Dalai Lama sought refuge three years before uprising, claims biographer

The Dalai Lama wanted to defect to India as early as three years before he ultimately fled there in 1959 after a failed armed rebellion against Chinese rule, a historian and veteran journalists in India say.

His plan to go to India in 1956 did not come about because then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru refused to grant him asylum. Sino-Indian relations at the time were strong and Nehru was unprepared to antagonise premier Zhou Enlai, with whom he had strong personal rapport.

'In the mid-1950s, India reverberated with slogans such as 'Hindi-Chini bhai bhai' meaning 'Indians and Chinese are brothers',' said Inder Malhotra, a former diplomatic correspondent. 'The two nations were so close during the period that former premier Zhou Enlai visited India three times in two years.

'As communist China tightened its grip on Tibet, New Delhi was kept informed by its consulate in Lhasa about ominous post-1950 developments there, but it adopted a hands-off policy.'

In 1956, the Maha Bodhi Society, a religious organisation dedicated to Buddhism, invited the Dalai Lama to attend celebrations in India marking the 2,500th birth anniversary of Lord Buddha.

Authorities in Beijing initially refused to give the Tibetan spiritual leader permission for the trip, but they eventually cleared it. It was arranged for the Dalai Lama to go to India under the 'guidance' of the Chinese ambassador. He was also told to boycott the celebrations if representatives from Taiwan were invited.