“As if for a hidden treasure”: the 70th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s enthronement

Days after images of the White House meeting of the Dalai Lama and President Obama flashed across the world, a special anniversary was celebrated in London with a glimpse of where it all began for the exiled Tibetan leader known simply as ‘Kundun’, or ‘Presence’.

Seventy years prior to the White House meeting, on a cold February day in Lhasa, Tibet, five-year old Tenzin Gyatso was enthroned as the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama. The only foreigners to witness the enthronement – or indeed any enthronement of a Dalai Lama – were four British officials who were part of a government delegation to Lhasa.

Britain had a special relationship with Tibet before the Chinese took over in 1949-50 – with an influence that no other Western country enjoyed. Tibetan historian Professor Tsering Shakya says: “Tibet, for her part, wanted to cultivate good relations with Britain. It was the price for keeping the Chinese at bay: as British influence increased across the Himalayas, so Chinese prestige and influence faded.”

Last week, sons, daughters, great-nieces and other relatives of British who served in Tibet gathered together with Tibetans in a Parliament building opposite Big Ben to view rare footage of the Dalai Lama’s enthronement in February, 1940, 70 years ago to the day. They represent a lost era in Tibet’s history; during the 1930s and 1940s the British cultivated close political and social relations with members of the Tibetan elite and established a Mission in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. A small group of Tibetans and British ate and drank together, watched films, played football, both sharing a sense of humor and love of gossip. Their activities were documented, photographed, and even painted by the Indian artist Kanwal Krishna, who accompanied the British party to witness the installation of the 14th Dalai Lama in Lhasa.

The 13th Dalai Lama, a towering figure in Tibet’s history who had become the first Dalai Lama to actually rule Tibet since the ‘Great Fifth,’ had died suddenly in 1933, and a Regent was appointed by the Tibetan National Assembly for the interregnum. Basil John Gould, who was later knighted for his success in establishing the British Mission in Lhasa in 1936, wrote in an official report to the British government: “It was not known how much time would pass before the spirit which had left the human form of the late Dalai Lama would choose and enter its new human abode. A search was made – as if for a hidden treasure – for a child whose whereabouts would be indicated by divinations and whose identity would be revealed by the possession of certain bodily characteristics and of marvelous mental and spiritual powers. Hence all Tibetan local authorities were alerted to be on the lookout for the birth of any remarkable boy. Many signs indicated that the new Dalai Lama should be sought in the East and ‘Three Wise Men set out’ from Lhasa to seek for him there.”

Early in September 1939, it became known that a young boy had been found near Kumbum monastery in the Tibetan area of Amdo, present-day Qinghai. A month later, he was given an official and ceremonial welcome by the Regent, lay and ecclesiastical officials as well as representatives of the British and Chinese missions plus those of Nepal and Ladakh. The British government was represented by the distinguished Tibetologist Hugh Richardson, then head of the British Mission, whose great-niece joined the commemoration in London, and Reginald Fox, the Mission’s resident radio operator and the longest-serving Westerner in Tibet, whose daughter Pemma also attended.

Two days later, the child entered Lhasa where he was acclaimed as the 14th Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Kashag (cabinet) sent a telegram to the British Foreign Office with the news that the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama had been discovered. They concluded with the memorable words that the recognition was “without the shadow of a doubt”.

Before being enthroned, the Dalai Lama received his British guests at the summer palace. We watched shaky footage of his delight at the presentation of a gift of a small pedal car and a gold clock with a singing nightingale – presents that are still remembered with affection today by His Holiness. In another image screened at the anniversary, organized by the Office of Tibet in London, a solemn Dalai Lama, aged about five, clutches a small card with words from a passage of St John from the Bible, presented to him by a British official. The photograph was found in a garbage sack together with other mementoes in the house of the radio operator Henry Baker soon after his death.

On the first day of the enthronement 70 years ago, a mile-long convoy assembled to escort the Dalai Lama for his official entry into the Potala Palace. On February 22nd, the first day of ceremonies took place, and the pattern was repeated over the next eight days. One single session of blessings could last for five hours.

The British delegation – Sir Basil John Gould (known to his friends as BJ), the Lhasa Mission doctor Harry Staunton, Captain David G Thornburgh and Major John Gordon Innes Keyes – was invited to present congratulations and gifts on behalf of the British government on the second day. Led by Sir Basil, they followed the example of the Chief Abbot of Tashilhunpo monastery in prostrating themselves before the young Dalai Lama.

It was a cold February, just days after Tibetan New Year, but the atmosphere in the streets of Lhasa was one of joyful celebration. The young Dalai Lama made a deep impression on the British delegation. In London, Dick Gould read aloud his father’s words: “It was his presence. His infallible skill of doing the right thing at the right time. He was the only person among many hundreds who never fidgeted, never wavered.”

The issue of Tibet had begun to be elevated to one of international significance from the late 1880s onwards, due to competition between the British and Russian empires over influence in Inner Asia – known as the Great Game. The 1904 British invasion of Tibet had been a development that the Chinese could not ignore, and they sought to bring Tibet more firmly under their control. This finally led to the Chinese takeover in 1949-50. And nineteen years on from his enthronement on that cold February day, in March 1959, the Dalai Lama escaped into exile.

Dick Gould said: “It is a tragedy for the Tibetan people that this wise and intelligent leader, His Holiness, was not destined to lead his country through the 20th century and beyond. But Tibet’s loss has been the world’s gain. In a world torn by violence, he stands for peaceful solutions. Let us pray that his way may yet prevail.”

• For a collection of images by British photographers in Lhasa, see The Tibet Album, a collection of than 6000 photographs spanning 30 years of Tibet’s history, http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/.
• Also see the book Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital, 1936-1947 by Tsering Shakya and Clare Harris.

IMAGE: The Dalai Lama at his enthronement in February 1940, painted by Indian artist Kanwal Krishna.