1 00:00:14,014 --> 00:00:19,042 It was a forbidden place, and thus irresistible. 2 00:00:22,288 --> 00:00:27,021 A timeless land in the sky, an other worldly people, 3 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:31,096 and no use for the wheel but as a spinner of prayers. 4 00:00:34,267 --> 00:00:35,461 And so they came, 5 00:00:35,602 --> 00:00:40,904 Westerners intent on exploring Tibet and its elusive capital Lhasa. 6 00:00:41,875 --> 00:00:44,173 Few survived the trials of fire, 7 00:00:44,310 --> 00:00:49,407 ice and violence that awaited them on Tibet's natural ramparts. 8 00:00:50,450 --> 00:00:54,011 Where so many others had failed, two would succeed. 9 00:00:54,154 --> 00:00:56,145 One prevailed through stealth, 10 00:00:56,289 --> 00:01:01,022 a spy whose feats of espionage still rank among the greatest in the world, 11 00:01:01,161 --> 00:01:03,425 but have almost been forgotten. 12 00:01:05,532 --> 00:01:09,969 The other prevailed through force, leaving a trail of blood and tears 13 00:01:10,103 --> 00:01:14,472 that would shock the world and utterly transform the victor. 14 00:01:15,041 --> 00:01:17,168 These are the tales of their epic journeys 15 00:01:17,310 --> 00:01:22,475 in the fantastic and deadly race for Tibet. 16 00:02:04,757 --> 00:02:07,885 Winter, 1865. 17 00:02:11,264 --> 00:02:15,701 An over burdened caravan descends from the snowy passes of the Himalayas 18 00:02:15,835 --> 00:02:17,962 into the forbidden land. 19 00:02:20,907 --> 00:02:22,875 Few tread lightly here. 20 00:02:23,009 --> 00:02:26,604 Most foreigners are turned back or killed. 21 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:32,013 But these hearty merchants carry coveted goods from neighboring lands. 22 00:02:35,688 --> 00:02:39,351 The caravan has picked up a pious hitchhiker of sorts, 23 00:02:39,492 --> 00:02:42,188 a lone holy man on a pilgrimage. 24 00:02:42,328 --> 00:02:46,697 The only other kind of incursion that Tibetans welcome. 25 00:02:49,802 --> 00:02:54,603 But strangely, the Buddhist's strides are all exactly the same length. 26 00:02:56,376 --> 00:02:59,345 His rosary is missing several beads, 27 00:03:00,313 --> 00:03:03,771 and his prayer wheel contains no prayers. 28 00:03:04,951 --> 00:03:08,011 He is a spy, not a monk. 29 00:03:08,788 --> 00:03:11,484 If discovered, he will die. 30 00:03:13,326 --> 00:03:17,786 The roots of Nain Singh's secret journey run as deep and old as 31 00:03:17,931 --> 00:03:24,063 the world's obsession with the magical kingdom on the rooftop of the world. 32 00:03:29,976 --> 00:03:31,238 At the heart of Asia, 33 00:03:31,377 --> 00:03:35,108 thrust some three miles in the air by a clash of continents, 34 00:03:35,248 --> 00:03:40,208 Tibet is an astounding natural fortress the size of Western Europe. 35 00:03:41,621 --> 00:03:45,751 For hundreds of years, Tibetans saw no need to bar foreigners. 36 00:03:45,892 --> 00:03:47,826 Only a handful survived the trek 37 00:03:47,961 --> 00:03:50,862 through the surrounding mountains and deserts. 38 00:03:54,801 --> 00:03:59,238 And these proved no threat to their cherished Buddhist theocracy. 39 00:03:59,372 --> 00:04:03,809 Here every fourth person was a monk or a nun. 40 00:04:05,845 --> 00:04:07,312 But by the 1800s, 41 00:04:07,447 --> 00:04:11,816 Tibet began to feel the pressure of two new powers in Asia. 42 00:04:12,318 --> 00:04:15,719 Britain, effectively in control of India since 1833, 43 00:04:15,855 --> 00:04:20,724 had been steadily expanding its influence northward into the Himalayas. 44 00:04:21,194 --> 00:04:24,652 Russia, meanwhile, was swallowing up territory in Central Asia 45 00:04:24,797 --> 00:04:27,857 as it pushed its empire eastwards. 46 00:04:28,368 --> 00:04:30,734 Tibet knew little about the outsiders, 47 00:04:30,870 --> 00:04:34,636 except that both powers were Christian, not Buddhist. 48 00:04:34,774 --> 00:04:39,871 Fearing for their way of life, the land of monks closed its borders. 49 00:04:40,013 --> 00:04:42,811 Paradoxically, it was the closing of Tibet 50 00:04:42,949 --> 00:04:47,079 that ensured the West would have to pry it open again. 51 00:04:47,887 --> 00:04:50,378 And this was during the era of exploration 52 00:04:50,523 --> 00:04:53,890 where people wanted to get to Antarctica, the North Pole, 53 00:04:54,027 --> 00:04:58,157 they wanted to go up the Nile, and so Lhasa became a real, 54 00:04:58,298 --> 00:05:00,892 as we might say today, a real destination. 55 00:05:01,034 --> 00:05:02,194 But nobody could get there. 56 00:05:02,335 --> 00:05:06,271 You had the last European in Lhasa in 1811. 57 00:05:06,406 --> 00:05:07,668 And then you suddenly have a gap 58 00:05:07,807 --> 00:05:10,435 Right up until the very end of the 19th century 59 00:05:10,576 --> 00:05:14,444 where you get no foreigners or no Europeans mentioned going to Tibet. 60 00:05:14,580 --> 00:05:16,775 And this creates this great kind of mystery of Tibet, 61 00:05:16,916 --> 00:05:19,908 and the idea that somehow people had to break through 62 00:05:20,053 --> 00:05:23,386 and sort of reach the Forbidden City of Lhasa. 63 00:05:24,891 --> 00:05:27,655 In India, paranoia, much as curiosity, 64 00:05:27,794 --> 00:05:30,661 drove the need to get into neighboring Tibet. 65 00:05:36,736 --> 00:05:39,136 It was the era of the "Great Game", 66 00:05:39,272 --> 00:05:42,935 a cold war between Russia and Britain for the domination 67 00:05:43,076 --> 00:05:44,771 of Central Asia. 68 00:05:47,714 --> 00:05:48,646 The British feared that 69 00:05:48,781 --> 00:05:51,375 if the Russians were to gain a foothold in Tibet, 70 00:05:51,517 --> 00:05:54,748 they might use it as a base for invading India. 71 00:05:55,521 --> 00:05:58,046 The forbidden land became the center square 72 00:05:58,191 --> 00:06:00,955 on the chessboard of the "Great Game" 73 00:06:01,094 --> 00:06:05,463 one that needed to be explored and mapped at all costs. 74 00:06:08,968 --> 00:06:12,495 The Russians were coming, and this created a great deal of anxiety. 75 00:06:12,638 --> 00:06:15,402 The problem was that Tibet was basically closed. 76 00:06:15,541 --> 00:06:18,510 So that left the Brits with a problem 77 00:06:18,644 --> 00:06:22,546 how do you map Tibet if you can't get in to have a look? 78 00:06:23,616 --> 00:06:26,016 It was a young officer in the Royal Engineers 79 00:06:26,152 --> 00:06:29,849 who hit upon Britain's best hope in the race for Tibet. 80 00:06:29,989 --> 00:06:32,583 Thomas George Montgomerie had spent years 81 00:06:32,725 --> 00:06:36,593 overseeing natives in the great trigonometrical survey of India, 82 00:06:36,729 --> 00:06:37,991 a massive British effort 83 00:06:38,131 --> 00:06:42,363 to create an accurate map of the entire Indian subcontinent. 84 00:06:43,336 --> 00:06:46,828 He'd also noted that Indians often passed freely into Tibet 85 00:06:46,973 --> 00:06:49,237 where no white man would be allowed. 86 00:06:50,143 --> 00:06:54,773 Perhaps an Indian spy, trained in the arts of espionage and surveying, 87 00:06:54,914 --> 00:06:59,544 might penetrate Tibet, disguised as a trader or holy man. 88 00:07:08,461 --> 00:07:10,986 Captain Montgomerie, in typical colonial fashion, 89 00:07:11,130 --> 00:07:14,395 had some doubts whether a native of sufficient intelligence and raw 90 00:07:14,534 --> 00:07:16,092 nerve might be found, 91 00:07:16,235 --> 00:07:19,295 but obtained permission to give his plan a try. 92 00:07:21,274 --> 00:07:25,335 Thus began the unlikely career of one of the most successful spies 93 00:07:25,478 --> 00:07:27,412 in the history of espionage. 