Customer Reviews

The High Road to China: George Bogle, the Panchen Lama, and the First British Expedition to Tibet

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The author, Kate Teltscher, is a professor at the University of London. In The High Road To China, she weaves the personal story of George Bogle, a civil servant with the East India Compnay, with the politics of the time. It is a compelling personal story. You feel you know the characters of history. Yet, the book is exceptionally well-researched. (The bibliography runs several pages). If you get past the difficult to pronounce names and places, you will enjoy this book.

This book gives a close look at 18th century diplomacy and travel in India, China and Tibet. The reader also comes to understand the relations of China and Tibet at this time.

Bogle and the 3rd Panchen Lama appear to be exceptional. Both take big chances to learn about each other's culture. The descriptions of Bogle's travel, and later the Lama's are wonderful. They share so much in life and death.

The reader gets a glimpse of the office politics of trading companies which operated as mini-governments and how they enforced their taxing powers. Something is learned about the families of the principals and their expat lives.

The story occurs as the American colonies are threatening the mother country. The impact of this on the thinking of these Brits abroad is covered. Interestingly, as George Bogle is making his journey, Capt. Cook was also traveling and discovering in the Pacific Ocean. The 1770's were a really busy time for the British Empire.

A nice telling of the story of a likeable and tolerant representative of the British in India in the late 1700s as he seeks to establish first trade links with Tibet, in the remote north. The ultimate goal being an overland approach and entry to the closed capital of the Middle Kingdom.

Recommended especially for those with an interest in old Tibet; the commercial trading interests of the Raj; and/or, in need of background knowledge to the question of why present day China claims the right to exert political control over the still isolated high mountain area once ruled by Lamas.