★★★★☆
On The High Road to China (Kate Teltscher)George Bogle, the Panchen Lama, and the First British Expedition to Tibet
It’s difficult finding a point of breach when writing response to a book like The High Road to China. For the past few years or so, one of the focuses of my reading can be described loosely as “the backcountries of China”, the sweeping region around the Himalayans, and ancient roads as conduits of cultural, religious, and economic transport and exchanges. The root for my interest lay partly in my trip to Yunnan over ten years ago with my friend, and partly in my curiosity in Tibetan Buddhism and their austere and spiritual-centered way of life in general.
The High Road, written primarily from the British perspective, carries a pervasive tone of nostalgia and sympathy. Though quite upfront in laying bare the internal workings and power struggles within the East India Company, the author paints a rosy picture of one of the central characters of the book, George Bogle, and hails the genuine friendship built between Bogle and the Third Panchen Lama, narrating their story with a care and heartache almost as if cradling a beautiful but fragile thin-shelled egg.
It might very well be Fate that this tenuous friendship ended on a sad note with the untimely death of both the Panchen Lama and George Bogle. According to the author, their death may have delayed the presence of British representation and business activities in China, a point I find unlikely.
Among other things, what I found especially revealing and interesting is the chapters on the Qianlong Emperor. Seen from the British point of view, Imperial China and its monarch are cast in a manner that Chinese readers might find slightly at odds. The description of the Emperor, though none of which first hand, is especially fascinating to me who has grown up watching television adaptations and reading historical fictions and more serious writings on the Qing imperial anecdotes. I am aware some of the notions and impressions about Qing monarchs and monarchs of other dynasties I have grown up knowing are deeply entrenched and shaped by cultural contexts, and even more so, political ones. This makes reading English sources on such subjects a refreshing experience. I couldn’t help but wonder if it weren’t for the yawning gap in ideologies between Imperial China and Britain, maybe some common grounds could be found, connections established, and exchanges in multiple realms realized. The British, being far superior in technology, both civil and military, was an ideal player to provide China with much needed machineries and technologies to boost its civil and defense aspects, and China in return, could export tea, porcelain and other much coveted goods to British merchants. But imperial China looked upon traders and trading itself with contempt and saw no need whatsoever to learn from a remote island. Well, such false and blinding pride and pompousness would prove fatal in a hundred years or so.
One other thing the High Road leaves me with is a more clear understanding of the complexity of the pan-Himalayan region in the cultural and political contexts. The present day clashes and conflicts have their roots deeply embedded in the past. Going out on a limb and just speaking from a gut sense, I wonder if the argument on territorial dispute involving Tibet really just comes down to picking a side, because I have a deep distrust in justifications from any side. Certainly at some point in history, Tibet, along with several other kingdoms in the Himalayan region, felt to me like puns in a “Game” played by more powerful players (which I suspect still rings true today).
Finally, the profession of the “gosain” is interesting. This could be a source of inspiration for some bigger project. Wandering monk cum trader cum envoy – the life journeys of gosains echo with the “romantic jini” in me.
