Lost in Tibet
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From the book
Flying 'the Hump'
First Americans in Lhasa
British Mission in Lhasa
Tibetan independence
Chinese invasion
The Dalai Lama
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Richard Starks
Miriam Murcutt
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Along The River
that Flows Uphill
Lost in
Tibet
by Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt
The Chinese Mission in Lhasa
After the fall of the Manchu dynasty in 1911 and Tibet's declaration of independence in 1913, the Chinese tried to re-establish their influence in Lhasa.
In 1934, they conspired to open a small office in the Tibetan capital after the 13th Dalai Lama died. The Chinese arrived on what was billed as a mission of condolence, but was really an excuse to grease the palms of the influential abbots at Lhasa's three main monasteries, and to pay a large bribe to the corrupt and opportunistic Regent, Reting Rinpoche, who was then nominally in charge of Tibetan affairs.
In 1940, a second Chinese delegation arrived - this one supposedly to observe the enthronement of the 14th, and current, Dalai Lama. A member of this delegation was Dr. Kung Chin-tsung (pictured below), who, when the other members of his party departed, simply stayed on.
At first, says Lost in Tibet, "Kung enjoyed a good relationship with the Tibetan government. He was given access to the highest levels; he had a place of honor at official banquets; and he was escorted wherever he went around town by an armed guard. But Kung soon make himself unpopular, and before long the Tibetan government was asking China to have him recalled."
At the time of the
arrival of the five American airmen - whose story is told in Lost
in Tibet - Kung was officially banned from
having any dealings with the
Tibetan government. That, however, did not hold him back."With his soft, smooth features and round, owlish glasses, Kung appeared gentle and benign. But beneath that exterior, he possessed a strong personality and the determination to get what he wanted," Lost in Tibet says.
What Kung wanted most was influence over the American airmen, and his attempts to gain it set up an inevitable confrontation with the Tibetan government. The five Americans were forced to take shelter at the British Mission in Lhasa, and then, for their own safety - and to avoid further conflict - to flee the country and try to return to their base in India.
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Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt
Lost in Tibet
"This story drew me in right from the beginning. It takes the culture and politics of pre-Chinese Tibet and mixes them with the true-life adventures of five young Americans." - Tamdin Wangdu, Tibetan exile now living in the United States and Coordinator of the Tibetan Village Project, a Colorado-registered Charity