For more information on Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, visit Britannica.com.
Francis Younghusband
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Sir Francis Edward Younghusband |
| 5min Related Video: Francis Younghusband |
| Biography: Sir Francis Edward Younghusband |
Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942) was an English soldier, explorer, leader of an expedition to Lhasa, and the founder of the World Fellowship of Faiths.
Born into a family with strong military and Indian connections, Francis Younghusband duly entered the army and was posted to India in 1882. The lure of exploration in mountainous frontiers of strategic importance took him, on leave in 1886, across central Asia from Manchuria through Inner Mongolia and Sinkiang - regions where Russian interest was evident - to Kashmir, which he entered by the exacting Mustagh Pass. Accepted into the Foreign Service of the Indian government, he reconnoitered Russian activities in Hunza, where he crossed the extremely difficult, unexplored Saltoro Pass.
In 1891 Younghusband again encountered the Russians in the Pamir, and he was arrested and deported from territory claimed by them. On leave in 1895, he covered for the London Times the relief, from attack by local tribesmen, of the northwestern outpost of Chitral. When stationed there earlier, Younghusband had met George Curzon, traveling privately in Asia.
In 1903 Curzon, then viceroy of India, chose Younghusband to lead a mission to negotiate with the Tibetans, who were encouraging Russian overtures while contumeliously rejecting neighborly relations with India. Progress was inhibited by disagreement between the clear-sighted viceroy and the vacillating Balfour ministry in London; but, after prolonged Tibetan obstruction on the chilly Himalayan border, approval was given for a military expedition through unmapped mountain tracks and eventually to Lhasa itself.
In difficulty and danger Younghusband was a self-possessed, resolute, and fearless leader, but his humane nature was saddened by the losses inflicted on the illmatched Tibetans before they were overcome in two sharp engagements. Reaching Lhasa in August 1904, he was urged to conclude a treaty speedily and withdraw before winter. Slow communications with London precluded an exchange of views, and the favorable response of the Tibetans to Younghusband's generous integrity led him to include in the final terms two conditions advantageous to India but which went beyond his brief. They were reversed by London; and, through the animosity of the secretary of state for India, St. John Brodrick, who suspected he had flouted orders at Curzon's instigation, Younghusband though awarded a knighthood was also officially reprimanded. That injustice to a remarkable achievement was only redressed 17 years later by a subsequent administration. Meanwhile, showing no bitterness, Younghusband enjoyed four years as the Resident in Kashmir before retiring at the age of 47.
Thereafter, as president of the Royal Geographical Society, Younghusband, characteristically, promoted expeditions to Mt. Everest. But the dominant interest in the remaining years of his long life was a mystical idealism, present at all times, that inspired him to lead with vigorous but benign enthusiasm a crusade for worldwide religious unity. Younghusband was married and had one son and one daughter.
Further Reading
Younghusband's life and character are sensitively depicted in George Seaver, Francis Younghusband: Explorer and Mystic (1952). Peter Fleming, Bayonets to Lhasa (1961), gives a brilliant account of the Tibetan expedition. Both books contain lists of Younghusband's own published works.
Additional Sources
French, Patrick, Younghusband: the last great imperial adventurer, London: Harper Collins, 1994.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Sir Francis Edward Younghusband |
Younghusband, Sir Francis Edward, 1863-1942, British explorer, b. India. He explored Manchuria in 1886. The following year he journeyed from China to India, crossing the Gobi desert and the Mustagh Pass (alt. c.19,000 ft/5,791 m) of the Karakorum range. Lord Curzon, the British viceroy in India, sent Younghusband with a military expedition into Tibet in 1904, where he forced a treaty upon the Dalai Lama, opening Tibet to Western trade. Later he surveyed the Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers and the upper reaches of the Indus. He three times tried and failed to scale Mt. Everest. His books include Heart of a Continent (1898), India and Tibet (1912), and Everest: the Challenge (1936).
Bibliography
See biography by G. Seaver (1953); P. Fleming, Bayonets to Lhasa (1961).
| Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Sir Francis Edward Younghusband |
(1863-1942)
British explorer, soldier, author, and mystic. Born at Murree, India, May 31, 1863, he was educated at Clifton and Sand-hurst, England. He joined the British army in 1882.
From 1886 to 1887 he traveled across central Asia from Peking to Yarkand and on to India, crossing the Karakoram Range by the Muztagh Pass. He discovered the Aghil Mountains and showed that the Great Karakoram was the water divide between India and Turkistan. On later explorations beyond the Karakoram he was able to trace the river Shaksgam to its junction with the Yarkand, and explored the Pamirs. During his period in the 1st Dragoon Guards, Younghusband held the rank of captain.
