The Rule of the Dalai Lamas

Exclusion of Europeans.

During the 19th century Euro peans were systematically prevented from entering the country, or speedily expelled if found in it. In 1844-1846, however, the French missionaries, Evariste Regis Huc and Joseph Gabet, made their way to Lhasa from China. They travelled via Siningfu, and arrived in Lhasa on the 29th of January 1846. On the 15th of March they were sent off under escort by the rugged road to Szechuen. Huc's book, Souvenirs d'un voyage, etc., is a most delightful book of travel. The brothers Henry and Richard Strachey visited Manasarowar Lake in 1846 and 1848 respectively. In 1866 the Abbe Desgodins travelled through portions of eastern Tibet and reached Cham-do (in Kam).

Indian Explorers.

From 1863 onwards a number of Indian explorers were sent by the Government of India into Tibet, for the purpose of surveying the country and collecting information about its inhabitants. They carried prayer wheels, but instead of prayers these contained rolls of blank paper on which observa tions were noted. They carried also Tibetan rosaries by the beads of which each hundred paces were counted. The work was dan gerous and difficult, but the results were on the whole remarkably accurate. The best known of these men were Pandit Nain Singh, Pandit Krishna, originally known as A.-K. (from the first and last letters of his name transposed) and U-gyen Gya-tso, or U.-G. Nain Singh reached Lhasa in the course of two remarkable jour neys. In the first, after an ineffectual attempt by Nepal, he travelled by the Manasarowar Lake, and the road thence east ward, parallel to the course of the Tsangpo, reaching Lhasa on the loth of January 1866, and leaving it on the 21st of April 1867. On the second journey (1874) he started from Ladak, crossing the vast and elevated plateau by the Tengri Nor and other great lakes, and again reaching Lhasa on the 18th of November.

In 1878 A.-K. also visited Lhasa, stayed a year, and after wards continued into Tsaidam, not returning to India till 1882. U-gyen Gya-tso, a Tibetan of Sikkim, who was originally a teacher of Tibetan in a Darjeeling School, secured permission in 1879 from the Tashi-lhiinpo authorities for Sarat Chandra Das, Bengali schoolmaster at Darjeeling, to visit that monastery, where his name was entered as a student. This was the opportunity for a series of valuable exploratory journeys through the Tibetan provinces adjoining the Indian and Nepalese frontiers. Sarat also brought back from his journeys a large number of interesting books in Tibetan and Sanskrit, some of which were edited and published by him, with the assistance of U-gyen Gya-tso and other Tibetans. But these explorations, and particularly those of Sarat, when discovered by the Tibetans, incensed them still further, and deepened their distrust of the strong Power that came nearer and nearer and now explored their country in secret.

The Russian explorer Prjevalsky, although he did not penetrate far into Tibet, did much towards determining the conformation of its north-eastern and eastern mountain systems. His fourth jour ney, between November 1883 and October 1885, covered part of northern Tibet, and established the true character of Tsaidam.

Recent Exploration.

Between 1889 and 1892, W. W. Rock hill, an American possessing great qualifications for Tibetan ex ploration by reason of a fair knowledge of the language and history of the country, coupled with the instincts and training of a scientific explorer, made two journeys through the north-eastern and eastern districts of Tibet. His record of these has added to the world's knowledge both of the country and its people.

In 1889 Prince Henri d'Orleans and M. Bonvalot ; in 1891 two Englishmen, Capt. Bower and Dr. Thorold; the following year Miss Taylor, a solitary Englishwoman who came to within 150 miles of Lhasa, and in 1893, two other Frenchmen, MM. Dutreuil de Rhins and Fernand Granard, all entered Tibet. They were followed by Mr. and Mrs. Littledale, accompanied by Mr. Fletcher, in 1895; by Capt. Deasy a year later, by Capt. Welby and Lieut. Malcolm in the same year, and by Rijnhart, a Dutch missionary, in 1898 and by Sir Aurel Stein. These all explored different tracts in the great unexplored regions, and many brought back knowledge of the flora and fauna. All, or nearly all, en deavoured to reach Lhasa, but none succeeded, so thorough were the precautions taken by the Tibetans to guard against such an event. The Littledales came the nearest, being stopped 8o miles north of the Forbidden City. De Rhins and Rijnhart lost their lives, being murdered, as is believed, by the people of the country.

Dr. Sven Hedin, a Swede, has made three important journeys in Tibet and has traversed the country, north, south and west, sur veying a great deal of unexplored country. His attempt to reach Lhasa, as that of all Europeans during these days of Tibetan hos tility, was frustrated by Tibetan watchfulness. But his careful and detailed maps and lake soundings, and his scientific observations, hydrographic, geological and meteorological, have placed him in the forefront of modern explorers. (X.) In 1774 and 1783 Warren Hastings, the far-sighted Governor General of India, had established transient connection with the Tashi Lama. From 1872 onwards the Government of India made attempts to open up relations with the central Tibetan Govern ment. But the latter declined, for they feared and distrusted the Power whose strength and influence were steadily extending in the territories on their southern frontier. A treaty made in 1890 between India and China was repudiated by the Tibetans.