Journeys to Empireassets.cambridge.org/97805217/35681/frontmatter/... · Journeys to Empire This...

Journeys to Empire

This fascinating study of two British missions to Tibet in 1774 and1904 provides a unique perspective on the relationship between theEnlightenment and European colonialism. Gordon Stewart comparesand contrasts the Enlightenment-era mission led by George Bogle andthe Edwardian mission of Francis Younghusband as they crossed theHimalayas into Tibet. Through the British agents’ diaries, reports, andletters and by exploring their relationships with Indians, Bhutanese,and Tibetans, Stewart is able to trace the shifting ideologies, economicinterests, and political agendas that lay behind British empire-buildingfrom the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. Thiscompelling account sheds new light on the changing nature of Britishimperialism, on power and intimacy in the encounter between East andWest, and on the relationship of history and memory.

G O R D O N T. S T E WA RT is the Jack and Margaret Sweet Professor ofHistory at Michigan State University. His previous publications includeThe Great Awakening in Nova Scotia 1760–1791 (1982), The Origins ofCanadian Politics (1986), and Jute and Empire: The Calcutta Jute Wallahsand the Landscapes of Empire (1998).

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Frontispiece Hoisting the British flag at the top of the Tang La. As the Britishforces crossed the Tang La in January 1904 they paused to raise the UnionJack. It was scenes such as this that convinced Tibetans, and observers inother countries, that the British intended to occupy parts of central Tibet.C© Royal Geographical Society.






Journeys to EmpireEnlightenment, Imperialism, and the BritishEncounter with Tibet, 1774–1904

Gordon T. Stewart






CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESSCambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi

Cambridge University PressThe Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521735681

C© Gordon T. Stewart 2009

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place withoutthe written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2009

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication dataStewart, Gordon T. (Gordon Thomas), 1945–Journeys to empire : enlightenment, imperialism, and the British encounter with Tibet,1774–1904 / Gordon Stewart.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-521-51502-3 (alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-521-73568-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)1. Great Britain – Foreign relations – China – Tibet. 2. Tibet (China) – Foreignrelations – Great Britain. 3. Younghusband, Francis Edward, Sir, 1863–1942.4. Bogle, George, 1746–1781. 5. Great Britain – Colonies. I. Title.DS786.S787 2009327.41051′509033 – dc22 2009005582

ISBN 978-0-521-51502-3 hardbackISBN 978-0-521-73568-1 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence oraccuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred toin this publication and does not guarantee that any content on suchwebsites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.






Thou art in the Ka’ba at Meccaas well as the [Hindu] temple

of Somnath.Thou art in the monastery,

as well as the tavern.

Thou art at the same time the lightand the moth,

The wine and the cup,The sage and the fool . . .

Dara Shukoh, “The Compass ofTruth,” in K. R. Qanungo, Dara Shukoh

(Calcutta: S. C. Sarkar, 1952)






Contents

List of illustrations page viiiAcknowledgments xMaps xiii-xv

Introduction 1

1 An Enlightenment narrative 1774 13

2 Wives, concubines, and “domestic arrangements” 58

3 Imperial eyes in “the Golden Territories” 108

4 Enter Younghusband 139

5 From Enlightenment to empire 186

6 Tibet lessons 240

Bibliography 265Index 276

vii






Illustrations

Frontispiece Hoisting the British flag at the top of theTang La. C© Royal Geographical Society.

1 Tilly Kettle’s painting of Warren Hastings, c. 1772.National Portrait Gallery, London. page 98

2 View of Phari [PRM 2001.35.26.1]. The Tibet Album.British Photography in Central Tibet 1920–1950, fromthe Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and The BritishMuseum. 99

3 Chomolhari mountain from Phari [BMH.A.38.1]. TheTibet Album. British Photography in Central Tibet1920–1950, from the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, andThe British Museum. 100

4 Chomolhari mountain from Tuna [BMH.G.46.1]. TheTibet Album. British Photography in Central Tibet1920–1950, from the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, andThe British Museum. 101

5 Tilly Kettle’s painting of the Panchen Lama and GeorgeBogle. The Royal Collection, Windsor. 102

6 Lobsang Palden Yeshes (1738–1780), the Third PanchenLama. From Sarat Chandra Das, Contributions on theReligion and History of Tibet (1882). 103

7 Shigatse Dzong and Tashilhunpo monastery[BMR.6.8.205]. The Tibet Album. British Photographyin Central Tibet 1920–1950, from the Pitt RiversMuseum, Oxford, and The British Museum. 104

8 Johan Zoffany’s painting of William Palmer and hisfamily, 1785. Oriental and India Office Collections,British Library. 105

9 Daldowie House. Glasgow University Library,Department of Special Collections. 106

viii






List of illustrations ix

10 Hugh Richardson on horseback in Tibet [PRM2001.59.7.96.1]. The Tibet Album. British Photographyin Central Tibet 1920–1950, from the Pitt RiversMuseum, Oxford, and The British Museum. 107

11 George Curzon, painting by John Cooke, after JohnSinger Sargent, 1914. National Portrait Gallery, London. 178

12 Thomas Jones Barker’s painting “The Secret of England’sGreatness,” 1863. National Portrait Gallery, London. 179

13 Francis Younghusband and members of the TibetMission Force C© Royal Geographical Society. 180

14 Khamba Dzong [BMH.M.19.1]. The Tibet Album,British Photography in Central Tibet 1920–1950 fromthe Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and The BritishMuseum. 181

