Jack Francis Needham OBE (1842–1924) was a British officer in the Bengal Police who was posted in the Eastern Himalayan region during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He authored several pioneering descriptions of Sino-Tibetan and Tai-Kadai languages in the area.
Jack Francis Needham (often referenced as J. F. Needham) was an Officer in the Bengal Police in the mid-to-late 19th century, later appointed Political Officer at the British outpost of Sadiya in Assam in 1882. Needham conducted a tour of the "Abor" ( Adi) area in the Siang River Valley (modern-day East Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh state) in 1884, which established British relations with a small segment of the Tani hill tribes. [1]
During his tenure in Sadiya Needham completed the first ever descriptions of several regional languages, including the Eastern Tani language Mising, [2] the Sal language Singpho [3] and Tai Khamti, [4] as well as an ethnographic travelogue of his journey from Sadiya to South-Eastern Tibet. [5]
Jack Francis Needham OBE (1842–1924) was a British officer in the Bengal Police who was posted in the Eastern Himalayan region during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He authored several pioneering descriptions of Sino-Tibetan and Tai-Kadai languages in the area.
Jack Francis Needham (often referenced as J. F. Needham) was an Officer in the Bengal Police in the mid-to-late 19th century, later appointed Political Officer at the British outpost of Sadiya in Assam in 1882. Needham conducted a tour of the "Abor" ( Adi) area in the Siang River Valley (modern-day East Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh state) in 1884, which established British relations with a small segment of the Tani hill tribes. [1]
During his tenure in Sadiya Needham completed the first ever descriptions of several regional languages, including the Eastern Tani language Mising, [2] the Sal language Singpho [3] and Tai Khamti, [4] as well as an ethnographic travelogue of his journey from Sadiya to South-Eastern Tibet. [5]