94 00:07:28,481 --> 00:07:31,245 Nain Singh, then a 33 year old school teacher, 95 00:07:31,384 --> 00:07:34,217 had grown up in the shadows of the Himalayas. 96 00:07:34,754 --> 00:07:38,952 His family had traded in Tibet and he could read and write Tibetan. 97 00:07:39,659 --> 00:07:43,220 He quickly accepted the assignment, despite its dangers. 98 00:07:45,264 --> 00:07:47,926 Nain Singh was just one of those people. 99 00:07:48,067 --> 00:07:50,535 You know, they are individuals who are great achievers. 100 00:07:50,670 --> 00:07:55,073 There was this man living in a very remote village. 101 00:07:55,208 --> 00:07:57,608 I mean, what kind of opportunities 102 00:07:57,743 --> 00:08:02,874 did he have to really accomplish something really great? 103 00:08:05,351 --> 00:08:08,843 In 1863, the young schoolteacher reported for duty 104 00:08:08,988 --> 00:08:12,185 at the survey of India's headquarters in Dehra Dun. 105 00:08:13,392 --> 00:08:16,361 There, he would undergo two years of intensive training 106 00:08:16,496 --> 00:08:18,589 in the arts of surveying. 107 00:08:20,166 --> 00:08:22,760 He learned the use of the sextant and the compass, 108 00:08:22,902 --> 00:08:26,235 and to locate his position using the stars. 109 00:08:28,374 --> 00:08:30,001 Through endless repetition, 110 00:08:30,142 --> 00:08:34,044 the novice spy learned to walk at an exactly measured pace 111 00:08:34,180 --> 00:08:37,013 31 and a half inches a stride. 112 00:08:37,149 --> 00:08:40,346 Or 2,000 paces to the mile. 113 00:08:41,387 --> 00:08:44,447 He would keep track of those paces on a rosary. 114 00:08:44,590 --> 00:08:49,550 The Buddhist rosary contains 108 beads, a holy number. 115 00:08:49,695 --> 00:08:53,756 Nain Singh's rosary would have only 100 to more easily 116 00:08:53,900 --> 00:08:56,164 keep track of the strides. 117 00:09:01,340 --> 00:09:03,501 Montgomerie had dubbed him the Pundit, 118 00:09:03,643 --> 00:09:07,670 Hindi for the "wise one" and sent him on his way. 119 00:09:08,648 --> 00:09:11,913 His daunting task, to find his way to Lhasa, 120 00:09:12,051 --> 00:09:13,575 the Forbidden City, 121 00:09:13,719 --> 00:09:18,247 to chart his course counting every stride along the way 122 00:09:18,391 --> 00:09:22,760 and to spy on the political, religious and economic life of Lhasa 123 00:09:22,895 --> 00:09:25,193 for as long as possible. 124 00:09:28,868 --> 00:09:31,200 Nain Singh knew what fate awaited him 125 00:09:31,337 --> 00:09:35,637 if he were caught an almost certain death. 126 00:09:55,461 --> 00:10:00,160 It would take Nain Singh eight frustrating months to cross into Tibet. 127 00:10:01,634 --> 00:10:04,467 At first, the Pundit had tried to enter through Nepal 128 00:10:04,604 --> 00:10:06,504 disguised as a horse trader, 129 00:10:06,639 --> 00:10:10,075 but suspicious border guards turned him away. 130 00:10:11,844 --> 00:10:15,712 He managed to slip by those same border guards a few weeks later, 131 00:10:15,848 --> 00:10:18,373 disguised as a holy man. 132 00:10:19,285 --> 00:10:22,914 He had already acquired an escort, the first of several caravans 133 00:10:23,055 --> 00:10:26,388 that would offer him protection on the dangerous journey. 134 00:10:27,426 --> 00:10:32,386 In the outlying areas of Tibet, bandits far outnumbered monks. 135 00:10:48,014 --> 00:10:51,848 Singh seem to be quite the favorite with these caravans, 136 00:10:51,984 --> 00:10:53,383 some of whom would vouch for him 137 00:10:53,519 --> 00:10:56,352 when Tibetans they encountered grew curious. 138 00:10:57,990 --> 00:11:01,050 But sometimes the Pundit had to travel alone. 139 00:11:03,763 --> 00:11:06,960 Once, when his companions had the chance to travel by river, 140 00:11:07,099 --> 00:11:10,830 he had to make his excuses to continue on foot. 141 00:11:11,404 --> 00:11:15,534 Without his measured pace, his survey would have gone awry. 142 00:11:21,414 --> 00:11:26,408 With numb feet, he strode his perfect 31 and a half inch stride. 143 00:11:26,552 --> 00:11:31,012 With numb fingers, he counted those strides on his rosary. 144 00:11:32,258 --> 00:11:35,694 He kept his surveying notes where no one would think to look 145 00:11:35,828 --> 00:11:38,820 in a cleverly modified prayer wheel. 146 00:11:39,398 --> 00:11:43,596 Usually the wheel contains a scroll with a holy incantation on it. 147 00:11:43,736 --> 00:11:48,105 Each turn sends the Buddhist prayer whirling heavenward. 148 00:11:58,884 --> 00:12:00,852 While his companions slept, 149 00:12:00,986 --> 00:12:04,786 the Pundit would slip a thermometer into the camp pots. 150 00:12:06,792 --> 00:12:10,159 The boiling point of water would tell him his altitude, 151 00:12:10,296 --> 00:12:12,628 a vital part of the survey. 152 00:12:35,921 --> 00:12:40,153 Five months into the journey, the Pundit was beginning to worry. 153 00:12:42,561 --> 00:12:45,587 The caravan was approaching the town of Shigatse, 154 00:12:45,731 --> 00:12:48,495 where they planned to stay several months. 155 00:12:50,503 --> 00:12:53,370 The Forbidden City was still a long way off, 156 00:12:53,506 --> 00:12:56,805 and Nain Singh's funds were almost exhausted. 157 00:12:57,376 --> 00:13:00,504 Once in Shigatse, the resourceful Pundit managed to support himself 158 00:13:00,646 --> 00:13:03,342 by teaching accounting to merchants. 159 00:13:04,784 --> 00:13:07,878 But he also received a most unwelcome invitation 160 00:13:08,020 --> 00:13:10,614 to the great Tashilhunpo monastery, 161 00:13:10,756 --> 00:13:13,748 home to some 3,000 Buddhist priests. 162 00:13:17,296 --> 00:13:20,288 To refuse would be to arouse suspicion. 163 00:13:21,801 --> 00:13:24,361 But could a Hindu pretender remain undetected 164 00:13:24,503 --> 00:13:27,233 among so many true Buddhists? 165 00:13:27,907 --> 00:13:32,003 Even worse, he would have an audience with the monastery's leader, 166 00:13:32,144 --> 00:13:34,237 the Panchen Lama. 167 00:13:36,715 --> 00:13:39,240 Second only to the Dalai Lama in power, 168 00:13:39,385 --> 00:13:44,118 the Panchen Lama was reputed to be able to see into the hearts of all men. 169 00:13:44,690 --> 00:13:48,148 Nain Singh would have to offer the Lama a gift of silk, 170 00:13:48,294 --> 00:13:52,253 then respond to any three questions the Lama asked. 171 00:13:53,065 --> 00:13:57,297 "Is your king well? Does your country prosper? 172 00:13:57,436 --> 00:13:59,904 Are you in good health?" 173 00:14:01,373 --> 00:14:04,467 With amazed relief, the Pundit realized that 174 00:14:04,610 --> 00:14:07,670 the Panchen Lama was an 11 year old boy, 175 00:14:07,813 --> 00:14:12,307 who seemed to have no interest in peering into the heart of a spy. 176 00:14:13,152 --> 00:14:16,383 But it was a close call. 177 00:14:16,522 --> 00:14:22,154 How long could a pretender in a land of monks escape detection? 178 00:14:27,166 --> 00:14:32,069 In December the caravan moved on with their Buddhist holy man in tow, 179 00:14:32,204 --> 00:14:36,504 the mind numbing rhythm of the Pundit's walking survey resumed. 180 00:14:36,642 --> 00:14:39,702 Tedium, punctuated by fear. 181 00:14:40,646 --> 00:14:43,410 Anyone who's walked in Tibet, trekked, hiked, 182 00:14:43,549 --> 00:14:47,076 tried to get around Tibet on foot knows that it is exhausting. 