JONG, Jan Willem de. Leiden 15.2.1921 — Canberra 22.1.2000. Dutch Indologist and Buddhist Scholar in Australia. Professor in Leiden and Canberra. After gymnasium in Leiden studies of Chinese, Japanese and Sanskrit at Leiden in 1939-45 (cand. 1945), at Harvard 1946 and in Paris 1947-50, now also Tibetan. During the war the university was closed and he had to go on on his own. Ph.D. 1949 Leiden (under F. D. K. Bosch), then worked as Assistant there. From 1952/56 (Kuiper/Ruegg) Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at Leiden. From 1965 Professor of South Asian and Buddhist Studies at Australian National University in Canberra. Retired 1986, had no successor. Married 1949 Gisèle Bacquès, two daughters and one son.
With Kuiper de Jong founded the IIJ in 1957 and contributed much to it until his death. The main part of his work dealt with Tibetan texts, but he had further interests, e.g. in Indian epics. He was known as an active and rather demanding critic. He knew many languages, including Russian and Japanese, and had enormous personal library. He wrote numerous, often very critical reviews. Among his students were P. M. Harrison, H. Matsumura, Gr. Schopen and Sh. Tsuda.
Publications: Diss. Cinq chapitres de la Prasannapadā. 167 p. Leiden 1949 (Pr. 18–22 Tibetan text with transl.).
– Mi la ras pa’i rnam thar, texte tibétain de la vie de Milarépa. 218 p. Indo-Iranian Monogr. 4. ’s-Gravenhage 1959.
– Edited (Sanskrit & Tibetan) & transl. “Le Madhyamakaśāstrastuti de Candrakīrti”, Oriens Extremus 9, 1962, 47-56.
– “Beschouwing over het Oud-Indische epos het Mahābhārata”, Tijdskrift vir Geesteswetenskappe (Suid-Afrikaanse Akad. vir Wetenskap en kuns) 10, 1970, 201-230; “Recent Russian Publications on the Indian Epics”, ALB 69, 1975, 1-42.
– “La légende de Śāntideva”, IIJ 16, 1975, 161-182; “Textcritical Notes on the Prasannapadā”, IIJ 20, 1978, 25-59, 217-252.
– A brief history of Buddhist Studies in Europa and America. 94 p. Varanasi 1976.
– Edited: “The Tun-huang Manuscripts of the Tibetan Rāmāyaṇa Story”, IIJ 19, 1977, 37-88; Nāgārjuna, Mūlamādhyamakakārikāḥ. 57 p. A.L.S. 109. Madras 1977.
– Textcritical Remarks on the Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā. 10+303 p. Studia Philol. Buddh. Monograph Ser. 2. Tokyo 1979.
– The Story of Rāma in Tibet. Text and translation of the Tun-Huang Manuscripts. 136 p. Tibetan and Indo-Tibetan Studies 1. St. 1989.
– Buddhist Studies. 759 p. Berkeley 1981; Tibetan Studies. 11+254 p. Indica et Tibetica 25. Swisstal-Odendorf 1994.
– Many articles and reviews, founder and long-time editor of IIJ.
Sources: F.B.J. Kuiper, IIJ 43, 2000, xif. with photo; D.S. Ruegg, IIJ 43, 2000, 313-317; *Indological and Buddhist Studies. Vol. in honour of Professor J. W. de Jong. 2nd ed. 692 p. Bibl. Indo-Buddhica 27. Delhi 1984 with photo; H.W. Bodewitz & Minoru Hara (ed.), Gedenkschrift J. W. de Jong. Studia Philol. Buddhica 16. Tokyo 2004 (with life by M. Hara, first publ. in JIABS 24:1, 2001, 1-5); R. Wiles in www.chofukuji.jp/de_Jong/Biography/biography.html; full bibliography of 824 items in *Hokke bunka kenkyū 14, 1988, 1-63 & 25, 1999, 1-37; Wikipedia.
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