Tibetan Passports

The Tibetan government gave its approval for the first-ever Everest expedition (1921). Charles Bell, the visiting British diplomat in Lhasa wrote “I received from the Tibetan Government a passport in official form, which granted permission for the climbing of Mount Everest.”[28] The subsequent Everest expeditions of 1922, 1924 and 1936[29] also received passports from the Tibetan government. Passports were sometimes issued for scientific undertakings: the Schaeffer expedition of 1939,[30] Tucci’s expedition of 1949 [31] and the plant hunter Frank Kingdon Ward in 1924.[32]

President Roosevelt’s two envoys to Tibet in 1942 were presented their passports at Yatung.[33] The Americans Lowell Thomas Jr. and Sr. visited Tibet in 1949, and were issued “Tibetan passports” at Dhomo. “When the Dalai Lama’s passport was spread out before us, I could not help thinking that many Western explorers who had failed to reach Lhasa would have highly prized a document like this.” [34]

The first modern Tibetan passport [35] with personal information, photograph and space for visas and endorsements was issued in 1948 to members of the Tibetan trade mission. It was modeled on the international one-page fold-out model of 1915. Britain, USA and seven other countries issued visas and transit visas for this document.