It was a forbidden place, and thus irresistible. A timeless land in the sky and another worldly people, and no use for the wheel but as a spinner of prayers, and so they came, westerners intent on exploring Tibet and its elusive capital--Lhasa. Few survived the trials of fire, ice and violence that awaited them on Tibet’s natural ramparts, where so many others had failed, two would succeed, one prevailed through stealth, a spy whose feats of espionage still rank among the greatest in the world, but have almost been forgotten. The other, prevailed through force, leaving a trail of blood and tears that will shock the world and utterly transformed the victor. These are the tales of their epic journeys, in the fantastic and deadly race for Tibet.
Winter,1865, an overburdened caravan descends from the snowy passes of the Himalayas into the forbidden land. Few tread lightly here, most foreigner are turned back or killed. But these hardy merchants carried coveted goods from neighbouring lands. The caravan has picked up a pious hitchhiker of sort, a lone holy man on a pilgrimage, the only other kind of incursion that Tibetans welcome. But strangely, the Buddhist’s strides are always exactly the same link, his rosary is missing several beads, and his prayer wheel contains no prayers. He is a spy,not a monk, if discovered ,he will die. The routes of NanXing secret journey run as deep and as old as the world's obsession with the magical kingdom on the rooftop of the world.
At the heart of Asia, thrusts some 3 miles in the air by a clash of continents, Tibet is an astounding natural fortress, the size of western Europe. For hundreds of years, Tibetans saw no need to bar foreigners, only a handful survived the trek through the surrounding mountains and deserts, and these proved no threat to their cherished Buddhist theocracy. Here, every fourth person was a monk or a nun.
But by the 1800s,Tibet began to feel the pressure of two new powers in Asia, Britain, effectively in control of India since 1833, had been steadily expanding its influence northward into the Himalayas. Russia, meanwhile, was swallowing up territory in central Asia, as it pushed its empire eastwards. Tibetan knew little about the outsiders, except that both powers were Christian, not Buddhist. Fearing for their way of their life, the land of monks closed its borders, paradoxically, it was the closing of Tibet that ensured the west would have to pry it open again.
“And this was during the era of exploration, where people wanted to get to ,into Antarctica, to the north pole,they wanted to go up the Nile ,and so Lhasa became a real ,as we might say toady, as a real destination, but nobody could get there.”
“You had the last European in Lhasa in 1811,and then you suddenly have a gap, when you right up into the very end of the 19th century, when you get no foreigners or no Europeans managing to go into Tibet, And this creates, it's great kind of mystery of Tibet, and the idea that somehow people had to break through and sort of reach the forbidden city of Lhasa.
In India, paranoia is as much as curiosity drove the need to get into neighboring Tibet. It was the era of the great game, a cold war between Russia and Britain for the domination of central Asia. The British feared that if the Russians were to gain a foothold in Tibet. They might use it as a base for invading India. The forbidden land became the centre square on the chessboard of the great game. One map needed to be explored and mapped at all costs.
The Russians were coming and this created a great deal of anxiety. The probem was that Tibet was basically closed, so that left the Brits with the problem, how do you map Tibet if you can't get in and have a look.
It was a young officer in the royal engineers who hit upon Britains best hope in the race for Tibet. Thomas George Montgomery had spent years overseeing natives in the great trigonometrical survey of India. A massive British effort to create an accurate map of the entire Indian subcontinent. He also noted that Indians often passed freely into Tibet where no white man would be allowed. Perhaps an Indian spy trained in the arts of espionage and surveying might penetrate Tibet disguised as a trader or holy man.
Captain Montgomery in typical colonial fashion had some doubts whether a native of sufficient intelligence and [] nerve might be found, but obtained permission to give it as planned or tried. Thus began, the unlikely career of one of the most 6 successful spies in the history of espionage. NanXing, an 33-year-old teacher had grown up in the shadows of himalayas. His family had traded in Tibet and he could read and write Tibetan. He quickly accepted the assignment despite his dangerous.
NanXing was just one of those people, you know, their individuals were a great achieve * He was the man living in a very little more village. I mean what kind of opportunities did he have to, you know, really accomplish something really great.
