In 1903, a British missionary force under the leadership of Colonel Francis Younghusband crossed over the border from India and invaded Tibet. Younghusband insisted on the presence of the Dalai Lama at meetings to give tribute to the British and their Empire. The Dalai Lama merely said he must withdraw. Unable to tolerate such an insolent attitude, Younghusband marched forward and inflicted considerable defeats on the Tibetans in several one-sided battles. This is an account of his actions. Uncovered Editions are historic official papers which have not previously been available in a popular form.

The British invasion of Tibet in 1904 is one of the strangest events in British imperial history. Planned by Lord Curzon as a strategic move in the Great Game, the incursion was in fact ill-conceived and inspired by only the weakest of motivations. Led by the soldier, explorer, and mystic Francis Younghusband, the mission—doomed from the very beginning—became caught in political cross-fire and the distant and destructive machinations of China and England and ended in ignominy and disappointment. Peter Fleming's Bayonets to Lhasa is a gripping depiction of this unusual chain of events, its charismatic protagonists, and the repercussions that continue to be felt throughout the region.

In August 1904 Sir Francis Younghusband's invasion force reached the forbidden city of Lhasa. The British invasion of Tibet in 1903 acted as a catalyst for change in a world transformed by revolution, war and the rise of a new order. Using unofficial government sources, private papers and the diaries and memoirs of those involved, this book examines the impact of Younghusband's invasion and its aftermath inside Tibet.

The work of explorers, surveyors and spies in the race to conquer Southern Asia is vividly recounted in this history of British imperial cartography. In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires were engaged in bitter rivalry for the acquisition of Southern Asian. Although India was the ultimate prize, most of the intrigue and action took place along its northern frontier in Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. Mapping the region and gaining knowledge of the enemy were crucial to the interests of both sides. The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India began in the 18th century with the aim of creating a detailed map of the subcontinent. Under the leadership of George Everest—whose name was later bestowed to the world’s tallest mountain—the it mapped the Great Arc running from the country’s southern tip to the Himalayas. Much of the work was done by Indian explorers known as Pundits. They were the first to reveal the mysteries of the forbidden city of Lhasa, and discover the true course of Tibet’s mighty Tsangpo River. These explorers performed essential information gathering for the British Empire and filled in large portions of the map of Asia. Their adventurous exploits are vividly recounted in Mapping the Great Game.

One of the last great imperial adventurers, Sir Francis Younghusband (1863–1942) was a British army officer whose explorations yielded major contributions to geographical research. In addition to charting a new route across the Gobi Desert, Younghusband was among the first Britons to enter the forbidden Tibetan city of Lhasa, where he headed a 1904 civil and military campaign. Younghusband's expedition forms a landmark in British exploration, the culmination of more than 140 years of attempts to establish good diplomatic terms with Tibet. This survey offers an in-depth examination of relations between India and Tibet from 1772 through 1910, the year Tibet was invaded by China. The account focuses particularly on Younghusband's firsthand observations on the 1904 mission and the treaty negotiations between Great Britain and Tibet.

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