Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Textes Tibétains Inédits by Alexandra David-Néel Alexandra David-Néel. Alexandra David-Néel , née Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David (born October 24, 1868 in Saint-Mandé , a suburb of Paris ; † September 8, 1969 in Digne-les-Bains ) was a French travel writer and researcher on Tibetan culture and the Buddhism . contents. Alexandra David was the daughter of the teacher Louis David (1815-1904), who had been a militant Republican in the Revolution of 1848 , and a strict Catholic mother, Alexandrine Borghmans (1832-1917). Because of her father's exile, she grew up temporarily in Belgium . Through her father's friend, Elisée Reclus , she was introduced to anarchist ideas (including Max Stirner's and Mikhail Alexandrowitsch Bakunin's ). She was also very interested in women's issues and published her first book Pour la Vie . At first she worked as a freelancer for La fronde , a feminist newspaper. Alexandra David took her first trip when she was 17: she ran away from home, drove to Switzerland and hiked over the Gotthard Pass . When she was 20, she became fond of Asian scripts and decided to study languages ​(including Sanskrit and Chinese ). When she inherited money in 1891, she toured Ceylon and India for a year and a half , and in the same year she joined the Theosophical Society there in Adyar . Then she returned to Paris. After completing her training, she received an engagement as a soprano in Indochina in 1895 . She then went to Tunis as a theater director , where she met Philippe Néel, whom she married in 1904. Her husband financed her travels for the next forty years and arranged for her articles to be published in France. Yet she didn't mention him in any of her books. From 1903 she was no longer on the stage, but gave lectures about her travels and continued studying. In 1911 she started her second trip to Asia, which lasted 14 years. In India she met the 13th Dalai Lama and was invited by him to Tibet . She lived as a hermit in the Himalayas for a year and was both ordained and elevated to the status of a lama . She was found worthy of initiation into the secret teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and described them in one of her books. Belgian linguist Philippe van Heurck questions whether she even traveled to Tibet or to what extent parts of her travelogues are falsified. She then traveled through Japan , Korea and China, always accompanied by her adoptive son, the young lama Yongden. She then stayed for two years in the Kum-bum monastery in Amdo . To earn a living, she translated Buddhist texts and wrote a French-Tibetan dictionary . During her travels she was also financially supported by her husband (whom she never divorced) from France. She wrote several begging letters to him. Between 1921 and 1923 she roamed the Gobi desert . On September 28, 1923, she started a new tour, presumably to be the first European to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa in Tibet. At the age of 57, after a four-month adventurous Himalayan crossing on foot from China, she reached this destination as a begging pilgrim accompanied by her adopted son, the Lama Yongden. During this trip she had to camouflage herself with soot and dirt in order not to be recognized as a foreigner and expelled from the country. David-Néel, who is only 1.56 meters tall, stayed undetected in Lhasa for two months. In 1925 she returned to France and published her most successful book Voyage d'une Parisienne à Lhassa in 1927 , which made her world famous. In quick succession she wrote more books about her trips to Tibet. In 1937, when she was almost seventy, she embarked on another major trip to Asia, still accompanied by her adopted son. She got caught in the Sino-Japanese War and had to endure six years in China. In 1941, the news reached her that her husband had died and that she had been appointed as heir. She returned to Paris via India in 1946. From her old home in Digne, she went on lecture tours, wrote scientific and popular treatises. Alexandra David-Néel was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor at a very old age . She died on September 8, 1969 at the age of 100 after having had her passport renewed as a precaution. A few years later, at her last will, her ashes were scattered in the Ganges near