Younghusband Expedition (1903-1904): Britain's Invasion of Tibet

The Younghusband expedition was a British military invasion of Tibet launched from India in December 1903 and ending with the occupation of Lhasa in August 1904. Led by Colonel Francis Younghusband with a military escort under Brigadier General James Macdonald, it was intended to counter feared Russian influence and to force the Tibetan government to deal with British India. The expedition killed thousands of poorly armed Tibetans, imposed a treaty in the Potala Palace, and changed the international position of Tibet.

Background: Tibet and the Great Game

At the start of the 20th century Tibet was governed from Lhasa by the 13th Dalai Lama and his ministers, under a loose and weakening Chinese Qing suzerainty that dated back to the Qing expedition to Tibet in 1720. Tibet’s leaders kept foreigners out and refused to deal directly with British India.

Britain and Russia had long competed for influence in Central Asia, a rivalry often called the Great Game. Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India from 1899, became convinced that Russia was gaining a foothold in Lhasa. His suspicions focused on Agvan Dorzhiev, a Buryat Mongol monk from the Russian Empire who was a tutor and adviser to the Dalai Lama and had visited Tsar Nicholas II.

Tibet’s rejection of letters from Curzon and disputes over the Sikkim border and trade gave him a reason to act. In 1903 London approved a mission to negotiate at Khampa Dzong, just inside Tibet, but the Tibetans refused to talk there. Curzon then gained permission to advance further.

The advance into Tibet

In December 1903 the expedition crossed the Jelep La pass from Sikkim into the Chumbi Valley. The force was made up mostly of Indian soldiers, including Sikh Pioneers and Gurkha battalions, with British officers, mountain guns and Maxim machine guns. Several thousand soldiers were supported by many thousands of porters, mules and yaks, and they spent the winter at high altitude near Phari and Tuna.

Tibetan officials repeatedly asked the British to go back. Tibetan troops, many armed with swords, spears and old matchlock guns, built a stone wall across the road near the hamlet of Guru.

The conditions were harsh for both sides. The route ran at altitudes of more than 4,000 metres, where temperatures fell far below freezing, rifles and machine guns had to be kept from jamming in the cold, and many porters and animals died. The Tibetan government, for its part, had no modern army and relied on hastily raised levies led by aristocratic officials and supported by monks from the great monasteries.

Chumik Shenko

On 31 March 1904, at a place called Chumik Shenko near Guru, the British approached the wall and began to disarm the Tibetans, who had been ordered not to fire first. In the confusion a scuffle broke out and a shot was fired; accounts differ over who fired it. The British and Indian troops then opened fire at close range with rifles and Maxim guns.

Within a few minutes several hundred Tibetans were killed, most often estimated at 600 to 700, many of them shot as they walked slowly away. British losses were about a dozen wounded, among them the Daily Mail correspondent Edmund Candler. Some British officers were deeply troubled by what they had seen, and the event was widely reported as a massacre.

Gyantse and the road to Lhasa

The expedition went on to Gyantse, where it occupied a fortified house while the Tibetans held the large Gyantse Dzong (fortress) on a rocky hill nearby. Weeks of skirmishing and failed talks followed. On 6 July 1904 British and Indian troops stormed the dzong after artillery breached its walls.

The force then crossed the Karo La pass and reached Lhasa on 3 August 1904. The 13th Dalai Lama had already fled north to Mongolia, leaving the Ganden Tripa, the senior Gelug abbot Lobsang Gyaltsen, as regent.

The Anglo-Tibetan Convention

On 7 September 1904, in the Potala Palace, Younghusband and Tibetan representatives signed the Convention between Great Britain and Tibet, often called the Treaty of Lhasa. It recognised the Sikkim-Tibet border, opened trade marts at Gyantse, Gartok and Yatung, and barred Tibet from granting territory, railways, mines or other concessions to any foreign power without British consent.

Younghusband also set an indemnity of 7.5 million rupees, to be paid over 75 years, with British troops occupying the Chumbi Valley until it was paid. The British government thought these terms went too far, reducing the indemnity to 2.5 million rupees and the occupation to three years. The expedition left Lhasa later in September 1904, recrossing the high passes before the winter snows. In London, Younghusband was criticised for exceeding his instructions, although he was knighted soon afterwards.

Consequences

The invasion did not create the British-dominated Tibet Curzon had wanted. The Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1906 confirmed the Lhasa treaty but effectively recognised China’s claim to authority over Tibet, and in the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 Britain and Russia agreed not to interfere in Tibetan affairs.

China responded by asserting much tighter control, and Qing troops entered Lhasa in 1910, forcing the Dalai Lama to flee again, this time to British India. After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911-1912, Tibet expelled Chinese forces and functioned as a de facto independent state until the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1950.

Key people

• Francis Younghusband (1863-1942): a British army officer and explorer born in India, famous for crossing the Gobi Desert and the Mustagh Pass in 1887 and for meeting Russian officers in the Pamirs during the Great Game. After Lhasa he described a profound spiritual experience, and in 1936 he founded the World Congress of Faiths.
• James Macdonald (1862-1927): the engineer officer who commanded the military escort. More cautious than Younghusband, he often clashed with him over the pace of the advance.
• Lord Curzon (1859-1925): Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905 and the driving force behind the expedition, convinced that Russia threatened India through Tibet.
• Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama (1876-1933): the ruler of Tibet, who fled to Mongolia rather than negotiate with the British and later declared Tibet’s independence in 1913.
• Agvan Dorzhiev (1853-1938): the Buryat monk and adviser to the Dalai Lama whose links with St Petersburg fuelled British fears.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1903, July: a British mission reaches Khampa Dzong, but the Tibetans refuse to negotiate.
• 1903, December: the expedition crosses the Jelep La into the Chumbi Valley.
• 1904, 31 March: several hundred Tibetans are killed at Chumik Shenko near Guru.
• 1904, 6 July: British and Indian troops storm Gyantse Dzong.
• 1904, 3 August: the expedition enters Lhasa.
• 1904, 7 September: the Anglo-Tibetan Convention is signed in the Potala Palace.
• 1906, 27 April: the Anglo-Chinese Convention is signed in Peking.
• 1907, 31 August: the Anglo-Russian Convention is signed.

Why it matters

The Younghusband expedition was the last great adventure of the Great Game and one of the most one-sided colonial campaigns of the era. It broke Tibet’s isolation, yet by pushing Britain and Russia to step back it opened the way for stronger Chinese claims, a question that still shapes the politics of the region.