Kőrösi Csoma Sándor

Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (1784- 1842) accidentally become the founder of tibetology and creator of the first English-Tibetian dictionary when was looking for the origin of the Hungarians.

He received the highest level of scientific training of his time in Germany, one of the leading institutions in the world at the time, the University of Göttingen and became an internationally recognized scientist. Here he prepared for the great journey by mastering the sciences He spoke 20 languages and compiled glossaries in 16 European and Eastern languages. He wanted to find our brothers, the Hungarians who remained in Asia. He set out on foot without financial resources and made several attempts to reach Inner Asia, but encountered obstacles.

"I am determined to leave my country and come to the East, devoting my daily bread, as much as I can, to dedicating my whole life to sciences that may benefit the European scientific world in general and in the history of my nation. "

That's how he finally got to Western Tibet, Ladakh. Here, he studied the Tibetan language for seven years under difficult circumstances. He was called Phyi-glin-gi-grwa-pa in Tibetan, meaning "the foreign pupil". His memory is still revered in Tibet to this day. He then compiled and published his famous Tibetan-English Dictionary and Tibetan Grammar as a librarian for the Asian Society of Bengal in Calcutta, India, and published many other previously unknown materials on Tibetan Buddhism in scholarly papers.

He became a pioneer and founder of the science of Tibetology. On February 22, 1933 in the ceremonial hall of the Taishyo Buddhist University in Tokyo, as part of a bright religious ceremony, Sándor Kőrösi Csoma became the first European to be declared as bodhisattv. In February 1842 he wanted to countinue his journey. He attempted to reach Lhasa, Tibet. He traveled by water on the Mahananda River and then crossed the swampy, unhealthy climate on foot and presumably contracted malaria although the course of his illness does not proven.

On March 24, 1842, he arrived in Darjeeling. On April 11, 1842, at 5 o'clock in the morning, the earthly life of Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, the holy Bodhisattva, came to an end. His body was laid to rest the next day in the European cemetery in Darjeeling. His tomb became a Buddhist pilgrimage site.