India and Tibet : vol.1 / Page 47 (Color Image)

0047	India and Tibet : vol.1

NEPALESE INTRUSION 21

was " a good deal affected," that he could not help being

concerned that the Regent should suspect him of coming

into his country to raise disturbances ; that God was his

witness that he wished the Regent well, and wished the

Lama well, and the country well, and that a suspicion of

treachery and falsehood he could not bear. The Tashi

Lami tried to calm him, and eventually dictated a letter

in Tibetan in Bogle's name to the Lhasa Regent. This

letter contained only one sentence of pure business. It

simply said : I request, in the name of the Governor, my

master, that you will allow merchants to trade between

this country and Bengal." Not a very aggressive request

to make or a very great favour to ask, especially as the

Tibetans had begun their intercourse by asking a favour

from us. But it was not for a century and a quarter, and

not till we had carried our arms to Lhasa itself, that that

simple request was answered, although all the time the

people and traders of Tibet were only too willing to

trade with us.

Why Bogle did not himself go to Lhasa, as he was

empowered to do by his instructions, seems strange. The

Tashi Lama said that he himself would have been quite

willing, but that the Lhasa Regent was very averse, and

he dissuaded Bogle, saying that the Regent's heart was

small and suspicious, and he could not promise that he

would be able to procure the Regent's consent.

And now the feeling of suspicion was to be increased

by an unfortunate occurrence. The Gurkha Raja of

Nepal wrote to both the Tashi Lama and the Lhasa

Regent, announcing that he had subdued certain districts.

He said he did not wish to quarrel with Tibet, but if they

had a mind for war he let them know he was well prepared,

and he would desire them to remember he was a Rajput.

He wished to establish factories at places upon the

Tibetan border, where the merchants of Tibet might pur-

chase the commodities of his country and of Bengal, and

he desired the concurrence of the 'Tibetans. He also

further desired the Tibetans " to have no connection with

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books