THE VALUE OF TIBET TO ENGLAND

Notwithstanding the numerous books that have been pubHshed on Tibet, from the time of Bogle and Manning, a century back, down to the more recent descriptions of the country by Rockhill, Bower, and others, the public generally have but a hazy idea of the wide Tibetan region, or of its great value to us and to all Europeans whose lot is cast in the surrounding lands, dominated by the huge table-land that towers above them. Tibet is the heart of Asia, rightly called the roof of the world ; it forms the nucleus of the great Asiatic continent, and from it may be said to depend the low-lying peripheral countries by which it is surrounded, India, Burma, Siam, and Cochin-China on the south ; China proper on the west ; and the Tarim Basin with East Turkestan on the north. The great rivers which water these countries have all their sources in the high plateau, — the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra, which flow through India and debouch into the Indian Ocean on the South ; the Irrawaddy and the Salwin in Burma flowing into the Bay of Bengal ; the Lan-tsan-kiang, or Mekong, which crosses Upper Siam and Cochin-China and, taking a south-west course, flows into the China Sea near Saigon ; and finally the Red River of Tongking, which rises in the Chinese province of Yunnan, itself a high table-land and peninsular extension of the Tibetan plateau.

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THE VALUE OF TIBET TO ENGLAND 93

Coming round to China, we have the two great rivers, the Yangtse and the Hoang-ho, which make their way to the Pacific, running right athwart the " eighteen provinces " from east to west : the one a solid stream of deep water navigated some two thousand miles from its mouth ; the other wide and shallow, and, owing to its eccentric behaviour and irregular flow, commonly known as " China's Sorrow." All these rivers are fed by the perennial snows that adorn the great mountain wall which fences in the plateau from the peripheral countries, and by the heavy monsoon rains derived from the masses of vapour which the south winds of summer, crossing the Indian Ocean and the China Sea, pile up against the mountain barrier. The mountains which bound the great plateau on the north, the Kwenlun and the Altai ranges, have little rainfall, and here consequently the peripheral countries are little better than deserts, and their rivers only intermittent pools of water for the greater part of the year. Northern Tibet is itself a desert of lofty peaks and frozen plateaus, 16,000 and 17,000 feet above the sea, interspersed with desolate lakes of salt water, and is practically uninhabited. Southern and western Tibet, bordering on India and China, have a lower elevation, the plateau ranging generally from 10,000 feet to 13,000 feet, while sufficient moisture here penetrates the boundary waU to enable a considerable population to dwell in comfort and to combine agriculture with the pastoral pursuits dear to all Tibetans, and which form the basis of such wealth as they possess. The climate in this region is cool and bracing in summer, while the winter cold is by no means severe ; fresh water abounds, and the streams are so rapid that they are seldom hard frozen. The thermometer at Lhasa is seldom known to fall as low as zero Fahrenheit, and, if the nights are cold, the sunshine by day, even in the depth of winter, is warm and pleasant. Occasional blizzards occur, generally of three days' duration, when all who can keep within doors ; but calm weather is the normal condition, sharp, cold air tempered by almost continuous sunshine. My own small experience of it leads me to believe it to be one of the finest climates on the surface of the globe.

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Bodyul, or the land of Bod, by which name the country is known to the Tibetans, extends about 1,200 miles east and west (longitude 79 to loi e.) and about 700 miles north and south (latitude 28 to 40 n.) The boundary wall on the south, or Indian side, is the Himalaya range, which runs east and west ; after reaching the country of the Kachins, to the north of Burma, this wall turns northwards and forms the boundary between Tibet and China. This northern extension of the Himalayas is known to the Chinese as the Ta-shiieh Shan, or Great Snow Mountains, a name of the same meaning as the Himalaya of the Indians. In appearance the Chinese range is much the same, the view of the Ta-shiieh Shan from Mount Omi in Szechuan (11,000 feet) being analogous to that of the Himalaya from Darjeeling, — a grand wall of snowy peaks and glaciers towering into the sky to a height estimated at 22,000 feet to 24,000 feet, and dwarfing the high Szechuan ranges that lead up to it by contrast. Through this wall go passes which lead the traveller to the Tibetan plateau beyond. The two principal passes leading from Szechuan are that of Ta-chien-lu (8,000 feet) in the west, which forms the high road from Chgng-tu, the provincial capital of Szechuan, to Batang and Lhasa ; and the Hsiieh-Pao-ting (13,000 feet), which leads from the north of the province into the Tsaidam and Ko-ko-nor country on the north-west.

