Gombojab
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John Gombojab Hangin was a professor of Uralic and Altaic languages at Indiana University, and an expert on Mongolian language and culture. He was born in 1921 as second son to an aristocrat family in Taipuse Left Banner of Chahar League, in what is now known as Inner Mongolia, or southern Mongolia. His ancestors served in the Manchu court for generations, so there were famous figures from the family such as his grand-grandfather Duipel Noyon and his grandfather Naran Amban. Today, two of his siblings live in California, USA and his youngest brother Baadai teaches in Taiwan.
John Hangin Gombojab spent his life-time in promoting Mongol culture, creating and developing ties between the Western world and the Mongols, initiating Mongolian studies in the United States, establishing friendly relations between Mongolia and the US, and popularizing the idea of Pan-Mongolism among the Mongols, and he worked tirelessly for Mongolia.
During the World War II, Gombojab was among the Mongol youth who were sent to Japan to study, with the sponsorship of the then Inner Mongolian government. After his return from Japan, he served in the government of Teh Wang (Demchugdongrob) as a secretary. Along with him was Jagchid Sechin, who later also became a well known scholar. (Jagchid Sechin and Paul Hyre together published several books such as "A Mongolian Living Buddha: Biography of the Kanjurwa Khutughtu" and "Mongolia's Culture and Society".)
After the Communist takeover, Gombojab fled to Taiwan where he worked as an Inner Mongolian representative in the Komintang (KMT, Guomindang) government of Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) for some time. Later, he joined the East Asian studies program of Owen Lattimore and went to the US. Professor Own Lattimore was a foremost scholar in East Asian and Mongolian Studies and once worked as an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek. Following the program, he studied at John Hopkins University, University of Berkley, Columbia University and Indiana University, and gradually became the main figure in promoting Mongolian studies in the US. In addition to studying at Hokkaido Imperial University, he earned a Ph.D. from Indiana University. Prior to joining the faculty at Indiana University, he taught at Columbia and Georgetown universities, as well as at the University of California at Berkeley.
There emerged a strong interest in the West toward Mongolian studies since the 1950s, but one problem was the lack of an ideal Mongol-English dictionary. One such dictionary initially written by Mongolist scholar Ferdinand D. Lessing, and after whose sudden death in 1960, completed by his students, including Gombojab himself. The dictionary, which had 20,000 entries, was heavily based on the traditional Mongolian language and was not very suited to modern Mongolian which was being influenced more and more by the development of modern science. Gombojab therefore decided to compile a modern Mongol-English dictionary. After his attempts for working together with Mongolian Academy of Science had finally failed, in 1976, along with his friend John Krueger and his students, completed the writing of "Modern Mongolian-English Dictionary" with 40,000 entries. The dictionary was published in 1986. He also published "A Concise English-Mongolian Dictionary" in 1970.
After founding the Mongolia Society at Indiana University, Professor Gombojab, following suggestions of Choijib Lama and others, also established Mongol-American Cultural Association (MACA) in 1988. A tradition was formed ever since, to carry out a "Chinggis Khan Ceremony" annually. At present, Dr. Sanj Altan is working as President of MACA, and is continuing the job that Professor Gombojab had initiated. The Mongols in America established first Buddhist monasteries in the country and also started various cultural foundations.
Not just being a widely known Mongolist scholar, Professor Gombojab also made great contributions in the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Mongolian and the United States. He worked on several educational co-operation programs between two countries.
Professor Gombojab died in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in 1989, at 66. He was survived by his wife, the former Sarangerel Taichud.
