Sándor Csoma de Kőrös (; born Sándor Csoma; 27 March 1784/8 He was born in Kőrös, Grand Principality of Transylvania (today part of Covasna, Romania). His birth date is often given as 4 April, although this is actually his baptism day and the year of his birth is debated by some authors who put it at 1787 or 1788 rather than 1784. The Magyar ethnic group, the Székelys, to which he belonged believed that they were derived from a branch of Attila's Huns who had settled in Transylvania in the fifth century. Hoping to study the claim and to find the place of origin of the Székelys and the Magyars by studying language kinship, he set off to Asia in 1820 and spent his lifetime studying the Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy. Csoma de Kőrös is considered as the founder of Tibetology. He was said to have been able to read in seventeen languages. He died in Darjeeling while attempting to make a trip to Lhasa in 1842 and a memorial was erected in his honour by the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Biography

Youth in Transylvania

Csoma de Kőrös was born into a poor Székely family, the sixth child of András Csoma and his wife, Krisztina Getse (or Ilona Göcz?). In 1815 he passed the public rigorosum in his studies at Bethlen Kollégium. A scholarship allowed him to continue to Göttingen, where he began to learn English under Professor Fiorillo. Csoma de Kőrős also came under the influence of Professor Johann Gottfried Eichhorn.

Studies in Göttingen

thumb|Bust presented by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to the Asiatic Society of Bengal

Between 1816 and 1818 he studied Oriental languages. In Göttingen, he was noted for being literate in thirteen languages including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and Romanian apart from his native Hungarian. In his Calcutta years he also mastered Bengali, Marathi and Sanskrit. He returned to Transylvania in 1818. On 7 February 1819, Csoma met Hegedűs and informed him of his intent to learn Slavonic in Croatia. He left on foot for Agram and spent a few months there. He received the aid of one hundred florins from Michael de Kenderessy to help him in this journey. From May 1827 to October 1830 he resided in Kanum in Upper Bashahr (present-day Kinnaur) 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 the course of his travels Csoma used various names modified for local use. These included Sikander (from Alexander) with the Beg or Mulla suffix and Rumi, Roome, modified into Tibetan as Rumpa as a prefix indicating he was from Rome. He sometimes signed as Secunder Roome.

In Calcutta and Darjeeling

thumb|upright|Memorial at Darjeeling

In 1831 Csoma joined the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. In 1833 he was unanimously elected as an 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. In 1842 he planned to travel to Lhasa, but contracted malaria while traveling in the Terai and died in Darjeeling.

Personal life

Csoma lived as an ascetic. He often slept on bare earth and ate a diet of bread, curd cheese, fruit and salad or boiled rice and tea. He rarely ate meat and never consumed alcohol. Csoma was known to abstain from drinking water for days.

He was declared as a Bodhisattva (canonized as a Buddhist saint) on 22 February 1933 in Japan. A statue of him in lotus posture by the Hungarian sculptor Géza Csorba was placed on the occasion at the shrine in the Tokyo Buddhist University. On his 200th birth anniversary in 1984, the Hungarian government released a postal stamp depicting him and his travel. In 1992 a park in his memory was opened at Tar and inaugurated by the Dalai Lama.

  • In 1904, Kőrös, his home village changed its name to Csomakőrös in honour of the 120th anniversary of Csoma's birth, and to distinguish itself from other towns named Kőrös in Hungary.
  • In 1920, the , a society dedicated to the study of the Orient was founded and named for Csoma.
  • Csoma was honoured by Hungary by the issuance of a postage stamps: on 1 July 1932.
  • On 30 March 1984, Csoma, the Master of Tibetan Philology, was depicted on a commemorative postage stamp by Hungary; in the background a map of Tibet can be seen.

Works of Csoma de Kőrös

  • Essay towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English. Prepared, with assistance of Bandé Sangs-rgyas Phuntshogs ... by Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, etc., Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1834.
  • Analysis of the Dulva, part of the Kangyur, Asiatic Researches, Calcutta, 1836, vol. 20-1, pp.&nbsp;41–93 <small>(on line)</small>.
  • Essay towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984.
  • A Grammar of the Tibetan Language in English. Prepared under the patronage of the Government and the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal., Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1834.
  • 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.
  • Collected works of Alexander Csoma de Körös, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984.

Works about Csoma de Kőrös

;Books

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

;Films

  • A Guest of Life, a film by Tibor Szemző, 2006. IMDB
  • Zangla – Path of Csoma, a film by Zoltán Bonta, 2008.

;Scholarly Articles

  • "New Discoveries about Alexander Csoma de Kőrös and the Buddhist Monasteries of Northern India" by Judith Galántha Herman (Montreal), Lectures and Papers in Hungarian Studies, no. 44.
  • "Alexander Csoma de Kőrös the Hungarian Bodhisattva" by Dr. Ernest Hetenyi PDF of the full text

Catalogue of the Csoma de Kőrös Collection

  • Collection of Tibetan mss. and xylographs of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös. József Terjék. Budapest : Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtára, 1976.
  • Original copies of the Tibetan and English Dictionary and Grammar of the Tibetan Language in English are available at the British Library.

Notes

  • Csoma Archívum – Works of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös online (partly in English)
  • Alexander Csoma de Kőrös- founder of Tibetan studies, and his legacy in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
  • Essay Towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English (1834)