India and Tibet: A History of the Relations Which Have Subsisted Between the Two Countries from the Time of Warren Hastings to 1910; With a Particular Account of the Mission to Lhasa of 1904

The 1904 British expedition to Lhasa was either a triumph of diplomacy or an act of imperial aggression - depending on who was asking. Younghusband, who commanded the mission, gives his own account in this book, written in 1910 as China's armies prepared to invade Tibet. The narrative stretches back to 1774, tracing how Britain, starting under Warren Hastings, attempted for over a century to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the isolated Himalayan kingdom. We follow the failed missions, the cultural misunderstandings, the Tibetan preference for isolation, and the eventual decision to send troops. The 1904 expedition itself - its march through the mountains, the confrontation at Gyantse, the entry into Lhasa - is rendered in vivid detail by a man who was there. Younghusband also addresses the treaty's repudiation and its consequences. This is primary source history: partisan, personal, and invaluable for understanding how Britain lost Tibet and China reasserted control.