1903-1997

Swiss explorer who traveled throughout Asia. Maillart went to Moscow in 1932 and trekked to eastern Turkestan, where she lived with Kirghiz and Kazakh tribes. A correspondent for Le Petit Parisien, Maillart covered the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. She walked through Tibet, from China to Kashmir, and published Forbidden Journey (1937). She later traveled to Iran and Afghanistan and then stayed in India to explore her spirituality. She entered Nepal when its borders were opened, writing The Land of the Sherpas (1955).