been reached by the Japanese), making life increasingly difficult for the few foreigners residing there, and Rock left with his collections and manuscripts for the last time in August 1949. Last Years (1949-1962) Initially he based himself in Kalimpong, India hoping the situation would settle down and allow him to return to Lijiang. Once he realized that China was closed to him for good, he characteristically spent his last years wandering between Europe, the U.S. and Hawaii, often selling his considerable personal library and collections to support himself and to see his work into print. Finally settling in Honolulu, he continued his extensive Nakhi researches and renewed his enthusiasm for Hawaiian flora. He completed his monumental A Nakhi-English Dictionary Encyclopedia, both a dictionary of the Dongba script and an encyclopedia of Nakhi culture, and arranged for its publication in the year of his death in 1962. He died in Honolulu where he is buried. Character Rock never married, and there is no clear evidence that he ever had an intimate relationship of any kind. He kept detailed diaries and journals throughout much of his life, which frequently express his sense of loneliness—hardly surprising given his choice to live in remote, alien environments; but he clearly prized his independence and individual self-esteem above personal relations. Emotionally volatile and autocratic in manner, he had a well-deserved reputation as a difficult character, which was counter-balanced by his effectiveness in carrying out extremely challenging and often dangerous projects and the high quality of his work as collector, photographer and scholar. He generally viewed the Chinese harshly and temperamentally sided with the non-Han peoples among whom he lived and explored, who had been pushed into these remote areas by Chinese's insatiable need for all good cultivatable land. Nonetheless, he viewed these tribal peoples as primitive, hopelessly mired in filthy social habits and medieval, usually cruel and corrupt social structures. There is a frequent pattern of declaring he wished to leave China for good, but usually a few weeks back in the West, living in luxury hotels, was enough for him to escape from what he disparagingly referred to as “civilization.” Similarly, there were many times when he decided to invite another Westerner to assist and accompany him on his expeditions (in one instance a young Edgar Snow), but usually they only lasted days before Rock sent them back in exasperation, swearing never to repeat the