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Central Asia: Early
travelers
Part 2: Sven Hedin, a lifetime of
exploring
By Charles Carlson
Part 1: Missions to the
Mongols
PRAGUE -
Sven Hedin was born in Stockholm in 1865. At an early
age he became fascinated with the works of James
Fenimore Cooper and Jules Verne and the exploits of
David Livingstone. At the age of 12, Sven Hedin decided
he would pursue the life of an adventurer.
Between 1893 and 1935, Hedin made four
expeditions to Central Asia during which he compiled
maps of the Pamirs, Taklamakan, Tibet and
trans-Himalaya. Those maps eventually proved of
significant help in interpreting satellite photographs
of the region. "The whole of Asia was open before me,"
he wrote in his book My Life as an Explorer.
Professor Daniel Waugh is a specialist on
medieval Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus at the
University of Washington in Seattle. He spoke to RFE/RL
about Hedin's mapping skills, "I think he is most
important as a physical geographer, which is what his
training was. That is, he did very extensive mapping. He
always made a point of going to areas where people -
Europeans, that is - had not previously been. His
mapping skills - which he developed, basically, I think,
without a huge amount of formal training - really became
quite extraordinary."
In one expedition, Hedin
traveled across Russian Central Asia, crossing the
Pamirs, exploring and attempting to climb the peaks, and
then crossing part of the Taklamakan desert, where he
nearly lost his life for lack of water. Hedin was taken
by local guides to a ruined city in the desert northeast
of Khotan where he found not only the remains of
buildings, orchards and avenues preserved in the sand,
but also Buddhist stucco figures and wall paintings.
Hedin was no archaeologist, but he realized that he had
been brought to one of the old cities of the Silk Road.
Waugh told RFE/RL about Hedin's archeological
contributions, "He is also known for being the first
European to bring attention to some of the archeological
treasures of Central Asia in the sense that he came
across the ancient cities buried in the sand, and this
then alerted others, such as Aurel Stein, to their
importance, and that really began the process of what we
might call the competition for gathering archeological
treasures in Central Asia."
Later Hedin came
across a number of old wooden ruins set high on the
hillocks in the heart of the Taklamakan desert. Here he
found coins, iron axes, beautifully carved wooden boards
and manuscripts. From those manuscripts, Hedin later
identified the Chinese town of Lou-lan - a Chinese
garrison whose purpose was to protect the Chinese rear
as they probed their way westward from the 1st century
BC on.
Professor Uli Schamiloglu, a professor
and historian at the University of Wisconsin, commented
to RFE/RL on the life of Sven Hedin, "Sven Hedin, who
was born in 1865 and died in 1952, is considered to be
one of the leading explorers and geographers of Central
Asia, not just thinking of the five republics of Central
Asia today, but in his contributions to the study of the
sources of the Brahma-Putra-Indus rivers, his
explorations in Tibet, in the Gobi Desert, and other
places that are really well-known.
"Whenever you
read about early modern history of this part of the
world, it is invariable that people are referring to
Hedin. Now in terms of Sinkiang today, he did do mapping
in the 1890s in Sinkiang in the Tarim River Basin. He
was the first person in 1895 to discover one of the lost
cities in the Khotan region which he called Taklamakan,
and in 1899 he also discovered the ancient Chinese city
of Lou-lan which was a vibrant city 2,000 years ago."
In Sinkiang, Hedin had been overwhelmed by the
"liberal doses of fiery spirits and the 46 courses"
through which he had been obliged to sit. In his book
Through Asia, Hedin described a few dishes
typical of such feasts, "The skin, fins and cartilage of
different varieties of fish found in the seas and rivers
of the Chinese empire, fungi, salted mutton fat cut into
oblong strips, lizards, ham with a great variety of
different adjuncts, besides a multitude of strange
preparations, the real constituents and names of which
remained mysteries to me."
Despite British and
Tibetan opposition, Hedin managed during another
expedition to sneak into Tibet disguised as a Buddhist
pilgrim and claimed the discovery of a previously
unknown mountain system, which he called the
Trans-Himalayas.
In 1913, Hedin became a member
of the Swedish Academy. He then traveled in the Gobi
desert and Turkistan during which time he mapped out the
old Silk Road of Marco Polo so that it could be
motorized.
Waugh of the University of Washington
said the size and complexity of Hedin's bibliography
rival the scope of his explorations. "Well, Sven Hedin,
a Swedish explorer who started traveling to Central Asia
in the late 19th century and continued his travels and
explorations down until the 1930s, was probably the most
popular travel writer on Central Asia in his time. His
books appeared in a multitude of editions, especially in
Germany," Waugh said.
Part 1: Missions to the
Mongols
Copyright
(c) 2002, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of
Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave
NW, Washington DC 20036
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