Introduction: The Development of Modern Tibetan Studies

On September 27th, 1987, a small group of monks staged a demonstration in Lhasa which once again drew the attention of the world to Tibet. In the following 18 months thirty or more such incidents occurred in different parts of the region, leading to the imposition of martial law by the Chinese government in the capital in March 1989, the first time since the creation of the People's Republic of China that the Chinese Government had formally imposed martial law on any part of the territories under its control. These events propelled Tibet into the headlines of the international press for the first time in thirty years.