Tibetan Army The Tibetan Army ( ) was the military force of Tibet after its " de facto " independence in 1912 until the 1950s . As a ground army modernised with the assistance of British training and equipment , it served as the " de facto " armed forces of the Dalai Lama government . Objectives . Internal . The Tibetan Army was established in 1913 by the 13th Dalai Lama , who had fled Tibet during the 1904 British invasion of Tibet and returned only after the fall of the Qing power in Tibet in 1911 . During the revolutionary turmoil , the Dalai Lama had attempted to raise a volunteer army to expel all the ethnic Chinese from Lhasa , but failed , in large part because of the opposition of pro - Chinese monks , especially from the Drepung Monastery . The Dalai Lama proceeded to raise a professional army , led by his trusted advisor Tsarong , to counter " the internal threats to his government as well as the external ones " . The internal threats were mainly officials of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism , who feared British Christian and secular influence in the army , and who fought the defunding and taxing of the monasteries to feed military expenditures . The monasteries had populations rivaling Tibet ' s largest cities , and had their own armies of " dob - dob s " ( " warrior monks " ) . As a result , those monks who feared modernization ( associated with Britain ) turned to China , which being the residence of the 9th Panchen Lama , portrayed itself as ally to the Tibetan conservatives . Residents evacuated the city during the Monlam Prayer Festival and Butter Lamp Festival of 1921 , fearing violent confrontation between the monks and the Tibetan Army , which was eventually barred from Lhasa to keep the peace . The Army also received opposition from the 9th Panchen Lama , who refused the Dalai Lama ' s requests to fund the Tibetan Army from the monasteries in the Panchen ' s domain . In 1923 , the Dalai Lama deployed troops to capture him , and so he secretly fled to Mongolia . The Dalai and Panchen Lamas exchanged many hostile letters during the latter ' s exile about the authority of the central Tibetan government . Many monks perceived the Panchen ' s exile as a consequence of the Dalai Lama ' s militarization and secularization of Tibet . The Dalai Lama himself grew gradually more distrustful of the military upon hearing rumors in 1924 of a coup conspiracy , which was supposedly designed to strip him of his temporal power . In 1933 , the 13th Dalai Lama died , and two regents assumed the head of government . The Tibetan Army was bolstered in 1937 by the perceived threat of the return of the Panchen Lama , who had brought arms back from eastern China . External . By the time of the 1949 Chinese Revolution , China ' s Communists had consolidated control over most of eastern China , and sought to bring peripheral areas such as Tibet back into the fold . China was aware of the threat of guerrilla warfare on Tibet ' s high mountains , and sought to resolve Tibet ' s political status by negotiations . The Tibetan government stalled and delayed negotiations while bolstering its army . In 1950 , the Kashag embarked on a series of internal reforms , led by Indian - educated officials . One of these reforms allowed the Kashag ' s military chiefs , Surkhang Wangchen Gelek and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme , to act independently of the government . Although the Kashag appointed a " Governor of Kham " , the Tibetan Army did not have effective control over Kham , whose local warlord s had long resisted central control from Lhasa . As a result , Tibetan officials feared the local people , in addition to the People ' s Liberation Army ( PLA ) across the Upper Yangtze River . Military history . The Tibetan Army held the dominant military strength within political Tibet from 1912 , owing to Chinese weakness during the Japanese occupation of China . With the assistance of British training , it aimed to conquer territories inhabited by ethnic Tibetans but controlled by Chinese warlords , and it successfully captured western Kham from the Chinese in 1917 . Its claim to adjacent territories controlled by British India , however , strained its vital relations with Britain and then independent India , and then China ' s relationship with the latter . The 1914 Simla Accord with Britain was designed to settle Tibet ' s internal and external border issues , but for various reasons , including the refusal by the Chinese to accept it , warfare continued over territory in Kham . The military authority of Tibet was located in Qamdo from 1918 , after it fell to Tibetan forces ; during this time , the Sichuan