Tibetan Venture

The object of the expedition of Andre Guibaut and Louis Liotard was primarily scientific – to advance anthropological knowledge of the remote tribesmen of Eastern Tibet, to discover and map the source of the Tong, and to demarcate the basins of the Blue and Yellow Rivers. The journey they undertook cost Liotard his life, and Guibart's account not only provides an accurate account of the expedition, but also portrays the sense of impending catastrophe in the days leading up to the ambush in which Liotard was killed. The personal tragedy which befell the two explorers is made all the more poignant by the tragedy which was so soon to befall Tibet.