ABSTRACT
The reported Tibetan claims over Sikkim were very embarrassing to the Indian Government; and it seemed difficult to counter them. In 1881 Thutob Namgyal came under the influence of his Tibetan bride, who became the chief advocate of the Tibetan viewpoint in the Sikkim Durbar. In October 1886, however, the Chinese chose to rebuke the Tibetans for their opposition to a mission which the Emperor had authorized; and as a gesture of defiance to the Chinese, the Tibetans closed the passes from Chumbi to Sikkim and reinforced Lingtu. The Darjeeling merchants were grumbling, and the presence of the Tibetans had caused much alarm to the tea-planters of British Bhutan and Sikkim, who feared for their considerable investment in territory the title of which might soon be in dispute. The Sikkim-Tibet Convention settled the immediate problems arising from the Tibetan advance to Lingtu in 1886 and the consequent Sikkim Expedition of 1888.
