Networks and Identities as Revealed by Journeys in South Asia and the Himalayas
Tibet through the Eyes of a Buryat: Gombojab Tsybikov and his Tibetan relations
Author:
Ihor Pidhainy
Marietta College, US
About Ihor
Ihor Pidhainy is Assistant Professor of History at Marietta College. His research focuses on the place of the individual in the complex of social, intellectual and political forces, with areas and periods of interest including Ming dynasty China and Eurasian interactions from the 18th to 20th centuries.
Abstract
Gombojab Tsybikov (1873-1930), an ethnic Buryat from Russia, was a young scholar of oriental studies, when he went on a scholarly expedition to Tibet. Sponsored by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Tsybikov spent over a year in Lhasa (1900-1901), gathering materials and taking photographs of the city and environs, and introducing Tibet both academically and visually to the outside world. This paper examines the context of this trip within the larger issues of scholarship, international politics and modernization. In addition, it argues that Tsybikov was an example of a man caught between identities – that of an ethnic Buryat raised as a Buddhist and his Russian citizenship, education and patronage. He was, in a sense, the epitome of modern man.
How to Cite:
Pidhainy, I., 2013. Tibet through the Eyes of a Buryat: Gombojab Tsybikov and his Tibetan relations. ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts, 20(2). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/ane.92
Published on
05 May 2013.
Peer Reviewed
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