Bhutan - Lindsay Brown [20]
Ashley Eden
Minor British expeditions to Bhutan were made in 1810, 1812, 1815 and 1837, for the most part in order to settle border disputes and conflict over the duars. The Ashley Eden mission of 1863 attempted to resolve these issues. He advocated a punitive policy to teach the Bhutanese that they would not be allowed to ‘treat our power with contempt’.
John Claude White
There were no formal expeditions to Bhutan for more than 40 years after Eden’s, but the Survey of India sent several agents disguised as lamas and pilgrims to explore Bhutan and Tibet in 1883 and 1886.
By 1905 the Bhutanese and British were friends due to the assistance of the penlop of Trongsa, Ugyen Wangchuck, had provided the 1904 Younghusband expedition to Lhasa. White and his large party travelled into Haa and Paro, en route to the investiture ceremony in Punakha, and were guests of Ugyen Wangchuck at his new palace in Bumthang. The expedition returned with the first photographs of dzongs and the court of Bhutan.
In 1906 White made a reconnaissance through eastern Bhutan to southern Tibet. He made a third trip, in 1907, when he was invited as the British representative to the coronation of Ugyen Wangchuck as the first king of Bhutan. A summary of White’s account appeared in the April 1914 issue of the National Geographic, and made Bhutan known to the world for the first time.
Other British Political Officers
Between 1909 and 1947 the British sent numerous political officers to Bhutan and presented the king with decorations. In 1927 Lt Col FM Bailey attended the coronation of the second king and Lt Col JLR Weir travelled to Bumthang in 1931 to present the king with the insignia of Knight Commander of the Indian Empire.
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Despite reports of political chaos in Bhutan, Ashley Eden, the secretary of the government of Bengal, set out from Darjeeling in November 1864 to meet the desi, or deb raja. Ignoring numerous messages from the Bhutanese that the British mission was not welcome, Eden pushed on past Kalimpong, through Daling, Haa and Paro, reaching Punakha on 15 March.
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Political Missions to Bootan by Ashley Eden is a pompous Victorian account of the history of Bhutan. After reading a few pages, you’ll have some idea as to why Eden was treated so badly when he arrived in Punakha.
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It’s not clear whether it was more by accident or by design, but Eden’s party was jeered, pelted with rocks, made to wait long hours in the sun and subjected to other humiliations. Both Bhutanese and British pride suffered badly. As Eden describes it in Political Missions to Bootan:
The Penlow [penlop] took up a large piece of wet dough and began rubbing my face with it; he pulled my hair, and slapped me on the back, and generally conducted himself with great insolence.
Eden exacerbated the situation by sending the Lhengyal Shungtshog a copy of a draft treaty with terms that he had been instructed to negotiate. His actions implied that this was the final version of the treaty that the Bhutanese were to sign without any discussion. The Bhutanese took immediate exception to Eden’s high-handedness and soon presented him with an alternative treaty that returned all the duars to Bhutan. One clause in the treaty stated:
We have written about that the settlement is permanent; but who knows, perhaps this settlement is made with one word in the mouth and two in the heart. If, therefore, this settlement is false, the Dharma Raja’s demons will, after deciding who is true or false, take his life, and take out his liver and scatter it to the winds like ashes.
Reading this, it’s little wonder that Eden feared for the safety of his party. He signed the treaty, but under his signature added the English words ‘under compulsion’, which, naturally, the Bhutanese could not