10 Facts About Tibetan Army

Tibetan Army was established in 1913 by the 13th Dalai Lama, who had fled Tibet during the 1904 British expedition to Tibet and returned only after the fall of the Qing power in Tibet in 1911.

Residents evacuated the city during the Monlam Prayer Festival and Butter Lamp Festival of 1921, fearing violent confrontation between the monks and the Tibetan Army, which was eventually barred from Lhasa to keep the peace.

The Tibetan Army was bolstered in 1937 by the perceived threat of the return of the Panchen Lama, who had brought arms back from eastern China.

The Tibetan government stalled and delayed negotiations while bolstering its army.

Tibetan Army held the dominant military strength within political Tibet from 1912, owing to Chinese weakness because of the Japanese occupation of part of eastern China.

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The Tibetan Army was involved in numerous border battles against the Kuomintang and Ma Clique forces of the Republic of China.

The Tibetan Army continued to expand its modern forces in the following years, and had about 5,000 regular soldiers armed with Lee–Enfield rifles in 1936.

Furthermore, the Tibetan Army had access to great numbers of locally raised village militias.

In 1937, the Tibetan Army had 20 detachments along its eastern frontier comprising 10,000 troops with 5000 Lee–Enfield rifles and six Lewis guns.

The army, in particular, had Japanese, Chinese, and British influence, although the British influence was of such an extent that the Tibetan officers gave their commands in English, and the Tibetan band played tunes including "God Save the King" and "Auld Lang Syne".