183 00:14:47,219 --> 00:14:49,153 I mean, the altitudes are extremely high. 184 00:14:49,288 --> 00:14:52,655 You go up passes 16, sometimes 17,000 feet 185 00:14:52,791 --> 00:14:56,989 where you're just barely able to put one foot in front of the other. 186 00:14:57,129 --> 00:14:58,221 The oxygen is thin. 187 00:14:58,364 --> 00:14:59,922 You have a terrible splitting headache. 188 00:15:00,065 --> 00:15:02,056 I mean, there was no roads, there were no wheels. 189 00:15:02,201 --> 00:15:03,964 There was no nothing. 190 00:15:04,470 --> 00:15:08,804 Above all, it was risky because you might be discovered. 191 00:15:13,746 --> 00:15:19,116 Several times the nightmare of all caravans in these badlands occurred. 192 00:15:19,652 --> 00:15:22,177 A violent attack by bandits. 193 00:15:25,124 --> 00:15:28,252 Once the Pundit was forced to escape by horseback 194 00:15:28,394 --> 00:15:30,589 a desperate maneuver that would foil his plans 195 00:15:30,729 --> 00:15:33,926 to walk off every yard to Lhasa. 196 00:15:34,500 --> 00:15:38,698 He vowed to make it up by pacing the journey on his return trip. 197 00:15:45,411 --> 00:15:48,642 January 10th, 1866. 198 00:15:48,781 --> 00:15:52,046 Exactly one year since he set out from India, 199 00:15:52,184 --> 00:15:56,018 the fabled city of Lhasa lay before the Pundit. 200 00:15:56,588 --> 00:15:59,853 He had counted over a million strides to get here. 201 00:15:59,992 --> 00:16:02,722 But now the most crucial and dangerous phase 202 00:16:02,861 --> 00:16:06,558 of his cloak and dagger existence had just begun. 203 00:16:07,199 --> 00:16:10,168 He would be living on borrowed time. 204 00:16:21,113 --> 00:16:25,072 We arrived this day at Lhasa and, soon after my arrival, 205 00:16:25,217 --> 00:16:31,520 engaged two rooms: One was well adapted for taking star observations. 206 00:16:34,593 --> 00:16:36,823 After fixing the position of Lhasa, 207 00:16:36,962 --> 00:16:40,363 Singh set about fulfilling the rest of his mission 208 00:16:40,499 --> 00:16:43,730 to gather as much intelligence on the political, economic 209 00:16:43,869 --> 00:16:48,033 and religious life of the Forbidden City as possible. 210 00:16:54,279 --> 00:16:58,010 Singh's rooms situated just 20 yards from the Jokang, 211 00:16:58,150 --> 00:17:02,678 the holy central square of the city, were perfect for the task. 212 00:17:06,458 --> 00:17:10,326 In the center of the city stands a very large temple. 213 00:17:10,462 --> 00:17:15,661 The idols within it are richly inlaid with gold and precious stones. 214 00:17:15,801 --> 00:17:19,862 This temple is surrounded by bazaars and shops. 215 00:17:20,005 --> 00:17:23,031 On a low hill, there is a large and strong fort, 216 00:17:23,175 --> 00:17:27,703 called the "Potala" which is the residence of the Lama Guru. 217 00:17:27,846 --> 00:17:31,009 The Lama Guru is the chief of all Tibet, 218 00:17:31,150 --> 00:17:34,847 but he does not interfere with state business. 219 00:17:34,987 --> 00:17:39,947 He is looked upon as a guardian divinity, and is supposed to never die, 220 00:17:40,092 --> 00:17:44,222 but transmigrates into anybody he pleases. 221 00:17:44,763 --> 00:17:50,702 I observed there is but little order and justice to be seen in Lhasa. 222 00:17:54,773 --> 00:17:55,899 In the Forbidden City, 223 00:17:56,041 --> 00:17:59,477 the Pundit's position was more precarious than ever. 224 00:17:59,611 --> 00:18:03,308 The threat of discovery a constant dread. 225 00:18:06,351 --> 00:18:10,219 Once, a chance encounter with merchants from his professed homeland, 226 00:18:10,355 --> 00:18:12,414 exposed his deceit. 227 00:18:12,558 --> 00:18:16,790 Somehow, he managed to convince them not to turn him in. 228 00:18:21,900 --> 00:18:23,458 Not long after his arrival, 229 00:18:23,602 --> 00:18:28,596 Nain Singh would once again receive an invitation he could not refuse. 230 00:18:29,174 --> 00:18:34,111 This time, an audience with the Dalai Lama himself in the great Potala. 231 00:18:39,485 --> 00:18:43,819 And once again, the Pundit would find himself before a living god 232 00:18:43,956 --> 00:18:47,016 who could peer into the hearts of men, it was said 233 00:18:49,761 --> 00:18:54,755 only to find himself gazing into the eyes of a child of 13. 234 00:19:03,375 --> 00:19:06,401 But his luck could not hold forever. 235 00:19:06,545 --> 00:19:11,380 And the price of discovery was about to become terrifyingly clear. 236 00:19:11,950 --> 00:19:14,510 One night on the street, Singh witnessed firsthand 237 00:19:14,653 --> 00:19:17,952 what happened to foreigners unwelcome in Lhasa. 238 00:19:18,090 --> 00:19:18,920 In this case, 239 00:19:19,057 --> 00:19:23,357 a Chinese man who did not have permission to be in the capital. 240 00:19:24,129 --> 00:19:26,859 He was brought out before the whole of the people 241 00:19:26,999 --> 00:19:30,935 and beheaded with very little hesitation. 242 00:19:33,405 --> 00:19:34,736 Owing to my alarm, 243 00:19:34,873 --> 00:19:40,106 I changed my residence and seldom appeared in public again. 244 00:19:43,215 --> 00:19:46,343 When Singh heard that the caravan that had conveyed him to Lhasa 245 00:19:46,485 --> 00:19:48,510 was ready to head back out of Tibet, 246 00:19:48,654 --> 00:19:53,182 he knew it was time to begin the 500 mile walk home. 247 00:20:06,738 --> 00:20:09,434 October 1866. 248 00:20:09,575 --> 00:20:14,274 An exhausted Nain Singh crosses the Himalayas once again 249 00:20:16,048 --> 00:20:18,209 and descends from the Rooftop of the World 250 00:20:18,350 --> 00:20:22,411 into his homeland in the foothills of northern India. 251 00:20:24,923 --> 00:20:27,357 He has been gone almost a year and a half. 252 00:20:27,492 --> 00:20:31,792 He has walked two and a half million paces on his 1,200 mile trek, 253 00:20:31,930 --> 00:20:35,195 counting virtually every step of the way. 254 00:20:35,867 --> 00:20:37,164 He has lived undetected 255 00:20:37,302 --> 00:20:40,430 in the Forbidden City of Lhasa for three months. 256 00:20:40,572 --> 00:20:43,439 He has returned to the Survey of India in Dehra Dun 257 00:20:43,575 --> 00:20:46,908 with a treasure beyond the wildest imaginings of his mentor, 258 00:20:47,045 --> 00:20:49,036 Captain Montgomerie. 259 00:20:50,349 --> 00:20:53,284 By these really in a way quite primitive techniques, 260 00:20:53,418 --> 00:20:58,321 they were able to map the whole of sort of southwestern Tibet. 261 00:20:58,457 --> 00:21:00,652 What is interesting is that the Survey of India maps, 262 00:21:00,792 --> 00:21:01,816 which are around today, 263 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:03,894 are still based on quite a lot of information 264 00:21:04,029 --> 00:21:06,725 which were obtained by the Pundit. 265 00:21:06,865 --> 00:21:10,858 Until Nain Singh went to Lhasa, 266 00:21:11,003 --> 00:21:15,235 the western world had no idea, really what was where in Tibet. 267 00:21:15,374 --> 00:21:18,775 It didn't really even know where Lhasa was... they knew it was up there. 268 00:21:19,311 --> 00:21:20,209 Years later, 269 00:21:20,345 --> 00:21:24,441 it would be confirmed that Nain Singh had calculated the position of Lhasa 270 00:21:24,583 --> 00:21:29,577 correct to within half a degree of latitude a remarkable feat. 271 00:21:30,656 --> 00:21:34,615 Montgomerie, while keeping the identity of his super spy to himself, 272 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:36,990 detailed Nain Singh's amazing journey 273 00:21:37,129 --> 00:21:40,860 to the president of the Royal Geographical Society. 