FLEMING : Bayonets to Lhasa (fülszöveg)
The curious adventure which brought British bayonets to Tibet's "Forbidden City" in 1904 was conceived by Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, as a move in the "Great Game" between Russia and England in Central Asia.
Reluctantly sanctioned (and then bedeviled) by the British Government, the expedition was carried out by Colonel Francis Younghusband, soldier, explorer, and mystic—in spite of bitter cold and high altitude no troops have faced before or since.
Thanks to Younghusband's patience, his force of character and his flair, and the heroism of the British and Indian troops who had to fight the Tibetans in mountain passes 19,000 feet high, a treaty was eventually signed in the golden roofed Potala in the heart of Lhasa.
But the story of a singular and creditable achievement is not in all respects a happy one, and in the end Younghusband, who was held to have exceeded his instructions in drawing up the final terms of the treaty, way publicly censured.
In writing Bayonets to Lhasa Mr Fleming has had access to much un published material, including Sir Francis Younghusband's private papers as well as official archives of the India Office and the British Foreign Office and War Office, and he consulted most of the surviving officers. In a concluding chapter Mr. Fleming summarizes later developments in Tibet which led up to the recent invasion by the Chinese Communists.
With masterful authority and the superb prose which earned such high praise for The Siege at Peking, Pete Fleming reconstructs this exotic campaign, its intrigue-laden background and its fateful repercussions.
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| KATALÓGUS | TARTALOM |
