The Young Husband Expedition (To Lhasa): An Interpretation > Mehra, Purshotam

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The Young Husband Expedition (To Lhasa): An Interpretation

Mehra, Purshotam

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	Book ID : 19535
	ISBN-10 : 81-212-0843-2 / 8121208432
	ISBN-13 : 978-81-212-0843-7 / 9788121208437
	Place of Publication : Delhi
	Year of Publication : 2005
	Edition : (Reprint)
	Language : English
	xviii, 420p., Illus., Maps, Bib., Index, 23 cm.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS:-

I. India and Tibet : historical geography:
1. India's land frontiers and Tibet.
2. Tibet and its geography.

II. Tibet, India and China: early contacts:
3. Tibet vis-a-vis (Pre-British) India and China.
4. The missions of George Bogle and Samuel Turner.
5. India, China and Tibet to 1890.

III. Curzon, Tibet's Dalai Lama and Czarist Russia:
6. Curzon's early years and India.
7. Curzon as Viceroy: his quarrels with Whitehall.
8. Lord Curzon and Tibet, 1899-1902.
9. The 13 Dalai Lama and Dorjief.
10. Curzon vis-a-vis Russian 'Intrigue' in Tibet.

IV. The Younghusband Mission advances into Tibet:
11. The Tibet Mission takes shape.
12. The mission and its leader.
13. 'Negotiations' at Khamba Jong.
14. The advance to Gyantse.
15. Guru and its aftermath.
16. Problems: man-made and God-made.
17. Clash of wills: Younghusband, Curzon and the cabinet.

V. Younghusband in Lhasa, the convention and after:
18. Negotiations and their scope: preliminary exchanges between Calcutta and Whitehall.
19. Negotiations and their scope : HMG's final 'Diktat'.
20. Younghusband at Lhasa: 'Negotiations' and the 'Negotiators'.
21. The commissioner versus the Amban.
22. The Tongsa Penlop and Captain Jit Bahadur.
23. The Lhasa convention: the indemnity and the agent.
24. The Lhasa convention: HMG's disavowal.
25. The Scapegoat? 26. Retrospect--and prospect.

Appendices:
1. Convention between Great Britain and China relating to Tibet and Sikkim.
2. Regulations regarding trade, communication, and pasturage to be appended to the convention between Great British and China of March 17, 1890, relative to Sikkim and Tibet.
3. Convention between Great Britain and Tibet, signed at Lhasa on the 7 September, 1904.
4. 'Separate agreement' regarding the Gyantse trade agent.
5. Younghusband to Ampthill, (Gyantse, May 5, 1904).
6. Ampthill to Younghusband (Simla, July 11, 1904).
7. Curzon to younghusband (Walmer castle, Kent, July 13, 1904).
8. Harry Cust to Younghusband (Westminster, 1905).
9. H.A. Gwynne to Younghusband (London, July 27, 1905).
10. Text of extracts from Lt. (later Lt. Col.) A.L. Hadow's diary.

DESCRIPTION

Almost towards the fag-end of the great Game (ca 1800-1907), aptly called the cold war of the Victorian era, the British mounted an armed expedition to Lhasa. Their objective, to nip in the bud mounting suspicions of St. Petersburg coming to an understanding with Manchu China over Tibet. The Tsar, it was rumoured, had cut a secret deal with the Dalai Lama and Promised him help in munitions-and men!

India's then governor general (1899-1905), the irascible Lord Curzon, was not amused. More so in that while the Tibetan ruler spurned all efforts at communication, he had stayed in touch with the Tsar through the Buryat Mongol, Agvan Dorjief. Russia's categorical assurances that there were no clandestine deals with China, much less Tibet, were no avail. The Viceroy bullied a weak if unwilling Tory administration into mounting an armed expedition and chose Francis Younghusband to lead it.

With no help from without, there was little the rabble of an 'army' of ill-equipped, hapless lamas could do. Arriving in Lhasa, the Commissioner dictated terms of peace to a headless Tibetan administration (September 1904). Sadly, his Lhasa convention which had sought to establish a virtual British protectorate over Tibet was mired in controversy and invited unqualified censure from his political bosses. And an honour, deemed in sulting.

There is much more to the narrative than the preceding lines allow: the 'fighting' with the Tibetans; the stand off between Younghusband and the commander of his escort; the role of Chinese Amban; the shameless loot and pillage of Tibet's rich cultural heritage. In a fresh chapter, 'Hundred Years on', the new edition updates all the research on the subject, adding both depth and dimension to this fascinating drama. Which was to mark a new era in Tibet's recent history and still excites no end of interest.

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