Nain Singh's exploration of Tibet (the pundits)
Exploración del Tíbet por Nain Singh (los pandits)
- Date
- 1865-1866 · confidence high
- Place
- Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China
- Credited to
- Nain Singh Rawat, pundit of the Survey of India
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
An Indian explorer trained by the British survey who crossed Tibet disguised as a pilgrim, counting his paces with a hundred-bead rosary and measuring altitude by the boiling point of water. He fixed Lhasa's position and altitude and followed the Yarlung Tsangpo.
Tibet was closed to foreigners, so the pundits worked in secret disguised as pilgrims and merchants; Nain Singh received the Royal Geographical Society's medal in 1877.
What it led to
- first reliable positions of Lhasa and the Tsangpo's course
- a model for the pundits who explored the Himalaya and Central Asia for British India