DELLA VALLE, Pietro. Rome 11.4.1586 — Rome 21.4. or 11.4.1652. Italian (Roman) Traveller in Iran and India. Born in a Roman aristocratic family, son of Pompeo Della Valle (1561–1587) and Giovanna Alberini, had good education. In his youth served as a soldier, in 1611 participated in an expedition of Spanish…
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 (1812–1883), Lord Justice of Appeal (Ireland), and Monica O’Connor. He was “educated at Bournemouth and Dublin. Joined the 16th Lancers, 1888, and resigned his…
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 (1815–1904), 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. Edinburgh 1853 — near Karakorum 6.4.1888. British (Scottish) Tradesman, Traveller, Spy and Geographer of Central Asia. Quitted his place as apprentice to a copper-plate engraver when 18, then five years apprentice in a trading vessel, visited many Asian ports. When 23 left sea life and became the manager…
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 Montuev, a literate and well-to-do Buryat, and his wife Dolgor Šugdarova, a Lamaist Buddhist family. After gymnasium in Čita (one of the first…
CSOMA DE KŐRÖS, Alexander (Kőrösi Csoma Sándor, Skander Beg). Kőrös, Kovászna, Háromszék, 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 (d. c. 1801), a peasant and soldier, and Krisztina Getse (Ilona Göcz, d. c. 1807),…
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 (1761?–1824) and Marguerite Diaque. Educated at Lycée de Casale in Piémont in 1804-10 and in 1812-13…
CORYAT, Thomas (Tom Coriate). Odcombe (Crewkerne), Somersetshire 1577? — Surat ?.12.1617. British Traveller in India. Son of the Rev. George Coryat (d. 1607), Rector of Odcombe, and his wife Gertrude. Studies at Winchester College and from 1596 at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, learning Greek and logic, but left 1599 without degree…
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 — Conan near Blois 30.4.1789. French Civil Servant and Traveller in India and Tibet. Son of Jean-Baptiste Chevalier, a lawyer and royal adviser, and Marie-Catherine de La Saussaye. In French colonial service left for Bengal in 1752, in 1755-57 explored still independent Assam, trying without success…