274 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,296 I'm quite sure he would make a good impression anywhere. 275 00:21:44,436 --> 00:21:47,030 And I can quite understand his being an immense favorite 276 00:21:47,172 --> 00:21:50,630 with the Ladhakis who conveyed him into the sacred city. 277 00:21:50,776 --> 00:21:53,176 The Pundit, I think, deserves all praise. 278 00:21:53,312 --> 00:21:56,247 His work has stood every test, capitally. 279 00:21:56,381 --> 00:21:58,906 Captain George Montgomerie. 280 00:21:59,785 --> 00:22:03,585 Nain Singh would go on to make two more secret journeys into Tibet. 281 00:22:03,722 --> 00:22:06,816 He then helped Montgomerie recruit and train other Pundits 282 00:22:06,958 --> 00:22:08,926 who continued filling in the blank spaces 283 00:22:09,061 --> 00:22:11,359 on the map of the forbidden land. 284 00:22:11,496 --> 00:22:13,430 Some never came back. 285 00:22:13,565 --> 00:22:17,797 Others, like Nain Singh himself, would never be the same. 286 00:22:20,072 --> 00:22:24,736 Nain Singh paid a very heavy cost in terms of his health. 287 00:22:24,876 --> 00:22:27,436 He was totally worn out. 288 00:22:27,579 --> 00:22:29,672 His eyesight had also been affected. 289 00:22:29,815 --> 00:22:31,646 I mean, there was no way to protect himself 290 00:22:31,783 --> 00:22:33,910 for snow blindness and the glare. 291 00:22:34,052 --> 00:22:35,110 He just had to retire. 292 00:22:35,253 --> 00:22:38,780 He couldn't undertake any more journeys. 293 00:22:40,392 --> 00:22:42,053 For his extraordinary work, 294 00:22:42,194 --> 00:22:46,824 Singh was quietly awarded a gold medal from the Royal Geographic Society 295 00:22:46,965 --> 00:22:49,195 and a small pension. 296 00:22:52,604 --> 00:22:55,164 He was the first native to be recognized 297 00:22:55,307 --> 00:22:59,744 by the Royal Geographical Society as having accomplished something 298 00:22:59,878 --> 00:23:03,575 that was the equivalent of any of the greatest explorers of the West. 299 00:23:03,715 --> 00:23:06,684 So in a certain sense, that was a real breakthrough. 300 00:23:08,954 --> 00:23:12,014 The Pundits suffered the same fate as so many spies, 301 00:23:12,157 --> 00:23:15,786 which is they don't really get much recognition for what they do; 302 00:23:15,927 --> 00:23:18,054 everything is shrouded in secrecy. 303 00:23:18,196 --> 00:23:20,096 What I think is extraordinary is really 304 00:23:20,232 --> 00:23:23,895 how little recognition or thanks they got 305 00:23:24,035 --> 00:23:26,162 for the remarkably dangerous work that they undertook 306 00:23:26,304 --> 00:23:28,772 on behalf of the Survey of India and, you know, 307 00:23:28,907 --> 00:23:31,205 ultimately the British Empire in India. 308 00:23:32,577 --> 00:23:33,544 Nain Singh, 309 00:23:33,678 --> 00:23:37,307 one of the most extraordinary spies the world has ever seen, 310 00:23:37,449 --> 00:23:41,647 died in obscurity at the age of 53. 311 00:23:44,856 --> 00:23:47,450 Almost four decades would pass before a European, 312 00:23:47,592 --> 00:23:51,187 following in the Pundit's footsteps, would reach the Forbidden City. 313 00:23:51,329 --> 00:23:56,357 This journey, unlike Nain Singh's, would be marked by bloodshed. 314 00:24:01,606 --> 00:24:04,632 March 31 st, 1904. 315 00:24:04,776 --> 00:24:08,542 On a desolate plain some 10,000 feet in the air, 316 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,513 two forces eye each other warily. 317 00:24:11,650 --> 00:24:14,813 They are divided by a crude stone wall, 318 00:24:14,953 --> 00:24:19,356 and a tragic chasm of culture, time and faith. 319 00:24:20,659 --> 00:24:23,526 The defenders: Tibetan peasants and monks, 320 00:24:23,662 --> 00:24:26,529 bearing arms that are centuries out of date. 321 00:24:26,665 --> 00:24:28,599 The invaders: A British force 322 00:24:28,733 --> 00:24:32,931 equipped with the new killing machines of the 20th century. 323 00:24:34,239 --> 00:24:39,643 No one who watches the terrible four minutes that follow will be unmoved. 324 00:24:41,379 --> 00:24:43,870 The man responsible will be utterly transformed 325 00:24:44,015 --> 00:24:46,848 by the maelstrom he unleashes here. 326 00:24:58,129 --> 00:25:00,723 As the 19th century pushed to its close, 327 00:25:00,866 --> 00:25:04,267 Tibet was much on the minds of many Europeans. 328 00:25:04,402 --> 00:25:06,063 Being the first to reach Lhasa 329 00:25:06,204 --> 00:25:10,903 since the closing of Tibet's borders had become the holy grail of explorers, 330 00:25:11,042 --> 00:25:15,979 as well as for the spies playing out the "Great Game" in the Himalayas. 331 00:25:17,949 --> 00:25:20,975 For about I'd say about 1870-1880 onwards, 332 00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:25,215 you get increasingly sort of obsessive interest in Tibet. 333 00:25:25,357 --> 00:25:28,986 Tibet was seen as this inaccessible, forbidden, foreign Shangri La. 334 00:25:29,127 --> 00:25:30,458 And I think there were probably 335 00:25:30,595 --> 00:25:33,462 hundreds or thousands of British officers 336 00:25:33,598 --> 00:25:35,793 hanging around in the Himalayas at the end of the 19th century, 337 00:25:35,934 --> 00:25:40,098 all of whom wanted to be the first one to break through and get to Lhasa, 338 00:25:40,238 --> 00:25:44,868 The Forbidden City that no European had been to since 1811. 339 00:25:45,010 --> 00:25:49,606 And it created this great race in the latter part of the 19th century 340 00:25:49,748 --> 00:25:51,272 to be the first to get to Lhasa. 341 00:25:51,416 --> 00:25:54,783 And many tried, and many failed. 342 00:25:55,987 --> 00:26:00,356 Russian Colonel, Nikolai Prejevalsky, made five failed attempts, 343 00:26:00,492 --> 00:26:04,622 even though he was escorted by heavily armed Cossacks. 344 00:26:08,099 --> 00:26:10,727 American diplomat and scholar, William Rockhill, 345 00:26:10,869 --> 00:26:15,101 disguised as a Chinese pilgrim, also failed twice. 346 00:26:16,408 --> 00:26:20,970 Renowned Swedish explorer, Sven Hedin, he too disguised as a pilgrim, 347 00:26:21,112 --> 00:26:25,412 was turned back just five days' march from Lhasa. 348 00:26:26,685 --> 00:26:28,653 British missionary Annie Tayler 349 00:26:28,787 --> 00:26:31,187 made it to within three days' march of Lhasa, 350 00:26:31,323 --> 00:26:36,090 before being betrayed by her Chinese guide and taken prisoner. 351 00:26:38,830 --> 00:26:42,061 Canadian Susie Rijnhart's story is the most tragic. 352 00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:43,531 Physician and missionary, 353 00:26:43,668 --> 00:26:47,399 she watched her infant son perish from altitude sickness, 354 00:26:47,539 --> 00:26:49,700 then lost her Dutch husband to bandits 355 00:26:49,841 --> 00:26:53,607 after Tibetan officials forced them to turn back. 356 00:26:56,915 --> 00:26:58,712 At the close of the 19th century, 357 00:26:58,850 --> 00:27:02,047 Tibet had managed to repel some 11 Western attempts 358 00:27:02,187 --> 00:27:05,054 to reach Lhasa in four decades. 359 00:27:05,190 --> 00:27:09,684 But its medieval weapons could not hold off the modern world forever. 