About the Book: A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 1: The Demise of the Lamaist
State, 1913-1951
The "Tibetan Question, " the nature of Tibets political status vis-à-vis China,
has been the subject of often bitterly competing views while the facts of the
issue have not been fully accessible to interested observers. While one faction
has argued that Tibet was, in the main, historically independent until it was
conquered by the Chinese Communists in 1951 and incorporated into the new
Chinese state, the other faction views Tibet as a traditional part of China that
split away at the instigation of the British after the fall of