In 1863, the young school teacher reported for duty at the survey of India's headquarters in D. There he would undergo 2 years of intensive training in the arts of surveying. He learned the use of sextant in the compass into locating his position using the stars. Through endless repetition, the navar spy learned to walk in an exactly measure pace. 31 and half inches a stride or 2000 paces to the mile. He would keep track of those paces on a rosary. The Buddhist's rosary contains 108 beads, a holy number. NanXing's rosary would have only 100 to more easily keep track of his start.
Montgomery had dubbed him the Pounded, Hindi for Wise One, and sent him on his way. His daunting task to find his way to Lhasa, the forbidden city. To chart his course, counting every stride along the way. And a spy and the political religious and economic life of Lhasa for as long as possible.
NanXing knew what fate awaited him if he were caught, and almost certain --death. It would take NanXing 8 frustrating months to cross into Tibet. At first, the Pounded had tried to enter through Nepal desguised as a horse trader, but suspicous border guards turned him away. He managed to slip by those same border guards a few weeks later, desguised as a holy man. He'd already acquired an escort, the first of several caravans that would offered him protection on the dangerious journey. In the outline areas of Tibet banned its far out number monks.
NanXing seemed to have been quite the favorite with this caravans. Some of whom would avouch for him when Tibetans they encountered grew curious. But sometimes the Pundit had to travel alone. Once when his companions had the chance to travel by river, he had to make his excuses to continue on foot. Without his measured pace, his survey would have gone awry. With numb feet, he strolled his perfect 31.5 in stride with numb fingers, he counted those strides on his rosary. He kept a surveying note where no one would think to look in a cleverly modified prayer wheel. Usually, the wheel contains a scroll with the holy incantation on it. Each turn sends the Buddhist's prayer whirling heavenward. While his companions slept, the Pundit would slip a thermometer into the camp pot. The boiling point of water would tell its altitude, a vital part of his survey.
5 months into the journey, the Pundit was beginning to worry. The caravan was approaching the town of Shigatze, where they planned to stay several months. The forbidden city was still a long way off and NanXing's funds were almost exhausted. Once in Shigatze, the resourceful Pundit managed to support himself by teaching accounting to merchants. But he also received a most unwelcome invitation to the great T monastery, home to some 3000 Buddhist priests. To refuse would lead to arouse suspicion.
But could a Hindu pretender remain undetected among so many true Buddhists?
Even worse, he would have an audience with the monastery's leader--the Panchen Lama. Second only to the Dalai Lama in power, the Panchen Lama was reputed to be able to see into the hearts of all man. NanXing would have to offer the Lama a gift of silk and respond to any 3 questions the Lama asked.
Is your king well? Does your country prosper? Are you in good health?
With amazed relief, the Pundit realized that the Panchen Lama was an 11-year-old boy who seemed to have no interest in peering into the heart of a spy, but it was a close call.
How long could a pretender in a land of monks escape detection?
In December, the caravan moved on with their Buddhist holy man in tow. The mind numbing rhythm of the Pundit's walking survey resumed, tedium, punctuated by fear.
Anyone who has walked in Tibet treked, hiked, and tried to get around Tibet on foot knows it's exhausting, I mean the altitudes are extremely high. You go up paths 16 sometimes 17 thousand feet where you are just barely able to put one foot in front of the other. The oxygen is thin. There'll be terrible splitting headache. I mean there was no roads, there was no wheels, there was no nothing. Above all was...er... risky because you might be discovered.
Several times, the nightmare of all caravans in these bad lands occured-- A violent attack by bandits. Once the Pundit was forced to escape by horseback, a desperate maneuver that would foil his plans to walk off every yard to Lhasa. He vowed to make it up by pacing the journey on his return trip.
January 10th, 1866, exactly one year since he had set out from India, the fabled city of Lhasa lay before the Pundit. He had counted over a million strides to get here, but now the most crucial and dangerous phase of his cloak-and-dagger existence had just begun. He would be living on borrowed time.
