EARLY TRAVELS & EXPLORATIONS IN MUSTANG(A Hundred Years since1865)
To the best of our knowledge, there are no record offoreigners on Mustang before 1864. In the summer of 1865, one of
the first pundit Mani Singh traveled the lower part of Mustang
via Muktinath and Kagbeni on his return journey to Pithoragar
from Kathmandu. But the Survey of India did not disclose hisdetailed report, only but a list of itinerary.
In 1873, another pundit Hari Ram was sent to Tibet
through Western Nepal with the secret mission of surveying thearea en route. Having started from Pithoragar toward east on 1stJuly, he arrived at Tradom of the Tsanpo River in Tibet on 23rdSept. passing through Jumla, Chharka, Kagbeni, Muktinath andLo Manthang. He returned to Kagbeni by the same way along
Kali Gandaki River. From Kagbeni, he changed the routesouthward and returned directly to India along the river. His
precise report on the route survey was fully compiled and openedto the public. ("Extracts from an Explorer's Narrative of hisJourney from Pitoragar, in Kumaon Territory. Communicated byLt.Colonel T.G.Montgomery of the Survey of India". Journal of theR.G.S. vol.45, 1875.)
In 1899, a Japanese monk, Ekai Kawaguchi, enteredinto Mustang on his way to Tibet through Nepal. After he stayedat Tukche, Marpha and Chharang for nearly a year to study
Tibetan language and local sect of Tibetan Buddhism. During his
stay in Mustang, he secretly sought for the way to smuggle
himself into Tibet, and ultimately succeeded in entering intoTibet over a high pass in Dolpo on 4th July of 1900. The story ofhis living with local Tibetans at Chharang and the nature andlandscape along the route were narrated in his famous book "Three years in Tibet" which attracted and interested us a greatdeal. He was the first foreigner having ever entered to the region
and the first Japanese too having entered into the Kingdom ofNepal, both of which were closing the door to foreigners at thetime. ("Three years in Tibet". Madras 1909.)

Next to Kawaguchi, Swedish explorer Sven Hedin entered
to the northern part of Mustang in 1907. On his famous third
Tibetan exploration searching for the Transhimalaya and thesource of Tsampo River, he entered to the upper part of Mustang
from the north crossing over Kore-La on the Nepalese border inJune 1907. His skillful sketches and some of the photographs ofMustang can be find in his voluminous reports on the expeditions
and others. ("Southern Tibet" vol. 2." Maps vol.1-2". and "Atlas ofTibetan Panorama". Stockholm, 1916-22.
"Trans-Himalaya.
Discoveries and Adventures in Tibet " vol.2. London 1909).
In 1944, an Austrian climber Hans Kopp passed throughMustang on his way to Kathmandu after he had a narrow escapefrom an internment camp at Dehra Dun in British India together
with H. Harrer and P. Aufschnaiter. Parting from above two
comrades at Tradum in Tibet, he alone chose the way to("HimalayaKathamandu through Mustang in Nov. 1944.
Shuttlecock" translated from the German by H.C. Stevens.
London, 1957.)
Since then till the opening of Nepal in 1949, no foreigners
entered to Mustang. The well-known British explorer andmountaineer, H.W. Tilman visited Annapurna Himal in 1950, andafter the failure in climbing Annapurna 4, he made a circuit trip
with an objective to explore the mountains along the route fromNar (Phu) and Mustang (Damodar). He crossed over a high passin Damodar Himal (he named it Mustang La, now TeryBhanjyang) to Muktinath via GnyuLa, and crossing a pass (nowThoron Bhanjyang), he returned to Manang village. ("NepalHimalaya". Cambridge 1952).
In 1952, Swiss Geologist Toni Hagen entered to Lo
Manthang for the first time after the opening Nepal. He came toNepal in 1950 as a member of the Swiss Mission to Nepal for thegeological field researches. During the period from 1950 to 1959,
he devoted himself to extensive travels to the most parts of Nepal
Himalaya. In some of his geological reports, we shall find his
special interest in the geology of Thakkhola & Mustang. From1959, the door into Mustang was again closed to foreigners. His

