Gabriel Bonvalot

Pierre Gabriel Édouard Bonvalot (13 July 1853 – 10 December 1933) was a French explorer of Central Asia and Tibet. Bonvalot was born in the commune of Épagne in the Aube department in north-central France. He was the son of Pierre Bonvalot and Louise-Félicie, née Congniasse des Jardins. He attended schooling at Troyes.

Expeditions from 1880-1887 In 1880–1882 he visited Russian controlled Central Asia and returned to France via Bukhara, the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus. His travels were financed by the Minister of Public Instruction. In 1886, he set out for Russian Central Asia with Guillaume Capus, a botanist, ethnographer, and doctor of natural sciences, and designer Albert Pépin. and French colonists. In 1894 he founded the Comité Dupleix, a pro-colonialist organization. In 2005 an exhibition on the life of Bonvalot was organized in the library at Brienne-le-Château. Bonvalot died in Paris on 10 December 1933.

Publications Most of his books were translated in English. En Asie Centrale. De Moscou en Bactriane (1884) En Asie Centrale. Du Kohistan à la Caspienne (1885) Du Caucase aux Indes, à travers le Pamir (1888) Through the Heart of Asia Over the Pamir to India (1889) De Paris au Tonkin à travers le Tibet inconnu, ouvrage contenant cent huit illustrations d'après les photographies prises par le prince Henri d'Orléans (1892) L'Asie inconnue, à travers le Tibet (1896) Sommes-nous en décadence ? (1899) Propos d'un Français (1911) Une lourde tâche (1913) Voyages. Les Chercheurs de routes. Marco-Polo (1924)

In popular culture

Literature Race to Tibet by Sophie Schiller (2015)