Alexandra David-Neel was born on Louise Eugenie Alexandrine Marie David; 24 October 1868 – 8 September 1969 and was a Belgian–French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist, opera singer, and writer.
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42 Facts About Alexandra David-Neel
3.
Alexandra David-Neel's teachings influenced the beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the popularisers of Eastern philosophy Alan Watts and Ram Dass, and the esotericist Benjamin Creme.
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4.
At the age of 18, Alexandra David-Neel had already visited England, Switzerland and Spain on her own, and she was studying in Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society.
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5.
At the suggestion of her father, Alexandra David-Neel attended the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, where she studied piano and singing.
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6.
Alexandra David-Neel interpreted the role of the Violetta in La Traviata, then she sang in Les Noces de Jeannette, in Faust and in Mireille, Lakme, Carmen, and Thais.
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7.
Alexandra David-Neel maintained a pen friendship with Frederic Mistral and Jules Massenet at that time.
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8.
Alexandra David-Neel left to sing at the opera of Athens from November 1899 to January 1900.
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9.
Alexandra David-Neel did not want children, aware that motherhood was incompatible with her need of independence and her inclination to education.
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10.
Alexandra David-Neel promised to return to Philippe in nineteen months, but it was fourteen years later, in May 1925, when they met again, separating after some days.
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11.
Alexandra David-Neel had come back with her exploration partner, the young Lama Aphur Yongden, whom she would make her adopted son in 1929.
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13.
Alexandra David-Neel's marriage started to unravel, as her travels kept her apart from her husband.
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15.
Alexandra David-Neel received an audience on 15 April 1912, and met Ekai Kawaguchi in his waiting room, whom she would meet again in Japan.
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16.
Alexandra David-Neel received his blessing, then the Dalai Lama engaged the dialogue, asking her how she had become a Buddhist.
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17.
Alexandra David-Neel asked for many additional explanations that the Dalai Lama tried to provide, promising to answer all her questions in writing.
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18.
Alexandra David-Neel was sometimes in tsam, that is to retreat for several days without seeing anyone, and she learned the technique of tummo, which mobilized her internal energy to produce heat.
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19.
Alexandra David-Neel told her of his pleasure of having been allowed to become a member of this society.
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21.
Alexandra David-Neel had her picture taken with a yellow hat completing the ensemble.
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23.
In order not to betray her status as a foreigner, Alexandra David-Neel did not dare to take a camera and survey equipment, she hid under her rags a compass, a pistol, and a purse with money for a possible ransom.
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24.
Alexandra David-Neel found "nothing very special" in Potala, of which she remarked that the interior design was "entirely Chinese-style".
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25.
Alexandra David-Neel managed to reach Northern India through Sikkim thanks partly to the 500 rupees she borrowed from Macdonald and to the necessary papers that he and his son-in-law, captain Perry, obtained for her.
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26.
Alexandra David-Neel hit the headlines of the newspapers and her portrait spread in the magazines.
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27.
Jeanne Denys maintained that the photograph of Alexandra David-Neel and Aphur sitting in the area before the Potala, taken by Tibetan friends, was a montage.
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29.
Alexandra David-Neel went as far as to accuse David-Neel of having invented the accounts of her voyages and of her studies.
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32.
Alexandra David-Neel found herself in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War and attended the horrors of war, famine and epidemics.
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33.
Alexandra David-Neel was deeply touched by the announcement of the death of her husband in 1941.
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34.
In 1945, Alexandra David-Neel went back to India thanks to Christian Fouchet, French Consul at Calcutta, who became a friend; they stayed in touch until David-Neel's death.
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35.
Alexandra David-Neel finally left Asia with Aphur Yongden by airplane, departing from Calcutta in June 1946.
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36.
At 78, Alexandra David-Neel returned to France to arrange the estate of her husband, then she started writing from her home in Digne.
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37.
Between 1947 and 1950, Alexandra David-Neel came across Paul Adam – Venerable Aryadeva, she commended him because he took her place on short notice, at a conference held at the Theosophical Society in Paris.
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38.
Alexandra David-Neel went through the pain of suddenly losing Yongden on 7 October 1955.
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39.
Alexandra David-Neel decided to live alone in a hotel, going from one establishment to the next, until June 1959, when she was introduced to a young woman, Marie-Madeleine Peyronnet, who she took as her personal secretary.
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40.
Alexandra David-Neel would stay with the old lady until the end, "watching over her like a daughter over her mother – and sometimes like a mother over her unbearable child – but like a disciple at the service of her guru", according to the words of Jacques Brosse.
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42.
Many of Alexandra David-Neel's books were published more or less simultaneously both in French and English.
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