Writer, explorer, photographer
The following statistics are from approximately 1909 when he returned to Sweden.
Sven Hedin, Explorer Age 44
STR 75 CON 85 INT 80 SIZ 75 POW 70 DEX 65 APP 60 SAN 68 HP 13
Build: +1 Move: 8 Damage Bonus: 1D4 Attacks: 1
Brawl 60% (30/12), damage 1D3 + 1D4 Dodge 35% (17/7)
Skills: Art/Craft (Photography) 70%, Disguise
45%, Climb 75%, Fast Talk 45%, First Aid 40%, History 65%, Medicine 40%, Natural World 75%, Navigate 55%, Other Language (English) 30%, Other Language (German) 45%, Other Language (Latin) 70%, Other Language (Rus- sian) 30%, Other Language (Tibetan) 30%, Pi- lot (Boat) 65%, Ride 65%.
Notable Persons - Secrets of Tibet
“I had once more succeeded in making a part of the large white spot mine.” – Sven Hedin refer-
ring to his success in mapping uncharted areas of Asia.
Sven Hedin was a Swedish explorer, born in 1865 and died in 1952. He counted amongst his friends not only other explorers, but also Kings. Judging by the tales of his journeys and the ob- stacles that he had to overcome, he was resource- ful as well as charismatic and persuasive. Hedin was also ruthless, driving expeditions forward through his force of will, even though the condi- tions were deadly and his expeditions were noto- rious for their hardships and loss of life.
In the 2002 issue #20 of the Journal of Asian
Earth Sciences (pages 297-308) there is an article
devoted to the petrological collections of Sven Hedin that mention his four major expeditions between 1893-1935. Hedin took the opportuni- ty of traveling through uncharted territories to amass samples of local flora and fauna, as well as mineral samples. The majority of his collec- tion can be found in the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. The remainder of the Hedin collection is at the Uppsala Uni- versity, which is 40 miles north-northwest of Stockholm. The keeper could hide some inter- esting clues amongst this collection that would be of interest to the investigators during a cam- paign or scenario.
As a young man beginning university He- din had already decided that he was going to devote his life to exploration. He focused his studies on what he though would serve him in his pursuit of adventure. The courses that he studied were varied and included: geology, physics, mineralogy, zoology, Latin, paleontol- ogy, and history. He spent part of his college life at the University of Berlin where he be- came a Germanophile, which as a World War I & II supporter he would be criticized for in his later years.
Hedin was a life-long learner and over his travels eventually acquired fluency in seven lan- guages, mainly European.
It was on the troubled 1893-1897 expedition that Hedin got his first glimpses of Northern Tibet. The caravan he was traveling with got lost in the Tarim Basin and ran out of water. Before they finally reached an oasis, many an- imals and several men had perished. On the way to Beijing his expedition passed through a portion of the Tibetan Plateau to the north of the country.
His next trip was in 1899-1902 when he de- cided to explore parts of the Lop Nor region with its great salt lakes. During those explora- tions he discovered some lost cities where he recovered some artifacts including 12 complete letters on paper written in Chinese. He esti- mated that they were nearly 800 years old. He also found items that contained information about early Chinese emperors.
In 1901, after departing from Lop Nor, Har- din and a Mongolian monk who had been trav- eling with his caravan, set off from their camp in an attempt to travel through northern Tibet in the direction of Lhasa. Two days into their journey they were waylaid by bandits and had their horses and most of their provisions sto- len. They wandered in the area on foot for sev- eral days, eventually encountering a group of nomad herders. When it was discovered that Hedin was not Tibetan, they held him and his companion, and sent for the governor of the province (Nagqu). The governor arrived sev- eral days later with 67 tribal chiefs and, after meeting with Hedin, forbade him from travel- ing any further in the direction of Lhasa. Hedin was given a 20 man escort and gifts of horses, sheep and provisions and sent back to his main camp. After that, Hedin managed to persuade his caravan to make another attempt to enter Tibet even though they knew that they would probably be closely watched. A few days into the borders of Tibet, they were met by a force of 300 Tibetan riders that were joined short- ly after by a further 500. The entire group led Hedin and his caravan westward across Tibet all the way to the city of Leh in Ladakh.
Studies of available records show that it is likely that the Tibetans were under the impres-
sion that Hedin was part of an advance party for an invasion from Russia. At that point in time tensions were high between Great Britain and Russia, with some border clashes along the Afghanistan and Kashmir area. Tibet was ac- tively attempting to prevent either Russia from invading from the north or the British from the south as either event would provide a pretense for the other country to advance.
After all his previous close calls, Hedin was still determined to penetrate the secret areas of Tibet and in 1906 made his intentions known to organize another caravan. The Earl of Minto had succeeded Lord Curzon as the Viceroy of India and sent a dispatch to order Hedin not to embark to Tibet. The British at that time were working towards an agreement with the Russians to suspend scientific exploration of Tibet for a three year period. Minto was wor- ried that Hedin departing from British territory would jeopardize the negotiations. Hedin was already acquainted with Francis Younghusband who intercepted the communication and gave the Swedish explorer a head start.
This third expedition, which was organized within India starting in 1905, continued until 1909. This time, he was left mostly uninter- rupted to conduct surveys and to map a good portion of the Himalayas. It was this period of mapping that determined the Himalayas was a continuous mountain range along the south and southwest areas of Tibet. Hedin was so thorough with this survey that he even brought a portable folding boat and used it to survey many lakes on which he took depth soundings.
Towards the end of this period of his explora- tion, Hardin’s group ended up traveling along the Brahmaputra (Tsangpo) River with large groups of pilgrims in February of 1907. They spoke with a Tibetan district governor who in- tended to ask them to leave the country; how- ever, when Hedin showed that he had a Chinese visa attached to his passport he was allowed to continue on. Eventually they reached the city of Shigatse in time for the Tibetan New Year celebration on February 11th 1907. They met with and were questioned by many officials
who could not believe that they had made it that far into the country. The Panchen Lama Thubten Chökyi Nyima was intrigued and sent them welcoming gifts and had several meetings with Hedin. When Hedin felt that they had worn out their welcome
the group headed west- ward again, still map- ping uncharted routes, until they reached La- dakh and then north- ern India.
Hedin dedicated his two-volume set titled
Central Asia and Tibet
to the Czar of Russia and King Oscar II of Swe- den for the help given to him, not only in money, but in many other ways. It is apparent that at some lev-
el, Hedin was operating in the interests of the Russian Empire and that he not only received funding but that he was also accompanied nu- merous times by Cossacks provided by the Czar. Not only was Hedin a scientist and adventurer but he also seems to have been an agent gath- ering valuable intelligence about the unchart- ed regions south of Russia.
Sven Hedin’s final great expedition (1927- 1935) was called the Sino-Swedish Expedition and was partly sponsored by the German gov- ernment and the airline Lufthansa. Hedin was having difficulties connecting to many of his former friends and contacts since he was a vocal support of the German government, and in par- ticular, the up- and-coming politician Adolph Hitler. During the nearly eight year expedition over 300 sites were explored and carefully doc- umented. The findings intrigued many of the German leaders who went on to organize the 1939 German SS expedition to Tibet under the direction of Heinrich Himmler.
Notable Persons - Secrets of Tibet