Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-12-05
Soldiers to March to the Forbid
den Land of Quaint Customs
And Loose Morals,
QUEER TRAITS OF the PEOPLE.
II Ugh Priest is a Child Kept in Soil
tary Confinement - They Use
Wheels to Pray With,
Special Correspondence.

London, Nov. 2l.--Amercans who
have learned from the cable dispatches
that strong British force is about to
march from India into Thibet to rein
force a smaller force already cncamp-
ed in the forbidden land" may have
been somewhat puzzled to know what
English troops are doing in mysterious
Thibet, anyway. And as a matter Of
fact 1t Is rather difficult, even mere, to
make out exactly why the first eXpedi-
ton under Col Younshusband which
now Is being menoced by the Thibetans,
was sent from simla.
OCCUPATION OF LHAsSA.
But whether the official assurance
is true that the mission simply went TO
protest to the ThibCtan authorities re-
garding violations Of trade treaties, or
whether, as most people here believe,
the foreign Office wants to find out how
much of an influence Russia has obtain
ed at the lama court, the fact remains
that the forthcoming expedition will
have TO endure uncommon hardships
and face a choice lot of dangers be-
fore It reaches its objective point This,
by the way, is Gyangste the Thibetan
city 100 miles inside the frontier, and
only 100 miles from the capital itself.
And II the eXigencies OF the campaign
should lead to the occupation of l.has-
sa-the tealously guarded sacred city
of Buddhism into which only three
white men have ever penetrated--and
the members Of the expedition get out
OF it alive, the world will hear a story Of
queer rites and practises such as per-
haps never has been told.
TRYING EXPERIENCES.
Il was as long ago as last June that
Col Nounghusband and his force of 800
sikhs set out for Thibet from Simla--
ostensibly at least for the purpose of
taking over trade questions with rep
resentatives of the Thibetan authori-
ties reports from Indian declare that
the Thibetans invited the conference.
but when the British representative
and his men, after an arduous tourney.
finally reached the mysterious land
IRON which Europeans always have
been so rigidly excluded, they not ONLY
round no one to confer with but were
treated from the first as a hostile force,
Just exactly what befell the party is
not quite clear but IL Is known that
their liVes were threatened and rumor
mas II that one of the white officers
was taken prisoner. At all events, the
colonel thought it best to hurry back
TO Slmla in quest OF reinforcements
and left his men encamped about
thirty miles inside the frontier
OF the forbidden land" Ii is TO re-
lieve this party--lf any of II is left
alive-that the stronger force under
col Macdonald Is starting on the march
which may have sensational Conse-
quences. The new expedition Will num-
Der 5000. all but 200 OF them Slkhs. The
remainder are English soldiers who
have been especially chosen for their
great height and girth, the idea being
TO impress the Thibetans with tho
prowess of the English army. For the
first time, yaks are to be used by the
British for TRANSPORT service, Just as
they are by the Thibetans These ami
mails are rather like oxen, they cost
from twenty-five TO thirty dollars, and
take about year to train.
WHAT Is IN STORE?
Probably It would be hard to find a
more difficult march anywhere on earth
snort of the Polar regions than that
which this expedition Will have to ne
gotiate. II is stock saying I'm the
East that there Is no easy way from
India into Thibet." The northern part
Of the land Of the rajahs lies almost as
fiat as board Then rises 1000 feet,
the immense table land I'm the center OF
which Thibet lies. and which is frInged,
or II might be said, supported, by the
Himalaya mountains, whose peaks far
over-top the plateau, The road which
must be used for this terrific climb
runs between Kinchinjunga, which an
Engishman recently explored at the
imminent risk of his life, and the next
great mountain, and is especially haz-
ardous. The complete journey from
Sikkan, in northern India, where the
expedition Will mobilize, to Gyangste
It's Thibetan destination, IL about five
hundred miles. The first mission ac-
complished them without great trouble,
II Is true, but that was In summer when
the Himalays are covered with rhoda-
dendrons below the snow line. But this
party will travel In winter, and for the
greater part of its journey, win encoun-
ter cold equal to that of Siberia IT.
self Frost bite and snow blindness
viii torture them constantly, and their
sufferings may be expected to increase
as they near wild and mountainous
there IL like" says Sven Hedin, lone
needs to journey through country
where there are no roads or paths, with
a temperature OF 20 degrees below
zero, to ride a horse that stumbles at
every step. and, when one stops at
night, to sleep In a cold fireess tent
with the wolves bowling all around him
in the sheer unconquerable wilderness. -
THIBETIANS AS FIGHTERS.
After all. however, the natural dan
gers probably will be the least which
this expedition Will have 90 face for
there seems little doubt that they Will
be attacked by the Thibetans. Reports
from Lhassa says that the authorities
there have decided definitely on war,
the priests have discovered as the re-
suit Of their lamentations that this Is
a lucky year To fight in, In Thibet
men. women and children fight and Il
Is said that the government OF the
forbidden land" has just called upon
the priests IN the monasterles 20 get
ready for battle, too. They are brave
fighters. these Thlbetans, as the British
know from past brushes with them