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Tibet Riot flag - 1959 (Tibet)

image by Jaume Ollé, 14 December 2009

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Tibet Riot flag used on March 10th 1959. The red flag charged with a snow lion facing the yellow sun with two white square and a diamond on blue vertical panel hoist.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 14 December 2009

Concerning the white squares and diamond, I think it must be the Tibetan heading system. I'm not sure of this, but I think we can see the flag on this photo (the one on the right): http://nyc.indymedia.org/images/2008/04/96773.jpg
And perhaps on this one : http://www.jamyangnorbu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/flags-horses.jpg
About the flag itself, I wonder if it couldn't be related to the Mimang Tsongdu (litt. : Popular Assembly), a local group showing its opposition to the Chinese occupation. When the 1959 Lhasa riot broke out, the Dalaļ-lama fled Tibet and the Mimang Tsongdu united together with a group from eastern Tibet, the Chushi Gandruk (see Tibetan Resistance) to form the Tensung Danglang Maggar (Volunteer Freedom Fighters for Tibet).
Corentin Chamboredon, 15 December 2009

I have noticed a flag I didn't know. It does have similarities with the flag above and the one at xt^army.html, but also some differences. Although I couldn't see it fully displayed, I can at least say it is red with apparently a single snow lion holding a blue pearl facing the fly. There is a yellow border at the hoist and blue fringes on the other sides but, contrary to the other flags, it seems to lack the sun and moon.

Some historical explanations about the zingtrug (ཟིང་འཁྲུག་, zing ‘khrug) of 1959. As explained by the historian Melvyn Goldstein in A history of modern Tibet: in the eye of the storm (1957-1959) (2019, University of California Press, ISBN 9780520278554) it shouldn't be described as an uprising, neither as a rebellion nor an insurrection since all those words imply a willingness to use violence, therefore the translation should rather be a disturbance or a turmoil. It was rather and mostly, indeed, a tragic misunderstanding in a very tense context that led to a lot of bloodshed. To sum it up, by January of 1959 the Tibetan and Chinese governments tried their best to alleviate rising tensions. Part of those tensions arose from the implementations of communist reforms in eastern Tibet (Kham and Amdo) where they were met with active resistance until the local opponents were crushed or had to flee in central Tibet. There, they made their grievance public, which stirred a lot of anxiety among the population. In order to ease the tensions with the Tibetan government, a lot of Chinese troops had been called back to China, leaving the remaining soldiers with a feeling of dread and the fear of a threatening encirclement.

In March, the Dalai Lama was invited to come to a play in the Chinese compound. Since it wasn't considered an official event but a somehow private matter, the Chinese officials suggested he should come with a limited security detail. This demand greatly worried his security officers and his chamberlain who had people announcing in the streets the Dalai Lama might be arrested and sent to China. The population of Lhasa immediately flocked to the Norbulingka (summer palace where he was residing then), refusing to let him go. Despite numerous attempt to disperse the crowd, a Tibetan minister was stoned and knocked down and in a few days the situation deteriorated to the point that the Dalai Lama had to escape and the Chinese military decided to bombard the city and the crowd despite orders not to do so arriving too late.

So here are now some speculations about this flag. There is a report above on this page that there was such a flag during this event. I found it very dubious: in 1959 the only flags used were the Chinese flag or the Tibetan military flags. No other flags are known to me for this period and the population was expected not to express any kind of political idea (this was a matter for the governement alone) despite some attempts by motivated individuals in the preceding years. So I don't think it is a historical reproduction of a flag, even it might be the case. I also find remarkable that this flag didn't appear in Dharamshala during the official celebrations, the Tibetan uprising day, before 2019. The year that marked the 60th anniversary of the event. And I couldn't find it used anywhere but only in Dharamshala.

See for yourselves :
58th celebrations in 2017 : no flag www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyqzenareNg
59th celebrations in 2018 : no flag http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZJaV9YemCc
60th celebrations in 2019 : the flag appears http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK0GjXTeAvY
www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/3/27/tibet-60-years-of-stalemate-awakens-young-generation
61st celebrations in 2020 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKVrkqVZncM
tibet.net/on-the-61st-anniversary-of-tibetan-uprising-day-czech-mps-reaffirm-support-to-the-cause-of-tibet/
tibet.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IMG-8641.jpg
63rd celebrations in 2022
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK0GjXTeAvY
tibet.net/cta-led-tibetans-in-dharamshala-observed-63rd-commemoration-of-the-tibetan-national-uprising-day/

I wondered if this flag could represent the central Tibetan administration (also called Tibetan government in exile) or its head, the sikyong, but I couldn't find any other image of it in relation with the administration. So it seems unlikely too.

So I wonder if this can't simply be a ceremonial flag used only for this particular day.

Corentin Chamboredon, 6 June 2025