AZEVEDO, Francisco de. Lisbon 1578 — Goa 12.8.1660. S.J. Portuguese Missionary in India and Tibet. Came to India as a boy and never returned. Joined S.J. in Goa, when 19. After studies served at Diu (1614) and Rachol, from 1620 Visitor of Monomotapa Mission in South Africa. In 1627 joined…
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, 1917–1989, a British Council Officer) and Canadian French mother (Josette Marie Émilie Vaillancourt, 1917–2009), one of identical twins (brother Anthony Aris, 1046–2015, a publisher specialised in Himalayan and…
AMUNDSEN, Edward (Norwegian Edvard A.). Lille Kirkeholmen, Sannidal 27.1.1873 — Larvik 21.11.1928. Norwegian Lutheran Missionary and Tibetan Scholar. Born in a strictly religious home, son of Amund Claussen Horgen (1840–1900) and Anne Elisabeth Amundsdatter, he decided early to become a missionary. After being ordained in 1893, he went to England…
ABEGG, Emil. Küsnacht near Zürich 11.1.1885 — Zürich 12.2.1962. Swiss Indologist. Professor in Zürich. Son of merchant Emil Abegg (1846–1894) 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. Ph.D.…
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…