I have traversed both these passes, and on each occasion found myself on a rolling grassy plateau, the home of innumerable flocks of the big Tibetan sheep and of herds of the hardy yak. Agriculture is impossible on the plateau itself, but in the deep ravines cut down by the many streams which form the sources of the great rivers named above, barley, the main food of the people, is grown in considerable quantity. While sojourning on the plateau — the ts'ao-ti, or grass land, as the Chinese call it — I have been the guest of the Tibetan border tribes, and although the people are timid and suspicious, I found the men far more frank and manly in their behaviour than the Chinese, while the women, who do all the work and all the entertaining, are politeness itself, with a grace and freedom of manner which forms a contrast to that of the downtrodden Chinese women as pleasing as it is surprising. As a merchant and woolbuyer, my presence amongst them did not raise the suspicions which a missionary or a purely scientific traveller cannot fail to give rise to. The Tibetans on the Szechuan border are a remarkably handsome race, with the splendid physique and carriage of the mountaineer ; they have little of the repulsive Mongol type in their features ; many of the younger men would pass for handsome Italians, while the young women are florid brunettes, prepossessing both in manners and appearance.

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The Chinese derive no revenue from Tibet, and their supremacy is all but nominal. The tribes are under their own Tu-sze or headmen, with a few Chinese " Residents " posted along the chief highways of the country. A few small bands of ill-disciplined Chinese soldiers guard the frontier towns in Szechuan, and are posted at wide intervals along the great high road to Lhasa. But generally the Tibetans know little of the Chinese, who scarcely interfere with them in any way. The Tibetans all go armed with sword and musket, while the Chinese in the border towns of Tibet, as elsewhere, are ignorant of arms, and could not resist a serious attack if made. But a peaceful trading intercourse between the two peoples appears to have removed all danger of a renewal of the wars that were constant for a hundred years or more after the so-called conquest of Tibet by the Emperor Kien-lung in the early part of the last century.

Seeing what a magnificent sanatorium'Tibet, if properly opened up, would afford to our toiling fellow-countrymen in the torrid plains of India, it is lamentable to think that no serious steps have been taken to render Tibet accessible to Europeans since the days of Warren Hastings. This grand statesman, with the conquest of India on his hands, did not neglect Tibet. As long ago as 1774 Warren Hastings sent a mission to the Tashi-Lama, and actually

96 GLEANINGS FROM CHINA

succeeded in making a peaceful agreement with him to open up a trade route between Tibet and Bengal. Later Viceroys left the matter in abeyance, and the intercourse so well begun gradually died out, and it was not until 1885 that a renewed attempt was made to open up the country. The Macaulay mission of 200 men with 500 mules was despatched to Lhasa, overcame the feeble opposition of the Dalai-Lama's force on the Sikkim frontier, but after three months of delay and negotiation with Peking was recalled by the Indian Government. This fatuous act was prompted by the foreign advisers of the Chinese Government. Sir Robert Hart, so it was currently reported at the time, warned our Government of the fatal consequences of the breach with China which their interference in Lhasa would produce. Our timid rulers, unworthy successors of Warren Hastings and his contemporaries, instead of treating China as a quantite negligeahle, appear to have feared the shadowy consequences of their advance into Tibet, and thus a grand opportunity was carelessly thrown away.

Yet it is not too late for resolute action even at this late day. China is falling to pieces ; its outlying dependencies must go. Manchuria has in part gone to the Russians, and Mongolia looks like going too. Are we content to see them in Tibet also, hovering over India, and threatening a descent at any moment ? A mission of five hundred men despatched to Lhasa to-morrow might secure us the fealty of the Dalai-Lama, and free intercourse with the hardy Tibetan people. ^

^ Alas ! Since then Younghusband's Mission has gone and come away again ! Coming away is always confused in the East with being driven out. — a. e. n. l.

To say nothing of trade, it is less on political than on sanitary grounds that I urge that Tibet be thrown open to settlement from India. I have myself twice recovered my health by fleeing from the steamy plains of China to the cold, dry atmosphere of the great plateau, and this notwithstanding the discomforts and hardships of land travel under present conditions. Englishmen in India need such a change within easy reach. Darjeeling, Simla, and the other numerous hill-stations along the foot-hills of the Himalayas are on the hither side of the rain belt, and though comparatively cool, are still damp and relaxing. To obtain the real tonic of mountain air you must get behind the rain-belt. Such tonic as the Tibetan Plateau affords is {experto crede) not to be found in Europe, and when one realises that this glorious climate could be placed by rail within three days of Calcutta, one naturally asks, Why is it not done ? The addition of Tibet to our Indian Empire would solve the problem of our permanent hold of India ; our garrison of British soldiers could occupy cantonments as healthy as any in Europe, and our overworked Indian officials could then run up to Tibet to recruit as easily as Londoners now run to Switzerland and the Tyrol. Let us hope that soon we may see a " Far East " Office added to our Ministries, and that China and Tibet will be studied and understood by our Government, and questions of the greatest import to the weal of the Empire no longer be left for an opportunist decision in an emergency through want of due attention beforehand and a little resolution.