A Study of the Treaty of the First Tibet-Gorkha War of 1789

CHAPTER 7 A Study of the Treaty of the First Tibet-Gorkha War of 1789

Yuri Komatsubara

Introduction

In 1788, the Gorkha kingdom of Nepal attacked the gTsang district of Tibet and the first Tibet-Gorkha war broke out. Although Tibet concluded a treaty with the Gorkha to end the war in 1789, it failed to pay the reparations to the Gorkhas stipulated in the treaty. Therefore, the Gorkha armies invaded Tibet again in 1791 and the second Tibet-Gorkha war commenced. On that occa- sion, the Qing court sent a large number of troops to attack the Gorkha armies and the war was over the next year. After these wars, the Qing established Article 29 of the imperial regulations for Tibet (欽定蔵内善後章程二十九条) in 1793. It is said that the Qing court became more influential in Tibetan politics after these wars. That is, the first Tibet-Gorkha war provided an oppor- tunity for the Qing to change its political policies regarding Tibet. From the view point of the South Asian relationship, the Tibet-Gorkha war was the first confrontation between Tibet, Nepal and the Qing. In this way, the war was an important event between Tibet, Nepal and China. Nevertheless, the whole text of the treaty of the first Tibet-Gorkha war was unknown for a long time. Sato (1986: 584) noted that, at that time, the entire contents of the treaty of 1789 were completely unknown. Rose (1971: 42) pointed out that this treaty actually consisted of a number of a letters exchanged between the signatories, and that no single, authoritative text existed. Prem (1980: 36) also noted that the contents of the Tibet, Chinese and Nepalese versions were full of discrepancies. These studies suggest that neither the structure of the treaty nor the existence of the entire text were known. According to rDo ring, the biography of rDo ring Paṇḍita and his son bsTan ’dzin dpal ’byor, and certain Chinese documents, two copies of the main treaty and a supplementary treaty were made, and Tibet and the Gorkhas each kept one copy (rDo ring: 640; Hanwen Lufu: 3-157-7634-42). There is no doubt, that is, that a complete text of the treaty exists. Considering this, I searched the First Historical Archives of China in Beijing for documents, and finally, among

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��7 | doi ��.��63/9789004331259_009 182 komatsubara the documents of Junjichu Hanwen Lufu Zouzhe,1 I found copies of the draft and the entire original texts of the 1789 treaty,2 which had been translated into Chinese. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the original Tibetan document3 at that time. However, there were indications that this Chinese text was sent to Emperor Qianlong, along with with the original Tibetan version. Therefore, there is little possibility that the contents of the text were rewritten. While it is not the original Tibetan version, then, it is a very valuable source for the details of the treaty. For the purpose of this paper, I introduce the previously unknown text of the 1789 treaty and consider how Tibet and the Gorkhas concluded it.

What was the First Tibet-Gorkha War?

In the latter half of the 18th century, before the first Tibet-Gorkha war broke out, Tibetan politics were relatively stable. In domestic affairs, the Dalai Lama was at the head of the government, and the bka’ shag, a ministry consisting of four bka’ blon, supported him politically. Because there was no rgyal tshab, regent of the Dalai Lama’s government, at that time, the Dalai Lama’s uncle Blo bzang phun tshogs played an important role in Tibetan politics.4 In foreign affairs, the threat of the Dzungar Mongols had been removed, which made the relationship with the Qing more stable. The Qing emperor at that time was Emperor Qianlong, who is known as a great supporter of Tibetan Buddhism. In Nepal, the Gorkha—who used to form a small kingdom in Western Nepal— became very powerful and conquered the three kings of the Malla kingdom in 1769; they also occupied the Kathmandu area, which was a centre of com- merce. Furthermore, the Gorkha advanced their troops and invaded Tibet in 1788. In recent studies, two main reasons for the Gorkha invasion of Tibet have been put forward.5 The first was the problem of the coinage. From ancient

1 In the Qing period, there was an official administrative document system by which the provincial officers could report to the throne; this system was also used by the emperor to send back comments directly. Before the reports were returned to the sender, the Junchichu (軍機處) office made copies and preserved them. Junjichu Hanwen Lufu Zouzhe (軍機處漢文録副奏摺) are the copies of these reports, which were written in Chinese. 2 Org. <合同. “合同” is generally translated as “agreement” or “treaty”. There are many differ- ent opinions on its translation, but in this paper, I use “treaty”. 3 bsTan ’dzin dpal ’byor says that this treaty was written in Tibetan and Nepali on paper. (Hanwen Lufu: 3-157-7634-50). 4 On the political role of Blo bzang phun tshogs, see Komatsubara 2002 and 2010. 5 See Sato 1986, Rose 1971, and Regmi 1961.