Pyotr Kozlov
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Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov (Russian: Пётр Кузьми́ч Козло́в) (born October 3, 1863 near Smolensk; died September 26, 1935 in Peterhof) was a Russian explorer who continued the studies of Nikolai Przhevalsky in Mongolia and Tibet. His 1907 visit to the Dalai Lama in Lhasa gave "the British War Office a fright",[1] especially after the Lama declared his intention to "settle within the confines of Russia".[2]
Although prepared by his parents for military career, Kozlov chose to join Przhevalsky's expedition and continued travelling in Asia with his successors, Pevtsov and Roborovsky. In 1895, he took general command of the expedition from ailing Roborovsky. From 1899 to 1901 he explored and later described in a book the upper reaches of Huang He, Yangtze, and Mekong rivers.
During the expedition of 1907–1909, Kozlov explored the Gobi Desert and discovered remains of Khara-Khoto, a Tangut city ruined by the Ming Chinese in 1372. It took him several years to excavate the site and bring to St. Petersburg no less than 2,000 books in Tangut language he uncovered there. Kozlov described his findings in a bulky volume entitled Mongolia and Amdo and the Dead City of Khara-Khoto (1923).
His last expedition to Mongolia and Tibet (1923-1926) resulted in discovery of an unprecedented number of Xiongnu royal burials at Noin-Ula. After bringing to St. Petersburg some amazing samples of 2000-year-old Bactrian textiles, Kozlov retired from scientific work and settled in a village near Novgorod.
[edit] References
- General
- Inline
- ^ Palace, Wendy. The British Empire and Tibet, 1900-1922. Routledge, 2005. ISBN 0415346827. Page 71.
- ^ Andreyev, Alexandre. Soviet Russia and Tibet: The Debacle of Secret Diplomacy, 1918-1930s. Brill Publishers, 2003. ISBN 9004129529. Page 29.
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