We arrived this day at Lhasa, and soon after my arrival, engaged 2 rooms, one was well adapted for taking star observations. After fixing the position of Lhasa, Xing set about fulfilling the rest of his mission, to gather as much intelligence on the political, economic and religious life of the Forbidden City as possible. Xing's rooms situated just 20 yards from the okkan, the holy central square of the city, were perfect for the task.
In the centre of the city stands a very large temple. The idols within it are richly inlaid with gold and precious stones. This temple is surrounded by bazaars and shops. On a lower hill, there is a large and strong fort called Potala, which is the residence of the Lama Guru. The Lama Guru is the chief of all Tibet but he does not interfere with state business. He is looked upon as a guardian divinity. He's supposed to never die but transmigrates into anybody he pleases. I observed there is but little order and justice to be seen in Lhasa.
In the Forbidden City, the Pundit's position was more precarious than ever. The threat of a discovery a constant dread. Once, a chance encounter with merchants from his professed homeland exposed his deceit. Somehow he managed to convince them not to turn him in. Not long after his arrival, NanXing would once again receive an invitation he could not refuse. This time, an audience with the Dalai Lama himself in the great Potala. And once again , the Pundit would find himself before a living god who could peer into the hearts of many man it was said, only to find himself gazing into the eyes of a child of 13.
But his luck could not hold for ever. And the price of a discovery was about to become terrifyingly clear. One night on the street, Xing witnessed firsthand what happened to foreigners unwelcome in Lhasa. In this case, a Chinese man who did not have permission to be in the capital.
He was brought out before the whole of people and beheaded with very little hesitation.
Owing to my alarm, I changed my residence and seldom appeared in public again.
When Xing heard that the caravan that conveyed him to Lhasa was ready to head back out of Tibet, he knew it was time to begin the 500-mile-walk-home.
October, 1866, an exhausted NanXing crosses the Himalayas once again, and descends from the rooftop of the world into his homeland in the foothills of northern India. He's been gone almost a year and a half. He's walked 2. 5 million paces on his 12. 000 miles trek, counting virtually every step of the way. He's lived undetected in the Forbbiden City of Lhasa for 3 months. He's returned to the survey of Indian D, with a treasure beyond the wildest imaginings of his mentor, Captain Montgomery.
By these really in a way quite primitive techniques, they were able to map the whole of sort of south western Tibet. What's interesting is the survey of Indian map which around today are still based on quite a lot of information which were obtained by the pundit.
Until NanXing went to Lhasa, the western world had no idea really what was, where in Tibet. They didn't even know where Lhasa was. They knew it was up there.
Years later it would be confirmed that NanXing had calculated the position of Lhasa correct to within half a degree of latitude, a remarkable feat. Montgomery while keeping the identity of the superspy to himself, detailed NanXing's amazing journey to the president of the Royal Geographical Society.
I'm quite sure he'd make a good impression anywhere. And I can quite undertand that he has been immense favored with the darkies who conveyed him into the sacred city. The Pundit I think deserves all praise. His work has stood every test capitally, captain George Montgomery.
NanXing would go on to make 2 more secret journeys into Tibet. He then helped Montgomery recruit and train other Pundits who continued filling in the blank spaces on the map of the forbidden land. Some never came back, others like NanXing himself would never be the same.
NanXing paid a really heavy cost in terms of his health. He was totally worn out. His eyesight had also been affected. I mean there was no way to protect himself from snowblindness and the glaring. He just had to retire, he couldn't undertake any more journeys.
For his extraordinary work, Xing was quietly awarded a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society and a small pension.
He was the first native to be recognized by the Royal Geographical Society as having accomplished someting that was the equivalent to any of the greatest explorers of the west. So in a certain sense that was a real breakthrough.
The Pundits suffer the same fate as so many spies which is that they don't really get much recognition for what they do everything is shrouded in secrecy. What I think is extraordinary is really how little recognition or thanks they got for the remarkably dangerous work that they undertook on behalf of the survey of India and you know,ultimately the British empire in India.