In 1890 he transferred to the Indian political department and served in northwest frontier stations. He visited South Africa in 1896. He was a special correspondent for The Times news-paper, London, in the Chitral Expedition in 1895 and a political agent in Haraoti and Tonk in 1898. While residing in India, he was the British Commissioner to Tibet (1902-04). He led the British mission to Lhasa, culminating in the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of September 7, 1904. For this he was honored by the decoration of Knight Commander of the Indian Empire. He was one of the first modern British explorers to investigate the almost legendary territory of Tibet and enter the mysterious city of Lhasa, long fabled by Theosophists and others as the center of mysterious adepts and Masters. While he discovered no secret occult forces, he did develop a sympathetic consideration of Eastern religions and an appreciation of their spirituality.
In 1905 he returned to England, where he became Rede lecturer at Cambridge University before traveling to Kashmir as Resident. He was honored as Knight Commander of the Star of India in 1917. After his retirement in 1919, he became chairman of the Royal Geographical Society, who had awarded him their gold medal in 1891. He also formed and was chairman of the Mount Everest Committee.
Younghusband typified the best of the old-style British patriots of the British Empire period. He was an excellent and courageous soldier and explorer, yet deeply sympathetic to the aspirations and spiritual ideals of other peoples. He recognized the need for self-government in India. His book Modern Mystics (1935; reissued University Books, 1970) expressed his sympathy with the spirituality of different religions and his belief in an underlying unity. In 1936 he founded the World Congress of Faiths. His books include: But in Our Lives (1926), The Heart of Nature (1921), India and Tibet (1910), Within (1912), The World Congress of Faith (1938), and World Fellowship of Faiths (1935).
He died at Lytchett Minster, near Poole, Britain, on July 31, 1942.
Sources:
Samuel, Herbert L. Man of the Spirit: Sir Francis Younghus-band. London, 1953.
Seaver, George F. Francis Younghusband: Explorer and Mystic. London, 1952.
| Wikipedia: Francis Younghusband |
Francis Younghusband
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, KCSI, KCIE (31 May 1863 - 31 July 1942, Dorset[1]) was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer. He is remembered chiefly for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British expedition to Tibet, which he led, during which a massacring of Tibetan soldiers occurred [2], and for his writings on Asia and foreign policy. Younghusband held positions including British commissioner to Tibet and President of the Royal Geographical Society.
Contents |
Early life
Francis Younghusband was born in 1863 at Murree, British India (now Pakistan) to a British military family, John Younghusband and his wife Clara Jane Shaw. Clara's brother, Robert Shaw, was a noted explorer of Central Asia.
As an infant, Francis was taken to live in England by his mother. When Clara returned to India in 1867 she left her son in the care of two austere and strictly religious aunts. In 1870 his mother and father returned to England and reunited the family. In 1876 at age thirteen, Francis entered Clifton College, Bristol. In 1881 he entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and in 1882 he was commissioned as a subaltern in the 1st King's Dragoon Guards.
Military career
In 1886-1887, on leave from his regiment, Younghusband made an expedition through Manchuria, crossing the Gobi Desert and pioneering a route from Kashgar and India through the uncharted Mustagh Pass.[3] For this achievement he was elected the youngest member of the Royal Geographic Society and received the society's gold medal.
In 1889, Younghusband was dispatched with a small escort of Gurkha soldiers to survey an uncharted region of the Hunza valley and the Khunjerab Pass through the Karakoram mountain range. Whilst encamped in a remote area of Hunza, Younghusband received a messenger at his camp, inviting him to dinner with Captain Bronislav Gromchevsky, his Russian counterpart in "The Great Game". Younghusband accepted the invitation to Gromchevsky's camp, and after dinner the two rivals talked into the night, sharing brandy and vodka, and discussing the possibility of a Russian invasion of British India. Gromchevsky impressed Younghusband with the horsemanship skills of his Cossack escort, and Younghusband impressed Gromchevsky with the rifle drill of his Gurkhas. After their meeting in this remote frontier region, Gromchevsky resumed his expedition in the direction of Kashmir and Younghusband continued his exploration of Hunza.
During his service in Kashmir, he wrote a book called 'Kashmir' at the request of Edward Molyneux. Younghusband's descriptions went hand in hand with his paintings of the Valley by Molyneux. In the book, Younghusband declared his immense admiration of the natural beauty of Kashmir and its history.
