Gabriel Bonvalot

Pierre Gabriel Édouard Bonvalot (July 13, 1853 – December 10, 1933) was a French explorer of Central Asia and Tibet. Bonvalot was born in the commune of Épagne in the Aube department in north-central France. He was the son of Pierre Bonvalot and Louise-Félicie, née Congniasse des Jardins. He attended schooling at Troyes.

In 1880–82 he visited Russian controlled Central Asia and returned to France via Bukhara, the Caspian sea, and the Caucasus. His travels were financed by the Minister of Public Instruction. In 1886, he set out for Russian Central Asia with Guillaume Capus, a botanist, ethnographer, and doctor of natural sciences, and designer Albert Pépin.

They departed from Tashkent in 1886 and traveled up to the border with Afghanistan. During the winter season, they remained in Samarkand and sought a way to cross the Pamir Mountains from north to south and reach China. In 1887 they crossed through Kyrgyz territory in the Alai Mountains. As a European, Bonvalot felt superior to the locals and used threats or force to obtain equipment, supplies, pack animals and porters. He crossed the Pamirs, Chitral, where he was detained for more than a month, and the Karakoram, until he reached Kashmir. He was rewarded for this expedition by the Société de Géographie in Paris.

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