Sándor Kőrösi Csoma

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Alexander Csoma de Kőrös

Born March 27, 1784(1784-03-27)[1]
Kőrös, Transylvania
Died April 11, 1842 (aged 58)
Darjeeling, India
Occupation Linguist, philologist, traveler.

Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, also known as Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, born Csoma Sándor (March 27, 1784[2] - April 11, 1842), was a Hungarian philologist and orientologist, author of the first Tibetan-English dictionary and grammar book. He was born in Kőrös, Transylvania. His birth date is often credited as April 4, which is literally his baptism day. Hoping that he would be able to trace the origin of the Magyar ethnic group, he set out for the East in 1820, and after much hardship along the way, arrived in Ladakh. Under great privation there, despite being aided by the English government, he devoted himself to the study of the Tibetan language. In 1831, he settled in Calcutta, where he compiled his Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary and catalogued the Tibetan works in the library of the Asiatic Society. He died in Darjeeling just as he was setting out for fresh discoveries. He is said to have been able to read in seventeen languages. De Kőrös is widely seen as the founder of Tibetology.

Contents

[edit] Life

[edit] Youth in Transylvania

He was born into a poor Székely family, as the sixth child of András Csoma and his wife, Krisztina Getse. His father served with the Border Guard.

  • He is baptized on 1784 April 4.
  • In 1790, he begins attending the local elementary school.
  • In 1799, he walked to Nagyenyed (present day Aiud) with his father to join the boarding school Bethlen Kollégium. He has worked small jobs in order to earn his tuition and support himself.
  • He finished his high school studies in 1807, and continued at the university level.
  • In 1815 he finishes his studies at the Bethlen Kollégium. Travels to Vienna, and - as it was usual at the time - continues his studies in Germany. After a short stay in Heidelberg, Csoma carries on to Göttingen.

[edit] Studies in Göttingen

[edit] Eastward bound

[edit] Middle East, Central Asia

[edit] In Ladakh

Near the Kashmir border he met Moorcroft who encouraged him to study Tibetan. He lived in Ladakh on a monthly stipend of Rs. 50/- from the British government fom 1827 to 1831.

[edit] In Calcutta and Darjeeling

In 1831 Csoma joined the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. In 1833 he was unanimously elected as Honorary member of the Asiatic Society. In 1834 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society. From 1837 to 1841, he worked as Librarian of the Asiatic Society[3]. In 1842 he planned to travel to Lhasa. But before its materialization, he contracted Malaria in Darjeeling and died there.

[edit] Works of de Kőrös

  • Essay towards a dictionary, Tibetan and English.' Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984.
  • Grammar of the Tibetan language. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984.
  • Sanskrit-Tibetan-English vocabulary: being an edition and translation of the Mahāvyutpatti. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984.

[edit] Works About de Kőrös

  • Life and works of Alexander Csoma de Körös a biography compiled chiefly from hitherto unpublished data : with a frief notice of each of his unpublished works and essays, as well as of his still extant manuscripts. Theodore Duka. London: Trübner, 1885.
  • Hermit-hero from Hungary, Alexander Csoma de Koros, the great Tibetologist. Hirendra Nath Mukerjee. New Delhi: Light & Life Publishers, 1981.
  • Alexandre Csoma de Kőrös. Bernard Le Calloch̓. Paris: La nouvelle revue tibétaine, 1985.
  • The Hungarian Who Walked to Heaven (Alexander Csoma de Koros 1784-1842). Edward Fox. Short Books, 2001.
  • A Guest of Life. A film by Tibor Szemző, 2006. IMDB

[edit] Catalogue of the de Kőrös Collection

  • Collection of Tibetan mss. and xylographs of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös. József Terjék. Budapest : Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtára, 1976.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Short bio and works (hungarian)
  2. ^ Short bio and works (hungarian)
  3. ^ Journal of The Asiatic Society, Vol.XLVII, No.1, Kolkata: The Asiatic Society, 2005, p.236

[edit] External links

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.