warlords were occupied with fighting the Yunnan warlords , allowing the Tibetan army to defeat the Sichuan forces and conquer the region . The Tibetan Army was involved in numerous border battles against the Guomindang and Ma Clique forces of the Republic of China . By 1932 , the defeat of the Tibetan Army by the KMT forces limited all meaningful political control of the Tibetan government over the Kham region beyond the Upper Yangtze River . The Tibetan Army ' s first encounter with the PLA was in May 1950 at Dengo , ninety miles from Qamdo . Fifty PLA soldiers captured Dengo , which gave strategic access to Jiegu . After ten days , Lhalu Tsewang Dorje ordered a contingent of 500 armed monks and 200 Khampa militiamen to recapture Dengo . According to the historian Tsering Shakya , the PLA attack could have been to either put pressure on the Kashag or to test the Tibetan defense forces . Following repeated Tibetan refusals to negotiate , the PLA decisively routed the Tibetan Army at Qamdo . Armaments . In 1950 , the government also poured 400 , 000 rupee s from the Potala treasury into its military , buying arms and ammunition from the British government , as well as the service of Indian military instructors . For an additional 100 , 000 rupees , the Kashag purchased 38 2 - inch mortar s ; 63 Ordnance ML 3 inch Mortar s ; 14 , 000 2 - inch mortar bombs ; 14 , 000 3 - inch mortar bombs , 294 Bren gun s , 1 , 260 rifles ; 168 Sten gun s ; 1 , 500 , 000 rounds of . 303 ammunition , and 100 , 000 rounds of Sten gun ammunition . From India , the Kashag bought 3 . 5 million rounds of ammunition and 1 , 500 Bren guns . However , the British were loath to create too powerful of a Tibetan army , because of Tibet ' s irrdentism claims on British Indian territory . The Indians were also annoyed with Tibet ' s large outstanding debts for purchased arms , and hesitated to fulfill additional Tibetan requests for arms until previous supplies were paid for . In infrastructure , Lhasa established wireless base station s across the borderlands , such as Qiangtang and Qamdo . In 1937 , the Tibetan Army had 20 detachments along its eastern frontier comprising 10 , 000 troops with 5 , 000 Lee - Enfield rifles and six Lewis Guns . Smaller battalions were stationed in Lhasa , and adjacent to Nepal and Ladakh . By 1949 , 2 , 500 Tibetan Army troops were stationed in Qamdo alone , and enlistment there increased by recruiting from Khampa militias . Advisors . In 1914 , Charles Alfred Bell , a British civil servant who was posted to Tibet , recommended the militarization of Tibet and the recruitment of 15 , 000 soldiers to guard against " foreign foes and internal disturbances " . The Tibetans eventually resolved to build a 20 , 000 man army , at a rate of 500 new recruits per year . Bell told the Tibetan government that when China governed Tibet , it did so on terms not favorable to Tibet , and had tried to extend its influence over the Himalayan states ( Sikkim , Bhutan , Ladakh ) , threatening British India . Also , Britain wanted a " barrier against Bolshevist influence " . Under this reasoning , Bell proposed to the British government that Tibet be able to import munitions from India yearly ; that the British government would provide training and equipment to Tibet ; that British mining prospectors come inspect Tibet ; and that an English school be established in Gyangze . By October 1921 , all of the proposals were accepted . The government of Tibet had many foreigners in its employ , including Britons Reginald Fox , Robert W . Ford , Geoffrey Bull , and George Patterson ; Austrians Peter Aufschnaiter and Heinrich Harrer ; and the Russian Nedbailoff . The army in particular had Japanese , Chinese , and British influence , although the British influence was of such an extent that the Tibetan officers gave their commands in English , and the Tibetan band played tunes including " God Save the King " and " Auld Lang Syne " . From the fall of the Qing Dynasty , which had effectively controlled Tibet , to the 1949 Chinese Revolution , a Chinese mission remained in Lhasa . The mission repeatedly attempted to reestablish the office of the Qing Amban , interfered with the enthronement of the 13th Dalai Lama , and presented the Tibetan aristocratic government ( Kashag ) with a list of demands for the restoration of effective Chinese sovereignty . Following the advice of British consul Hugh Richardson , the Kashag summoned Tibetan Army troops on July 8 , 1949 from Shigatse and Dingri to expel all the Han Chinese from Lhasa . The expulsion prompted Chinese accusations of a plot to turn Tibet into a British colony , and a consequent vow to " liberate " it .