The high road to China : George Bogle, the Panchen Lama and the first British expedition to Tibet

by Kate Teltscher

Paper Book, 2007

Status

Available

Publication

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Description

In 1774 the head of the East India Company in Bengal, Warren Hastings, was determined to open trade relations with the hitherto impenetrable court of imperial China. To this end he entrusted the young Scotsman George Bogle to be the first British envoy to Tibet; once there, Bogle attempted to enlist the influence of the Panchen Lama in a bid to attract the sympathy of the Qianlong Emperor. A hard task, for the imperial court generally viewed trade with disdain, and took an altogether dim view of the British Empire as a whole. But what began as an unprecedented diplomatic mission soon acquired a different character. Bogle, who was the first Briton to visit Tibet, was smitten by what he saw, and in particular the person of the Panchen Lama himself, with whom he struck up a remarkable friendship, fuelled by a reciprocated desire to educate and learn from one another. And as for Tibet- 'When I look upon the time I have spent among the Hills it appears like a fairy dream'. Bogle's letters and journals, by turns playful, penetrating, self-deprecating and packed with engaging detail, were to help create the myth of Tibet in the West, the Shangri-La so familiar to us today. This book tells the story of the British attempt to reach the Quianlong Emperor's ear, a narrative of two extraordinary journeys across some of the harshest and highest terrain in the world- Bogle's mission, and the Panchen Lama's state visit to China, on which British hopes were hung. Piecing together the narrative from Bogle's private papers, from the accounts produced by Tibetan and Hindu monks, and the writings of the Qianlong Emperor himself, Kate Teltscher deftly reconstructs the momentous meeting of four very different worlds.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member broughtonhouse
This is a different take on a part of the world in which the 18th century British were taking an interest as a possible trading partner. It is a well written and fascinating journey into the different expectations of the players: the British, arrogant as ever, demanding trade rights while being
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resisted by the Tibetans and through them the equally arrogant Chinese; the clash of religions, christian, buddhist, taoist; the clash of cultures. Above all there is the story of the landscape: forbidding, exhilirating, and on a scale different to anything else in the world. The author weaves her story of early contacts between these three groups and lets the reader judge.

Well worth a read.
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LibraryThing member moncrieff
This is a fascinating insight to the start of the Tibetan myth and tibet's relationship with Qing China.

Awards

James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Shortlist — Biography — 2006)

Language

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