Gombojab Tsybikov

Who was Gombojab Tsybikov?

Gombojab Tsybikov, was a Russian explorer of Tibet from 1899 to 1902. Tsybikov specialized in ethnography, Buddhist Studies, and after 1917 was an important educator and statesman in Siberia and Mongolia.

Tsybikov is mostly credited for being the first photographer of Tibet, including Lhasa. His travelogue, issued in Russian in 1919, 1981, and 1991, and translated into several languages, included a lot of materials from Tibetan sources on Tibetan history and first-hand accounts on Tibetan affairs of the time, making it an important reference source.