https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Charles_Alfred_BellCharles Alfred Bell - Revision history2026-07-31T19:08:06ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Charles_Alfred_Bell&diff=336182&oldid=prevUpdateBot at 20:10, 19 April 20222022-04-19T20:10:02Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|British civil servant}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}<br />
{{More citations needed|date=February 2013}}<br />
{{infobox person<br />
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], India<br />
| birth_date = October 31, 1870<br />
| death_place = [[Victoria, British Columbia]], Canada<br />
| death_date = {{dda|1945|3|8|1870|10|31}}<br />
| occupation = diplomat, writer, Tibetologist<br />
| name = Charles Alfred Bell<br />
| image = File:Sir_Charles_Alfred_Bell_(Mw63447)_(cropped).jpg<br />
| caption = Bell in 1922<br />
}}<br />
'''Sir Charles Alfred Bell''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|KCIE|CMG}} (October 31, 1870 – March 8, 1945) was the British Political Officer for [[Bhutan]], [[Sikkim]] and [[Tibet]]. He was known as "British India's ambassador to Tibet" before retiring and becoming a noted [[tibetologist]].<br />
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== Biography ==<br />
He was educated at [[Winchester College]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Exploring Everest: 100 years on |url=https://www.winchestercollege.org/stories/everest-100-years-on |website=www.winchestercollege.org |publisher=Winchester College |access-date=15 September 2021 |language=en}}</ref> and then at [[New College, Oxford]], after which he joined the [[Indian Civil Service]] in 1891.<ref>{{cite book| editor1-first=Paul | editor1-last=Dimeo| editor2-first=James | editor2-last=Mills| title =Soccer in South Asia: Empire, Nation, Diaspora| chapter= 'Kicking the Buddha's Head': India, Tibet and Footballing Colonialism| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O2RFRH0zSZ4C&pg=PA89| author=Alex McKay| page=91| year=2001| isbn=9780714681702}}</ref><ref name="Liverpool" /><br />
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In 1908, he was appointed Political Officer in [[Sikkim]]. He soon became very influential in [[Sikkim#Government and politics|Sikkimese]] and [[Bhutanese politics]], and in 1910 he met the [[13th Dalai Lama]], who had been forced into temporary exile by the Chinese. He got to know him quite well, and later wrote his biography (''Portrait of the Dalai Lama'', published in 1946).<br />
[[File:Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama and Charles Alfred Bell in 1910, from- Hastings House Calcutta 1910 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama and Charles Alfred Bell in 1910 at Hastings House [[Calcutta]]|alt=]]<br />
In 1913 he participated in the [[Simla Convention]], a treaty between Great Britain, China and Tibet concerning the status of Tibet. Before the summit, he met in [[Gyantse]] with [[Paljor Dorje Shatra]], the Tibetan representative to the [[British Raj]] at [[Darjeeling]] and advised him to bring to [[Shimla|Simla]] with him all documents concerning relations between [[Tibetan sovereignty debate|China and Tibet]], as well as Tibetan claims to land occupied by China. Bell was designated to assist the Tibetans in the negotiations, with Archibald Rose assigned to be his counterpart for the Chinese. He was appointed a [[Order of St Michael and St George|Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)]] in the [[1915 New Year Honours]] for his services.<br />
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In 1919 he resigned as Britain's political officer in Sikkim to devote himself full-time to his research. However, London sent him to [[Lhasa]] in 1920 as a special ambassador.<ref>{{citation| author=Michael and Barbara Foster|title=Forbidden Journey: the life of [[Alexandra David-Neel]] | publisher=Harper & Row |year=1987 |isbn= 9780062503459}}</ref><br />
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After travelling through Tibet and visiting [[Lhasa]] in 1920, he retired to [[Oxford]], where he wrote a series of books on the history, culture and religion of Tibet. He was awarded a knighthood for his Lhasa Mission in 1922.<ref name="Liverpool" /><br />
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Palhese, Bell's Tibetan friend and confidant travelled to England in 1927-28 to assist him in editing several of these books.<ref name="Liverpool">[http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/collections/item.aspx?tab=people&item=50.31.132&coll=1&mat=35&page=1&expand=51034 Portrait of Sir Charles Bell CMG KCIE], National Museums Liverpool.</ref><br />
[[File:13th Dalai Lama, Sir Charles Bell and Maharaj Kumar Sidkeong Trul-ku.jpg|thumb|324x324px|[[13th Dalai Lama|The 13th Dalai Lama]] (right), Sir Charles Bell (left), and [[Sidkeong Tulku Namgyal|Maharaj Kumar Sidkeong Tulku]] (centre) in Calcutta around March 1910.]]<br />
Some of the photographs that he took in Tibet can be found in the [[Pitt Rivers Museum]] in Oxford. Some of these were included in the 1997 book ''Tibet: Caught in Time''.<br />
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His English-Tibetan colloquial dictionary was first published in 1905 together with a grammar of colloquial Tibetan as ''Manual of Colloquial Tibetan''.<br />
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[[Peter Fleming (writer)|Peter Fleming]] mentions Bell in the introduction to the book ''[[Seven Years in Tibet]]'' by [[Heinrich Harrer]], Flamingo imprint 1997, specifically his surprisingly close relationship to the 13th Dalai Lama even though he was a foreigner.<br />
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==References==<br />
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{{Reflist}}<br />
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== Works ==<br />
*''Manual of Colloquial Tibetan''. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1905. (Part II, English-Tibetan vocabulary; later editions 1919 and 1939)<br />
*''Portrait of a Dalai Lama: the Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth'' by Charles Alfred Bell, Sir Charles Bell, Publisher: Wisdom Publications (MA), January 1987, {{ISBN|978-0-86171-055-3}} (first published as ''Portrait of the Dalai Lama'': London: Collins, 1946).<br />
*''Tibet: Past and Present''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924<br />
*''The People of Tibet''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928<br />
*''The Religion of Tibet''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931<br />
*''Tibet: Caught in Time''. Reading: Garnet, 1997. Contains photographs by Charles Bell and John Claude White<br />
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== External links ==<br />
*[http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/photo_1998.285.137.1.html the Tibet Album, British photography in Central Tibet 1920 - 1950]<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080717053904/http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/publication_%27The%2BPeople%2Bof%2BTibet%27%2C%2BSir%2BCharles%2BBell%2C%2BOxfo.html List of illustrations from 'The People of Tibet', Sir Charles Bell, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928]<br />
*[http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp62245&rNo=1&role=sit Photo]<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Charles Alfred}}<br />
[[Category:Tibetologists]]<br />
[[Category:1870 births]]<br />
[[Category:1945 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Ambassadors to Tibet]]<br />
[[Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]]<br />
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]<br />
[[Category:People educated at Winchester College]]<br />
[[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]]<br />
[[Category:People of British India]]</div>UpdateBot