Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Scott Berry's
A Stranger in Tibet
tells the fascinating story of Ekai Kawaguchi, a young
Japanese monk, who was one of the first foreigners to reach Lhasa in 1900 and who
managed to stay over a year in the capital before his identity was discovered and he was
forced to flee the country.
Attempts to Modernise
During the period of his flight to India, the 13th Dalai Lama had become friends with Sir
Charles Bell, a Tibetan scholar and political officer in Sikkim. The relationship was to ini-
tiate a warming in Anglo-Tibetan affairs and to see the British playing an increasingly im-
portant role as mediators between Tibet and China.
In 1920 Bell was dispatched on a mission to Lhasa, where he renewed his friendship
with the Dalai Lama. It was agreed that the British would supply the Tibetans with modern
arms, providing they agreed to use them only for self-defence. Tibetan military officers
were trained in Gyantse and India, and a telegraph line was set up linking Lhasa and Shig-
atse. Other developments included the construction of a small hydroelectric station near
Lhasa and the establishment of an English school at Gyantse. Four Tibetan boys were even
sent to public school at Rugby in England. At the invitation of the Dalai Lama, British ex-
perts conducted geological surveys of parts of Tibet with a view to gauging mining poten-
tial.
It is highly likely that the 13th Dalai Lama's trips away from his country had made him
realise that it was imperative that Tibet begin to modernise. At the same time he must also
have been aware that the road to modernisation was fraught with obstacles, foremost of
which was the entrenched Tibetan social order.
Since the rise of the Gelugpa order, Tibet had been ruled as a (some would say feudal)
theocracy. Monks, particularly those in the huge monastic complexes of Drepung and Sera
in Lhasa, were accustomed to a high degree of influence in the Tibetan government. And
the attempts to modernise were met with intense opposition.
Before too long, the 13th Dalai Lama's innovations fell victim to a conservative back-
lash. Newly trained Tibetan officers were reassigned to nonmilitary jobs, causing a rapid
deterioration of military discipline; a newly established police force was left to its own
devices and soon became ineffective; the English school at Gyantse was closed down; and
a mail service set up by the British was stopped.
