The High Road to China

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 Teltsher deftly reconstructs the momentous meeting of these very different worlds

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · China · Emperor · Reincarnation · Theology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · History · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · biography · British · British Discovery and exploration · china · discovery and exploration · Dpal-ldan-ye-śes Panchen Lama III (1738?-1780) · foreign relations · George Bogle (1746-1781) · Great britain · India · New York Times reviewed · Panchen lamas · Tibet · tibet autonomous region · Travel · Voyages and travels