DICKSON, John Frederick. Harmondsworth, Middlesex 17.9.1835 — Paddington, London 21.12.1891. Sir. British Civil Servant and Pāli Scholar in Sri Lanka. Son of Robert Dickson (1805–1875), a physician, and Mary Ann Coope (1807–1875). Educated in Westminster and studied from 1855 at Christ Church, Oxford. Graduated B.A. in 1859 and joined colonial…
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…
DENIS, Eugène. Corps-Nuds, Brittany 2.2.1921 — Bangkok 11.12.1986. S.J. Father. French Missionary and Pāli Scholar in Thailand. Grew up in a deeply Catholic family. After seminary in Rennes became Jesuit novice in Laval. In 1948 sent to China, learned the language but was soon expulsed by communists in 1951. Ordained…
DEMIÉVILLE, Paul Henri. Lausanne 13.9.1894 — Paris 23.3.1979. French (born Swiss) Sinologist and Buddhist scholar. French citizen 1931. Professor in Paris. Son of Paul Demiéville (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,…
DE LORENZO, Giuseppe Giovanni Angelo. Lagonegro, Potenza 24.4.1871 — Naples 27.6.1957. Italian Scientist and Bauddha. Professor of Geology in Naples. Born in Southern Italy, son of Lorenzo De Lorenzo and Carolina Rinaldi. After studies at Naples became in 1897 PD and 1905 Professor of Geology and Physical Geography there. Retired…
DE GUBERNATIS, Giuseppe Angelo. Turin 7.4.1840 — Rome 26.12.1913. Count. Italian Indologist. Professor in Florence and Rome. Born in a noble family, son of Giambattista De Gubernatis (d. 1867), a revenue official, and Maria Cleofe Turchetti; his brother was the diplomat and geographer Enrico De Gubernatis (1836–1914), his sister the educator…
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 (1815–1904), a huguenot freemason and ardent republican, also a journalist and teacher, and Alexandrine Borleman, a Catholic Belgian. From 1873 grew up in Belgium.…
DAUMAL, René. Boulzicourt (Ardennes) 16.3.1908 — Paris 21.5.1944. French Poet interested in India. Son of anticlerical socialist teacher Lon Daumal. Educated at Lycée de Reims and Lycée Henri-IV, studies at Sorbonne. Born in rural milieu he became a socialist and active anticlerical, but at the same time he was also…
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…
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…