First Englishman in Lhasa
Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 6:07 pm
A load of letters and notebooks by Thomas Manning discovered recently gives interesting perspective on west meets east in the 19th century.
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015 ... g-explorer...Manning himself wondered about what drove his travels and curiosity. In one letter to a friend, he described his “strange power of thought and sentiments that impel me unswervingly to strange things” though he added: “I have nothing, absolutely nothing, in my constitution of what is called crack-brained.”
Instead he described how he was writing while “sitting alone in a room at the very extremity of the earth having nothing but the tones of a Chinese string instrument played on by a Chinese servant … Surrounded on all sides by people whose thoughts, actions, dress and affections have nothing in common with Europe.” ...