page_title: Tibet (1912–1951)
section_title: Military
hierarchical_section_title: Tibet (1912–1951) / Politics / Military
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Schigatse, tibetisches Militär mit Dzong, Truppenparade
context_page_description: The polity of Tibet between the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1912 and the annexation by the People's Republic of China in 1951 was a de facto independent state comprising the western half of the Tibetan Plateau.
  The Tibetan Ganden Phodrang regime was a protectorate of the Qing dynasty until 1912, when the Provisional Government of the Republic of China replaced the Qing dynasty as the government of China, and signed a treaty with the Qing government inheriting all territories of the imperial government into the new republic, giving Tibet the status of a "protectorate" with high levels of autonomy as was the case during the Qing dynasty. Prior to this period, the British had expanded its influence from neighboring India into Tibet via the Treaty of Lhasa, even though Tibet was not formally annexed into the British Empire. However, at the same time, several Tibetan representatives signed a treaty between Tibet and Mongolia proclaiming mutual recognition and their independence from China, although the Government of the Republic of China did not recognize its legitimacy.
context_section_description: After the 13th Dalai Lama had assumed full control over Tibet in the 1910s, he began to build up the Tibetan Army with support from the United Kingdom, which provided advisors and weapons. This army was supposed to be large and modern enough to not just defend Tibet, but to also conquer surrounding regions like Kham which were inhabited by Tibetan peoples. The Tibetan Army was constantly expanded during the 13th Dalai Lama's reign, and had about 10,000 soldiers by 1936. These were adequately armed and trained infantrymen for the time, though the army almost completely lacked machine guns, artillery, planes and tanks. In addition to the regular army, Tibet also made use of great numbers of poorly armed village militias. Considering that it was usually outgunned by their opponents, the Tibetan Army performed relatively well against various Chinese warlords in the 1920s and 1930s. Overall, the Tibetan soldiers proved to be "fearless and tough fighters" during the Warlord Era.
  Despite this, the Tibetan Army was wholly inadequate to resist the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during the Chinese invasion of 1950. It consequently disintegrated and surrendered without much resistance.
caption: The Tibetan Army on parade in 1938
exif: {}