From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tibetology refers to the study of things
related to Tibet, including its
history,
religion,
language, politics and the collection of
Tibetan articles of historical, cultural and religious
significance. The last may mean a collection of Tibetan statues,
shrines, Buddhist icons and holy scripts, Thanka embroideries,
paintings and tapestries, jewellery, masks and other objects of
fine Tibetan art and
craftsmanship.
History
- The Jesuit Antonio de
Andrade (1580-1634) and a few others established a small
mission and church in Tsaparang (1626), in the kingdom of Guge (Western Tibet) in the XVIIth
century. When the kingdom was overrun by the king of Ladakh (1631), the mission was
destroyed.
- A century later another Jesuit, the Italian Ippolito Desideri (1684-1733) was
sent to Tibet and received permission to stay in Lhasa where he spent 5 years (1716-1721) living
in a tibetan monastery, studying the language, the religion of the
lamas and other tibetan customs.
He published a couple of books in Tibetan on Christian doctrine. Because of a conflict
of jurisdiction (the mission was entrusted to the Capuchins, and not to
the Jesuits) Desideri had to leave Tibet and
returned to Italy, where he spent the rest of his life publishing
his Historical notes on Tibet. They were collected, in 4
volumes, under the title of Opere Tibetane
(Rome;1981-1989). Desideri may be considered as the first
Tibetologist and he did much to make Tibet known in Europe.
- Desideri was however a pioneer, and as such what he produced
were rather 'observations' on Tibet, a work he did with objectivity
and sympathy, but not always perfect accuracy. The inception of
Tibetology as an authentic academic discipline is thus associated
with the Hungarian Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Alexander Csoma de Kőrös
(1784-1842) who is considered as its founder to present day, the
other early tibetologists of note being Philippe Édouard Foucaux who
in 1842 occupied the first chair for Tibetan studies in Europe[1] and Isaac Jacob
Schmidt, who was primarily a mongolist residing in Saint
Petersburg. The publications of the British diplomat Charles
Alfred Bell contributed towards the establishment of tibetology
as an academic discipline. As outstanding tibetologists of the 20th
century the British Frederick William Thomas, the
Italians Giuseppe
Tucci and Luciano Petech, and the Frenchmen Jacques Bacot and
Rolf Alfred Stein may be mentioned.
Since a few decades, particularly in Anglo-saxon countries, the
study of Tibet and Tibetology open itself towards other
disciplines, resulting in works with interdisciplinary approach.
This has become most obvious in the regular conferences of the IATS (International
Association of Tibetan Studies), held at intervals of three years
in different cities all over the world. As examples of such
open-minded Tibet researcher we might mention the American
anthropologist Melvyn Goldstein, among others, who
has done noted research and publications on lexical questions,
about Tibetan nomads and the modern history of Tibet. Others are
Robert Barnett, Matthew Kapstein, Elliot Sperling,
Alex McKay, Geoffrey Samuel, and many more.
External
links
- ^
At the school of Oriental Studies in Paris. See:Le Calloc'h,
Bernard. "Philippe-Edouard Foucaux: First Tibetan teacher in
Europe." Tibet Journal 12.1 (1987): 39-49.
Literature
- Tsering Shakya: The Development of Modern Tibetan
Studies. In: Robert Barnett (Hg.): Resistance and Reform in
Tibet (Bloomington/Indianapolis, University of Indiana Press 1994),
ISBN 0-253-31131-4, S. 1–14.
See also
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