View of Sera Monastery

Kalmyk in closed Tibet

At the end of the 19th century, the foreign intelligence service of the Russian Empire became interested in Tibet, but the mountainous country was very closed and it was almost impossible for foreigners to get there. The intelligence agency decided to use “its own mangolas” - Kalmyks or Buryats, who, under the guise of pilgrims, will take photos of the mysterious country. This task was given to Ovshe Norzunov, a member of the Russian Geographical Society and foreign intelligence officer from Kalmykia. Over the course of several years, Norzunov made three attempts to enter Tibet, two of which were successful.
The first trip took place in 1898: Norzunov introduced himself as a Mongolian, but was discovered by his guides on the way to Lhasa. The traveler had to pay for their silence to get safely to the Tibetan capital. Owshe described these events in his diary Three Trips to Lhasa:

“On the way, I told my guides that I was a Mongolian, a Chinese citizen, and that I was on a pilgrimage to Lhasa. However, by the end of the trip, my secret had been revealed by the guides for two reasons:
1. In order not to betray my Russian nationality, although I knew how to write in Russian, I kept my travel diary in Kalmyk. But the Kalmyk script is somewhat different from the Mongolian one, and my companions noticed this.
2. To make it warmer, I wore a European-made fabric jacket under my fur coat. Because I took off my clothes while parked, the Mongols saw this jacket.
When we arrived in their country, the Mongols started saying that I was a Russian citizen, that I was wearing a Russian suit and keeping a travel journal. So the Mongols decided to prevent me from going to Lhasa. They said they would tell their prince about me. I promised them 10 lans (40 francs) for their silence. After receiving the money, the Mongols calmed down and I immediately threw my jacket into the fire. The Mongols took me to Taichinar, where I rented horses and went to the Tibetan border in Nagchukh, paying 6 lan (24 francs) per horse.”

A second attempt to get to Lhasa took place in early 1900, but Norzunov did not make it from Darjeeling to Tibet; he came under police suspicion as a Russian spy and was deported to Russia. At the end of the same year, Ovshe made another attempt and still made it to Lhasa:

“During this visit, I visited everything worth seeing in Lhasa. It was easy for me to learn about the peculiarities of different buildings, but I had more trouble with photographs — I always had to hide, because capturing images of objects or people in a black box and then sending them to the West is strictly forbidden even for Buddhists. However, I took a lot of pictures.”

Photo by Ovshe Norzunov - view of Sera Monastery, Lhasa, 1901.

Previously, we published an article The Way to Hard Labor Sakhalin.