Benares, along with the ashes of her son Lama Yongden. Following a Legendary Female Explorer’s Footsteps in the Himalayas. Elise Wortley set out to recreate the 14-year journey of Alexandra David-Néel. In 1911, Alexandra David-Néel set off on a 14 year journey. She became the first western woman to visit Lhasa and to meet the Dalai Lama. Her adventures inspired countless others to pick up their bags and see the world, including Elise Wortley, who last year decided to literally follow the footsteps of the legendary explorer. She recounts her version of Alexandra David-Néel’s trek through the Himalayas. “I would wake up in my home‐made tent with frost all over the inside of the tarpaulin and covering my blankets. There was so much ice, that the blankets actually cracked every time I moved,” said Wortley. In 2017, the Londoner found herself 5000 meters up in the Chopta Valley, in Lachen, north Sikkim, recreating the famous pilgrimage of Alexandra David-Néel. Like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Alan Watts before her, Wortley was inspired by Alexandra David-Néel. She was one of the first Westerners to popularize Buddhism. Her teachings mobilized the Beat Generation literary movement. But the surprising thing that sparked David- Néel’s great adventure was boredom. She grew up in the early 1900’s, when women were expected to wear elbow-length gloves and carry lace parasols. In ‘ My Journey to Lhasa ’, the Buddhist scholar said: “I craved for a life beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the unknown.” When David-Néel decided to journey to the holy city of Lhasa, the country was off-limits to foreigners, and she’d already been expelled from Tibet once before. Undeterred, she dyed her hair each morning with Chinese ink and scrubbed her skin with soot from her cooking pot, to disguise herself as a beggar. By the time she reached the holy city, she looked every inch the part. She’d travelled 5,000 miles across China by yak, mule, horse and foot. She was so malnourished she was boiling her leather boots and sucking off the water to survive. It is this same attraction towards an ‘abnormal’ life — the unknown — that pushed Wortley to set off on her own path beyond the garden gate. “I’ve always been mesmerized by her,” she said. “I’m still in awe of how she managed to live like this for so long, especially through the freezing winters. At times Alexandra didn’t even bother to put her tent up, she just slept in the snow.” Despite her fear of the unknown, Wortley was determined to recreate David-Néel’s journey. “Ever since I first read her book My Journey to Lhasa when I was 16… I could never get her story out of my head”, she said. “When we are teenagers we have so many ideas and they all seem possible at the time. Then life gets in the way and before you know it you haven’t done those hair brained ideas you thought you always would.” When David-Néel set sail for India, she had little more than a vague plan to ‘perfect her Oriental languages’. Shortly after arriving in India, she decided she wanted to learn more about Buddhism. Her adventure around the Himalayas eventually led her to a Sikkim cave, where she would learn Tibetan, Buddhist metaphysics and meditate for the next three years. When Elise set off on her journey, finding this cave was her plan. “This cave seemed like an integral part of her story so of course I just had to find it,” she said. Nowadays, the cave is unknown to most, even locals who live in the area. Besides retracing David-Néel’s journey, Wortley also planned to replicate every detail of the late-adventurer’s attire. Wherever possible, she insisted on only using equipment that existed in the early 1900’s. But finding an authentic wooden backpack proved impossible, forcing Wortley to seek creative solutions. “After looking more closely at images of [wooden backpacks], I realized that they were basically backwards chairs with their legs cut off and turned the other way,” she said. After this discovery, she found an old chair, chopped off the legs and seat, turned it upside down and slotted a basket in. In the end, Elise managed to recreate David-Néel’s dress down to the underpants. But she quickly learnt that there were downsides to traveling like the 20th Century Buddhist explorer. “Each morning when the sun came up, all the ice melted and I would be