The Snow Lion and the British Lion continues...

In spite of the 1904 treaty with Tibet having been secured through a military expedition, a sense of exasperation with the Tibetans is noticeable in the next treaty to be signed, the one with China in 1906.

This is probably because, to quite an extent, the Tibetans had in all probability signed the 1904 treaty partly with an attitude of ‘Okay, we’re signing; now please hurry up and go’, and did not have much intention of actually complying with everything stipulated therein after the British Indian force had left Tibet.

The 1906 treaty with China was to further legitimize the British position in Tibet, and also to show the world a de jure cover to their marginalization of the Chinese Government’s influence in central Tibet.

The 13th Dalai Lama (the previous Dalai Lama), the one who had declared the independence of Tibet, was a very far-sighted ruler, and having correctly judged that the Choe-Yon relationship with China was over, decide that Tibet needed to arm itself for its own protection.

He decided to modernize the almost-medieval army, and in spite of the reluctance of the government, he used his authority to push through some military reform. The Tibetan army was experimentally given three different types of training: one regiment was trained the Japanese way, one in the Russian manner, and a third regiment by British officers.

After the experiment, the Dalai Lama chose the British method, and began to have Tibetan troops trained by this system. This worried the Chinese.

To be continued....