Mr. R. F. Johnston, of the Colonial Service, District Officer at Wei-hai-wei, and the author of the most remarkable of recent books of travel, “From Peking to Mandalay,” paid the Dalai Lama a private visit in July, and reported that he was treated in a dignified and friendly manner. The Dalai Lama told him that he wished his relations with the British to be friendly, and that “he looked forward to meeting British officials from India when he returned to Tibet.” Mr. Johnston said he appeared to treat his Chinese guard with contempt, and that there was bad feeling between the Chinese and Tibetan soldiers, while the Chinese officials complained that they were ignored by the Lama.
The Dalai Lama informed another visitor that he had received several pressing invitations to go to Peking, and on July 19 an Imperial Decree was issued, summoning him to the capital. He arrived at Peking by rail on September 28, 1908. The reception at the station was not specially remarkable. He was borne in his own chair to an improvised reception-hall, where representatives of the Wai-wu-pu (Board of Dependencies), and the Imperial Household awaited him; he was then escorted to the Huang Ssu (Yellow Temple), outside the north wall of the city. It had been built by the Emperor Shun-chih especially for the reception of the Dalai Lama who came to the Chinese Court in 1653 to pay homage to the new Manchu dynasty. He had been the first Chief Pontiff of Tibet to visit Peking, and the present Dalai Lama was only the second.
An emissary from the Dalai Lama came to Sir John Jordan two days later, with a message of greeting. The Minister acknowledged this, and gathered that the Dalai Lama would be pleased to see him. Sir John Jordan was not, however, prepared to visit the Dalai Lama till he had been received in audience by the Emperor, and about this there was some difficulty. The Chinese Government did not find the Pontiff an altogether tractable personage to manage. In the rules for his reception it had been laid down that “the Dalai Lama would respectfully greet the Emperor, and kotow to thank his Majesty for the Imperial gifts.” Kotowing is kneeling and bowing down till the forehead touches the ground. The Dalai Lama was prepared to kneel, but not to touch the ground with his forehead. This might be called “a puerile question of etiquette.” But etiquette means a great deal in Asia, and the audience had to be put off eight days, till this point and the question of the interchange of presents had been satisfactorily arranged. The Dalai Lama was to offer forty-seven different kinds of presents, but was to kneel and not kotow; it was likewise laid down that when being entertained at a banquet by the Emperor, he was to kneel on the Emperor’s entrance and departure.
Though the Russian and British Ministers worked in consultation with one another in regard to visits to the Dalai Lama, and agreed to communicate their intentions informally to the Wai-wu-pu, the Chinese evidently did not care to encourage these visits. The foreign Ministers were informed that the Dalai Lama would receive the members of their staffs on any day except Sunday, between the hours of twelve and three, and that the introduction would take place through the two Chinese officials in attendance, one of whom was Chang Yin-t’ang, the negotiator of the recent Anglo-Chinese Convention, and the same official who had done so much in Tibet to stop direct intercourse with us. This was obviously intended to reduce intercourse with the Dalai Lama to the level of commonplace Western functions, and to deprive him of any further opportunity of ventilating his grievances to the representatives of the foreign Powers. That the Chinese should thus assert their claim to control the external relations of Tibet was, perhaps, reasonable enough, but our Minister thought it was open to doubt whether their methods would, in the long-run, further their interests in that dependency. Some Chinese were already beginning to doubt whether the Pontiff’s experience at Peking was likely to make him an active partisan of Chinese policy on his return to Tibet.
Sir John Jordan visited the Dalai Lama on October 20, at the Yellow Temple. On arrival he was received by two Chinese officials, one of whom was the afore-mentioned Mr. Chang. After a considerable delay in the waiting-room—whether due to Mr. Chang or to the Dalai Lama is not mentioned—he was conducted to the reception-hall, where he found the Dalai Lama seated cross-legged on a yellow satin cushion, placed on an altar-like table, about 4 feet high, which stood in a recess or alcove draped in yellow satin. The Dalai Lama in appearance was of the normal Tibetan type, thirty-five years old, slightly pock-marked, with swarthy complexion, a small black moustache, prominent and large dark brown eyes, and good white teeth. His hands worked nervously, and his head had not been shaved for ten days.
