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,…
WILLIAM OF RUBRUCK (Guglielmus de Rubruquis, Willem van Ruysbroeck, Risbroucke). 1215/20 — after 1255. Flemish Traveller, a Franciscan Monk. Probably born in Rubrouck in French Flanders. Head of the embassy sent by Louis IX of France to the Mongol Khan in order to win him into Christianity. Departing in April…
WALDSCHMIDT, Ernst Heinrich Franz. Lünen, Westfalen 15.7.1897 — Göttingen 25.2.1985. German Indologist and Buddhist Scholar. Professor in Göttingen. Son of Ernst W., 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 1915…
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…
PETROVSKIJ, Nikolaj Fëdorovič. 30.11.(12.12.)1837 — Taškent 19.11.(2.12.)1908. Russian Diplomat and Central Asian Scholar. After an early military career he joined in 1861 Finance Department and in 1870 Foreign Department. He was Russian Consul in Kashgar in 1882-1904 (from 1895 General Consul) and an eager antiquarian, who donated his big collection…
VOROB’EV-DESJATOVSKIJ, Vladimir Svjatoslavovič. Tver 3.10.1927 — Leningrad 2.7.1956. Russian Indologist. Son of an official. After the 9th school class joined the army and served in 1944-45 in Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Disbanded in 1945 he concluded his school education and studied at the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad University Indology (specially Sanskrit,…