King Arthur comes to Tibet: Frank Ludlow and the English school in Gyantse, 1923-26

With the spread of the British Empire, the British educational system also spread across the world, and this is the story of how, in the early 1920s, it reached as far as Tibet. The English School at Gyantse in southern Tibet had its origins in the aftermath of the 1903-04 Younghusband Expedition which enabled Britain to gain a foothold in the "Roof of the World". Britain consolidated its advance in the Simla Convention of 1913-14. At about this time it was decided to send four young Tibetans, aged between 11 and 17, to Rugby school in England to learn English and the technical skills necessary to help their country to modernise. At the Simla Convention, the idea of setting up a British-run school in Tibet also came up. Sir Charles Bell, doyen of British policy in Tibet, noted that it was the Tibetan Plenipotentiary who broached the subject: "Something of the kind seems indispensable to enable the Tibetan Government to meet the pressure of Western civilisation. And they themselves are keen on it. Without such a general school education Tibetans cannot be trained to develop their country in accordance with their own wishes.