We now are in Gyantse, one of my favorite places in Tibet, and certainly more so since I started reading the history of this country. British Colonel Francis Younghusband (pictured above) was ordered to Tibet from India in 1904, tasked with securing the country as an Empire ally and trading partner to shut out Russian advances in "The Great Game" that had begun play a century before.
Younghusband reached Gyantse and asked surrender of the fort, a massive wall that sprawls across several ridges and can be seen from far away. The Tibetan general asked what would happen if he didn't surrender, to which Younghusband replied "Then we shall blow open the gates as we did (elsewhere)." Although British and Tibetan history diverge, it is said that the remaining Tibetan soldiers under siege threw themselves from the cliffs rather than be captured.
Younghusband got to Lhasa, the first known foreigner who made it past all the Tibetans who asked the uninvited foreigners to turn back. He took seven weeks to get acquainted, negotiate an agreement that cemented British trade in Tibet that shut out the Russians and rest before returning to India. The night before departure, he rode up into the hills above Lhasa for solitude. He later wrote that that hour alone "was worth the rest of (his) life."
Younghusband wrote that he found Lhasa to be dusty and dirty instead of the fabled and mystical Shangri-la. But obviously, Tibet was a very special place even one hundred years ago and continues to intrigue many of its visitors. With Carole, my traveling companion from last year's tour and this one, we continue to cry our way through various Buddhist monasteries, looking at the ancient relics and the overwhelming piety and sincere beliefs of the faithful.
When we visited the Gyantse monastery this morning with the marvelous blue-roofed Kumbun, I started to cry and told Carole I needed a hug. We continue to say how lucky, lucky, lucky we are; the spell of Tibet has not worn off.
Younghusband reached Gyantse and asked surrender of the fort, a massive wall that sprawls across several ridges and can be seen from far away. The Tibetan general asked what would happen if he didn't surrender, to which Younghusband replied "Then we shall blow open the gates as we did (elsewhere)." Although British and Tibetan history diverge, it is said that the remaining Tibetan soldiers under siege threw themselves from the cliffs rather than be captured.
Younghusband got to Lhasa, the first known foreigner who made it past all the Tibetans who asked the uninvited foreigners to turn back. He took seven weeks to get acquainted, negotiate an agreement that cemented British trade in Tibet that shut out the Russians and rest before returning to India. The night before departure, he rode up into the hills above Lhasa for solitude. He later wrote that that hour alone "was worth the rest of (his) life."
Younghusband wrote that he found Lhasa to be dusty and dirty instead of the fabled and mystical Shangri-la. But obviously, Tibet was a very special place even one hundred years ago and continues to intrigue many of its visitors. With Carole, my traveling companion from last year's tour and this one, we continue to cry our way through various Buddhist monasteries, looking at the ancient relics and the overwhelming piety and sincere beliefs of the faithful.
When we visited the Gyantse monastery this morning with the marvelous blue-roofed Kumbun, I started to cry and told Carole I needed a hug. We continue to say how lucky, lucky, lucky we are; the spell of Tibet has not worn off.
1 comment:
Karen, there is an Anti-British museum in Gyantse that is located in a building close to the ascent to the Dzong. It is just one room filled with texts and old photographs about the English conquest. In the center there is a large monument to the fallen Tibetans. Some of the primitive weapons they used against the British are displayed in cases along the walls. Anne-Marie
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