India and Tibet / A history of the relations which have subsisted between the two countries from the time of Warren Hastings to 1910; with a particular account of the mission to Lhasa of 1904

by Sir Francis Edward Younghusband

So the Pontiff disappears into space again, and for a year nothing is heard of him till a report comes from our agent in Tibet in October, 1909, that he had arrived at Nagchuka, a fortnight’s march from Lhasa. He had by this time evidently heard of the proceedings of Chao (Chao Erh-feng) in suppressing Lamaism and destroying the powers of the Lamas in Eastern Tibet, for he now sends telegrams to the British Agent at Gyantse, to be despatched from there to “Great Britain and all the Ministers of Europe.” These reached Gyantse on December 7, 1909. The first of them said that though the Chinese and the Tibetans were the same, yet nowadays the Chinese officer, named Tao (? Chao) and the Amban Len, who resides at Lhasa, were plotting together against the Tibetans, and had not sent true copies of Tibetan protests to the Emperor, but had altered them to suit their own evil purposes. They had brought many troops into Tibet, and wished to abolish the Tibetans’ religion; the Dalai Lama asked, therefore, that “all the other countries should intervene and kindly withdraw the Chinese troops.” The second telegram, to be sent after some days if no reply were received to the first, said that in Tibet, in the case of several Chinese officers, “big worms were eating and secretly injuring small worms.” The third telegram was to the Wai-wu-pu, and contained the same expression, and added: “We have acted frankly, and now they steal our heart.”

The Dalai Lama also at this time sent a messenger by Calcutta to Peking with a letter to the British Minister, dated November 7, from the Tacheng Temple, three days’ march outside Lhasa. This messenger reached Peking on February 7. The letter gave expression to the Lama’s desire that friendly relations with India might be maintained, and begged that the bearer’s message might be listened to by the Minister. This message, which was delivered on February 21, was to the effect that, having arrived in Lhasa territory, the Dalai Lama was concerned to find that active measures were being taken in the country by Chinese troops, and hoped that anything our Minister could do would be done. This messenger, though he had denied that he was the bearer of any other letters, as a matter of fact also delivered similar letters to the Japanese, French, and Russian Ministers, and the Russian Minister informed Mr. Max Müller, our Chargé d’Affaires, that the letter to him was couched in more definite terms than that addressed to Sir John Jordan, and asked directly for Russian help against the aggression of the Chinese.

The point to note about these proceedings is that before the Dalai Lama had even reached Lhasa, he was seriously concerned at the anti-Lamaist proceedings of Chao in Eastern Tibet, and very suspicious of Chinese intentions in regard to his own rule in Tibet.

He appears to have actually reached Lhasa on Christmas Day, 1909, and shortly after sent a Lama to the Maharaj Kumar of Sikkim, whom he had met at Peking, with a message to thank the Government of India for the very generous treatment they extended to the Tibetan Government and people during the stay of the British Mission in Lhasa, and for withdrawing from the country after signing the Treaty. The Sikkim Maharaj Kumar understood from this message that the Dalai Lama wished to open friendly relations direct with the Government of India.

The situation in Lhasa on the Lama’s arrival was most critical. The Tibetans were alarmed and enraged at the excesses which had been committed by the Chinese troops in Eastern Tibet, especially in the destruction of a large monastery near Li’tang, in retaliation for the murder of a Chinese Amban; and the Tibetans had a story that when they destroyed the monastery the Chinese soldiers used the sacred Buddhist books for making soles to their boots.

An official was sent by the Dalai Lama and Council to our Trade Agent to represent the situation to him. He reached Gyantse on January 31 of this year, and said that the Chinese troops were still at Chiamdo, but as Tibetan troops were massed at only half a day’s march from that place there was not the least doubt that there would be bloodshed if the Chinese persisted in coming to Lhasa.

At Lhasa itself the Tibetans had continually requested the Chinese Resident to arrange that these Chinese troops should not be brought to Lhasa, but he refused to take any action. After the return of the Dalai Lama to Lhasa, the representatives of Nepal and Bhutan, together with some of the leading merchants and Mohammedan head-men in Lhasa, again approached the Chinese Resident as well as the Dalai Lama, with a request that he should settle the dispute as to whether or not these troops should be allowed in Lhasa. In the meanwhile the Tibetans had sent a considerable force to face the Chinese troops, which, as previously stated, had arrived under Chao-Erh-Feng at Chiamdo, a place tributary to, but not directly ruled by, China. The Tibetan force was meant to intimidate the Chinese, but, like the poor troops at Guru, had orders not to fight.

The account subsequently given by the Tibetan Minister of what next happened was that on February 9 the Assistant Resident, Wen, had an interview with the Dalai Lama in the Potala. The Nepalese representative and Tibetan traders were also present. A promise was then given by Wen not to bring more than 1,000 Chinese troops to be stationed at Gyantse, Phari, Chumbi, and Khamba Jong. Wen further promised that there should be no bringing to Lhasa of fresh troops, by which I suppose he meant that the garrison of Lhasa itself should not be increased. And he undertook to give them a promise to the same effect in writing.

Tibetans are proverbially hazy in their accounts of what was actually said or done on particular occasions, and the Chinese Government afterwards denied that Wen could possibly have given any such promise. But the Ministers did show Mr. Bell, the Political Officer in Sikkim, a letter which they asserted they had received from Wen. Wen wrote: “I had a personal interview on February 9, 1910, at the Potala, with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in regard to the orders sent from Szechuan about sending 1,000 Chinese troops to Lhasa....” He then agreed that the distribution of the troops to guard the frontier would be considered on their arrival at Lhasa; the Lamas would not be harmed or their monasteries destroyed, and there would be no diminution in the Dalai Lama’s spiritual power. Wen further stated in this letter that the Dalai Lama had agreed that the Chinese troops would have no resistance offered to them; that the Tibetan troops then assembled would be dismissed to their homes; that the Dalai Lama would thank the Emperor, through the Resident, for the great kindness shown him; and that great respect should, as usual, be paid by the Dalai Lama to the Chinese Resident.

This letter was written on February 10, and on the same day the Dalai Lama replied that orders for the withdrawal of the Tibetan troops and for the carriage of the Resident’s mails had been issued. The report to the Emperor of his arrival in Lhasa was also forwarded. But the Dalai Lama drew the Resident’s attention to the fact that while he had stated that there would be no diminution of his spiritual power, he had made no mention of his temporal power.