Nain Singh Rawat: the 19th Century explorer from my home - Kumaon

The sun was about to rise and walking slowing on foot and counting the beads in my Buddhist rosary, I was about to witness something quite extraordinary - the morning glow over the mythical, magical and the forbidden city of Lhasa. I wasn’t the first man from India (by the way there was no India back then) to visit Lhasa, but I was first man to bring the city closer like never before to the rest of the world.

My name is Nain Singh Rawat, and I invite you to take a sneak peek into my life.



I was born exactly 187 years back in a small laid-back valley in Kumaon called Johar Valley. By the way do you even know where Kumaon is? Also, did you know that the lad (ha, he is an old man now) who claims to run this blog also comes from Kumaon? Well, not really from the valley that I come from - but from a place not too far from there. It’s quite a shame that though he started his blog sitting in Almora, he barely writes about the region. Tch tch.

Anyway, Kumaon is a region in the present day state of Uttrakhand, though back in my days, it was quasi-independent kingdom and the British controlled it for most practical purposes.

Now that we know about my Kumaon, let’s come back to my story and to this special day (not my birthday) which is one of the reasons the world remembers me even today, almost 200 years later. Well, the story has something to do with the mythical, magical and the forbidden city of Lhasa. Did I just repeat myself? Grrr...

Quick history of Lhasa

So let me first give a very brief history of Lhasa first. The city is fairly old and was established in the 7th Century by Songtsän Gampo, the leader of the Tibetan Empire. The city was then destroyed in the 10th Century, and later rose to prominence again around the time of the 5th Dalai Lama. It was during his time in the 15th Century that Lhasa came back into prominence both as a religious as well as political center. Today Lhasa is part of the People's Republic of China, though Tibetan diaspora across the world hopes for an independent Tibet with it's capital in Lhasa.

But what did I do in Lhasa?

Clearly the more pertinent question is here is my contribution in all this? Well, I was the first man ever to survey the region of Tibet, and find the exact location and altitude of the capital city of the region and seat of power, Lhasa.

Lhasa at night (source: Pixabay)

This is very significant in the 19th century as westerners were seeking to explore the Central Asian terrain. Plus, this was also a part of the ancient trade routes, particularly the Silk Route from China, and they also had some business interests in mind. The maps that I made played a huge role when a British expedition in 1904 entered the city the signed the first treaty with the region, Treaty of Lhasa.

However my greatest journey was from Leh in Ladhak to Assam via Lhasa, from 1873-75. Maybe someday I will talk about that as well.

Oh by the way, how does this new age wanderer know about my birthday? Hint: it’s got nothing to do with our shared Kumaoni heritage.

Well Sid loves google and saw that it was celebrating my birthday with a doodle. Here’s what it looks like.

“Created by paper cut artists Hari and Deepti Panicker, the doodle is a silhouette diorama illustration with Rawat (a tripod placed in front depicting his ‘day job’) looking out at the horizon, a majestic lake below, and the sun in all its glory behind the mountains.”

Ref: Hindu