Relations between the Tibetans and China’s various nationalities, particularly the Han, became closer and closer, especially from the start of the Tang Dynasty (618 AD).

      In 641, the Tang Emperor Taizong gave the hand of Princess Wencheng of the Tang court in marriage to the Tsanpo of the Tubo Dynasty, Songtsan Gampo. This policy of alliance by the Tang Dynasty played a positive role in promoting unity, expanding exchanges and enhancing understanding and friendship between nationalities, as well as serving to improve the relation-ship between the Tang Dynasty and the Tubos. The “marriage alliance?meant that Songtsan Gampo and his successors all acknowledged that their relationship with the Tang Emperors was nephew and uncle.

      Emperor Taizong died in 649 and was succeed-ed by Emperor Gaozong who conferred on Songtsan Gampo the titles “Fuma Duwei?and “Prince of the Western Region.?In return, Songtsan Gampo sent an envoy with condolences and a memorial expressing loyalty to the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Gaozong then offered him the additional title of “Precious King?and had a stone statue carved for him. Later, in 710, Emperor Zhongzong gave the hand of his adopted daughter Princess Jincheng in marriage to the Tubo Tsanpo Tride Tsugtan.

      Princess Jincheng was a lover of literature and art, and brought with her to Tibet many ancient books and records of the arts and crafts, as well as musicians and acrobats. The Tubo Tsanpo cleared the way for her journey, and built a palace in Lhasa to receive her. Princess Jincheng’s marriage to the Tibetan king was another great contribution to the development of friendship between the Hans and Tibetans. As a consequence, friendly visits between the Tangs and Tubos increased from then on, and the civilization of the Central Plains became widely known in Tibet.

      When the Tang Emperor Muzong came to the throne in 831, the Tubos sent an envoy to ask for an alliance to which the Tang court expressed assent. In 822, the imperial court sent Liu Wending to Lhasa to establish an alliance with the Tubos, and in the following year the “Tang-Tubo Alliance Tablet?was erected. Expressing hopes for everlasting friendship between the two peoples, this tablet is preserved to this day at the front gate of the Jokhang Temple.

        Two hundred years elapsed from the “marriage alliance?with Songtsan Gampo in the reign of the Tang Emperor Taizong up to the time of the Tang Emperor Xuanzong when, in 851, internal disruption marked the decline of the Tubo Dynasty. Over these two centuries, Tubo envoys made more than ninety trips to the Tang court. The highest-ranking envoys sent by both sides were of ministerial level, and the purpose of the visits included the maintenance of friendly relations, marriages, funerals, memorial ceremonies, the establishment of alliances, greetings on successes, requests for craftsmen, escorts for monks, and so on. The escorts sent for the Princesses Wencheng and Jincheng were composed of several hundred to a thousand men, but generally parties consisted of ten to fifty men at least.

        The Tangs and Tubos exchanged visits with the astonishing frequency of a visit almost once every year. Considering an astounding fact, and remains etched in the minds of both the Hans and Tibetans.

       In the mid-thirteenth century, the Yuan Dynasty unified the whole China and pacified Tibetan internal strife, bringing Tibet under its control. With the consent of local rulers, the Yuan Dynasty exercised its central authority over the Tibetan-occupied areas throughout China; such was the development of relations between the two nationalities the Tibetans and Hans, the direct historical result of earlier Tang alliances.

       During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the local chieftains of Tibet formally received titles from the emperors, and the Tibetan local government frequently sent envoys to Peking either to pay tribute or to receive titles. At the invitation of the Qing Emperor Shunzhi, the Fifth Dalai Lama, whose rank was formally acknowledged by the century, the Qing court began stationing Ambans in Tibet to supervise the appointment or removal of Tibeten local officials and to direct recognition of the incarnations of the Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama and other high ranking lamas or their ordination to the religious throne.

        After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, commonly referred to as the 17-Point Agreement, was signed between the representatives of the Central People’s Government and the local government of Tibet in May 1951. In 1956, the State Council approved the founding of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region, and in 1965 the Tibet Autonomous Region was formally founded and regional autonomy was put into practice.