CABRAL, João. Cerolico/Guarda 1599/1601 — Goa 4.7.1669. S.J. Portuguese Missionary in India and Ladakh. From Celorico (Beira). Jesuit since 1619 (novice 1615), studied in Braga (1619-21) and Coimbra (1621-23), in 1624 to India. In 1626 he was sent together with —> E. Cacella to Shigatse (arrived in 1627 via Bhutan,…
BUSHELL, Stephen Wootton. Ash-next-Sandwich, Kent 28.7.1844 — Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex 19.9.1908. British Physician in China, a Sinologist and early Specialist of Chinese Art. Son of William Bushell, a wealthy farmer, and Sarah Francis Wootton (d. 1850). Educated in Tunbridge and Chigwell. Studies at Guy’s Hospital and London University,…
BOWER, Hamilton St.Clair. Portsea Island, Hampshire 1.9.1858 — North Berwick, East Lothian 5.3.1940. Sir. British (Scottish) Colonial Officer and Traveller in Central Asia. Son of Admiral James Paterson Bower (1806–1889) and Barbara Hickson (from Ireland). Educated in Edinburgh and at Royal Naval School. Served in British India from 1884. As…
BONARDI, Mario. Rome 29.5.1914 — 14.6.1954. Italian Indologist (Buddhist scholar). Studied in Rome and graduated as a teacher of Greek and Latin, at the same time studied Sanskrit and Tibetan under Formichi and Tucci. Specially interested in Tantric Buddhism. In 19?? Ph.D. with an unpublished dissertation on the Hevajrapradīpa. Worked…
BOGOSLOVSKIJ, Vasilij Alekseevič. Moscow 20.1.1932 — 25.4.1986. Russian Tibetologist. Son of a public servant. Studies at the Hist. Faculty of Moscow University, graduated 1954. Kand. ist. nauk 1961. Naučnyj sotrudnik at the Oriental Institute 1957-67, from 1968 at the Institut Dal’nego Vostoka in Moscow. Publications: At least 30 items, i.a.:…
BOGLE, George. Daldowie on Clyde near Glasgow 26.11.1746 — Calcutta 3.4.1781. British (Scottish) Traveller and Diplomat. Youngest son of George Bogle (1700–1784), an important Glasgow merchant, and Ann Sinclair, mother died when he was 17. Educated at Haddington, Glasgow, then at Edinburgh University. After four years in family business joined…
BLEICHSTEINER, Robert. Vienna 6.1.1891 — Vienna 10.4.1954. Austrian Linguist, Scholar of Iranian and Caucasian Languages and Ethnology, later also of Mongolian and Tibetan. Son of Josef Ludwig Bleichsteiner. School and studies in Vienna. Ph.D. 1913 Vienna, then worked in a library. From 1922 PD for Caucasian Linguistics at Vienna, tit.…
BLAVATSKY, Helena Petrovna (née Hahn, Russian Jelena Petrovna Blavatskaja, née Gan). Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro in Ukraine) 12.8.1831 — London 9.5.1891. Russian Noblewoman, the Founder of the Theosophical Society. Born in Ukraina as daughter of colonel Peter Hahn, of a noble family of Mecklenburg settled in Russia. Married at 17 a…
BIČURIN, Iakinf (Hyacinth, originally Nikita Jakovlevič). Akulevo, Tsivil’skij district, Kazan Province 29.8.1777* — St.Petersburg 11.5.1853. Russian (Čuvaš) Monk, Orthodox Priest, Sinologist and Central Asian Scholar. Son of Jakov, a deacon, and Akelina Stepanovna. From 1786 studied theology and languages at Kazan Ecclesiastical Academy, graduated 1799, then lecturer there. Ordained as…
GIUSEPPE MARIA DA GARGNANO (Iosephus Maria a Gargnano; lay Bernardino Bernini). Gargnano near Brescia (then Venetian Republic) 2.9.1709 (hardly 1711) — Bettia in Bihar Terai 15.1.1761. Count. Italian Missionary in Tibet. Son of Count Giuseppe De Bernini and Giovanna De’ Bettoni, partly grew up in Vienna. Joined the Capuchin order…