abundant knowledge of the land and profound understanding to
the people of Nepal, which he had accumulated during his
remarkable field works for the first decade after the opening of
the country, gave an invaluable suggestion to the development ofNepal afterwards. ("Uber die raumliche Verteilung derIntrusionen im Nepal Himalaya." Zurich, 1954. "Uber dengeologischen Bau des Nepal Himalaya." St.Gallen 1959.
"Geologie des Thakkhola (Nepal)." Basel, 1959. "Nepal. The
kingdom in the Himalayas." translated from German by B.M.
Charleston. Bern, 1960. "Report on the Geological Survey ofNepal.
Vol.1-2.
Denkschriften
derSchweizerischen
Naturforschenden Gesellschaft.Band 86." Zurich, 1968-9.)
On and after 1950 to the first half of 1960's, so many
mountaineering expeditions visited Dhaulagiri and Annapurna
massifs. Most of the access routes to their mountains were notthrough the southern gate of Mustang, namely Kagbeni.
Therefore no reference is made to most of them in the briefchronicle described below, except for a couple of climbing
expeditions that entered into the areas to the north of Kagbeni or
the eastern part of Mustang that include Bhrikti Himal andDamodar Himal. Several personal travels or expeditions ofscholars who went up along the Kali Gandaki in the upper orlower Mustang are taken up in the chronicle.
1952.

Italian authoritative Tibetologist, Giuseppe Tucci madehis first journey in Nepal for scholarly researches along
Kali Gandaki river to Lo Manthang in 1952. Two years
later, in 1954, he returned to Nepal for investigation of theruins of Malla dynasty near Jumla. ("Journey to Mustangin 1952". Translated from Italian by Diana Fussel.
Kathmandu, 1977.
"Preliminary Report on Two
Scientific Expeditions in Nepal. Series Orientale Roma.
Vol.10. Materials for the study of Nepalese history andculture. No.1". Roma. 1956.

1953.

Herbert Tichy, Austrian Journalist and climber, made agreat journey traversing the whole of the western Nepalto the westernmost border, Tanakpur from Kathmandu in1953. During his long and capricious journey, he visited
Mustang. He climbed a peak in the western outskirts ofLo Manthang and named the peak "Dong Mar" (meansRed Head in Tibetan). ("Land der namenlosen berge. Erst
Durchquerung Westnepals", Wien, 1954.)

1953.

J.Kawakita & S. Nakao, scholarly members of Japanese
Manaslu Expedition in 1953, followed Ekai Kawaguchi'sroute in 1900 for their scholarly investigations to Tuje Laon the mountain divide between Mustang and Thorbo.
(H.Kihara ed. Fauna and Flora, Land and Corps, Peoples,of Nepal Himalaya. Vol.1,2,3. Kyoto, 1955, 56,57.)

1955.

Heins Steinmez and others, German expedition of four
members worked extensively in Annapurna and Damodar
Himal in Mustang. They completed the first ascent of 11
peaks in the areas including Annapurna 4 and Kang
Guru.("Nepal; ein Sommer am Rande der Welt." Stuttgart
1956. "Vier im Himalaya. Erlebnisbericht der deutschen
Nepal-Expedition 1955," Stuttgart, 1957.)

19 56. David L. Snellgrove, a British Tibetologist, widely traveledin 1956 through the Inner Himalayan district from Dolpo
to Tsum of the upper Buri Gandaki areas via Mustang,Thak(Lower KaliGandaki), Nyeshan (Upper Marshandi),Nar(Phu), Gyasumdo(upper Marshandi), Nup-ri andKutang (North of Manaslu). In Thak and Mustang, hevisited most of the temples and monasteries along KaliGandaki for his study on the Tibetan Buddhism,with thelimits of Chharang. ("Himalayan Pilgrimage. A study ofTibetan religion by a traveler through western Nepal".
Oxford, 1961).

