THE Venerable Lobsang Norbu, a 77-year-old monk who presides over one of several Tibetan Buddhist hilltop monasteries in Arunachal Pradesh, in north-eastern India, recalls the “very horrible” war that China launched 50 years ago this week. Flares lit up the night, then gunfire erupted. Terrified villagers and monks fled through the pine and rhododendron forests to nearby Bhutan. Many of India’s poorly led and outgunned soldiers panicked and ran just as quickly.

Other residents remember the sudden appearance of Chinese soldiers, whom Mao Zedong had earlier deployed to put down a Tibetan uprising north of the border. The attackers swarmed over the disputed Himalayan border. They quickly overran Tawang, a monastery town wedged beside Tibet.

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