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| Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.4 |
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Citation Information
THE ENGLISH EXPEDITION TO LHASA. 525
peditions. One thing at any rate is certain, that he will do all he can to render the lamas amenable to reason, in so far as political obstacles do not intervene. The inexplicable and very inopportune passivity in face of the interference of Russia has even led us to fear the evacuation of the Tschumbi valley, a step which would be interpreted by the Tibetans as weakness and would destroy the effects of Lord Curzon's Tibetan policy. In that case it would be necessary to wait for a legal Anglo-Russian constellation before that policy could be guided to a consequential issue, and until that happens geographers must just wait patiently. In view of the energy and far-sighted purpose and political sagacity which characterize everything that Lord Curzon undertakes, we may rest assured that he will not draw back from a task which he has once taken in hand nor be content with half measures.
If in the future Tibet becomes guarded with threefold greater jealousy, the question arises, what will become of the active traffic from which Landon expects so much ? I have previously been so bold as to express my doubts with regard to this point, and Candler says, »But the whole trade between India and Tibet is on such a small scale that it might be in the hands of a single merchant».* What are the goods which will be offered to the Tibetans in the new markets that have been opened ? No answer can be given to this question until the traffic is actually started and organized; but it must not be forgotten, that on the English side this traffic is only a means for getting into friendly communication with the inhabitants of that so jealously guarded country.
It would be unjust to demand that the geographical results of the English expedition should bear anything like a reasonable relation to its costs, and we ought to remember that geographical discovery and exploration formed no part whatever either of its programme or its task. Had the expedition cost only the sum that was first asked as a war-indemnity from the Tibetans, namely half a million sterling, it would have been sufficient for at least a hundred expeditions of the same kind as that described in the present work!
In its main features the part of Tibet which was traversed by the English mission was already tolerably well known; and of this a clear proof may be obtained
by glancing at the first-rate map published in Petermann's Mitteilungen, before
the English expedition accomplished its object. The route from Phari to Gyangtse and on to Schigatse was mapped as far back as 1783 by Turner, and speaking ot this map Landon gives the following excellent testimony: »A very good piece ot work, better than the best London maps of 1903.»*** In the year 1878 the Pundit A—K— travelled viz Tschumbi and Phari-dschong, the same road that Bogle took in 1774 and Manning in 1811. Turner's map has of course been in several respects improved as a consequence of the excellent means at the disposal of the English expedition.
The route taken by the expedition from Gyangtse viz Jamdok-tso, across the Tsang-po, to Lhasa is exactly the same as that which was travelled over and admirably mapped by Chandra Das. Of the country traversed by the recent military
* The Unveiling of Lhasa, by Edmund Candler, p. 31.
** Jahrgang 1904, Tafel 7. * * * Lhasa, I. p. 19.
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