100 Beads to Lhasa

The fascinating story of the Great Game’s secret agents.

Written by Pratik Kanjilal | Published: December 24, 2017 12:15 am

Sarat Chandra Das’ book Journey to Lhasa: The Diary of a Spy.

From the 1860s to the 1890s, the British Indian government launched dozens of “native explorers” or “pundits” across the Himalayas onto the board of the Great Game. They were recruited from among the footsoldiers of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, the first complete mapping of South Asia, launched from St Thomas Mount in Chennai by Major William Lambton. Retrained as spies, these surveyors went on dangerous missions into Central Asia, China and Tibet, along routes that white men could not travel without arousing suspicion.