Tibetan Communist Party

Tibetan Communist Party
Leader	Phuntsok Wangyal
Founders	Phuntsok Wangyal Ngawang Kesang
Founded	1943 (1943)
Dissolved	1949
Merged into	Chinese Communist Party
Ideology	Communism Marxism–Leninism Tibetan nationalism
Political position	Far-left
Politics of Tibet

Tibetan Communist Party
Tibetan name
Tibetan	བོད་གུང་ཁྲན་ཏང
Transcriptions Wylie bod gung khran tang THL bö gung tren tang
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	西藏共產黨
Simplified Chinese	西藏共产党
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xīzàng Gòngchǎndǎng

The Tibetan Communist Party[a] was a small communist party in Tibet which functioned in secrecy under various names. The group was founded by Phuntsok Wangyal and Ngawang Kesang in 1943. It emerged from a group called the Tibetan Democratic Youth League, formed by Wangyal and other Tibetan students in Lhasa in 1939.[1][2]

The party sought to establish an independent and socialist Tibet encompassing the three traditional regions of Tibet: Ü-Tsang, Kham, and Amdo.[1][3] The party contacted the Soviet embassy in Beijing and asked for the Soviets' assistance as it began planning a socialist uprising in Tibet. Wangyal later contacted the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist Party of India.[4]

The Tibetan communists prepared guerrilla struggles against the ruling Kuomintang while promoting democratic reforms inside Tibet.

In 1949, the party merged into the Chinese Communist Party.[5]

Notes

1. • Tibetan: བོད་གུང་ཁྲན་ཏང, Wylie: bod gung khran tang, THL: bö gung tren tang
   • Chinese: 西藏共產黨; pinyin: Xīzàng Gòngchǎndǎng

References

1. New Left Review - Tsering Shakya: The Prisoner
2. "Case anthropologist tells story of Tibet Communist Party founder". 2 July 2004. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
3. Goldstein, Melvyn C. Goldstein/Sherap, Dawei Sherap/Siebenschuh, William R.. A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye. University of California Press, 2004. p. xiii
4. Goldstein, Melvyn C. Goldstein/Sherap, Dawei Sherap/Siebenschuh, William R.. A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. p. 42-44, 78-82
5. Melvyn C. Goldstein; Dawei Sherap; William R. Siebenschuh (September 2006). A Tibetan Revolutionary. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24992-9. Retrieved 21 June 2008.