drenched,” she said. “This really isn’t good when you’re 5,000 meters up a mountain.” While searching for the cave, Wortley recounts. “I asked so many people and nobody seemed to know its exact location.” After asking countless locals, she eventually found a guide in a remote village beyond Lachen who knew where it was. The trek up to the cave was tough, invariably made more difficult by a wooden backpack and no modern hiking equipment. But it was worth it in the end. “I sat down inside the cave, looking out over the same views that she would have had over 100 years ago,” Wortley said. “Looking back now it seems totally incredible that I was actually there sitting in that cave that was such an important place for her.” When Wortley’s journey came to an end, she found everyday life hard to adjust back to. “As soon as I turned my phone on back in Delhi I could immediately feel the stress building again. I really miss that feeling of being alone and fully appreciating everything around you and right in front of you.” Though David-Néel had more than one near-death experience, one difficulty she’d never experienced was the anxiety that accompanies modern technology. But above all else, what Wortley felt was a sense of achievement. She’d finally lived out something that had once been a dream. David-Néel once famously said, “I vow to prove what the will of a woman can do”. And though she died almost 50 years ago, her spirit still lives on in the adventures inspired by her courageousness. Crediting the Buddhist explorer’s work, Wortley said, “Without a role model like her to think, ‘well if she can do it, I can do it’ I would never have managed to push myself in ways I have.” Elise Wortley is raising money and awareness for Freedom Kit Bags, a charity that empowers women in rural Nepal by providing them with reusable kits for their periods. To learn more and donate, please visit this page . David-Neel, Alexandra. Alexandra David-Néel was born in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne on 24 October 1868, and died in Digne-les-Bains, on 8 September 1969. She was a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist, and writer, and a most adventurous, courageous lady. She visited Lhasa, Tibet, in 1924, when it was forbidden to foreigners. She also travelled all over Tibet, Sikkim, parts of China, India, Vietnam plus many more countries. And she did it mostly alone. She learnt the language in Tibet, visited monasteries and questioned the occupants, camped at sometimes extremely high altitudes, lived in caves as part of a retreat experiment for over a year and overall was formidable and greatly respected. She still is. David-Néel wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels. She wrote in French but a large number have been translated into other languages. Born in Paris in 1868, she moved to Ixelles (Brussels) at the age of six. During her childhood she had a very strong desire for freedom and spirituality. By the age of 18, she had already visited England, Switzerland and Spain on her own, and she was studying in Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society. She joined various secret societies - she would reach the thirtieth degree in the mixed Scottish Rite of Freemasonry - while feminist and anarchist groups greeted her with enthusiasm. In 1899, Alexandra composed an anarchist treatise with a preface by the French geographer and anarchist Elisée Reclus (1820-1905). Publishers were, however, too terrified to publish the book, though her friend Jean Haustont printed copies himself and it was eventually translated into five languages. In 1890 and 1891, she traveled through India, returning only when she was running out of money. From 1895-1897 she was prima donna with a touring French opera company in Indochina, appearing at the Hanoi Opera House and elsewhere as La Traviata and Carmen. In Tunis in 1900 she met and lived with the railroad engineer Philippe Néel, marrying him in 1904. In 1911 Alexandra left Néel and traveled for the second time to India, to further her study of Buddhism. She was invited to the royal monastery of Sikkim, where she met Maharaj Kumar (crown prince) Sidkeong Tulku Namgyal. She became Sidkeong's "confidante and spiritual sister" (according to Ruth Middleton), perhaps his lover (Foster & Foster). She also met the 13th Dalai Lama twice in 