2016/01/01 by Samuel Thévoz · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Indian History and Philosophy #South Asian Studies and Conflicts #South Asian Cinema and Culture #Buddhism #Geology #Geography #Archaeology
paper · doi:10.17885/heiup.ts.23541
published in DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/06
Alexandra David-Neel had already been acquainted with the Himalayas for a long time before the visits to Tibet in 1924 that would make her a mainstream figure of modern Buddhism. In fact, her encounter with Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism can be linked with Sikkim, where she arrived in 1912 after visiting India. An exploration of her Sikkim stay invites us to reconsider the self-fashioning of David-Neel’s image as an explorer of what she called the “land of marvels.” This paper highlights her construction of Sikkim as the locality that helped her create her singular vision of Tibet. Her encounters with local Buddhists in Sikkim provided her with the lofty images of a spiritual Tibet that she contributed to publicizing in the wake of the globalization of Buddhism.