Alexandra David-Néel

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Alexandra David-Néel, 1933

Alexandra David-Néel , née Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David (born October 24, 1868 in Saint-Mandé , a suburb of Paris ; † September 8, 1969 in Digne-les-Bains ) was a French travel writer and researcher on Tibetan culture and the Buddhism .

Life

Alexandra David was the daughter of the teacher Louis David (1815-1904), who had been a militant Republican in the Revolution of 1848 , and a strict Catholic mother, Alexandrine Borghmans (1832-1917). Because of her father's exile, she grew up temporarily in Belgium . Through her father's friend, Elisée Reclus , she was introduced to anarchist ideas (including Max Stirner's and Mikhail Alexandrowitsch Bakunin's ). She was also very interested in women's issues and published her first book Pour la Vie . At first she worked as a freelancer for La fronde , a feminist newspaper.

Alexandra David took her first trip when she was 17: she ran away from home, drove to Switzerland and hiked over the Gotthard Pass . When she was 20, she became fond of Asian scripts and decided to study languages ​​(including Sanskrit and Chinese ). When she inherited money in 1891, she toured Ceylon and India for a year and a half , and in the same year she joined the Theosophical Society there in Adyar . Then she returned to Paris. After completing her training, she received an engagement as a soprano in Indochina in 1895 . She then went to Tunis as a theater director , where she met Philippe Néel, whom she married in 1904. Her husband financed her travels for the next forty years and arranged for her articles to be published in France. Yet she didn't mention him in any of her books.

From 1903 she was no longer on the stage, but gave lectures about her travels and continued studying. In 1911 she started her second trip to Asia, which lasted 14 years. In India she met the 13th Dalai Lama and was invited by him to Tibet . She lived as a hermit in the Himalayas for a year and was both ordained and elevated to the status of a lama . She was found worthy of initiation into the secret teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and described them in one of her books. Belgian linguist Philippe van Heurck questions whether she even traveled to Tibet or to what extent parts of her travelogues are falsified.

Yongden, Alexandra David-Néels adopted Sikkimese son, 1933

She then traveled through Japan , Korea and China, always accompanied by her adoptive son, the young lama Yongden. She then stayed for two years in the Kum-bum monastery in Amdo . To earn a living, she translated Buddhist texts and wrote a French-Tibetan dictionary . During her travels she was also financially supported by her husband (whom she never divorced) from France. She wrote several begging letters to him.

Between 1921 and 1923 she roamed the Gobi desert . On September 28, 1923, she started a new tour, presumably to be the first European to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa in Tibet. At the age of 57, after a four-month adventurous Himalayan crossing on foot from China, she reached this destination as a begging pilgrim accompanied by her adopted son, the Lama Yongden. During this trip she had to camouflage herself with soot and dirt in order not to be recognized as a foreigner and expelled from the country. David-Néel, who is only 1.56 meters tall, stayed undetected in Lhasa for two months.

In 1925 she returned to France and published her most successful book Voyage d'une Parisienne à Lhassa in 1927 , which made her world famous. In quick succession she wrote more books about her trips to Tibet. In 1937, when she was almost seventy, she embarked on another major trip to Asia, still accompanied by her adopted son. She got caught in the Sino-Japanese War and had to endure six years in China. In 1941, the news reached her that her husband had died and that she had been appointed as heir. She returned to Paris via India in 1946.

From her old home in Digne, she went on lecture tours, wrote scientific and popular treatises. Alexandra David-Néel was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor at a very old age . She died on September 8, 1969 at the age of 100 after having had her passport renewed as a precaution. A few years later, at her last will, her ashes were scattered in the Ganges near Benares, along with the ashes of her son Lama Yongden.

Works (selection)

