(TibetanReview.net, Jun13’25) – A China-suspicion has arisen regarding a mysterious online bidder who paid nearly $19,000 for the private papers of Sir Basil Gould, formerly of the Indian Civil Service, who was the political officer for 10 years in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet (1935-45), during the Jun 4 Bonhams Network auction in London.
The Telegraph newspaper said Jun 7 the fear has been raised by a former representative of the Dalai Lama in London, that the papers may have been acquired by China. The representative, Sonam Tsering Frasi, bid for the papers, but his offer could not match that of the online buyer.
The question is, why would the Chinese want the papers? Well, Sir Basil Gould’s private archive is said to include documents written by him that could be cited as proof of Tibet’s “de facto independence in both internal and external affairs” from 1912 until China’s tightening control in the 1950s.
And probable buyers could be trying to snap up Sir Basil’s estate and keep parts of it from the public eye, the report said.
Britain’s politically convenient view was to acknowledged China’s suzerainty – whatever it may have meant at that time – while affirming Tibet’s autonomy, even though Lhasa exercised full treaty-making power, as realized by Britain itself, at that time.
According to the report, the documents are, in that sense, crucial to the narratives of both China and Tibet: the Chinese would rather that the documents never became public because it contradicts their view that Tibet was always a part of China. Beijing is intent on erasing any historical evidence about Tibet’s autonomy or independence.
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Sir Basil served as a British trade agent in Gyantse, Tibet, from 1912 to 1913, and went on to become the British political officer in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet for a decade from 1935.
He attended the enthronement of the current, 14th Dalai Lama, taking a young artist called Kanwal Krishna with him who captured the event with a series of watercolours, which were the highlight of the Jun 4 actions.
The Telegraph understands that the Gould papers in the collection describes how “… since 1912 the Tibetan government… continuously exercised de facto independence in both internal and external affairs”, the report noted.
The paper is stated to go on to say the Chinese Republic declared that Tibet was part of China, that it added that the British took a “middle line” and informed the Chinese that they upheld the autonomy of Tibet “while admitting the suzerainty of China”.
“The writer then goes on to describe how a compromise was later reached in which Tibet was divided into Inner and Outer Tibet –with some degree of Chinese control ‘contemplated for Inner Tibet’, while Outer Tibet was to be autonomous,” the report noted.
The documents were auctioned off as part of a larger lot described as “a large box of papers, letters, manuscripts and other ephemera relating to Tibet”, the report said.
A proof copy of Sir Basil’s 1957 book, The Jewel in the Lotus: Recollections of an Indian Political Officer, which detailed his time in Tibet, was also stated to be included in the lot.
Bonhams does not reveal who its successful bidders were, citing privacy rules.