page_title: British expedition to Tibet
section_title: Initial advance
hierarchical_section_title: British expedition to Tibet / Initial advance
caption_attribution_description: 'Ray, O'Connor, Dunlop, Igybilden, Col. Hogge, Waddell, Walsh, Younghusband, G. O. C., Brotherton. The staff and others at Phari Jong in January 1904.' Photograph possibly taken by G. I. Davys. Younghusband is seated in the centre of the photograph, wearing the fur coat and hat.
context_page_description: The British expedition to Tibet, also known as the British invasion of Tibet or the Younghusband expedition to Tibet began in December 1903 and lasted until September 1904. The expedition was effectively a temporary invasion by British Indian forces under the auspices of the Tibet Frontier Commission, whose purported mission was to establish diplomatic relations and resolve the dispute over the border between Tibet and Sikkim. In the nineteenth century, the British conquered Burma and Sikkim, occupying the whole southern flank of Tibet. The Tibetan Ganden Phodrang regime, which was then under administrative rule of the Qing dynasty, remained the only Himalayan state free of British influence.
  The invasion was intended to counter Russia's perceived ambitions in the East and was initiated largely by Lord Curzon, the head of the British India government. Curzon had long obsessed over Russia's advance into Central Asia and now feared a Russian invasion of British India. In April 1903, the British received clear assurances from the Russian government that it had no interest in Tibet.
context_section_description: The British army that departed Gnathong in Sikkim on 11 December 1903 was well prepared for battle, having had long experience of Indian border wars. Its commander, Brigadier-General James Ronald Leslie Macdonald, wintered in the border country, using the time to train his troops near regular supplies of food and shelter before advancing in earnest in March, travelling over 50 miles (80 km) before encountering his first major obstacle at the pass of Guru, near Lake Bhan Tso on 31 March.
caption: Major Francis Younghusband leading a British force to Lhasa in 1904
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