In breve: In 1819, the Hungarian linguist Alexander Csoma de Körös set off for Turkistan, in search of the origins of the Magyar people. He was continuously thwarted in his quest—a misunderstood innocent who became unwittingly entangled in the games of imperial intrigue and espionage that were rife in Central Asia at the time. Today, as Edward Fox so deftly illustrates, we have Csoma de Körös to thank for much of what we know about Tibetan culture.

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