AGWANG DORZHIEV-BETWEEN CZAR’S RUSSIA AND DALAI LAMA’S TIBET 1889-1907

Abstract

Since the late 19 century and early 20 century, Tibet became more and more strategic place for British because Russian Czar’s expansion into Central Asia directly threatened to India-‘the jewel in the crown’ of the British Empire. As a result, British government hurried its diplomatic step toward Tibet. In 1893, Qing government signed a contract with British, without Tibetan representative, promising British special trade rights in Tibet. Under such circumstances, Dozhiev, a Buriat Lama, also a close adviser of Thirteenth Dalai Lama, urged His Holiness to seek help from Czar’s Russia to prevent Tibet from British expansion since Manchu Qing was not powerful enough to protect Tibet anymore. This short paper tries to answer the questions like, what was the nature of his missions to Russia? And what was the relationship between Tibet and Russia during his missions in boarder international power relations?