NanXing, one of the most extraordinary spies the world has ever seen died in obscurity at the age of 53. Almost 4 decades would pass before a European following in the Pundit's footsteps would reach the Forbidden City. This journey unlike NanXing's would be marked by bloodshed.
March 31st, 1904, on a desolate plain, some 10.000 feet in the air. 2 forces eye each other wearily. They are devided by a crude stone wall and a tragic chasm of culture time and faith. The defenders, Tibetan peasants and monks burying arms that are centuries out of date. The invaders, a British force equiped with a new killing machines of the 20th century. No one who watches the terrible four minutes that followed would be unmoved. The man responsible would utterly tramsformed by the maelstrom he unleashes here.
As the 19th century push to its close, Tibet was much on the minds of many Europeans. Being the first to reach Lhasa since the closing of Tibet's borders had become the holy grail of explorers as well as for the spies playing out the great game in the Himalayas.
From about I will say about 1870-1880 onwards. You get increasingly sort of an obsessive interest in Tibet. Tibet was seen as ,is inaccessible forbidden foreign Shangrila. I think there were probably hunderds of thousands of British officers hanging around in the Himalayas at the end of 19 century. All of whom wanted to be the first one to breakthrough and get to Lhasa, the Forbidden City, that no European had been to since 1811.
And it created this great race in the latter part of the 19 century to be the first to get to Lhasa and many tried and many failed.
Russian colonel N.P made five failed attempts even though he was escorted by heavily armed Cosakes. American diplomat and scholar William Rockhill disguised as a Chinese pilgrim also failed twice. Renowned Swedish explorer S.H he too disguised as a pilgrim was turned back just five days' march from Lhasa. British missionary Annie Taylor , made it too within three days' march of Lhasa before being betrayed by her Chinese guide and taken prisoner. Canadian S.H 's story is the most tragic physician and missionary. She watched her infant son perish from altitude sickness, then lost her Dutch husband to bandits after Tibetan officials forced them to turn back.
At the close of the 19th century, Tibet had managed to repel some 11 westerners' attempts to reach Lhasa in four decades, but its mediaeval weapons could not hold off the modern world forever.
The man who would win the Europeans' race for Tibet was born in India in 1863, the year NanXing arrived at the spy school in D. The son of a British army officer Francis Edward Young Husband would be sent off to England at 4 to be raised by two spinster aunts, a religious pair who beated him regularly."I lost my childhood happiness and became serious." Young Husband would later write.
At 12, he would be sent off to boarding school in Clifton, and an institution designed to mould young men of empire. Already oversensitive, repressed and shy, the small statured Young Husband found his more rambunctious schoolmates intimidating him and made few friends. It was not until he was 16 that he would find a soul mate, in his previously distant sister, Emmy. After he fainted in a chapel one night, she nursed him back to health, and the two exchanged strangely passionate letters from much of their adult lives.
After graduating from Clifton and then military academy, he left distraught Emmy behind and set off for India. Like his father before him, he would serve on the northern frontier in the King's Dragoons and take his place in the great game. Shy but fiercely ambitious, young Husband was a natural great gamer, a true believer in the righteousness of empire, and a vocal warrior about Russian designes on all of Asia. But regimental life proved stifling to the young man, and once again, his seriousness isolated him from his peers. Francis had always imagined himself living a life more alike that of his uncle and childhood hero, Robo Shaw, a flamboyant adventurer and tea planter short had travelled to many exotic lands beyond the Himalayas, he'd earned himself a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society as well as a penchant for dressing in native costumes.
At age 21, Yung Husband trekked into the Himalayas not far from his late uncle's house and was enchanted. From this moment forward, his urgent ambitions would take the shape of these mountains. And for the rest of his life, mountains would stir odd mystical longings that this strict religious upbringing had never satisfied.
"I had caught just a glimpse of the other side of the Himalayan range, but I thirsted for more mountian beauty. I determined to go to Tibet, and to come to know the curious people of that secluded country, make a great name for myself, and be known thereafter as a famous traveler."
It was China not Tibet that would give Francis Young Hasband his first taste of fame.