360 00:27:21,439 --> 00:27:23,236 The man who would win the Europeans race 361 00:27:23,375 --> 00:27:26,469 for Tibet was born in India in 1863, 362 00:27:26,611 --> 00:27:31,071 the year Nain Singh arrived at spy school in Dehra Dun. 363 00:27:35,086 --> 00:27:38,522 The son of a British army officer, Francis Edward Younghusband 364 00:27:38,657 --> 00:27:43,720 would be sent off to England at four to be raised by two spinster aunts, 365 00:27:44,329 --> 00:27:47,594 a religious pair who beat him regularly. 366 00:27:48,633 --> 00:27:51,966 "I lost my childhood happiness, and became serious," 367 00:27:52,103 --> 00:27:54,401 Younghusband would later write. 368 00:27:56,941 --> 00:28:01,310 At 12, he would be sent off to boarding school at Clifton, 369 00:28:01,379 --> 00:28:05,475 an institution designed to mold young men of empire. 370 00:28:05,617 --> 00:28:09,018 Already oversensitive, repressed and shy, 371 00:28:09,154 --> 00:28:12,954 the small statured Younghusband found his more rambunctious schoolmates 372 00:28:13,091 --> 00:28:16,527 intimidating and made few friends. 373 00:28:17,328 --> 00:28:19,353 It was not until he was 16 that 374 00:28:19,497 --> 00:28:24,400 he would find his soul mate in his previously distant sister, Emmy. 375 00:28:24,536 --> 00:28:28,734 After he fainted in chapel one night, she nursed him back to health, 376 00:28:28,873 --> 00:28:31,808 and the two would exchange strangely passionate letters 377 00:28:31,943 --> 00:28:34,741 for much of their adult lives. 378 00:28:36,347 --> 00:28:39,714 After graduating from Clifton and then military academy, 379 00:28:39,851 --> 00:28:44,185 he left a distraught Emmy behind and set off for India. 380 00:28:44,322 --> 00:28:45,687 Like his father before him, 381 00:28:45,824 --> 00:28:49,225 he would serve on the Northern Frontier in the ing's Dragoons, 382 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:52,386 and take his place in the "Great Game". 383 00:28:54,833 --> 00:28:56,698 Shy, but fiercely ambitious, 384 00:28:56,835 --> 00:28:59,633 Younghusband was a natural 'Great Gamer,' 385 00:28:59,771 --> 00:29:02,740 a true believer of the righteousness of empire, 386 00:29:02,874 --> 00:29:07,504 and a vocal worrier about Russian designs on all of Asia. 387 00:29:12,417 --> 00:29:15,978 But regimental life proved stifling to the young man, 388 00:29:16,121 --> 00:29:21,058 and once again his seriousness isolated him from his peers. 389 00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:24,624 Francis had always imagined himself living a life 390 00:29:24,763 --> 00:29:29,257 more like that of his uncle and childhood hero, Robert Shaw. 391 00:29:30,235 --> 00:29:32,465 A flamboyant adventurer and tea planter, 392 00:29:32,604 --> 00:29:36,904 Shaw had traveled to many exotic lands beyond the Himalayas. 393 00:29:38,109 --> 00:29:42,409 He had earned himself a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society, 394 00:29:42,547 --> 00:29:47,109 as well as a penchant for dressing in native costumes. 395 00:29:50,021 --> 00:29:53,479 At age 21, Younghusband trekked into the Himalayas 396 00:29:53,625 --> 00:29:57,857 not far from his late uncle's house, and was enchanted. 397 00:29:59,030 --> 00:30:00,327 From this moment forward, 398 00:30:00,465 --> 00:30:04,765 his urgent ambitions would take the shape of these mountains. 399 00:30:05,804 --> 00:30:10,070 And for the rest of his life, mountains would stir odd mystical longings 400 00:30:10,208 --> 00:30:14,542 that his strict religious upbringing had never satisfied. 401 00:30:17,415 --> 00:30:21,408 I had caught just a glimpse of the other side of the Himalayan range, 402 00:30:21,553 --> 00:30:24,784 but I thirsted for more mountain beauty. 403 00:30:24,923 --> 00:30:26,788 I determined to go to Tibet, 404 00:30:26,925 --> 00:30:30,656 and to come to know the curious people of that secluded country, 405 00:30:30,795 --> 00:30:32,695 make a great name for myself, 406 00:30:32,831 --> 00:30:36,665 and be known ever after as a famous traveler. 407 00:30:42,774 --> 00:30:44,571 It was China, not Tibet, 408 00:30:44,709 --> 00:30:49,203 that would give Francis Younghusband his first taste of fame. 409 00:30:56,120 --> 00:31:01,387 1887 found the 24 year old officer in the middle of the Gobi Desert, 410 00:31:01,459 --> 00:31:06,158 retracing a path followed by no European since Marco Polo. 411 00:31:06,831 --> 00:31:08,526 He had managed to convince his superiors 412 00:31:08,666 --> 00:31:12,500 that he could find a new land route from China to India. 413 00:31:15,406 --> 00:31:18,933 The promised route would take him to the Mustagh Pass, 414 00:31:19,077 --> 00:31:21,341 the watershed between India and China, 415 00:31:21,479 --> 00:31:23,709 and long considered impassable. 416 00:31:25,450 --> 00:31:29,511 Under the shadow of 2, the world's second highest peak, 417 00:31:29,654 --> 00:31:32,623 this small man found himself once again 418 00:31:32,757 --> 00:31:35,817 spiritually transformed by a mountain. 419 00:31:36,961 --> 00:31:38,519 "Having once seen that," 420 00:31:38,663 --> 00:31:43,464 he would later write, "how could I ever be little again?" 421 00:31:43,601 --> 00:31:46,729 The ice precipice at the crest of the Mustagh 422 00:31:46,871 --> 00:31:49,567 did indeed look impassable to Younghusband, 423 00:31:49,707 --> 00:31:53,643 but when his native guide started down the other side, he followed. 424 00:31:53,778 --> 00:31:56,770 On slick leather boots and without ice crampons, 425 00:31:56,915 --> 00:31:59,475 it was a near suicidal descent, 426 00:31:59,617 --> 00:32:02,848 but it would earn Younghusband the fame he craved. 427 00:32:02,987 --> 00:32:07,014 Some called it the greatest feat of mountaineering yet accomplished, 428 00:32:07,158 --> 00:32:09,820 and the Royal Geographical Society would award him 429 00:32:09,961 --> 00:32:13,055 the coveted gold medal for his journey. 430 00:32:13,698 --> 00:32:17,134 His exploits would also bring him to the attention of another 'Great Gamer' 431 00:32:17,268 --> 00:32:21,432 called George Curzon, who shared his fascination with Tibet 432 00:32:21,572 --> 00:32:25,804 and would one day cast Younghusband's fate in the forbidden land. 433 00:32:28,646 --> 00:32:32,138 Younghusband was now one of the world's most eligible bachelors, 434 00:32:32,283 --> 00:32:34,217 but only on paper. 435 00:32:34,352 --> 00:32:37,344 Around any woman other than his sister Emmy, 436 00:32:37,488 --> 00:32:41,117 the daring explorer was in agony, desperately wishing 437 00:32:41,259 --> 00:32:42,749 himself miles away, 438 00:32:42,894 --> 00:32:45,954 preferably alone in the Himalayas. 439 00:32:46,097 --> 00:32:48,998 He was terrified of women. He found them baffling. 440 00:32:49,133 --> 00:32:49,997 He found them strange. 441 00:32:50,134 --> 00:32:53,160 He didn't really know how to get on with them or relate to them. 442 00:32:53,304 --> 00:32:57,866 If you like, he could express himself probably better by climbing a mountain 443 00:32:58,009 --> 00:33:00,705 than he could by having a conversation with somebody. 444 00:33:01,279 --> 00:33:05,238 Francis, for his part, was agonizingly aware of his plight. 445 00:33:05,383 --> 00:33:08,318 A beautiful young socialite had agreed to marry him, 446 00:33:08,453 --> 00:33:12,856 but broke it off when the smitten Francis could not overcome his stiff, 447 00:33:12,991 --> 00:33:16,222 nearly mute panic in her presence. 