Evariste-Regis HucReseñas

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Huc-Souvenirs-dun-voyage-a-travers-la-Tartarie-et...

> Un ouvrage remarquable qui conduit le lecteur dans l'Asie du XIXème siècle. le récit regorge d'informations sur les peuples de ces contrées, les curiosités et les mentalités. Il se lit très agréablement et sans lassitude, d'autant qu'il n'y a pas de bondieuseries intempestives de la part de ces missionnaires, vrais ethnologues en leur temps.
—Danieljean (Babelio)

A narrative account of the French Catholic missionary Évariste Régis Huc's travels in China and Tibet.

The first hand account of two French monks who set off from China in 1844 on a long and arduous journey to Tibet. Their journey was as missionaries, trying to reach a forbidden country, but the description of their journey and the detail provide a real sense of the hazards of the route.
In these days when we can fly from A to B in no time at all, it's hard to grasp the sheer difficulty of travelling on foot and horseback over mountains, of the dangers of brigands, snow, starvation or of simply losing one's footing on a high narrow path.
Many travellers didn't make it.
Father Huc describes the journey and the people in great detail. The 'inns' fascinated me, with their communal raised platforms for travellers to sleep on. Under the platform was smouldering dung, to provide a little heat for the travellers during the night.
We learn of the small number of converts they made, but also of the Buddhists they met. Of the squabbles between lamas, of the long and bloody conflicts between China and Tibet and the chancy politics between the two.
The engraved illustrations add the to text and give a good feel for the costumes of the era.

It's well worth reading, both as a travelling and also as a reminder that other cultures are far more complex than we assume.

Évariste-Régis Huc: Souvenirs d’un voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet et la Chine, pendant les années 1844, 1845 et 1846. (Paris: A. Le Clère 1853)
Tartaria Vastissima regione abitata o dominata dai Tatari o Tartari, specialmente negli ultimi secoli del Medioevo; i suoi confini giunsero a toccare a O il Mar Nero e a E l’Oceano Pacifico. Canale di T. Il braccio di mare, detto anche stretto, che separa l’isola di Sahalin dalla costa asiatica continentale.
Tartary was often divided into sections with prefixes denoting the name of the ruling power or the geographical location. Thus, western Siberia was Muscovite or Russian Tartary, Xinjiang and Mongolia were Chinese or Cathay Tartary, western Turkestan (later Russian Turkestan) was known as Independent Tartary, and Manchuria was East Tartary.

A fascinating tale of travel in Tibet in the 19th century. There is something of a sense of deja-vu when reading this book - the Chinese repression of Tibetan nationalism today is simply a continuation of what they were trying to do in the early 19th century.