Alexandra David-Néel

In 1871, when David-Néel was two years old, her father Louis David, appalled by the execution of the last Communards, took her to see the Communards' Wall at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris; she never forgot this early encounter with the face of death, from which she first learned of the ferocity of humans. Two years later, the Davids emigrated to Belgium.^[5]

Since before the age of 15, she had been exercising austerities such as fasting and corporal torments drawn from biographies of ascetic saints found in the library of one of her female relatives, to which she refers in Sous des nuées d'orage, published in 1940.^[6]

At the age of 15, spending her holidays with her parents at Ostend, she ran away and reached the port of Vlissingen in the Netherlands to try and embark for England. Lack of money forced her to give up.^[7]

At the age of 18, David-Néel had already visited England, Switzerland and Spain on her own, and she was studying in Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society. "She joined various secret societies – she would reach the thirtieth degree in the mixed Scottish Rite of Freemasonry – while feminist and anarchist groups greeted her with enthusiasm... Throughout her childhood and adolescence, she was associated with the French geographer and anarchist Elisée Reclus (1820–1905). This led her to become interested in the anarchistic ideas of the time and in feminism, that inspired her to publish Pour la vie (For Life) in 1898. In 1899, she composed an anarchist treatise with a preface by Reclus. Publishers did not dare to publish the book, though her friend Jean Haustont printed copies himself and it was eventually translated into five languages." In 1891, she visited India for the first time, and met her spiritual preceptor, Swami Bhaskarananda Saraswati of Varanasi.^[8]

According to Raymond Brodeur, she converted to Buddhism in 1889, which she noted in her diary that was published under the title La Lampe de sagesse (The Lamp of Wisdom) in 1896. She was 21 years old. That same year, to refine her English, an indispensable language for an orientalist's career, she went to London where she frequented the library of the British Museum, and met several members of the Theosophical Society. The following year, back in Paris, she introduced herself to Sanskrit and Tibetan and followed different instructions at the Collège de France and at the Ecole pratique des hautes Etudes (practical school of advanced studies) without ever passing an exam there.^[9] According to Jean Chalon, her vocation to be an orientalist and Buddhist originated at the Guimet Museum.^[10]

At the suggestion of her father, David-Néel attended the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles (Royal Conservatory of Brussels), where she studied piano and singing.^[11] To help her parents who were experiencing setbacks, David-Néel, who had obtained a first prize for singing, took the position of first singer at the Hanoi Opera House (Indochina) during the seasons 1895–1896 and 1896–1897 under the name Alexandra Myrial.^[d]

彼女はジュゼッペ・ヴェルディ作曲の『椿姫』でヴィオレッタ役を演じ、その後ヴィクトル・マッセ作曲の『ジャンネットの結婚』、シャルル・グノー作曲の『ファウスト』と『ミレイユ』、レオ・ドリーブ作曲の『ラクメ』 、ジョルジュ・ビゼー作曲の『カルメン』、ジュール・マスネ作曲の『タイス』を歌った。当時、彼女はフレデリック・ミストラルやマスネと文通を続けていた。 ^{[ 13 ]}

1897年から1900年にかけて、彼女はパリでギタリストのジャン・ハウストンと暮らし、彼と共に一幕の叙情悲劇『リディア』を執筆した。この作品の音楽はハウストンが、台本はダヴィッド＝ネールが担当した。彼女は1899年11月から1900年1月までアテネ歌劇場で歌うためにパリを離れた。その後、同年7月にチュニス歌劇場へ行った。チュニスに到着して間もなく、遠い親戚でチュニジア鉄道の主任技師であり、後に夫となるフィリップ・ネールと出会った。1902年の夏、ジャン・ハウストンがチュニスに滞在していた間、彼女は歌手としてのキャリアを諦め、数ヶ月間チュニスのカジノの芸術監督を務めながら、知的活動を続けた。^{[ 13 ]}

1904年8月4日、36歳でフィリップ・ネール・ド・サン＝ソヴールと結婚した^{[ 14 ]。}彼女は1900年9月15日から彼の恋人だった。二人の生活は時に波乱に満ちていたが、互いに尊敬し合っていた。1911年8月9日、彼女は3度目のインド旅行（1911年～1925年）（2度目は歌のツアーのため）に単身出発し、その生活は中断された。彼女は子供を望んでおらず、母親になることは独立心と教育への意欲と相容れないと認識していた^{[ 6 ]} 。彼女は19か月後にフィリップのもとに戻ると約束したが、二人が再会したのは14年後の1925年5月で、数日後に別れた。ダヴィッド＝ネールは、探検のパートナーである若いラマ僧アプル・ヨンデンと共に帰国し、1929年に彼を養子にした。^{[ 15 ] [ 6 ]}伝説では、彼女の夫も彼女の後援者であったと言われている。真実は恐らく全く異なる。彼女は結婚当時、自身の財産を持っていた。^{[ 16 ]}

