The project’s source documents consist of propaganda texts, memoirs and newspapers produced in the Tibetan language both by the Chinese government and by supporters of the former Tibetan government shortly after its reconstitution in exile in India in 1959. The texts date from the early 1950s, when socialist reforms imposed by the PRC first triggered resistance by Tibetans, until ca. 1965, when the Tibetan “rebellion” was finally suppressed, at least within the borders of the PRC. These “semi-primary” materials, although often propagandistic, are the only known contemporary accounts of the historical period in any quantity. The material consists of two main categories.
Contemporary newspapers
The major Tibetan-language newspapers produced by the Chinese government in the 1950s, the བོད་ལྗོངས་ཉིན་རེའི་ཚགས་པར་Bod ljongs nyin reʼi tshags par (Tibet Daily) and the མཚོ་སྔོན་བོད་ཡིག་གསར་འགྱུར་Mtsho sngon Bod yig gsar ’gyur (Qinghai Tibetan Language Daily), are available in various libraries. The most important of Tibetan-language newspapers from outside Tibet, the ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སོ་སོའི་གསར་འགྱུར་མེ་ལོང་Yul phyogs so soʼi gsar ʼgyur me long (Tibet Mirror), which was published in India until 1963, similarly is available in digitised form in libraries across Europe and has been made availabel online by the Columbia University, N.Y., and the College de France, France.
Now copies of more than six other 1950s newspapers from Tibet have been identified, including the གསར་འགྱུར་མདོར་བསྡུས་ Gsar ’gyur mdor bsdus (News in Brief) from Lhasa; the དཀར་མཛེས་ཉིན་རེའི་གསར་འགྱུར་ Dkar mdzes nyin re’i gsar ’gyur (Kardze Daily News)་and teh མིན་ཀྱཱང་གསར་འགྱུར་ Min kyang gsar ‘gyur (Min jiang River News) from Xikang; and the ཀན་ལྷོ་གསར་འགྱུར་ Kan lho gsar ’gyur (Gannan News) from Gansu in the Schubert collection at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig as well as in the Kolmaš collection at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. Some issues of the རང་དབང་གསར་ཤོག Rang dbang gsar shog (Freedom), བོད་མིའི་རང་དབང་ Bod mi’i rang dbang (Tibetan Freedom), and རང་དབང་སྲུང་སྐྱོབས་གསར་ཤོག Rang dbang srung skyobs gsar shog (Protect Tibetan Freedom) from Gangtok in Sikkim have been preserved in collections in Prague, Vienna, London, Oxford and Dharamsala.
Official publications and Propaganda materials
Propaganda materials produced by the Chinese authorities at the time of the events they describe. These are written in a dense, obscure and highly politicised language or code that requires specialist knowledge and training to interpret or use as historical documentation. Collections of such materials that have been rarely consulted or have only recently come to light include:
- the Schubert collection at the Grassi Museum, Leipzig;
- Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (SBB-PK) holds about 80 Tibetan language books and documents on policies from 1953–62
- Columbia University’s collection of the “Neighbourhood No. 3” Archive
The inclusion of such official documents supplements the official discourse displayed in newspapers.
Memoir literature
In addition, we will include memoir literature: autobiographies and recollections by former participants in events in Tibet in the 1950s, although these are not contemporary and are complicated by political requirements, ideological bias, memory issues, editorial interventions and translation issues. However, by using text-mining tools to identify all named entities in a text together with their attributes, contexts, and associated keyterms, extensive information and ideas within them can be highlighted. Examples of underused materials include:
- memoirs by members of the former Tibetan elite who remained in Tibet after 1959, published within China in Tibetan in official collections such as Bod kyi rig gnas lo rgyus dpyad gzhi’i rgyu cha bdams bsgrigs (1981-2014; Chin. wenshi ziliao);
- memoirs by former PRC officials involved in the annexation or administration of Tibet in the 1950s, largely designed to extol their achievements and to endorse official claims (e.g., Zhong gong Xizang zizhiqu 2006), almost unused by Tibet scholars abroad;
- memoirs by former participants in the events of the 1950s published in India since the 2000s, such as
- the oral history series of the Amnyemachen Institute,
- the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) Oral History series, with over 30 volumes, mostly by former government officials in exile;
- some volumes from the Dgu-chu-sum memoir series;
- autobiographies published privately in India in Tibetan;
- A lags (1994), a rare document which details conflicts in Amdo in 1958, based on Chinese military documents;
- oral history interviews carried out and transcribed unofficially in Amdo by Bya mdo Rin bzang;
- the outstanding autobiography of Nagtshang Nulo describing his experience of conflict and famine in 1958 Amdo.
These materials are rich and underused repositories for research into modern Tibetan history. The three types of materials amount to c. 47,300 printed pages or c. 13m words in modern Tibetan.