The term "Tibet" here means the whole of Tibet known as Cholka-Sum (U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo). It includes the present-day Chinese administrative areas of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, two Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures and one Tibetan Autonomous County in Sichuan Province, one Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and one Tibetan Autonomous County in Gansu Province and one Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province.

There is some uncertainty over the precise date, but it was apparently on October 7th that units of the Chinese so-called People’s Liberation Army crossed the River Yangtze into Kham, the eastern province of Tibet in the foothills of the Himalayas.

His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and their greatest advocate for a free Tibet.