Google Doodle Today Honours Himalayan Explorer, Nain Singh Rawat

Google Doodle celebrates the birth anniversary of one of the first ace-explorers of the Himalayan region, Nain Singh Rawat, who was born in Milam, a village in the Johar valley of the Kuamaon region at the foot of the Milam glacier of current-day Uttarakhand in 1830. The first explorer to pinpoint the location of Lhasa and assess its altitude, Rawat mapped the trade route from India through the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal to Tibet for the British.

The river Gauri Ganga or Goriganga river, whose principal source is the Milam glacier, originates in this valley of the Kumaon region.

Nain Singh Rawat, who accompanied his father to several places in Tibet, became intimately familiar with Tibetan culture and became proficient in the local language. This helped him gain a deeper insight into the customs and traditions of the Tibetans and and set him on course to become a celebrated explorer of the region. knowledge of local customs and language helped Nain Singh Rawat in becoming an explorer.

Nain Singh Rawat was first recruited by the German explorers, the Schlagintweit brothers, Robert, Adolph and Hermann in 1855. He travelled to Ladakh and the Manasarovar lake, among several other places places accompanying them for two years during this time. A few years later, Rawat, along with his brother, Mani Singh formally learnt the use of recording and measuring instruments and went on an epic journey from Leh to Assam, passing through Tibet.

Rawat received many awards and honours in his lifetime including those from the Royal Geographical Society and died of a heart attack in 1895.