Facts you should know about the History of Tibetan Passport.
The earliest record of a Tibetan passport issued to a foreign traveler is in 1688 to an Armenian merchant, Johannes.
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.
The subsequent Everest expeditions of 1922,24 and 1936 also received passports from the Tibetan government and were sometimes issued for scientific undertakings: the Schaeffer expedition of 1939, Tucci’s expedition of 1949 and the plant hunter Frank Kingdon Ward in 1924.
President Roosevelt’s two envoys to Tibet in 1942 were presented their passports at Yatung. The Americans Lowell Thomas Jr and Sr visited Tibet in 1949, and were issued “Tibetan Passports” at Dhomo.
The first modern Tibetan passport 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.
