BRAMZELIUS, Abbe (Albert) Wilhelm Nils. Ystad, Skåne 27.7.1902 — Norrköping 6.6.1981. Swedish Painter and Scholar. Ph.D., art studies in Paris (Académie Colarossi). Married sculptor Margareta (Märta) Eleonora Hammarlund (1899–1988), divorce 1975. Publications: Die hinduistische Pantheon-Glasmalerei. Eine ethnographische, religions- und kunstgeschichtliche Studie über die hinduistischen Glasgemälde im Staatlichen Ethnographischen Museum zu Stockholm.…
BOWERS, Faubion. Miami, Oklahoma 29.1.1917 — New York City 17.11.1999. U.S. Japanologist. Grew up in Tulsa. Graduated 1935 from Columbia University and 1939 from Juilliard Graduate School of Music as concert pianist. In 1940-41 taught at Hosei University in Tokyo now turned to Japanology. From 1945 General MacArthur’s Japanese interpreter…
BOUGLÉ, Célestin Charles Alfred. Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-du-Nord, now Côtes-d’Armor) 1.6.1870 — Paris 25.1.1940. French Positivist Philosopher and Sociologist. School in Paris. Studies at École normale supérieure, agrégé in philosophy 1893. Ph.D. 1899. Taught at lycée in Saint-Brieuc, in the universities of Montpellier (1898-1900), and Toulouse, from 1909 at Sorbonne, 1919 as Professor…
BOISSELIER, Jean Henri Joseph Albin. Paris 26.8.1912 — Paris 26.2.1996. French Archaeologist, Art Historian and Buddhist Scholar. Son of the military illustrator Henri Boisselier (1881–1959). In the 1920s studied at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, already then interested in Cambodian art. Worked as painter and drawing teacher. In…
BOER, Richard Constant. Warnsveld near Zutphen 31.1.1863 — Amsterdam 20.8.1929. Dutch Linguist. Son of Richard Willem Boer and Constantia Gisius Nanning. Ph.D. 1888 Groningen. In 1888-1900 taught Dutch and geography at gymnasium in Leeuwarden, also PD at Groningen. In 1900-29 Professor of Old Germanic and Sanskrit at Amsterdam, after 1921…
BOELES, Jan Jetso. Leeuwarden 1909 — 2002. Dutch Businessman, Buddhist and South-East Asian Scholar. From 1935 until his death living in Thailand, except in 1940-45, when also studied South-East Asian archaeology at Leiden under N. J. Krom (also under Kuiper). For a while director of the Siam Society Research Centre.…
BLAIR, Chauncey Justus. Chicago 3.12.1913 — Chapel Hill, N.C. 1999. U.S. Indologist. Son of Chauncey Buckley Blair and Mildred Mitchell Marshall (or Paulette M. Picard?). Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania. In 1959 living in West Hyattsville, Maryland, in 1981 in Bowie, Maryland, and in 1986 in Franconia, N.B. Married 1953 Emma…
BILLARD, Roger Louis. Puteaux (Paris) 29.12.1922 — Mennecy near Paris 30.12.2000. French Indologist. He was of modest origin and had to work after school, but the post in the Oriental bookshop Adrien Maisonneuve led him to studies and he soon entered É.L.O.V. Studied Hindi, Khmer, Arabic and Chinese, also Sanskrit…
BETTS, Ursula Violet Graham (née U. V. G. Bower). Wiltshire 15.5.1914 — Fordingbridge, Hampshire 12.11.1988. British Anthropologist. Daughter of Commander John Graham Bower (1886–1940) of Royal Navy and Doris Violet Coghlan White (1893–1985). Educated at Roedean School, but family difficulties prevented planned studies of archaeology at Oxford. First visit to…
BERTRAND, Gabrielle. Reims 29.3.1908 — Paris 16.2.1961. French Traveller, Reporter, Writer and Photographer. Of Lorraine, lost her father in WW I. Studied at a hospital in Paris, but did not pass medical examination. Then she worked in various tasks and decided to become reporter. In 1933-35 travelled in North Africa,…