448 00:33:16,361 --> 00:33:19,797 I am losing my darling May. 449 00:33:19,931 --> 00:33:25,870 All the time I am cold and stiff and formal. 450 00:33:26,637 --> 00:33:30,937 Dejected, Younghusband set his sights once more on Tibet. 451 00:33:31,075 --> 00:33:33,805 He requested leave to slip into the forbidden land 452 00:33:33,945 --> 00:33:36,470 disguised as a Himalayan merchant. 453 00:33:36,614 --> 00:33:40,209 But his superiors had had enough of his adventures. 454 00:33:40,918 --> 00:33:42,351 And 15 years would pass 455 00:33:42,487 --> 00:33:46,218 before fate would give him his shot at Tibet. 456 00:33:51,029 --> 00:33:55,659 In January 1899, a miserable Francis Younghusband watched 457 00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:59,634 as his friend George Curzon was installed as Viceroy of India 458 00:33:59,771 --> 00:34:03,036 amidst great pomp and circumstance. 459 00:34:03,741 --> 00:34:08,269 While Curzon's star had risen, Younghusband's own had fallen, 460 00:34:08,413 --> 00:34:12,816 his early fame eclipsed by a reputation as a bit of a loose cannon. 461 00:34:12,950 --> 00:34:16,147 His army career had plateaued early. 462 00:34:16,287 --> 00:34:19,882 And his personal life was desperately unhappy. 463 00:34:20,024 --> 00:34:21,514 He had married an older woman 464 00:34:21,659 --> 00:34:24,753 who made him promise that they would never have sex. 465 00:34:24,896 --> 00:34:27,364 Somehow the couple managed to have children, 466 00:34:27,498 --> 00:34:30,023 but the marriage was never a happy one. 467 00:34:30,168 --> 00:34:36,403 Approaching 40, the once great explorer was now going nowhere fast. 468 00:34:36,541 --> 00:34:39,635 He has really reached this point by his late 30s 469 00:34:39,777 --> 00:34:42,302 where his career has stagnated and almost stopped. 470 00:34:42,447 --> 00:34:45,507 And that's the moment when suddenly he gets the call 471 00:34:45,650 --> 00:34:47,208 from the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, 472 00:34:47,351 --> 00:34:49,512 who is a personal friend of his. 473 00:34:49,654 --> 00:34:54,648 He says to him would he like to lead a small expedition into Tibet. 474 00:34:55,359 --> 00:34:58,920 Curzon, from all accounts, was a fairly paranoid person 475 00:34:59,063 --> 00:35:03,227 when it came to the potential designs of Russia. 476 00:35:03,367 --> 00:35:06,495 Tibet was important for him because he felt that 477 00:35:06,637 --> 00:35:12,507 if imperial Russia was to move down and to sort of win Tibet over, 478 00:35:12,643 --> 00:35:18,081 then they would have the Russian bear right at the door of the British Raj. 479 00:35:20,017 --> 00:35:24,613 But the 13th Dalai Lama had refused to open the country to British trade, 480 00:35:24,755 --> 00:35:27,553 to allow Curzon's emissaries beyond the border, 481 00:35:27,692 --> 00:35:30,525 or even to open Curzon's letters. 482 00:35:30,661 --> 00:35:34,222 The Viceroy decided it was time for more forceful measures, 483 00:35:34,365 --> 00:35:37,459 and his friend heartily agreed. 484 00:35:38,769 --> 00:35:41,670 I have no hesitation in recommending that 485 00:35:41,806 --> 00:35:44,468 the power of the monks should be so far broken 486 00:35:44,609 --> 00:35:48,238 as to prevent them any longer selfishly obstructing the prosperity 487 00:35:48,379 --> 00:35:52,475 of both Tibet and of the neighboring British districts. 488 00:35:53,017 --> 00:35:55,247 Francis Younghusband 489 00:36:00,324 --> 00:36:06,126 Thus it was that in 1903 Younghusband led 2,000 British and Indian soldiers 490 00:36:06,264 --> 00:36:11,361 over the 14,000 foot high Jelap Pass into Tibet. 491 00:36:11,869 --> 00:36:14,099 Behind them marched a ragged support column 492 00:36:14,238 --> 00:36:18,538 of some 10,000 coolies and a handful of English journalists 493 00:36:18,676 --> 00:36:22,112 dying for the scoop of the new century. 494 00:36:22,914 --> 00:36:27,248 Also pressed into service were six camels, 3,000 ponies, 495 00:36:27,385 --> 00:36:31,151 5,000 yaks and buffaloes, and 5,000 bullocks, 496 00:36:31,289 --> 00:36:37,023 and more than 7,000 mules most doomed to die on the journey. 497 00:36:38,930 --> 00:36:41,728 The whole strange caravan trailed telegraph wire 498 00:36:41,866 --> 00:36:46,803 that stretched back into India like an umbilical cord to the modern world. 499 00:36:50,141 --> 00:36:54,407 Younghusband would be in charge of negotiating with the Tibetans. 500 00:36:55,112 --> 00:36:59,048 The military leader was an undistinguished General named McDonald. 501 00:36:59,183 --> 00:37:01,743 Younghusband and McDonald detested each other, 502 00:37:01,886 --> 00:37:06,516 a situation that probably contributed to the tragedy ahead. 503 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:11,187 The British would meet little resistance 504 00:37:11,329 --> 00:37:13,263 on the first leg of the journey, 505 00:37:13,397 --> 00:37:15,831 but the conditions would be harsher than any 506 00:37:15,967 --> 00:37:19,698 the British and Indian soldiers had encountered before. 507 00:37:21,739 --> 00:37:24,799 Twenty men of the 12th Mule Corps were frostbitten, 508 00:37:24,942 --> 00:37:29,606 and 30 men of the 23rd Pioneers were so incapacitated that 509 00:37:29,747 --> 00:37:31,806 they had to be carried on mules. 510 00:37:31,949 --> 00:37:33,075 On the same day, 511 00:37:33,217 --> 00:37:37,449 there were 70 cases of snow blindness among the 8th Gurkhas. 512 00:37:37,588 --> 00:37:38,714 Edmund Candler, 513 00:37:38,856 --> 00:37:40,687 The Daily Mail 514 00:37:43,728 --> 00:37:47,789 Outwardly, Younghusband himself seemed impervious to the elements, 515 00:37:47,932 --> 00:37:52,130 taking cold baths each morning and spending long periods reading, 516 00:37:52,270 --> 00:37:55,797 writing and meditating out in the elements. 517 00:38:00,544 --> 00:38:04,844 In his journal, he was already writing about mental telepathy, 518 00:38:04,982 --> 00:38:09,043 extra terrestrials and out of body travel. 519 00:38:18,629 --> 00:38:22,497 Four months into the journey as the mission approached the town of Guru, 520 00:38:22,633 --> 00:38:25,830 the Tibetan resistance finally materialized. 521 00:38:25,970 --> 00:38:27,733 In the middle of a barren plain, 522 00:38:27,872 --> 00:38:30,568 massed behind a small hastily built wall, 523 00:38:30,708 --> 00:38:34,542 some 1500 Tibetan troops lay in wait. 524 00:38:34,679 --> 00:38:37,671 They vastly outnumbered the British advance guard, 525 00:38:37,815 --> 00:38:41,478 but their firepower was 300 years out of date. 526 00:38:44,855 --> 00:38:47,289 If you read the Tibetan accounts of this period, 527 00:38:47,425 --> 00:38:50,326 it seems that the Tibetans say we're not going to fight, 528 00:38:50,461 --> 00:38:51,758 but were not going to go away. 529 00:38:51,896 --> 00:38:53,625 And the British are baffled by this. 530 00:38:53,764 --> 00:38:56,028 You've got to remember the whole idea of passive resistance 531 00:38:56,167 --> 00:39:00,194 was not something that was understood in 1903, 1904. 532 00:39:00,338 --> 00:39:04,001 And Tibet's reaction was, just please go away. 533 00:39:04,141 --> 00:39:07,975 Younghusband's reaction was, we've got to talk. 534 00:39:08,112 --> 00:39:10,046 He went further and further and further, 535 00:39:10,181 --> 00:39:13,480 and it was an enormous tragedy by the end. 536 00:39:15,186 --> 00:39:19,680 The whole thing must have been incomprehensible to these poor men. 537 00:39:19,824 --> 00:39:22,190 No order had been given to them to retire. 