# @shabnamnasimi on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DI_ooAzN9X2
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/32261733-shabnamnasimi-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/186b764292.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-04-28T14:52:59.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Shabnam Nasimi (@ShabnamNasimi) — https://gondola.cc/ShabnamNasimi

## Caption

I came across a copy of ‘Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo (volumes 1 and 2) written in 1842’ — by G.T. Vigne at maggsbros. Prices at over £1k, and, for now, just beyond my reach. 

George Thomas Vigne (1801–1863) was in many ways the archetype of the early Victorian gentleman traveller: part explorer, part amateur geographer, part imperial enthusiast. In the 1830s, he made his way across Kashmir, Ladakh, Baltistan, and along the mountain-courses of the Indus, charting landscapes and peoples largely unknown — or rather, unrecorded — by European writers. His book opens, tellingly, with “Observations on Afghanistan,” at a time when British anxieties about Russian expansion were turning the region into an imperial chessboard.

Vigne wrote not merely to entertain Victorian drawing rooms with tales of the “exotic East,” but also to provide information useful for Britain’s expanding strategic interests. Although never officially part of the East India Company, his travels fed directly into British intelligence and military knowledge of Central and South Asia at a critical time, particularly the first Anglo-Afghan war.

He was the first Englishman to give a detailed account of Baltistan (Iskardo), and among the first Europeans to sketch the Karakoram and Haramosh ranges — travelling, as only an Englishman might, with a sketchbook, a compass, and a cricket bat slung under his arm.

The result is a remarkable — and at times deeply revealing — glimpse into how the British viewed the wider world during the early days of their Asian ambitions: with curiosity, ambition, and a profound belief that the unmapped was theirs for the taking.

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## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Shabnam Nasimi | @ShabnamNasimi | https://gondola.cc/ShabnamNasimi | Host |

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