page_title: Sándor Kőrösi Csoma
section_title: Middle East, Central Asia
hierarchical_section_title: Sándor Kőrösi Csoma / Biography / Middle East, Central Asia
caption_attribution_description: Magyar: Kőrösi Csoma Sándor szobra Pécsen. Antal Károly (1909–1994) alkotása (1968)
context_page_description: Sándor Csoma de Kőrös was a Hungarian philologist and Orientalist, author of the first Tibetan–English dictionary and grammar book. He was called Phyi-glin-gi-grwa-pa in Tibetan, meaning "the foreign pupil", and was declared a bosatsu or bodhisattva by the Japanese in 1933. He was born in Kőrös, Grand Principality of Transylvania. His birth date is often given as 4 April, although this is actually his baptism day and the year of his birth is debated by some authors who put it at 1787 or 1788 rather than 1784. The Magyar ethnic group, the Székelys, to which he belonged believed that they were derived from a branch of Attila's Huns who had settled in Transylvania in the fifth century. Hoping to study the claim and to find the place of origin of the Székelys and the Magyars by studying language kinship, he set off to Asia in 1820 and spent his lifetime studying the Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy. Csoma de Kőrös is considered as the founder of Tibetology. He was said to have been able to read in seventeen languages. He died in Darjeeling while attempting to make a trip to Lhasa in 1842 and a memorial was erected in his honour by the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
context_section_description: Csoma de Kőrös arrived in Edirne (Adrianopolis) and he wished to go from there to Constantinople but was forced by a plague outbreak to move to Enos. He left Enos on 7 February 1820 and reached Alexandria on a Greek ship. He reached on the last day of February but had to leave soon due to a plague epidemic. He boarded a Syrian ship to Larnaca in Cyprus and then took another ship to Tripoli and Latakia. From here he travelled on foot and reached Aleppo in Syria on 13 April. He left on 19 May, joining various caravans and by raft along the river going through Urfa, Mardin and Mosul to arrive in Baghdad on 22 July. He wrote to the British resident Mr. Rich and sought help in his travels. He was provided a European dress and money through a Hungarian friend Mr. Swoboda with whom he stayed. He left Baghdad on 4 September and travelled with a caravan through Kermanshah and Hamadan and reached Tehran on 14 October 1820. He sought help from Henry Willock who made it possible for him to stay on for about four months. He left Tehran on 1 March 1821, leaving behind his passport and papers and changing from a European costume to a Persian one apart from writing notes in Hungarian which were to be passed on in the event that he died on his way to Bukhara. He reached Meshed on 18 April and due to the troubles in the area he could not continue until 20 October. He reached Bukhara on 18 November. He initially intended to spend the winter in Bukhara but fearing the Russian army he left after five days and joined a caravan that passed through Balk, Kulm, and Bamian to reach Kabul on 6 January 1822. He left Kabul on 19 January and headed towards Peshawar. On 26 January he met two French officers at Daka, Messrs. Allard and Ventura, who joined him to Lahore. He reached Lahore on 11 March and left on the 23rd passing through Amritsar, Jammu to reach Kashmir on 17 April. Finding company to travel with he left on 9 May to reach Leh on 9 June. Finding the route to Yarkand risky, he decided to return to Lahore and on the way to Kashmir, on 16 July 1822 he met William Moorcroft, the famous English explorer. He decided to stay on with Moorcroft and joined him to Leh. Here Moorcroft introduced Csoma to George Trebeck. He also lent Csoma a copy of Alphabetum Tibetanum by Agostino Antonio Giorgi. He also helped Moorcroft by translating a Russian letter (from Count Nesselrode Petersburgh dated 17 January 1820) addressed to Ranjeet Singh into Latin. Before Moorcroft left Leh, Csoma requested him that he wished to stay on with Trebeck in Leh. He then joined Trebeck back to Srinagar on 26 November. He stayed on here for five months and six days during which time he took an interest in the Tibetan language and discussed with Moorcroft an interest in examining the contents of the books found in the local monasteries.
caption: Statue of Alexander Csoma de Koros riding a yak
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