- Sándor Kőrösi Csoma
infobox_person
name = Alexander Csoma de Kőrös
birth_date = birth date|1784|3|27|mf=y [ [http://www.terebess.hu/keletkultinfo/korosi.html Short bio and works (hungarian)] ]
birth_place = Kőrös,Transylvania
death_date = death date and age|1842|4|11|1784|3|27|mf=y
death_place =Darjeeling ,India
occupation = Linguist, philologist, traveler.Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, also known as Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, born Csoma Sándor (
March 27 ,1784 [ [http://www.terebess.hu/keletkultinfo/korosi.html Short bio and works (hungarian)] ] -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 asApril 4 , which is literally hisbaptism 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 inLadakh . Under great privation there, despite being aided by the English government, he devoted himself to the study of theTibetan language . In 1831, he settled inCalcutta , where he compiled his "Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary" and catalogued the Tibetan works in the library of theAsiatic Society . He died inDarjeeling 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 ofTibetology .Life
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 on1784 April 4 .
* In 1790, he begins attending the local elementary school.
* In 1799, he walked to Nagyenyed (present dayAiud ) 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 toVienna , and - as it was usual at the time - continues his studies inGermany . After a short stay inHeidelberg , Csoma carries on toGöttingen .Studies in
Göttingen * Between 1816 and 1818 he studies oriental languages under
Johann Gottfried Eichhorn . In Göttingen, he was noted for being literate in 13 languages.Eastward bound
* In 1818 he returns to his native
Transylvania , brewing plans about a great journey to the East.
* Csoma sets out towardsBucharest on1819 november 24 .
* Leaves Bucharest forSofia in1820 January 1 .Middle East ,Central Asia * He arrives in
Constantinople onFebruary 7 ,1820 , but has to leave soon due to an epidemic. He sails toAlexandria , where he stays with ablacksmith named Schaffer ofAustria n origin. He wants to studyArabic inEgypt , but is forced again to leave due to the spread of the epidemic.
* OnMarch 15 ,1820 , he sails to Latakia viaCyprus ,Beirut andTripoli . From Latakia, he continues on foot.
* OnApril 13 , Csoma arrives inAleppo , where he stays for a month.
* Joining a caravan, he arrives inMosul onMay 19 , and continues toBaghdad , arriving there onJune 21 .
* In Baghdad, he stays for six weeks as he guest of Anton Swoboda, a Slovak living there. Swoboda supports Csoma with money and clothing.
* OnOctober 14 , he arrives inTehran , where he stays for a longer period, perfecting his English and Persian. As his sporadic correspondence with Hungary stops here, his friends presume him lost. He leaves his documents in Tehran, and travels under the Turkish name of "Skender bey".
* He arrives in Meshed onApril 18 ,1821 and is unable to continue for six months due to the war. He leaves forBukhara onOctober 20 .
* Csoma crosses theHindu Kush mountains onJanuary 6 , reachesKabul , where he turns south. He meets French officers in theKhyber Pass and joins them toPeshawar andLahore . Finally, he arrives inSrinagar , after visitingAmritsar andJammu .In
Ladakh Near the Kashmir border he attached himself to William Moorcroft who encouraged him to study Tibetan for the East India Company. Soon after he moved to the isolated valley of
Zanskar (he was the first European to visit the valley), and started on an intense initial sixteen-month imersion in study of the Tibetan language and the Buddhist culture which was the essence of its literature with a local lama, Sangs-rgyas-phun-tshogs. From 1827 to 1830 he was in UpperBashahr in theSimla Hill States where he studied the collection of Tibetan manuscripts he had amassed in Ladakh, living on a monthly stipend of Rs. 50/- from the British. With his dictionary complete Csoma went toCalcutta to oversee its publication.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 ["Journal of The Asiatic Society", Vol.XLVII, No.1, Kolkata: The Asiatic Society, 2005, p.236] . In 1842 he planned to travel toLhasa . But before its materialization, he contracted Malaria inDarjeeling and died there.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.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. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407702 IMDB]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.
Notes
External links
* [http://www.thdl.org/texts/reprints/bot/bot_09_01_03.pdf Biography]
* [http://www.thdl.org/texts/reprints/bot/bot_1984_01_04.pdf Biography]
* [http://www.buddha-tar.hu/eng/csoma.php Biography]
* [http://www.lotsawaschool.org/csoma.html Biography and List of Writings on Lotsawa School]
* [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Alexander_Csoma_de_Koros 1911 Ecyclopedia article about Csoma de Kőrös]
* [http://csoma.mtak.hu/en/index.htm Alexander Csoma de Kőrös,] founder of Tibetan studies, and his legacy in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
* [http://yun.ro/ Himalayablue - pilgrimage in the footsteps of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, 2007]
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