1887 found the 24-year-old officer in the middle of the Gobi desert, retracing a path followed by no European since Marco Polo, he had managed to convince his superiors that he could find a new land route from China to India. The promised route would take him to the Moostak pass, the watershed between India and China, and long considered impassable.
Under the shadow of K2, the world second highest peak, this small man found himself once again spiritually transformed by a mountain. "Having long seen that", he would later write, "how could I ever belittle again". The ice precipice at the crest of the Moostak did indeed look impassable to Young Hasband, but when his native guide strudded down the other side, he followed. On slick leather boot and without ice crampons, it was a nearly a suicidal descent, but would earn Young Hasband the fame he craved. Some called it the greatest feat of mountaineer yet accomplished, and the Royal Geographical Society would award him the coveted gold medal for his journey, his exploits would also bring him to the attention of another great gamer, called George Cursion, who shared his fascination with Tibet and would one day cast Young Hansband"s fate in the forbidden land.
Young hansband was now one of the world"s most eligible bachelors, but only on paper. Around any woman other than his sister Emmy, the daring explorer was in agony, desperately wishing himself miles away preferably alone in the Himalayas.
"He was terrified of women, he found them baffling, he found them strange, he didn’t know how to get on with them or relate to them, if you liked he could express himself, probably better by climbing a mountain, than he could by having a conversation with somebody ."
Frances for his part was agonizingly aware of his plight, a beautiful young socialite had agreed to marry him, but broke it off because when the smitten francescould not overcome his stiff, nearly mute panic in her presence.
"I am losing my darling May, all the time I am cold and stiff, and formal."
Dejected, Young Hansband set his sights once more on Tibet, he requested to leave to slip into the forbidden land disguised as a Himalayan merchant, but his superiors had had enough of his adventures, and 15 years would pass before fate would give him a shot at Tibet.
In January 1899, a miserable Francis Young Handsband watched as his friend George Cursion was installed as viceroy of India amidst great pump in circumstance. While Cursion star had risen ,Young Handsband's own had fallen. His early fame had eclipsed by a reputation as a bit of loose cannon, his army career had plateaued early and his personal life was desperately unhappy. He had married an elder woman who had made him promised that he would never have sex, somehow the couple managed to have children, but the marriage was never a happy one. Approaching 40, the once great explorer was now going nowhere fast.
"He has really reached this point by his later 30s, where his career has stagnated and almost stopped, and that's the moment when suddenly he gets the call from the viceroy of India lord Cursion, who is a personal friend of his, he says to him would he like him to lead a small expedition into Tibet.”
"Cursion from all account was a fairly paranoid, personally it came to the potential desires of Russia, but Tibet was important for him, because he felt that if imperial Russia was to move down and to sort of win Tibet over, then they would have the Russian bear right at the door of the British raj.
But the 13th Dalai lama had refused to open the country to British trade to allow Cursion's emissaries beyond the border, or even to open Cursion's letters. The viceroy decided it was time for more forceful measures and his friend heartily agreed.
"I have no hesitation in recommending for the power of monks should be so far broken as to prevent them any longer selfishly obstructing the prosperity of both Tibet and of the neighbouring British districts---Francis Young Husband.
Thus it was that in 1903,Young Hasband led 2000 British and Indian soldiers over the 14000 foot high JieLa Pass from India into Tibet, behind them marched a ragged support column of some ten thousands coolies and a handful of English journalists dying for the scoop of the new century, also pressed into service were 6 camels, 3000 ponies, 5000 yaks and buffaloes, 5000 bullocks and more than 7000 mules, most doomed to die on the journey. The whole strange caravan trailed the telegraph wire that stretched back into India, like an umbilical cord to the modern world.
Young Handsband would be in charge of negotiating with the Tibetans. The military leader was an undistinguished General named Macdonald. Young Handsband and Macdonald detested each other, a situation that probably contributed to the tragedy ahead. The British would meet little resistance on the first leg of the journey, but the conditions would be harsher than any the British and Indian soldiers had encountered before.
