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The Tibet Vernacular Paper (simplified Chinese: 西藏白话报; traditional Chinese: 西藏白話報; pinyin: Xīzàng báihuà bào, Tibetan: ནུབ་བོད་ཀྱི་ཕལ་སྐད་ཚགས་པར, Wylie: nub bod kyi phal skad tshags par), also translated as The Tibetan Vernacular Paper, is the first newspaper to have been established in Tibet. Written in both Tibetan (藏文) and vernacular Chinese (Baihua 白话), it was founded in April 1909 by amban Lian Yu, and his deputy Zhang Yintang, in the final years of the Qing Dynasty. The first issue was lithographically printed, with a print-run fewer than 100 copies a day. It was disestablished in 1911. The mission of the newspaper was mainly educational, but also propagandistic.
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Goals
Lian Yu and Zhang Yintang felt that publishing a newspaper in the vernacular language would advance their administrative reforms far more than just making speeches to restricted audiences. They took the Sichuan Yun Bao and other government-funded newspapersd as its models. As few Tibetans could read Chinese and few Chinese could read Tibetan at the time, they plumped for a bilingual newspaper. According to Bai Runsheng, the newspaper was warmly welcomed by the Tibetan people.
Printing, circulation and frequency
The Tibet Vernacular Paper was first printed lithographically (at the rate of fewer than 100 copies a day) on a stone printing machine brought to Tibet by Zhang Yintang. In order to achieve larger print runs, printing machines were later bought in India and brought to Tibet. The newspaper appeared once every ten days, with 300 to 400 copies per issue. It stopped appearing in 1911.
Announcing the arrival of Zhao Erfeng army
Tibetan historian K. Dhondup wrote that one of the first issue of the newspaper was published while the 13th Dalai Lama came back to Lhasa after his first exile, just before his second exile. The paper announced in August 1909 the arrival of Chao Erh-feng army: "Don't be afraid of Amban Chao and his soldiers. They are not intended to do harm to Tibetans, but to other people. If you consider, you will remember how you felt ashamed when the foreign soldiers arrived in Lhasa and oppressed you with much tyranny. We must all be strengthen ourselves on this account, otherwise our religion will be destroyed in 100 or perhaps 1,000 years." On the 3rd January 1910, the Chinese army entered in Lhasa, shooting at random in the city, resulting in a number of wounded and killed policemen and people.