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Tibet is a country in central Asia bordering on India, Nepal and Bhutan in the south and under the sovereignty of China (China has occupied Tibet it since 1950).

It was that year that the Chinese communist government brought an end to the political sovereignty of Tibet which has historically been coveted by Mongols and the Chinese. The Chinese military occupation meant the end of the country's independence, which it had achieved in 1911.

Nine years later, in March 1959 (exactly forty-seven years ago) there was an uprising to protest against the Chinese occupation, which was ultimately fiercely repressed. The Dalai Lama, title given to the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people, was forced to flee to India, accompanied by around eighty thousand followers. Since then, he heads the government while in exile in India.

During the 1960s and 1970s, China had a policy aimed at annihilating the national identity of Tibet, with the destruction of numerous Buddhist monasteries. Mass Chinese colonisation sponsored by the Chinese government is also seen as a threat to the survival of Tibetan culture and identity.