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At
the turn of the century, Tibet remained one of the last
uncontrolled regions in the 'Great Game' between Russia and
Britain keen to increasing their respective strongholds in
Central and Inner Asia. Tibet’s invasion in 1949 by the
Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China was not the
only one in the gloomy chronicles of modern Tibetan history. The
British invasion in 1904 instigated by Lord Curzon (1859–1925),
the Viceroy of India, and led by the imperial adventurer
Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942), was in part
a mission to curtail Russia’s expansionist raids into Central
Asia and in part, a colonial effort to establish British
interests and open lucrative trading routes between India, Tibet
and China. The seeds of disagreement
between the British empire and
Tibet were already sown in 1876 when Britain signed the
Chefoo Convention with China which effectively placed Tibet in
the sphere of greater Chinese political interests in exchange
for British privileges to exploit Burma.
As a result, the
Tibetan government took offence for being bypassed by the
British, and refused to acknowledge any terms that would grant
Britain any special rights to pursue commercial trafficking in
their country. Their refusal to recognize any British overtures
and their obstinately returning letters addressed to the Dalai
Lama unopened, led the British mistake Tibetan bashfulness as
indication that they were forging an alliance with Russia. This
fear, although it was later shown to be unfounded, could have
been further supported by Tibetan envoys visiting the Tsarist
court and the close cultural ties between Tibet and the subjects
of Russia's Trans-Baikal Buddhist communities, the
Buryats and the Kalmyks.
At
the time of the British incursion across the Tibetan plateau,
the nominal power of the Chinese Manchus had dissipated in
Tibet, meaning that the Amban U-tai1
in Lhasa had no direct influence on the treaty that
was eventually forced by the British upon the Tibetans.
Apart from the armed Tibetan resistance from the 1950s to 1970s
which was done with CIA’s backing, the Tibetans didn't really
have either the financial means or the military technology to
launch an effective campaign against foreign aggressors. The
Tibetan army with its antiquated armaments was no match for the
British forces, and were forced to surrender with the loss of
more than 2000 souls where the British officially numbered 34.
The imperial army marched into Lhasa and imposed on September
6th 1904, the ‘Anglo-Tibetan
treaty ’ against the better judgment of the spiritual
and secular leader of Tibet, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (1875–1933)
Thubten Gyatso who had fled to Mongolia. The treaty stipulated
the frontier borders between Sikkim and Tibet, trade routes, and
attempted to exclude any other foreign power from political
influence in the region. Tibet’s submission to the British
crown had far-reaching consequences. The Chinese realised their
geopolitical vulnerability in their south-western border and
in
1909 the Manchus, no doubt wary of the British divide-and-rule
manoeuvres, invaded Tibet forcing the Dalai Lama to flee for the
second time in less than a decade, this time to British India.
After the Qing Dynasty of Manchu-ruled China collapsed in 1911,
the Thirteenth Dalai Lama returned to Tibet and evicted all
Chinese subjects from his land while declaring Tibet’s
independence. A semblance of political stability was restored
until 1949 when Chinese expansionist agendas once again loomed
over Tibet to linger and harvest till this day.
Behind
the British invasion of Tibet lies an enigmatic figure, Sir
Francis Younghusband, a mystic writer, soldier, keen
administrator and explorer
born in 1863 of English parents in
Murree, India. Following on the footsteps of his father,
he enlisted for a military career in 1882 and was soon drawn by
his skills and ardour to exploration and adventure. He
travelled from Beijing to Yarkand (modern-day Uygur Autonomous
Region of Xinjiang), the Gobi desert, and on to India by way of
the long-unused Mustagh Pass of the Karakoram Range proving the
mountain range to be the water divide between India and
Turkistan. But most
remarkable of all his exploits stands his military-diplomatic
expedition to Tibet. He
obsessively took it upon himself to
go beyond the call of administrative duty and
strained the troops onwards to the capital. Once in Lhasa,
negotiations were entered into, contrary to orders and the
treaty forced through by Younghusband almost alone. A
number of clauses went beyond his official instructions and were
later repudiated by the British government.
