The High Road to China: George Bogle, the Panchen Lama, and the First British Expedition to Tibet (review)

Unlocking the mindset of the Chinese, particularly when it comes to projections about China's strategic plans in the twenty-first century, is one of many preoccupations of Western military thinkers today. For answers, much can be learned from the past and the methods of the Honourable East India Company (EIC) in particular. In 1774, the Governor General of Britain's EIC, Warren Hastings, sent a twenty-eight-year-old Scot, George Bogle, to Tibet to ascertain Tibet's wealth and commercial potential, to report on Tibetan customs, and to determine Lhasa's relationship with China. He had also been given vague instructions to "open communications" between British India and Tibet. The imperative behind these modest instructions was far more significant. The EIC was caught between a burgeoning demand at home for Chinese products, and highly restrictive trading practices in China, which, together, were crippling the company. A way had to be found to overcome the hubris of the imperial court and to open up trade, and a diplomatic opening with the Tibetans seemed to offer an opportunity to begin a dialogue with China.

Kate Teltscher, the author of India Inscribed: European and British Writing on India, 1600–1800, treats us to a vivid narrative of Bogle and his expedition to Tibet with a small army of servants and bearers, and then the subsequent progress of a Tibetan delegation to Peking. Although Bogle was prevented from entering Lhasa, his friendship with the Panchen Lama (the head of the country's second largest monastery at Tashilunpo, which rivalled the capital) enabled him to learn a great deal about Tibet and its commerce, and he succeeded in persuading this high-ranking Tibetan official to mention the British desire to strengthen trading relations. One of the many strengths of the book is the description the two world views, Western and Tibetan, and how these two peoples interacted and perceived each other.

Bogle's mission was obviously extremely risky. Armed only with poor charts, he nevertheless leapt at the chance to explore regions unknown to Europeans. He was alert to accusations of espionage and stuck rigidly to his diplomatic brief. Although he wrote about Tibet's geography or military potential, even commenting on how the country might be attacked by Britain, he refused a map of the country offered to him by a Buddhist monk through fear of arrest.

There are interesting insights into how the British worked with local peoples, gathering information through gosains (travelling merchants), guides, and other agencies. An intermediary named Purangir carried on the diplomatic effort, when, after two years, Bogle returned to India. It was this ability to use Asians as "sub-imperialists" and allies which helps to explain the longevity and success of the British imperial enterprise, a theme I tackled myself in Spying for Empire (2006). Indeed, reflecting the integration typical of the British in India in the 1770s, Bogle married a Tibetan woman and had two daughters by her. However, despite plans to repeat the expedition, Bogle never went back to Tibet: he died in Calcutta in 1781 whilst bathing, aged thirty-four. His daughters eventually made their way to Britain and were baptised, married, and assimilated into British society.

Kate Teltscher's book is not only delightful, but also instructive. Reliable intelligence requires a deep understanding of the target, even an ability to read its mind and appreciate its world-view, whilst close alliances yield much profit for both sides.