1958

J.Kawakita and others made the first ethnologicalresearches in Thorbo(Dolpo), including Thakali peoplesof Thakkhola. ("The Land of Birds- Funeral. Explorationin the Secret Himalaya" text in Japanese. Tokyo, 1960.
And many other books and articles.)1962.

An authority on Asian anthropology, Christoph vonFurer-Heimendolf entered to lower Mustang. He stayed atTukche village for nearly a year studying the culture andcustoms of the Thakali people. 14 years later he also
visited Lo Manthang in 1976. ("Exploratory Travels inHigh Land of Nepal." New Delhi, 1989. "HimalayanTraders. Life in Highland Nepal" London, 1975.)

1963 .

Gerhart Fucks, Austrian geologist entered to Thakkholaarea in 1963, as a member of Austrian Expedition toDhaulagiri. He made geological exploration in Lower
Kaligandaki and southern Dolpo. ("Zum Bau desHimalaya." Wien. 1967). In 1967, he also organized theAustrian Geological Himalayan Expedition and enteredinto the same areas together with Wolfgang Frank.
(G.Fuchs; collaborated with W. Frank: "The Geology ofWest Nepal between the Rivers Kali Gandaki and ThuroBeri." Jahrbuch der Geologschen Bundesanstalt
Sonderband 18. Wien 1970)

1963.

Peter Aufschnaiter was a well-known mountain climberand explorer. He was arrested on his return way fromNanga Parbat in 1939, when the 2nd World War broke out.
In 1944, he escaped from British internment camp inDehra Dun and made the famous long fugitive journey toLhasa with H. Harrer. After the end of the war, hevisited the mountains in Nepal Himalaya many times;
Langtang, Solu Khumbu and etc. In 1963, He visited
Mustang to explore the unknown area too and surveyed
peaks that surround Lo Manthang. Also he visitedChudzong and Luri Gompas during the trip in Mustang
as probably the first foreigner. ("Peter Aufschnaiter, sein
leben in Tibet, Bearbeitung, Zusammenstellung undHerausgabe Martin Brauen", Innsbruck. 1983.)
1964.

Michel Peissel, French writer, stayed in Kathmandu in1959 and wrote a book on Boris Lissanovich as "Tiger forBreakfast". In 1964, he made the journey to Mustang inthe spring of 1964 and stayed two and a half month there.
He wrote an article on his journey and reported thediscovery of local historical book,"Molla" of the kingdom:
genealogy of kings of Mustang from Ame Pal in the early
15th century to the present king. ("Mustang, Remote
Realm in Nepal." National Geographic Magazine, vol.
128,1965.")
During his journey, he encountered Khamba soldiers atSamar, where they had influenced power at that time. On
the way back, he visited Luri Gompa east of Kali Gandaki.
He published more detailed travelogue in 1967 which wastranslated in several languages in Europe and gained thepublic fame. ("Mustang. the Forbidden Kingdom.
Exploring a lost Himalayan Land " NewYork, 1967.)
Regarding the raise and suppression of Khamba in
1960's in Mustang, he published another book.
("Cavalier of Kham. The Secret War in Tibet". London
1972.)

1964. Kazuhiro Itoh, Japanese botanist, made his research for
medical plants and came to Lo Manthang as an adviser tothe Dept.of Medical Plants, Ministry of Agriculture ofNepal. In 1963, he had made a long and extensive
researches in Mid Western and Far Western of Nepal.
In 27th of July in 1964, he arrived at Lo Manthang andspent a few days for investigation in the villages near LoManthang. He returned to Kagbeni on 2nd of August. On
his way to Lo Mustang, he happened to see PeterAufschnaiter near Birethanti who hurried down toPokhara. Also he often encountered many Khamba
troops along the route in Mustang. ("Nepal. Its nature,people and Religion" text in Japanese. Tokyo, 1979.)