Tibetan exiles have been rallying around the world to mark 50 years since a failed uprising against Chinese rule [AFP]
Published On 12 Mar 200912 Mar 2009
In 1956, Tibetan noblemen launched a rebellion against what they considered to be Communist China's occupation of the region [AFP]
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The pace of the uprising increased and spread throughout the Tibetan region for the next three years [AFP]
But in March 1959, China's Popular Liberation Army crushed the uprising, forcing Tibetan rebels to lay down their arms [AFP]
Tibet's spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama (left), seen here with then Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Pandit Nehru, fled to India the same month [AFP]
Tibetans in exile held protests worldwide on Tuesday against Chinese rule over their land [AFP]
The Dalai Lama marked the occcasion by saying that "untold suffering and destruction" had been brought "to the land and people of Tibet" [AFP]
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Demonstrations took place in the Nepal, where many Tibetans fled after the failed uprising of 1959 [AFP]
Thousands of Tibetans in Dharamsala, India - home to the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government in exile - also marked the anniversary [AFP]
In Washington DC, hundreds of Tibetan exiles and their supporters rallied in front of the White House before marching to the Chinese embassy [AFP]
Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile says that more than 80,000 people died between March and October of 1959 [AFP]
The government-in-exile also said at least 200 more were killed last year when Chinese security forces clamped down on protests marking the anniversary [AFP]
The Dalai Lama has demanded "legitimate and meaningful autonomy" for Tibet, but says he does not support full independence from China [AFP]
But China's government hit back at what it called "lies" spread by the Dalai Lama about the situation in Tibet, saying the region had enjoyed wide democratic reforms [AFP]
