Description

First published in 1876, this volume contains first-hand accounts of the first voyages to Tibet by British diplomat George Bogle (1747-1781) and scholar Thomas Manning (1772-1840) in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In 1774 Bogle was appointed the leader of the first British diplomatic mission to the previously unknown country of Tibet in an attempt to establish friendly relations and open trade links between the two countries. Bogle spent six months wintering in various places in Tibet, exploring Tibetan culture and politics. Thomas Manning became the first English national to enter the city of Lhasa and to speak with the Dalai Lama in 1811. Edited by prolific writer and president of the Royal Geographical Society Sir Clements Markham (1830-1916), this fascinating volume also includes a detailed introduction providing the historical and geographic context of the voyages, together with biographies of the two adventurers.