This is the author's account of two journeys into Tibet. The first expedition visited the uninhabited and barren regions of the Northern Desert at a time when Tibet was rigidly closed to foreigners. The second led through the rich and thickly populated valleys of the Brahmaputra, and was made with the permission of the Lhasa Government. Rawling's explorations inside Tibet provided important knowledge of the region, as well as the closest view to date of Everest. In 1903 Rawling travelled with A.J. Hargreaves and Ram Singh, a sub-surveyor of the Survey of India, mapping a great part of Western Tibet.

 

In 1904-5 Rawling was joined by F.M. Bailey and a strong band of surveyors under C.H.D. Ryder and Henry Wood attached to the Younghusband's Lhasa expedition. They explored from Gyantse along the Brahmaputra to the upper reaches of the Sutlej river. On this occasion, Rawling's team gained an unsurpassed view of Everest: Cited in Neate: 'Towering up thousands of feet, a glittering pinnacle of snow, rose Everest, a giant amongst pigmies. No other peaks lie near or threaten its supremacy'.