The Great Closed Land. By Annie W. Marston. (S. W
Partridge.)—Mr. La Trobe, of the Moravian Missionary Society, writes a preface to Miss Annie Marston's book, commending it to all who are interested in the works of missions. Thibet is, as our readers will probably have guessed, the " Great Closed Land." To make a way into it, is one of the "forlorn hopes " of missionary enterprise. The policy of exclusion from Thibet has been carried out with surprising success. One Englishman only, Charles Lamb's friend, Manning, has ever reached Lhasa or seen the Grand Lama. This was more than eighty years ago. But some twelve years ago a Bengali, Sarat Chandra Das, in the service of the Indian Government, penetrated the country disguised as a Lama, and in fact repeated Manning's experiences. He found the Grand Lama, as Manning had found him, in the person of a child. In 1886 M. Bonvalot and Prince Henry of Orleans got as far as Dam, but were turned back. Captain Bower, in 1891, was turned back soon after entering the country. It is not impossible that the events that are now taking place in the East may lead, sooner or later, to the unclosing of the "Great Closed Land." Meanwhile the information, however fragmentary, which has been gleaned in these attempts to see the country and its people, is of much interest and value. It is this which the author, who is connected by family with some of the most devoted workers in Thibetan missions, has collected in this volume.
Previous page
