'Volume II. MEMORANDA REGARDING OTHER EXTERNAL AFFAIRS. 1905.' [‎60r] (124/228)

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destroyed. A French priest is also said to
have been murdered at Batang. The rising is
said to have been due, firstly, to a secret order
rom Lhasa to kill all Chinese and Europeans,
and, secondly, to an attempt made by the
fezechuan Government to subject Batang and
Litang to the ordinary jurisdiction of Chinese
officials. This affair is probably responsible
tor Keuter’s telegrams, reporting an anti-
Chinese and anti-foreign movement among
the Tibetans of Batang, in regard to which
Captain O’Connor has furnished the following
account given him by a Chinese official who
called on him on the 5th May, on his way
from Lhasa to take up the duties of Tungling
at Shigatse. The Chinese, it seems, have
lately been trying to drill the local tribesmen
after European fashion, and the Chinese
officer in command was obliged to punish
some of the Tibetan recruits for stupidity. This
punishment (which apparently took the form
of a public flogging) incensed the wild levies,
and they rose and attacked the house of the
Chinese Amban by night, killing him, his
servants, and the Chinese guard—over 100
persons in all. Eastern Tibet, according to
this official, is in a very disturbed state
generally, and the Chinese talk of sending a
large body of troops to restore order.
As regards the rebellion in Nyarong
(see paragraph 6 of the Memorandum for
April 1905), Mr. Bell furnishes the following
version of the affair. About eleven years ago,
there was a dispute between the Chinese and
Tibetans over this country. The Dalai Lama
suspecting that the Chinese official concerned
in the dispute, who is called in Tibetan the
Trintu T’sungtu (apparently the Viceroy of
Szechuan),had not represented matters correctly
to the Emperor of China, asked the Amban to
report his (Dalai Lama’s) views to the Em
peror, and, the Amban declining, wrote to the
Emperor himself. As a result, war was avoid
ed and Nyarong was recognised as part of
Tibet. From time to time since then, there
have been disputes between the Chinese and
the Tibetans about the Nyarong territory.
In the present dispute the Tibetans again
suspect that matters have not been correctly
reported to the Emperor of China, and it is
thought that a letter may again be sent to
the Emperor. Meanwhile Militia from Kong-
po (a sub-province east of Lhasa) and from
the Shotar-lho-Sum and Traya districts in
Kam have been sent to Nyarong under the
leadership of two monk-officials named
Jamyang Tempa and Trakpa Kenden. In a
subsequent report Mr. Bell states that nego
tiations about Nyarong are going on between
a high official of the Chinese Government
(apparently the Viceroy of Szechuan) and the
Tibetan Government through the Chikyap
(Tibetan Governor) of Nyarong.