The High Road to China

British author Kate Teltscher’s non-fiction book The High Road to China (2006) chronicles 18th-century Scottish diplomat George Bogle's efforts to establish diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Tibet, which at that time was a recently absorbed protectorate of China's Qing dynasty. The Guardian calls The High Road to China "unfailingly interesting and thorough."

Born in 1746, Bogle is the son of a very wealthy Glasgwegian merchant who amassed a huge fortune in the tobacco industry. Bogle's mother, meanwhile, is a direct descendant of King James I of England. While his older brothers pursue careers in the slave trade, owning plantations in Virginia and Grenada, Bogle seeks out more intellectual pursuits. At the young age of fourteen, Bogle attends Edinburgh University where he studies logic. Using his family connections, Bogle obtains a job as a writer with the British East India Company, a state-sponsored mercantile navy that operates trade routes between Great Britain and East Asia.

At the age of 24, Bogle is sent to Calcutta, India at the height of the 1770 Bengal Famine that would kill 10 million people in the region. His reputation as a lively and riotous companion endears him to his co-workers and superiors, including Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of the India region representing the East India Company. Hastings selects Bogle to be his personal secretary. While Hastings's work as Governor-General helps Great Britain extend its influence dramatically in India, his tenure is marked by allegations of widespread corruption, fraud, and in at least one case, extrajudicial murder of an Indian tax collector, crimes for which Hastings would later be impeached. In letters, Bogle reveals himself to be aware of the various corruption allegations but not terribly bothered by them. Instead, he seeks to make his fortune in the world any way he can.



Despite the East India Company's success in India, the company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to massive trade deficits with China. Strictly enforcing its maritime borders, China, under the Qing dynasty, demands massive sums from the East India Company in return for goods like tea, which is in high demand in Britain. Eager to establish an alternative trade route for goods in the region, Hastings dispatches Bogle on a diplomatic mission to Tibet, a partially autonomous region under the administrative control of China. Hastings hopes that by establishing diplomatic relations with Tibet, its rulers will allow British merchants to operate within its borders, bringing the East India Company one step closer to extending its influence in China.

With an army surgeon, a Tibetan agent and translator, and a retinue of servants, Bogle sets out in 1774 to traverse uncharted Himalayan territory in search of the Sixth Panchen Lama, a Tibetan spiritual and political leader whose power within the state is second only to the Dalai Lama. Despite being warned by both the Chinese government and the Panchen Lama himself not to enter Tibet, Bogle and Hastings take advantage of the state's political instability and the tense relationship between the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama's regent to win admittance.

While the trip over icy slopes is cold and perilous, and their lodgings consist of fragile tents—or, if they're lucky, literal pigsties—Bogle falls in love with the region. In one letter, Bogle characterizes life in the hills as "a fairy tale." He finds Tibet's inhabitants to be "honest and simple people" who know "no wants but those of nature." Bogle's written impressions of the Tibetan landscape and its people contribute to the Western myth of Shangri-La, a mystical and harmonious paradise located somewhere within Tibet's borders.



Finally, Bogle's team reaches the Panchen Lama at the Tashilhunpo Monastery in the city of Shigatse. According to Bogle's journals, the Panchen Lama is struck by Bogle's open-minded and large-hearted curiosity about Tibetan culture. The two strike a remarkably close relationship, and Bogle decides to stay at the monastery for six months, overwintering during the region's coldest time of year. Despite their burgeoning friendship, however, reaching a trade deal proves difficult. While the Panchen Lama is open to trading with Great Britain, his political position with respect to China is not strong enough for him to gainsay the Qing emperor and his clear hostility to opening China to the West. As a result, the Panchen Lama agrees only to allow Indian merchants working with the British to enter Tibet, but not the British themselves.

Although a comprehensive trade deal allowing the British access to China is unmet, Bogle's mission is regarded as a success by his superiors for establishing long-lasting diplomatic relations with Tibet. Reportedly a portrait of Bogle in Tibetan gowns meeting the Panchen Lama is presented to King George III directly by Hastings. Upon his return to India, Bogle establishes a Buddhist temple in India on the Ganges River, fulfilling the Panchen Lama's parting request. While the Panchen Lama would continue to work with China to open itself up to British traders, Bogle abandons those efforts, instead, taking a lucrative job as a tax collector in India. Any hopes of an imminent Tibetan trade deal are effectively quashed in 1780 when both Bogle and the Panchen Lama die—the former likely from cholera at the age of 34 and the latter from smallpox around the age of 42.

The High Road to China is a fascinating look at a little-known chapter of British and Tibetan history.