76 Facts About Ma Bufang

Ma Bufang was a prominent Chinese Muslim Ma clique warlord in China during the Republican era, ruling the province of Qinghai.

Ma Bufang and his older brother Ma Buqing were born in Monigou Township in what is today Linxia County, 35 kilometres west of Linxia City.

Ma Bufang studied until he was nineteen and then pursued a military career like his brother.

General Ma Lin held the position of civil Governor, while Ma Bufang was military Governor.

Ma Bufang was not admired by people as much as his uncle Ma Lin, whom the people adored.

In 1937, Ma Bufang rose with the help of the Kuomintang and forced his uncle Ma Lin to concede his position.

At that point Ma Bufang became governor of Qinghai, with military and civilian powers, and remained in that position until the Communist victory in 1949.

Ma Bufang defeated Ma Zhongying in a battle in Gansu, and drove him into Xinjiang.

In 1936, Ma Bufang was appointed commander of the newly organized 2nd army.

Ma Bufang did all he could to delay the movement of the Dalai Lama from Qinghai to Tibet by demanding 100,000 Chinese silver dollars.

In 1936, during Autumn, Ma Bufang made his move to expel his uncle from power and to replace him.

Ma Bufang made Ma Lin's position untenable and unbearable until he resigned from power by making the Hajj to Mecca.

Ma Bufang continued to use this standard in battle and, as of 1936, he had 30,000 Muslim cavalrymen in his army.

Ma Bufang had a conflicted relationship with the Tibetan population of Qinghai.

Ma Bufang overran the Tibetan armies and recaptured several counties in Xikang province.

The reputation of the Muslim forces of Ma Bufang was boosted by the war and victory against the Tibetan army.

Ma Bufang established the Kunlun Middle School and used it to recruit Tibetan students, who were subjected to harsh military life.

Ma Bufang attacked and demolished a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Rebgong in 1939, one of the oldest in Amdo.

Ma Bufang sent his army to destroy and loot the Tsanggar Monastery in 1941; his forces expelled the monks.

Many of the monasteries attacked by Ma Bufang were associated with the Ngoloks.

Tibetan tribals in southern Qinghai revolted due to taxation between 1939 and 1941, but they were crushed by "suppression campaigns" and massacred by Ma Bufang which caused a major influx of Tibetan refugees into Tibet from Qinghai.

In 1937 and 1938, the Japanese attempted to approach Ma Bufang and were ignored.

Ma Bufang's soldiers were designated as the 82nd Army during the war against Japan.

Ma Buqing and Ma Bufang discussed the battle plans against the Japanese over the telephone with Chiang Kai-shek.

The top crack elite cavalry of Ma Bufang was sent against Japan.

Ma Bufang obstructed Japanese agents trying to contact the Tibetans and was called an "adversary" by a Japanese agent.

Under orders from the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kaishek, Ma Bufang repaired Yushu Batang Airport to prevent Tibetan separatists from seeking independence.

Chiang ordered Ma Bufang to put his Muslim soldiers on alert for an invasion of Tibet in 1942.

Ma Bufang complied, and moved several thousand troops to the border with Tibet.

Ma Bufang attacked the Tibetan Buddhist Tsang monastery in 1941.

Ma Bufang's army battled extensively in bloody battles against the Japanese in Henan province.

Ma Bufang sent his army, under the command of his relative General Ma Biao, to fight the Japanese in Henan.

The Qinghai Chinese, Salar, Chinese Muslim, Dongxiang, and Tibetan troops Ma Bufang sent fought to the death against the Imperial Japanese Army, or committed suicide refusing to be taken prisoner, when cornered by the enemy.

Han survived an aerial bombardment by Japanese planes in Xining while he was being directed via telephone from Ma Bufang, who hid in an air raid shelter in a military barracks.

Ma Bukang and Ma Bufang were having a discussion on Ma Biao when Japanese warplanes bombed Xining.

Ma Bufang was elected to the Sixth Central Committee of the Kuomintang in 1945.

Ma Bufang was sent with his Muslim Cavalry to Urumqi by the Kuomintang in 1945 during the Ili Rebellion to protect it from the Uyghur army from Hi.

Ma Bufang relocated Genghis Khan's shrine from Yulin to Xining in 1949.

