Finally, Young Hansband rounded up some high-ranking monks with whom to
negotiate, after a month of wrangling, he had achieved all his King and country had asked of him, he had inspired his troops to follow him through hundreds of miles of the most hostile
geography that British and Indian soldiers had ever encountered, he had pried open the doors of Tibet and
negotiated a trade settlement highly favorable to Britain. But Tibet would not bestow its real gift on Young Hansband until the moment of his departure.
"On the day before Young Hansband is due to leave Lhasa, having
gotten the treaty in his pocket, he goes off into the mountains on his pony, and he suddenly infused with this kind of cosmic joy, he's infused with this very strong mystical or spiritual experience."
"The exhilaration of the moment grew and grew until it thrilled me with overpowering
intensity. Never again could I think evil, or ever be at
enmity with any man, all nature and all humanity were bathed in a rosy glowing radiancy, that single hour on leaving Lhasa, was worth all of the rest of
lifetime, I was boiling over with love for the whole world."
That world, however, had already begun to
lament the despoiling of Lhasa.
There are no more
forbidden cities which men have not mapped and photographed, why could we not have left at least one city out of bounds ---- Candler ,the Daily Mail.
Even lord Cursion was shaken by the
taking of Lhasa, I am almost ashame to have destroyed the virginity of the bride to whom you aspired, he wrote to Swedish
explorer S.H. Almost immediately, London began to distance itself from Young Hansband's
invasion, soon, it would negate it entirely.
"What happened a couple of years later, is that a liberal government comes to power in London, and 3 years after that expedition, a new agreement is signed which
effectively takes away all the privileges and all the benefits that Young Hansband has gained through the Treaty of Lhasa. And so ,the great irony of Young Hansband's
invasion of Tibet is that from a political point of view it gains almost nothing for the British.
Far more than Tibet itself, Francis Young Husband would emerge for ever changed by his hollow victory and the tragedy he created there. Outwardly, he remained the good imperialist serving as
provincial governor, president of the Royal Geographical Society and coordinator of the first four expeditions to Mountain Everest. But he also became an
passionate advocate of Indian Self-rule, and founded his most
lasting legacy---the World Congress of Faiths, a group dedicated to bringing together people of all religions in a spirit of tolerance. Like many of his time, he would write
enthusiastically about spiritualism ,the occult and even extraterrestrials.
His ideas become
increasingly kooky, and you can actually get the sense from his diaries that he is going to official functions, and people are slightly thinking, you know what on earth has happened to Francis Young Husband.
His prolific writings ranged from
confident predictions of a new Messiah to tracks on the
sanctity of marriage, though his own marriage was an empty shell . As his daughter Alin would later say, he had an essential warm heartedness, but it always somehow missed the mark. But finally at age 76, and for the first time in his life, Francis Young Husband fell in love, his
passionate affair was the much younger M, a married mother of seven, brought back to him the happiness he'd lost in his childhood.
You know the Tibetans are very interestingly think that
ultimately they actually conquered the Young Hansband. Well ,you know he came and conquerd us , butchered us but in the end, you know he, who went back you know with the kind of converted and found his right part ,you know, for himself.
And this is a very much part of our kind of notion of Tibet, that it has this quality to heal,
transform, change and to highlight for people if he could just get there, the spiritual side of life.
The two men who marched to Lhasa did no favors to Tibet, but they revealed to the rest of the world a land which would become the
symbol of humanity's spiritual yearnings.
In July,1942, Sir Francis Edward Young Hansband died in the arms of his beloved M, his last request , a tombstone carved with the place of his terrible triumph and his strange redemption---- Lhasa , the
forbidden city,the heart of the once and future
forbidden land.
bestow vt.
To present as a gift or an honor; confer
赠与做为礼物或荣誉赠与;授予
overpowering adj.
So strong as to be overwhelming:
压倒性的,强烈的如此强烈以至于压倒一切
spiritualism n.
A philosophy, doctrine, or religion emphasizing the spiritual aspect of being.
唯心论一种强调存在的精神方面的哲学、学说或宗教
occult n.
Occult practices or techniques:
神秘学超自然的实践或技术
kooky adj.
Characteristic of a kook; strange or crazy.
怪僻的,疯狂的有怪人特点的;奇怪的或疯狂的
Messiah n.
A leader who is regarded as or professes to be a savior or liberator.
解救者被看作是或自称为救世主或解放者的领导人
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