People & Histories
1980 · 1987–1989 · Nobel Prize 1989

Reform, the Lhasa protests and martial law

After a decade of relative liberalisation, monks and nuns lead protests in Lhasa from 1987; Beijing imposes martial law in March 1989, and the Dalai Lama wins the Nobel Peace Prize that October.

  • The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 — Tsering Shakya, Columbia University Press (1999)
  • The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama — Melvyn C. Goldstein, University of California Press (1997)
  • Lhasa: Streets with Memories — Robert Barnett, Columbia University Press (2006)
  • Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech — Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, Nobel Foundation (1989)

Well established protestrepressionreform

After Mao’s death, the reformist leader Hu Yaobang visited Tibet in 1980, admitted serious mistakes and promised more autonomy, investment and freedom of religion. Monasteries began to reopen, exiles could visit family, and talks with the Dalai Lama’s envoys began.

  • The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 — Tsering Shakya, Columbia University Press (1999)
  • The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama — Melvyn C. Goldstein, University of California Press (1997)

In September 1987, days after the Dalai Lama proposed a peace plan in Washington, monks from Drepung marched around the Barkhor in Lhasa with the banned Tibetan flag. Police arrests sparked riots, and protests recurred over the next eighteen months. In June 1988, in Strasbourg, the Dalai Lama offered to accept Chinese sovereignty in exchange for genuine self-government, the basis of today’s Middle Way.

  • The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 — Tsering Shakya, Columbia University Press (1999)
  • The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama — Melvyn C. Goldstein, University of California Press (1997)
In January 1989 the 10th Panchen Lama died suddenly. After larger protests in early March 1989, Beijing declared martial law in Lhasa, which lasted until 1990; the regional party chief at the time was Hu Jintao, later China’s president.
  • The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 — Tsering Shakya, Columbia University Press (1999)
  • Lhasa: Streets with Memories — Robert Barnett, Columbia University Press (2006)
That October the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Why it matters today

Tibetans

The 1980s showed both the hope of reform and its limits. The cycle of protest and crackdown, and the Dalai Lama's shift to seeking autonomy rather than independence, set the pattern for the decades since, and the Nobel Prize made Tibet a global cause.