BLONAY, Godefroy Jean Henry Louis de, baron. Niederschoenthal, Füllingsdorf (Basel-Land) 25.7.1869 — Biskra, Algeria 14.2.1937. Swiss Indologist. Born in his father’s (baron Gustave Louis de Blonay, 1830–1900) castle, Château de Grandson, in an old Vaudian family, whose ancestor had founded the castle of Blonay in Vaud in c. 1175, his…
BLOCH, Ernst Theodor. Christiansfeld, Schleswig (now Slesvig, Denmark) 8.5.1867 — Calcutta 20.10.1909. German Indologist. Born as the son of a dyer master, Bernhard Bloch, in the Herrnhutian colony of Christiansfeld in the then German North Schleswig, went there to school. In 1880-82 at Unitätsanstalt and 1882-87 at Pädagogium of the…
BLEICHSTEINER, Robert. Vienna 6.1.1891 — Vienna 10.4.1954. Austrian Anthropologist and Linguist, Scholar of Iranian and Caucasian Languages and Ethnology, later also of Mongolian and Tibetan. Son of Josef Ludwig Bleichsteiner (1859–1914) and Josefine Klinger. School and studies in Vienna (M. Bittner, L. von Schroeder, B. Geiger). Ph.D. 1913 Vienna, then…
BIRD, James. 1797 — Gerrard Cross, Buckinghamshire 10.7.1864. British Physician in India interested in Archaeology, Epigraphy and Numismatics. Educated from 1810 at King’s College, Aberdeen, M.A. 1814, then at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals. Dr. med. 1816. From 1818 served in Bombay Presidency, first as assistant surgeon. In 1826-32 residency…
BIGANDET, Paul-Ambroise. Malans (Doubs) 13.8.1813 — Rangoon 19.4.1894. Father. French Catholic Missionary and Buddhist Scholar. Fifty years in Burma. Son of Jean-Antoine Bigandet (1761–1839) and Jeanne Cornu. Educated in Besançon and at the seminary of Missions Etrangères in Paris (two years there). In 1837 ordained as priest and sent as…
BIČURIN, Iakinf (Hyacinth, Chin. Yíāqīntè Bǐqiūlí, originally Nikita Jakovlevič Bičurin). Akulevo, Tsivil’skij district, Kazan Province 29.8.(19.9.)1777 — St.Petersburg 11.(23.)5.1853. Russian (Čuvaš) Monk, Orthodox Priest, Sinologist and Central Asian Scholar. Son of Jakov, a deacon, and Akulina Stepanovna. From 1786 studied theology and languages at Kazan Ecclesiastical Academy, graduated 1799, then…
BERTHOLET(-SCHMID), Alfred Robert Felix. Basel 9.11.1868 — Münsterlingen, Thurgau 24.8.1951. Swiss Reformed Theologian and Scholar of Comparative Religion in Germany. Professor in Göttingen and Berlin. Son of David Felix Bertholet (1830–1906), a school director, and Sabine Wagner (1841–1894). Studies of Theology at Basel, also briefly at Strassburg (Nöldeke) and Berlin…
BERNHARD, Franz. Schweidnitz in Silesia (now Świdnica in Poland) 31.5.1931 — Mustang/Nepal 5.9.1971. German Indologist. Professor in Hamburg. Son of a butcher from Silesia. Studiedin 1952-60 at Göttingen classical philology, Indology (under W. Thomas and Waldschmidt), IE, and even Finno-Ugric philology. Ph.D. 1958 Göttingen. In 1956-60 worked at Tübingen University…
BERNET KEMPERS, August Johan. ’s-Hertogenbosch 7.10.1906 — Arnhem 2.5.1992. Dutch Art Historian and South-East Asian Scholar, long time in Indonesia. Son of Karel Jan Willem Bernet Kempers (1867–1945), a notary, and Anna Geertruide Sara Wilhelmina ten Doesschate (1874–1933). After school in Middelburg studies of Indo-Iranian and Indonesian from 1926 at…
BERNARD, Theos Casimir Hamati (“Oom the Omnipotent”). Pasadena, Los Angeles 10.12.1908 — Kosar, Pakistan ?.9.1947. U.S. Bauddha and Yogi. Son of Glen Agassiz Bernard and Aura Georgina Crable (1878–1940), nephew of the yogi Pierre Arnold Bernard (born P. A. Baker, 1875–1955). After parents’ divorce grew up with his mother in…