IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| India and Tibet : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
TIBETAN SECLUSION BROKEN 309
hill, Lord Curzon, from England, Lord Kitchener, and
very many others, also sent their congratulations ; and
now while the Chinese Government were making up their
minds whether they would allow the Resident to sign his
adhesion to the Treaty, I had leisure and inclination to go
41 about Lhasa and see something of the monasteries and
temples, and talk with the people in a less forced and
formal manner than I had to while the strain of the
negotiations was on us.
We had so far seen the Tibetans only on the conten-
tious side. Now that the stress was over I wished to see
them as they really were. What especially I wished to
see was their monastic life. The priesthood ruled Tibet.
Religion was the chief characteristic of the people. Their
religion and the character of the Lamas, who both led the
religious life of the people and guided their political desti-
nies, were, therefore, the special objects of my interest.
~i From the first I had insisted that we should not be
denied access to the monasteries, for to get rid of mis-
ir understandings it was essential that we should close up
«; with the Lamas and come directly into contact with
them. But I had been careful to let only those officers
+~ enter the monasteries who could be trusted to comport
themselves with propriety, and have all reasonable regard
for the feelings and prejudices of the monks.
tiFor this purpose Mr. White, Mr. Walsh, Captain
O'Connor, and Colonel Waddell, the well-known writer
It on Lamaism, who was appointed Chief Medical Officer
and Archa ologist to the Mission's escort, were invaluable.
Each had his special qualification for the work, and each
made use of it by 66 peaceful penetration " to break through
the last barrier which separated us from the Tibetans.
Mr. White was known in person or by reputation as none
of the rest of us were, and had many friends who were
also friends of these Lamas. Through them he obtained
an invitation to the De-pun Monastery, and from this
start made rapid progress. Mr. Walsh, as Deputy Com-
missioner of Daijiling, and through his long acquaintance
with this frontier and intimate knowledge of the language
and history of the country, was also able to exert a most
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