The pundit’s route survey to Lhasa

Nain Singh · 1865 CE – 1866 CE · Earth

Reach Lhasa disguised as a trader, fix its position and pace the whole valley of the Tsangpo.

Historical context

Tibet was closed to Europeans and the Survey of India could not map what it could not enter, so Captain Montgomerie proposed sending Himalayan traders trained as surveyors instead. Nain Singh was the first and the best of them: two years of drill in pacing, bearings and secrecy, then a journey in disguise on which a mistake meant death. His route survey gave British India the position of Lhasa, the course of the Tsangpo and the first measured section of the plateau, and it was published under a pseudonym.

The voyage, step by step

1. Two years of drill

   1865 CE

   A schoolmaster is trained to walk a pace of exactly thirty-three inches, in any ground.

2. Across Nepal

   1865 CE

   The direct passes being watched, he goes the long way round through the Nepalese lowlands.

3. The gate at Kyirong

   1865 CE

   He crosses into Tibet with a merchant caravan and becomes, officially, nobody.

4. Pacing the Tsangpo

   1866 CE

   Bead by bead he measures the great river of Tibet eastward towards Shigatse.

5. Shigatse

   1866 CE

   In the shadow of Tashilhunpo he takes bearings on the monastery roofs at dawn.

6. Lhasa fixed

   1866 CE

   From a rooftop by night he takes the latitude of the forbidden city, and its height by boiling water.

7. The gold field

   1866 CE

   West of the Tsangpo he reaches the diggings of Thok Jalung, at nearly five thousand metres.

8. Home over the Mana pass

   October 1866

   In October he comes down into India with 1,900 kilometres of survey in his head and his prayer wheel.

Outcome

Fixed Lhasa within a few kilometres, surveyed 1,900 kilometres of the Tsangpo and returned over the Mana pass in October 1866.

Nain Singh

Kumaoni schoolmaster trained by the Survey of India who walked to Lhasa counting his paces and fixed the position of the city and the course of the Tsangpo.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• Nain Singh — Wikipedia
• Report of the Route-Survey made by Pundit — from Nepal to Lhasa, and thence through the Upper Valley of the Brahmaputra, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. 38Thomas George Montgomerie, on the survey of Nain Singh · Royal Geographical Society, London · 1868

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