The turning point of Tibet's history came in 1950, when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) first crossed into Tibet. After defeating the small Tibetan army and occupying half the country, the Chinese government imposed the so-called "17-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" on the Tibetan government in May 1951. Signed under duress, the agreement lacked validity under international law while the presence of 40,000 troops in Tibet, the threat of an immediate occupation of Lhasa left Tibetans little choice.

As armed resistance to the occupation escalated, particularly in Eastern Tibet, the Chinese repression, which included the destruction of religious buildings and the imprisonment of monks and other community leaders, increased dramatically. By 1959 the popular uprising culminated in massive demonstrations in Lhasa. By the time China crushed the uprising, 87,000 Tibetans were dead in the Lhasa region alone and the Dalai Lama had fled to India, where he now heads the Tibetan Government-in-exile, in Dharamsala, India. A bloody war of resistance was continued by Tibetans for nearly two decades, with some serious casualties being inflicted upon the Chinese. However, with the re-establishment of relations between the US and China in 1970 any limited support for the Tibetan freedom fighters dwindled away and their courageous war came to a halt.

In 1963, the Dalai Lama set out a constitution for a democratic Tibet which has, as far as has been possible, successfully implemented by the Government-in-exile. Meanwhile, violations of women's human rights, religious persecution, abuse of political prisoners, and the wanton destruction of religious and historic buildings by the Chinese regime have not dimmed the spirit of the Tibetan people in their struggle for independence.