Kinthup

Kinthup, a Lepcha man from Sikkim, was an explorer in the area of Tibet in the 1880s. He is best known for his impressive devotion to duty in surveying a previously unknown area of Tibet.

Laurence Waddell, who met Kinthup in 1892, described him as follows:

Biography

In the 1870s, the destination of the Tsangpo River (sometimes spelled "Sanpo") was unknown. Some hypothesized that it was the same river that flowed into the Bay of Bengal under the name of Brahmaputra (also known as "Dihang"). To solve this mystery, Henry John Harman of the Great Trigonometrical Survey sent a pundit explorer, Nem Singh (known as "G. M. N.") to follow the Tsangpo and determine its ultimate destination. G. M. N. was accompanied by his assistant, a Lepcha man from Sikkim named Kinthup. After surveying a good portion of the river, the pair returned to India. Kinthup's surveying equipment and notebooks were confiscated and he remained a slave until March 1882, when he finally managed to escape.

Captain Hugh Trenchard said, "his account has been confirmed in the most remarkable manner, and we are now able to establish Kinthup's claim to honorable record in the annals of the Survey of India, which he served with such zeal and devotion to duty." It was only some 30 years later that the Bailey–Morshead exploration of Tsangpo Gorge conclusively confirmed his discovery.