Postage stamps and postal history of Tibet

The first adhesive stamps issued for use in Tibet were typewritten overprints on Indian postage stamps [1] through the 1903 period, during which the Tibetan Frontier Commission, led by Sir Francis Younghusband, arrived in Kamba Dzong on July 7, 1903.

[2] Soon after, as no progress was made in diplomatically settling issues of the Tibetan border with Sikkim, this became a military expedition.

[2] Chinese forces occupied Tibet in 1909, when the Dalai Lama fled into Sikkim and India.

However, there were Chinese communities in Tibet well before this, as shown by a registered letter from Wen Tsung-yao at Lhasa, January 9, 1909.

Postal communications of this period are scarce and eagerly sought after by both Chinese and Tibetan specialists.