UNKRIG, Wilhelm Alexander. Köslin, Pomerania (now Koszalin in Poland) 1883 — Traisa near Darmstadt 24.6.1956. German Mongolian and Lamaist Scholar. Son of a crofter. From 1908 he was trained for missionary work among the Mongols at Religious Academy in Kazan and in 1912 became Russian Orthodox priest. The World War I stopped his plans and he returned to Germany, where he became a scholar of Lamaism and Tibeto-Mongolian medicine. For a while, 1924-26, librarian at Anthropos Institute in Vienna, from 1926 private scholar in Berlin, collaborated with Filchner. From 1936 Librarian of the Sinological Institute and from 1943 Lecturer in Tibetan and Mongolian at Frankfurt a. M. University. Hon. dr. 1953 Frankfurt.

Publications: Aus den letzten Jahrzehnten des Lamaismus in Rußland. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Buddhismus 20. München 1926.

– “Ein moderner buddhistischer Katechismus für burjatische Kinder”, Anthropos 21, 1926, 148-181, 523-545 & 23, 1928, 475-498; reviews in Anthropos.

– With W. Filchner: Kumbum Dschamba Ling. Das Kloster der Hunderttausend Bilder Maitreyas. 16+555 p. Lp. 1933.

– Die Tollwut in der Heilkunde des Lamaismus nach tibetisch-mongolischen Texten im »Statens Etnografiska Museum« zu Stockholm. 19 p. & plates. Contributions to Ethnography, Linguistics and History of Religion. Stockholm 1954.

Sources: *C. R. Bawden, “W.A.U’s correspondence with the Britisch [sic] and Foreign Bible Society: A contibution to the History of Bible Translation and of Printing in Mongolian in Russia in the early 19th century”, ZASt 14:1, 1980, 65-108; *W. Heissig, CAJ 3, 1957-58, 21f. with photo; W. Nölle, Anthropos 51, 1956, 1083; Snelling, Buddhism in Russia. 1993, 279f.; bibliography by Walravens, ZASt 16, 1982, 251-291; D. Haller in www.germananthropology.com/short-portrait/wilhelm-alexander-unkrig/436 with photo.

*H. Walravens: Wilhelm Alexander Unkrig: Mongolist, Theologe und Kenner lamaistischer Heil­kunde; eine Bibliographie; mit bislang unveröffentlichten Briefen Unkrigs. Hamburg 1981; later on, W. also edited his correspondence in three volumes 2003-04.