Dictionary of Indian Biography/Manning, Thomas
MANNING, THOMAS (1772–1840)
Born Nov. 8, 1772 : son of the Rev. William Manning : educated at Caius College, Cambridge : Scholar, 1790–95 : private tutor : studied mathematics : friend of Person and Charles Lamb : studied Chinese at Paris, 1800–3 : attended the Westminster Hospital : went out to Canton as a doctor in 1807–10 : was unable to enter China : went to Calcutta, 1810 : went in 1811 to Lhasa in Tibet, with only a single Chinese servant, via Rangpur, Bhutan, Parijong : stayed there for some months : had interviews with the Dalai Lama : under orders from Pekin, left Lhasa in April, 1812 : the first Englishman to enter Lhasa : returned to Canton : in 1816 accompanied Lord Amherst's embassy to Pekin as interpreter : returned to England a disappointed man, 1817 : led an eccentric life : regarded as the first Chinese scholar in Europe : died at Bath, May 2, 1840 : the notes of his journey to Lhasa were published in Sir C. R. Markham's Narratives of Bogle's Mission to Tibet and Manning's Journey to Lhasa, 1876.