Évariste Régis Huc

Régis Huc Évariste ( born August 1, 1813 in Toulouse, † March 31, 1860 in Paris) was a French explorer and missionary who became world famous for his crossing of Mongolia, Tibet, and China in the years 1844-1846.

Life

Huc joined at the age of 24 years in the Congregation of the Vincentians and went after obtaining the sacrament of Holy Orders in 1839 to China, where he in Macau 18 months preparing for missionary work in a Lazaristenseminar. Huc learned Chinese and adapted itself externally in clothing and customs of his surroundings.

Huc first worked near Beijing but devoted most of his time to the study of local languages ​​and the translation of religious works. 1844, after he had founded in Dolon Nor, in Inner Mongolia, a mission, he broke together with Abbe Joseph Gabet ( 1808-53 ) and a Buddhist converts to Tibet in order to learn more about this country experience. To avoid attention, the two again enveloped in garments of the local lamas.

After Huc had crossed the Yellow River and crosses the Ordos Plateau under numerous hardships, he reached Gansu to the border with Tibet, where he decided instead of alone to undertake the arduous journey to Lhasa to wait for an embassy Tibet.

Huc spent 8 months in the border town of Tang Kiul, which he spent with the study of Buddhist literature, and learning Tibetan. Finally Huc met the Tibetan delegation, which provided 2,000 men and 3,700 animals.

Through the desert of Qinghai Lake Koko Nor immediately and over snow-covered passes Huc arrived on 29 January 1846 Lhasa.

Huc met the Dalai Lama and the opening of a mission it was promised to him. Due to the intervention of the Chinese Embassy Huc but was ultimately to Canton, outside the country's borders, piped, where Huc remained until 1852.

Due to his health returned Huc to have not visited without India, Palestine, and Egypt, to Europe, where he died in Paris in 1860.

Works

• Huc, ( Evariste Regis ) and (Joseph ) Gabet: walks through Mongolia and Thibet the capital of the Tale Lama. Huc and Gabet from. In German machining edited by Karl Andree. Leipzig, Lorck, 1855 - Also published under the title: . Walks through the Chinese Empire. Ed in German processing. by Karl Andree. Leipzig, Lorck, 1855 (House library for country and Ethnology. Vol. 8).
• ( Reissue :) Huc, Régis Évariste: walks through Mongolia to Tibet from 1844 to 1846. Published and edited by Hans Walz. With a foreword by Dr. Ernst Schäfer. Stuttgart, Steingrüben Verlag, 1966.
• Huc, Régis Évariste: The Chinese Empire. 2 volumes, Leipzig, Dyk, 1856
• ( Reissue :) Huc, Évariste Regis: The Chinese Empire. Edited by Wolfgang Rieland. (2 parts in one volume). Basel / Frankfurt, Stroemfeld / Red Star, 1987.