Page 20 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 20
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 20
This was where he sought to serve God for the next 18 months or so.
At the end of November 1951, GFA gave a talk about his experiences in this remote
country. As we read his notes we can understand how his time spent in this wild region
shaped him for the fruitful years ahead. Here is what he had to say:
TRAVEL IN OLD TIBET
by G Findlay Andrew OBE, FRGS. 5
In these days when the craze for speed has so largely annihilated
distance and shrunk the world to such small dimensions that incredible distances
can be covered in a matter of hours, it affords pleasant recreation to turn back the
pages of time four decades and allow memory to travel fancy free along the trails
that one then travelled in that little known part of the Continent of Asia – Tibet - the
land of the lamas - the Roof of the World.
And right from the beginning of my talk I must emphasize that
tonight I speak of the Tibet that was, not the Tibet that is. I speak of the days before
the present Chinese provinces of Ch’inghai and Sik’ang were carved out of Tibetan
territory; when the Kokonor and Ando6 were still integral parts of real Tibet. Before
the bagpipes and the generating power plants had been introduced Into Lhasa and
before every large Tibetan lamasery had receiving sets installed to take in Peking
and Singapore broadcasts. Before ever the drone of the aeroplanes or the hum of
the motor was heard in the land, and the good old yak, horse, mule and camel
furnished the only means of transportation. Those were the days when life loomed
large, and a man’s worth was assessed by his ability to travel hard and live rough.
And life and travel were very hard indeed. From the then terminus of the railway
over one thousand miles had to be covered on horse, mule, camel or springless
cart over the great Central Asian highway, which eventually merges into the 'golden
road to Samarkand’ before over the border trading centre of Tankar, the gateway to
the Kokonor, was reached. Here one left behind the cultivated fields and houses of
the border civilization and launched out on to the great plains of the Kokonor and
the Ts’ai Tan, the Northern territory of Tibet Proper, which are bounded on the
North by provinces of Chinese and Russian Turkestan and on the west by India,
These great rolling grasslands lie at an altitude of some 10,500 feet above sea-
5 This is from a copy of GFA’s notes for a talk, held in the Moore Family Archives
6 During the Ching Empire, Amdo, written also as Ando or An Duo and Tibet proper were largely governed
by local Tibetans. After the collapse of the Qing Empire in the early 1900’s, the Republic of China started a
shift of power that ended up establishing Chinghai as a province in 1928
This was where he sought to serve God for the next 18 months or so.
At the end of November 1951, GFA gave a talk about his experiences in this remote
country. As we read his notes we can understand how his time spent in this wild region
shaped him for the fruitful years ahead. Here is what he had to say:
TRAVEL IN OLD TIBET
by G Findlay Andrew OBE, FRGS. 5
In these days when the craze for speed has so largely annihilated
distance and shrunk the world to such small dimensions that incredible distances
can be covered in a matter of hours, it affords pleasant recreation to turn back the
pages of time four decades and allow memory to travel fancy free along the trails
that one then travelled in that little known part of the Continent of Asia – Tibet - the
land of the lamas - the Roof of the World.
And right from the beginning of my talk I must emphasize that
tonight I speak of the Tibet that was, not the Tibet that is. I speak of the days before
the present Chinese provinces of Ch’inghai and Sik’ang were carved out of Tibetan
territory; when the Kokonor and Ando6 were still integral parts of real Tibet. Before
the bagpipes and the generating power plants had been introduced Into Lhasa and
before every large Tibetan lamasery had receiving sets installed to take in Peking
and Singapore broadcasts. Before ever the drone of the aeroplanes or the hum of
the motor was heard in the land, and the good old yak, horse, mule and camel
furnished the only means of transportation. Those were the days when life loomed
large, and a man’s worth was assessed by his ability to travel hard and live rough.
And life and travel were very hard indeed. From the then terminus of the railway
over one thousand miles had to be covered on horse, mule, camel or springless
cart over the great Central Asian highway, which eventually merges into the 'golden
road to Samarkand’ before over the border trading centre of Tankar, the gateway to
the Kokonor, was reached. Here one left behind the cultivated fields and houses of
the border civilization and launched out on to the great plains of the Kokonor and
the Ts’ai Tan, the Northern territory of Tibet Proper, which are bounded on the
North by provinces of Chinese and Russian Turkestan and on the west by India,
These great rolling grasslands lie at an altitude of some 10,500 feet above sea-
5 This is from a copy of GFA’s notes for a talk, held in the Moore Family Archives
6 During the Ching Empire, Amdo, written also as Ando or An Duo and Tibet proper were largely governed
by local Tibetans. After the collapse of the Qing Empire in the early 1900’s, the Republic of China started a
shift of power that ended up establishing Chinghai as a province in 1928
