The crackdown ended a fledgling rebellion against Chinese rule and sent the Dalai Lama into exile. Chinese forces had occupied the Himalayan region nine years earlier and formed an uneasy alliance with the Dalai Lama, but tensions had been building. Hundreds of supporters of the 14th Dalai Lama surrounded his temple in Dharamsala in India on Sunday, home to his government in exile since 1959. “Tibet today is effectively run as a huge open-air prison,” said John Jones, a campaigns manager at Free Tibet, an advocacy group. “Any sign of dissent, from flying the Tibetan flag to possessing pictures of the Dalai Lama … is treated as a state security crime.

Source: The Guardian March 10, 2019 14:42 UTC