Thomas Manning

Thomas Manning (November 8 1772—1840) is considered the first Chinese scholar in Europe and was the first Englishman to enter Lhasa, the holy city of Tibet.

Life

Manning was born in Broome, Norfolk. After leaving school, Manning entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to study mathematics, but had been long devoted to Chinese studies. From 1800 to 1803, he studied medicine and Chinese at Paris. His desire to penetrate to the heart of the Celestial Empire took him to Canton in 1807 and on to Calcutta in 1810. Manning proceeded with a single Chinese servant and without official government sanction to Rangpur. By the 29th of October, 1811 he reached Parijong on the Tibetan border, where he was met by a Chinese general with troops. When Manning succeeded in curing some of the troops of illness, he was allowed to travel in their company as a medical man. By this route, he finally reached Lhasa, where he remained for several months. Not only did Manning thus become the first Englishmen to visit Lhasa, but also the first to obtain interviews with the Dalai Lama. After five month he was compelled to return to India. In 1817, as a member of a British delegation, Manning reached China for the first time. But the delegation was not accepted by the Chinese emperor Jianqing and were forced to leave Peking, some days later. Traveling back to England, he met Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena, where the emperor spent the last six years of his life under British supervision. Manning died in 1840 at his home near Dartford (England).

Manning's Work

Manning never published anything regarding his journey, and its occurrence was known to few, until his narrative was printed, through the zeal of Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographic Society, in 1876. In his journal he described his meeting with the 5-year-old 9th Dalai Lama: 'the nice and fascinating figure caught my whole attention and it was a pleasure to talk to this well educated little prince.' He also described the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese: 'I was struck with the appearance of everything being perfecly Chinese.'He was the "friend M." of Charles Lamb, from whom "Elia" professes to have got that translation of a Chinese MS. which furnished the [http://www.angelfire.com/nv/mf/elia1/pig.htm Dissertation upon roast pig] . A number of letters from Manning to Charles Lamb have survived and are contained in a book edited by G.A. Anderson published by Harper & Brother, New York, 1926.

References

*MARKHAM, Clements R., "Narratives of the Mission of Georges Bogle to Tibet and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa", New Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1910 [1876] (Indian Historical Researches, 42).

External links

* [http://www.zeit.de/2008/30/A-Tibet Ergriffen vom Dalai Lama] (German newspaper article about the journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa)

Persondata
NAME=Manning, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=British Sinologist
DATE OF BIRTH=November 8 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH=Broome, Norfolk
DATE OF DEATH=1840
PLACE OF DEATH=