Chushi Gangdruk

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Chushi Gangdruk (ཆུ་བཞི་སྒང་དྲུག་ Wylie transliteration: Chu-bzhi-sgang-drug, lit. "Four Rivers, Six Ranges") was an organization of Tibetan guerrilla fighters who attempted to overthrow the rule of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Tibet that began in the 1950s.

The formation of the Chushi Gangdruk Defend Tibet Volunteer Force was announced on June 16, 1958. "Chushi Gangdruk" is a Tibetan phrase meaning "land of four rivers and six ranges", and refers to Kham. The group included Tibetans from the Kham and Amdo regions of Tibet, and its main objective was to defend the benefit of the ruling class of Tibet from the PRC. The US Central Intelligence Agency provided the group with material assistance and aid, including arms and ammunition, as well as training to members of Chushi Gangdruk and other Tibetan guerrilla groups operating inside Tibet. Chushi Gangdruk also received aid from the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan, led by Chiang Kai-shek. The organization's "Commander in Chief" was Andruk Gonpo Tashi.

From 1960, Chushi Gangdruk conducted its guerrilla operations from the northern Nepalese region of Mustang. In 1974, guerrilla operations ceased after the CIA terminated its program of assistance to the Tibetan resistance movement and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, taped a message telling the Tibetans to lay down their weapons and surrender peacefully.

[edit] See also

• Tibetan American
• Tibetan resistance movement
• Invasion of Tibet (1950–1951)

[edit] External links and references

• Chushi Gangdruk's official web site
• Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows - A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, Columbia University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-231-11814-7.