Michel Peissel (1937–2011)

PERSONAL NEWS Michel Peissel (1937–2011) Michel Peissel, an eminent French bestseller, won the US National Book read exposé of China’s destruction of ethnologist, explorer, artist and author of Award in 1965, and sparked international Tibetan culture (during the so-called numerous books on the Himalaya– interest in the coastal Mayan sites. Cultural Revolution) and the militant re- Tibetan region, died on 7 October 2011, Peissel’s first trip to the Himalayas sistance of the Tibetans got Peissel into aged 74, at his home in Paris. His death was in 1959 when he visited Sikkim with trouble with all the involved govern- marks the end of the traditional genera- the hope of crossing into Bhutan, but for ments, including the Chinese who did not tion of explorers who enjoyed arduous which he could not get a permit. Instead allow him to visit China for years. In journeys on foot or on horseback to the he journeyed the Sherpa region of Solu- 1974, the Khampa guerrillas were killed remote parts of our planet, who were Khumbu, south of Everest (Tiger for or captured by Nepalese forces under gifted with both artistic skills and scho- Breakfast, 1966). In the summer of 1964, Chinese pressure after China and USA lastic curiosity, and who loved and dressed in a Tibetan sheepskin coat and decided to mend their conflicts. Mustang respected the lands and the peoples they with the help of local guides, Peissel remained closed to foreigners till 1992. visited. These explorers have laid the trekked the little known Buddhist king- Peissel fictionalized the plight of Tibet foundation of our knowledge of the dom of Mustang in northern Nepal. He and the rise and fall of the Khampa world. With his nearly 40 journeys, 20 revisited Mustang in 1966–67. The first- fighters in two French novels – La books, 22 documentary films, and hun- hand information he collected about Tibétaine (1987) and La Khamba (1996). dreds of essays and interviews, Peissel Mustang’s culture and history constituted In 1972, Peissel with two friends navi- played a prominent role in researching research materials for his doctorate gated the Kali Gandaki River on a small and chronicling the Himalaya–Tibetan thesis; he also wrote a feature article on hovercraft for 2000 km, including the cultures intertwined with the high land- gorge between the 8000 m summits of scape. He was one of the outstanding Annapurna and Dhaulagiri (The Great explorers who placed this vast historical Himalayan Passage, 1974). In 1980, he and fascinating geography in the global navigated the Ganges using a hovercraft. spotlight. Peissel won several awards for One of Peissel’s best-known works is his publications and expeditions, but his exploration of Zanskar in the late shunned publicity. A definite volume on 1970s documented in his 1979 book Zan- Peissel’s biography, expeditions and con- skar: The Hidden Kingdom as well as in tributions is yet to be written; this brief a four-part film for BBC, Zanskar: The note is offered as a tribute to his life and Last Place on Earth (1980). work. Peissel was intrigued by the account of Michel Georges Francois Peissel was gold-digging ants somewhere up in the born on 11 February 1937 in Paris. Son Himalayas in Herodotus’ Histories. After of a diplomat, he spent part of his child- years of research and travel, he sug- hood in London, where his father was gested the Dansar plain in the upper posted. Peissel was thus a native speaker Indus as the source of the famous Greek of both English and French, and in which fable. Peissel argued that burrowing languages he later wrote his travel books. marmots threw up the gold-bearing sand He went to schools in England and (The Ant’s Gold: Discovering the Greek France. As a young boy, his heroes were Eldorado, 1984). The isolated Dansar explorers like Captain Robert Falcon plain near the India–Pakistan border is Scott and Alexander von Humboldt. At Mustang for the National Geographic also home to the Minaro (Dard) people, age 18, upon reading Fosco Maraini’s magazine (October 1965). His travel who speak the Shina language and are Secret Tibet, Peissel was fascinated by book Mustang (1967) became an instant ethnically Aryans (not Tibetans). Peissel Tibet and started reading Charles Bell’s bestseller both in English and in French, researched their culture and language Grammar of Colloquial Tibetan. For a and was translated into several other lan- too. while he attended classes at Oxford Uni- guages; it also won the Louis Castex In 1986, Peissel journeyed the remote versity and then at Harvard Business Prize of the French Academy in 1971. pilgrimage area of Tsari along the great School. But in 1958, after an adventur- It was only in 1968 that the Bhutanese bend of the Brahmaputra (Tsangpo) ous solo trekking (300 km in 42 days) Government gave an entry permit to River in northeastern