This letter was certainly the first letter which any Dalai Lama had written to an Englishman, and was addressed “To the Sahib sent by the English Government to settle affairs,” and ran as follows:
"In a letter recently received by the Sha-pé from the Tongsa Penlop he says that the establishment of friendship has now become difficult, as the English officers with their escort say that they are about to proceed to Lhasa to make a treaty and to meet the Dalai Lama. With this communication the nine terms of the Convention were also received. The National Assembly has been consulted regarding this matter, and as it has decided for friendship it has sent a separate communication to the British. I too, in accordance with the religious customs of Tibet, am at present in retreat, and it would be a difficult matter for me to meet the Sahibs. I have sent two representatives on ahead to negotiate regarding friendship, and also the Chikyab Kenpo, who lives always near me. It will be well if matters are discussed with my delegates there for the sake of peace. But it is not well for the establishment of an agreement between the two countries if you come to Lhasa contrary to my wishes. Please consider this well. I send a scarf and have already sent some silks separately.
“Dated the 8th day of the 6th month, Wood Dragon year.”
To this letter I replied that I was sure he would recognize the inconvenience it would be to me now that I had left Gyantse to negotiate at any other place than Lhasa itself, but that I would disturb His Holiness as little as possible in his religious seclusion.
TA LAMA AND HIS SECRETARY.
The Dalai Lama’s Chamberlain returned to Lhasa immediately, but on the 29th the Ta Lama, accompanied by the same Secretary of Council who was present at the interview of July 27, again came to visit me. He explained that the Chamberlain had returned to Lhasa to report personally to the Dalai Lama the result of his interview with me, and he hoped that I would wait here till the reply of the Dalai Lama should reach me. I informed him that I could not wait here longer than the 31st, that it was not our custom to act in a dilatory manner, and that I was indeed daily expecting a telegram from the Viceroy asking me for an explanation of the delay which had already occurred.
During the interview, which lasted three hours, the conversation was of a discursive nature, as the Ta Lama clearly had no power even to discuss anything else than our advance to Lhasa. I gathered that what he and the other delegates, and probably also the Dalai Lama himself, feared was the turbulence of the war party among the monks of the three great monasteries, leading to some futile collision with our troops which would not have the slightest effect in stopping us, but which would merely irritate us into sacking Lhasa. Probably what the Dalai Lama’s party also feared was that these same turbulent monks might turn upon the Dalai Lama himself and make away with him.
I told the Ta Lama that I considered it a great pity that he and the other able councillors who had recently met me had not come to Khamba Jong, for the Secretary of Council who had met Mr. White and me there had not comported himself in at all a conciliatory manner; he had, in fact, irritated us considerably, and made a peaceful settlement impossible. This surprised me the more because the Chinese Government had informed the Viceroy that the Dalai Lama had agreed to Khamba Jong as the meeting-place where negotiations should take place.
The Ta Lama replied that what the Dalai Lama meant was the Khamba boundary, not Khamba Jong. I told him that this was hardly intelligible, as the Khamba boundary was along the top of mountains. We clearly could not sit on the top of a mountain and negotiate: we had to meet on either the one side or the other, and as the Amban and Tibetan officials had come to India on the last occasion, it was natural that we should expect to meet in Tibet on this. I added that when the Chinese and Tibetan officials came to India we treated them as our guests, as Mr. White, who was present at Darjiling, could testify; we provided houses, food, and transport for them; allowed them to have their own soldiers as escort; and took them down to Calcutta to visit His Excellency the Viceroy. On the other hand, when Mr. White and I arrived at Khamba Jong last year we were not even allowed to buy supplies.