Tibetan Communist Party
The Tibetan Communist Party (Tibetan: བོད་གུང་ཁྲན་ཏང, Wylie: bod gung khran tang ; Chinese: 西藏共产党; pinyin: Xīzàng Gòngchǎndǎng) was a small communist party in the Kingdom of Tibet, which functioned in secrecy under various names. The group was founded by Phuntsok Wangyal and Ngawang Kesang in 1943. It emerged from a group called the Tibetan Democratic Youth League created by Wangyal and other Tibetan students in Lhasa in 1939.[1][2]
Tibetan Communist Party བོད་གུང་ཁྲན་ཏང 西藏共产党 | |
---|---|
Leader | Phuntsok Wangyal |
Founders | Phuntsok Wangyal Ngawang Kesang |
Founded | 1939 (as the TDYL) 1943 (as the TCP) |
Dissolved | 1949 |
Merged into | Communist Party of China |
Ideology | Communism Marxism-Leninism |
Political position | Far-left |
|
The Party sought to unite all Tibetans into one entity, compassing Kham, Amdo, and Ü-Tsang.[3] The Party contacted the embassy of the Soviet Union asking for its assistance as it began planning a socialist uprising in Tibet and Kham. Later Wangyal also contacted the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of India.[4]
The Tibetan communists prepared guerrilla struggles against the ruling Kuomintang, whilst promoting democratic reforms inside Tibet.
In 1949, the party merged into the Communist Party of China.[5]
References
- New Left Review - Tsering Shakya: The Prisoner
- "Case anthropologist tells story of Tibet Communist Party founder". 2 July 2004. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- Goldstein, Melvyn C. Goldstein/Sherap, Dawei Sherap/Siebenschuh, William R.. A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye. University of California Press, 2004. p. xiii
- Goldstein, Melvyn C. Goldstein/Sherap, Dawei Sherap/Siebenschuh, William R.. A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. p. 42-44, 78-82
- Melvyn C. Goldstein; Dawei Sherap; William R. Siebenschuh. "A Tibetan Revolutionary". Retrieved 21 June 2008.