Golok conflicts (1917–1949)

General Ma Qi was a Hui Chinese commander who joined the Kuomintang after the Northern Expedition in 1927–1928. His forces were composed entirely of Hui Chinese, organized in the Ninghai Army, which was then turned into a National Revolutionary Army division.

{{see also|Muslim conflict in Gansu (1927–1930)}}

Ma Qi occupied Labrang Monastery in 1917, the first time non-Tibetans had seized it.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/violenceoflibera0000makl|url-access=registration|quote=ma qi muslim.|title=The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China|author=Charlene E. Makley|year=2007|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25059-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/violenceoflibera0000makl/page/73 73]|access-date=2010-06-28}} Ma Qi defeated the Tibetan forces with his Hui Chinese troops.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1RuAAAAMAAJ&q=The+Tibetans+were+easily+defeated+by+the+Hui+(Chinese+Muslim)+soldiers+and+Ma+Qi+subsequently+stationed+his+troops|title=Inner Asia, Volume 4, Issues 1-2|author=University of Cambridge. Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit|year=2002|publisher=The White Horse Press for the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at the University of Cambridge|page=204|access-date=2010-06-28}} His forces were praised by foreigners who traveled through Qinghai for their fighting abilities.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WltwAAAAMAAJ&q=Of+Ma+Qi,+the+Hui+commander+at+Xining+who+supplied+the+expedition+with+a+Muslim+interpreter+and+two+Muslim+soldiers+for+its+travels+in+Qinghai,+Wulsin+wrote,+%22His+forces+are+the+sturdiest+and+readiest+to+fight+on+the+whole+border|title=China's Inner Asian Frontier: Photographs of the Wulsin Expedition to Northwest China in 1923: From the Archives of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, and the National Geographic Society |first1=Frederick Roelker |last1=Wulsin |first2=Mary Ellen |last2=Alonso |first3=Joseph |last3=Fletcher |author4=Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology |author5=National Geographic Society |author6=Peabody Museum of Salem |author7=Pacific Asia Museum|year=1979|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=0-674-11968-1|page=43|access-date=2010-06-28}} The Labrang monastery had strong connections to the unpacified Ngolok Tibetan tribals who refused to submit to Chinese rule.{{Citation needed|reason=source needed for this statement|date=July 2017}}

After ethnic rioting between Hui and Tibetans erupted in 1918, Ma Qi defeated the Tibetans. He heavily taxed the town for eight years. In 1925 a rebellion broke out, and thousands of Tibetans drove out the Hui. Ma Qi responded with 3,000 Hui Chinese troops, who retook Labrang and machine-gunned thousands of Tibetan monks as they tried to flee.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5OHPw6t0BhcC&q=ma+qi+muslim&pg=PA123|title=Chinese Awakenings: Life Stories from the Unofficial China|author1=James Tyson|author2=Ann Tyson|year=1995|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0-8133-2473-4|page=123|access-date=2010-06-28}}{{Dead link|date=June 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Ma Qi besieged Labrang numerous times but the Tibetans and Mongols fiercely resisted his Hui forces until Ma Qi gave it up in 1927.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xGvECiS-uEgC&q=ma+qi+muslim&pg=PA90|title=Labrang: A Tibetan Buddhist Monastery at the Crossroads of Four Civilizations|first=Paul Kocot |last=Nietupski|year=1999|publisher=Snow Lion |isbn=1-55939-090-5|page=90|access-date=2010-06-28}} However, that was not the last Labrang saw of General Ma. The Hui forces looted and ravaged the monastery again. In revenge Tibetan nomads skinned alive many Hui soldiers. One of the most common practices was to slice open the stomach of a living soldier and then put hot rocks inside the stomach. Many Hui women were sold to the ethnic Han and Kazakhs. Children were adopted by the Tibetans.

Austrian-American explorer Joseph Rock witnessed the carnage and aftermath of one of the battles around 1929. The Ma Muslim army left Tibetan skeletons scattered over a wide area, and the Labrang monastery was decorated with severed Tibetan heads.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJqPc4tqSGEC&q=joseph+rock+labrang+severed+heads+of+tibetan+skeletons+work+of+ma&pg=PT253|title=Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival|first=Dean |last=King|year=2010|publisher=Hachette Digital |edition=illustrated|isbn=978-0-316-16708-6|access-date=2010-06-28}} After the 1929 Battle of Xiahe near Labrang, severed Tibetan heads were used as ornaments by Chinese Muslim troops in their camp, 154 in total. Rock described how the heads of "young girls and children" were staked around the encampment. Ten to fifteen heads were fastened to the saddle of every Muslim cavalryman.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OzEOKNPsv2EC&q=joseph+rock+tibetan+heads&pg=PA4|title=Peoples of the Buddhist World: A Christian Prayer Diary|author=Paul Hattaway|year=2004|publisher=William Carey Library|page=4|isbn=0-87808-361-8|access-date=2011-05-29}} The heads were "strung about the walls of the Moslem garrison like a garland of flowers".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YszV1u_VCGAC&q=joseph+rock+tibetan+heads&pg=PA175|title=Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things: An Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas|first=Gary |last=Geddes|year=2008|publisher=Sterling |edition=illustrated|page=175|isbn=978-1-4027-5344-2|access-date=2011-05-29}}

