Ella Maillart (or Ella K. Maillart; 20 February 1903,
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
– 27 March 1997,
Chandolin) was a
Swiss adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
r, travel writer and photographer, as well as a sportswoman.
Early life
Ella Maillart was the second child, born to a wealthy fur trader from Geneva. Her father was Swiss and her mother was Danish. At the age of 20 she and a friend sailed from
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...
to
Corsica, then to
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
. She competed in the
1924 Summer Olympics as a
sailor
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
in the
Olympic monotype competition where she was the only female competitor and finished ninth out of 17. At this time she was also the captain of the Swiss Women's
field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...
team and was an international skier
Career
From the 1930s onwards she spent years exploring Muslim republics of the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, as well as other parts of Asia, and published a rich series of books which, just as her photographs, are today considered valuable historical testimonies. Her early books were written in
French but later she began to write in English. ''Turkestan Solo'' describes a journey in 1932 in
Soviet Turkestan. Photos from this journey are now displayed in the Ella Maillart wing of the
Karakol Historical Museum. In 1934, the French daily ''Le Petit Parisien'' sent her to
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
to report on the situation under the
Japanese occupation. It was there that she met
Peter Fleming, a well-known writer and correspondent of ''The Times'', with whom she would team up to cross
China from
Peking
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
to
Srinagar (3,500 miles), much of the route being through hostile desert regions and steep Himalayan passes. The journey started in February 1935 and took seven months to complete, involving travel by train, on lorries, on foot, horse and camelback. Their objective was to ascertain what was happening in
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
(then also known as Sinkiang or Chinese Turkestan) where the
Kumul Rebellion
The Kumul Rebellion (, "Hami Uprising") was a rebellion of Kumulik Uyghurs from 1931 to 1934 who conspired with Hui Chinese Muslim Gen. Ma Zhongying to overthrow Jin Shuren, governor of Xinjiang. The Kumul Uyghurs were loyalists of the Kumul ...
had just ended. Maillart and Fleming met the
Hui Muslim
The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
forces of General
Ma Hushan. Ella Maillart later recorded this trek in her book ''Forbidden Journey'', while Peter Fleming's parallel account is found in his ''
News from Tartary
''News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir'' is a 1936 travel book by Peter Fleming, describing his journey and the political situation of Turkestan (historically known as Tartary).
The book recounts Fleming's journey from Peking, C ...
''. In 1937 Maillart returned to Asia for ''Le Petit Parisien'' to report on Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, while in 1939 she undertook a trip from Geneva to Kabul by car, in the company of the Swiss writer,
Annemarie Schwarzenbach
Annemarie Minna Renée Schwarzenbach (23 May 1908 – 15 November 1942) was a Swiss writer, journalist and photographer. Her bisexual mother brought her up in a masculine style, and her androgynous image suited the bohemian Berlin society of the ...
. ''The Cruel Way'' is the title of Maillart's book about this experience, cut short by the outbreak of the
second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
She spent the war years at
Tiruvannamalai
Tiruvannamalai ( Tamil: ''Tiruvaṇṇāmalai'' IPA: , otherwise spelt ''Thiruvannamalai''; ''Trinomali'' or ''Trinomalee'' on British records) is a city, a spiritual, cultural, economic hub and also the administrative headquarters of Tiruva ...
in the South of India, learning from different teachers about
Advaita Vedanta
''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the orthodox Hindu school Vedānta. The term ''Advaita'' ( ...
, one of the schools of
Hindu philosophy
Hindu philosophy encompasses the philosophies, world views and teachings of Hinduism that emerged in Ancient India which include six systems ('' shad-darśana'') – Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta.Andrew Nicholson ( ...
. On her return to Switzerland in 1945, she lived in Geneva and at
Chandolin, a mountain village in the Swiss Alps. She continued to ski until late in life and last returned to Tibet in 1986.
Legacy
Ella Maillart's manuscripts and documents are kept at the
Bibliothèque de Genève
The Bibliothèque de Genève (BGE, English: Geneva Library, Library of Geneva), founded in 1559, was known as ''Bibliothèque publique et universitaire'' (BPU, English: Public and University Library) from 1907 to 2006.
It occupies different build ...