538 00:39:22,326 --> 00:39:23,884 Gathered together in a body, 539 00:39:24,028 --> 00:39:28,488 heir enormous superiority in numbers must have struck them. 540 00:39:28,632 --> 00:39:34,332 They had no idea, of course, of the advantage which we possessed. 541 00:39:34,905 --> 00:39:35,929 Perceval Landon, 542 00:39:36,073 --> 00:39:38,974 The Times, London. 543 00:39:39,510 --> 00:39:42,001 In my view, I think the Tibetans actually knew that 544 00:39:42,146 --> 00:39:43,841 they were up against a formidable force. 545 00:39:43,981 --> 00:39:45,141 I think it is wrong to say that 546 00:39:45,282 --> 00:39:49,616 they were so naive that they thought they really could resist the British. 547 00:39:50,321 --> 00:39:52,050 They had no other choice, 548 00:39:52,189 --> 00:39:55,750 even if they knew they would be slaughtered, but to oppose that. 549 00:39:57,895 --> 00:40:01,763 The Tibetan general rode out to plead his case. 550 00:40:03,834 --> 00:40:05,768 He begged Younghusband to turn back, 551 00:40:05,903 --> 00:40:09,703 retreat to the border and negotiate there. 552 00:40:10,608 --> 00:40:13,202 But Younghusband was unmoved. 553 00:40:15,179 --> 00:40:19,172 He gave the general 15 minutes to begin disarming. 554 00:40:24,488 --> 00:40:25,955 15 minutes later, 555 00:40:26,090 --> 00:40:29,685 General McDonald ordered his troops into fighting positions, 556 00:40:29,827 --> 00:40:32,762 assuming the Tibetans would simply hand over their arms 557 00:40:32,897 --> 00:40:37,334 when confronted with his machine guns, modern rifles and heavy artillery. 558 00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:46,300 But each Tibetan carried on his chest a small pouch 559 00:40:46,444 --> 00:40:49,174 containing a blessing from the Dalai Lama, 560 00:40:49,313 --> 00:40:53,306 designed to render him impervious to English bullets. 561 00:40:57,955 --> 00:41:02,858 McDonald gave the order to approach and begin disarming the Tibetans. 562 00:41:09,633 --> 00:41:13,194 What exactly happened next is still unclear. 563 00:41:13,337 --> 00:41:18,104 That it was one of the bleakest moments in military history is not. 564 00:41:19,043 --> 00:41:20,806 According to British reports, 565 00:41:20,945 --> 00:41:25,541 it was the Tibetan general who resisted and fired the first shot. 566 00:41:29,119 --> 00:41:32,054 Immediately the British began firing their terrible weapons 567 00:41:32,189 --> 00:41:34,919 into the mass of the Tibetan soldiers. 568 00:41:36,026 --> 00:41:37,789 The Tibetans poured over the wall, 569 00:41:37,928 --> 00:41:42,160 while the artillery and automatic weapons cut them down in waves. 570 00:41:47,638 --> 00:41:50,505 To the horror of the British manning the guns against them, 571 00:41:50,641 --> 00:41:55,601 the few Tibetans still standing did not run away, they walked. 572 00:42:02,286 --> 00:42:05,778 I got so sick of the slaughter that I ceased fire. 573 00:42:05,923 --> 00:42:10,223 Though the General's order was to make as big a bag as possible. 574 00:42:10,928 --> 00:42:15,228 Lt. Hadow, Commander, Maxim Gun Detachment 575 00:42:16,300 --> 00:42:23,206 The impossible had happened: Prayers and charms and mantras 576 00:42:23,340 --> 00:42:27,743 the holiest of their holy men had failed them. 577 00:42:27,878 --> 00:42:29,709 They walked with bowed heads, 578 00:42:29,847 --> 00:42:33,806 as if they had been disillusioned with their gods. 579 00:42:53,337 --> 00:42:56,306 Four appalling minutes after it all began, 580 00:42:56,440 --> 00:43:01,707 some 700 ragged Tibetans lay dead or dying on the field, 581 00:43:01,845 --> 00:43:05,178 their useless charms strewn among them. 582 00:43:07,551 --> 00:43:11,282 Francis Younghusband, who had served for over 20 years in the army 583 00:43:11,422 --> 00:43:14,914 but had never seen battle, was horrified. 584 00:43:16,026 --> 00:43:18,358 "It was a terrible and ghastly business," 585 00:43:18,495 --> 00:43:20,190 he would later write. 586 00:43:24,335 --> 00:43:27,361 It may have been even more ghastly than his British sensibilities 587 00:43:27,504 --> 00:43:29,802 would allow him to admit. 588 00:43:36,180 --> 00:43:39,115 According to the Tibetan and Chinese accounts of the battle, 589 00:43:39,249 --> 00:43:42,650 the Tibetans had extinguished the fuses of their ancient matchlocks 590 00:43:42,786 --> 00:43:44,777 as a sign of non aggression, 591 00:43:44,922 --> 00:43:47,948 rendering them useless for several minutes. 592 00:43:50,694 --> 00:43:54,323 If so, the British were firing artillery and military weapons 593 00:43:54,465 --> 00:43:58,231 into a mass of people armed with swords, slingshots, 594 00:43:58,369 --> 00:44:01,634 and perhaps five modern rifles. 595 00:44:19,723 --> 00:44:24,092 The British set up a field hospital to save the wounded Tibetans. 596 00:44:24,828 --> 00:44:28,059 Baffled by kindness on the heels of slaughter, 597 00:44:28,198 --> 00:44:31,133 the Tibetans nonetheless quickly won over their captors 598 00:44:31,268 --> 00:44:33,736 with their spirit and stoicism. 599 00:44:34,738 --> 00:44:37,263 Daily Mail correspondent, Edmund Candler, 600 00:44:37,408 --> 00:44:41,310 who had lost a hand in the first few seconds of the battle wrote: 601 00:44:41,445 --> 00:44:43,572 They were consistently cheerful, 602 00:44:43,714 --> 00:44:46,444 and they never hesitated to undergo operations. 603 00:44:46,583 --> 00:44:50,542 Did not flinch at pain, and took chloroform without fear. 604 00:44:50,688 --> 00:44:53,156 Everyone who visited the hospital at Tuna 605 00:44:53,290 --> 00:44:57,090 left it with an increased respect for the Tibetans. 606 00:45:03,467 --> 00:45:08,234 It would take four more months for the British force to reach Lhasa. 607 00:45:09,940 --> 00:45:12,306 On July 30th, 1904, 608 00:45:12,443 --> 00:45:17,540 in anticipation of the inevitable, the Dalai Lama fled the city. 609 00:45:21,118 --> 00:45:25,487 Five days later, the British marched into the Forbidden City. 610 00:45:26,490 --> 00:45:30,221 Younghusband, who had once hoped to make it to Lhasa as a spy, 611 00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:36,299 now entered at the head of an army, only to find the place nearly empty. 612 00:45:39,369 --> 00:45:41,803 Undaunted, he arranged a sort of parade 613 00:45:41,939 --> 00:45:44,373 to impress the remaining citizens, 614 00:45:44,508 --> 00:45:48,467 and was greeted by what he thought was a conqueror's welcome. 615 00:45:54,518 --> 00:45:56,782 They'd clap at them, like that. 616 00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:59,821 Younghusband thinks this is a very good sign that he is being welcomed. 617 00:45:59,957 --> 00:46:03,916 Later on when I looked at this, I talked to some Tibetans about it 618 00:46:04,061 --> 00:46:06,325 who said that it is a way of driving out evil spirits. 619 00:46:06,463 --> 00:46:08,226 They'd go like... (claps) 620 00:46:08,365 --> 00:46:11,266 So, I think Younghusband thought they were so happy that 621 00:46:11,401 --> 00:46:13,335 they were lining up and clapping. 622 00:46:13,470 --> 00:46:15,995 This, again, you know, the culture difference. 623 00:46:19,977 --> 00:46:22,844 Finally, Younghusband rounded up some high ranking monks 624 00:46:22,980 --> 00:46:24,914 with whom to negotiate. 