# Bogle Mission to Bhutan and Tibet (1774)

URL: https://allhistories.com/bhutan/timeline/1774-bogle-mission-to-bhutan-and-tibet
Location: Thimphu, Bhutan
Themes: main-event

On 18 May 1774 Warren Hastings issued instructions to George Bogle, whose aims were to open trade between Bengal and Bhutan and Tibet and to learn about the routes, government and manners of the region. The expedition included Bogle, the army surgeon Alexander Hamilton, an agent of the Sixth Panchen Lama named Purangir Gosain, and servants, and it travelled through Bhutan. The Qing authorities and the Panchen Lama had warned that Bogle could not enter Tibet, but he reached Shigatse regardless. He met the Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo and spent about six months there over the winter of 1774 and 1775. The Panchen Lama received him favourably, and Bogle helped him compose his Geography of India. The trade goal was not met, but the mission built a lasting relationship between the British and the Tibetans and produced Bogle's detailed journals. Further trade missions to Bhutan followed in 1776, 1777 and 1783. Bogle died in 1781, after the Panchen Lama's visit to Beijing had failed to win him a Chinese passport. At this point in the timeline (1774), Kunga Rinchen (1773 – 1776) held office as Druk Desi (Deb Raja), the civil head of the dual system of government, while the Je Khenpo led the monastic body and the penlops and dzongpons held much regional power; Yonten Thaye (1771 – 1775) was Je Khenpo, the chief abbot of the central monastic body; Shākya Tendzin (Zhabdrung speech incarnation), lifespan 1735 – 1775, is recorded as a Zhabdrung incarnation, a religious figure normally without civil office.

## Why it matters
Bogle's journals gave Calcutta its first detailed picture of Bhutan and of the routes into Tibet, and the mission showed both the promise and the limits of trade diplomacy in the Himalaya.

Ruler at the Time: [Kunga Rinchen](https://allhistories.com/bhutan/rulers/kunga-rinchen-1773)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — George Bogle (diplomat)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bogle_(diplomat))
- [Wikipedia — Bhutan–United Kingdom relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_relations)
- [Wikipedia — Warren Hastings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Hastings)