September 20, 1930
In the Buryat village of Aginskoye, the renowned explorer Gombozhab Tsybikov died at the age of 57. He was the first scholar to disguise himself as a pilgrim and travel to Tibet, which was closed to foreigners, risking his life to take nearly 200 photographs.
Born in 1873 into the family of a wealthy Buryat nomad, he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg University.
At the age of 26 he went to Central Tibet. The expedition was financed Russian Geographical Society and on a secret assignment from the General Staff.
Tsybikov proved to be an ideal candidate to gather information about an Asian country that was closed to foreigners but accessible to Buryats who practice Buddhism.
It took him nine months to reach the capital city of Lhasa, crossing deserts and high mountain passes. One of his companions died en route, unable to cope with the pressure changes.
He spent a year in the Tibetan capital and even met the Dalai Lama. In secret, he measured distances, made precise geographical descriptions of the area, and also made geopolitical and economic notes.
He studied the dialect and copied more than 300 books on the basics of Buddhism, which never left Tibet.
He took around 200 unique photographs using a camera that he had to hide the entire time: photography was banned in Tibet under penalty of death, as it was believed that it stole the human soul.
In 1905, these very images were published by an ordinary and little-known magazine National Geographic, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. Due to a shortage of text materials, the editors used Tsybikov's photographs on several spreads, accompanied by laconic commentary. This brought the publication success and widespread popularity, laying the foundation for a world-renowned brand.
During the lean years of the Civil War, Tsybikov returned to his homeland and developed a breed of sheep that produced a large amount of wool. He contributed to the development of education in Siberia. In 1929, he was dispossessed along with his experimental farm. He died exactly one year later.