My gallery of heroes might be considered a gallery of rogues, and that would not be completely inaccurate. However, here, I’d like to introduce some of the early explorers of Buddhism and show that their work was not fundamentally colonial extraction, but a sincere and often transformative cultural exchange.
Many of these figures worked outside of the colonial context, subverting it and helping to lay the groundwork for today’s global and cultural consciousness. They were adventurer-scholars, mystic-wanderers, and artist-seekers. Some were eccentric charismatics, even where their work supported institutional and academic progress. Others represent the apex of Western academic discipline. They modeled deep cultural curiosity that was mutual among the people they encountered where they traveled and worked.
I am also of this ilk of adventurer in my own work, which continues this summer. When I read aspersions directed toward this crowd, I always sense that something essential is missing. On the other hand, many in this group were accused of being spies. No doubt, some of them were.
I am not only studying these “forgotten” explorers, I am inhabiting their path as modern continuation of the tradition of original expeditionary work. Being a dancer at heart, what I bring is, you might say, embodied testimony, most of all. The reason for that is the same as it was for all of these extraordinary people: the best work corresponds to, and comes from, their essential nature and personalities. These become a kaleidoscope of the human psyche encountering whole new worlds.
Much like the figures I introduce here, my own work has taken me across borders—geographic, cultural, and disciplinary—to preserve sacred movement traditions and assist in their continuity. The explorers gathered in this essay were seekers of something luminous—truth, transformation, beauty, and meaning. They risked comfort and convention to cross into unfamiliar worlds. Their paths were imperfect, often misunderstood, but lit by sincere effort.
This short series will appear in three parts:
1. A Gallery of Explorers, so that readers will have a handy resource showing the cast of characters going forward.
2. Liminal Lives, looking at this group collectively and in smaller sets showing their qualities of spirit and comfort moving between worlds; the dangers in what they did.
3. Dance Reflections, where I show how these explorers have enriched our knowledge not only of certain ritual dance forms in Asia, but of the very nature of dance itself.
Giuseppe Tucci (1894–1984)
Italian scholar of Tibetan culture, Sanskrit literature, and one of the first Westerners to access remote Himalayan monasteries. Tucci authored dozens of works on Buddhist art, tantric texts, and Himalayan civilizations. He had a talent for languages, a sensitivity to art, and a gift for looking backwards in time.
Sven Hedin (1865–1952)
Swedish explorer and geographer who mapped unknown parts of Central Asia, including the Taklamakan Desert and parts of Tibet. Although his primary focus was cartography, he was an artist with a mystical reverence for sacred landscapes. A master adventurer and expedition leader, he made maps where there were none.
Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969)
French writer, opera singer, and Buddhist practitioner. She was a European woman who entered Lhasa disguised as a Tibetan monk. Her writings introduced tantric and Tibetan traditions to a Western readership. She was a colorful character able to hide when needed. Shown here with her Tibetan traveling companion and assistant.
Ted Shawn (1891–1972)
American modern dance pioneer who, inspired by Asian movement and spirituality—especially via Ananda Coomaraswamy and Ruth St. Denis—became a researcher and philosopher of dance, and sought to reclaim the masculine body in sacred and theatrical dance. In 1925–26, Shawn produced unprecedented documentation of pre-modern dance in Asia, in film, photo, and writing. His book Gods Who Dance was one of the first to take ancient Asian dance seriously, written by a dancer. He is the founder of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, which thrives today.
Tyra Kleen (1874–1951)
Swedish artist, theosophist, and ethnographer. Kleen illustrated and described ritual dance and trance in Java and Bali. Her notebooks combine mysticism, movement, and Jungian insight. A rare independent woman traveler and Art Nouveu artist. She lived a life of breaking conventions.
G. I. Gurdjieff (1866?–1949)
Armenian-Greek mystic and teacher. Gurdjieff blended Sufi, Buddhist, Christian, and esoteric systems into a path of inner transformation through sacred movement, music, and self-observation.
Beryl de Zoete (1879–1962)
English dance critic, researcher, author, and translator. De Zoete documented Balinese and Indian dance with sensitivity and scholarly precision, treating movement as cultural philosophy
Arthur Waley (1889–1966)
British translator and sinologist. Waley introduced Western readers to Chinese and Japanese poetry, Zen thought, Noh plays, and Buddhist sutras with literary elegance and intellectual clarity.
Rolf de Maré (1888–1964)
Swedish arts patron and co-founder of the Archives Internationales de la Danse. Director of the avant-garde Ballet Suedois. De Maré supported and directed groundbreaking dance field research in Indonesia, leaving one of the world’s greatest dance documentions. He collaborated closely with Claire Holt. He was widely traveled and a great collector of dance-related artifacts.
Claire Holt (1901–70)
American dance historian and anthropologist. Holt researched Indonesian dances in situ as a system of aesthetic and political meaning. Collaborator with Rolf de Mare. She is known for her original writing and fieldwork. Shown here with a dancer.
Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908)
American art historian and who helped preserve classical Japanese arts during the Meiji period, including Noh theatre and Zen painting. Fenollosa’s translations and theories were pivotal to the modernist movement. He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan.
René de Nebesky-Wojkowitz (1923–59)
Czech-born ethnologist and Tibetologist. Nebesky-Wojkowitz combined deep linguistic training with ethnographic work as field immersion in the Himalayan borderlands just before Tibet’s occupation. Working in Sikkim, Kalimpong, and Nepal from the early 1950s, he translated esoteric Tibetan ritual formulae and introduced protector deities. His landmark book Oracles and Demons of Tibet (1956) was followed by Tibetan Religious Dances. Fluent in Tibetan, he gathered extensive manuscripts and artifacts now housed in Vienna. He considered his translations a form of ethnography.
Michael Aris (1946–99)
Groundbreaking British historian of Himalayan cultures. Known for his work on Bhutan’s early history, and the royal lineages of the Himalayas, Aris brought scholarly sensitivity to oral tradition and sacred kingship. Bhutan and The Raven Crown are books indispensable for understanding the Kingdom of Bhutan. Aris wrote history where none existed, shaping the very identity of the Bhutanese State.
Lam Anagarika Govinda (1898–1985)
German-born Buddhist teacher and writer. Govinda bridged East and West through his writings on Tibetan Buddhism, sacred art, and meditative experience. Known for his spiritual depth and gentle prose, his writing, such as The Inner Workings of the I Ching, has become classic. Shown here with his wife.
Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947)
Russian painter, mystic, and cultural preservationist. Roerich’s Himalayan paintings reflect a spiritual vision of sacred geography. He was ntensely interested in initiate ritual dance, and proposed an international pact to protect cultural heritage.
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