1912, and had the opportunity to ask him many questions about Buddhism—a feat unprecedented for a European woman at that time. In the period 1914-1916 she lived in a cave in Sikkim, near the Tibetan border, together with the young (born 1899) Sikkimese monk Aphur Yongden, who became her lifelong traveling companion, and whom she would adopt later. From there they trespassed into Tibetan territory, meeting the Panchen Lama in Shigatse (August 1916). When the British authorities learned of this—Sikkim was then a British protectorate— Alexandra and Aphur were forced to leave the country. Unable to return to Europe in the middle of World War I, Alexandra and Yongden travelled to Japan. In Japan, Alexandra met Ekai Kawaguchi, who had visited Lhasa in 1901 disguised as a Chinese doctor, and this inspired them to visit Lhasa disguised as pilgrims. After traversing China from east to west, they reached Lhasa in 1924, and spent 2 months there. In 1928 Alexandra legally separated from Philippe, but they continued to exchange letters and he kept supporting her till his death in 1941. Alexandra settled in Digne (Provence), and during the next nine years she wrote books. In 1929, she published her most famous and beloved work, Mystiques et Magiciens du Tibet (Magic and Mystery in Tibet). In 1937, Yongden and Alexandra went to Tibet through the former Soviet Union, travelling there during the second World War. They eventually ended up in Tachienlu, where she continued her investigations of Tibetan sacred literature. While in Eastern Tibet Alexandra and Yongden completed a circumambulation of the holy mountain Amnye Machen. The pair returned to France in 1946. Alexandra was then 78 years old. In 1955 Yongden died at age 56. Alexandra continued to study and write at Digne till her death at age nearly 101. According to her last will and testament, her ashes and those of Yongden were mixed together and dispersed in the Ganges in 1973 at Varanasi, by her friend Marie-Madeleine Peyronnet. Alexandra David-Néel. Alexandra David-Néel born Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David (born in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne on 24 October 1868, and died in Digne-les-Bains, on 8 September 1969) was a Belgian-French explorer, anarchist, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer, most known for her visit to Lhasa, Tibet, in 1924, when it was forbidden to foreigners. David-Néel wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels. Her teachings influenced beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and philosopher Alan Watts. Born in Paris, she moved to Elsene at the age of six. During her childhood she had a very strong desire for freedom and spirituality. At the age of 18, she had already visited England, Switzerland and Spain on her own, and she was studying in Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society. In 1890 and 1891, she traveled through India, returning only when she was running out of money. In 1900 she met and lived with the railroad engineer Philippe Néel in Tunis, whom she married in 1904. In 1911 Alexandra quit Néel and traveled for the second time to India, to further her study of Buddhism. She was invited to the royal monastery of Sikkim, where she met Maharaj Kumar (crown prince) Sidkeon Tulku. She became Sidkeong's "confidante and spiritual sister" (according to Ruth Middleton), perhaps his lover (Foster & Foster). She also met the 13th Dalai Lama twice in 1912, and had the opportunity to ask him many questions about Buddhism—a feat unprecedented for a European woman at that time. In the period 1914-1916 she lived in a cave in Sikkim, near the Tibetan border, learning spirituality, together with the young (born 1899) Sikkimese monk Aphur Yongden, who became her lifelong traveling companion, and whom she would adopt later. From there they trespassed into Tibetan territory, meeting the Panchen Lama in Shigatse (August 1916). When the British authorities learned about this—Sikkim was then a British protectorate—Alexandra and Yongden had to leave the country, and, unable to return to Europe in the middle of World War I, they traveled to Japan. There Alexandra met Ekai Kawaguchi, who had visited Lhasa in 1901 disguised as a Chinese doctor, and this inspired her to visit Lhasa disguised as pilgrims. After traversing China from east to