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…
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…
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…
BELL, Charles Alfred. Calcutta 31.10.1870 — Oak Bay, Victoria, B.C. 8.3.1945. Sir. British Tibetan Scholar, Traveller, and Civil Servant in India. Born as a son of a civil servant (in India) Henry Bell and his wife Anne. Educated at Winchester College, studies at Oxford (New College). In 1891 joined Indian…
BECKH, Christoph Eugen Hermann. Nürnberg 4.5.1875 — Stuttgart 1.3.1937. German Indologist and Tibetan Scholar, later turned into Anthroposophist Priest. Son of a factory owner, Heinrich Eugen Beckh (1848–1920), and Marie Eleonore Katharine Seiler (1853–1943). Studied economy and law at the Maximilianeum of Munich until 1896 and worked as assessor, but…
BAYER, Theophilus (Gottlieb) Siegfried. Königsberg 5/6.1.1694 — St.Petersburg 10.2.1738. German Orientalist and Historian, from Königsberg, was elected to the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences and moved to St.Petersburg. In Russian his name is variously spelled as Beer, Beèr, and Bajer’. Son of painter Johann Friedrich Bayer (1670– after 1738) and…
BARUCH, Willy. Herford, Kr. Detmold 1900 — Montfavet, Avignon ?.3.1954. German Indologist, Sinologist, Tibetan, Buddhist and Central Asian Scholar in France. Born of a Jewish family in Westfalen. Studies at Berlin and Leipzig, student of Lüders and F. Weller, then of Kirfel at Bonn. Ph.D. 1937 Bonn. Leaving Germany he…
BARBORKA, Geoffrey Avery. Chicago 6.9.1897 — 30.9.1982. U.S. Theosophist. Son of Vaclav Barborka (d. 1946), a Theosophist, musician and freemason with Czechoslovakian origin, and Bozena Peshek, from 1900 grew up in Theosophical headquarters in Point Loma, California. High School and College there, graduated 1920, then studies at the local Theosophical…
BARADIJN, Badzar Baradinevič. v Mogojtuj Aginsk. ajmaka 16.6.(28.6.)1878 — 24.8.1937. Russian (Buriat) Buddhist, Tibetan and Mongolian scholar. Born in a herder family. Graduated 1905 at St.Petersburg. In 1905-07 further studies in Tibet. In 1908-17 taught at Oriental Faculty, St.Petersburg, then 1917-23 at intermediate school in Ulan-Ude. In 1923-35 chairman of…
BAKTAY, Ervin (Erwin, to 1925 Baktay-Gottesmann). Dunaharaszti 24.6.1890 — Budapest 7.5.1963 (when 73). Hungarian Art Historian. Son of Raoul Gottesmann (d. 1905) and Antonia Levys-Martinfalvy. Originally intended to become a painter, he studied in Munich under Simon Hollósy, whose brother Joszef was one of the first in Hungary to be…