Evariste Régis Huc

Born in Toulouse in 1813, he joined the Lazarist order and was sent as a Catholic missionary to China. During the 1840s he traveled widely in China and then undertook an ambitious journey through Mongolia and Tibet with fellow missionary Joseph Gabet.

He is best remembered for the travel narrative that grew out of those experiences, especially his account of crossing Central Asia and reaching Lhasa. The book attracted a wide readership because it mixed adventure, close observation, and descriptions of daily life, religion, and politics in regions that many readers had never seen described in such detail.

After returning to Europe, he continued writing about China and Asia until his death in Paris in 1860. Even when modern historians question some of his judgments, his works remain important as lively nineteenth-century records of travel, missionary life, and encounters between Europe and Inner Asia.