230 The National Geographic Magazine 



Copyright, 1904, by O. T. Crosby 



A Group of Lamas, Ladakh 



hostility to strangers of the Tibetan 

 people exist almost entirely in the imag- 

 ination of novelists and unfriendly polit- 

 ical writers. True, they do not desire 

 the Western civilization and they resent 

 the intrusion of white men in their do- 

 mestic affairs. They are satisfied with 

 their lot, and desire nothing better. 



' ' The exclusiveness is more Chinese 

 than Tibetan, for the Chinese exercise 



a wide influence in the country. They 

 feel the incursion of foreigners into 

 China has not been altogether happy 

 in its results, and the tales the Chinese 

 envoys and other representatives have 

 told have alarmed the timid Tibetans 

 and made them pitifully anxious to 

 avoid the same fate. 



' ' I have never felt there existed any 

 real danger to England's sway in India 



