Sándor Kőrösi Csoma

Sándor Csoma Kőrösi ( born March 27, 1784 in Covasna, Transylvania, † April 11, 1842 in Darjeeling, India), Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, was a Hungarian explorer who is regarded as the founder of Tibetology. He devoted most of his life researching the origin of the Hungarian people.

Life

Csoma, a Székely, studied from 1812 to 1815 theology and philology in Nagyenyed and from 1816 to 1818 in Göttingen under Johann Gottfried Eichhorn oriental languages. There he came with Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in contact. This advanced the thesis that the Magyars were the descendants of the Turkish Uyghur. This idea inspired Csoma traveled to Asia to explore the origin of the Hungarian people.

Csoma, who spoke fluent Armenian, broke 1821 with a caravan, disguised as an Armenian, of Khorasan and came to Baghdad, Tehran, Bukhara and Lahore to Leh, the capital of Ladakh.

In 1821 he retired as a student in a Buddhist monastery in Zanskar in the Hindu Kush on the river Satluj back and devoted himself to learning the Tibetan and the basic concepts of Buddhism. From 1827 to 1834 he stayed as a fellow of the British government in Ladakh.

As a result of his studies he published the first scientifically held grammar: A grammar of the Tibetan language (Calcutta 1834), and the first Tibetan dictionary: Essay towards a dictionary Tibetan and English (Calcutta 1834). Through this work, his analysis of the Ganjur ( about the basic teachings of Buddhism, Calcutta, 1835 ) and its smaller fonts applies Csoma as the founder of Tibetology in Europe.

Csomas research did not escape even the Dalai Lama; the first European he received from the Dalai Lama 11 an invitation to the capital Lhasa. Csoma, however, died before he could make the trip in Darjeeling at the foot of the Himalayas.

The Csoma Archive of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which kept his works and works about him, was admitted into the World Soundtrack Awards in 2009.

Writings

• A grammar of the Tibetan language in English ( Calcutta 1834)
• Essay towards a dictionary Tibetan and English (Calcutta 1834)
• Analysis of the Ganjur ( about the basic teachings of Buddhism, Calcutta 1835)