  • Pour la Vie , 1898
  • Le Philosophe Meh-ti (ou Mo-tse) et l'Idée de Solidarité , 1907
  • Les Théories Individualistes dans la Philosophie , 1909
  • Le Modernisme Bouddhiste et le Bouddhisme du Bouddha , 1911
  • Souvenir d'une Parisienne au Thibet , 1925
  • Voyage d'une Parisienne à Lhassa , 1927 ( Arjopa. The first pilgrimage of a white woman to the forbidden city of the Dalai Lama , Brockhaus, Leipzig 1928; My path through heaven and hells. The adventure of my life , 1986)
  • Mystiques et Magiciens du Thibet , 1929 ( Saints and Witches. Faith and Superstition in the Land of Lamaism , Brockhaus, Leipzig 1931)
  • Initiations Lamaïques , 1930 ( Master and student. The secrets of the Lamaistic consecration. Based on personal experience , Brockhaus, Leipzig 1934; The way to enlightenment. Secret teachings, ceremonies and rites in Tibet, 1960)
  • La vie Surhumaine de Guésar de Ling le Héros Thibétain , 1931
  • Au Pays des Brigands Gentilshommes. Grand Tibet , 1933 ( monks and shrub knights. A trip to Tibet on secret paths , Brockhaus, Leipzig 1933)
  • Le Lama aux Cinq Sagesses , 1935 ( Mipam, the Lama with the five wisdoms. A Tibetan novel , 1935)
  • Magie d'Amour et Magie Noire , 1938 ( love magic and black magic , 1952; Sphinx-Hugendubel, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7205-9004-4 )
  • Sous des Nuées d'Orage , 1940
  • A l'Ouest Barbare de la Vaste Chine , 1947 ( Land of Is. In China's Wild West , Ullstein, Vienna 1952)
  • Au Cœur des Himalayas, le Népal , 1949 ( In the shadow of the Himalayas. Magic and miracles in Nepal , Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1953; In the heart of the Himalaya. On the way in Nepal Edition Erdmann, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-7374-0020-6 (Newly translated by Eva Moldenhauer ))
  • L'Inde, Hier, Aujourd'hui, Demain , 1951 ( Between gods and politics. India - yesterday, today, tomorrow , 1952)
  • Astavakra Gîtâ , 1951
  • Les Enseignements Secrets des Bouddhistes Tibétains , 1951 ( The secret teachings of Tibetan Buddhism , Herder Spectrum, ISBN 3-451-05171-0 ; The secret teachings of Tibetan Buddhism , new edition, Aira Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-95474-008- 6 )
  • Textes Tibétains inédits , 1952 ( Unknown Tibetan texts , 1955)
  • Le Vieux Tibet Face à la Chine Nouvelle , 1953 ( Old Tibet, New China , Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1955)
  • La Puissance du Néant , 1954 ( The Hidden Turquoise , 1997)
  • La Connaissance Transcendante , 1958
  • Avadhuta Gîtâ , 1958
  • Immortalité et Réincarnation , 1961 ( Immortality and rebirth. Teachings and customs in China, Tibet and India , 1962)
  • Quarante Siècles d'Expansion Chinoise , 1964
  • La sortilege du mystère, 1972 ( Under the Spell of Mysteries , Knaur, ISBN 3-426-61095-7 )

Other titles in German:

  • From suffering to redemption. Meaning and teaching of Buddhism. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1937
  • Wanderer with the wind . Travel diaries in letters 1904–1917. Wiesbaden, Brockhaus, 1979
  • Between gods and politics. India - yesterday, today, tomorrow. Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1952
  • My way through heaven and hell , Knaur, ISBN 3-426-03934-6 (description of your Tibet hike)
  • My India , Knaur, ISBN 3-426-77002-4 (description of your experiences in Ceylon and India)
  • Immortality and Rebirth, Teachings and Customs in China, Tibet and India, Nymphenburger, 2000, ISBN 3-485-00838-9
  • The Path to Enlightenment, The Hidden Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, Edition Adyar, ISBN 3-89427-187-6
  • Ralopa, The Master of Secret Rites and Other Unknown Tibetan Texts, Knaur, ISBN 3-426-77571-9 , ISBN 3-426-03935-4
  • Magicians and Saints in Tibet, Goldmann Arkana, 2005, ISBN 3-442-21748-2

literature

  • Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone: Tibet. A journey in the footsteps of Alexandra David-Néel. Belser, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-7630-2229-5 .
  • Jean Chalon: Alexandra David-Neel. The risk of an unusual life. Langen Müller, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7844-2148-2 .
  • Barbara Foster and Michael Foster: Alexandra David-Néel - the woman who discovered the forbidden Tibet. The biography. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-451-05414-0 .
  • Jeanne Mascolo de Filippis: Alexandra David-Néel. Cent ans d'aventure . Éditions Paulsen, Paris 2018. ISBN 978-2-91655-289-7 .
  • Madeleine Peyronnet: Alexandra David-Néel. My life with the Queen of the Himalayas. Nymphenburger, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-485-00987-3 .
  • Philippe Van Heurck: Alexandra David-Néel, Myth and Reality 1868–1969. Fabri-Verl., Ulm 1995, ISBN 3-9802975-7-8 .
  • Antje Windgassen: Alexandra David-Néel. In search of the light. Biographical novel. Piper, Munich a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-492-23339-2 .
  • Christa-Maria Zimmermann: A hundred days to Lhasa. Arena, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-401-05420-1 .
  • Heinrich Pleticha, Siegfried Augustin: Lexicon of adventure and travel literature from Africa to Winnetou. Edition Erdmann in K. Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart, Vienna, Bern 1999, ISBN 3 522 60002 9

Movies

  • My journey to the roof of the world ( Alexandra David-Néel - J´irai au pays des neiges ; F 2012)

Web links

Commons : Alexandra David-Néel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Philippe van Heurck: Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969). Myth and Reality, 1995. ISBN 978-3-9802975-7-8 .
  2. ↑ Christoph Gunkel: travel pioneer Alexandra David-Néel: Secretly banned in Tibet city. In: Spiegel Online. January 15, 2019, accessed January 16, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME David-Néel, Alexandra
ALTERNATIVE NAMES David, Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French travel writer and ordained Buddhist nun in Tibet
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Mandé , Île-de-France
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1969
Place of death Digne-les-Bains