India and Tibet : vol.1 / Page 44 (Color Image)

0044	India and Tibet : vol.1

18 BOGLE'S MISSION, 1774

of Kuch Behar, took possession of his territories, and

carried their arms to the borders of Bengal. The deputies

could judge for themselves whether the Company were

not in the right in opposing them. In the course of the

war some of the Bhutan territory was taken from them,

but was immediately restored at the request of the Tashi

Lama, and so far from desiring conquest, the boundaries

of Bengal remained the same as formerly.

The Lhasa deputies said the Lama had written to

Lhasa about trading, but that the Tibetans were afraid of

the heat, and proceeded, therefore, only as far as Phari,

where the Bhutanese brought the commodities of Bengal

and exchanged them for those of Tibet. This was the

ancient custom, and would certainly be observed.

Bogle stated that besides this there was formerly a

very extensive trade carried on between Tibet and Bengal ;

Warren Hastings was desirous of removing existing

obstacles, and had sent him to Tibet to represent the

matter to the Tashi Lama, and he trusted that the Lhasa

authorities would agree to so reasonable a proposal. They

answered that Gesub Rimpoche (the Regent at Lhasa)

would do everything in his power, but that he and all the

country were subject to the Emperor of China.

This," says Bogle, is a stumbling-block which crosses

me in all my paths." And in the paths of how many

negotiators since has it not stood as a stumbling-block !

The Tibetans are ready to do anything, but they can do

nothing without the permission of the Chinese. The

Chinese would freely open the whole of 'Tibet, but the

Tibetans themselves are so terribly seclusive. So the

same old story goes on year after year, till centuries are

beginning to roll by, and the story is still unfinished. When

in the Audience Hall of the Dalai Lama's Palace at Lhasa

itself I had obtained the seals of the Dalai Lama, of the

Council, of the National Assembly, and of the three great

monasteries, to an agreement, and had done all this in the

presence of the Chinese Resident, I thought we had at

last laid that fiction low for ever. But it seems to be

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