From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The native form of this personal name is Kőrösi Csoma
Sándor. This article uses the Western name order.
Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (March 27, 1784[1
] – April 11, 1842), born Csoma
Sándor, also known as Alexander Csoma de
Kőrös, 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 actually 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 British government, he devoted himself
to the study of the Tibetan language.
He made the first English-Tibetian Dictionary while living at Zangla
Monastery in Zanskar in
1823. The dictionary was published a year later in 1824.[2]
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.
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 on 1784 April.
- 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.
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 towards Bucharest on 1819 November.
- Leaves Bucharest for Sofia
in 1820 January.
Middle East, Central
Asia
- He arrives in Constantinople on February 7, 1820, but
has to leave soon due to an epidemic. He sails to Alexandria, where he
stays with a blacksmith named Schaffer of Austrian origin. He wants to
study Arabic in Egypt, but is forced again to leave due to the
spread of the epidemic.
- On March 15, 1820, he sails to Latakia via Cyprus, Beirut and Tripoli. From Latakia, he continues on
foot.
- On April 13, Csoma arrives in Aleppo, where he stays for a month.
- Joining a caravan, he arrives in Mosul on May 19, and continues to
Baghdad, arriving there on
June 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.
- On October 14, he arrives in Tehran, 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 on April 18, 1821 and is unable to
continue for six months due to the war. He leaves for Bukhara on October 20.
- Csoma crosses the Hindu Kush mountains on January 6, reaches
Kabul, where he turns south. He
meets French officers in the
Khyber Pass and
joins them to Peshawar and
Lahore. Finally, he arrives in
Srinagar, after visiting
Amritsar and Jammu.
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 immersion 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 May 1827 to October 1830
he resided in Kanum in Upper Bashahr in the Simla 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 and grammar complete Csoma went to Calcutta
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[3]. In
1842 he planned to travel to Lhasa. But before its materialization, he
contracted Malaria in Darjeeling 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 Kőrös 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
- Zangla - Path of Csoma, a film by Zoltán Bonta,
2008.
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
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907
edition of The Nuttall
Encyclopædia.
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