Macdonald gave the order to approach and begin disarming the Tibetans. What exactly happened next is still unclear, that it was one of the bleakest moments in military history is not. According to British reports, it was the Tibetan general who resisted and fired the first shot. Immediately, the British began firing their terrible weapons into the mass of the Tibetan soldiers The Tibetans poured over the wall while the artillery and automatic weapons cut them down in waves. To the horror of the British manning guns against them ,the few Tibetans still standing did not run away, they walked.
I got so sick of the slaughter that I ceased fire. But the general's order was to make as bigger a bag as possible.------lieutenant H, commander Maxim Dun Detachment.
The impossible had happened, prayers and charms and mantras, the holiest of their holy men had failed, they walked with bowed heads, as if they had been disillusioned by their gods.
Four appalling minutes after it all began, some 7 hundred ragged Tibetans lay-dead, or dying on the field, their useless charms strewn among them. Francis Young hasband who had served for over 20 years in the army but never seen a battle was horrified. It was a terrible and ghastly business, he would later write.
It may have been even more ghastly than his British sensibilities would allow him to admit. According to the Tibetan and Chinese accounts of the battle, the Tibetans had extinguished the fuses of their ancient matchlocks as a sign of non-aggression , rendering them useless for several minutes. If so, the British were firing artillery and automatic weapons into a mass of people armed with swords, slingshots and perhaps five modern rifles.
The British set up a field hospital to save the wounded Tibetans, baffled by kindness on the heels of slaughter, the Tibetans none the less quickly won over their captors with their spirit and stoicism. Daily Mail correspondent Edmond Candler who had lost a hand in the first few seconds of the battle wrote: they were consistently cheerful, and they never hesitated to undergo operations. Did not flinch in pain and took chloroform without fear, everyone who visited the hospital at Tuna, left it with an increased respect for the Tibetans.
It would take 4 more months for the British force to reach Lhasa. On July 30th,1904, in anticipation of the inevitable, the Dalai Lama fled the city. 5 days later, the British marched into the Forbidden City. Young Husband who had once hoped to make it to Lhasa as a spy, now entered at the head of an army,only to find the place nearly empty. Undaunted, he arranged a sort of parade to impress the remaining citizens, and was greeted by what he thought was a conquerors' welcome.
“They clapped them like that, and Young Hansband thinks it's a very good sign that he has been welcomed, and later on when I look at this, I talked to some Tibetans about it who said that it's a way of driving out evil spirits”
"you know, so I think Young Husband thought that, you know, they were so happy that they were lining up and clapping, this is again the cultural difference."
disillusion vt.
To free or deprive of illusion.
使人清醒，使人梦想破灭
appalling adj.
Causing consternation or dismay; frightful:
使惊恐的，使惊愕的；可怕的
strew vt.
To spread here and there; scatter:
撒四处散播；分洒
matchlock n.
A gunlock in which powder is ignited by a match.
火绳枪用火柴点燃火药的枪机
slingshot n.
A Y-shaped stick having an elastic strap attached to the prongs, used for flinging small stones.
弹弓一种Y形的棍子，其叉子上系有一根有弹性的带子，用于投掷小石块
stoicism n.
The doctrines or philosophy of the Stoics.
斯多葛派哲学或信条 |
