Reddit mentions of Arrested Histories: Tibet, the CIA, and Memories of a Forgotten War

Wait, so in the next paragraph after ignorantly making fun of how transliterated Tibetan words look, he complains that the language barrier is that he doesn't know Chinese?

Also, why does he read about the Mongols if he's trying to learn about Tibet? He declared that Tibetans are all "inland Asian" people, so is he saying that they're all the same?

This article is amateur, historically misinformed, and possibly racist toward Tibetans.

The problem with articles like this is that they serve the interests of the oppressors. Nobody who has studied Tibetan history would say that Tibet was a peaceful, compassionate land of freedom—it certainly was not, but that doesn't justify China's military occupation.

The author mentions that the Chinese troops were friendly when they entered Tibet, which is true for the first years until 1954, and was a deliberate strategy to placate Tibetans before the repression and brutality that would follow.

Why does he put so much weight on the Younghusband invasion of 1904? It was bloody, and the guy killed a lot of Tibetans who fought back, but then it was over and he left. It is definitely not a suppressed history, there are numerous books on the topic! (Also, why is it relevant that random British people might not know about an obscure military expedition from 100 years ago?). Again, just because the UK—or the USA—are not perfect bastions of human rights does not mean that we aren't allowed to fight for freedom, and does not justify China's brutal occupation in Tibet.

Tibetans and Tibet are not monoliths. Tibet's history cannot be boiled down to a few simple "facts." Because some Tibetans fought with swords does not mean that all did. There were plenty of guns and other weapons used against the PLA, and the Tibetans had many successes. The author clearly never came across Chushi Gangdruk, the large resistance army of mostly Khampas who fought back bravely against the Chinese. They were also supported by the CIA from the late 50s until 1972.

The author's history is uninformed: he read a book about Mongolia, and caroused a Chinese military web forum (in English), and then lamented that he couldn't find anything about Tibetan military history? It is certainly not repressed, there is a major permanent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on ancient Tibetan armor.

This author can do better!

Here are two books to get started: Arrested Histories by Carole McGranahan and Buddha's Warriors by Mikel Dunham.

hahaha oh wow, you schooled me. the CIA didn't give "the Dalai Lama" any money. They trained Cushi Gandrug militia fighters here in Colorado at Camp Hale. The Dalai Lama, beign against violence, was against the existence of the Cushi Gandrug, but it was out of his hands and they continued to launch attacks in China from their headquarters in the Mustang region of Nepal. And even then, what the CIA provided funding-wise was pretty much nil. Furthermore, it was mostly to be able to have troops in China that weren't actually American. All the CIA remembers about the program is a little satchel of documents the Cushi Gandrug recovered from a PLA convoy that they attacked.

PS I'm an anthropologist that focuses on the Himalayan region. In fact, one of my undergrad professors wrote the first (and possibly only) book on the subject since the CIA had to release all this classified info after 50 years. Here's the book. The main point of it is that nobody talks about the Cushi Gandrug resistance army because the Dalai Lama officially condemned them; so, the brave old men who fought in it are not celebrated (hence "arrested histories")

EDIT: Fun fact: the Cushi Gandrug are named after the "Four rivers, six mountain ranges" of the Kham region of Tibet, whose inhabitants are generally regarded as the toughest and most hardy by Tibetans in general. Wish I had my notebooks with me, cause I have some awesome quotes that pretty much characterize Kham as the Texas of Tibet.