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On the morning of March 10, 1959, a rumour tore through Lhasa like wildfire and changed the course of Tibetan history forever.
Word had spread that Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers had extended a curious “invitation” to Tenzin Gyatso, the 23-year-old 14th Dalai Lama. He was to attend a theatrical performance at the Chinese military headquarters —but without his customary bodyguards, and without prior public announcement. To Tibetans who had already watched their homeland absorbed into the People’s Republic of China through the 1951 Seventeen Point Agreement, the invitation carried a chilling subtext: their spiritual leader was about to be taken.
The Human BarricadeWithin hours, tens of thousands of ordinary Tibetans—monks, merchants, farmers, and mothers—converged on Norbulingka Palace, the Dalai Lama’s summer residence. They did not come with weapons. They came with their bodies. Forming a vast, unyielding human ring around the palace walls, t...
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