BONN, Gisela (nom-de-plume of Gisela Döhrn). Elberfeld near Wuppertal 22.9.1909 — Stuttgart 11.10.1996. German Journalist. Daughter of Heinz Döhrn, a teacher. From 1929 studied Musicology, Theatre, art history, Germanistics and French at Köln, Rostock and Vienna. Ph.D. 1936 Vienna (diss. on Brahms). In 1936 married the journalist Hermann Pörzgen (1905–1976),…
BOLLING, Frederik Andersen (Friederic B.). Drangedal, Telemark 1640? — 1685. Norwegian Traveller in India. Born in Norway, son of Anders B. Student in Copenhagen, went to Amsterdam and became enlisted to the East Indies in 1669. Served in Batavia and China, returned in 1673 and was taken prisoner by the…
BOGLE, George. Daldowie on Clyde near Glasgow 26.11.1746 — Calcutta 3.4.1781. British (Scottish) Traveller and Diplomat. Youngest son of George Bogle (1700–1784), an important Glasgow merchant, and Ann Sinclair, mother died when he was 17. Educated at Haddington, Glasgow, then at Edinburgh University. After four years in family business joined…
BERNIER, François. Joué-Étiau (Maine-et-Loire) 26.9.1620 — Dauphine (or Paris?) 22.9.1688. French Physician and Traveller in India. Spent twelve years (1656-68) in India, and was eight years physician at the Mughal court. Son of Pierre Bernier, one of the foremost tenants of the chapter of Angers, and Andrée Grimault. He lost…
BERNARD, Theos Casimir Hamati. Los Angeles 10.12.1908 — Kosar, Pakistan ?.9.1947. U.S. Bauddha and Yogi. Son of Glen Agassiz Bernard and Aura Georgina Crable, nephew of the yogi Pierre Arnold Bernard (born P. A. Baker, 1875–1955). After parents’ divorce grew up with his mother in Tombstone, Arizona. Graduated from the…
BERGMANN, Benjamin Fürchtegott Balthasar von. Arrasch, Livonia (now Āraiši in Latvia) 17(28).11.1772 — Blussen b. Wenden (now Blusu near Cēsis, Latvia) 16(28).8.1856. German (Livonian) Priest and Traveller, a Pioneer of Lamaist Studies. Son of Gustav Bergmann (1787 von B.; 1749–1814, priest and scholar) and Beata Elisabeth Meder. Educated at Domschule…
BEREZOVSKIJ, Mihail Mihajlovič. 1848 — St.Petersburg 5.4.1912. Russian Ornithologist, Ethnographer and Traveller in Central Asia. Born in a noble family, school in St.Petersburg. As young man involved in radical politics, but escaped punishments. Studied zoology at St.Petersburg. From 1876 repeatedly with Potanin in Mongolia, starting as zoologist and botanist, but…
BELLEW, Henry Walter. Nusserabad (Nasirabad, Ajmer dt.) 30.8.1834 — Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire 26.7.1892. British Physician and Orientalist (Pashto Scholar) in India. Son of Captain (later Major-general) Henry Walter Bellew of the Bengal army (killed in Afghan war 1842), educated at St. George’s Hospital, London. Served in the Crimean war and…
BELL, Charles Alfred. Calcutta 31.10.1870 — Oak Bay, Victoria, B.C. 8.3.1945. Sir. British Tibetan Scholar, Traveller, and Civil Servant in India. Born as a son of a civil servant (in India) Henry Bell and his wife Anne, educated at Winchester and Oxford (New College). In 1891 joined Indian service in…
BASTIAN, Philipp Wilhelm Adolf. Bremen 26.6.1826 — Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 2.2.1905. Catholic German Anthropologist, Psychologist, and Traveller, a pioneer of South-east Asian studies. Born in a merchant family, son of Hermann Theodor Bassus (1796–1866) and Auguste Krafft. Studied biology and medicine at Berlin, Jena, Würzburg (under Virchow) and Prague (dr. med.…