Ma Bufang patronized the Panchen Lama, and the Lamaist Red Sect against the Dalai Lama.

Qinghai served as a "sanctuary" for Red Sect members; Ma Bufang allowed Kumbum Monastery to be totally self-governed by the Panchen Lama.

Ma Bufang entered Lanzhou in a Buick with his troops, seizing buildings and setting up camps.

Ma Bufang had to battle against forty Soviet warplanes sent by Joseph Stalin against his forces.

Generals Hu Zongnan and Ma Bufang led five corps to defeat General Peng's army near Baoji.

General Ma Bufang announced the start of the Kuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China, on January 9,1950, when he was in Cairo, Egypt saying that Chinese Muslims would never surrender to Communism and would fight a guerilla war against the Communists.

Ma Bufang was there to request help from Arab countries.

Ma Bufang was in the post from 1957 to 1961 until his dismissal "on charges of corruption and incompetence".

Ma Bufang received the Saudi citizenship and remained in Saudi Arabia until his death in 1975 at the age of 72.

Ma Bufang had one son, Ma Jiyuan, who served as a divisional commander in Ma Bufang's army.

In 1938 Ma Bufang built a residence for his concubine called East mansion.

Ma Bufang's headquarters was converted into the provincial museum by the Communists, until a new one was built.

Ma Bufang had another chief of staff in his North-West Command, Ma Ji.

Ma Bufang recruited many Salar officers, such as Han Yimu and General Han Youwen into his army; most came from Xunhua County.

Ma Bufang's regime centered on the support of "fanatically disciplined and obedient Chinese Muslims".

Ma Bufang's son was handed Ma Bufang's former role as authority over the army.

Ma Bufang presented himself as a Chinese nationalist and someone who fought against Western imperialism to the people of China in order to deflect criticism by opponents that his government was feudal and oppressed minorities like Tibetans and Buddhist Mongols.

Ma Bufang presented himself as a Chinese nationalist to his advantage to keep himself in power as noted by the author Erden.

Ma Bufang was forced to defend himself against the accusations, and stated to the news media that his army was a part of the "National army, people's power".

Ma Bufang was described as a socialist by American journalist John Roderick and "friendly" compared to the other Ma Clique warlords.

Ma Bufang was reported to be good humoured and jovial in contrast to the brutal reign of Ma Hongkui.

In 1947 the United States sold Ma Bufang a piped water system which was installed in Xining.

Ma Bufang was obsessed with preventing soil erosion and tree planting, saying: "The salvation of our desert was in the tree".

Ma Bufang had "education teams" teach the entire population about the role of trees in protecting the environment.

Ma Bufang made businessmen methodically clean up Xining, the capital of Qinghai, by serving as insect exterminators, killing flies, and neatly disposing of them.

Ma Bufang sent the Chinese artist Zhang Daqian to Sku'bum to seek helpers to analyze and copy Dunhuang Buddhist art.

Ma Bufang patronized the folk songwriter Wang Luobin, who wrote the famous folk song "In That Place Wholly Faraway" in Qinghai while shooting a film at Ma's invitation.

Ma Bufang later rescued Wang Luobin from prison and employed him on his staff.

Closer to the Communist takeover, Ma Bufang tried to rally Tibetan and Mongol militia at Kokonuur Lake.

Tibetan independence groups allege and accuse Ma Bufang of carrying out Sinicization policies in Tibetan areas: he is said to have forced Tibetans to intermarry, and to change their religious beliefs.

Ma Bufang spread and popularized holidays such as the Chinese New Year.

Ma Bufang eliminated slavery and lordship among the Mongols and Tibetans.

The new Yihewani sect was patronized and backed by Ma Lin and Ma Bufang to help modernize society, education, and reform old traditions.

Ma Bufang kept religious affairs and clerics separate from state and civil affairs; religion was only concerned with education, morality, and other non-administrative matters.

In 1937, when the Salafi formally split with the Yihewani Muslim Brotherhood, Ma Bufang persecuted them as "heterodox" and "foreign".

Ma Bufang invited Kazakh Muslims to attend the ceremony honoring the God.

Ma Bufang received audiences of Christian missionaries, who sometimes gave him the Gospel.

Ma Bufang commanded the New 9th Division, New 2nd Army, and the 82nd Army.