The
British expedition to Tibet, also known as the
British invasion of Tibet or the
Younghusband expedition to Tibet began in December 1903 and lasted until September 1904. The expedition was effectively a temporary invasion by
British Indian forces under the auspices of the
Tibet Frontier Commission, whose purported mission was to establish diplomatic relations and resolve the dispute over the border between Tibet and
Sikkim. In the nineteenth century, the British conquered
Burma and Sikkim, occupying the whole southern flank of Tibet. The Tibetan
Ganden Phodrang regime, which was then
under administrative rule of the
Qing dynasty, remained the only
Himalayan state free of British influence.