The high road to China : George Bogle, the Panchen Lama and the first British expedition to Tibet

_______________ '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 _______________ 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. The High Road to China traces two extraordinary journeys across some of the harshest and highest terrain in the world: the first British expedition to Tibet and the Panchenn Lama's state visit to China to mark the Emperor's 70th birthday. In the late 18th century, with their empire expanding, the British sought a commercial opening to China, from which European traders were banned; and they saw a possible advocate in the Panchen Lama, the spiritual leader of the Buddhist people of Tibet. In the hope of gaining access to Peking, the British envoy, a young Scot named George Bogle, entered into negotiations with the Panchen Lama's envoy, a Hindu monk and trader, and then with the Incarnate himself. All the while, he kept a journal -- his prose by turns playful, self-deprecating, grandiose, and shrewd -- and this remarkable document enables Kate Teltscher to make the meeting of two worlds palpably real. The High Road to China brings the pleasures of narrative prose to bear on a remarkable moment in history, one whose effects are still being felt. - Jacket flap.