Ma Bufang, the son of Ma Qi, was a Kuomintang warlord who dominated Qinghai. He served as a general in the National Revolutionary Army and sought to expand the Republic of China's control over all of Qinghai, as well as bringing Tibet back into the Republic by force. With the backing of the Kuomintang government, Ma Bufang launched seven expeditions into Golog, killing thousands of Ngolok Tibetans.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g3C2B9oXVbQC&q=genocidal|title=Dilemmas The Mongols at China's Edge: History and the Politics of National Unity |first=Uradyn Erden |last=Bulag|year=2002|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=54|isbn=0-7425-1144-8|access-date=2010-06-28}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1RuAAAAMAAJ&q=With+the+tacit+consent+of+the+Republican+government.+Ma+Bufang+had+carried+out+a+series+of+brutal+raids+in+Tibetan+areas,+killing+numerous+people+and+destroying+monasteries.+The+fact+that+monasteries+in|title=Inner Asia, Volume 4, Issues 1-2|author=University of Cambridge. Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit|year=2002|publisher=The White Horse Press for the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at the University of Cambridge|page=203|access-date=2010-10-28}} Ma and his army, having established an Islamic state-within-a-state in Qinghai, exterminated many Ngolok Tibetans in northeastern and eastern Qinghai.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DbkfQATHikQC&q=ma+bufang+ethnic+cleansing+tibetans&pg=PA72|title=China's Campaign to "Open up the West": National, Provincial, and Local Perspectives|first=David S. G. |last=Goodman|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=72|isbn=0-521-61349-3|access-date=2010-06-28}} During one such attack in 1941 Ma Bufang sent Hui troops to destroy Sekar Gompa monastery, killing their highest ranking Lama and 300 tapas. They sacked the compound, burning it to the ground, and sold all of the property for gold and silver.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqrpAAAAMAAJ&q=The+monastery+was+ransacked+and+plundered+objects+were+sold+at+auction+on+the+spot,+yielding+more+than+2+kg+of+gold+and+1600+Tael+silver.+The+buildings+were+burnt+down+when+the+Muslim-Chinese+hordes+left.+The+damage+was+so+great+that|title=The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces: The Qinghai Part of Kham|first=Andreas |last=Gruschke|year=2004|publisher=White Lotus Press|page=77|isbn=974-480-061-5|access-date=2010-10-28}}

From 1918 to 1942 the Ma warlords waged intensive, violent war against the Ngolok tribal inhabitants of Golog. Ma Bufang also manufactured conflicts by giving pasture to Tibetan and Mongolian groups at the same time, which spread internal conflicts.{{cite web|url=http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/booksAndPapers/yeh.tibetan.range.wars.pdf|title=Tibetan Range Wars: Spatial Politics and Authority on the Grasslands of Amdo|last=Yeh|first=Emily T.|page=509|access-date=31 October 2010}} Ma established the Kunlun middle school, which recruited mainly Han and Hui but also Tibetan students who were subjected to a harsh military life. Ma wanted to use them as translators as he expanded his military domain over land inhabited by Tibetans.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xTtVgvlV49MC&q=ma+bufang+tibet&pg=PA36|title=Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change|first1=Lauran R. |last1=Hartley |first2=Patricia |last2=Schiaffini-Vedani |year=2008|publisher=Duke University Press|page=36|isbn=978-0-8223-4277-9|access-date=2010-06-28}}

During the pacification, a war broke out between Qinghai and Tibet. Tibet attempted to capture parts of southern Qinghai province, following contention in Yushu, Qinghai, over a monastery in 1932. Ma Bufang's army vanquished the Tibetan forces and recaptured several counties in Xikang Province.

