I told the Amban that this was extremely interesting and gratifying to hear, and that what he had said entirely bore out my own conclusions. It made me all the more sorry that so many of these poor peasants with whom we had no quarrel, and who only wished to be friendly with us, should have been killed, and this was one consideration which was restraining us from fighting now. I had on several occasions during the recent fighting gone round the dead Tibetans, and invariably found that they were peasants. A Lama was never seen. If we could be quite sure that the originators of all this fighting would fight themselves, I was not sure that we would have been so ready to suspend hostilities.
Before the close of his visit I asked the Amban if the Nepalese and Kashmiris kept on good terms with the Tibetans here. He replied that they got on well enough with the ordinary people, but avoided the Lamas, as contact with them was liable to lead to trouble. He added that the Nepalese representative had been ordered by the Prime Minister of Nepal to advise the Tibetans to be reasonable and come to a settlement with us, and to tell them that the British respected the religion of others and would not interfere with theirs. I said I had heard of this, and if the Tibetans had only followed this good advice, which was given a year ago, we might have settled up everything at Khamba Jong. What the Prime Minister of Nepal had said about the tolerance of other religions was perfectly true. We had many millions of Buddhists under our rule, about 200,000,000 Hindus, and 70,000,000 Mohammedans. The Tibetan fear that we would interfere with their religion was altogether unfounded. The Amban replied that they were so jealous of their religion that they tried to prevent even Chinese Buddhists of other sects from their own from entering Tibet.
On August 13 two Sha-pés, the Dalai Lama’s private Abbot, a Secretary of Council, and the Accountant-General paid me a formal visit. I remarked that the Amban had told me that they had drawn up a document which they had presented to him as a reply to our terms, but which was so impertinent that the Amban had said he could not even mention it to me officially. The deputation replied that they were really anxious to make a settlement, and the document they had presented to the Amban merely represented their views, and was not intended as a reply to me. Their idea was to give the Amban their opinion, and he would give orders upon it.
I asked them whether they were prepared to obey the orders of the Amban. They said that if the Amban gave orders acceptable to both them and him they would obey. I asked them if by that they meant that they would obey his orders if they liked them, but would pay no attention to them if they were not according to their taste. They replied that their idea was that the Amban should act as a sort of mediator. We would both present our views to him, and he would decide between us, and make a settlement satisfactory to both. When they had stated their case to him they had no intention to be impertinent; they were a small people, and ignorant of the ways of great nations; they thought that if they asked much at first, they might not obtain all they asked, but would obtain a part.
I told them I had already warned the Amban that I was not here to act the part of a merchant in the bazaar and haggle over terms. When I arrived at Khamba Jong last year, I had, indeed, then been prepared to discuss the terms of a settlement, and by give and take arrive at a mutually satisfactory agreement. I had, for instance, announced that we were prepared to concede the Giagong lands to them if they showed themselves reasonable in regard to trade concessions elsewhere. But they had declined to negotiate, and had chosen to fight. They had been beaten, and had no further means of continuing the struggle against us. They must, therefore, accept our terms or expect us to take still further action against them. The terms we were now asking were extremely moderate, but if we were compelled to undertake more military operations they would have to be made much more severe.
They begged me to be more reasonable and to discuss things more quietly; they said they were accustomed to talk matters over at great length; they hoped that the Resident would be able to persuade me to be more considerate; and they suggested that I should ask the Viceroy to let me demand easier terms from them. I reminded them that they had been aware of the terms for three weeks now, and I had been ready, on the way up here, to explain them to them. I had now been ten days at Lhasa; they had not yet come to talk to me about them; and I had heard from the Resident that, so far from showing any inclination to agree with them, they had written about them in very impertinent terms. They must not be surprised, therefore, that my patience was exhausted. The terms which I had shown them were issued by command of the British Government, and no reference to His Excellency the Viceroy would have the slightest effect in modifying them.
THE TI-RIMPOCHE
The next day I had a much more interesting interview. The Ti Rimpoche himself came to see me. He was the Chief Doctor of Divinity and Metaphysics of Tibet, and was an old and much respected Lama, to whom the Dalai Lama had left his seals of office and whom he had appointed Regent. He remembered seeing Huc and Gabet as a boy, and he was a cultured, pleasant-mannered, amiable old gentleman, with a kindly, benevolent expression. He was accompanied by the Nepalese representative, and brought with him a present of gold-dust and some silk from the Dalai Lama’s brother.
After some polite observations, he asked me whether we English believed in reincarnation. I said we believed that when we died our bodies remained here and our souls went up to heaven. He said that that might happen to the good people, but where did the bad people go to? I replied that we had no bad: we were all good. He laughed, and said that, at any rate, he hoped that both of us would be good during this negotiation. Then we might both go to heaven. I said I had not the smallest doubt that we should.