India and Tibet : vol.1 / 41 ページ（カラー画像）

0041	India and Tibet : vol.1
インドとチベット : vol.1

0041

India and Tibet : vol.1

インドとチベット : vol.1

THE TASHI LAMA 15

Tibetans themselves who made the first move. This

much is clear from the Tashi Lama's conversation.

We may well pause for a moment to consider the man

who had thus first communicated with us. It so happens

that he was the most remarkable man Tibet has produced

in the last century and a half, and one cannot help thinking

that if he had lived longer, and Warren Hastings had

remained longer in India, these two able and eminently

sensible and conciliatory men would have come to some

amicable and neighbourly agreement by which the inter-

relations of their respective countries might have been

peacefully conducted from that time till now.

Bogle says of him that he was about forty years of age,

that his disposition was open, candid, and generous, and

that the expression of his countenance was smiling and

good-humoured. He was extremely merry and entertain-

ing in conversation, and told a pleasant story with a great

deal of humour and action. I endeavoured," says Bogle,

to find out, in his character, those defects which are

inseparable from humanity, but he is so universally

beloved that I had no success, and not a man could

find it in his heart to speak ill of him."

The Lama treated Bogle in the most intimate manner.

He would walk the room with the strange Englishman,

explain to him the pictures, and make remarks upon the

colour of his eyes. For, although," says Bogle, vene-

rated as God's vicegerent through all the eastern countries

of Asia, endowed with a portion of omniscience, and with

many other Divine attributes, he throws aside, in con-

versation, all the awful part of his character, accommodates

himself to the weakness of mortals, endeavours to make

himself loved rather than feared, and behaves with the

greatest affability to everybody, particularly to strangers."

Continuing his conversation on the subject of Behar,

the Lama, in subsequent interviews, said that many people

had advised him against receiving an Englishman. I

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