The Missions of Bogle and Turner According To the Tibetan Texts

Abstract

Warren Hastings, the most farsighted man the British ever sent to India, was the only governor-general who tried to open friendly relations with the Tibetans on a mainly commercial basis, without paying excessive attention to international politics. He twice sent British officials on mission to the Tashi-Lama, and maintained an interchange of friendly letters and presents with Tashilhunpo during the whole period of his governorship. The preference given to the Tashi-Lama was due not merely to the fact that he was the Tibetan authority nearest to India; the Third Tashi-Lama Blobzafi-dpal-ldan-ye-ses (I738-I780) was a forceful personality who had succeeded in gaining the highest influence both in Tibet and at the Chinese court. On the other hand the Eighth Dalai-Lama Blo-bzafn-ajam-dpal-rgya-mts'o (I758-I804) was still a minor, and even after reaching majority proved to be a man of little energy and independence; thus it came about that the jealousy and suspicions of the Chinese ambans and of the Tibetan regent always prevented Warren Hastings's envoys from reaching Lhasa. The picture we gain from the travel accounts of the British envoys is fascinating, but one-sided. Nobody till now had thought ,of looking into the Tibetan records of the time for finding out what the Tibetans thought of these missions, of their aims and their character. The only exception is Sarat Chandra Das, who in one of his informative, but confused and unreliable articles, gave an abstract of the passages of the Autobiography of the Third Tashi-