LHASA
CHAPTER I.
IN T E R N A L H I S T O R Y O F L H A S A I 9 0 2 - 4 .
B e f o r e taking up again the story of the Expedition I
propose to sketch the internal affairs of Lhasa for the
last few years with somewhat greater detail than before.
The key to the situation in Tibet, which was now
becoming desperate, is to be found in the deliberate and
steady determination of the Tibetans to do away with
the Chinese suzerainty. This is a policy of long standing.
Thirty-five years ago the spirit of independence
was already abroad in Tibet, and there was a recognised
progressive party, headed by no less a dignitary than
the treasurer of Gaden monastery. Under the old
régime, as is well known, a consistent policy of regency,
made possible only by the equally systematic assassination
of each successive young Grand Lama before he
reached the age of eighteen, resulted in a continual
regency, and therefore also a continual opportunity
for the assertion and re-assertion of the Chinese
suzerainty, for no regent could be appointed without
the sanction of the Chinese Emperor. The very election
of the Dalai Lama himself was theoretically subject to
the approval of Peking, but this prerogative was seldom,
or never, exercised. In other parts of his dominions
the Chinese Emperor made undoubted use of his rights.
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