The High Road to China
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
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'Splendid and fascinating ... Teltscher has made remarkable use of her source material, aided by the constantly perceptive and witty tone of Bogle's own writings' - Patrick French, Sunday Times
'It is hard to imagine this fascinating story being told with greater sensitivity or skill' - Sunday Telegraph
'Teltscher is a remarkable new historian ... wholly original' - William Dalrymple
'Thrilling and fascinating ... Letters, journals and documents are woven into the flowing narrative, which is wonderfully vivid and evocative' - Jenny Uglow
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An unlikely meeting between a young Scotsman and the Panchen Lama gives birth to a remarkable friendship
In 1774 British traders longed to open relations with China so they sent a young Scotsman, George Bogle, as an envoy to Tibet. Bogle became smitten by what he saw there, and struck up a remarkable friendship with the Panchen Lama.
This gripping book tells the story of their two extraordinary journeys across some of the harshest and highest terrain in the world: Bogle's mission, and the Panchen Lama's state visit to China, on which British hopes were hung. Piecing together extracts from Bogle's private papers, Tibetan biographies of the Panchen Lama, the account of a wandering Hindu monk and the writings of the Emperor himself, Kate Teltscher deftly reconstructs the momentous meeting of these very different worlds.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1774 Warren Hastings, the head of the British East India Company in India, received a letter from the Panchen Lama, the revered head of the Tibetan government, and immediately saw a new and rich market and, more importantly, a possible "entrance for British goods into the immense Chinese market." And British writer Teltscher (India Inscribed) wonderfully tells the journey of Hastings's Scottish envoy, George Bogle, to Tibet to meet with the Lama, and the Lama's subsequent journey to China to meet with Emperor Qianlong. Mixing quotations from Bogle's journals with lively prose, she creates an academic yet dynamic account of two cultures meeting for the first time. While working to persuade the Lama to trade with the British, Bogle became captivated by Tibet, finding the simple mountain culture similar to his Highland life. In the Lama he finds a genuine friend with a hungry mind willing to discuss "world politics and geography, European science, technology and culture about stars and watches and crocodiles." While presenting a bittersweet tale of friendship between two strong yet completely different souls, Teltscher also manages to pull the veil back on the historical connection between Tibet and China that remains noteworthy to the present day. Illus. throughout.
