He 11 of January of 1913, Tibet and Mongolia signed an agreement recognizing each other as independent states of China. This represented the beginning of a process of political liberation that the people sought after the disintegration of the Qing dynasty of the Manchus., in 1911 .
In that year, The Tibetans expelled the remaining Manchu forces in their territory and managed to get the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader’ and at the same time 'temporary’ from Tibet, returned to Lhasa, the capital, and exercise political authority.
The expulsion of these forces and the return of the Dalai Lama were a milestone for the Tibetans, because it meant the total restoration of the independence of a region that, In fact, always felt different from China and also from India, the other nation that claimed it as part of its territory.
Before, in 1904, The British had invaded Lhasa and made Tibet their protectorate., although later, in 1907, Britain recognized Chinese sovereignty. only in 1910, the Qing dynasty was able to directly administer Tibet, whose inhabitants were, and they still are, mostly Buddhist.
The first European to arrive in Lhasa was the Portuguese Jesuit Antonio de Andrade (1624).
For more than 30 years, Tibet enjoyed complete independence, free from any foreign control. This condition of freedom lasted until 1949, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army subdued the weak Tibetan Army. The rest is better known: Tibet became an autonomous region of communist China, while the Dalai Lama and almost 100 000 Tibetans fled into exile to India.
Since then, does 63 years, The independent Tibetans have not ceased in their efforts to be free; the most radical have even set themselves on fire bonze style to protest against the Chinese.
