page_title: Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme
section_title: Commander-in-chief of the Tibetan Army at Chamdo
hierarchical_section_title: Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme / Career / Commander-in-chief of the Tibetan Army at Chamdo
caption_attribution_description: English: Four Tsipon officials in the garden of Dekyi Lingka. From left to right: Shakapa, Ngapo, Lukhangwa, Namseling. They are wearing fine silk robes and have their hair tied up in the customary top-knot adorned with ornaments. 中文: 四位西藏噶廈孜本在德吉林卡（英國駐拉薩使團駐地）的花園中。自右至左：朗色林·班覺晉美、魯康娃、阿沛·阿旺晉美、夏格巴·旺秋德丹。他們穿著精美的絲綢長袍，並依傳統將頭髮梳成頭髻飾以飾物。
context_page_description: Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was a Tibetan senior official who assumed various military and political responsibilities both before and after 1951 in Tibet. He is often known simply as Ngapo in English sources.
context_section_description: While serving as governor-general of Chamdo, he also became commander-in-chief of the Tibetan Army.
  While his predecessor, Lhalu, had made elaborate military plans and fortifications and asked the Kashag for more soldiers and weapons to stop the People's Liberation Army from entering Tibet, Ngapoi had the fortifications removed, refused to hire Khampa warriors and to install two portable wireless sets as he thought it was better to negotiate.
  In October 1950 his forces confronted the People's Liberation Army. The battle was quickly over. As he had warned before his departure for Chamdo, "the Tibetan forces were no match for the PLA who [...] had liberated the whole of China by defeating several million Kuomintang soldiers". Ngapoi surrendered Chamdo to the Chinese. The PLA surprised him by treating him well and giving him long lectures on the New China's policies toward minor nationalities. Within a year, he was the deputy commander-in-chief for the PLA forces in Tibet. He became a leader not only of Tibet but also the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet.
caption: Tsipon Ngapoi is pictured 2nd from left at Dekyi Lingka in Lhasa, Tibet
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