This unusual book gives an insight into the often forgotten pioneering travel and discovery by Jesuit missionaries in Asia, especially Tibet. This book is a compilation of geographical, historical and cultural information collected by the Jesuits during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Each chapter details fascinating first impressions of people and things unseen by any Europeans before. A valuable source of information for anyone interested in the early exploration of the Himalayan region.
Although few of the European travellers to Tibet in the 19th century realised it, much of the ground that they were exploring had already been traversed by the Jesuit missionaries over 100 years before. This book, based on manuscript as well as printed sources, chronicles the journeys of all the Jesuits who reached Tibet. The most interesting journeys are those of Stephen Cacella and John Cabral (1626-32) who visited Gyantse and Shigatse, John Grueber and Albert d'Orville (1661-64) who travelled from China through eastern Tibet to Lhasa and then went on to India, and Ippolito Desideri (1714-22) who travelled from Kashmir along the Tsangpo to Lhasa.