In 1890, Younghusband transferred to the Indian Political Service. He served as a political officer on secondment from the British Army.
The Great Game, between Britain and Russia, continued beyond the turn of the century. Younghusband, among other explorers such as Sven Hedin, Nikolai Przhevalsky and Sir Aurel Stein, participated in earnest.[4] Rumors of Russian expansion into the Hindu Kush and a Russian presence in Tibet prompted the Viceroy of India Lord Curzon to appoint Younghusband, by then a Major, to serve as British commissioner to Tibet from 1902-1904. In 1903-1904, under orders from Curzon, Younghusband, jointly with John Claude White, the Political Officer for Sikkim, led a British expedition to Tibet, whose putative aim was to settle disputes over the Sikkim-Tibet border but whose true aim was to establish British hegemony in Tibet; the expedition controversially became (by exceeding instructions from London) a de facto invasion and occupation of Tibet.[5] About one hundred miles inside Tibet, on the way to Gyangzê, thence to the capital of Lhasa, a confrontation outside the hamlet of Guru led to the massacre, by the expedition, of 600-700 Tibetan militia.[6] The British force was supported by King Ugyen Wangchuck of Bhutan, who was knighted in return for his services.
In 1904, Younghusband received the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire; and in 1917, the superior title of Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India.
In 1906, Younghusband settled in Kashmir as the British representative before returning to Britain where he became an active member of many clubs and societies. During World War I his patriotic Fight for Right campaign commissioned the song Jerusalem.
Himalaya and mountaineering
Younghusband was elected President of the Royal Geographic Society in 1919, and two years later became Chairman of the Mount Everest Committee which was set up in 1921 to co-ordinate the reconnaissance of Mount Everest.[7] He actively encouraged climbers, including George Mallory, to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest, and they followed the same initial route as the earlier Tibet Mission.
In 1938 Younghusband encouraged Ernst Schäfer, who was about to lead a German expedition to Tibet, to "sneak over the border" when faced with British intransigence towards Schäfer's efforts to reach Tibet.[8]
Spiritual life
Biographer Patrick French describes Younghusband as one who was
- brought up an Evangelical Christian, read his way into Tolstoyan simplicity, experienced a revelatory vision in the mountains of Tibet, toyed with telepathy in Kashmir, proposed a new faith based on virile racial theory, then transformed it into what Bertrand Russell called 'a religion of atheism.' [9]
Ultimately he became what French calls a "premature hippy" who "had great faith in the power of cosmic rays, and claimed that there are extraterrestrials with translucent flesh on the planet Altair." [10]
During his 1904 retreat from Tibet, Younghusband had a mystical experience which suffused him with "love for the whole world" and convinced him that "men at heart are divine." [11] This conviction led him to regret his invasion of Tibet, and eventually, in 1936, to found the World Congress of Faiths (in imitation of the World Parliament of Religions).
Younghusband published a number of books with what we might call New Age themes, with titles like The Gleam: Being an account of the life of Nija Svabhava, pseud. (1920); Mother World (in Travail for the Christ that is to be) (1924); and Life in the Stars: An Exposition of the View that on some Planets of some Stars exist Beings higher than Ourselves, and on one a World-Leader, the Supreme Embodiment of the Eternal Spirit which animates the Whole (1927). (This last was admired by Lord Baden-Powell, the Boy Scouts founder.) [12] Key concepts include what would come to be known as the Gaia hypothesis, pantheism, and a Christlike "world leader" living on the planet "Altair" (or "Stellair"), who radiates spiritual guidance by means of telepathy.
Younghusband also came to believe in free love ("freedom to unite when and how a man and a woman please"), marriage laws being a matter of "outdated custom." [13] He wrote his longtime lover Madeline, Lady Lees that "I have made the discovery that bodily union does not impair soul union but heightens and tightens it." [14] Lees agreed. French, restoring censored passages from Younghusband's correspondence, discovered a letter from him suggesting that Lees was pregnant with Younghusband's child:
- ...why shouldn't an exceptionally spiritual woman like you who has already had the idea of giving birth to a Christ and who is now wedded in the spirit [to me?] crown her experience and give birth to a God-Child who will manifest God more completely even than Jesus did? [15]
The identity of the child is unknown, and its existence cannot be confirmed.