west, they reached Lhasa in 1924, and spent 2 months there. In 1928 Alexandra legally separated from Philippe, but they continued to exchange letters and he kept supporting her till his death in 1941. Alexandra settled in Digne (Provence), and during the next 9 years she wrote books. In 1937, Yongden and Alexandra went to China through Soviet Union, traveling there during the second World War. They eventually ended up in Tachienlu, where she continued her investigations of Tibetan sacred literature. One minor mystery relating to Alexandra David-Neel has a solution. In Forbidden Journey , p. 284, the authors wonder how Mme. David-Neel's secretary, Violet Sydney, made her way back to the West in 1939 after Sous des nuées d'orage (Storm Clouds) was completed in Tachienlu. Peter Goullart's Land of the Lamas (not in Forbidden Journey' s bibliography), on pp. 110–113 gives an account of his accompanying Ms. Sydney partway back, then putting her under the care of Lolo bandits to continue the journey to Chengdu. Mme. David-Neel evidently remained in Tachienlu for the duration of the war. While in East Tibet Alexandra and Yongden completed circumambulation of the holy mountain Amnye Machen [1] . The pair returned to France only in 1946. She was then 78 years old. In 1955 Yongden died at age 56. Alexandra continued to study and write at Digne till her death at age nearly 101. According to her last will and testament, her ashes and those of Yongden were mixed together and dispersed in the Ganges in 1973 at Vârânasî, by her friend Marie-Madeleine Peyronnet. See also. Bibliography. 1898 Pour la vie 1911 Le modernisme bouddhiste et le bouddhisme du Bouddha 1927 Voyage d'une Parisienne à Lhassa (1927, My Journey to Lhasa ) 1929 Mystiques et Magiciens du Tibet (1929, Magic and Mystery in Tibet ) 1930 Initiations Lamaïques ( Initiations and Initiates in Tibet ) 1931 La vie Surhumaine de Guésar de Ling le Héros Thibétain ( The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling ) 1933 Grand Tibet; Au pays des brigands-gentilshommes 1935 Le lama au cinq sagesses 1938 Magie d'amour et magic noire; Scènes du Tibet inconnu ( Tibetan Tale of Love and Magic ) 1939 Buddhism: Its Doctrines and Its Methods 1940 Sous des nuées d'orage; Recit de voyage 1949 Au coeur des Himalayas; Le Nepal 1951 Ashtavakra Gita; Discours sur le Vedanta Advaita 1951 Les Enseignements Secrets des Bouddhistes Tibétains ( The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects ) 1951 L'Inde hier, aujourd'hui, demain 1952 Textes tibétains inédits 1953 Le vieux Tibet face à la Chine nouvelle 1954 La puissance de néant , by Lama Yongden ( The Power of Nothingness ) Grammaire de la langue tibetaine parlée 1958 Avadhuta Gita 1958 La connaissance transcendente 1961 Immortalite et reincarnation: Doctrines et pratiques en Chine, au Tibet, dans l'Inde L'Inde où j'ai vecu; Avant et après l'independence 1964 Quarante siècles d'expansion chinoise 1970 En Chine: L'amour universe! et l'individualisme integral: les maitres Mo Tse et Yang Tchou 1972 Le sortilège du mystère; Faits étranges et gens bizarre rencontrés au long de mes routes d'orient et d'occident 1975 Vivre au Tibet; Cuisine, traditions et images 1975 Journal de voyage; Lettres à son Mari, 11 août 1904 - 27 decembre 1917 . Vol. 1. Ed. Marie- Madeleine Peyronnet 1976 Journal de voyage; Lettres à son Mari, 14 janvier 1918 - 31 decembre 1940 . Vol. 2. Ed. Marie-Madeleine Peyronnet 1979 Le Tibet d'Alexandra David-Neel 1981 Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects 1986 La lampe de sagesse. Many of Mme. David-Neel's books were published more or less simultaneously both in French and English. DAVID-NÉEL, Alexandra. 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, and Alexandra Borleman, a Catholic Belgian. From 1873 grew up in Belgium. At an early age she developed a passion of travel and, running out from home in her teens, saw much of Europe. In her youth she was both theosophist, feminist and anarchist, in 1889 adopted Buddhism. In Paris she also studied aome Sanskrit (Lévi), Chinese and Tibetan (Foucaux). Champion claims that she spent 18 months in India 1891-92 and became pupil of Swami Bashkarānanda, but Wikipedia is silent on this stating instead that she attended the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. In 1895-1904 worked as opera singer (as Alexandra