A Great Deception

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Tibetans cowering in fear

Tibet torture

Public Torture in Lhasa - part 1

These Tibetans are terrified as they await punishment. They were frontier guards who - following their standard proceedure - shot and killed some foreigners who were trying to enter into Tibet. Unknown to them a letter from the Tibetan Government was making it way to them instructing them to greet these foreigners and show them the highest respect. Unfortunately for these guards and the three men they killed, the letter arrived too late.

As Frank Bessac, one of the surviving foreigners reported: 'The leader was to have his nose and both ears cut off. The man who fired the first shot was to lose both ears. A third man was to lose one ear, and the others were to get 50 lashes each.'

The Tibetans were saved from mutilation only by one of the Americans they had shot at. Bessac tells us: 'I felt that this punishment was too severe, so I asked if it could be lightened. My request was granted. The new sentences were: 200 lashes each for the leader and the man who fired the first shot.'

This 1950 photograph shows their public whipping in Lhasa.

After their public whipping the leaders were then put in cangues indefinitely, unable to feed themselves they would only be able to eat through the kindness of others.

For the full story read the Life Magazine article and Thomas Laird's book: Into Tibet

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