UNKNOWN TIBET

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21826, 4 July 1936, Page 17

UNKNOWN TIBET

“Nowhere Else in the World.” By Gordon Enders and Edward Anthony. Horst and Blackett. (187net.) $ [Reviewed by L. V. BRYANT.] Few persons know anything about Tibet; fewer still have been privileged to visit it. This vast plateau has remained throughout the centuries a forbidden territory, unknown and unexplored, and with something of the mysterious about it. Safely secluded behind the impassable barriers of the mighty Himalaya on the south and protected from western civilisation by its difficulty of access from China, Tibet has been allowed to develop unmolested and undisturbed. The Dalai Lama, grand ruler of Tibet, has always viewed with suspicion the desire of foreigners to penetrate into the interior of this country and white visitors to Lhasa, the capital, have been very few indeed. The traditional policy of “His Holiness” has been to keep his people free from contact with western civilisation, as such contact would undoubtedly make them discontented with a life which the circumstances of their environment make of necessity hard and primitive. Subsistence itself in Tibet is difficult enough. Gordon Enders in his book “Nowhere Else in the World” goes fully into the life of this secluded race of people. He is in the happy position of one who has spent the greater portion of his youth on the high mountain ranges beside the border of India and Tibet. He learned not only the language of the people but also the various dialects of the country. And, above all, he learned the customs, etiquette, folk lore and religious ideas of the people. He has had an experience which should make him an authority on his subject. The early chapters of his work give us a vivid picture of the last 30 years of Tibetan history. He speaks fully of the Younghusband expedition into Tibet, and of the establishment, well inside the Tibetan territory, of a British garrison at Gyantse. He represents this “Forbidden Land” as a place where sinister underground political intrigues involving Russia, England, Japan and China have been carried on for some time—intrigues which have had as their object the spoliation of the vast goldfields of the country and the stupendous riches of the Tibetan monasteries. He delves very fully into their religion and reveals some of the practices which to us seem disgusting and barbarous —merely penances which ' evidence their complete slavery to priesthood. No country in the world has ever been more completely dominated by the priesthood, and the reincarnation of the spirit of the Dalai Lama at the moment of his death in an infant born at that moment proves how completely the spiritual side of life dominates their whole existence. Enders envisages a complete westernisation of Tibet. The Panchan or Tashi Lama, who has spent years in voluntary exile in China, plans to return to Tibet, and, working from a new and up-to-date capital, which will be built at Kokonor, he will carry out a fantastic plan of transporting the immense wealth of the country to Shanghai for safe deposit, of installing wireless stations, and of industrialising, the country. The suggestion of electrification, modernisation, and industrialisation are reminiscent of parts of the first Five Year Soviet plan. “It seemed to me that, with proper leadership, Tibet under the new regime might resemble Switzerland,” Enders says. It is very controversial whether it is possible or even desirable to bring about the mechanisation of this vast country. The Tibetans are the product of their environment and to give them that initiative and ambition which Enders aims at would be to make them discontented with the hardness of a life with which at the moment they are quite satisfied. The fierce cold winds, the desert-like arid conditions, the bitterly severe winters experienced on that bleak plateau are not conducive to a high standard of comfort and Tibet seems to be quite unsuited for western civilisation, the value of which has yet to be proved even in countries where it now obtains. Enders’s book is very readable, containing a great variety of enviable personal experiences. His illustrations are excellently chosen and give a splendid and accurate impression of the life and religious ideas of a most fascinatingly interesting race.