Sir Charles Bell (1870-1945)

Charles Alfred Bell was born in Calcutta, India, on 31 October 1870 ?C the son of Henry Bell of the Indian Civil Service (ICS). Educated in Winchester and New College, Oxford, Charles also joined the ICS in 1891 and spent the next nine years in various posts in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, before being transferred to Darjeeling in 1900. It was here that he had his first contact with Tibetans and became fascinated with the people and their culture.

In 1904-5 he was put in charge of administration of the Chumbi Valley area, which had been temporarily ceded by Tibet to Britain under the terms of the Younghusband Treaty. Bell also served time as the acting Political Officer of Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet during the absence of John C. White, before succeeding him in the post in 1908.

The most significant event during Bell’s time as Political Officer was meeting the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in 1910. His Holiness was forced to flee Tibet, seeking refuge in Sikkim, when Chinese invaders entered Lhasa. As Political Officer, it was Bell who was put in charge of dealing with the Dalai Lama. The two formed an intimate and lasting friendship, which was to prove critical to the British in their future negotiations and dealings with Tibet after the Dalai Lama’s return to Lhasa in June 1912. Through their personal relationship, Bell and the Dalai Lama helped to build trust and understanding between the two nations. As Bell himself stated, the assistance given to the Dalai Lama during his exile was “perhaps the chief reason why the British name stand high in Tibet” .

Bell’s Tibetan acumen was next put to use during the British treaty negotiations with the Tibetans in 1913-14. Bell played an important role in these negotiations as advisor on Tibetan affairs to the British plenipotentiary, Sir Henry McMahon. A treaty was signed which set out new Anglo-Tibetan trade regulations. That Tibetans agreed to the deal was very much a reflection of the confidence that the Dalai Lama and his representative, Prime Minister (Lonchen) Shatra, had in Bell. For his part in the negotiations Bell was awarded a C.M.G. (knighthood).

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链接在此

http://www.visualtibet.org/hms/tibet_obj.php?type=photographers&id=6