![[Kampba flag]](../images/x/xt_kham.jpg)
contributed by Corentin Chamboredon, 17 May 2005
Last modified: 2006-09-23 by phil nelson
Keywords: tibet | khamba guerillas | swords: crossed (blue) |
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contributed by Corentin Chamboredon, 17 May 2005
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I found a black-and-white photograph of a group of Khampa (or Khamba) guerillas,
a band of Tibetans fighting the communist occupation forces in the eastern regions
of Tibet. In the background is a flag, partially obscured by the soldiers. I don't
know what exactly what it represents, but it looks like two crossed swords on
a light background, with a dark border, with five round symbols of some kind.
I'm not sure, but it looks as if at least one of the swords is surrounded by flame.
There is some Tibetan writing on the right side (I can't see the left).
Thomas Robinson, 10 August 1998
(Editorial Note: a photo of this flag is in Dragonflags, No. 2 [dfs] attributed to the book In exile from the Land of Snows, John F. Avedon, New York, 1984.
The history of the Khamba (not Khampa) struggle is very complex. Several feudal
principalities exist in the zone, and some of them probably have their own flag.
The principalities armys joined the Khamba revolt. The colour of the Khambas soldiers
is yellow.
Jaume Ollé, 11 August 1998
After the Chinese invasion of 1950, two resistance movements rose: the Chushi Gangdruk (four rivers, six ranges, the traditional name of Kham) and the Tensung Danglang Maggar (Volunteer Freedom Fighters for Tibet). The first one was a group of Khampa, the people who live between Tibet and China. Before 1950, there were still several kingdoms which turned Tibet against China in order to remain "independent". Those kingdoms decided that Chinese were too dangerous for them and that they must fight the Chinese.
They finally joined the Tibetan resistance essentially made up of the Tibetan
army and led by Andrug Gompo Tashi. They harassed Chinese troops from the kingdom
of Mustang, Nepal, with the help of the CIA until 1974 when China forced Nepal
to expel them. The CIA stopped help to them because the Sino-US relations improved.
Their flag was yellow with two crossed blue swords, one of them being in fire.
I saw another version in a book with 4 animals on the corners and two letters
on both sides of the swords. I don't know what it is.
Corentin Chamboredon, 17 May 2005
Last year I had found a good picture of the Tibetan resistance flag, which
show two blue crossed swords on a yellow field, but I had once seen another version
of it with animals in the corners. And today, I found it! This a photograph showing
Tibetan resisters during the 50's. The flag they display is still yellow with
two swords, one of them being in fire. The animals are: on the upper fly, perhaps
a tiger (or a mythical animal that I don't know) and the famous snow lion on the
upper hoist. A dragon with clouds in the lower fly and a garuda in the lower hoist.
The hoist is on right and there is a khatag on it. The original page is at:
http://www.chushigangdrug.ch/geschichte/geschichte_formation.php
Corentin Chamboredon, 26 June 2005