Sir Charles Alfred Bell (October 31, 1870 – March 8, 1945) was the British Political Officer for

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...

and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. He was known as "British India's ambassador to Tibet" before retiring and becoming a noted

tibetologist Tibetology () refers to the study of things related to Tibet, including its history, religion, language, culture, politics and the collection of Tibetan articles of historical, cultural and religious significance. The last may mean a collection of ...

Biography

He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

, and then at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, after which he joined the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

in 1891. In 1908, he was appointed Political Officer in

. He soon became very influential in Sikkimese and

Bhutanese politics The Government of Bhutan has been a constitutional monarchy since 18 July 2008. The King of Bhutan is the head of state. The executive power is exercised by the Lhengye Zhungtshog, or council of ministers, headed by the Prime Minister of Bhutan ...

, and in 1910 he met the 13th Dalai Lama, who had been forced into temporary exile by the Chinese. He got to know him quite well, and later wrote his biography (''Portrait of the Dalai Lama'', published in 1946). In 1913 he participated in the

Simla Convention The Simla Convention, officially the Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet,

, a treaty between Great Britain, China and Tibet concerning the status of Tibet. Before the summit, he met in

Gyantse Gyantse, officially Gyangzê Town (also spelled Gyangtse; ; ), is a town located in Gyantse County, Shigatse Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was historically considered the third largest and most prominent town in the Tibet region ( ...

with Paljor Dorje Shatra, the Tibetan representative to the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...

and advised him to bring to

Simla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, the ...

with him all documents concerning relations between China and Tibet, as well as Tibetan claims to land occupied by China. Bell was designated to assist the Tibetans in the negotiations, with Archibald Rose assigned to be his counterpart for the Chinese. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the

1915 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1915 were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were announced on 1 January 1915. Order of the Bath Knight Commander (KCB) ;C ...

for his services. In 1919 he resigned as Britain's political officer in Sikkim to devote himself full-time to his research. However, London sent him to

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

in 1920 as a special ambassador. After travelling through Tibet and visiting

in 1920, he retired to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he wrote a series of books on the history, culture and religion of Tibet. He was awarded a knighthood for his Lhasa Mission in 1922. Palhese, Bell's Tibetan friend and confidant travelled to England in 1927-28 to assist him in editing several of these books. 13th Dalai Lama, Sir Charles Bell and Maharaj Kumar Sidkeong Trul-ku

13th Dalai Lama, Sir Charles Bell and Maharaj Kumar Sidkeong Trul-ku

Some of the photographs that he took in Tibet can be found in the

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed t ...

in Oxford. Some of these were included in the 1997 book ''Tibet: Caught in Time''. His English-Tibetan colloquial dictionary was first published in 1905 together with a grammar of colloquial Tibetan as ''Manual of Colloquial Tibetan''. Peter Fleming mentions Bell in the introduction to the book ''

Seven Years in Tibet ''Seven Years in Tibet: My Life Before, During and After'' (1952; german: Sieben Jahre in Tibet. Mein Leben am Hofe des Dalai Lama; 1954 in English) is an autobiographical travel book written by Austrian mountaineer and Nazi SS sergeant Heinrich ...

'' by

Heinrich Harrer Heinrich Harrer (; 6 July 1912 – 7 January 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, ''Oberscharführer'' in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), and author. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of th ...

, Flamingo imprint 1997, specifically his surprisingly close relationship to the 13th Dalai Lama even though he was a foreigner.

References

Works

*''Manual of Colloquial Tibetan''. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1905. (Part II, English-Tibetan vocabulary; later editions 1919 and 1939)
''Portrait of a Dalai Lama: the Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth''
by Charles Alfred Bell, Sir Charles Bell, Publisher: Wisdom Publications (MA), January 1987, (first published as ''Portrait of the Dalai Lama'': London: Collins, 1946). *''Tibet: Past and Present''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924 *''The People of Tibet''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928 *''The Religion of Tibet''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931 *''Tibet: Caught in Time''. Reading: Garnet, 1997. Contains photographs by Charles Bell and John Claude White

External links

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080717053904/http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/publication_%27The%2BPeople%2Bof%2BTibet%27%2C%2BSir%2BCharles%2BBell%2C%2BOxfo.html List of illustrations from 'The People of Tibet', Sir Charles Bell, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928]
Photo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Charles Alfred Tibetologists 1870 births 1945 deaths Ambassadors to Tibet Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire People educated at Winchester College Alumni of New College, Oxford British people in colonial India