As is well-known, in 1904 the British organized a military expedition to establish communications with Lhasa and with Tibet. I visited Tibet in the summer of 1937, with Professor Guiseppe Tucci of Rome University, travelling from Gangtok (in Sikkim) to Gyantse - all on foot. Were there still some signs of the "British occupation of Tibet"? Very few indeed. The line of posthouses from Karponang to Yatung, and from Phari to Tuna, to Dochen, and so on, up to Gyantse, may be mentioned - but they were used not only by officials, but by Tibetan notables and foreigners of many nationalities. Here and there one also noticed the meagre poles and the single line of the telegraph system installed by the British between Lhasa and Gangtok and India. The British, however, never built a road from India (either from Gangtok or Kalimpong, crossing either the Natu-la or the Jelep-la) to Gyantse and to Lhasa. The British seem to have been interested only in keeping out of Tibet any potential major power - meaning by this Russia or China. A political Officer was stationed in Lhasa, and a very small force was stationed in Gyantse, but the Tibetans were left entirely free to arrange their own internal affairs as it pleased them. A foreigner visiting Tibet noticed at once that the people used their own currency in practically all normal dealings, and that they also had their own stamps for internal postal use. When in Tibet I noticed no sign of Chinese presence, and of course no signs of Russian influence. In this sense, the British had obtained exactly what they wanted, the creation of a safe neutral cushion between their dominions in India and the two great powers of the Northern Asian mainland.

I visited Tibet again in 1948, always with Professor Guiseppe Tucci, but the situation had scarcely changed. Unfortunately, the Tibetans had no idea that China would become a frightening threat, only a few months in the future. I saw some military units near to Yatung, but I must say that they looked painfully inadequate for any form of modern warfare.

The British have been accused by the Chinese of "imperialism" in Tibet, and they called their own aggression of Tibet a "war of liberation" - a most absurd mental somersault. The British were only interested, as we have seen, in keeping other great powers out of the Tibetan area. After the initial brutal shock of the Younghusband expedition in 1904, a very friendly relationship developed between British India and Tibet, and also personally between the English, the Indians and the Tibetans.

I personally think it was a great pity that the British were not a little MORE "imperialistic" in their dealings with Tibet! In reality, their political behaviour was shortsighted and egoistical. For example, if a road had been built between Gangtok (or Kalimpong) and Lhasa, and a few buses had been running up and down the line for the benefit of a limited number of traders, Tibet would not have remained so desperately isolated from the rest of the world. Tibetans would have learnt to be more international, to drive vehicles, to use foreign currencies, to deposit their money in banks and to use cheques, to read newspapers, to own passports -and so on. In other words, they have have gradually become used to the twentieth century, and they would have been able, if not to resist militarily the Chinese, at least to state their case much more boldly and efficiently in front of the nations of the world, thus making the Chinese aggression more difficult, and at least obtaining greater advantages for themselves. The Bhutanese were lucky to have a king whose eyes were open to the ways of the world, and who managed to present his case to the United Nations at the right time and in the right way, thus saving his country from foreign domination. Something similar could have happened in regard to Tibet, if the Tibetans, encouraged by the British, had not been slumbering in a world of dreams, living, as it were, in an historical void.

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Last updated: 2-Feb-96