Gombojab Tsybikov
Gombojab Tsybikov | |
|---|---|
Gombojab Tsybikov in a 1900 portrait | |
| Born | Gombojab Tsebekovich Tsybikov 20 April 1873 Urda-Aga, Transbaikal Oblast, Russian Empire |
| Died | 20 September 1930 (aged 57) |
| Nationality | Buryat |
| Occupation(s) | Russian explorer of Tibet, social anthropologist, photographer, educator, statesman |
Gombojab Tsybikov (Russian: Гомбожаб Цэбекович Цыбиков Gombozhab Tsebekovich Tsybikov; Buryat: Цэбэгэй Гомбожаб, Mongolian: Цэвэгийн Гомбожав, alternatively romanized as Gombozhab and Tsybikoff; 20 April 1873 – 20 September 1930) was a Russian explorer of Tibet from 1899 to 1902. Tsybikov specialized in ethnography, Buddhist Studies, and after 1917 was an important educator and statesman in Siberia and Mongolia.
Tsybikov is mostly credited for being the first photographer of Tibet, including Lhasa. His travelogue, issued in Russian in 1919, 1981, and 1991, and translated into several languages (Chinese, Czech, English, French, and Polish), included a lot of materials from Tibetan sources on Tibetan history and first-hand accounts on Tibetan affairs of the time, making it an important reference source.