Dharamshala: The Tibet Museum of the Tibetan government in-exile inaugurates an exhibition “Frontier Diplomacy: Britain, Tibet and Sir Basil Gould”, to prove the independent status of Tibet. The Tibet Museum, Sikyong Penpa Tsering, President of Tibetan government in-exile/ Sikyong, along with Frances C. Cutler—the granddaughter of Sir Basil John Gould, who served as the British Political Officer in Sikkim from 1935 to 1945—attended the inauguration of the Museum’s temporary exhibition.
The museum exhibits two letters written by the 14th Dalai Lama on the 25th day of 8th Month Fire Pig of Tibetan Lunar Calendar of 1947 to Sir Basil Gould.
Tenzin Topdhen, Director of Tibet Museum told ANI, “There are two documents of 10th of October 1947, the letters written by the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Sikyong in Tibet have written to Sir Basil Gould in India asking Indian government particularly to Sir Basil Gould to help them for the trade delegation to go to 10 different countries. So this clearly shows that Tibet has a sovereign right as all the entities marking themselves independent country and the amazing thing is the British-India Sir Basil Gould helped the trade agents to go to the different countries and meet the respective countries’ Prime Ministers and presidents.”
“So, the exhibition here is primarily about Tibet and Sir Basil Gould’s relations which is from 1912 till 1945 and we have drawn everything from the book (The Jewels of the Lotus) an autobiography of Sir Basil Gould which clearly shows that all the things that he had witnessed inside Tibet. It proves that whatever China is saying that is completely false. China says that Tibet is a part of China now time immemorial if that would be true, then British India’s political officers would never talk directly to the Tibetan government from 1912 till 1945. He went to Tibet four times and every time he speaks with the Tibetan government as a sovereign country and secondly, of course this document itself is very very important for the Tibetan people and Tibet Museum as well,” Topdhen added further.
Fransis C Cutler, the grand-daughter for Sir Basil Gould from UK told ANI, “We are here today, because this exhibition is about the work of my grandfather and his enormous connection with Tibet and the Tibetan people. The most important thing about the two documents were sent to him in 1947 by the Dalai Lama about the 1947-48 trade mission, and what they show is that at that time Tibet was considered to be an independent sovereign state and not part of China.”
“My parents died, father died in 2014 and mother in 2024 and like a family we had to go through the old papers and my grandfather had amassed quite a lot documents and artefacts to deal with Tibet. When we were going through those documents, we discovered these documents. We had never seen them before my father had shown me something but I am not sure that even he knew significance of these two documents. When we opened them, they looked like they hadn’t been opened for 70 years. It was extraordinary but I really hope that this small donation from our family helps to show that Tibet should be a free and independent country,” Cutler added further.
Penpa Tsering, Sikyong told ANI, “Today’s exhibition is a part of the Tibetan history which covers Sir Basil Gould who served for British India from 1912 onwards, and he visited Tibet several times… He also witnessed so many events in Lhasa, particularly the enthronement of his Holiness, the Dalai Lama as the 14th Dalai Lama so he is an eyewitness of all of historical things that happened in the first half of the 20th century so we have been focusing a lot on history as we follow middle way and one of the aim is the historical status of Tibet as an independent state so Sir Basil Gould’s exhibition from the period of 1912 to 1940s, till he served for British Indian government, and also was a diplomat dealing with the Tibetans…”
“And painting by Krishna Kanwal who accompanied Sir Basil Gould in Lhasa and the paintings of the inauguration of his holiness as the 14th Dalai Lama are still we that wait for. They did some exhibitions, some paintings were sold last year when I was in UK and the family of Sir Basil Gould decided to offer this document for free to the Central Tibetan Administration that’s how it came here and these are historically important for us and I urge every Tibetan to come and look at this, particularly the younger generation to understand where Tibet was from the eyes of a Britisher who served the region. The museum periodically organises museums of different themes and this happens to be one and we are glad that family of Sir Basil Gould also come here,” Tsering said further.
(ANI Input)
