…From Lhasa! This is the fascinating destiny of Alexandra David-Néel, of Franco-Belgian origin. Former lyrical singer, writer and orientalist, this fiery explorer discovered, in 1924, the interior of the Forbidden City of Lhasa! And died centenary!
Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, looks like a white fortress hanging on the slopes of the Himalayas, 4,200 meters above sea level! Who is this woman who undertook such a journey in the first quarter of the 20th century?
Alexandra David was born in Saint-Mandé in 1868. Her studies, begun in a Catholic school and completed in a Protestant establishment, gave her a certain openness in matters of religion. From adolescence, she wants to believe in something divine, but neither the Bible, nor the Torah, nor the Koran fully satisfy her.
After a first career as an opera singer, Alexandra David married the engineer Philippe Néel, in Tunis. But, at 36, middle-class life bores him. She devours books on the Far East and Buddhism. Asian culture has intrigued him since his tours in Tonkin. In 1911, Philippe agreed to his wife embarking alone on a long voyage of exploration from India to China!
A 50-year-old “Tibetan beggar”
She was first introduced to Buddhist philosophy in the monasteries of Sikkim. After a retreat of almost two years in a cave in the company of a hermit, Alexandra nourishes the project of going to Tibet. Very difficult to access for questions of close colonization, Alexandra nevertheless made a first trip to the Tibetan highlands, thanks to the friendship of the Prince of Sikkim.
The majestic mountains dazzle her, and the explorer only dreams of the forbidden city of Lhasa, the spiritual capital of Buddhism.
Back in Sikkim, Alexandra is expelled by the English. She would return to Tibet seven years later, disguised as a Tibetan beggar accompanied by her “son”. Also strange story. The young man, Yongden, is a lama she met in Sikkim, whom she considers to be the child she never had. And adopt it!
In 1924, the French explorer Alexandra David-Néel stood at the foot of the Potala. She is 55 years old, her face is smeared with soot and she wears a fur coat like a modest Tibetan. She doesn’t have the right to be there, but she doesn’t care as much about the regulations issued by the English colonists. But entering the forbidden city of Lhasa is a shock for Alexandra. Indeed, the explorer was expecting a temple city… It is a commercial city. Despite the disappointment, she stayed there for two months, then descended the Himalayas via Sikkim.
Alexandra David-Néel presents herself to the English authorities in the country, her wrists outstretched. She wants to be arrested for illegally entering Lhasa. But she is simply kicked out a second time. Returning to France after fourteen years of itinerancy, she published “Voyage d’une Parisienne à Lhasa”, the success of which offered her entry into the Pantheon of the great Western explorers.
