ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of the so-called Sino-Tibetan ‘benefactor-priest relations’ since the end of the 19th century and how the UK and US selectively applied/compromised the script of sovereignty to suit themselves. The disputes over the status of Tibet and its relations with China have been passionately debated from legal, historical, political and even environmental grounds since its takeover by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1951. The PRC, an atheistic communist regime, ironically employed the legacy of imperial China, the two deeply religious dynasties in particular, to justify its ‘sovereignty’ over Tibet. The US had once actively encouraged Dharamsala’s cause by financial support and military training to its monk warriors from the 1950s to the end of the 1960s. The chapter shows that only a patient, calm, and mutually sympathetic process of demystification of the sovereignty rhetoric on both the Chinese and Tibetan sides can pave the way for reconciliation.
