1. Paul Eugene Pelliot was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and Chinese texts at the Sachu printing center storage caves, known as the Dunhuang manuscripts.
Paul Pelliot was born on 28 May 1878 in Paris, France, and initially intended to pursue a career as a foreign diplomat.
Paul Pelliot began studying under the two men, who encouraged him to pursue a scholarly career instead of a diplomatic one.
In early 1900, Paul Pelliot moved to Hanoi to take up a position as a research scholar at the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient.
Between July and August 1900, Paul Pelliot was caught up in the siege of the foreign legations during the Boxer Rebellion.
At one point, during a ceasefire, Paul Pelliot made a daring one-man foray to the rebels' headquarters, where he used his boldness and fluency in Mandarin to impress the besiegers into giving him fresh fruit for those inside the legation.
In 1901, when only 23 years old, Paul Pelliot was made a professor of Chinese at the EFEO.
Paul Pelliot stayed in Hanoi until 1904, when he returned to France in preparation for representing the EFEO at the 1905 International Conference of Orientalists in Algiers.
Paul Pelliot had agreed to allow the army officer, disguised as an ethnographic collector, to travel with his expedition.
Paul Pelliot fully endorsed Mannerheim's participation, and even offered himself as an informant to the Russian General Staff.
Mannerheim and Paul Pelliot did not get along, and parted ways two days after leaving Irkeshtam Pass.
Paul Pelliot's efforts were to pay off shortly, when his team began obtaining supplies previously considered unobtainable.
In Urumqi, Paul Pelliot heard about a find of manuscripts at the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang from Duke Lan.
Paul Pelliot had been in the French legation in Peking while Duke Lan and his soldiers were besieging the foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion.
At Dunhuang, Paul Pelliot managed to gain access to Abbot Wang's secret chamber, which contained a massive hoard of medieval manuscripts.
Paul Pelliot selected what he felt were the most valuable of the manuscripts, and Wang, who was interested in continuing the refurbishment of his monastery, agreed to sell them to Paul Pelliot for a price of 500 taels.
Paul Pelliot returned to Paris on 24 October 1909 to a vicious smear campaign mounted against himself and Edouard Chavannes.
Paul Pelliot was publicly accused of wasting public money and returning with forged manuscripts.
At a banquet on 3 July 1911, Paul Pelliot struck Farjenel, and a court case followed.
The chair was never filled after Paul Pelliot's death, leaving him the only person to have ever held it.
In 1920, Paul Pelliot joined Henri Cordier as co-editor of the preeminent sinological journal T'oung Pao, serving until 1942.