“20 men of the 12 muleteers were frostbitten, and 30 men of 23rd pioneers were so incapacitated that they had to be carried on mules, on the same day, there were 70 cases of snow blindness among the 8th G.”A.K , the Daily Mailer.
Outwardly, Young Hasband himself seemed impervious to the elements, taking cold baths each morning, and spending long periods reading, writing and meditating out in the elements. In his journal, he was already writing about mental telepathy, extraterrestrials and out of body travel.
Four months into the journey, as the mission approached the town of Gulu, the Tibetan resistance finally materialized .In the middle of a barren plain, mass behind a small hastily built wall, some 1500 Tibetan troops lay in wait, they vastly outnumbered the British advanced guard, but their firepower was 300 years out of date.
If you read the Tibetan accounts of this period, it seems that the Tibetans say we are not going to fight but we are not going to go away. And the British are baffled by this. You 've got to remember the whole idea of masive resistance, was not something was understood in 1903, 1904. And Tibeta's reaction wass just "Well, please just go away."Yound Husbands's reaction was : We've got to talk. He went further and further and further. And it was an enormous tragedy by the end.
The whole thing must have been incomprehensible to these poor men. No order had been given to them to retire. Gathered together in a body, their numerous superiority in numbers must have struck them. They had no idea, of course, of the advantage which we possessed. ----P.L the Times, London
" Well in my view, I think Tibetans were really, actually knew what they were up against the formidable force. I think it's wrong to say that, you know, they are so naive and they were taught they really can not resist against (the), the British. They had no other choice, even if they knew they would be slaughtered but to oppose that. But the Tibetan General rode out to plead this case. He begged Yound husband to turn back, retreat to the border and negotiate there. But Yound Husband was unmoved. He gave the General 15 minutes to begin disarming. 15 minutes later, General Macdonald ordered his troops into flanking position, assuming the Tibetans would simply hand over their arms when confronted with machine guns, modern rifles and heavier artillary. But each Tibetan carried on their chest a small pouch containing a blessing from the Dalai Lama, designed to render him imperious in England bullets.
Macdonald gave the order to approach and begin disarming the Tibetans. What exactly happened next is still unclear, that it was one of the bleakest moments in military history is not. According to British reports, it was the Tibetan general who resisted and fired the first shot. Immediately, the British began firing their terrible weapons into the mass of the Tibetan soldiers The Tibetans poured over the wall while the artillery and automatic weapons cut them down in waves. To the horror of the British manning guns against them ,the few Tibetans still standing did not run away, they walked.
I got so sick of the slaughter that I ceased fire. But the general's order was to make as bigger a bag as possible.------lieutenant H, commander Maxim Dun Detachment.
The impossible had happened, prayers and charms and mantras, the holiest of their holy men had failed, they walked with bowed heads, as if they had been disillusioned by their gods.
Four appalling minutes after it all began, some 7 hundred ragged Tibetans lay-dead, or dying on the field, their useless charms strewn among them. Francis Young hasband who had served for over 20 years in the army but never seen a battle was horrified. It was a terrible and ghastly business, he would later write.
It may have been even more ghastly than his British sensibilities would allow him to admit. According to the Tibetan and Chinese accounts of the battle, the Tibetans had extinguished the fuses of their ancient matchlocks as a sign of non-aggression , rendering them useless for several minutes. If so, the British were firing artillery and automatic weapons into a mass of people armed with swords, slingshots and perhaps five modern rifles.
The British set up a field hospital to save the wounded Tibetans, baffled by kindness on the heels of slaughter, the Tibetans none the less quickly won over their captors with their spirit and stoicism. Daily Mail correspondent Edmond Candler who had lost a hand in the first few seconds of the battle wrote: they were consistently cheerful, and they never hesitated to undergo operations. Did not flinch in pain and took chloroform without fear, everyone who visited the hospital at Tuna, left it with an increased respect for the Tibetans.
It would take 4 more months for the British force to reach Lhasa. On July 30th,1904, in anticipation of the inevitable, the Dalai Lama fled the city. 5 days later, the British marched into the Forbidden City. Young Husband who had once hoped to make it to Lhasa as a spy, now entered at the head of an army,only to find the place nearly empty. Undaunted, he arranged a sort of parade to impress the remaining citizens, and was greeted by what he thought was a conquerors' welcome.
