A few years ago, while flying over the Tibetan Plateau on my way to Beijing, I was intrigued to see vast stretches without any sign of settlement. I wondered how Tibetans in the early 50s were able to find their way around while fighting against the well-equipped People’s Liberation Army.[break]
As a kid, I had heard about the Khampa resistance backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but there was very little information available on the low-profiled guerrilla war. I had to be content with snippets of news available at times, until I finally came upon Mikel Dunham’s book “Buddha’s Warriors.”
Buddha’s Warriors is a provocative book that tells you about the history, culture and social fabrics of Tibet, Tibetan rule on Tibet, and its relations with China before Mao Zedong invaded it. My initial apprehension to start this book withered as I started reading it.
Mikel narrates the story of Tibet in the 40s and 50s, emphasizing the lack of cohesion among the Tibetans themselves, the timidity of high officials, the lackadaisical attitude of residents of Lhasa and the lack of communication. These were a few reasons, among many, that contributed to the failure of the Tibetan resistance movement.The author highlights the role of the Dalai Lama without prejudices. Like many Tibetans, HH Dalai Lama, too, was kept in the dark about the imminent problems that Tibet was going to face.
One of the most important issues that “Buddha’s Warriors” raises is the recruitment of Khampas by the CIA to push the agitation further, without the knowledge of India to foster an anti-Communist insurgency. Mikel scathingly attacks India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for his indifferent attitude towards the Tibetans, which further made it difficult to internationalize the Chinese aggression against Tibet.
Based on interviews with several survivors of the Tibetan resistance movement and CIA officials involved in this secret operation over the period of seven years, the book is a vivid account of horrors, atrocities and barbarism that Tibetans were (and still are) forced to endure while resisting the advances made by the Chinese Army. Change in guard in the US was a big blow to the Khampa warriors, and it forced the CIA to abandon its operations.
Mikel appears to be emotionally charged in the book and strongly condemns the Chinese. Nonetheless, the writer also criticizes the Lhasans for their nonchalant attitude to problems faced by other Tibetan areas.
The convergence of myth and reality in the present-day Tibet is the indication of what lies inside the Pandora’s Box for Tibet and Tibetans in the future. With the growing influence of China in global politics, many countries may find the Tibetan issue trivial.
The book fails to analyze the future of the Tibetan movement that has protracted despite the disbanding of the Khampa Resistance movement. Even so, the occasional angry outbursts, which come from Tibetans, clearly echo the sentiments of Tibetans for their homeland.
The last paragraph of the book surmises what Tibet is for the posterity: Perhaps Maitreya, the future Buddha, will locate Tibet in people’s hearts rather than on a page in an atlas – thus bringing Tibet’s mysteries full circle to a time, before 1950, when it was just a blank space on a classroom globe.
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