(The Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet)
Here at last, is the much belated last installment of the three part book review I began a few months ago. Part I was about a hurricane, Part II described the indescribable feeling of Hüzün and now we end in the Holy City. All three books are essentially about cities, in three far away parts of the world - Galveston, USA, Istanbul, Turkey and Lhasa, Tibet.
Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet : Peter Hopkirk, a reporter and specialist in Middle Eastern and Asian Affairs for the London Times has written extensively about the little known history and geography of remote regions of Asia. In this book he describes the "discovery" of Tibet by westerners. The quest which began in the second half of the 19th century and continued well into the first half of the next, was part adventure, part religious mission, but mostly it was European imperialist politics. The jockeying for power in Asia between the Russian and the British empires was named the Great Game by Rudyard Kipling. The Game was played on two fronts - the western and northern borders of British India. On the western front, the playground was Afghanistan (I wrote about it here ) where the final score remained a 0-0 draw for the European powers - Afghanistan successfully beat back attempts at colonial occupation. On the northern edge of India, the prize that awaited the winner of the Great Game was the remote, mysterious land of Tibet whose capital Lhasa was known as the Forbidden City. Some time in the 19th century, fearing foreign designs (China, Russia, Western Europe) on their isolated kingdom located amidst the clouds of the Himalayas, Tibetans declared their holy capital city out of bounds for most foreigners.
Trespassers on the Roof of the World is a chronicle of bizarre and electrifying tales of the human propensity to chase after the unattainable, with determination, ingenuity, greed and reckless abandon. The outcomes occasionally had a comic twist but more often, they were grim and tragic. Remote Tibet, sitting in the harsh terrain and rarified air of mountain tops, exuded an enchanting and mystic aura. The rest of the world wanted to penetrate its mystery. Early Franciscan and Jesuit monks, Hindu and Buddhist scholars, government spies and mercenaries, enterprising traders and travelers .... Tibet was a dream destination for all. Some sought spiritual insights, others were fueled by missionary zeal to bring Christianity to a "savage" population and still others wanted to undertake the arduous trip just out of curiosity. Foreign powers wanted to exercise their sovereignty over Tibet for profit and strategic reasons. For Indian Hindus, Tibet held precious religious secrets. Within and near Tibet are located several real and mythical gardens, lakes and mountains of divine significance (the seats of Hindu gods) as also the source of many of India's sacred rivers. Foreign governments (China, Russia and Britain) viewed Tibet with mercenary ( gold and silver mines surround Tibet) and strategic interest. Tibetans understood that when they decided to close the gates to interlopers. It was not hard to do as their land is blessed with naturally impenetrable borders on all sides. With icy mountain passes at elevations ranging from 15,000 to 20,000 feet, access into Tibet was not to be undertaken by the faint of heart. Yet numerous people did - men and women, young and old, from near and far away lands. One European missonary couple attempted the journey with an infant in tow with tragic results. Some reached Tibet without meaning to do so. An American airforce plane flying over the Himalayan range during WWII, ran out of fuel and crash landed in a Tibetan village.
Hopkirk's book is an interesting and informative account of the history, geography and politics of the region. Of all the travelers that went to Tibet during the "forbidden" years, the most interesting were a group of northern Indian Hindu pundits who were among the first foreigners to successfully enter Lhasa. They spoke Tibetan, were physically acclimatized to the Himalayan region and unlike Europeans, had the advantage of being able to assume the convincing disguise of Tibetan monks. Those intelligent, brave and loyal Indian mountain men acted as the early scouts for the British government and laid down the groundwork for future military expeditions into the unchartered terrain. They surveyed the land, assessed the possible entry routes and took stock of Tibetan defense forces - all surreptitously. Discovery of their intent would have resulted in certain death. The pundits carried sextants, binoculars and other rudimentary instruments of land survey in the false bottom of their luggage and concealed their meticulous notes inside the hollow space within their prayer wheel, a necessary accessory for Tibetan Buddhist mendicants. The Indian pundits undertook the extremely hazardous journey on foot for very little monetary reward and almost no public recognition. Most astounding of their numerous feats was the practice of measuring distance by counting their own strides (millions of them). Later, when the British officially arrived in Tibet and more rigorous geographic surveys were performed, the pundits' low tech estimates proved to be amazingly accurate, sometimes within a few meters of the actual distance or elevation.
The British eventually beat all other aspirants in reaching the Roof of the World. After several attempts, a small British military expedition manned by English and Indian soldiers, crashed through the gates of Lhasa in 1904 and Tibet capitulated to their superior might and the determinaton of the expedition's leader, Francis Younghusband. From then on until 1947, when India gained its independence, Tibet remained a loosely held protectorate of the British Empire. In lieu of military protection, access to its gold mines and other natural resources were granted to the empire. After the departure of the British from the Indian subcontinent, Tibet reverted to its isolated and independent existence under the divinely inspired rule of the Dalai Lama. Soon afterwards, in the 1950s, Tibet's old friend and adversary China, then under Mao Tse Tung's communist regime, invaded Tibet. This time, the "tresspassers" came to stay.
Note: In 1959 the Dalai Lama and several thousand Tibetans were able to escape from Chinese occupied Tibet and find refuge in India where they have lived ever since. A parallel Tibet in exile now exists in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala. For nearly fifty years, it has been the home of the Dalai Lama and his followers. The historic Potala Palace in Lhasa, the traditional seat of the Tibetan spiritual leader is under Chinese control. Shunya has a post with the title, "Potala-in-Exile" about the Little Tibet in India. Please check out the gorgeous photos accompanying the article. It was in fact Shunya's post about Dharamsala that provided the impetus to finish this three part book review which I had planned several months ago in an ambitious moment.
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