A few remarks were interchanged regarding the climatic superiority of North China over Tibet, and the Dalai Lama’s journey from Wu-tai-shan to Peking, part of which was performed by train, and then the Dalai Lama made reference to the proximity of India to Tibet. Some time ago, he said, events had occurred which were not of his creating; they belonged to the past, and it was his sincere desire that peace and amity should exist between the two neighbouring countries. He desired the Minister to report these words to the King-Emperor. The message was not in the first instance clearly interpreted by the attendant Lama, but that this was the Dalai Lama’s meaning appeared from what followed. Sir John said in reply that the desire for peace and amity was fully reciprocated by his country; and, on this being interpreted, the Dalai Lama returned to his point, repeated the language he had previously used, and asked that it should be reported to the King-Emperor. The Minister then added that he would not omit to carry out this request. A pause ensued, and then the Dalai Lama said that if the Minister had nothing further that he wished to discuss, he would bid him God-speed, and, in doing so, presented him with a pound or two of “longevity” jujubes. The reception lasted about eight minutes. The whole proceedings were carried out with perfect dignity.
Under the outward aspect of honouring the Dalai Lama, the Chinese now by Imperial Decree emphatically stated his subordinate position. “The Dalai Lama,” said the Decree, “already, by the Imperial commands of former times, bears the title of the Great, Good, Self-existent Buddha of Heaven. We now expressly confer upon him the addition to his title of the Loyally Submissive Vicegerent, the Great, Good, Self-existent Buddha of Heaven.” As Sir John Jordan observed, the additional attributes did not leave much doubt as to the rôle which the Pontiff was expected to play in the future. He was, above all else, to be the loyally submissive Vicegerent of the Chinese Emperor, and his dependence on the Imperial favour was to be further accentuated by the grant to him of a small personal allowance, also provided for in the Decree.
The Decree laid down, too, that when he arrived in Tibet, he was “to carefully obey the laws and ordinances of the sovereign State,” and in all matters he was to “follow the established law of reporting to the Imperial Resident in Tibet.” This, said our Minister, was the first unequivocal declaration on the part of China that she regarded Tibet as within her sovereignty, though in a conversation between Prince Chang and Sir Ernest Satow the former had held that both land and people were subject to China.
In preparing his expression of thanks for the honours conferred upon him, the Dalai Lama sought to improve his position by proposing that he should be able to memorialize the Throne direct, instead of through the Resident, but the Board of Dependencies refused to allow him to do so.
The Dalai Lama left Peking on December 21 to proceed to Lhasa by way of Tung-kuan, Si-ngan, Lanchou, and Kumbun—that is, by the northern route, and not through Szechuan, as the Chinese Residents always travel. The day before his departure he sent two of his Councillors to Sir John Jordan to pay a visit of farewell on his behalf. In addition to some presents of incense and other articles for the Minister, they brought a “hata” (scarf), which they specially begged should be transmitted to His Majesty the King-Emperor, with a message of respectful greetings from His Holiness. The Councillors said that the Dalai Lama’s visit to Peking had been a useful educative influence to himself and his advisers, and had resulted, they hoped, in the resumption of the time-honoured relations with China. It had also enabled them to ascertain the views of His Majesty’s Government with regard to Tibet, and, after the assurances our Minister had given them, they now went back thoroughly convinced that so long as they faithfully carried out the terms of the recent Convention, they could look forward with confidence to the maintenance of friendly relations with His Majesty’s Indian Government. This they considered one of the most valuable results of their journey. The Dalai Lama had originally intended, they explained, to leave two or three of his Councillors to represent his interests here, but this proposal had for the time being been abandoned in deference to the views of the Chinese Government.