Marrin's Bookshop

Item Description

FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 9.5 x 6.25 inches. x + [iv] + 350 pp. Bound in original red cloth, gilt, in price clipped pictorial dust wrapper. A very good copy. Signed by author on title page. Illustrated by 16 page of black and white plates, by 5 line drawings in text and by 2 page map, The Road to Lhasa 1903-1904. An authoritative account of the British expedition to Tibet, 1903-14, led by Colonel Francis Younghusband (1862-1942). Ostensibly its purpose was to settle a border dispute with Sikkim, it became a military campaign, defeating the poorly equipped Tibetan army at Gyantze and eventually advancing to Lhasa. The eventual result of the negotiations that followed was an agreement between Britain and China, who held sovereignty over the Autonomous Region of Tibet was Britain would not seek to annex Tibetan territory or interfere in its administration while China would not allow any other power to do the same. By Charles Allen (1940-20200, freelance author and historian of British India.