1959 Tibetan Rebellion

1959 Tibetan Uprising
Part of Cold War
Date 10–21 March 1959 Location Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China Result PRC victory
Belligerents
Tibet Chushi Gangdruk Supported by:  United States	People's Republic of China
Commanders and leaders
14th Dalai Lama	Mao Zedong
Casualties and losses
85,000–87,000 (disputed; see below)

The 1959 Tibetan Uprising or the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Area, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China since the Seventeen Point Agreement was reached in 1951. Armed conflict between Tibetan rebels and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had started in 1956 in the Kham and Amdo regions, which had been subjected to socialist reform. The guerrilla warfare later spread to other areas of Tibet and lasted through 1962.

The anniversary of the uprising is observed by some Tibetan exiles as the Tibetan Uprising Day. The anniversary of its end is officially celebrated in Communist-controlled Tibet as Serfs Emancipation Day.

In 1951, a seventeen point agreement between the People's Republic of China and representatives of the Dalai Lama was put into effect. Socialist reforms such as redistribution of land were delayed in Tibet proper. However, eastern Kham and Amdo (western Sichuan and Qinghai provinces in the Chinese administrative hierarchy) were outside the administration of the Tibetan government in Lhasa, and were thus treated more like other Chinese provinces, with land redistribution implemented in full. The Khampas and nomads of Amdo traditionally owned their own land. Armed resistance broke out in Amdo and eastern Kham in June 1956.

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