作者：冯仍
编辑：钟然 校对：熊辩 翻译：吕峰

每年的3月10日，对很多中国人来说，往往只是日历上平常的一天。但对藏人来说，这一天不是普通的纪念日，而是一道至今仍在流血的历史伤口。

1959年3月10日，拉萨爆发大规模抗争，随后局势急转直下，达赖喇嘛出走印度，西藏从此进入一个漫长而沉重的时代。流亡藏人把这一天称为“西藏人民起义日”或“西藏抗暴纪念日”。而中共官方则一直把这一事件定性为“武装叛乱”被“平定”的开始，并将后续叙事导向定义为所谓“民主改革”。同一段历史，被两套完全不同的话语体系长期撕扯，这本身就说明：西藏问题，从来不是一句官方定性就能掩盖过去的。

图中为达赖喇嘛骑马逃亡（图片来自国际西藏运动）

说实话，在中国生活的时候，我对这段历史几乎没有真正的了解。不是因为它不重要，而是因为我们从小到大能接触到的信息，往往早已被过滤、删改、定向灌输。很多历史，不是我们不想知道，而是中共根本不想让我们知道。就像我后来到了美国，才逐渐补上一些被遮蔽的历史真相一样，西藏的1959年，也是我到海外之后才开始认真去看、去想、去面对的一段历史。

当我慢慢了解这段历史时，我心里有一种很深的震动。因为我发现，西藏人民起义日纪念的，不只是1959年3月10日那一天的抗争，更是在纪念一个民族在强权面前不肯彻底屈服的尊严。那一天之后，很多人失去了亲人，失去了寺院，失去了土地，失去了自由，甚至失去了在自己家园中按自己方式活着的权利。达赖喇嘛流亡印度以后，西藏问题再也不是一个地方性的行政问题，而成为全世界都无法回避的人权与民族自由问题。

让我特别在意的是，美国政府对这段历史并不是沉默的。1959年11月25日，美国国务院在《美国对外关系文件集》中一份正式外交电报里写到，美国支持西藏人民的“自决原则”，并表示美国人民“怀着钦佩”看待藏人捍卫自由、反抗中共压迫统治的努力。这样的表述非常值得重视，因为它不是某个学者的评论，也不是媒体报道，而是美国国务院正视历史档案中的文字。它至少说明一点：早在1959年，美国政府内部已经意识到，这不是一个简单的“地方叛乱”问题，而是关乎人民自由与政治命运的问题。

美国国会后来也多次就3月10日作出正式记录和表态。2000年《国会记录》收录的参议院文本，明确提到1959年3月10日拉萨民众因担心达赖喇嘛安危而聚集守护，并提到随后达赖喇嘛出走印度以及中国方面对事件的镇压叙述。到2018年，美国参议院通过 S. Res. 429，更直接把1959年西藏起义59周年纪念定为“西藏权利日”，并再次把3月10日界定为西藏人民反抗中国政府统治的历史节点。2024年，美国参议院又提出纪念西藏人民为自由而起义65周年的决议草案，继续沿用“the uprising of the people of Tibet”这样的表述。与此同时，美国国务院近年的涉藏报告，也持续把“1959年西藏起义周年”列为中国政府在西藏加强控制、限制进入和提高戒备的重要敏感时期。

这些美国政府文件当然不等于全部真相，也不意味着西藏问题已经得到解决。但它们至少留下了一个清楚的记录：这段历史不是不存在，不是没人看见，更不是中共一句“平叛”就可以永久盖棺定论的。

对我来说，纪念西藏人民起义日，还有另一层更深的感受。作为一个从中国走出来、在压制和遮蔽中一点点补上真相的人，我越来越明白：中共最害怕的，从来不只是某一次抗争，而是人们开始记住历史、重新命名历史、拒绝接受它强加的历史解释权。它害怕的不只是达赖喇嘛，不只是流亡藏人，不只是海外纪念活动，而是越来越多中国人开始意识到：那些年被定性为“叛乱”、“风波”、“动乱”的，也许恰恰是一个民族、一个群体、一些普通人捍卫尊严的时刻。

西藏人民起义日之所以重要，就在这里。它提醒我们，一个民族即使被强权压住，也未必会真正沉默；一个历史真相即使被封锁几十年，也不等于它已经死去。每年的3月10日都是一次警醒：不要相信暴政垄断的叙事，不要让恐惧替代记忆，不要让遗忘成为帮凶。

今天我写下这些文字，不是因为我能完全替藏人发声，而是因为我作为一个中国流亡者，越来越能理解那种被体制压迫、被历史噤声、被官方叙事掩埋的痛。也正因为如此，我更愿意在这一天，郑重地向1959年3月10日站出来的藏人致敬！

他们当年守护的，不只是达赖喇嘛，也是一个民族最后的尊严。他们留下的，也不只是一场失败的抗争，更是一段不能被中共彻底抹去的历史见证。

3月10日，不该被遗忘。西藏人民起义日，不该被遗忘。那些为了自由而站出来的人，更不该被遗忘。

March 10 Should Not Be Forgotten: A Reflection by an Exile on Tibetan Uprising Day

Author: Feng Reng

Editor: Zhong RanProofreading: Xiong BianTranslator: Lyu Feng

Abstract: March 10 marks Tibetan Uprising Day, commemorating the 1959 Lhasa protests and the exile of the Dalai Lama. This article reviews the historical event and its competing narratives, arguing that the Tibet issue concerns national dignity, human rights, and historical memory, and should not be obscured by official political definitions.