15 Lobsang Chokyi Nyima (1883–1937), the Sixth PanchenLama. Getty Images. 182

16 British column crossing the Tang La C© RoyalGeographical Society. 183

17 British bayonets in Lhasa C© Royal Geographical Society. 18418 Thubten Gyatso (1876–1933), the Thirteenth Dalai

Lama [BMR.86.1.23.3]. The Tibet Album. BritishPhotographs of Central Tibet 1920–1950, from the PittRivers Museum, Oxford, and The British Museum. 185






Acknowledgments

Let’s begin with libraries and librarians, archives and archivists. Most ofthe research for this book was done in the Manuscript Reading Roomand the Asian and African Reading Room in the British Library. It ishard to imagine a more congenial place for researchers than this won-derful repository of historical and contemporary information. The staffin the Asian and African Room, which houses the India Office and Ori-ental Collections, were unfailingly courteous and efficient in spite of theheavy demands placed upon them. I particularly wish to thank BurkhardQuessel, the Curator of Tibetan Collections, who kindly helped a Tibetneophyte like me track down Albert Grunwedel’s 1915 German transla-tion of the Third Panchen Lama’s treatise The Way to Shambhala (1775).The staff at the Public Record Office at Kew (now the National Archives)and the Mitchell Library in Glasgow were also considerate and helpful.In India I spent many useful hours at the National Archives in New Delhibeing supplied with the records of the East India Company and the For-eign Department of the Government of India in connection with the twoBritish missions to Tibet in 1774 and 1904. The British bibliographerin the Michigan State University Libraries, Agnes Widder, proved oncemore to be inventive and indefatigable in meeting all my requests. Thefinancial support provided by the Jack and Margaret Sweet EndowedProfessorship in the History Department at Michigan State Universityhelped support some of my research travel to these libraries and archivesin England, Scotland, and India.

Research trips to India were made even more pleasant by the warm hos-pitality in Delhi and Chandigarh of Justice and Mrs. Manmohan SinghGujral and their extended family and many friends. Their introduction tocontemporary India and to the recent history of India was a most infor-mative and enjoyable complement to my academic endeavors. Duringmy stint as a Visiting Scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University I was verykindly received (and entertained to a memorable dinner) by ProfessorSabyasachi Bhattacharya. There is surely no more pleasant place to stayin India’s capital than the International Center, nestled against the Lodi

x






Acknowledgments xi

Gardens. In delightful surroundings that are normally the perquisites ofonly the rich or privileged, relatively penurious academics can survivevery nicely indeed on dal, tea, and biscuits. All the staff in the AnnexeBuilding of the Center were exceptionally kind and considerate. In con-nection with travel matters, I would like to thank Dr. Lilianet Brintrupand other organizers of the “International and Interdisciplinary Confer-ence on Alexander von Humboldt and Zheng He” held at Xian in Chinain 2006. The invitation to present a paper on the first British mission toTibet helped me make an early test of some of my ideas in a stimulatinginternational setting.

Many people were kind enough to read and comment on themanuscript at various stages in its development. Professor Jyotsna Singhwas invariably patient as she tried to keep me abreast of the rich variety ofwork being done by literature scholars on travel narratives and imperial-ism. Amrita Sen from Kolkata provided helpful insights on Bengal in the1770s in the course of her work in an interdisciplinary graduate seminaron cultural encounters in the medieval and early modern eras organizedby the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University. Sev-eral of my colleagues in the History Department provided sound adviceafter their reading of the manuscript. I would particularly like to thankDonald Lammers, Lewis Siegelbaum, and Lisa Fine for their thoroughreadings and occasionally trenchant comments. Other colleagues, KristieMacrakis and Karrin Hanshew, advised on a translation issue; PeterKnupfer and Shawn McBee helped me with computer-imaging matters.Warren Cohen, now at the University of Maryland, and Linda Johnsonhelped on matters Chinese. Mark Kornbluh has provided unstinting sup-port and encouragement throughout his tenure as Chair of the HistoryDepartment.

In a work of this kind my debt to a whole host of other scholarsand writers is obvious. I have attempted to acknowledge that fully notonly in the footnotes and bibliography but within the body of the textas well. This was particularly the case in connection with the Tibetanside of the story. While the notes will record many of my obligations toscholars who have written on Tibet, I single out here the three-volumecollection of articles (with introductions and commentary) compiled andedited by Alex MacKay. For beginners like me this overview of modernhistory writing on Tibet was invaluable. In his Preface MacKay notedruefully that friends had warned him that editing such specialized tomeswould be a thankless task because no one beyond the small communityof Tibetan scholars would take notice. These volumes are of immensehelp for anyone trying to build up an understanding of Tibet’s complexhistory. I made extensive use of the information and insights provided.






xii Acknowledgments

The lifetime of research and writing by Alastair Lamb on India’s northernborderlands and British policies towards Central Asia has also been ofinestimable help for my understanding of British involvement in theseregions.

My greatest debt is to J who acted as an exacting but loving editorthrough several versions of the manuscript. She has also been my help-mate and steadfast companion not only on trips to faraway places, andon mountain trails, but in the other more challenging journeys that makeup life.






Maps xiii

1 George Bogle’s route from Calcutta to Tashilhunpo 1774






xiv Maps

2 Younghusband’s routes to Khamba Dzong (1903) and to Lhasa(1904)






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