 The Tibet government, guided by the Dalai Lama, alarmed by a large acquisitive foreign power dispatching a military mission to its capital, began marshalling its armed forces.The British army that departed Gnathong in Sikkim on 11December 1903 was well prepared for battle, having had long experience of Indian border wars.Its commander, Brigadier-General James Ronald Leslie Macdonald, wintered in the border country, using the time to train his troops near regular supplies of food and shelter before advancing in earnest in March, travelling over before encountering his first major obstacle at the pass of Guru, near Lake Bhan Tso on 31 March.