Wind Between the Worlds PDF
Preview Wind Between the Worlds
WIND between the WORLDS WIND between the WORLDS by ROBERT FORD /// DAVID McKAY COMPANY, INC. New York COPYRIGHT, © 1957, BY DAVID MCKAY COMPANY, INC. All rights reserved, including the right to repro duce this book, or parts thereof, in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. Author's Note I have changed a few names and circum stantial details to avoid the possibility of further persecutions as a result of this book. R. F. r". cr r*; c*. P< t La t. f > 5 i b 4 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA VAN REES PRESS NEW YORK Contents PART I THE THREAT 1. The Red Peril 3 2. Moment of Decision 20 3. The Khamba Levies 39 4. Arms and the Monks 55 5. Two Britons in Kham 72 6. The Red Lama 86 7. Border Question 98 8. Before the Storm 113 PART II INVASION 9. The Battle for Kham 135 10. The Way to Lhasa 153 11. Return to Chamdo 175 12. Journey to the East 194 PART III IN JAIL 13. Interrogation 215 14. Fear 235 15. The Small Dark Room 246 16. The Only Way Out 264 17. Confession 273 18. Spreading the Toothpaste 288 19. Thought Reform 301 20. Sentence 314 21. Freedom 326 P A R T I THE THREAT 1 The Red Peril THE CHINESE WERE COMING. I HAD JUST HEARD THEM SAY SO. "The tasks for the People's Liberation Army for 1950, announced Radio Peking, "are to liberate Taiwan [Formosa], Hainan, and Tibet." I switched off the radio and told my boy Tenne to saddle my pony. Suddenly I felt a foreigner and alone. "What is the news, Phodo Kusho? asked Lobsang, one of the two clerks attached to the radio station. I told him. "You and Tashi had better think about sending your wives and children back to Lhasa," I added as I went out. The frontier's less than a hundred miles away. If anyone wants me I've gone to see the Governor General. The Germans had been less than a hundred miles away when I heard them say they were going to invade England in 1940, but it had been easy to deride Lord HawHaw in a packed N.A.A.F.I. at Cranwell. Now, as the only European in eastern Tibet, I could not raise even a wry smile at that anonymous voice from Peking. It separated me from all the people of Tibet. I had always laughed when the newspapers 4 WIND BETWEEN THE WORLDS called me the loneliest Briton in the world, but this made me feel I was. For I was not down on the list for liberation; the Tibetans were to be liberated from me. It was the first of January and bitterly cold, and I drew my furlined blue silk robe closer as I mounted my pony. Tenne rode in front and set the pace, which was slow. Haste would have been undignified for a Tibetan government official whatever his mission, and in any case the rough track that passed for the main street of Chamdo was heavily iced. I had become a careful rider since I put myself so far beyond the reach of medical aid that a broken leg would mean death or at least deformity for life. Some women were shopping at the stalls; others churned butter tea in front of their wattleanddaub houses. Children kicked a shuttlecock in the Chinese style. Claretrobed monks walked along telling their beads and murmuring prayers. Old Smiler, the beggar, turned his prayer wheel and stuck out his tongue, paying me the Tibetan's highest mark of respect. Two men and a woman in sheepskins proceeded painfully along the icy street in a series of fulllength prostrations. They would reach Lhasa in six months if they were lucky, and had a fiftyfifty chance of dying on the way. But they could be sure of rebirth in a higher station next time. Slowly as we rode, it took us less than five minutes to go through this, the principal town of Kham, the eastern prov ince of Tibet. r The Ngom Chu River, flanking Chamdo on the west, was frozen hard, and heavily laden yaks were being driven across .01 Tt, J USed 1116 old wooden cantilever bridge, which still had doors as a reminder of the last time the town was besieged. For comfort I took a second glance at the bullet marks on them, which had been made when the Tibetans took up arms. They won that fight and drove the Chinese THE RED PERIL 5 out, and the bullet marks were only thirtytwo years old. We rode up the river for a few minutes, and then across a small plain to the Governor General's Residency. It was a new building made of rammed earth, freshly whitewashed and looking bright and clean. Two eightyfoot poles supported huge prayer flags on either side of the gateway, and the wind turned a prayer wheel on the flat roof. Tenne dismounted and led my pony in. Mounted sentries presented arms, and a servant ran across the courtyard to help me at the dismount ing stone. Mastiffs snarled and strained at their chains. The steward came out and bowed, and led me upstairs. Lhalu Shape, Governor General of Kham and one of the four Cabinet Ministers who were the chief rulers of Tibet, rose from his cushion as I entered his private room and bowed. He was wearing a bright yellow robe with a red sash. His plaited hair was tied in a double topknot with a golden amulet or charm box in the middle, and a long gold andturquoise earring dangled from his left ear. On one of his fingers glittered a diamond ring which he wore on the advice of his personal physician to protect his health. He walked across and shook hands. Butter tea was served, and as I blew off the scum I made the usual polite remarks. But Lhalu could see I was im patient to tell him why I had come. "There is news?" he asked. I told him the news. It was not a complete surprise to either of us, for there had been vague threats from Peking before. But this was chillingly definite. Lhalu picked up his rosary and began to tell his beads. "They will not come yet," he said. I agreed. They could not invade Tibet yet, for they were still five hundred miles from the frontier. It was not much more than a month since Chungking had fallen and Chiang
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