Audience of the Two Kings.
Following the _de facto_ King into a royal apartment, I saw His
Highness take his seat first, followed by another who sat by him and
whom I took for a Minister of State. I subsequently found out that the
second gentleman was no less a personage than his Majesty the real
King of Nepāl. The audience took the form of a catechism, which was in
substance as follows:
“I understand that you have been to Tibet: what made you undertake the
adventure?”
“In order to complete my study of Buḍḍhism, Your Highness,” replied I.
“I am told,” said the Prime Minister, “that while in Tibet you were in
friendly intercourse with the nobles and high priests of that country:
who is the most powerful person in Tibet just now?”
“As a Buḍḍhist priest,” answered I, “I devoted all my time to the study
of Buḍḍhism and had no opportunity to make myself acquainted with the
political condition of that country.”
“There is no occasion whatever for you to be reserved; Tibet and our
country are on the most friendly terms with each other, and your
divulgence will do no harm. I want to know these things only for my
own information: besides, I know that you are well posted on things
Tibetan.”
“Your Highness, I am well aware of the amicable relations existing
between Nepāl and Tibet: I only wish to speak of nothing of which I
have no accurate information.”
“I understand that;” said the Minister; “I do not mean to find fault
with you: I shall only be pleased to hear your opinion on the subject.”
“May it please Your Highness, then, the most powerful personage in
Tibet at present is, I think, the Dalai Lama himself, and the man of
the greatest influence among his subjects, Shata.”
“What do you think of the position of the Chinese representative in
Tibet in relation to the Hierarchy?”
“I think his influence is in decadence now, Your Highness.”
“How do you account for that, Mr. Kawaguchi?”
“I imagine it all comes from the impotency of the Peking Government, on
the one hand, and from the fact of His Holiness being a man of great
ability, decision and political acumen.”
“Do you know Tsan-ni Kenbo of Russia?”
“No, Your Highness. He was not in Lhasa while I was there.”
“But you must have heard something about him?”
“That I have,” I admitted.
“Who among the Government officials of Tibet is said to be on the most
friendly terms with him? Do you think he enjoys the confidence of the
Dalai Lama, as well as that of His Holiness’s high officials?”
“Shata alone, with the Dalai Lama, seems to place infinite confidence
in Russia; but the latter is an object, as far as I know, of much
distrust and dislike to all others.”
Here the true King, sitting next to the Prime-Minister, asked in
Nepālese whether or not what I was saying coincided with the stock
of information in this latter’s possession. The reply was a full
affirmative. Then the catechism was resumed:
“Supposing,” asked the Minister “that Tibet concludes a secret treaty
with Russia, do you think that our neighbor will be able to give effect
to such a treaty?”
“In my humble opinion, Your Highness, there will be nothing to prevent
the two Governments concluding such a treaty; but the moment it
is made public and an attempt is made to put its stipulations into
practice, one of two things will happen--either the poisoning of the
Dalai Lama, or a popular uprising.”
“What makes you hold such a view?”
“Because,” replied I, “so far as I can see, the majority of the
Government authorities and the people in general are opposed to such a
state of things, even though a few persons may be in its favor.”
The Prime-Minister-King asked me some other questions, but these I
may omit here, with the answers which I made. The point he seemed to
be most anxious to know was the secret path I took in entering Tibet.
For a moment I thought of satisfying his curiosity, but prudence
counselled forbearance, and I kept silence; because I thought that the
divulgence on my part might involve some of my erstwhile friends and
acquaintances in serious trouble. Consequently I excused myself on the
ground that my poor command of English was not equal to the task of
narrating so complicated a tale, and that I might have an occasion,
when in the Nepālese capital, of imparting the whole story to some of
his Highness’s trusted officials who understood Tibetan.
The last question I was asked on the occasion was: “What has
transformed Japan into so great a power as she is now?” I, of course,
answered that it was the result of education and patriotism. I was then
excused from the royal presence with the instruction that I should
return there at two o’clock the following afternoon.