“They clapped them like that, and Young Hansband thinks it's a very good sign that he has been welcomed, and later on when I look at this, I talked to some Tibetans about it who said that it's a way of driving out evil spirits”
"you know, so I think Young Husband thought that, you know, they were so happy that they were lining up and clapping, this is again the cultural difference."
Finally, Young Hansband rounded up some high-ranking monks with whom to negotiate, after a month of wrangling, he had achieved all his King and country had asked of him, he had inspired his troops to follow him through hundreds of miles of the most hostile geography that British and Indian soldiers had ever encountered, he had pried open the doors of Tibet and negotiated a trade settlement highly favorable to Britain. But Tibet would not bestow its real gift on Young Hansband until the moment of his departure.
“On the day before Young Hansband is due to leave Lhasa, having gotten the treaty in his pocket, he goes off into the mountains on his pony, and he suddenly infused with this kind of cosmic joy, he’s infused with this very strong mystical or spiritual experience.”
“The exhilaration of the moment grew and grew until it thrilled me with overpowering intensity. Never again could I think evil, or ever be at enmity with any man, all nature and all humanity were bathed in a rosy glowing radiancy, that single hour on leaving Lhasa, was worth all of the rest of lifetime, I was boiling over with love for the whole world.”
That world, however, had already begun to lament the despoiling of Lhasa.
There are no more forbidden cities which men have not mapped and photographed, why could we not have left at least one city out of bounds ---- Candler ,the Daily Mail.
Even lord Cursion was shaken by the taking of Lhasa, I am almost ashame to have destroyed the virginity of the bride to whom you aspired, he wrote to Swedish explorer S.H. Almost immediately, London began to distance itself from Young Hansband’s invasion, soon, it would negate it entirely.
“What happened a couple of years later, is that a liberal government comes to power in London, and 3 years after that expedition, a new agreement is signed which effectively takes away all the privileges and all the benefits that Young Hansband has gained through the Treaty of Lhasa. And so ,the great irony of Young Hansband’s invasion of Tibet is that from a political point of view it gains almost nothing for the British.
Far more than Tibet itself, Francis Young Husband would emerge for ever changed by his hollow victory and the tragedy he created there. Outwardly, he remained the good imperialist serving as provincial governor, president of the Royal Geographical Society and coordinator of the first four expeditions to Mountain Everest. But he also became an passionate advocate of Indian Self-rule, and founded his most lasting legacy---the World Congress of Faiths, a group dedicated to bringing together people of all religions in a spirit of tolerance. Like many of his time, he would write enthusiastically about spiritualism ,the occult and even extraterrestrials.
His ideas become increasingly kooky, and you can actually get the sense from his diaries that he is going to official functions, and people are slightly thinking, you know what on earth has happened to Francis Young Husband.
His prolific writings ranged from confident predictions of a new Messiah to tracks on the sanctity of marriage, though his own marriage was an empty shell . As his daughter Alin would later say, he had an essential warm heartedness, but it always somehow missed the mark. But finally at age 76, and for the first time in his life, Francis Young Husband fell in love, his passionate affair was the much younger M, a married mother of seven, brought back to him the happiness he'd lost in his childhood.
You know the Tibetans are very interestingly think that ultimately they actually conquered the Young Hansband. Well ,you know he came and conquerd us , butchered us but in the end, you know he, who went back you know with the kind of converted and found his right part ,you know, for himself.
And this is a very much part of our kind of notion of Tibet, that it has this quality to heal, transform, change and to highlight for people if he could just get there, the spiritual side of life.
The two men who marched to Lhasa did no favors to Tibet, but they revealed to the rest of the world a land which would become the symbol of humanity's spiritual yearnings.
In July,1942, Sir Francis Edward Young Hansband died in the arms of his beloved M, his last request , a tombstone carved with the place of his terrible triumph and his strange redemption---- Lhasa , the forbidden city,the heart of the once and future forbidden land.