The Pundits British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia

On a September day in 1863 Abdul Hamid entered the Central Asian city of Yarkand. Disguised as a merchant Hamid was in fact an employee of the Survey of India carrying concealed instruments to enable him to map the geography of the area. Hamid did not live to provide a first-hand account of his travels. But he was the advance guard of an elite group of Indian trans-Himalayan explorers—recruited trained and directed by the officers of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India—who were to traverse much of Tibet and Central Asia during the next thirty years.Derek Waller presents the history of these intrepid explorers—Nain Mani Kalian and Kishen Singh Mirza Shuja Hyder Shah Ata Mahomed Abdul Subhan Mukhtar Shah Hari Ram Rinzing Namgyal Ugyen Gyatso Nem Singh Lala and Kintup—who came to be called ‘native explorers’ or ‘pundits’ in the public documents of the Survey of India. In the closed files of the government of British India h wever they were given their true designation as spies. As they moved northward within the Indian subcontinent the British demanded precise frontiers and sought orderly political and economic relationships with their neighbours. They were also becoming increasingly aware of and concerned with their ignorance of the geographical political and military complexion of the territories beyond the mountain frontiers of the Indian empire. This was particularly true of Tibet.