LANGLÈS, Louis-Mathieu. Perenne (Welles-Pérennes) near St.Didier (Montdidier, Oise) 23.8.1763 — Paris 28.5.(28.1.?)1824. French Oriental (especially Persian) Scholar. Son of a farmer, according to his own claim, of local gentry. Joined the army, but was sickly and quitted after the disappointment of being not sent to India and went to Paris.…
SCHOTT, Wilhelm Christian. Mainz 3.9.1807 — Berlin 21.1.1889. German Fenno-Ugric and Central Asian Scholar, and Sinologist. Son of merchant Johann Wilhelm Schott and Elisabeth Wahl. Started as theology student at Giessen in 1819-21, but then switched to Oriental languages and studied them at Halle, first Arabic (Ph.D. 1823), soon also…
STAËL-HOLSTEIN, Alexander Wilhelm, Baron von (Aleksandr Avgustovič fon Stal’-Gol’štejn). Waist, Livonia (now Tõstamaa in SW Estonia) 20.12.1876 (1.1.1877) — Peiping (Peking) 16.3.1937. Russian/Estonian (German of Livonia) Indologist and Buddhist Scholar, after the revolution in China. Professor in Beijing. Born in a family of Livonian German nobility, son of August, Baron von…
SPECHT, Edouard Prosper Emmanuel. Paris 26.2.1843 — Paris 2.3.1906. French Sinologist. Student of Pauthier. From 1892 until death taught Chinese at É.P.H.É., Section des sciences historiques et philologiques. As a Sinologist he concentrated on works dealing with India or translated from Sanskrit. He was one of those who tried to…
SOPER, Alexander Coburn, III. Chicago 18.2.1904 — Rosemont, PA 12/13.1.1993. U.S. Art Historian. Son of Alexander Coburn Soper Jr. (1872–1930) and Bertha G. Dunlop (1876–1952). Graduated B.A. 1925 from Hamilton College and studied architecture at Princeton (M.A. 1929). In 1935-38 living in Japan studying local art and architecture. Ph.D. 1944…
SOOTHILL, William Edward. Halifax, Yorkshire 23.1.1861 — Oxford 13.5.1935. Rev. British Missionary in China, then Sinologist and Buddhist Scholar. Son of William Soothill, a textile worker. Studies at London University. Ordained priest 1882. In 1882–1911 Wesleyan Missionary in China, first in Wenzhou and in the end (1907-11) as Director of…
ROZENBERG, Otton Ottonovič (Otto Karl Julius Rosenberg). Friedrichstadt, Kurland (Jaunjelgava, Latvia) 7.7.1888 — Tallinn 26.11.1919. Russian (Baltic German) Buddhologist and Sinologist. Son of city archivist Otto R. and Augusta Weidenbaum. Grew up and matriculated (1905) in St.Petersburg. Studied Sanskrit (under Ščerbatskoj) and Chinese at St.Petersburg, graduated 1910. Further studies at…
ROCKHILL, William Woodville. Philadelphia, Pa. 1.4.1854 — Honolulu 8.12.1914. U.S. Diplomat, Traveller, Sinologist and Tibetan Scholar. Son of Thomas Cadwalader Rockhill (1819–1871) and Dorothea Anne Woodville (1823–1913). Lost his father when 13 (but ancestors.familysearch.org claims he died 19.2.1854) and the mother settled in Paris to avoid the Civil War. Studies…
ROBINSON, Richard H. Carstairs, Alberta 21.6.1926 — Madison 6.8.1970. Canadian Buddhist Scholar in the U.S.A. Professor in Madison. Son of a farmer, of Scottish-Irish ancestry. Educated in Carstairs, learned Chinese from a Chinese friend. In 1944-47 studies of economics, French and German at University of Alberta (B.A. 1947), then Chinese,…
RAHDER, Johannes. Loeboeg Begalong (Lubuk Begalung), Sumatra 27.12.1898 — 3.3.1988. Dutch Japanologist and Buddhist Scholar in the U.S.A. Born in Indonesia where his father was the governor of Western Sumatra. Studies in 1917-24 at Leiden, then 1924-28 at Brussels (La Vallée Poussin) and Paris (Pelliot). Ph.D. 1926 Utrecht (under Caland).…