Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720) in the context of "Tibet under Qing rule"

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⭐ Core Definition: Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720)

The 1720 Chinese expedition to Tibet (Chinese: 驅準保藏; lit. 'Expel the Dzungars to preserve Tibet') or the Chinese conquest of Tibet in 1720 was a military expedition sent by the Qing dynasty to expel the invading forces of the Dzungar Khanate from Tibet and establish Qing rule over the region, which lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912.

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👉 Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720) in the context of Tibet under Qing rule

Tibet under Qing rule refers to the Qing dynasty's rule over Tibet from 1720 to 1912. The Qing rulers incorporated Tibet into the empire along with other Inner Asia territories, although the actual extent of the Qing dynasty's control over Tibet during this period has been the subject of political debate. The Qing called Tibet a fanbu, fanbang or fanshu, which has usually been translated as "vassal", "vassal state", or "borderlands", along with areas like Xinjiang and Mongolia. Like the earlier Mongol led Yuan dynasty, the Manchus of the Qing dynasty exerted military and administrative control over Tibet, while granting it a degree of political autonomy.Starting with the establishment of the Imperial Stele Inscriptions of the Pacification of Tibet, the term Xizang was officially used to replace older names to designate the region.

By 1642, Güshi Khan of the Khoshut Khanate had reunified Tibet under the spiritual and temporal authority of the 5th Dalai Lama of the Gelug school, who established a civil administration known as Ganden Phodrang. In 1653, the Dalai Lama travelled on a state visit to the Qing court, and was received in Beijing and "recognized as the spiritual authority of the Qing Empire". The Dzungar Khanate invaded Tibet in 1717 and was subsequently expelled by the Qing in 1720. The Qing emperors then appointed imperial residents known as ambans to Tibet, most of them ethnic Manchus, that reported to the Lifan Yuan, a Qing government body that oversaw the empire's frontier. During the Qing era, Lhasa was politically semi-autonomous under the Dalai Lamas or regents. Qing authorities engaged in occasional military interventions in Tibet, intervened in Tibetan frontier defense, collected tribute, stationed troops, and influenced reincarnation selection through the Golden Urn. About half of the Tibetan lands were exempted from Lhasa's administrative rule and annexed into neighboring Chinese provinces, although most were only nominally subordinated to Beijing.

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Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720) in the context of Kangxi Emperor

The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654 – 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, personal name Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning emperor in Chinese history and one of the longest-reigning rulers in history. He is considered one of China's greatest emperors.

The third son of the Shunzhi Emperor, Kangxi was enthroned at the age of seven while actual power was held for six more years by the four regents nominated by his father. After assuming personal rule, Kangxi's attempt to revoke the fiefdoms of feudal princes sparked the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, which he suppressed. He also forced the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan and Mongols in the north and northwest to submit to Qing rule, and launched an expedition that incorporated Tibet into the empire. Domestically, he initially welcomed the Jesuits and the propagation of Catholicism in China, but tolerance came to an end as a result of the Chinese Rites controversy. Later in his reign, Kangxi became embroiled in a prolonged succession dispute. He died in 1722 at the age of 68 and was succeeded by his fourth son, who assumed the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor.

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Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720) in the context of Ganden Phodrang

The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang (Tibetan: དགའ་ལྡན་ཕོ་བྲང, Wylie: dGa' ldan pho brang, Lhasa dialect: [ˈkɑ̃̀tɛ̃̀ ˈpʰóʈɑ̀ŋ]; Chinese: 甘丹頗章; pinyin: Gāndān Pōzhāng) was the Tibetan system of government established by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642, when the Oirat lord Güshi Khan who founded the Khoshut Khanate conferred all spiritual and political power in Tibet to him in a ceremony in Shigatse. During the ceremony, the Dalai Lama "made a proclamation declaring that Lhasa would be the capital of Tibet and the government of would be known as Gaden Phodrang" which eventually became the seat of the Gelug school's leadership authority. The Dalai Lama chose the name of his monastic residence at Drepung Monastery for the new Tibetan government's name: Ganden (དགའ་ལྡན), the Tibetan name for Tushita heaven, which, according to Buddhist cosmology, is where the future Buddha Maitreya resides; and Phodrang (ཕོ་བྲང), a palace, hall, or dwelling. Lhasa's Red Fort again became the capitol building of Tibet, and the Ganden Phodrang operated there and adjacent to the Potala Palace until 1959.

During the 17th century, the Dalai Lama established the priest and patron relationship with China's Qing emperors, a few decades before the Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720). Meanwhile, the Qing became increasingly active in governing Tibet with the establishment of imperial resident (Amban) and Chinese garrison stationed in Lhasa since the early 18th century and took advantage of crisis situations in Tibet to intervene in Tibetan affairs each time, although this also caused some dissatisfaction and uprisings within Tibet, such as the Batang uprising in 1905. A governing council known as the Kashag also operated in the Ganden Phodrang administration. During the British expedition to Tibet (1904) and the Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910) before the 1911 Revolution which led to the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912, the Ganden Phodrang continued to govern Tibet under the Qing protectorate. After the Chinese Civil War which led to the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the subsequent signing of the Sino-Tibetan Seventeen Point Agreement in 1951, the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China began, although the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet and declared the revocation of the agreement following the 1959 Tibetan uprising.

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Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720) in the context of Amdo

Amdo (Tibetan: ཨ་མདོ་, Wylie: a mdo [ʔam˥˥.to˥˥]; Chinese: 安多; pinyin: Ānduō), also known as Domey (Tibetan: མདོ་སྨད་), is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions. It encompasses a large area from the Machu (Yellow River) to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous with China's present-day Qinghai province, but also includes small portions of Sichuan and Gansu provinces.

In the 7th century, Amdo became a part of the Tibetan Empire until its dissolution in the 9th century. A local Tibetan theocracy called Tsongkha ruled the region from 997 to 1104. In the 13th century, Mongol forces conquered the area, which led to the beginning of a priest and patron relationship. From the 14th to the 16th century, the Ming Dynasty controlled some border areas of Amdo while Mongol presence remained significant. In the 1720s, the Yongzheng Emperor of Qing dynasty seized Amdo from the Dzungars and began forming the modern boundaries of Qinghai. He allowed most of the area to be administered by a series of local Tibetan rulers associated with the Ü-Tsang government through monastery systems but not directly governed by the Dalai Lama's Ganden Phodrang. From 1917 parts of Amdo were occupied by warlords of the Ma clique, who joined the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) in 1928. By 1952, Chinese Communist Party forces had annexed central Tibet and defeated both Kuomintang and Tibetan forces, solidifying their hold on the area roughly by 1958.

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