Independent Tibet – The Facts

MAPS OF TIBET

Detail from 1827 map [24]

Most pre-1950 maps, globes and atlases, including the earliest maps on record of Asia, depict Tibet as an independent nation, separate from China. Tibet is variously referred to as Tobbat, Thibbet or Barantola. A map of Asia drawn by the Dutch cartographer, Pietar van der Aa around 1680 shows Tibet in two parts but distinct from China; [25] as does a 1700 map drawn by the French cartographer Guillaume de L’isle, where Tibet is referred to as the “Kingdom of Grand Tibet.” [26] A map of India, China and Tibet published in the USA in 1877 represents Tibet as distinct from the two other nations. [27] An 1827 map of Asia drawn by Anthony Finley of Philadelphia, clearly shows “Great Thibet” as distinct from the Chinese Empire. [28]

Martin Behaim’s globe at Nuremburg

The oldest existing globe in the world, and possibly the first terrestrial globe ever made, was constructed by Martin Behaim (geographer to the king of Portugal) in 1492. It depicts the world before the discovery of the Americas. Tibet is clearly identified in German as “Thebet ein konigreich”, or “ Tibet, a kingdom”. [29]

The largest stained glass globe in the world (in Boston), based on the Rand McNally 1934 map of the world, shows Tibet as a separate nation. [30]

The “Mapparium” in Boston, MA.

Early Chinese maps do not feature Tibet as a part of China. In a landmark map of China [31] drawn in 1594 by Wang Fen (or Wang Pan?), a senior Ming Legal Officer, there is a note stating that the map included the whole of China ’s territory. But no Tibetan areas, not even the eastern-most regions of Amdo or Kham, appear on the map.

Upper section of 1594 Ming Map

Following the publication of the atlas commissioned by the Manchu Emperor Kangxi and created by French Jesuit cartographers, some Chinese and European maps begin to depict Tibet as a colony or protectorate of China. The Jesuits could not personally survey Tibet (as they had surveyed China and Manchuria), since Tibet was not part of the Chinese Empire. So they trained two Mongol monks [32] in Beijing and sent them to make a secret survey of Tibet. Similar clandestine surveys of Tibet were conducted by British mapmakers using trained Himalayan natives and even a Mongol monk. An American sinologist, writing on such issues, notes that, like European colonial powers, China used cartography to further its “Colonial Enterprise” in Tibet and Korea. [33]