The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-23
THE FORBIDDEN LAND.
The Dni lama DEGREES Religious
Liberty in Tibet and Throws Open
tEis Country.

Liberty in Tibet and Throws Open
His Country.
EX-Attache, in Pittsburg Dispatch.
At a moment when all China is in the
throes of an insurrectionary movement,
which is principally directed against the
foreigners and which has for its avowed
object the exclusion of the white races
from Chinese territory, there comes from
the Roman Catholic Bishop Biet, Vicar
Apostolic of Tibet the news that the
Grand Lama has issued an edict pro-
claiming religious liberty in the Forbid
den Land and that he has repealed the
strict laws prescribing death TO any white
man who entered his dominions without
permission or who attempted to engage
in missionary work.
That this totally unexpected piece of
intelligence should arrive at this precise
juncture will appear less astonishing
when 1t is explained that Tibet, although
nominaly a vassal of China, has always
maintained a species of more or less open
resistance to the wishes of the Pekin
government so much so that II was sufti-
cient for the Chinese authorities TO de
sire a thing in order to insure the Grand
Lama doing precisely the contrary.
Hence Il is in keeping with che past his
tory Of the Forbidden Land that as
soon as ever the Tibetans learned that
the Chinese had resolved to drive the
foreigners out of China that they them
selves should at once decide to throw
their doors wide open 10 the strangers.
All Dread the White Man.
Exclusion of the white race is the
natural Snstnct of all dusky-hued ma
tons. alike in Asia and in Africa. China,
Japan, Korea. the numerous independent
states Of Central Asia, as well as Arabia,
Morocco. Tunis, Abyssinia, were all closed
to the foreigners in the early part of the
present century. and whereas Today a
man can travel from one end of Africa to
the other without firing a shot In self-de-
Tense. il was impossible one hundred
years ago 20 venture into the interior OF
the Dark Continent without c6urting GER
tain death at the hands of the natives,
who we're firmly resolved to keep the
stranger from setting foot on their terri
tory
Little by little the barriers thus raise
against the white races have been re-
moved and one by one every country has
abandoned its policy OF exclusion. Since
the Emperor of Korea some fifteen years
ago opened his ports 10 foreign commerce
and sanctioned intercourse between his
people and the outer world. Tibet has been
TO all intents and purposes the only land
of the universe that kept its doors closed
Ii is therefore a subject for congratula-
ton that the closing yeer of the century
which has witnessed the throwing oper
to Western civilization of 80 many ASH
attic and African countries should have
been signalzed by the removal of the
barriers of the last remaining nation that
had preserved its soil ''undehled' by the
presence of the foreign devils"
Another Gateway to China.
Inasmuch as the insurrecticn is spread
ing throughout the Western and Southern
portions of the Empire. where foreigners
and native converts are being tortured
and mastered in every direction, the es-
adjustment Of friendly relations between
the Grand Lama Of Tibet and The foreign
Powers will prove of inestimable value
to the latter. For the Forbidden Land, "
ics ED of forming as hitherto an impene-
trable barrier against access to China
from British India, and from he Russian
possessions in Central Asia, will on the
contrary serve as a means of invading the
Empire from a point which the Chinese
have always regarded as absolutely Sc
cure against all foreign attack.
Indeed, one may be tempted to believe
that The Grand Lama has been prompted
10 establish friendly relations with the
great Powers by some idea OF forming
an offensive and defensive alliance with
them against China. For the Tibetans
have from time immemorial hated the
Chinese even more bitterly than the
white races, have tolerated the presence
Of Chinese traders only under certain
stringent restrfci ions. and are naturally
at The present moment alarmed lest the
upheaval which is taking place in China
should result in an armed irruption of the
insurgent hor0es across the Tibctan from
Ter, oven whe ming thom by force OF num-
ters and dest, oy ng their cherished indie
I. n3ence.
Called uron to choose between the peril
Of a Chinese invasion on the one hand
and the abandonment OF the traditional
policy Of exclusion on the other, the
Grand Lama, who is mentally and physi-
cally a strong man, has selected the lat
ter alternative and may be said to have
thrown in his lot with civilization in lieu
OF with barbarism.
The Sacred CITY.
So little is known about Tibet the only
three white men who have ever penetrated
the metropolitan province of Lhassa,
namely the Englishman Manning In 1871,
and the French missionaries Hue and
CADET, in 1874, having been seized and de-
ported as soon as discovered, that a few
brief notes respecting this mysterious land
may be OF timely interest. True, there
are few Protestant and Roman Catholic
missions in Tibet, as is indicated by the
presence OF a Vicar Apostolic of the Pope
on Tibet soil. But these missions are es-
tablished In those portions OF Tibet that
are near the northern and southern from
tiers beyond the immediate power OF the
Grand Lama and remote from the scat of
the Tibetan government at Lhassa. In the
same way Mr. Rockhill, now Assistant
Secretary of Stale at Washington, the
Russian explorer Prjevalsky. Prince Henri
OF Orleans and his companion, VI. BonVa-
lot, who have penetrated Tibet from the
north from the south and from the east.
have each one OF them been obliged to
confine their explorations to the outer
fringe II may be permitted to use the
expression Of the Forbidden Land" and
were driven back as soon as ever they
turned their steps in the direction of the
sacred city Of Lhassa.
In fact, the only definite informa ton
which the outer world possesses OF The
Forbidden Lang has been obta,ne1 by the
British Indian government, which has en-
ployed carefully trained native agents ana
officials to map out and describe countries
Inaccessible and closed to white explor-
ers.
Definite information.
One OF the most successful Of these ma
tive agents is a man named Sarat Chan
dra Das, member OF the Educational
Department, at Calcutta, who, thanks 10