625 00:46:25,048 --> 00:46:26,538 After a month of wrangling, 626 00:46:26,683 --> 00:46:30,585 he had achieved all his king and country had asked of him. 627 00:46:31,855 --> 00:46:35,188 He had inspired his troops to follow him through hundreds of miles 628 00:46:35,325 --> 00:46:37,486 of the most hostile geography that 629 00:46:37,628 --> 00:46:41,064 British and Indian soldiers had ever encountered. 630 00:46:41,198 --> 00:46:43,723 He had pried open the doors of Tibet, 631 00:46:43,867 --> 00:46:48,065 and negotiated a trade settlement highly favorable to Britain. 632 00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:53,669 But Tibet would not bestow its real gift on Younghusband 633 00:46:53,811 --> 00:46:56,712 until the moment of his departure. 634 00:46:58,515 --> 00:47:00,346 On the day before Younghusband is due to leave Lhasa, 635 00:47:00,484 --> 00:47:03,078 having gotten the treaty in his pocket, 636 00:47:03,220 --> 00:47:05,711 he goes off into the mountains on his pony, 637 00:47:05,856 --> 00:47:09,314 and he's suddenly infused with this kind of cosmic joy. 638 00:47:09,459 --> 00:47:14,692 He's infused with this very strong mystical or spiritual experience. 639 00:47:17,067 --> 00:47:18,466 The exhilaration of the moment 640 00:47:18,602 --> 00:47:23,767 grew and grew until it thrilled me with overpowering intensity. 641 00:47:24,241 --> 00:47:28,837 Never again could I think evil, or ever be at enmity with any man. 642 00:47:28,979 --> 00:47:35,009 All nature and all humanity were bathed in a rosy, glowing radiancy. 643 00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:37,983 That single hour on leaving Lhasa, 644 00:47:38,121 --> 00:47:41,056 was worth all of the rest of a lifetime. 645 00:47:41,191 --> 00:47:45,355 I was boiling over with love for the whole world. 646 00:47:51,101 --> 00:47:56,334 That world, however, had already begun to lament the despoiling of Lhasa. 647 00:48:03,747 --> 00:48:05,681 There are no more forbidden cities 648 00:48:05,816 --> 00:48:08,808 which men have not mapped and photographed. 649 00:48:08,952 --> 00:48:13,480 Why could we not have left at least one city out of bounds? 650 00:48:13,624 --> 00:48:17,253 Candler, The Daily Mail 651 00:48:19,563 --> 00:48:23,260 Even Lord Curzon was shaken by the taking of Lhasa: 652 00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:24,594 "I am almost ashamed 653 00:48:24,735 --> 00:48:28,603 to have destroyed the virginity of the bride to whom you aspired," 654 00:48:28,739 --> 00:48:32,072 he wrote to Swedish explorer Sven Hedin. 655 00:48:33,010 --> 00:48:36,002 Almost immediately London began to distance itself 656 00:48:36,146 --> 00:48:37,841 from Younghusband's invasion. 657 00:48:37,981 --> 00:48:41,473 Soon, it would negate it entirely. 658 00:48:42,085 --> 00:48:43,814 What happens a couple of years later is that 659 00:48:43,954 --> 00:48:46,047 a liberal government comes to power in London, 660 00:48:46,189 --> 00:48:49,215 and three years after his expedition, a new agreement is signed 661 00:48:49,359 --> 00:48:52,453 which effectively takes away all the privileges and benefits 662 00:48:52,596 --> 00:48:55,588 that Younghusband has gained through the Treaty of Lhasa. 663 00:48:55,732 --> 00:48:59,600 And so the great irony of Younghusband's invasion of Tibet, 664 00:48:59,736 --> 00:49:01,601 is that, from a political point of view, 665 00:49:01,738 --> 00:49:05,230 it gains almost nothing for the British. 666 00:49:07,611 --> 00:49:09,374 Far more than Tibet itself, 667 00:49:09,513 --> 00:49:12,209 Francis Younghusband would emerge forever changed 668 00:49:12,349 --> 00:49:16,843 by his hollow victory and the tragedy he created there. 669 00:49:19,323 --> 00:49:21,757 Outwardly, he remained the good imperialist, 670 00:49:21,892 --> 00:49:23,450 serving as provincial governor, 671 00:49:23,593 --> 00:49:25,857 president of the Royal Geographical Society 672 00:49:25,996 --> 00:49:30,865 and coordinator of the first four expeditions to Mt. Everest. 673 00:49:31,601 --> 00:49:34,729 But he also became a passionate advocate of Indian self rule, 674 00:49:34,871 --> 00:49:36,896 and founded his most lasting legacy, 675 00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:40,635 the World Congress of Faiths, a group dedicated to bringing together 676 00:49:40,777 --> 00:49:44,543 people of all religions in a spirit of tolerance. 677 00:49:46,917 --> 00:49:48,214 Like many of his time, 678 00:49:48,352 --> 00:49:51,947 he would write enthusiastically about spiritualism, the occult, 679 00:49:52,089 --> 00:49:54,887 and even extra terrestrials. 680 00:49:56,660 --> 00:49:59,390 His ideas become increasingly kooky. 681 00:49:59,529 --> 00:50:02,828 You can actually get this sense from his diaries that 682 00:50:02,966 --> 00:50:04,456 he is going to official functions, 683 00:50:04,601 --> 00:50:05,761 and people are slightly thinking 684 00:50:05,902 --> 00:50:09,133 "What on earth has happened to Francis Younghusband?" 685 00:50:10,240 --> 00:50:14,074 His prolific writings ranged from confident predictions of a new messiah, 686 00:50:14,211 --> 00:50:16,304 to tracts on the sanctity of marriage, 687 00:50:16,446 --> 00:50:19,381 though his own marriage was an empty shell. 688 00:50:22,185 --> 00:50:24,551 As his daughter Eileen would later say: 689 00:50:24,688 --> 00:50:27,088 He had an essential warm heartedness, 690 00:50:27,224 --> 00:50:31,024 but it always, somehow, missed the mark. 691 00:50:32,896 --> 00:50:36,923 But finally, at age 76 and for the first time in his life, 692 00:50:37,067 --> 00:50:39,592 Francis Younghusband fell in love. 693 00:50:39,736 --> 00:50:42,967 His passionate affair with the much younger Madeline Lees, 694 00:50:43,106 --> 00:50:44,937 a married mother of seven, 695 00:50:45,075 --> 00:50:49,068 brought back to him the happiness he had lost in childhood. 696 00:50:49,713 --> 00:50:52,011 You know, the Tibetans very interestingly think that 697 00:50:52,149 --> 00:50:55,118 ultimately they actually conquered Younghusband. 698 00:50:55,252 --> 00:50:57,743 "Well, you know, he came and conquered us, 699 00:50:57,888 --> 00:51:04,657 butchered us, but in the end, he went back kind of converted 700 00:51:04,795 --> 00:51:09,425 and found the right path for himself." 701 00:51:10,333 --> 00:51:13,393 And this is very much part of our kind of notion of Tibet, 702 00:51:13,537 --> 00:51:16,973 that it has this quality to heal, transform, 703 00:51:17,107 --> 00:51:19,974 change and to highlight for people, 704 00:51:20,110 --> 00:51:24,877 if you could just get there, the spiritual side of life. 705 00:51:28,552 --> 00:51:32,613 The two men who marched to Lhasa did no favors to Tibet, 706 00:51:32,756 --> 00:51:35,554 but they revealed to the rest of the world the land 707 00:51:35,692 --> 00:51:40,061 that would become the symbol of humanity's spiritual yearnings. 708 00:51:42,399 --> 00:51:44,833 In July 1942, 709 00:51:44,968 --> 00:51:50,964 Sir Francis Edward Younghusband died in the arms of his beloved Madeline. 710 00:51:53,743 --> 00:51:56,644 His last request, a tombstone, 711 00:51:56,780 --> 00:51:59,476 carved with the place of his terrible triumph 712 00:51:59,616 --> 00:52:03,279 and his strange redemption Lhasa, 713 00:52:03,420 --> 00:52:09,290 the Forbidden City at the heart of the once and future forbidden land.