In 1951, the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China occupied Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and Tibet was incorporated into the People's Republic of China. The Dalai Lama had taken refuge in India in 1959, and in 1966, in the midst of Tibet's Cultural Revolution, the Nyemo Incident broke out, in which young nuns, possessed by gods, attacked local organized forces and the People's Liberation Army in a rural area not far from Lhasa. According to Chinese records, of the approximately 500 Tibetan fighters of the Jhenro sect, about 105 leaders were punished, 14 of whom were put to death, including the nun Chodron. About 400 others were coerced into communist ideology before being released. The same incidents have occurred since 1980 after the post-Mao reforms, and continue to this day whenever policies regarding religious practice are relaxed. The underlying memory of religious practice has never disappeared, and whatever the source, deeply rooted in Tibetan cultural and social backwardness, the Cultural Revolution began to unfold across China in 1966, and the arrival of new Red Guards from inland China intensified the struggle of the Cultural Revolution against the leadership within the regional party committees from early 1967. The struggle against the leaders in the regional party committees intensified from early 1967. Radical revolutionary groups eventually combined to form the Genro Faction (revolutionary insurgents). Fierce fighting between the two factions resulted in Lhasa's government institutions and neighborhoods being controlled by one faction or the other. This conflict between the factions also occurred in rural areas such as Niemo, where local Tibetan and Chinese leaders usually stood with the Nyamudre faction. The Gyenlo (Gyenlo) faction developed a strategy of exploiting the discontent of the local population. The villagers resented the excessive grain sales to the government and feared the impending collectivization of agriculture. The Genroes turned this anger against the Nyamudre leaders. They used the ideology of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution to justify their revolt against the authorities.
The Genroes used religion to motivate the masses to revolt. A nun, Trinley Chödrön, led her followers to believe that she was possessed by Ani Gongmei Gyemo, the defender of Tibet and aunt of the legendary divine hero Kesar. She ordered her followers to fight against the Nyamudre sect, the enemies of Buddhism. She made her followers accept the Cultural Revolution by claiming that she was acting on his behalf and praising Mao Zedong as a substitute for Wenshu Bodhisattva.
Calling themselves the Army of the Gods, the Genroes launched an offensive against the government and its military allies throughout the region over a period of several weeks beginning in June 1969. The nuns were made to target local Tibetans, whom they mocked and Nyamudre faction leaders, whom they viewed as enemies. People's Liberation Army reinforcements were eventually sent to Nyemo to rebuild order, and Chodron and his army of gods were executed.
