Chapter 66 Letter to the Dalai Lama[1]

(May 24, 1951) Mr Dalai Lama: Thank you for your letter and gift via Mr. Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme[2]. After you came to power, the local government of Tibet began to change its previous attitude. In response to the Central People's Government's call for the peaceful liberation of Tibet, it sent a plenipotentiary representative headed by Mr. Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme to Beijing for negotiations.This move of yours is absolutely correct. Now, on the basis of friendship, the plenipotentiary representatives of the Central People's Government and the plenipotentiary representatives of the Tibetan local government have signed an agreement on the measures for the peaceful liberation of Tibet after many discussions.This agreement conforms to the interests of the Tibetan nation and the Tibetan people, and at the same time conforms to the interests of the people of all ethnic groups in China.Since then, the Tibetan local government and the Tibetan people, in the great family of the motherland and under the unified leadership of the Central People's Government, have been able to cast off the shackles of imperialism and the oppression of foreign nations forever, stand up and work hard for the cause of the Tibetan people.I hope that you and the local government of Tibet under your leadership will earnestly implement the agreement on the measures for the peaceful liberation of Tibet, and try our best to assist the People's Liberation Army to march peacefully into the Tibet area.I specially sent representative Zhang Jingwu[3] to come to your place together with your representatives to make contact.If you need his help, you can contact him at any time.Comes with a gift, hope to keep it!

Chairman of the Central People's Government Mao Zedong May 24, 1951 Printed from originals kept at the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] The Dalai Lama, namely the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, was one of the local religious and political leaders of Tibet at that time. [2] Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, born in 1910, is from Lhasa, Tibet.The former governor of the Tibetan local government, Kalon and Chamdo, was the chief representative sent by the Tibetan local government to Beijing to negotiate the peaceful liberation of Tibet.

[3] Zhang Jingwu (1906-1971), a native of Qixian County (now Yanling), Hunan.At that time, he was the representative of the Central People's Government in Tibet.