Myrial), performed in Vietnam, Greece and Tunisia. Married 1904 Philippe Néel (d. 1941), a railway engineer and her distant cousin, but the marriage ended in practice in 1911, without children, although they continued correspondence. After having studied Tibetan and Sanskrit in Paris (Faculté des lettres) from 1887, she spent long periods in Asia in 1911-25 and 1936-46. She lived long time in Sikkim, studying Tibetan under Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup, staying at different monasteries and trying to go to Tibet. Herself she claimed to have succeeded and visited Tashilhunpo in 1916 and Lhasa in 1924. She quarreled with British authorities and Christian missionaries in Sikkim. In 1925-36 she lived in southern France. In 1936 she used the Siberian route to China, reached Tibet in 1939 and claimed to have stayed there all the war years. In any case she knew well Tibetan culture and religion, although some of her claims are far from convincing. In 1929 she adopted the young Sikkimese Lama Aphur Yongden, who had been her servant from 1914. Her last years she lived in Digne (Basses-Alpes), in a house she had bought in 1928. Her many books have been very popular and brought her greta fame. However, they are no scholarly studies and numerous points have been found contriversial, even suspect. Also the extent of her travels has been questioned. Publications: La philosophe Meh-Ti et l’idée de solidarité . 185 p. P. 1907; Les theories individualistes dans la philosophie chinoise . 150 p. P. 1909; writings unrelated to Asia. – Le modernisme bouddhiste et le Bouddhisme du Bouddha . 280 p. P. 1911. – A pied et en mendiant de la Chine à l’Inde à travers le Thibet. Voyage d’une Parisienne à Lhassa . 332 p. P. 1927, translations: English, My Journey to Lhasa . 310 p. L. 1927; German, Arjopa. Die erste Pilgerfahrt einer weissen Frau nach der verbotenen Stadt des Dalai Lama . Lp. 1928; Czech 1934. – Mystiques et Magiciens du Tibet . 306 p. P. 1929, translations: English, Magic And Mystery in Tibet . 285 p. L. 1932; German by A. Dissen, Heilige und Hexer. Glaube und Aberglaube im Lande des Lamaismus . Lp. 1931; Czech 1934; Dutch 1941; Spanish, Buenos Aires 1942. – Initiations lamaïques; des théories, des pratiques, des hommes . 244 p. P. 1930, rev. ed. 1957; translations: English, Initiations and Initiates in Tibet . 224 p. L. 1931; German, Meister uns Schüler; die Geheimnisse der lamaistischen Weihen . Lp. 1934. – With Lama Yongden: La vie surhumaine de Gesar de Ling . P. 1931; translations: English, The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling . 271 p. 1959; The secret oral teachings in Tibetan Buddhist sects . 128 p. Calcutta n.d.. – Grand-Tibet. Au pays des Brigands Gentilshommes . 357 p. P. 1933; translations: English, Tibetan Journey . 1936; German, Mönche und Strauchritter; eine Tibetfahrt auf Schleifwegen . Lp. 1933; Czech 1937. – Le Lama aux cinq sagesses . 1935, translations: Czech 1947. – Le bouddhisme, ses doctrines et ses méthodes . 257 p. P. 1936, rev. ed. Le bouddhisme du Bouddha . 1960; translations: English, Buddhism, its doctrines and methods . L. 1939; German, Vom Leiden zur Erlösung . 196 p. Lp. 1937. – Magie d’amour et magie noire, scenes du Tibet inconnu . 246 p. P. 1938; transl.: English, Tibetan Tale of Love and Magic . 1983; German, München 1952, Italian, Milano 1945. – Sous des nuées d’orage. 279 p. P. 1940; A l’ouest barbare de la vaste Chine . 301 p. P. 1947; transl.: German, Wien 1952. – Au cœur des Himalayas. Le Népal . 227 p. P. 1949; translations: German, Im Schatten des Himalaja. Zauber und Wunder in Nepal . Wb. 1953. – L’Inde. Hier–aujourd’hui–demain . 311 p. P. 1951, new ed. 1969; translations: German, Zwischen Göttern und Politik. Indien – gestern, heute, morgen . Wb. 1952. – Les enseignements secrets dans les sectes bouddhiques tibétaines . 148 p. P. 1951; translations: English, The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects . 1967. – Textes tibétains, inédits . 199 p. P. 1952; translations: German, Unbekannte tibetische Texte . 173 p. München 1955, 2nd ed. as Ralopa. Bern 1980. – Le vieux Tibét face à la Chine nouvelle . 244 p. P. 1953; translations: German, Altes Tibet, neues China . 203 p. Wb. 1955. – Le sortilège du mystère . 314 p. P. 1972. – M. M. Peyronnet (ed.), Journal de voyage: lettres à son mari . 1-2. P. 1975-76.