The End of an Era

Volume 4 (1958-62) looks into the last years of the Indian presence in Tibet. Delhi was living in a dream world; the reports from Lhasa should have alerted the government and at least opened the eyes of the Indian intelligence agencies; it was not to be the case. The closure of the Indian Consulate in Lhasa in mid-December 1962 was the last straw; a few months earlier the Indian Trade Agencies in Yatung, Gyantse, and Gartok had ceased to exist, bringing down the curtain on India’s presence in Tibet. An era had come to an end; Mao’s China did not want any Indians in ‘its’ new colony; a sense of jealousy towards India prevailed. Beijing clearly resented the existence of an age-old civilizational relation between India and Tibet and the goodwill of the Tibetans for India.