As an anthropologist, I’ve studied Tibet for more than 30 years, and as a representative of the U.S. Tibet Committee, I’ve learned that Tibet is little-known. Today’s news shows Tibetans rebelling against Chinese occupation, but few know why.

China invaded its western neighbor soon after its 1950s Communist revolution and took over completely in 1959. Tibet’s leader, the Dalai Lama, fled south into India. Some 100,000 Tibetans followed. Several million Tibetans lost their lives as many were executed by occupying Chinese forces.

In the 13th century, a Mongol khan, Godan, converted to Buddhism and offered a special treaty with the central Asian country’s leader: In exchange for protection, the Tibetan monastics would serve as teachers to the Mongol people. Asian scholar and historian, T.V. Wylie, wrote (l977, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies) that this treaty has been the basis for China’s claim that Tibet has been a part of China since then.

The British representative to Tibet, Hugh Richardson, wrote (1984, Shambala, London, Tibet and Its History) that the arrangement was with Mongols, who later conquered and ruled China.

Separately, each country ultimately recovered independence from Mongol rule. Thus, Richardson explained, there was no basis to the claim by China today that Tibet had been under Chinese rule since the time of the “Yuan” or Mongol dynasty.

China never “ruled” Tibet, and in fact, neither did the Mongols. It was a “patron-priest” relationship.

United Nations committee investigations have determined that Tibet was an independent country. Since China’s occupation, major human rights organizations have shown that genocide programs of sterilization and relocation of Han Chinese to Tibet has resulted in Han outnumbering Tibetans. Traditional ways of life are forcibly altered, any criticism may result in torture and imprisonment and religion is suppressed, regardless of tourist propaganda.