In 1904, Colonel Francis Younghusband persuaded the British government to grant him permission to invade, for no particularly compelling reason, the legendary "forbidden" Tibetan city of Lhasa.
To support a force of 3,000 fighting men he assembled some 7,000 mules, 5,200 bullocks, 1,500 Tibetan yaks and 2,900 Nepalese yaks, along with 10,000 porters.
Among his own personal effects? 67 shirts, 19 coats (including a full-dress coat, a morning coat, an Assam silk coat, two jaeger coats, a Chesterfield coat, a poshteen long coat and a Chinese fur coat), and at least five hats.
[800 Tibetans were slaughtered in two preliminary skirmishes, at the expense of fourteen British wounded. The 13th Dalai Lama fled from the approaching army, finding shelter in Mongolia and China. The British withdrew after signing the Anglo-Tibetan Convention (which allowed them to have Trade Agents at Gyantse and at Gartok in Western Tibet).]
Sources
Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, Tournament of Shadows
