Explorers who tried to reach Lhasa

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 20

Explorers who tried to reach Lhasa

Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Race for Lhasa. By Peter Hopkirk. Oxford, 1983. 266 pp. Bibliography. $11.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Ruth Zanker) Peter Hopkirk, author of “Foreign Devils on the Silk Road,” has again written an absorbing tale for armchair historical travellers. This time he pieces together, in an easily read book, ’‘the story of the forcible opening up of a land which only ever wanted to be left alone.” To tell his tale, he uses the narratives of gatecrashers from nine countries who attempted their approaches to Tibet from every point of the compass, and with every degree of preparedness, in order to be the first into Lhasa. The tale begins in the mid-nineteenth century, when Tibet was closed to foreigners. The British believed Tsarist-Russian armies were advancing across Central Asia to India and wished to keep Tibet off-limit to outsiders as much as did the xenophobic Tibetans. But difficulties put in the path of determined visitors merely fed their obsessions. All the travellers had to be individuals of exceptional determination and courage to attempt crossing the terrible mountains and high plateaux. Three of the most intrepid were women. All took their lives in their hands by travelling in Tibet uninvited. They put at risk the lives of any Tibetan who helped them. Yet none doubted their right to be there. The motives which drove men and women to Lhasa were as varied as their characters.

Perhaps the most impressive were “the Pundits,” Indian secret agents of the British Raj. Their part in the “Great Game” was mapping within the borders of Tibet (even in Lhasa) disguised as Buddhist pilgrims. Paces were recorded on prayer beads and aids were disguised, like mercury carried in cowry shells. Their journeys were praised by the Royal Geographical Society, but greater awards were given to the less successful attempts of Russians, French and English explorers, who vied with each other to be the first European in Lhasa and were only turned back in the last stages of their journey by Tibetan officials. Christian missionaries were known to be even less welcome in Tibet than other gatecrashers so the pluck shown by tiny Annie Little in deciding to carry the gospel to the Dalai Lama is undeniable. She almost made it to Lhasa, was betrayed close to her goal by her servant, and was eventually persuaded to turn back by non-plussed officials, one of whom said later: “Dear me! The English are odd creatures.” Better prepared was a Canadian evangelist and doctor, Suzie Rijnhart, fluent in Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian, who in 1898 set out for Lhasa with her husband Petrus and 11-month-old baby Charles. The journey became a nightmare: Charles died on the high plateau; Petrus was killed by brigands; and Suzie struggled out frostbitten. The third woman to attempt the journey, a French student of Buddhism, reached Lhasa in 1923.

There were the sensationalists like Henry Savage Landor who wrote bestsellers about strange lands. He chose to go to Tibet because “a white man going into that country had no chance bf coming back alive.” He did return alive, but one can only pity the fates of poor Tibetan officials who had the misfortune to cross his path. Tibetan isolation was officially breached by the West in 1903 with the controversial Younghusband campaign. The massacre of a medieval army by British twentieth-century weapons sickened hardened British soldiers. This was all the sadder since the original plan had been one of conciliation. Then 1959 saw the final rout of the proud Tibetan people by a modern Chinese army and the exile of the Dalai Lama. Between these two military defeats the West’s curiosity moved from Lhasa to Mt Everest. Hopkirk tells us about some of the heroic and bizarre attempts to explore this area, including one plan to crash-land a gypsy moth aircraft half way up the great mountain before making a dash for the top. Anyone who reads this book must feel sympathy for a gentle and longsuffering people who were continually exposed to incursion. The long and painful sage of Tibet’s encounters with the outside world is a sad tale worth telling: Hopkirk’s account of it is well worth reading.