Peter Richardus – författare

In the early years of the 20th century, control over Tibet was contested by three major empires: those of China, Russia and Britain. The imperial powers and those who came in their wake - missionaries, scholars, traders and soldiers - employed local staff to assist in their dealings with the Tibetans, and these employees were in the vanguard of Tibet''s encounter with the outside world. Yet they have been largely forgotten by history and most of the knowledge and understandings that they gained have been lost.It was left to a Dutchman, Johan van Manen, and hence an outside observer of the British imperial system, to preserve the impressions of three who served on the periphery of the imperial system. The three autobiographies that make up this book, crowded with ethnographical, sociological and historico-religious data, offer a unique insight into the world of the intermediary class. In addition to being interesting and entertaining, they are an important contribution to our understanding of the history of Tibet and its opening up to cultures beyond its own.

In the early years of the 20th century, control over Tibet was contested by three major empires: those of China, Russia and Britain. The imperial powers and those who came in their wake - missionaries, scholars, traders and soldiers - employed local staff to assist in their dealings with the Tibetans, and these employees were in the vanguard of Tibet''s encounter with the outside world. Yet they have been largely forgotten by history and most of the knowledge and understandings that they gained have been lost.It was left to a Dutchman, Johan van Manen, and hence an outside observer of the British imperial system, to preserve the impressions of three who served on the periphery of the imperial system. The three autobiographies that make up this book, crowded with ethnographical, sociological and historico-religious data, offer a unique insight into the world of the intermediary class. In addition to being interesting and entertaining, they are an important contribution to our understanding of the history of Tibet and its opening up to cultures beyond its own.

The final edition of this was published in 1977, so a completely revised and updated new edition of Project Surveying became a necessary requirement, should the book continue its service to the surveying and civil engineering students and profession in the same successful way as from the very first publication in 1966. The view held at the time still stands in full force, namely that the analytical knowledge of the precision and reliability of the numerous combinations of observational methods and computational (statistical) processing in inseparable connection with the subsequent engineering action, constitutes the very basis of the organisation of surveys and the underlying decisions in respect of procedures and economy.

The final edition of this was published in 1977, so a completely revised and updated new edition of Project Surveying became a necessary requirement, should the book continue its service to the surveying and civil engineering students and profession in the same successful way as from the very first publication in 1966. The view held at the time still stands in full force, namely that the analytical knowledge of the precision and reliability of the numerous combinations of observational methods and computational (statistical) processing in inseparable connection with the subsequent engineering action, constitutes the very basis of the organisation of surveys and the underlying decisions in respect of procedures and economy.