The Last Witness

Ford with the Dalai Lama

A fascinating obituary of the last ~ and perhaps only ~ Westerner to have been in Tibet when it was taken over by the Chinese. Briton Robert Ford was in the country at the invitation of its government in order to help install a radio communications network there. In an interview with the Daily Mail in 1955, he recalled those fateful days: "Although heavily outnumbered, the Tibetans fought courageously—fighting for the Dalai Lama. On several occasions we heard that Chinese troops had leapt into the icy river waters to escape the Tibetan soldiers.” Ford was arrested and held for almost five years, an experience he described in his 1957 book, Captured in Tibet. After his release, he joined the British Diplomatic Service and served in posts around the world, but he continued his support of the Tibetan people: http://www.savetibet.org/the-passing-of-phodo-kusho/