REVOLT IN TIBET

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 February 1938, Page 14

REVOLT IN TIBET

STARTED BY JAPANESE Japanese “monks” have penetrated into Tibet and are stirring up trouble in the “Forbidden City” of Lhasa, reports from Calcutta, India, say, declares a special message from London to the “Chicago Tribune.” This is the first information of an armed uprising of Buddhist monks, or lamas, against the Government of Tibet. Tibetan merchants arriving in Calcutta said the revolt was engineered by a group of Japanese who arrived at Lhasa disguised in the yellow cloaks of Buddhist monks. It was reported the monks were discovered to be spies from the headquarters of General Kenji Doihara, Japanese intelligence officer, who often is called the “Lawrence of Manchukuo.”

Secretly visiting the cave monasteries of Lhasa and the surrounding mountain sides, the Japanese monks were reported to have photographed and mapped all the territory they covered. The ostensible cause of the revolt was said to be the Government’s refusal to accept a new Dalai Lama — who was discovered a year and a-half ago by the Tashi Lama.

Tibetan soldiers mutinied and marched on the palace of the Lhasa Government to force authorities to put the Dalai Lama on the spiritual and temporal throne of Tibet. All Government activities in Lhasa, it was pointed out, mysteriously are known in the Japanese intelligence headquarters in China. It was believed that the Japanese “monks” established a secret radio station somewhere in the mountains around Lhasa for the transmission of daily cipher reports. BRITISH KNOWLEDGE Great Britain has a trade agent at Gyantse, a key point on the road into Tibet. He is supposed to have knowledge of these developments. Tibet, most mysterious of countries of Central Asia, is under British influence despite China’s claim to sovereignty. The country is bleak and mountainous and strangers have been jealously excluded. Wide areas of Tibet are still unexplored. It is known to be rich in gold, borax, and salt. There is. a large trade with China and India.

On May 27, 1936, a baby boy was picked by mystical methods to become the new Dalai Lama, or “living Buddha,” to succeed the thirteenth Dalai Lama, who died on December 17, 1933, under mysterious circumstances in one of his palaces. The baby was chosen after a threeyear hunt for the “reincarnation” of the Dalai Lama. Tibetans believe the old Dalai Lama’s immortal soul entered the body of the infant at the moment of his death.

Second in the authority' in the coiinti’y and Lamaism, a corrupt form of Buddhism, is the Tashi Lama, to whom are attributed great spiritual powers.

The population of Tibet, which has an area of 463,200 square miles, is unknown. Estimates range from 6,000,000 to as low as 700,000 to 800,000. Almost one-fifth of the population is lamas or priests.' :