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Raised as a child in England he later studied a year at Oxford and the Harvard Business School and holds a Doctorate in (Tibetan) Ethnology from the Sorbonne, Paris.

First journey

In 1958 at the age of 21 ... stranded on the coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico,... he walked 200 miles down the coast to Belize discovering on the way 14 yet unrecorded Mayan archeological sites. This journey changed his life, leaving the Harvard Business School after a year, he decided to study ethnology and explore the last unknown regions of Tibet and the Himalayas.

Himalayan expeditions

In 1959, he organised his first Himalayan expedition out of Harvard to study the Sherpas of the Everest district.In 1964 he set out across the Himalayas to explore Mustang, a minute Tibetan speaking kingdom whose identity had escaped the attention of both scholars and the general public. His written account of the expedition, Mustang: A Lost Tibetan Kingdom, an international best seller, was published in 1967.This himalayan expedition was followed by 28 others to the remotest regions of the Tibetan speaking world. In 1968 he became one of the first foreigners to cross Bhutan and study it's little known Eastern districts. He then performed the first detailed study of the Kingdom of Zanskar in Kashmir, later studying the Minaro (Dards) of Baltistan and Ladakh while attempting to locate precisely the "land of the gold digging ants" of Herodotus.A pioneer of the sport of shooting up rapids in 1973 he crossed the Himalayas by hovercraft between Mt. Annapurna and Mt. Dhaulaghiri. Later he travelled by hovercraft up the Ganges and down the eastern coast of Yucatan, after having invented and patented the first single fan hovercraft. (patent).In 1986 he became one of the very first foreigners to penetrate Tsari and the gorges of the Brahmaputra in tropical Tibet.In 1994 he led an expedition to locate the elusive source of the Mekong River following the Dza Nak (the black Mekong, the historical main branch of the river) thus believing to discover the historical source of Asia's third longest river. Ten years later a Sinojapanese expedition Chinese proved that the geographical source (the farthest from the sea) lies at the headwaters of the white Mekong, Dza Kar, which satellite photos show to be 4500 meters longer than what Peissel called the historical branch. Thus like the Mississippi, the Yellow river and countless other rivers the Mekong is considered to have a geographical source and a historical source.In 1995 subsequent to previous investigations and research on Tibean breeds of horses he organised an expedition with the veterinary scholar Dr Ignasi Casas which led to the identification of a yet unknow archaic breed of horses; the Riwoche horse. (See note below.)

From Yucatan to Belize

In 1987 in relation with Mexican archeologists Peissel built a giant sea going Mayan dugout canoe and paddled and sailed 500 miles down the Yucatan coast and that of Belize to demonstrate the role of maritime commerce by the Chontal Itzas in the 10th century collapse of the Mayan lowland cities.

In the wake of the Varangians

In 1988 having built a replica of a Viking long boat Peissel and a crew of six rowed and sailed up de river Dvina and down the Dnieper 2400 km across the Soviet Union from the Baltic to the Black Sea. An expedition in the wake of the Varangians the founding fathers of the Russian monarchy in the 8th century.

Peissel has produced, directed or initiated 22 documentary films on his expeditions, including a 4 part series in 1980 by the BBC on "Zanskar, the Last Place on Earth", a Smithsonian exploration special for the Arts and Entertainment Channel on the source of the Mekong etc...