User:Lhandoa/Tibet Improvement Party

The following was translated with a few modifications from Dutch Wikipedia here. The majority of the content is the same as the Dutch version.

The Tibet Improvement Party ( was a Revolutionary, anti feudal, anti religous, anti Imperialist, and Pro Republic of China political party in Tibet. It was affiliated with the Kuomintang and was supported by mostly Khampas, with the Pandatsang family playing a key role.

Names
The Tibetan, Chinese, and English versions of the party names all have separate meanings. The Chinese name ), means "Western Tibetan Revolutionary Party".

Background
The party was founded in 1939 in Kalimpong in India by Pandatsang Rapga, who came from the extensive Pandatsang family, a wealthy wool merchant family from Kham. The other core members of the movement were Thubten Kunphela, Gendün Chöpel and the poet Canlocen. Kunphela was the most powerful man in Tibet after the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso in the period of 1931-1933. After the death of the Dalai Lama Kunphela lost his dominant position and was exiled. In 1937 he managed to flee and settled in Kalimpong

Beliefs
The Party considered the then government of Tibet as totally outdated and feudal. It sought a modern, secular government which would improve insfrastructure, introduce technology, betterr education, and a standing army.

Pandatsang Rapga was strongly influenced by the ideas of Sun Yat-sen, especially his Three Principles of the People. He believed that change in Tibet would only be possible in a manner similar to when the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in China. He borrowed the theories and ideas of the Kuomintang as the basis for his model for Tibet. The party was funded by the Kuomintang and by the Pandatsang family.

The ultimate goal of the party for the future of Tibet was that Tibet would become an autonomous Republic within the Republic of China.

Pandatsang hailed the three principles of Dr. Sun for helping asian peoples against foreign imperialism and called for the feudal system to be overthrown.

It is difficult to appraise the true power of the party. The Tibetan government of the Dalai Lama controlled the western part of Kham, which was one third of the entire Kham region, however, they was signigicantly large support for some ideas of the movement.

The relationship between many Khampas and the Tibetan government in Lhasa was very bad. Hundreds of traders from Kham and a section of the Pandatsang family saw the party as an instrument to create an independent Kham state equally independent of both China and the Dalai Lama's Tibetan state.

The End of the Movement
The activities of the party in Kalimpong were eventually noticed by the British. That led to the Tibetan Government becoming aware of the existence of the movement, and in particular of Pandatsang Rapga. The Tibetans demanded the extradition of Rapga to Tibet. This was not possibly, because Pandatsang was in possession of a Chinese passport. He was expelled from British India in 1947 to Shanghai. Kunphela was also expelled and went to Nanjing.

Gendün Chöpel in 1946, on behalf of Rapga, disguised as a monk and went to Tibet, to gather intelligence and support for the party. However, he was quickly arrested by the Tibetans and imprisoned until 1950. This led to the end of the movement.