Draft:Tibet Famine (1960–1962)

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Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward caused a great famine in China between 1958 and 1962. 15 million lives are estimated to have been lost during this program. Approximately 340,000 Tibetans died during the famines between 1960 and 1962 that were caused by economic reforms.

According to Tibetan testimonies, some of whom now live in exile, Tibet experienced a famine between 1960 and 1962. According to the Tibetan government in exile, the famine affected all Tibetan regions, including Kham, Amdo, and Ü-Tsang.

In 1962, in a report known as the 70,000 Character Petition and originally titled "Report on the Sufferings of Tibet and Tibetan Areas and Proposals for the Future Work of the Central Committee under the Leadership of Chairman Minister Zhou Enlai", the 10th Panchen Lama denounced the raging famine.

Mortality Rates

Mortality rates from the Famine vary amongst sources.

According to the Tibetan government in exile, mortality due to the famine affected the 3 former Tibetan provinces. The count of deaths linked to the famine include 131,072 in Ü-Tsang, 89,916 in Kha, and 121,982 in Amdo.

In 1993, Bernard Kouchner mentioned 413,000 Tibetans who died of starvation during one of those “agrarian reforms”.

The same figure is quoted by the demographer Yan Hao and referenced in a work by Barry Sautman. However, the total figure does not correspond to the sum of the individual figures givens for the three provinces.

According to Barry Sautman, in an interview published on April 19, 1991, the Dalai Lama reportedly said that 200,000 Tibetans died of starvation, less than half of the figure initially put forward. For Professor Sautman, these discrepancies are hardly surprising: some of the statistics are based on quotations referring to documents which contain no figures or which have not been made public by the emigrants.

The 1962 petition of the 10th Panchen Lama

After the 14th Dalai Lama was exiled in 1959, the 10th Panchen Lama was offered the presidency of the preparatory committee for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In 1960, the Chinese leadership appointed him the vice-presidency of the National People's Congress, making him their spokesperson for their Tibetan policy. As part of this role, the 10th Panchen Lama visited several Chinese regions; “everywhere he saw only misery and desolation”.

At the beginning of 1962, he inspected the Tibetan regions of Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunan, then went to Gansu and Xinjiang. In Sichuan, he questioned the report of the local authorities concerning the areas of Kardzé and Ngaba, declaring: “the conditions of existence and production of the masses are not as good as you claim. Men, women and children have died of starvation in large numbers”.

In 1962, he met some Westerners in Lhasa, the capital of the current Tibet Autonomous Region. He confided in them his desire to "fulfill his revolutionary duty to the people" and to "live the life of a good Buddhist." The Panchen Lama returned to Peking on Mao's orders. During this trip, crowds of Tibetans implored him to "put an end to their sufferings and the privations endured". In Peking, he directly asked the Grand Helmsman to “put an end to the exactions committed against the Tibetan people, to increase food rations, to provide care for the elderly and the infirm and to respect religious freedom”. Mao listened but no action was taken.

The 1964 International Commission of Jurists Report

A report by the International Commission of Jurists entitled "Continued Violations of Human Rights in Tibet" was published in December 1964. Based on accounts of Tibetan refugees who had fled to India, the report revealed "the continued mistreatment of numerous monks, lamas, and other religious figures, resulting in death by excessive torture, beatings, starvation, and forced labor..." Following this report and a appeal of the Dalai Lama, the question of Tibet was introduced in the form of a new Resolution at the UN supported by the same countries as in 1961, joined by Nicaragua and the Philippines.