ARIS, Michael Vaillancourt. Havana, Cuba 7.3.1946 — Oxford 27.3.1999. British Tibetan Scholar, Specialist of Bhutan. Son of English father (John Arundel Aris, a British Council Officer) and Canadian French mother (Josette Vaillancourt), one of identical twins (brother Anthony Aris). Educated at Worth School in Sussex, then studied modern history at…
AMUNDSEN, Edward (Norwegian Edvard A.). Kirkeholmen, Vestre Kragerø 27.1.1873 — Larvik 21.11.1928. Norwegian Missionary and Tibetan Scholar. Born in a strictly religious home, son of Amund Hergen and Anne Amundsdatter, he decided early to become a missionary. After being ordained in 1893, he went to England and joined the new…
ABEGG, Emil. Küsnacht near Zürich 11.1.1885 — Zürich 12.2.1962. Swiss Indologist. Professor in Zürich. Son of merchant Emil Abegg (d. 1894) and Fanny Guggenbühl, school and teacher’s college in Küsnacht. Learned Sanskrit first by himself, then from 1904 studied Germanistics, psychology, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit (under Kaegi) at Zürich University.…
AALTO, Pentti. Pori 22.7.1917 — Helsinki 30.11.1998. Finnish Classical Scholar, Linguist, Altaist and Indologist. Son of shop assistant Martti Johannes Aalto and Martta Elisabeth Lindroos. Matriculation from Porin lyseo in 1935, then studies of comparative, oriental and classical philology at Helsinki University: M.A. 1939, Lic. Phil. 1949, Ph.D. 1949. During…