SHAW, Robert Barkley. Upper Clapton, London 12.7.1839 — Mandalay, Burma 15.6.1879. British Traveller in Central Asia, then Civil Servant in Burma. Son of Robert Grant Shaw and Martha Barkley. “Educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge, became a tea-planter in Kangra. Travelled in 1868 as a merchant to Eastern Turkestan,…
WOLFF, Joseph. Weilersbach near Bamberg 1795 — Isle Brewers, Somerset 2.5.1862. Rev. German Priest, Oriental Scholar and Traveller in Central Asia. Born in a Jewish family, his father David Wolff was a rabbi, his mother was Sarah. Educated in Stuttgart and Bamberg. After conversion to Catholic Christianity near Prague in…
WILLIAM OF RUBRUCK (Guglielmus de Rubruquis, Guillaume de Rubrouck, Willem van Ruysbroeck, Risbroucke). 1215/20 — after 1255. Flemish Traveller, a Franciscan Monk. Probably born in Rubrouck in French Flanders. In 1248 participated in the 7th Crusade. Head of the embassy sent by Louis IX of France to the Mongol Khan…
WARNER, Langdon. Cambridge, Mass. 1.8.1881 — ibid. 9.6.1955. U.S. Art Historian and Central Asian Explorer. Son of advocate Joseph Bangs Warner (1848–1923) and Margret Woodbury Storer. Educated at Harvard College (A.B. 1903). Participated in Pumpelly–Carnegie Expedition to Trans-Caspia in 1904-05. In 1906-13 Assistant Curator of Oriental Art in Museum of…
WALDSCHMIDT, Ernst Heinrich Franz. Lünen, Westfalen 15.7.1897 — Göttingen 25.2.1985. German Indologist and Buddhist Scholar. Professor in Göttingen. Son of Ernst Waldschmidt, a bookbinder and merchant, and Elise Goormann, the father died two months before his birth. Grew up with his mother and her parents in Lünen near Dortmund. Matriculated…
ROWLAND, Benjamin, Jr. Overbrook near Philadelphia 2.12.1904 — Cambridge Mass. 3.10.1972. U.S. Art Historian. Professor in Cambridge, Mass. Educated at St.Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., studies at Harvard (S.B. 1928, M.A. 1929). Ph.D. 1930 Harvard. Then teaching at Harvard: 1930-41 Instructor and Tutor, 1941-50 Associate Professor and 1950-72 Professor (Gleason…
TOL’STOV, Sergej Pavlovič. St.Petersburg 12.(25.)1.1907 — Moscow 28.12.1976. Russian Archaeologist and Central Asian (Turkmenian) Scholar. Son of an officer, Pavel Sergeevič Tol’stov (1878–1916) and Maria Ivanovna Badaeva (1881–1924). Graduated 1930 from Moscow University, in history. Dr. ist. nauk & Professor 1943. In 1926-29 naučnyj sotrudnik in Moscow Museum and 1929-36…
THOMAS, Frederick William. Wilnecote, Tamworth, Staffordshire 21.3.1867 — Branburg, Oxfordshire 6.5.1956. British Indologist. Professor in Oxford. Son of coal mine clerk Frederick Thomas (1834–1890) and Frances Blayney, educated at King Edward’s School in Birmigham. Studied at Cambridge classics and Indology (under Cowell), graduated B.A. 1885. From 1892 Fellow of Trinity…
POUCHA, Pavel. Vienna 29.12.1905 — Prague 15.1.1986. Czech Indo-Iranian, Mongolian and Tocharian Scholar. Son of tailot František Poucha. After early years in Vienna, where his parents lived for a while, he came in the age of seven to Neuhaus (now Jindřichův Hradec in Southern Bohemia) and attended classical gymnasium there.…
POHRT, Hermann. 18?? — 19??. German Traveller. Dr. Participated as Grünwedel’s Assistant in the Turfan expedition in 1906-08. He spoke Chinese. There is one H.P., a lawyer, who served in WW I as fighter pilot and in 1919 moved from Berlin to Rheinsberg. He knew Göring and other Nazis and…