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Enter the Dragon: Chinese Invasion
of Tibet continues...
In December 1956 (the tenth Tibetan month of the Fire-Monkey Year), Gompo Tashi collected twenty-seven tribal leaders of Kham at his Lhasa residence and formed the secret resistance movement known as the Chushi Gangdrug (‘Four Rivers, Six Mountain Ranges’), and decided to actively resist the Chinese Communists in a coordinated manner.
They swore a sacred oath in front of a painting of Palden Lhamo, the patron goddess of Tibet and an autographed photo of the Dalai Lama, to dedicate their lives to fighting the Chinese until there was an end to communist occupation.
On June 16, 1958, twenty-three groups of the Chushi Gangdrug met at Lhodak Dham Dzong, just to the north of the Bhutan border in the Lhoka region, south of the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River in central Tibet, roughly south of Lhasa, and formed the ‘Volunteer Freedom Fighters.’
Thus began the organized Khampa resistance, acting both from within Tibet and from the Tibetan border regions, with not much coordination, but whose overall activities were known to the three topmost Tibetans involved, Gompo Tashi Andrugtsang, Taktser Rimpoche, and Gyalo Thondup. The Dalai Lama was not even aware of this till he fled to India in 1959, nor was he ever actively involved thereafter.
To be continued...