A Tibetan politician who played a decisive role in bringing Communist Party rule to the Himalayan region died yesterday, aged 99.
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, a descendent of the kings of Tibet, was one of the most prominent Tibetan figures in modern Chinese politics. He died from an unspecified illness in Beijing, CCTV said. He was two months short of his 100th birthday.
He was the only Tibetan to flourish under both the Dalai Lama and during the Cultural Revolution. He was one of the most respected political figures in China and the patriarch of a clan of more than 60 members.
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme came from an aristocratic family and was appointed commander of the Tibetan military by the Dalai Lama. He led the fight against the People's Liberation Army in 1950 in a battle that ended in swift defeat.
He was captured with the bulk of the Tibetan forces, but was quickly befriended by his captor and became the deputy commander-in-chief of the PLA forces in Tibet a year later.
He was authorised by the 14th Dalai Lama to head the Tibetan delegation to Beijing for peace negotiations in 1951. Both sides signed the Seventeen Point Agreement, accepting Beijing's sovereignty in exchange for guarantees of autonomy and religious freedom. When the Dalai Lama fled in 1959, after a failed uprising against Communist rule, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme became chief Tibetan spokesman for Beijing's policies in the region.