Joseph Rock and Lijiang

Joseph Rock (1884 – 1962) was an Austrian-American explorer, geographer, linguist and botanist.

From 1922 to 1949, he spent most of his time studying the flora, peoples and languages of southwest China, mainly in Yunnan, Sichuan, southwest Gansu and eastern Tibet. Many of the Asian plants he collected can be seen in the Arnold Arboretum.

Rock began his explorations near Lijiang in the village of Yuhu, settling there in 1922 after a trip to Myanmar. Located at the foot of Jade Dragon Mountain, Yuhu so intrigued Rock with its local charms and customs that he made it his country home. He wrote many articles for National Geographic Magazine about his expeditions. These articles brought him modest fame, and were said to have inspired the novel Lost Horizon, by James Hilton, about a fictional remote Himalayan community known as Shangri-La.

For the following 27 years, Rock continued roaming around Lijiang's countryside, documenting its flora and producing the first rigorous works on Naxi ethnology. The Naxis are the original inhabitants of Lijiang district.

From 1922 to 1935, Rock wrote nine articles for National Geographic. These articles vividly reflected the geographic conditions and ethnic culture of northwest Yunnan, with Lijiang as their central focus.

His main written works focused on the customs, ceremonies and unique pictographic script of the Naxi, a life long study he complied in his book, The Ancient Nakhi Kingdom of SouthWest China. His house in Yuhu still stands.