Auguste Desgodins, MEP (16 October 1826, in

Manheulles Manheulles () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Born in Manheulles * Auguste Desgodins (1826–1913), French missionary in China and Tibet See also *Communes of the Meuse department The following ...

– 14 March 1913, in

Pedong Pedong is a town in the Pedong CD block in the Kalimpong subdivision of the Kalimpong district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The town is very close to Resi-Sikkim border. Pedong lies on the National Highway-717A connecting Bagrakote t ...

) was a French member of the

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (, , MEP) is a Catholic Missionary order, missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular clergy, secular priests and Laity, lay persons dedicated to missionary wo ...

who attempted to enter into

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 ...

in the early 1860s. While both Desgodins and his colleague, the

Vicar Apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

were granted passports to enter

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 ...

, Tibet in 1861 and 1862, they were repelled from the border on multiple occasions. He lived sometime in

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 ...

. Desgodins published an essay of Tibetan grammar and was a key architect of the development of Tibetan-Latin dictionary French, which was published in 1899."Essai de grammaire Thibetaine"; Google Books
/ref> Along with Felix Biet, he founded in 1865 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church of Yerkalo. Auguste Desgodins collected butterflies for Charles Oberthur.

References

*Oberthür, C. 1916 Lepidopterists ''Études de lépidoptérologie comparée'', impr. Oberthür 11

Bibliography

* ''Essai de grammaire Thibétaine: pour le langage parlé avec alphabet et prononciation'', Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1899 * ''Dictionnaire Thibétain-Latin-Français: par les missionnaires catholiques du Thibet'', Imprimerie de la Société des missions étrangères, 1899 * ''La mission du Thibet de 1855 à 1870, d'après les lettres de l'abbé Desgodins'', Charles H. Desgodins, 1872 * ''Mémoires'', Société académique indo-chinoise (Paris, France), A. Lorgeau, A. Biet, C. E. Bouillevaux, A. de Villemereuil, Eugène Aristide Marre, Léon Feer, G. H. J. Meyners d'Estrey (comte), Auguste Desgodins, L. M. J. Delaporte, J. Depuis, éditeur : Challamel ainé, 1879 {{DEFAULTSORT:Desgodins, Auguste Tibetologists French Roman Catholic missionaries People from Meuse (department) 1826 births 1913 deaths French lexicographers French male non-fiction writers French entomologists Roman Catholic missionaries in India French expatriates in India French missionary linguists Roman Catholic Diocese of Kangding