Marco Pallis (19 June 1895, Liverpool — 5 June 1989, London?) was a distinguished British gambist, composer, and mountaineer, as well as a prominent scholar on Tibetan Buddhism. He was a key figure in the Traditionalist School of perennial philosophy, alongside notable contemporaries such as Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Julius Evola, and Frithjof Schuon. Pallis was also known for founding the English Consort of Viols and held the title of Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (HonRAM).

Born into a wealthy cosmopolitan family with English and Greek roots, Pallis initially pursued studies in entomology at the University of Liverpool. At the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the military, participating in the first Balkan Wars against the Ottoman Empire. During World War I, he served with the Salvation Army, British forces, and the Grenadier Guards, ultimately being honorably discharged in 1918 due to a severe knee injury.

Following the war, Pallis took up mountaineering against medical advice, embarking on expeditions to the Arctic, Switzerland, the Scottish Highlands, Wales, and the Dolomite Alps in Italy. In the early 1920s, he moved to Haslemere in West Surrey to study early music under the esteemed Arnold Dolmetsch (1858–1940). Pallis dedicated himself to mastering the viola da gamba and delved deeply into the repertoire of the 16th and 17th centuries, becoming one of Dolmetsch's most devoted students and later, his benefactor. His wealth allowed him to support Dolmetsch's workshop and cultural initiatives, including the Haslemere Festival in 1925 and the establishment of the Arnold Dolmetsch Foundation, which provided resources for students and apprentices.

In 1933, Pallis led his first Himalayan expedition, achieving the first recorded ascent of the 6,816-meter Reo Purgyil in the Kinnaur district of northern India. Upon his return to England, he and his friend, violist Richard Nicholson, founded an "early music" ensemble, inviting fellow Dolmetsch students Elizabeth Goble (1907–1981) and Robert Donington (1907–1990) to join them in forming the English Consort of Viols in 1935. The following year, Pallis and Nicholson returned to the Himalayas; despite failing to climb the 6,815-meter Simvu peak in Sikkim, Pallis discovered a profound interest in Tibetan Buddhism. Due to permit issues, they could not cross into Tibet and returned home after traveling through Ladakh.

The English Consort of Viols made its debut performance at London’s Wigmore Hall in February 1938. In 1947, shortly before the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Pallis and Donington finally visited the region, where Pallis spent nearly a year in the Tsang province, engaging with all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism: Gelug, Kagyu, Sakya, and the oldest Nyingma tradition. He visited several significant monasteries, including Pel Sakya and Tashilhunpo, the seat of the Panchen Lama. After leaving Tibet, he settled in Kalimpong, India, for another four years, where he developed a friendship with Heinrich Harrer, the former translator for H.H. Dalai Lama. A decade later, Pallis would assist Harrer in revealing the true identity of the author Lobsang Rampa, who was actually the high school dropout and plumber Cyril Hoskin.

In 1951, Pallis returned to England, where he began teaching the viola da gamba at the Royal Academy of Music and revived the English Consort of Viols. The ensemble recorded three LPs for Saga, Abbey, and Turnabout labels, performed extensively throughout the UK, and undertook two tours of the USA. Pallis was also an active contributor to the journal Studies in Comparative Religion, and he played a vital role in the Tibetan Society, the first support organization for the exiled Tibetan government in the West. He provided shelter to numerous Tibetan refugees in London and befriended Chögyam Trungpa (1939–1987), who had recently arrived in the UK. Between 1969 and 1978, he published several articles on the history of the viola in Early Music and the VdGSA Journal in America.

As a composer, Pallis produced several significant works in the latter part of his life, including "Divisions upon a Ground" (1980) for viol with organ or harpsichord, the "Renaissance Tunes" collection (1983–84) of arrangements for string instruments, "Nocturne de l’Ephémère" (1985), which premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall when he was 90 years old, and the "String Quartet in F# Minor," published posthumously in 1991. He also left behind an unfinished opera inspired by the life of Milarepa, titled "Drame Spirituel en Quatre Parties."