Joseph Francis Charles Rock (1884 – 1962) was an Austrian-American explorer, geographer, linguist and botanist. Year 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This list of explorers is sorted by surname. ... A geographer is a crazy psycho whose area of study is geocrap, the pseudoscientific study of Earths physical environment and human habitat and the study of boring students to death. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ... Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ...

He was born in Vienna, Austria but moved to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1907, where he became an authority on the flora of these islands. “Wien” redirects here. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... In Botany a Flora (or Floræ) is a collective term for plant life and can also refer to a descriptive catalogue of the plants of any geographical area, geological period, etc. ...

From 1922–1949 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 Asian plants that he collected can be seen in the Arnold Arboretum. Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ...   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally south of the clouds) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the far southwestern corner of the country. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: SzÅ­4-chuan1; Postal map spelling: Szechwan and Szechuan) is a province in the central-western China with its capital at Chengdu. ... Gansu (Simplified Chinese: 甘肃; Traditional Chinese: 甘肅; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kan-su, Kansu, or Kan-suh) is a province located in the northwest of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Tibet (older spelling Thibet; Tibetan: བོད་; Wylie: Bod; Lhasa dialect IPA: [; Simplified and Traditional Chinese: 西藏, Hanyu Pinyin: XÄ«zàng; also referred to as 藏区 (Simplified Chinese), 藏區 (Traditional Chinese), ZàngqÅ« (Hanyu Pinyin), see Name section below) is a plateau region in Central Asia and the indigenous home to the Tibetan people. ... The Arnold Arboretum is one of the worlds finest research arboretums. ...

He was based near Lijiang in the village of Nguluko, (Yuhu), and wrote many articles for the National Geographic magazine (see "Works and memory" below) about his expeditions to places such as Muli, Minya Konka (Gongga Shan), the three sacred peaks of Shenrezig, Jambeyang and Chanadorje in what is now known as Yading Nature Reserve, and the Salween (Nujiang) river. These articles brought him modest fame, and were said to have inspired the novel Lost Horizon, by James Hilton, about a remote Himalayan community known as Shangri-La. Lijiang City (Chinese: 丽江市; Hanyu Pinyin: ) refers to an administrative division comprising of urban and rural areas in northwestern Yunnan Province, China. ... The National Geographic Society was founded in the USA on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ... Muli Tibetan Autonomous County is in the Liangshan (Cool Mountains) prefecture of Sichuan province in China. ... Gongga Shan (7,556 m), also known as Minya Konka, is the highest mountain in Sichuan, China. ... Statue of Manjusri (Monju) at Senkoji in Onomichi, Japan Mañjuśrī (文殊 Ch. ... Salween River Delta, October 1994 The Salween River (also spelled Salwin) rises in Tibet, after which it flows through Yunnan, where it is known as the Nujiang river (Chinese: 怒江; Pinyin: Nù Jiāng), although either name can be used for the whole river. ... The cover of the 1961 paperback edition Lost Horizon is a fantasy adventure novel by James Hilton. ... James Hilton (September 9, 1900 - December 20, 1954) was a popular English novelist of the first half of the 20th century. ... Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the novel, Lost Horizon, written by British writer James Hilton in 1933. ...

After 1949 he returned to Honolulu where he died in 1962.

Works and memory

Among the plants he discovered is the spectacular Rock's Peony Paeonia rockii, and many new rhododendrons. Rocks Peony (Paeonia rockii) is a woody species of the peony, named after Joseph Rock. ... Subgenera Azaleastrum Candidastrum Hymenanthes Mumeazalea Pentanthera (Azaleas) Rhododendron Therorhodion Tsutsusi (Azaleas) Vireya Source: RBG, Edinburgh Rhododendron (from the Greek: rhodos, rose, and dendron, tree) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. ...

Rock also produced a 1,094-page dictionary and two histories of the Nakhi (Naxi) people and language of northwestern Yunnan, which have been widely used for the study of Nakhi culture, language and religion. The most important of his written works are: The dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. ... HIStory - Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double-disc album (one half greatest hits, one half studio album) by American musician Michael Jackson released in June of 1995 by the Epic Records division of Sony BMG. The first disc, (HIStory Begins) contains fifteen hit singles from the past... Categories: Ethnic groups of China ...   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally south of the clouds) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the far southwestern corner of the country. ... Categories: Ethnic groups of China ...

• The Ancient Nakhi Kingdom of Southwest China. Cambridge, Mass. 1948.
• A Nakhi-English encyclopedic dictionary. I.M.E.O. Rome. 1963.
• His National Geographic magazine articles:
  

"Banishing the Devil of Disease Among the Nashi: Weird Ceremonies Performed by an Aboriginal ribe in the Heart of Yunnan Province" (1924) 46:473-499
"Land of the Yellow Lama: National Geographic Society Explorer Visits the Strange Kingdom of Muli, Beyond the Likiang Snow Range of Yunnan, China" (1924) 47: 447-491
"Experiences of a Lone Geographer: An American Agricultural Explorer Makes His Way through Brigand-Infested Central China En Route to the Amne Machin Range, Tibet" (1925) 48: 331-347
"Through the Great Tiver Trenches of Asia: National Geographic Society Explorer Follows the Yangtze, Mekong, and Salwin Through Mighty Gorges" (1926) 50: 133-186
"Life among the Lamas of Choni: Describing the Mystery Plays and Butter Festival in the Monastery of an Almost Unknown Tibetan Principality in Kansu Province, China" (1928): 569-619
"Seeking the Mountains of Mystery: An Expedition on the China-Tibet Frontier to the Unexplored Amnyi Machen range, One of Whole Peaks Rivals Everest" (1930) 57:131-185
"Glories of the Minya Konka: Magnificent Snow Peaks of the China-tibetan Border are Photographed at Close Range by a National Geographic Society Expedition" (1930) 58:385-437
"Konka Risumgongba, Holy Mountain of the Outlaws" (1931) 60:1-65
"Sungmas, the Living Oracles of the tibetan Church" (1935) 68:475-486
The National Geographic Society was founded in the USA on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ...

Biographical References

Michael Aris (1992) "Lamas, Princes, and Brigands. Joseph Rock's Photographs of the Tibetan Borderlands of China", China Institute in America, New York City
Sutton, S.B. (1974) "In China's Border Provinces: The Turbulent Career of Joseph Rock, Botanist Explorer", New York
Gore, R. (1997) "Joseph Rock (1922-1935): Our Man in China" National Geographic Magazine 191: 62-81

This is a list of botanists by their author abbreviation, including that established by Brummitt & Powell (1992), designed for citation in the botanical names they have published. ... In botanical nomenclature, author citation refers to the person (or team) who valid published the name, i. ... A botanical name is a formal name conforming to the ICBN. As with its zoological and bacterial equivalents it may also be called a scientific name. Botanical names may be in one part (genus and above), two parts (species) or three parts (below the rank of species). ...

See also

• Gongga Shan, a mountain in Sichuan which (due to poor measuring equipment) he erroneously thought for a time to be the highest in the world.

Gongga Shan (7,556 m), also known as Minya Konka, is the highest mountain in Sichuan, China. ... Lyskamm, 4 527 m, Pennine Alps A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. ...

External links

• Harvard University papers on Joseph Rock
• Rock's contribution to the study of the Naxi language
• In the footsteps of Joseph Rock: a photoblog
• Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation: Joseph Rock
• Joseph Rock's photos