1905 Tibetan Rebellion The Tibetan rebellion of 1905 in Yunnan province began with a series of attacks on Christian missionaries and converts and ended with the imperial Chinese government re - asserting control of the province . Background . Under pressure from foreigners , the Qing Dynasty government allowed Christian missionaries into Tibetan Buddhist areas in Yunnan province . The Tibetan Lama s had long defied the rule of the Qing authorities and officials , and the Qing dynasty fought against a rebellion of the Lamas around 1905 . The Tibetan Buddhist Lamas attacked and murdered Chinese officials , French Roman Catholic Priests from Paris Foreign Missions Society such as Jean - André Soulié or Jules Dubernard , and Christian converts in the area , in retaliation for the missionaries ' success at converting the natives to Catholicism . The Buddhist Gelug ( Yellow ) Sect was primarily responsible for the revolt and deaths . Scottish Botanist George Forrest was the primary Western witness to the rebellion , having spent most of it trying to escape from Lamas intent on killing him . He wrote an account of the rebellion which was published in botanical related publications . In 1905 , the Lamas started a revolt against the peasant converts from the monasteries . Chinese soldiers were sent to crush the revolt . Forrest wrote that the majority of the people in the Mekong valley in Yunnan were Tibetan . The Tibetan Buddhist Yellow Sect was the dominant power in the region , with their Lamas effectively governing the area . Forrest had a negative view of their reign , since they used " force and fraud " to " terrorise the . . . peasantry " . The Lamas completely ignored the Imperial Qing authorities in the region . Attacks on Christian Missionaries and Converts . The British invasion of Lhasa in 1904 had repercussions in the Tibetan Buddhist world . the Tibetan Lamas proceeded to revolt in 1905 , massacring Chinese officials , French missionaries , and Christian Catholic converts . The Lamas besieged Bat ' ang , burning down the mission chapel , and killing two foreign missionaries , Père Mussot and Père Soulié . The Chinese Amban ' s Yamen was surrounded , the Chinese General , Wu Yi - chung , was shot dead in the Yamen by the Lama ' s forces . The Chinese Amban Feng and Commandant in Chief Li Chia - jui managed to escape by scattered Rupee s ( money ) behind them , which the Tibetans proceeded to try to pick up . The Ambans reached Commandant Lo ' s place , but the 100 Tibetan troops serving under the Amban , armed with modern weaponry , mutinied when news of the revolt reached them . The Tibetan Lamas and their Tibetan followers besieged the Chinese Commandant Lo ' s palace along with local Christian converts . In the palace , they killed all Christian converts , both Chinese and Tibetan . George Forrest was residing at the Tzekou French Catholic Mission , which came under attack by the Tibetan Lamas . He fled through miles of mountains to flee the Tibetan Lamas who intended to " brutally " murder him . Along his escape route , he took refuge with Chinese soldiers , but his party was discovered when they past by the Patang Lamasary after the Tibetans heard their presence , the Tibetans blew a " signal whistle " to alert everyone to their presence in the area . Around the Mekong river every Catholic Priest was murdered by the Lamas ; they even mounted a Father Dubernard ' s head on the Atuntze Monastery ' s gate . Forrest was targeted by the Lamas , who pursued him until a Naxi " King " named Lee rescued him . On July 22 , 1905 , the Tibetan Lamas killed the French Catholic missionaries Père Pierre - Marie Bourdonnec and Père Jules Dubernard around the Mekong . A Chinese military mandarin informed Forrest on how exactly the Tibetans killed his friends . The Tibetans " disembowelled , beheaded and quartered " the body of Pere Bourdonné after he was shot to death . Chinese soldiers guarded Forrest from the Tibetans pursuing him . Jules Dubernard had been tortured for days by the Lamas . His upper limbs were both fractured and restrained , he was secured on a stake , his eyes were gouged , his tongue , ears and nose severed , while he was living , his extremities were severed . The body parts of the French priests were sent by the Tibetans to be displayed at Lamaseries . Forrest lost a great deal of his scientific data , photographs and specimens of plants he was collecting . At the Atuntze Monastery the Tibetans mounted the decapitated heads of the French priests . At Cizhong Another Church was constructed after Tibetan mobs , under direction of their Lamas , wrecked the Christian mission . Retaliatory expeditions . The Chinese responded to the Tibetan rebellion with punitive expeditions . In the summer , the Sichuan Army under the command of Chinese General Ma Wei - ch ' i launched the retaliatory " expedition " against the Tibetan Lamas and their rebels , crushing the Tibetan rebels at Batang , totally destroying their monastery . Tibetan Lamas and the Tibetan population around the area were subjected to execution , and dousing with fire . Tibetan leaders were beheaded . The bloody campaign of the Qing dynasty Han Chinese General and banner member Zhao Erfeng in Sichuan and Tibet was also a response to the Tibetan uprising . Zhao was killed by Chinese Republican revolutionary forces after the Xinhai Revolution . The Chinese military in Yunnan crushed the Tibetan rebels in Atuntze , the Chinese under Zhao took brutal measure to subdue the Tibetan population , and appoint Chinese officials to rule over them . Zhao besieged the remnant Tibetan rebels at Chantreng monastery . In the following year in 1906 , the monastery fell to the Chinese forces , who used a deception to defeat the besieged . All Lamas were executed with the entire monastery razed . The Manchu Lien Yu was finally allowed to enter into his position as Amban of Tibet at Lhasa , due to Zhao ' s campaign in destroying the Tibetan rebels . Lien Yu was despised by the Tibetan population for his policies . Zhao Erfeng replaced the Tibetan chiefs with Chinese magistrates , beheaded the remaining Tibetan chiefs and eradicated the official position of " Chief " , and the power of the Lamas and monasteries was curtailed . After the Xinhai Revolution Lien Yu and his Chinese soldiers fled Tibet in 1912 . A Chinese commander ordered 10 Tibetan Lamas to be decapitated . A former Tibetan Khampa soldier named Aten , gave the Tibetan account of the war in his book , which does not match up with western accounts . He claimed that the war started in 1903 when the Manchu Qing sent Zhao Erfeng to seize control of Tibetan areas , to control Batang and Lithang . Aten recounted Zhao ' s destruction of Batang , and claimed that Zhao used holy texts as shoeliners for his troops and that " Many Tibetans were executed by decapitation or by another typically Chinese method , mass burial while still alive . " Aten also called the Manchus " alien conquerors " . A letter was sent to officer Qiao with official seals , congratulating him for his defeat of the Tibetan rebels . It is currently in the possession of s stamp collector .