The British
government did not appreciate his defiance and he lived out his
life, if not in ignominy, then at least not without achieving
the highest honours and political appointments he might have
envisaged for himself. Younghusband
was honoured none the less by the British press and public,
knighted by the King, and awarded honorary doctorates by three
universities.
Like
his contemporary, the legendary lion of the desert, T.E.
Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1935), Sir Francis Younghusband
possessed a passion for hardship and adventure coupled with
unmistakable spiritual leanings.
After his expedition to Tibet the direction of his life
took on an unexpected turn. Following
a shattering mountain top spiritual revelation he had while in
Tibet,2
he increasingly devoted his life to promoting a form of
all-embracing spirituality. After
his military and administrative career in the British India
service had come to an end, Sir Francis started a new mission in
life. He became involved in many fellowships engaged with
inter-religious dialogue and the pursuit of world peace. His
later years were devoted to advancing this form of spirituality
by establishing popular inter-faith movements in England,
lecturing widely including in the US, writing profusely, and
running the Royal Geographic Society in 1919. His
opening address at the Religions of Empire Conference,
held in conjunction with the British Empire Exhibition in London
in 1924, claimed that
the ultimate basis on which the British Empire would stand was
religion. In 1936 he founded the still active World
Congress of Faiths (WCF), also called the Second Parliament of
Religions, which had
its roots in the 1893 historical meeting of the World’s
Parliament of Religions held in conjunction with the Chicago’s
Columbian Exposition. This unprecedented meeting is widely
regarded as the beginning of the inter-religious movement
worldwide.
A
hundred years after the 1904 Younghusband's
expedition to Tibet the Council for the Parliament of World
Religions convened...
Notes:
1.
Chinese political representative.
2.
In his book Vital
Religion: a Brotherhood of Faith (London: John Murray, 1940)
he describes thus his sense of religious belonging (5):
The day after leaving Lhasa I went off alone to the
mountainside, and there gave myself up to all the emotions of
this eventful time. Every anxiety was over - I was full of
good-will as my former foes were converted into stalwart
friends. But now there grew up in me something infinitely
greater than mere elation and good-will. Elation grew to
exultation, exultation to an exaltation which thrilled through
me with overpowering intensity. I was beside myself with
untellable joy. The whole world was ablaze with the same
ineffable bliss that was burning within me. I felt in touch with
the flaming heart of the world. What was glowing in all creation
and in every single human being was a joy far beyond mere
goodness as the glory of the sun is beyond the glow of a candle.
A mighty joy-giving Power was at work in the world - at
work in all about me and at work in every living thing.
So it was revealed. Never again could I think evil. Never
again could I bear enmity. Joy had begotten love.
Further Reading:
-
Allen,
Charles (2004) Duel
in the Snows: the True Story of the Younghusband Mission
to Lhasa. London:
John Murray.
-
Barrows,
John H. (1893). The
World’s Parliament of Religions: An Illustrated and
Popular Story of
the World’s First Parliament of Religions, Held in Chicago
in Connection with the
Columbian Exposition of 1893. Parliament Publishing
Company.
-
Chapple,
Christopher and Evelyn Tucker (eds) (2000). Hinduism
and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky , and Water.
Harvard University Press.
-
Chryssavgis,
John (2003). Cosmic
Grace, Humble Prayer: The Ecological Vision of the
Green Patriarch Bartholomew I. MI:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
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Fader,
Larry (1982). ‘Zen in the West: Historical Implications of
the 1893 Chicago World’s
Parliament of Religions.’ Eastern
Buddhist, 15:
122-145.
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French,
Patrick (1994). Younghusband:
the Last Great Imperial Adventurer. London:
HarperCollins.
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Gottlieb,
Roger (1995). This
Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment. NY:
Routledge.
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Landon,
Perceval
(1905). Lhasa:
an account of the country and people of central
Tibet and of the progress of the mission sent there
by the English government in the year 1903-4.
London : Hurst and Blackett.
-
Tucker,
Evelyn and Duncan Williams (eds) (1989). Buddhism
and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds.
Harvard University Press.
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