(Library of the City of Geneva), her photographic work is deposited at the
Musée de l'Élysée in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
, and her documentary films (on Afghanistan, Nepal and South India) are part of the collection of the
Swiss Film Archive in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
,
Switzerland.
Books by Ella Maillart
* ''Turkestan Solo – One Woman's Expedition from the Tien Shan to the Kizil Kum'' (her journey from Moscow to Kirghizstan and Uzbekistan in 1932)
*
''Forbidden Journey – From Peking to Cashmir'' (her trek across Asia with Peter Fleming in 1935)
* ''Gypsy Afloat'' (an account of her years at sea)
* ''Cruises and Caravans'' (autobiographical narrative)
* ''The Cruel Way'' (from Geneva to Kabul with Annemarie Schwarzenbach)
* ''Ti-Puss'' (the story of her years in India with a tiger cat as her companion)
* ''The Land of the Sherpas'' (photographs and texts on her first encounter with Nepal in 1951)
In French
* ''Parmi la jeunesse russe – De Moscou au Caucase'' (about her stay in Moscow and crossing the Caucasus in 1931)
* ''La vie immédiate'' (Ella Maillart's photographs and texts by Nicolas Bouvier)
* ''Ella Maillart au Népal'' (photographs taken in 1951 and 1965 during a trek to the base camp of Mount Everest)
* ''Cette réalité que j'ai pourchassée'' (letters to her parents, 1925–1941)
* ''Ella Maillart sur les routes de l'Orient'' (the most evocative photographs she took during her travels)
* ''Chandolin d'Anniviers'' (photographs and texts about her mountain village)
* ''Envoyée spéciale en Manchourie'' (a series of articles written in 1934 for the French daily ''Le Petit Parisien'')
Videos and films (in French only)
* ''Ella Maillart, écrivain''. Un entretien avec Bertil Galland, 54 min., Les Films Plans fixes, Lausanne, 1984
* ''Ella Maillart chez Bernard Pivot'' (émission ''La vie est un long fleuve tranquille''), INA, France, 1989
* ''Entretiens avec Ella Maillart: Le Monde mon héritage'' (radio interviews and the film ''Les itinéraires d'Ella Maillart'', a 1973 Swiss TV production), 2009.
* "Double Journey" 43 minutes. A documentary about her 1939 trip by auto from Switzerland to Afghanistan in the company of Annemarie Schwarzenbach. The film was presente
at the National Gallery of Art in Washington by its director Antonio Bigini in March 2016.
Publications concerning Ella Maillart
* ''News from Tartary'' by Peter Fleming, 1936
* ''Mount Ida'' by Monk Gibbon, 1948
* ''A Forgotten Journey'' by Peter Fleming, 1952
* ''Kini, le monde à bras le corps. Une biographie d’Ella Maillart'', by Ingrid Thobois et Géraldine Alibeu, 2019
Honours
* Prix Schiller, Switzerland (1953)
* Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal of the
Royal Society for Asian Affairs
The Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA) is a learned society based in London (United Kingdom). Its objective is to advance public knowledge and understanding of Asia through its worldwide networks, its public events, its publications and its s ...
, London (1955)
* Prix quadriennal de la Ville de Genève (1987)
* Prix littéraire Alexandra David-Neel (1989)
* Grand Prix du Livre maritime, Festival de Concarneau (1991)
* Prix et Médaille Léon Dewez de la Société de Géographie de Paris (1994)
References
* "Ella Maillart", dans
Nicolas Bouvier, ''L'Échappée belle, éloge de quelques pérégrins'', Genève, 1996, Editions Metropolis, pp. 117 – 1334.
External links
Official bibliography*
*
*
'Voyage, Voyage'' A portrait of Ella Maillart
"Toils and Troubles in Xinjiang Province: Following Ella, Peter and a dream through the Taklamakan"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maillart, Ella
1903 births
1997 deaths
20th-century travel writers
Swiss travel writers
Swiss female alpine skiers
Swiss female field hockey players
Swiss female sailors (sport)
Olympic sailors of Switzerland
Sailors at the 1924 Summer Olympics – Monotype
Sportspeople from Geneva
Swiss women photographers
20th-century Swiss photographers
Violence against women in China
20th-century women photographers