Edvard Amundsen (anglicised Edward Amundsen; January 27, 1873 – December 21, 1928) was a Norwegian

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

missionary in China and India near the borders of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. He is also remembered as an explorer and Tibetan specialist.

Biography

Amundsen was born in in the Municipality of Sannidal.Jørgensen, M. 2008. Edvard Amundsen – en norsk rhododendron-misjonær? ''Lapprosen: medlemsblad for den norske rhododendronforening'' 2(3): 4–6. In 1894, he journeyed to India as part of Annie Royle Taylor's Tibetan Pioneer Mission, which would fail within a year. In 1896, together with Theo Sørensen, he traveled to

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

and

Kalimpong Kalimpong is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The region comes under Gorkhaland Territo ...

in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

near the borders of Tibet as a missionary for the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christianity, Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It ...

, where he studied Tibetan religion and customs. After their language studies Amundsen attempted to travel from there to

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

in Tibet but was halted eight days journey short of the "forbidden city." Later the two of them went to

Kangding Kangding ( zh, c=康定), also known as Dartsedo (), is a county-level city and the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of Southwest China. Kangding is on the bank of the Dadu River and has been considered the his ...

(

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

), China in the foothills of the Tibetan plateau to the west. His wife Petrea Ness (1862–1928), from Mandal, Norway, was also a missionary and accompanied him on his trips to China and Tibet. During the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

in 1900 he left China for Darjeeling, but in 1903 he returned and then worked in

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

for the

British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The ...

until 1911. From 1918/19 to 1924 he served in China for the last time for the

Mission Covenant Church of Norway The Mission Covenant Church of Norway ( Norwegian: , formerly , DNM) is an assembly of dissident or free Christian churches founded in 1884 through the encouragement of the Swedish-American evangelist Fredrik Franson. Gustav Adolph Lammers, th ...

. He died in

Larvik Larvik () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Larvik (town) ...

. A species of

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

is named after him: ''Rhododendron amundsenianum''.''Rhododendron Handbook''. 1947. London: Rhododendron Group, The Royal Horticultural Society, p. 5.

Selected works

''Primer of Standard Tibetan''
(Darjeeling, 1903)
''In the Land of the Lamas: The Story of Trashilhamo, a Tibetan Lassie''
(novel; London, 1910) * ''Tibetan Manual, with Vocabulary'' (by Vincent E. Henderson, edited by Amundsen; Calcutta, 1903)

Gallery

File:Tibetan Pioneer Mission 2.jpg, Edvard Amundsen (first from left in the front row, holding a

concertina A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front. The ...

) was a member of Annie Royle Taylor's Tibetan Pioneer Mission; . File:Tibetan Pioneer Band 3.jpg, "Tibetan Pioneer Mission Band" in Tibetan dress, . File:Map illustrating Edward Amundsen's journey in Sechuen, East Tibet and Yunnan.webp, 1900 map illustrating Amundsen's journey in

East Tibet Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of Kham ...

and

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amundsen, Edward 1873 births 1928 deaths People from Kragerø Norwegian expatriates in China Lutheran missionaries in China Protestant missionaries in Tibet Protestant missionaries in Sichuan Tibetologists Linguists from Norway Norwegian Lutheran missionaries Missionary linguists Christianity in Yunnan

Biography

Selected works

Gallery

See also

References