Pioneer in Tibet : The Life and Perils of Dr. Albert Shelton

by Douglas Wissing

• ISBN13: 9781403963284
• ISBN10: 1403963282
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2004-03-18
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Dr. Albert Shelton was a medical missionary and explorer who spent nearly twenty years in the Tibetan borderlands at the start of the last century. During the Great Game era, the Sheltons' sprawling station in Kham was the most remote and dangerous mission on earth. Raising his family in a land of banditry and civil war, caught between a weak Chinese government and the British Raj, Shelton proved to be a resourceful frontiersman. One of the West's first interpreters of Tibetan culture, during the course of his work in Tibet, he was praised by the Western press as a family man, revered doctor, respected diplomat, and fearless adventurer. To the American public, Dr. Albert Shelton was Daniel Boone, Wyatt Earp, and the apostle Paul on a new frontier. Driven by his goal of setting up a medical mission within Lhasa, the seat of the Dalai Lama and a city off-limits to Westerners for hundreds of years, Shelton acted as a valued go-between for the Tibetans and Chinese. Recognizing his work, the Dalai Lama issued Shelton an invitation to Lhasa. Tragically, while finalizing his entry, Shelton was shot to death on a remote mountain trail in the Himalayas. Set against the exciting history of early twentieth century Tibet and China, Pioneer in Tibet offers a window into the life of a dying breed of adventurer.

Author Biography

Douglas Wissing is an independent scholar and freelance journalist. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, travel magazines, and Salon.com. Wissing lives in Bloomington, IN.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Foreword: Message from the Dalai Lama	p. xv
Prologue: The Trail to Tibet, 1922	p. 1
Blood or Bread: The Early Life of Albert Shelton, 1875-1880	p. 7
Strange Country: The Frontier Education of Albert Shelton, 1880-1893	p. 17
Good Towns and Tibetan Dreams: Respectability and Romance, 1895-1903	p. 33
Journey to the Borderlands: From the Midwest to the Himalayas	p. 47
The Portal: Tachienlu and the Challenge of Kham	p. 61
Bayonets to Kham: Chao Erh-feng and the Christian Missionaries	p. 79
The Doctor in Kham, 1908-1909	p. 95
Conquests, Curios, and Conversions: Batang, 1909-1910	p. 105
This Great Awful City: Furlough, 1910-1913	p. 117
Shattered Charms and New Perspectives: Batang, 1914-1917	p. 129
The Next Livingstone: Shelton in Kham, 1918-1919	p. 159
The Devil's Own Cauldron: Yunnan, 1919-1920	p. 183
The Hero Returns: Furlough, 1920-1921	p. 199
Back to Batang, 1921	p. 217
The Thorn Bush, 1922	p. 225
Epilogue: The Legacy of Dr. Albert Shelton	p. 239
Notes	p. 245
Sources	p. 309
Index	p. 327
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