Marx v. Buddha

As the Chinese Reds toiled last week across Tibet's forbidding, wind-scoured glacial plateau, their press & radio for the first time reported how they had prepared the blow.

Under General Liu Po-cheng ("The One-Eyed Dragon"), boss of Southwest China, the campaign was begun a year ago with drilling of troops in mountain warfare and of party commissars in the Tibetan tongue and customs. On Oct. 7 the advance got under way. Each soldier carried 100 lbs. of arms and rice. Other supplies were loaded on truck and yak caravans. Pontoon bridges were laid across treacherously rapid rivers.

In four days the invaders reached Ning-ching, where a Tibetan border regiment defected in what appears to have been the commissars' first tactical triumph. On Oct. 19 the combat troops "annihilated" 4,000 Tibetans at Chamdo, a citadel 400 miles east of Lhasa, Tibet's capital. From Chamdo on, they had no real opposition except from the rugged terrain and rarified air on the "roof of the world." By week's end the One-Eyed Dragon was reported five days' march from the Tibetan capital.

In Lhasa's golden-roofed lamaseries, the Buddhist theocrats who have ruled Tibet's 3,000,000 people spun their prayerwheels, consulted ancient oracles, conferred. For the non-Communist world, the sole source of news from the capital was the radio transmitter of the Indian agent stationed there. For seven days it was silent, and the rumor rose that a pro-appeasement lamasery revolution had unseated the young (16) Dalai Lama. Then the wireless spoke again. "Extreme worry," it reported, gripped the Tibetans. The Dalai Lama and his Regent, Takta Rimpoche, must soon choose one of three courses: flight across the southern border, diehard resistance at home, or a deal with the Communist invaders.

Since India would not go beyond indignant remonstrance with Peking (see below), some Tibetans talked of an appeal to the U.N. So far, the only outside help came from Calcutta. There a group of lamas staged a weeklong, nonstop recitation of Buddhist scriptures and prayers for peace. They then paraded through the streets beating drums, blowing 15-foot-long conches, and sprinkling holy water on the faithful.

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