その間、彼女は雑誌に寄稿したり、ヨーロッパの都市で物議を醸すテーマについて講演したりした。彼女は仏教、シオニズム、急進的フェミニズムを支持した。旅行で夫と離れ離れになることが多かったため、彼女の結婚生活は破綻し始めた。^{[ 17 ]}

フランスに戻ったアレクサンドラ・ダヴィッド＝ネールはトゥーロンの丘に小さな家を借り、日当たりが良く、近所に人があまりいない家を探していた。 1928年、マルセイユの不動産会社がプロヴァンスのディーニュ＝レ＝バンにある小さな家を彼女に勧めた。日当たりの良い場所を探していた彼女は、嵐の中その家を訪れたが、その場所を気に入り、購入した。4年後、彼女はサムテン＝ゾン、つまり「瞑想の要塞」と呼ばれるその家を拡張し始めた。レイモン・ブロデューによれば、ここはフランスで最初の隠遁所であり、ラマ教の聖地である。^{[ 6 ]}そこで彼女は、さまざまな旅行について記述した本を何冊か書いた。1929年、彼女は最も有名で愛されている作品『チベットの神秘家と魔術師』を出版した。

1937年、69歳になったアレクサンドラ・ダヴィッド＝ネールは、永登とともにブリュッセル、モスクワ、シベリア鉄道を経由して中国へ旅立つことを決意した。彼女の目的は古代道教を研究することだった。彼女は日中戦争の真っ只中に身を置くことになり、戦争、飢饉、疫病の惨禍を目の当たりにした。戦闘から逃れ、彼女はわずかな予算で中国を放浪した。中国での旅は北京、五台山、漢口、成都を巡り、1年半に及んだ。1938年6月4日、彼女は5年間の隠遁生活のため、チベットのタチエンルに戻った。1941年に夫の死の知らせを受け、彼女は深く心を痛めた。^{[ k ]}

One minor mystery relating to Alexandra David-Néel has a solution. In Forbidden Journey, p. 284, the authors wonder how Mme. David-Néel's secretary, Violet Sydney, made her way back to the West in 1939 after Sous des nuées d'orage (Storm Clouds) was completed in Tachienlu. Peter Goullart's Land of the Lamas (not in Forbidden Journey's bibliography), on pp. 110–113 gives an account of his accompanying Ms. Sydney partway back, then putting her under the care of Lolo bandits to continue the journey to Chengdu. While in Eastern Tibet David-Néel and Yongden completed circumambulation of the holy mountain Amnye Machen.^[54] In 1945, Alexandra David-Néel went back to India thanks to Christian Fouchet, French Consul at Calcutta, who became a friend; they stayed in touch until David-Néel's death. She finally left Asia with Aphur Yongden by airplane, departing from Calcutta in June 1946. On 1 July, they arrived at Paris, where they stayed until October, when they went back to Digne-les-Bains.^[55]

At 78, Alexandra David-Néel returned to France to arrange the estate of her husband, then she started writing from her home in Digne.

Between 1947 and 1950, Alexandra David-Néel 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.^[56]

In 1952, she published the Textes tibétains inédits ("unpublished Tibetan writings"), an anthology of Tibetan literature including, among other things, the erotic poems attributed to the 6th Dalai Lama. In 1953, a newspiece followed, Le vieux Tibet face à la Chine nouvelle, in which she gave "a certain and documented opinion" on the tense situation in the regions once visited by her.^[42]

Yongden died suddenly on 7 October 1955.^[5] According to Jacques Brosse, Yongden, seized by a strong fever and sickness, which David-Néel attributed to a simple indigestion, fell into a coma during the night^[42] and died carried off by kidney failure according to the doctor's diagnosis.^[57] Just having turned 87, David-Néel found herself alone. Yongden's ashes were kept safe in the Tibetan oratory of Samten Dzong, awaiting to be thrown into the Ganges, together with those of David-Néel after her death.^[42] With age, David-Néel suffered more and more from articular rheumatism that forced her to walk with crutches. "I walk on my arms", she used to say.^[42] Her work rhythm slowed down: she did not publish anything in 1955 and 1956, and, in 1957, only the third edition of the Initiations lamaïques.^[5]

In April 1957, she left Samten Dzong in order to live at Monaco with a friend who had typed her manuscripts. She 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.^[42] She would stay with the old lady until the end,^[5] "watching over her like a daughter over her mother – and sometimes like a mother over her unbearable child – but also like a disciple at the service of her guru", according to the words of Jacques Brosse.^[42]