Life
Manning was born in Broome, Norfolk. After leaving school, Manning entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to study mathematics, but "from scruples affecting the tests" did not graduate. Long devoted to Chinese studies, he studied medicine and Chinese at Paris from 1800 to 1803. His desire to penetrate to the heart of the Celestial Empire took him to Canton in 1807 and on to Calcutta in 1810. Manning proceeded with a single Chinese servant and without official government sanction to Rangpur. By the 29th of October, 1811 he reached Parijong on the Tibetan border, where he was met by a Chinese general with troops. When Manning succeeded in curing some of the troops of illness, he was allowed to travel in their company as a medical man. By this route, he finally reached Lhasa, where he remained for several months. Not only did Manning thus become the first Englishmen to visit Lhasa, but also the first to obtain interviews with the Dalai Lama. After five month he was compelled to return to India. In 1817, as a member of a British delegation, Manning reached China for the first time. But the delegation was not accepted by the Chinese emperor Jianqing and were forced to leave Peking, some days later. Traveling back to England, he met Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena, where the emperor spent the last six years of his life under British supervision. Manning died in 1840 at his home near Dartford (England).
Read more about this topic: Thomas Manning (sinologist)
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