ON A WAR FOOTING
An exhibition in Delhi tells the story of how some Tibetans had once taken up arms to fight China
After China invaded Tibet in 1950, ‘sporadic armed resistance’ started springing up across the country, and when these factions later united, they together came to be known as the Chushi Gangdruk army. Interestingly, these events all unfolded during the Cold War, when the US wanted to contain the spread of communism. So, when the resistance fighters sought support, the CIA both trained them and funded their movement. This secret operation, which ran from 1957 to 1970, was code-named STCIRCUS. This little-known chapter in history is the subject of Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s exhibition Shadow Circus: A Personal Archive of Tibetan Resistance (1957–1974). Organised with curator Natasha Ginwala, it is on view at India International Centre’s Art Gallery in Delhi till May 1.
Shadow Circus includes material that Sarin and
Sonam have gathered since they started researching the topic in the late 1980s. Inspiration to do so first came from Sonam’s late father, Lhamo Tsering, a key figure in the resistance and its main liaison with the CIA. “He was a meticulous archivist who kept detailed records of the resistance, including photographs, maps, documents and letters,” says Sonam, via email. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a re-edited version of the 1998 documentary film The Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet that saw Sonam and Sarin interview former fighters and CIA officers. Contacting the latter, Sarin says, was especially hard: “Tenzing’s father knew them only by their first names...
SHADOW CIRCUS HAS ON DISPLAY CIAISSUED MAPS AND DRAWINGS FROM THE GUERRILLA HAND-BOOK MADE BY TIBETAN TRAINEES AT CAMP HALE
We spent a summer in Washington, DC, researching these elusive figures.”
In 1957, the CIA started work in Saipan by training a pilot group of six Tibetans in guerrilla warfare and radio communications and they were parachuted back into Tibet. Then, in 1958, they twice airdropped weapons to fighters in Tibet. Encouraged by the operation’s success, the CIA also set up Camp Hale in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where nearly 259 Tibetans were trained between 1959 and 1964. Amongst the exhibits at Shadow Circus are CIA-issued maps, drawings from the Guerrilla Handbook made by Tibetan trainees at Camp Hale, Tsering’s camera, binoculars and a compass given to him by the CIA. “A lot of the documents that we collected are from the CIA’s archives and Eisenhower Presidential Library archives. Some of those will be on display as well,” says Sonam. He also adds that IIC visitors will be able to hear an audio clip in which the Dalai Lama implores the Mustang guerrillas to surrender.
When the CIA pulled out abruptly in 1970, Tibetans did feel betrayed, but “accepted that they were the only people who came to their aid in any meaningful way,” says Sarin. Over the years, the Tibetan freedom struggle turned nonviolent, and this clandestine operation has almost been forgotten. “We thought it was important to tell this story and remind the world of the sacrifices made by so many Tibetans who took up arms to defend their country,” says Sonam. ■