DEASY, Henry Hugh Peter. Dublin 29.6.1866 — Carrigahorig, Co. Tipperary 24.1.1947. British (Irish) Officer and Traveller in Central Asia. Captain. “Son of Right Hon. Richard Deasy, Lord Justice of Appeal (Ireland),” and Monica O’Connor. He was “educated at Bournemouth and Dublin. Joined the 16th Lancers, 1888, and resigned his commission,…
DAVID-NÉEL, Alexandra (née Louise Eugènie Alexandrine Marie David). St.Mandé (Seine) 24.10.1868 — Digne (Basses-Alpes) 8.9.1969. French Bauddha and Traveller. The only child of Louis Pierre David, a huguenot freemason and ardent republican, also journalist and teacher , and Alexandra Borleman, a Catholic Belgian. From 1873 grew up in Belgium. At…
DALGLEISH, Andrew. 1853 — near Karakorum 6.4.1888. British (Scottish) Tradesman, Traveller, Spy and Geographer of Central Asia. “For years [from 1873] he journeyed for commercial purposes between Kashmir and Yarkand, joined the Central Asian Trading Company, went with a party to Yarkand, and afterwards made frequent journeys to Kashgar; in…
CYBIKOV, Gombožab Cebekovič. Urdo-Aga, district Čita, Transbaikalia 20.4.1873 — Aginskoe, Burjatia 20.9.1930. Russian Buryat Scholar of Buddhism. Son of Cebek Montujev, a literate and well-to-do Buryat. After gymnasium in Čita (one of the first four Buryat students admitted) studies of medicine at Tomsk, but after a visit to Urga switched…
CSOMA DE KŐRÖS, Alexander (Kőrösi Csoma Sándor). Kőrös, Kovászna, Transylvania (now Chiuruş, Covasna in Romania) 27.3.1784 — Darjeeling 11.4.1842. Hungarian Tibetologist, in Ladakh and India 1822-42. Born of poor parents, András Csoma, a peasant and soldier, and Krisztina Getse (Ilona Göcz), belonging to the military nobility known as Székely (Sicules). Birth…
COURT, Claude Auguste. Grasse (or Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne, both in Alpes-Maritimes) 24.9.1793 — Paris 21.1.1880. French soldier serving as a General under Rañjit Singh. Son of an officer, André Ambroise C. Educated at Lycée de Casale in Piémont in 1804-10, at École polytéchnique and in 1812-13 at the military academy of Saint-Cyr…
CORYAT, Thomas (Tom Coriate). Odcombe (Crewkerne), Somersetshire 1577? — Surat ?.12.1617. British Traveller in India. Son of the Rev. George C., Rector of Odcombe, and his wife Gertrude. Studies at Winchester College and from 1596 at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, learning Greek and logic, but left without degree and seems to…
CONTI, Niccolò (De’ C., Niccolò di Giovanni Conti di Chioggia). Chioggia near Venice c. 1395 — Chioggia (?) Summer 1469. Italian (Venetian) Traveller in India. He spent twentyfive years travelling and trading in the East, accepted Islam and was thus capable of visiting many countries. In 1414 (or 1419) he…
CHEVALIER, Jean-Baptiste. Blois 23.4.1729 — Blois 30.4.1789. French Traveller in India and Tibet. Son of Jean-Bapt. Ch., a lawyer and royal adviser. In French colonial service left for Bengal in 1752, in 1755-57 explored still independent Assam, trying without success to get an agreement with the Raja. In 1760-61 visited…
CHARDIN, Jean-Baptiste (Sir John Chardin). Paris 16.11.1643 (Julian 6.11.) — Chiswick, London 5.1.1713 (25.12.1712). French Huguenot Jeweller and Traveller. Sent to the east by his father, the Parisian jeweller Daniel Ch. in 1664 he visited Persia (entering the service of Shah Abbas II in Isfahan), Surat and other places in…