Journeys to Empire is an account of two missions sent to Tibet from British India: that of George Bogle in 1774–75, and the military expedition led by Sir Francis Younghusband in 1903–4. Gordon T. Stewart examines the missions to derive lessons about changes in British attitudes toward the world and peoples of empire. In brief, he presents Bogle as a product of the Enlightenment, particularly the Scottish Enlightenment, while Younghusband looms as an aggressive imperialist bolstered by a strong evangelical Christian disdain for the Buddhist clerics dominating Tibet. But the portraits he draws are far more complex than this would suggest.
Early on, Stewart acknowledges the theoretical work of Edward Said, but almost immediately, he (correctly) modifies his comments with a caveat about the dogmatic rigidity that has built up around it. Still, Stewart sometimes seems inconsistent in viewing his subjects as representative of their particular places, times, and circumstances, but then conceding that they invariably exhibit the contradictions that must reside within all human beings. (The comment of Marguerite Yourcenar, in the voice of the Roman emperor Hadrian, is apt: J'ai souvent réfléchi à l'erreur que nous commettons quand nous supposons qu'un homme, une famille, participent nécessairment aux idées ou aux événements du siècle où ils se trouvent exister.)
Nevertheless, Stewart has produced an intriguing volume that benefits from his use of archival sources and, in particular, the personal papers of Bogle, Younghusband, and some of their contemporaries. The new and interesting information he has produced, especially about the life of George Bogle, his family background, business affairs, and domestic arrangements, contributes greatly to the utility and value of Journeys to Empire.
Bogle emerges from Stewart's study as an often open-minded Enlightenment thinker, one willing to see positive things in diverse cultures when traveling to Bhutan and Tibet, but also ready to countenance egregiously unequal gender and social relations in the domestic arrangements that he and his friends maintained in late eighteenth-century Bengal. The discussion of Bogle possibly having a Tibetan wife and of what we can know about relations between East India Company men and Indian women is engaging, though one does feel constrained to ask for greater detail on marital and gender relations in Bengali society of that era as a point of reference. Stewart also contrasts Bogle's unabashed exhilaration in Tibet and his liking for Tibetans with his use of deception and disingenuousness in his mission. With Younghusband, we see an imperial and evangelical Christian disdain for Tibetan Buddhism and its hierarchy of lamas that later gives way to an ecumenical embrace of mysticism. Again, these are human beings with whom we are dealing.
Though Stewart cites no Tibetan sources, he does mention the few such sources that are available on Bogle through references to Luciano Petech's work in ferreting them out. He also refers to a translation of the Sixth Panchen Lama's guide to Shambhala, as Bogle was the source of the Panchen Lama's information about the British in the Shambhala'i lam-yig. But there are also materials in Tibetan on the Younghusband expedition as well as a growing body of relevant research in Chinese, all unmentioned by Stewart. To be fair, however, he is telling a British story, not a Tibetan one.
In some areas, more prudence with regard to the language question would have been preferable. Stewart cites discussions between Bogle and the Panchen Lama wholly from Bogle's account. But to strictly interpret the Panchen Lama's intentions and thinking from Bogle's record of conversations held in a language that neither party spoke as a first language calls for at least a caveat. Caution is also warranted with regard to some of the comments on Younghusband, in particular his antipathy to the ruling lamas of Tibet. There is quite a bit more than just the rise of evangelical Christianity to explain his attitude. Certainly, the death of General Gordon in Khartoum helped build and sustain the image of violent religious fanatics on the imperial frontiers. And it would not be surprising to find that one of the many books on Tibet that Younghusband acquired from Calcutta might have been H. Savage Landor's popular In the Forbidden Land (1898), a ludicrous concoction purporting to recount the true story of its author's torture at the hands of savage Tibetans—including sadistic lamas. As for Younghusband's turn to the spiritual, one should not overlook the fact that British imperialist impulses already existed alongside Theosophy and spiritualism; within Christian circles, the spiritual element in rediscovered Tudor church music ultimately led to Vaughan Williams's famous Tallis Fantasia.
Stewart negatively contrasts Younghusband's insistence on proper British attire for all members of his mission, so as to impress Tibetans, with Bogle's willingness to don “local” clothing. But what sort of clothing would Stewart imagine that Younghusband should have worn? Within Tibetan society, clothing has been a significant indicator of rank and authority. A Tibetan minister who arrived in Beijing in 1792 noted that the poor state of his own wardrobe rendered him slightly ridiculous. Bogle, to judge from the extant painting of him in Bhutanese garb, was certainly not casual in his dress. Should Younghusband have shown up in Lhasa dressed as a Tibetan military commander?
In spite of these comments, this volume certainly offers readers a stimulating discussion of certain aspects of British society in India in its target period, as well as much in the way of important information gleaned from the personal papers of the main subjects. Stewart's book is a positive addition to the literature on Anglo-Tibetan relations and the history, circumstances, and contexts of the two missions that bookend the work.
