This volume is the long-anticipated sequel to The Demise of the Lamaist State, which was published in 1989 and has since become a classic on Tibet's de facto independence period from 1913 to 1951. A main theme of the first volume is how Tibet's conservative elite missed the chance to modernize their country in the early twentieth century, and as a result, they simply were not ready in 1949 to confront the formidable People's Republic of China, which was determined to incorporate Tibet. Drawing on rich (and often unseen) primary materials, such as unpublished letters, government documents, and oral history data, this volume continues the story by examining how Tibet's theocratic establishment interacted with the Chinese Communist Party during the negotiation and implementation of the Seventeen-Point Agreement, under which Beijing promised to protect Tibet's sociopolitical status quo in exchange for its allegiance to the People's Republic of China.
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