Kinthup, a Lepcha man from Sikkim, was an explorer in the area of Tibet in the 1880s. He is best known for his impressive devotion to duty in surveying a previously unknown area of Tibet.[1]
Laurence Waddell, who met Kinthup in 1892, described him as follows:[2]
[Kinthup] is a thick-set active man of medium height and middle age, with a look of dogged determination in his rugged, weather-beaten features ... His complexion is no darker brown than a swarthy Italian. His face is hairless save for one or two straggling bristles on his upper lip ... His deep-chested voice I have often heard calling clearly from a hill-top some miles away.
- ^ Burrard, S. G. (1915). "The Identity of the Sanpo and Dihang Rivers". Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. 47 (4). American Geographical Society: 259–264. doi:10.2307/201464. JSTOR 201464.
The report of Capt. O.H.B. Trenchard R.E. ... says: ... 'his account has been confirmed in the most remarkable manner, and we are now able to establish Kinthup's claim to honorable record in the annals of the Survey of India, which he served with such zeal and devotion to duty'.
- ^ Waddell, L. A. (1899). Among the Himalayas. Archibald Constable & Co. p. 67.