Enter the Dragon: Chinese Invasion
of Tibet continues...

In April 1974, after an ultimatum given by the Nepal Government to the Mustang Khampas, the Royal Nepalese Army mounted an operation against the Tibetans, guided by the renegade Baba Gen Yeshi’s followers. A parallel and coordinated operation by the PLA prevented them from breaking out into Tibet. Surrender appeals were given by the Nepalese authorities, and eventually the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamshala, in good faith, asked them to surrender to the Nepalese.

Many committed suicide rather than surrender, including most of the commanders. Only one group, led by Gompo Tashi Andrugtsang’s nephew Wangdu, refused to surrender and tried to break out, but was caught by a combination of betrayal and tactical manoeuvre by the Nepal Army while trying to break out into India, to the west. They were caught as they were trying to cross Tinker La, beyond which was India. Wangdu was killed in the firefight. Only the sixteen men who were not wounded managed to cross Tinker La by discarding their horses and scaling it from a different route to cross into India and safety. The Tibetan resistance was over. Of the Chinese take-over of Tibet an anonymous commentato states:

How many Tibetans were killed by the Chinese is not known, but in 1983, the names and destinies of 1,207,487 Tibetan victims were documented, who all met with death because of the Chinese.

Of these about 480,000 were from Kham, who fought a heroic guerrilla war against China 1956-74 until the Americans betrayed them by the deal of President Nixon with China.

To be continued...