corner of the Hima- along the eastern coast of Yucatan Peissel; his pioneering journey through laya. In 1988, modelling on the ancient (Quintana Roo) in Mexico, where he Bhutan is narrated in Lords and Lamas boat-building technology of the Itza peo- found a number of Mayan archaeological (1970). In 1972, Peissel published Cava- ple (a Yucatan Mayan tribe), Peissel sites, Peissel left the business school and liers of Kham, based on his observations sailed 800 km down the Yucatan–Belize decided to study at the Sorbonne where and interviews in Mustang during the coast on a dugout canoe in order to dem- he eventually obtained a doctorate in Ti- 1960s; the book detailed the activities of onstrate the ancient maritime commerce betan anthropology. Peissel’s first book, Tibetan Khampa guerrillas, who laun- in Mesoamerica (Itza, le mystere du Nau- The Lost World of Quintana Roo (1964), ched attacks against the Chinese Red frage Maya, 1989). The following year, recounting his Yucatan travel, became a Army for over two decades. The widely Peissel and his crew built a replica of a 1474 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012 PERSONAL NEWS Viking long boat and sailed from the cultures of upper Mekong as featured in decade of his life, as his travels were Dvina River in northern Russia down the a documentary film (Source of the reduced, Peissel focused more on his Dnieper River that flows into the Black Mekong, A&E, 1998) sponsored by the artworks. He published nearly 100 of his Sea (La Route De L’ambre – De La Smithsonian Institute. watercolour paintings of Tibetan monas- Baltique À La Mer Noire Dans Le Sillage From 1995 to 1999, Peissel spent sev- teries and cliff-top buildings in Tibetan Des Vikings, 1992). This 2400 km, 53- eral seasons in Tibet, studying the Pilgrimage (2005). Before his death, day long seafaring was intended to recre- Tibetan breeds of horses, mapping caves Peissel had just completed his first chil- ate that of the Rus people (a group of and salt routes, and filming wildlife on dren’s illustrated book about Tibet and Nordic Varangians), who founded the the Changthang Plateau in western Tibet; was scheduled to promote it at the Book Russian kingdom in the 9th century. and finally in 2000, he visited the Amdo Fair in Frankfurt, but a heart attack at In 1994, Peissel and his crew explored region in northeast Tibet to document the night put an end to the wonderful and the source of the Mekong River, Asia’s 50 m tall drystone towers which have fruitful career of this great explorer. His third longest rivers originating in eastern survived earthquakes for centuries, and contributions and legacy will be cher- Tibet. Peissel followed the more difficult whose origin and builders remain a com- ished. and historical Dza Nak (Black Mekong) plete mystery. Peissel, who characterized himself as branch of the river reaching the home- Throughout his life, Peissel showed ‘an adventurer with lots of curiosity’, land of nomadic tribes whom the Chinese great fond and friendship toward the was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical sometimes sarcastically call ‘the last Himalayan-Tibetan people, culture and Society of London and a member of the barbarians’ (The Last Barbarians: The history. In one of his last books, Tibet: Explorers’ Club of New York. He mar- Discovery of the Source of the Mekong, The Secret Continent (2003), Peissel ried three times and had five children. 1997). A decade later, however, a Japa- summed up his life-long explorations of RASOUL SORKHABI nese–Chinese team demonstrated that the the world’s highest plateau and mountains. White Mekong (Dza Kar) was about As a young boy, Peissel liked to draw University of Utah, 4 km longer and was thus the primary prehistoric animals. In his expeditions he Energy and Geoscience Institute, source. Nevertheless, it was Peissel’s drew sketches and created watercolour Salt Lake City, work that contributed to our knowledge paintings, some of which were exhibited UT 84108, USA of the little-known landscape and tribal in Paris and New York. During the last e-mail: [email protected] L. S. Srinath (1927–2012) Laxmipuram Srinivasachar Srinath, born Power Society of India. He has made tions research and experimental stress on 15 March 1927, passed away in Ban- major fundamental research contri- analysis. His books PERT and CPM – galore on 13 September 2012. He was a butions in the areas of experimental Principles and Applications and Advan- celebrated teacher and an educationist mechanics photoelasticity, photother- ced Mechanics of Solids have become par excellence. moelasticity, and stress wave propaga- classics each running into 4 editions and Srinath started his career as a Fellow tion in solids and has over 160 more than 30 reprints! at the Confederation of British Industries publications to his credit.

Load more