Avalokitesvara Cult and Competing Nationalisms of the Sino-Tibetan Borderland

Abstract

The article discusses the emergence of Tibetan nationalism in Sino-Tibetan borderland in the period after the fall of the Qing Empire in 1911 and untill the incorporation of Tibet into the PRC in 1951. It argues that the cult of the Bodhisattva of compassion Avalokitesvara was a key spiritual root of the Tibetan religious nationalism, associating Tibet with the state of the Dalai Lamas. Other kinds of nationalisms emerged on the vast territory of the Tibetan plateau, among which the author distinguishes Tibetan collaborative nationalism and secular autonomist nationalism of Kuomintang or Communist types. The religious factor was central in this competition. Tibetan Buddhism, due to its long tradition of interweaving religion and politics, easily adapted to new conditions and was used by various forms of nationalism for diametrically opposite aims. The article shows how the clash of various national and religious interests finally led to the victory of the Chinese communists and the defeat of the religious nationalism. The author argues that the cult of Avalokitesvara, despite the defeat of the religious nationalism in 1951, became the “icon” of Tibetan nationalism of the subsequent period associated with the exodus of Tibetans to India in 1959.