For many Chinese people, March 10 is often just an ordinary day on the calendar.

But for Tibetans, this day is not merely a commemoration—it remains a historical wound that continues to bleed.

On March 10, 1959, a large-scale uprising broke out in Lhasa. The situation quickly escalated, and the Dalai Lama subsequently fled to India. From that moment on, Tibet entered a long and heavy period of history. Tibetans in exile refer to this day as “Tibetan Uprising Day” or “Commemoration of the Tibetan Resistance.”

The Chinese Communist Party, however, has consistently defined the event as the beginning of a “suppressed armed rebellion,” framing the subsequent historical narrative as the start of what it calls “democratic reforms.”

The same historical episode has long been torn between two completely different systems of discourse. This alone demonstrates that the Tibet issue has never been something that can be concealed by a single official characterization.

The image shows the Dalai Lama fleeing on horseback. (Image source: International Campaign for Tibet)

To be honest, when I was living in China, I knew almost nothing about this period of history.It was not because it was unimportant, but because the information we were able to access from childhood had often already been filtered, edited, and shaped through selective indoctrination. Many historical events are not unknown because people do not want to learn about them, but because the Chinese Communist Party simply does not want people to know them.

It was only after I came to the United States that I gradually began to fill in some of the historical truths that had been obscured. The events in Tibet in 1959 were also something I only began to seriously read about, reflect upon, and confront after arriving overseas.

As I slowly came to understand this history, I felt a deep sense of shock. I realized that Tibetan Uprising Day does not merely commemorate the protest that occurred on March 10, 1959. It also commemorates the dignity of a people who refused to completely submit in the face of overwhelming power.

After that day, many people lost their family members, their monasteries, their land, and their freedom. Some even lost the right to live in their own homeland according to their own traditions. After the Dalai Lama went into exile in India, the Tibet issue ceased to be a local administrative matter and instead became a global question concerning human rights and national freedom.

What particularly caught my attention was that the United States government has not been silent about this history. On November 25, 1959, in an official diplomatic cable recorded in the Foreign Relations of the United States series, the U.S. Department of State wrote that the United States supported the Tibetan people’s “principle of self-determination.” The document also stated that the American people viewed with “admiration” the Tibetan people’s efforts to defend their freedom and resist oppressive rule imposed by the Chinese Communist regime.

Such wording deserves careful attention. It is not a scholar’s opinion nor a media report; it appears in the official historical records of the U.S. Department of State. At the very least, it shows that as early as 1959, within the U.S. government there was already recognition that this was not merely a simple “local rebellion,” but a matter concerning people’s freedom and political destiny.

The U.S. Congress has also recorded and commented on March 10 multiple times. In the Congressional Record of 2000, a Senate text clearly mentioned that on March 10, 1959, residents of Lhasa gathered to protect the Dalai Lama out of concern for his safety. It also referred to the Dalai Lama’s subsequent escape to India and to the Chinese government’s narrative of suppressing the events.

In 2018, the U.S. Senate passed S. Res. 429, which more directly designated the 59th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising as “Tibetan Rights Day.” The resolution again defined March 10 as a historical moment when the Tibetan people resisted the rule of the Chinese government. In 2024, the U.S. Senate introduced another draft resolution commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Tibetan people’s uprising for freedom, continuing to use the phrase “the uprising of the people of Tibet.”

Meanwhile, in recent years the U.S. Department of State’s Tibet-related reports have continued to list the “anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising” as a sensitive period during which the Chinese government typically strengthens control in Tibet, restricts access, and heightens security measures.

Of course, these U.S. government documents do not represent the entire truth, nor do they mean that the Tibet issue has been resolved. But they at least leave a clear record: this history does exist. It has been seen. And it cannot be permanently settled by the Chinese Communist Party simply labeling it as the suppression of a “rebellion.”

For me personally, commemorating Tibetan Uprising Day also carries a deeper meaning. As someone who came out of China and gradually reconstructed the truth after years of censorship and suppression, I have come to understand something more clearly: what the Chinese Communist Party fears most is not a single act of resistance, but the moment when people begin to remember history, rename history, and refuse to accept the Party’s monopoly over historical interpretation.

What it fears is not only the Dalai Lama, not only Tibetan exiles, and not only commemorations held overseas. What it fears even more is that increasing numbers of Chinese people may come to realize that many events once labeled as “rebellions,” “incidents,” or “turmoil” may in fact have been moments when a nation, a community, or ordinary people stood up to defend their dignity.

This is precisely why Tibetan Uprising Day matters.

It reminds us that even when a people are suppressed by overwhelming power, they may not truly fall silent. A historical truth that has been sealed off for decades does not mean that it has died.

Every March 10 is therefore a warning:Do not believe narratives monopolized by authoritarian power.Do not allow fear to replace memory.Do not allow forgetting to become an accomplice.

Today I write these words not because I can fully speak on behalf of Tibetans, but because, as a Chinese exile, I increasingly understand the pain of being oppressed by a system, silenced in history, and buried beneath official narratives.

For that reason, on this day I want to express my sincere respect to the Tibetans who stood up on March 10, 1959.

What they defended at that time was not only the Dalai Lama, but also the final dignity of a people.

What they left behind was not merely a failed resistance, but a historical testimony that the Chinese Communist Party can never completely erase.

March 10 should not be forgotten.Tibetan Uprising Day should not be forgotten.And those who stood up for freedom should never be forgotten.