One of Younghusband's domestic servants, Gladys Aylward, became a Christian missionary to China. The Ingrid Bergman film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is based on her life, with an actor portraying Younghusband. [16]
Footnotes
- ^ Anon. 1942 Obituary: Sir Francis Edward Younghusband. Geographical Review 32(4):681
- ^ French, p. 222 - 227.
- ^ Younghusband, Francis E. (1896). The Heart of a Continent, pp. 58-290. John Murray, London. Facsimile reprint: (2005) Elbiron Classics.
- ^ David Nalle (June 2000). "Book Review - Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia" (in English) (HTML). Middle East Policy (Washington, USA: Blackwell Publishers) VII (3). ISSN 1061-1924. http://www.mepc.org/journal_vol7/0006_nalle.asp.
- ^ "Tibetans' fight against British invasion". En.Tibet.cn – China Tibet Information Center. http://en.tibet.cn/history/tib/t20050309_14950.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
- ^ Morris, James: Farewell the Trumpets (Faber & Faber, 1979), p.102.
- ^ http://www.mountain-portal.co.uk/text/everest/Evrst02.htm Text of The Epic of Mount Everest, Sir Francis Younghusband.
- ^ Hale, Christopher. Himmler's Crusade (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003) pp. 149-151
- ^ French, p. 313.
- ^ French, p. xx
- ^ quoted in French, p. 252.
- ^ French, p. 321
- ^ French, p. 283
- ^ French, p.385.
- ^ in French, p. 402.
- ^ French., p. 364
Further reading
- Allen, Charles. (2004) Duel in the Snows: The True Story of the Younghusband Mission to Lhasa. John Murray (Publishers), London. ISBN 0-7195-5427 6.
- Broadbent, Tom On Younghusband's Path: Peking to Pindi (ISBN 0-9548542-2-5, pub. 2005).
- Candler, Edmund The Unveiling of Lhasa. (Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd ?1905)
- Carrington, Michael Officers Gentlemen and Thieves: The Looting of Monasteries during the 1903/4 Younghusband Mission to Tibet, Modern Asian Studies 37, 1 (2003), PP 81-109.
- Fleming, Peter Bayonets to Lhasa (ISBN 0-583881-583861-9, reprint 1986).
- French, Patrick Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer (ISBN 0-00-637601-0, reprint 1997).
- Hopkirk, Peter The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (ISBN 1-56836-022-3, reprint 1994).
- Younghusband, Sir Francis The Epic of Mount Everest (ISBN 0-330-48285-8, reprint 2001).
- Younghusband, Sir Francis Modern Mystics (ISBN 1-4179-8003-6, reprint 2004).
- For an academic article relating to the Tibet Mission read: Carrington, Michael: "Officers Gentlemen and Thieves: The Looting of Monasteries during the 1903/4 Younghusband Mission to Tibet", Modern Asian Studies 37, 1 (2003), PP 81-109.
- Younghusband wrote 26 books in all between 1895 and 1942. Subjects ranged from Asian events, Exploration, Mountaineering, Philosophy, Spirituality, Politics and more.
- Meyer, Karl E.; Brysac, Shareen Blair (October 25, 1999). Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia. Basic Books. ISBN 978-1582431062.
External links
- India and Tibet (1910)
- Works of Francis Younghusband at Project Gutenberg
- Archival material relating to Francis Younghusband listed at the UK National Register of Archives
- World Congress of Faiths' own account of their origins
- Royal Geographic Society photograph of Younghusband's Mission to Tibet
- 1st King's Dragoon Guards (regiments.org)
- The heart of nature (1921) (scanned book)
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | Charles De Boville (parapsychology) |
| World Congress of Faiths (parapsychology) |
| Tibet (region, China) |
 | Who is rachel francis? Read answer... |
| Who is Francie Nolan? Read answer... |
| Who was francis drake? Read answer... |
Help us answer these
 | Who is francis plete? |
| Who was Francis Butter? |
| Who is Simon Francis? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
|
| Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Copyright © 2001 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Francis Younghusband". Read more |
Related answers
- Who is Francis Albert?
- Who is Francis Smith?
- Was francis drake an?
- The meaning of Francis?
- Who is francie crowell?
- Who is francis graffin?
ADVERTISEMENT
Answer these
- Relationship of Francis Younghusband to George Younghusband?
- Who is Francis Clark?
- How is francis ferdinand?
- Who was francis willard?
Mentioned in
- Charles De Boville (parapsychology)
- World Congress of Faiths (parapsychology)
- Tibet (region, China)
- Great Game (intelligence)
