A rare copy of the Survey of India’s consolidated publication of exploratory intelligence gathered in the eastern Himalaya between 1856 and 1886, documenting reconnaissance in Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet by the pundits, i.e. Native surveyors known in print chiefly by their codenames.
“In the public documents of the Survey of India, these men came to be called ‘pundits’ or ‘native explorers,’ but in te losed files of the government of British India, they were given their true designation as pies of secret agents. The use of these agents was sanctioned in the 1860s only after the closing of the borders of Tibet to foreigners, the deals of several European explorers in Central Asia, the unwillingness and inability of Chinese authorities to make provision for British travelers, and decares of reluctance by the government of India to allow technically qualifies Indians to surveys beyon the frontier” (Waller).
Jules Stewart expands on their role: “The Pundits provided the Government of British India with a wealth of Intelligence on the movement of Russian troops beyond the Himalaya and the devious machinations of Central Asian politics, as well as the route surveys of totally unexplored territories. These men fixed the altitudes of peaks, traced rivers to their sources, kept secret log books of trade routes and mapped the exact location of territoires and even cities that were previously blanks on the map. They were able to do so because they were prepared to spend months and sometimes years on the ground, travelling in disguise and suffering unspeakable hardships” (Stewart).
The explorers credited include Lama Serap Gyatsho, Kinthup (K.P.), Lama Ugyen Gyatso (U.G.), Rinzin Namgyal (R.N.), and Phurba (P.A.), whose journeys were reduced, standardized, and issued by the Trigonometrical Branch at Dehra Dun. The central geographic problem addressed throughout the volume was the course of the Tsangpo and its relation to the Brahmaputra, specifically, whether the upper Tibetan river and the great river of Assam were one and the same. The report forms part of the systematic effort of the Survey of India to map the Himalayan frontier of the British Raj. Because direct European access to Tibet remained restricted, the Survey trained and employed native men to carry out reconnaissance, recording routes, distances, altitudes, an astronomical observations for later reduction in the Survey’s offices. Among those associated with this broader program were Mani Singh (G.M., known as “The Patwar”) and Kishen Singh (A-K, Krishna), the latter identified in this volume under the initials K.P. By 1882, Kishen Singh’s observations left little doubt that the Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra rivers were one and the same, a conclusion considerable geographic and strategic consequences.
The volume is organized as a sequence of expeditionary accounts. It includes:
An account of the lower Tsangpo, by Lama Serap Gyatsho, 1856–68
Narrative of a journey from Darjeeling to Gyala Sindong, Tsari and the lower Tsangpo, by K.P., 1880–84
Explorations in Tibet, by Lama U.G., in 1883
Explorations in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet by R.N., 1885–86, compiled by G. W. E. Atkinson
Explorations in Tibet and Bhutan by P.A., 1885–86
The maps depict exploration routes in color, triangulation points, river systems, passes, monastic centers, and principal settlements, rendered in the established conventions of the Survey and are as follows:
Sketch Map to Illustrate Colonel Tanner’s Memorandum on the Course of the Tsangpo (from information supplied by K.P., 1886–87).
North Eastern Frontier. Sheet No. 6. Parts of Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan.
North Eastern Trans-Frontier. Sheet No. 7. Sikkim and Bhutan with parts of Nepal, Tibet and adjacent British territory.
In conjunction with the reports, they represent the authoritative governmental statement, as of 1889, on British geographic knowledge of the eastern Himalaya and the long-debated course of the Tsangpo.
Rinzin Namgyal (R.N.), whose explorations are here compiled, was a leader of a survey team active in 1884–85. During this period the first circumnavigation of Kangchenjunga was completed under his leadership, an important contribution to the delineation of the Sikkim–Tibet frontier and the high Himalayan watershed. The cumulative effect of these expeditions, as preserved in the present report, was to convert route reconnaissance into fixed geographic data incorporated into the offic cartography of the Survey of India.
Together these reports document successive penetrations of the same frontier zone, progressively refining knowledge of the Tsangpo valley, the Tsari region, and the trade and monastic route extending from Darjeeling northward into southern Tibet.
OCLC locates 11 copies held in institutions, but there are none recorded at auction.
Stewart, J., Spying for the Raj: The Pundits and the Mapping of the Himalaya (History Press, 2006), foreword; Waller, D., The Pundits: British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia (University of Kentucky, 2004), p.1.
