DUTREUIL DE RHINS, Jules-Léon. Saint-Étienne (Loire) 2.1.1846 — Tong-mbon-ndo in Kham 5.6.1894. French Marine Officer, Cartographer, Traveller and Explorer. Son of Jean-Denis D. de R. and Jeanne Félicité Blondart. Born in the Loire area, joined early the navy. In the 1870s captain. In 1876 he commanded the detachment of sixty…
DUFF (Mrs. Rickmers), Christian Mabel. Calcutta 7.12.1866 — Munich 24.12.1939. British (Scottish) Traveller and Indologist. Daughter of William Pirie Duff, a merchant in Calcutta, granddaughter of the pioneer of Scottish mission in India, Dr. Alexander Duff (1806–1876). Educated in London and Berlin, she studied Sanskrit at Kiel under Deussen. From…
DOWNING, Clement. 16?? — at sea 1736. British Engineer in India 1715-23. In Mughal service. Birth and early years unknown, to India perhaps in 1715. According to his title page he was “Midshipman on board the Salisbury; afterwards Lieutenant of the Victory Frigate, Fame Gally, and Revenge Grab, part of…
DELLA VALLE, Pietro. Rome 11.4.1586 — Rome 21.4. or 11.4.1652. Italian (Roman) Traveller in Iran and India. Born in aristocratic family, son of Pompeo D. V. and Giovanna Alberini, had good education. In his youth served as a soldier. According to his own account left Rome because of an unhappy…
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 a journalist and teacher , and Alexandrine Borleman, a Catholic Belgian. From 1873 grew up in Belgium.…
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 Cèbekovič (G. Tsöbikov, G. Tsèbègèj, born G. Montuev). Urdo-Aga, district Čita, Transbaikalia 20.4.1873 — Aginskoe, Burjatia 20.9.1930. Russian Buryat Scholar of Buddhism. Son of Cèbek 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,…
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, a lay Archaeologist and Numismatist. Son of an officer, André Ambroise Court and Marguerite Diaque. Educated at Lycée de Casale in Piémont in 1804-10, at École polytéchnique and…