IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
86
SAMUEL VAN DE PUTTE.
Klaproth forgets GRUEBER and DORVILLE, though they travelled in the opposite direction.
After a long stay in China, van de Putte returned to Lhasa, once more crossing the Tang-la System and travelling: door seer bergagtige landen, welker namen onze geografische kaarten niet particulariseeren.
On the back side of his little map of Tibet he has written: »Lhasa p°. Maio 1737. Dopo aver fatto it viaggio per Lhoka vedo dai luoghi passati the questa carta è molto erronea.» Thus, he was back in May 17 3 7. In the same year he returned to India, where he is said to have witnessed the occupation of Delhi by Nadir Shah of Persia. In the letter quoted above he says: »over bovengedagte hoofdplaats Lhasa, voorbij de oorsprongen der wijdvermaarde Ganges en Indusstroomen, door't lustig Kasimir, Klijn Guzarat en Lahor na Hindostan.»
It seems from this passage as if he had taken his way over Manasarovar, Ladak and Kashmir. If this be true he would be the second European who had visited the Sacred Lake.
In 1743 he sailed from Bengal to Batavia and Malakka, and thence again to Batavia. August 15th, 1745, he again was in Batavia, where he died on September 2 7th and was burried in the Portuguese cemetery. In his last will he determined that all his annotations should be burnt, probably because they were not in a state to be brought in order and published by anybody except himself. Thus his precious journal, written in Dutch and Italian , and partly on small scraps of paper, got lost for geography. And the loss is the greater as it is clear from the little that is left of his hand, that he was a very intelligent and learned man, who had his eyes open in every direction and observed all he saw. The little that remains of van de Putte's collection, annotations and maps, is still in the museum at Middelburg.
Sir CLEMENTS MARKHAM says of him: »The premature death of this illustrious traveller is the more to be lamented because his vast knowledge died with him ....» Speaking of the remains he adds: »There are also a few geographical notes, with slight sketches of the form of several lakes. On the notes there are frequent references to the journal, which has most unfortunately been destroyed. The great Dutch traveller is said to have been considered almost as a saint by his acquaintances in Tibet, and in the East generally, on account of the purity of his life; and he is praised for his great proficiency in several Oriental languages.»'
Sir HENRY YULE says: »The journal of Samuel van de Putte, a Dutchman who in the time of the Emperor Yung-Ching reached Lhasa from India, acquired the
I Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa. Second edition, London 1879, p. LXII et seq.
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