#szechuan
soldiers of the Tibetan army in Shigatse, 1938
The Tibetan Army was established in 1913 by the 13th Dalai Lama, who had fled Tibet during the 1904 British invasion of Tibet and returned only after the fall of the Qing power in Tibet in 1911. During the revolutionary turmoil, the Dalai Lama had attempted to raise a volunteer army to expel all the ethnic Chinese from Lhasa, but failed, in large part because of the opposition of pro-Chinese monks, especially from the Drepung Monastery. The Dalai Lama proceeded to raise a professional army, led by his trusted advisor Tsarong
The Tibetan Army held the dominant military strength within political Tibet from 1912, owing to Chinese weakness during the Japanese occupation of China. With the assistance of British training, it aimed to conquer territories inhabited by ethnic Tibetans but controlled by Chinese warlords, and it successfully captured western Kham from the Chinese in 1917
Tibet’s military control was located in Qamdo from 1918. During this time, the Sichuan warlords were busy fighting the Yunnan warlords, allowing the Tibetan army to defeat the Sichuan forces and conquer the region. The Tibetan Army was involved in numerous border battles against the Guomindang (KMT) and Ma Clique forces of the Republic of China. In 1932, the KMT defeated the Tibetan army, driving them out of Kham.
Their first encounter with the People’s Liberation Army was in 1950, when they took over Dengo, and after failed negotiations initiated the Battle of Qamdo, marking the Chinese occupation of Tibet that continues to this day.
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I’ve written about Wu Liang Ye, New York City’s best Chinese restaurant not in Chinatown, before here. But after a return visit last week, our first time back in over three years since moving to Shanghai, I wanted to post an update, which is… THEY’RE JUST AS GOOD AS EVER!
I went for dinner with colleagues from China and they were equally impressed with the flavors and authenticity of each dish. Here’s a look at some of what we had, and I say “some” as many seafood dishes were not put on the table, but served directly to our plates before I could snap a pic, like their wonderful shrimp and asparagus with garlic.
Appetizer combo with the classic Sichuan cold beef trio of tripe, brisket and tendon…
My go-to dish at WLY, razor clams with a Sichuan peppercorn & scallion vinaigrette…
My fellow diners had never seen a dish like this before and were equally impressed by its taste and presentation…
Double cooked “bacon” with hot peppers…
Shredded chicken in spicy garlic sauce…
Sauteed beef filets in spicy tea sauce…
A tongue-numbing mapo tofu…
And “Ants on a Tree”, which is stir-fried cellophane noodles with minced pork…
While they sell beer, Wu Liang Ye will allow BYOB for special occasions, like this bottle of Moutai that arrived from Beijing with our guests that morning…
With all the changes we’ve seen across this city since coming home, it’s nice to find that things have remained the same here at Wu Liang Ye!
WU LIANG YE
36 W 48th St.
NY, NY 10036
212-398-2308
