Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-09
WEALTH OF TIBET.
The Reason for England's Advance
Into the Land of the Lamas.
From the Forum.


The real reason for England's advance on
Tibet is the influence of high finance on the
colonial policy of Great Britain Travellers
and explorers, in spite of the strict vigil
ance on the rart of the Tibetan authorities,
have succeeded during the last decade in
discovering the mineral wealth on the roof
of the world" Sarthol and Thok-jalung in
southwestern Tibet possess rich gold de-
posits in considerable quantities. These
places lie. roughly speaking. some three
hundred mile east of Simla in British India
The yellow metal is found in the hill ranges
lying between the thirty second and thirty
third parallels of latitude. on either side
of the eighty-sec degree of east longi-
tude. Thok- jalung is only $500 feet above
sea level, and not far from the sources of
the River Indus, which cleaves the Hima-
layas in It's course through Iadakh and
Cashmere into the plains of western India
Some 300 miles to the eastward of Thok-
jalung. in the lake region In the chain of
hills just north of the thirty-second paral-
lei, there are also several gold fields. These
are the Thok Amar, Thok Marshara and
Thok Daurakpa deposits. About 100 miles
still farther to the eastward the Sarka
Shyar gold fields, lying right across an ex-
plored tract from the northwest that joins
route running nearly due south from Lob
nor to LhaSSa, across ranges of mountains
a pass over one of which is 1900 feet above
sea level. Again, to the north of this re-
gion among the northern spurs of the
Kuen-Lun range which forms the dividing
line between Tibet proper and Chinese Tur-
kestan. there are several important gold
fields. Chief among these are those of
Aka Togh, at the head of the Giukerma
river, one of the tributaries of the Cher
chen that flows into Lob-nor; the KAPPA gold
field. between the Mist and Moldja rivers
which lose themselves in the Tarim basin !;
md mir ha 10 ri1
which also ends in the Tarim basin. The
last two of these lie in the neighborhood
of q route from Kashgar. near the Rus
sian frontier. through Yarkand and Khotan
to Lob-nor, at an average altitude of less
than 5000 feet. where Ii meets the route
south to Lhassa and others into western
China.
When expedition after expedition, which
had explored some region of the Hermit
Kingdom. returned to India with exciting
stories of fresh discoveries of gold fields,
the imagination OF men of high finance-the
natural collaborators of the British foreign
of1ce-was wrought to the highest pitch.
There was, therefore, at the return of every
exploring expedition an outburst Of agita-
ton, "On to Lhassa, in the Anglo Indian
press. In order to justify the British for
ward policy in the eyes of the civilized
world. there were invented, and widely cir
culated. Wild stories of broken treaties of
Tibetan incursions and outrages of British
subjects captured and tortured, of Nepalese
yakS carried OF, OF studied insults devised
! by Russian emissaries in Lhassa and direct
ed at the Indian government through the
witless person of the Dalai Lama etc In
1898 the agitation for the conquest of Tibet
had already attained sufficient Importance:
but the British government was at the
time occupied In the conquest of the Egyp-
tian Soudan. and. consequently. could not
well take UP fresh enterprise. Nor did
the agitation OF 1900 lead to any practical
results. owing to the South African war
In 1893, however. the long sought-for OPP
portunity arrived. Russia. the only power
| in Asia whose diplomatic protest in refer
ence to the integrity of the Chinese empire
could be effective, was herself embroiled
with Japan over the question of Korea and
Manchuria. And China, whose territory
| both In the east and the west was the object
| of ambition of two great European powers,
was powerless to protect her outlying prov
| inces.