In our minds, Tibet carries a certain mystique that conjures images of spiritual and utopian splendour. Although it is not necessarily true that Tibet was a county forever sealed off to the outside world, even through the early years of the 20th century many westerners had seen little of Tibet or its people.
If westerners were an odd sight in Tibet, then western women were exceedingly rare. In fact, one could say they were unique. Perhaps 'unique', then, is the only term that would apply to Alexandra David-Neel, the first western woman to enter the 'forbidden city' of Lhasa in 1924. David-Neel did more than enter the capital city; she was a scholar and adventurer who traveled the length and breadth of Asia, a converted buddhist, an anarchist, a spiritualist, and author of dozens of essays, translations of Asian texts, and books.
British Intelligence called her “the Blue Nun”, but the woman who plied the highlands of Nepal, Bhutan, India and Tibet was probably nothing more than an eccentric traveller with a yen for esoteric knowledge.
Louise Eugenie Alexandrine Marie David was born in Paris, Saint-Mand?on October 24, 1868 and was the only daughter of a French father of Huguenot ancestry and a Catholic mother of Scandinavian origin. As a young woman she showed an interest in Theosophy, Buddhism and other oriental philosophies. She audited courses in Sanskrit at the Sorbonne before being summarily removed, and then visited India where she met the Theosophist, Annie Besant.
By the age of 5 she had ran away from home several times, which did not please her parents in the least. Coupled with her desire for freedom was an intense spirituality; she was devotedly interested in the grand mysteries of the universe.
By the age of 18, she found herself living once again in Paris, studying with Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society (which would later serve as the genesis for The Order of the Golden Dawn). In addition to a number of mystical orders, she became a member of the Freemasons at this time. Not surprising, considering her attitudes towards personal freedom, David-Neel was a committed anarchist, and wrote a book advancing the anarchist cause.
By 1890 she had travelled to India and began studying under an Indian swami. By 1894 she was in North Africa, studing the Koran, and practicing as a muslim. It was there, in Tunis, that she met the man she would marry, a railroad engineer by the name of Philippe Neel, and she did so at the age of 36. However, it wasn’t long before Neel’s love of travel compelled her to leave once again. Neel indulged his wife’s capricious nature, and suggested she take an extended trip. After a short time tying up loose ends in Europe, David-Neel left for the Asian continent. Although David-Neel promised to return in a year-and-a-half, it was actually fourteen years before she saw her husband again.
Instead of returning to Europe, and her husband, Neel decided to go to Japan. While there, she encountered a Japanese scholar who had lived in Lhasa under the guise of a Tibetan monk. This inspired Neel and Yongden to disguise themselves as Tibetan pilgrims and enter the capital under this pretense. The pair travelled from Japan to China, into Mongolia, across the Gobi desert, finally into Tibet. The trip to Lhasa took four months and iIn 1924 , at the age of 56, she and Yongden made it to the capital, exhausted and spent. She eventually wrote a bestselling book about her journey, entitled “My Journey To Lhasa”. It is said that along the way, she and Yongden made use of several Tibetan mind over matter techniques that enabled her to go days without food and to increase her body temperature. Although it sounds bizarre and fictitious, there are many well documented cases of body control practiced by Indian mystics in modern times.
It’s not too much of a stretch to see how David-Neel could have learned these techniques in the time she spent studying Eastern mysticism. Neel and her companion spent four months living in the capital, interacting and learning from the monks there. It is said she even had occasion to interview the 13th Dalai Lama, the first western woman to do so. Eventually, her travels were rooted out. She was forced to leave Lhasa, and some English acquaintances arranged for papers to go back to Europe. She went back to France, taking Yongden with her. She eventually separated from her husband, adopted Yongden as her son, and settled in Digne, France. Here she built a retreat in which she could concentrate on her writing and studies. She spent the next several years penning memoirs of her adventures in Asia, and various essays and studies on Eastern philosophy and mysticism.
Ten years passed, as David-Neel spent her time on the lecture circuit throughout Europe. Her travels in Tibet had made her famous, and her vast experience made her an authority on things that few people had seen. However, even as she entered her seventh decade of life, Alexandra David-Neel’s desire for new journeys had not abated. At the age of 69, with generous donations from her husband, David-Neel embarked on another journey; this time, to China. By the time she had made it across Russia and into China, a fierce war had erupted between China and the island nation of Japan. All the horrors of modern war lay before her. In 1941, her husband Philippe passed away, an event which would haunt the rest of her days. David-Neel and Yongden pressed on to India, but the journey took her nearly ten years, as most of it took place on foot as she committed herself to constant writing and study.
She eventually returned to France four years later at the age of 82. In 1955, her companion and adopted son Yongden passed away, leaving her truly alone. This was a particularly hard blow...for four decades, she and Yongden had shared thousands of miles and countless hardships. The depth of their relationship was one that few people have ever known. Alexandra David-Neel followed Yongden into the afterlife in 1969, at the age of 101 years old. She had spent the remaining years of her life as she spent the previous nine decades...working. She wrote and studied incessantly, eventually leaving behind a body of work unrivaled in the scholarly world.
Want to know more on her? Alexandra David-Neel Cultural Center
