Nepal Quinquennial Missions to China

TRI RATNA MANANDHAR did his M.A., and Ph. D. from Tribhuvan University and Post Graduate Diploma in Historical Studies from Cambridge University (UK). He was associated with Tribhuvan University for more than forty years in different capacities including Professor and Head at the Central Department of History, Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Chairperson of Nepal Studies Subject Committee. He has participated and presented papers in international conferences held in different countries of Asia, Europe, and America; and has authored nineteen books on the history and culture of Nepal. He was a member of Royal Nepal Academy (Prajna Sabha) and Academy Service Commission (1991-96), and Vice Chancellor of Lumbini Buddhist University (2010-14).

TIRTHA PRASAD MISHRA did his M.A from Tribhuvan University and Ph.D from Patna University. He was associated with Tribhuvan University for more than forty years in different capacities including Professor and Head of the Central Department of History and Executive Director of Research Centre

for Nepal and Asian Studies. He authored more than 15 books and published more than 100 research papers in the journals of Nepal and abroad . He has also participated and pr>sented papers in different national and international seminars.

At present, he is the Chairman of Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh, a national society for comprehensive eye care, and Executive Member of Board of Trustees, International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, London, UK.

This book is designed to analyze different aspects of Nepal's Quinquennial Missions to China, which are still controversial to writers and historians.

The book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter analyzes, in brief, Sino-Nepali relations during the ancient and medieval periods, and the second chapter explains how the mission system started in 1792. In the third chapter a short history of Nepali missions, sent to China from 1792 to 1906, has been discussed, and the fourth chapter analyzes the journey complications of these missions. British and Chinese attitude towards these missions forms the subject of the next chapter, and in the last chapter we have tried to analyze how far the Nepali missions were tributary in nature. At the end we have produced some unpublished documents as appendices.

The book is mainly based on unpublished original sources derived from Indian National Archives, New Delhi; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kathmandu; and Royal Nepali Army Head-quarter, Kathmandu. Relevant books and articles have also been utilised at proper places..

We are very glad to bring out the second edition of the book which was first published more than three decades before and was unavailable in the market for many years. We thank Sri Madhab Lal Maharjan of Mandala Book Point, who not only encouraged us but also took whole responsibility for publishing the book.

With the exception of few typographical corrections and minor alterations at some places, we did not make any changes in the content of the book, as we did not think it necessary to do so. However, two academic papers directly related to the book have been added as Annex 1 and 2. The first academic paper, written by Luciano Petech, an Italian scholar of repute, with the title “Chinese and Tibetan Materials on the Nepalese Quinquennial Missions” has been inserted as Annex 1. The reason for including that paper in the book lies in the fact that the said paper is written solely on the basis of Tibetan and Chinese sources, whereas our book is based mainly on British and Nepali documents, deposited in Indian and Nepali archival offices. Our treatment of Tibetan and Chinese sources have been largely limited to specific references from British and Nepali sources, whereas Petech has analysed facts and figures from original, Tibetan and Chinese documents. We feel, the study of Nepal's quinquennial missions to China has taken a total comprehensive shape, with the full use of Tibetan, Chinese, British and Nepali original sources, so far available. We sincerely thank Rag. Emiliano Brambilla, Edizioni dell'Orso Srl, Italy for authorizing to use the scholarly paper contained in their publication “Lienhard, Siegfried. (ed.), 1996.Change and Continuity: Studies in the Nepalese Culture of the Kathmandu Valley, pp. 167–88. Italy: Edizioni Dell'orso.”

Another academic paper is written by B. H. Hodgson, the British Resident in Nepal (1833-43) on the two Nepali missions to China giving in detail a comparative analysis of the distance between Kathmandu and Peking, as mentioned by two different Nepali missions, along with the number of lakes and tanks, rivers, bridges and ferries. These documents were handed over by the king of Nepal to Hodgson at the time of his departure from Nepal in 1843, and so they should be taken as the official version of the Nepali missions. But Hodgson has made a minor mistake. The Nepali mission led by Chautaria Pusker Shah was sent to China in 1837, not in 1817 as mentioned in Hodgson's paper. This paper is taken from the Journal of Asiatic Society Vol. VI 1856 pp. 473-97, and has been inserted as Annex 2.

As already mentioned in the preface of the first edition, the book was the product of mini research project, we handled through the Dcan's Office, Tribhuvan University. Till date, plenty of such research reports are lying in the Dean's Office, and we request the concerned authorities to publish at least some of the selected works in book form.