EKVALL, Robert Brainerd. Minion (Min), Kansu 18.2.1898 — King county, Wash. ?.5.1978. U.S. Missionary and Tibetan Scholar. Born in China as a son of a Scottish missionary family, David Paul Ekvall and Helen Galbraith. After his father’s death in 1912 came with his mother to the U.S.A. and graduated from…
DUTREUIL DE RHINS, Jules-Léon. Saint-Étienne (Loire) 2.1.1846 — Tong-mbon-ndo in Kham 5.6.1894. French Marine Officer, Cartographer, Traveller and Explorer. Son of Jean-Denis Dutreuil de Rhins (1816–1872) and Jeanne Félicité Blondart. Born in the Loire area, educated at École navale. Joined first the merchant navy, soon moved to military navy. In…
DURR, Jacques Alfred. 1891 — 1982. French (or Swiss?) Indologist and Tibetologist. In Paris (1948), later (1958) in Germany. Married Annelise Maria Margaret Kiene-Kaiser. Publications: “Matériaux pour servir à une étude comparative des langues sino-tibéto-birmanes basée sur l’interprétation des faits de langue tibétain”, Actes du XXIe Congrès intern. des Orientalistes,…
DOMENICO DA FANO (Dominicus a Fano,lay Francesco Magnani). 1674 — 1728. Father. Italian Capuchin Missionary, in Tibet in 1706-11and 1716-25, with interval in Europe. He was the Head of the Capuchin Mission in Lhasa, until his death, when he was succeeded by —> Orazio Della Penna. Started the quarrel against…
DESIDERI, Ippolito. Pistoia, Tuscany 21.12.1684 — Rome 14.8.1733. S.J. Italian Missionary and a Pioneer of Tibetology, in Tibet in 1715-21, in India 1714-15, 1721-27, last years in Rome. Son of Iacopo D. and Maria Maddalena Cappellini, a patrician family, educated at Jesuit school in Pistoia. Joined Jesuits in 1700 and…
DESGODINS, Auguste. Manheulles (Meuse) 16.10.1826 — Padang (Pedong) near Darjeeling 14.3.1913. Father. French Missionary and Tibetan Scholar. Son of Charles Michel François Desgodins, an officer, and Marie Joséphine de Roton. Studied theology in the seminaries of Verdun and Saint-Sulpice, ordained priest in 1850. After a few years as priest in…
DEMIÉVILLE, Paul Henri. Lausanne 13.9.1894 — Paris 23.3.1979. French (born Swiss) Sinologist and Buddhist scholar. Professor in Paris. Son of Paul D. (1855–1947, Professor of Medicine at Lausanne) and Annette Manuel. After gymnasium in Bern studied history of music and Russian at Munich, London, Edinburgh and Paris, dr. degree in…
DAVID-NÉEL, Alexandra (née Louise Eugènie Alexandrine Marie David). St.Mandé (Seine) 24.10.1868 — Digne (Basses-Alpes) 8.9.1969. French Bauddha and Traveller. The only child of Louis Pierre David, a huguenot freemason and ardent republican, also a journalist and teacher , and Alexandrine Borleman, a Catholic Belgian. From 1873 grew up in Belgium.…
DANTINNE, Jean. Liège 1930 — 1996. Belgian Buddhist Scholar (Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan). Studies of Buddhist philology, Chinese and Japanese at Louvain (Leuven, i.al. under Lamotte) 1964-66, also Indology at Liège. From 1975 Lecturer in Modern and Classical Chinese at Liège, then Professor (?) at Louvain-la-neuve (1983). But if he was…
DANDARON, Bidija Dandarovič. Kižinga, Buryatia 14.12.(28.12.)1914 — Vydrino Camp, Buryatia 26.10.1974. Russian Buryat Lama, Tibetologist and Buddhist Scholar. Son of Dorži Badmaev, a Tantric practitioner, and Bal’žima Abudueva. Educated in Kižinga and Kjahta, learned early Sanskrit and Tibetan (from his father and from Lama Lubsan Sandan Cydenov). In 1921 he…