Tibet

1904 · 177840 — Simla: Intelligence Branch Topographical Division June 1904. The race for Lhasa A rare intelligence map produced during a spectacular move in the later stages of the "great game" showing Younghusband's route as far as the fortress at Gyantse. The map incorporates both existing information gathered by pundits and also the fruits of surveys undertaken by British cartographers during the advance. We have traced a single copy held by the British Library shelf number 57690.1. The Younghusband Expedition under a pretext of bringing the Tibetans to heel aimed at closing a Russian backdoor to the Raj. Departing in winter 1903 Younghusband and his force crossed the Tibetan border on 12 December and began the push to Lhasa. Reaching Guru in March 1904 British forces massacred Tibetan troops blocking their path the Massacre at Chumik Shenko and following a protracted effort to seize control of the fort at Gyantse in May and June they swept along the eastern road reaching Lhasa in early July. "Some fifteen years earlier as a young subaltern Francis Younghusband had dreamed of entering Lhasa alone disguised as a Yarkandi trader. Now in full diplomatic regalia and with a small armed escort he rode into the holy city. The Tibetans their morale broken offered no resistance" Hopkirk p. 183. In addition to its geopolitical goals the expedition was tasked with surveying the Tibetan interior. Captain Charles Ryder an experienced Survey of India cartographer joined the expedition as the mapping officer and information gathered by his team was fed back to Intelligence Branch in Simla and incorporated into field maps. This example dated June 1904 charts the expedition's course from its December 1903 departure point of Siliguri up to Gyantse where Younghusband was still bogged down and gives known elevations and the course of alternative routes into Tibet to be followed by troops advancing in Younghusband's wake. Along the route there are markings for the expedition's camps lines representing the journeys of detachments from the main expedition and a delineation of the makeshift telegraph line running up to Kang Ma. A pair of crossed swords and a date note the site of the Massacre of Chumik Shenko. The northern and north-east portions covering Lhasa and the territory to the west are sketched according to the valuable information gathered in the 19th century by pundits such as Nain Singh Rawat and Kishen Singh. Rawat the first non-European to win a gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society was also the first member of the Survey of India to reach Lhasa. His cousin Kishen Singh made four surveying expeditions of Tibet and Central Asia the fourth producing a detailed map of Lhasa and its environs. The map shows the course of the Tsangpo and Nyang Chu and some of the geographical features of Younghusband's planned route east to Lhasa including the pass at Karo-La and the large lake of Yamdok Tso both of which were explored in detail by Kishen Singh in 1880. The expedition and the more detailed surveys by Ryder and others that followed its success built on the achievements of the pundits giving Britain an unparalleled cartographic knowledge of the Tibetan interior. Heliozincograph printed on cloth 780 x 670 mm. Traces of couple of contemporary purple ink annotations. Clean and bright barring couple of minor stains old folds and creasing: very good. Peter Hopkirk Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Race for Lhasa 1983. hardcover