors. There was not yet helicopter service in Tibet. We had far fewer soldiers than the regional government.

"I saw a rebel tie the body of Phagpalha Sonam Gyatso (a Tibetan noble on the side of the central government) on his horse and drag it all the way from the Norbu Lingka to Lhasa. He was shouting, 'Anyone standing with Han people will end up like this!'"

In the following seven days, many PLA facilities including the command headquarters were hit by gun shots, said Wang, who was then a staff officer at the headquarters.

"I thought they were provocations. They wanted us to fire back so that they would have an excuse. The headquarters banned any soldier from firing back and asked them to wait for further instruction."

Five decades later, what Wang remembers as a violent rebellion was a "peaceful uprising" according to the 14th Dalai Lama.

On the night of March 17, the 14th Dalai Lama fled from the Norbu Lingka. Three days later, military action was taken to foil the rebellion and democratic reform followed.

The land and property of nobles, who took part in the rebellion, were confiscated by the state and distributed among their serfs. Those who did not take part in the rebellion could sell their land to the state and land was also given to the serfs. Nobles could keep their houses, other personal property and a portion of their land.

"I met a serf at a village in Lhasa's eastern suburb. He was weeping while talking to me: 'I had never imagined that I would have my own land in this life. I am human now, no longer a cow.'"

Democratic reform involved temples, whose privileges were revoked. But temples were not closed and monks were not evicted.

"A brother in arms told me about his work in temples. Monks could decide whether to stay in temples or not. Some decided to leave because they had not become monks of their own will. Some hated mistreatment of senior monks," Wang said. "This was the first time in centuries in Tibet that people had the freedom of not believing in Buddha.

"Since democratic reform, the central government has made mistakes, for example, during the Cultural Revolution. But these mistakes have been corrected," he said. "The reform gave 95 percent of the Tibetan population basic human rights for the first time and revoked privileges enjoyed by 5 percent of the population. Which is more important?"

Wang left Tibet in 1981 and worked as a researcher at the Beijing-based Academy of Military Sciences until 1988. Since leaving Tibet, he has rarely spoken of his years there.

Abroad, the 14th Dalai Lama, who is five years younger than Wang, has been a celebrity and frequent storyteller about the "lost Tibet". The Dalai Lama himself was brought up in the high castle of the Potala Palace and pretty garden of the Norbu Lingka since he was five years old, surrounded by nobles. He has been away from his homeland for five decades.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2009)