Ma Bufang succeeded in acquiring a personal monopoly on the Qinghai economy such as gold, wool, furs, animal skins, herbs. He also established trade relations and trade offices with Lhasa and Japanese-controlled Inner Mongolia. Tibetan tribals in southern Qinghai revolted against Ma Bufang's newly levied taxes in 1939–1941, but they were crushed by Ma cavalry forces' "suppression campaigns" and massacred, which caused a major influx of 2,000 households of Tibetan refugees into Tibet from Qinghai. This exodus triggered a crisis when Central Tibetan authorities feared that Ma Bufang might attack to pursue the refugees, but Ma resolved the matter by granting "amnesty" to "his Tibetan subjects".{{cite book|first=Hsaio-ting |last=Lin |title=Tibet and Nationalist China's Frontier: Intrigues and Ethnopolitics, 1928–49|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osn1WrRCelcC&pg=PA113|date=1 January 2011|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=978-0-7748-5988-2|page=113}}

Under orders from the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek, Ma Bufang repaired the Yushu airport in southern Qinghai Province, close to the border with Tibet, to prevent Tibetan separatists from seeking independence.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}} Chiang also ordered Ma Bufang to put his Hui soldiers on alert for an invasion of Tibet in 1942.{{cite journal|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=449716|title=War or Stratagem? Reassessing China's Military Advance Towards Tibet, 1942–1943|author1-link=Lin Hsiao-ting|last=Lin|first=Hsiao-ting|journal=The China Quarterly|year=2006|volume=186|pages=446–462|doi=10.1017/S0305741006000233|s2cid=154376402|access-date=2010-06-28}}http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us&q=chiang+ma+bufang+qinghai+troops+sino+tibetan+border+site%3Ajournals.cambridge.org&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= Ma Bufang complied, and moved several thousand troops to the border with Tibet.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_BxAAAAMAAJ&q=ma+bufang+|title=China in the Anti-Japanese War, 1937-1945: Politics, Culture and Society|first1=David P. |last1=Barrett |first2=Lawrence N. |last2=Shyu |year=2001|publisher=Peter Lang|page=98|isbn=0-8204-4556-8|access-date=2010-06-28}} Chiang also threatened the Tibetans with aerial bombardment if they did not comply.

A former Tibetan Khampa soldier named Aten who fought Ma Bufang's forces gave an account of a battle. He described the Hui as "fierce". After he and his troops were ambushed by 2,000 of Ma Bufang's Chinese Muslim cavalry, he was left with bullet wounds and "had no illusions as to the fate of most of our group", the majority of whom were wiped out.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhAeAAAAMAAJ&q=The+soldiers+were+the+fierce+Hui+Hui,+or+Chinese+Muslim+horsemen+(formerly+soldiers+of+the+warlord,+Ma+Pu+Fang),+and+were+mounted+on+the+sleek,+powerful+horses+from+the+grasslands+of+Sining.+I+lay+there+in+the+gully+drowsing+fitfully|title=Horseman in the Snow: The Story of Aten, an Old Khampa Warrior|author=Rab-brtan-rdo-rje (Ñag-roṅ-pa) [Jamyang Norbu]|year=1979|publisher=Information Office, Central Tibetan Secretariat|page=134|access-date=2011-06-01}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/warriorsoftibets00jamy|url-access=registration|quote=The soldiers were the fierce Hui Hui, or Chinese Muslim horsemen (formerly soldiers of the warlord, Ma Pu Fang), and were mounted on the sleek, powerful horses from the grasslands of Sining. I lay there in the gully drowsing fitfully.|title=Warriors of Tibet: The Story of Aten, and the Khampas' Fight for the Freedom of their Country|first=Jamyang |last=Norbu|year=1986|publisher=Wisdom |isbn=0-86171-050-9|page=146|access-date=2011-06-01}} Aten also asserted that "the Tibetan province of Amdo" was "occupied" by Ma Bufang.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/warriorsoftibets00jamy|url-access=registration|quote=chinese muslim General Ma pu fang occupied tibetan province amdo.|title=Warriors of Tibet: The Story of Aten, and the Khampas' Fight for the Freedom of Their Country|first=Jamyang |last=Norbu|year=1986|publisher=Wisdom |isbn=0-86171-050-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/warriorsoftibets00jamy/page/63 63]|access-date=2011-06-01}}

The Golog tribes were deeply resentful of the Muslim Ma warlords of Qinghai due to the brutality of the conflict. In response, in 1939, 1942 and 1949 Golog chieftains frequently sent appeals to Chinese central government representatives, including Tibetan communist leaders outside of Qinghai, to transfer the Golog lands from Qinghai province to Xikang (Kham) province and hence evade the Ma warlords' suppression. These requests were not acted upon, however, although the Golog in the early period People's Republic did not rebel as they perceived it as an improvement over the Ma warlords.{{cite book |last1=Robert Barnett, Benno Weiner, Françoise Robin |title=Conflicting Memories: Tibetan History under Mao Retold |date=2020 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004433243 |pages=94–97, 104}}

• Outline of the Chinese Civil War

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngolok rebellions (1917-49)}}

Category:Military history of the Republic of China (1912–1949)

Category:Military history of Tibet

Category:Wars involving the Republic of China

Category:1930s conflicts

Category:1940s conflicts

Category:1930s in China

Category:1940s in China

Category:Military history of Qinghai

Category:Chinese Civil War

Category:History of Islam in China

Category:20th-century rebellions

Category:Rebellions in China

Category:Ma clique