Author Archives: imre

An English boy in Chinese Turkestan

I just received a hard copy of this paper and am putting it up a PDF so it is more accessible. The paper is about the young English boy who travelled with Tachibana Zuicho to Western China in 1910 on … Continue reading

Posted in 20th century, archaeology, exploration, History of scholarship, Japanese, Otani expeditions, published papers, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Consistency in Tangut translations of Chinese military texts

This is an article that came out recently: Galambos, Imre. “Consistency in Tangut Translations of Chinese Military Texts“. In: Irina Popova ed., Tanguty v Tsentral’noj Azii: Sbornik stat’ej v chest’ 80-letija prof. E. I. Kychanova [Tanguts in Central Asia: a collection … Continue reading

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Odd variants in a Buddhist manuscript

There is a Dunhuang copy of the Da fangbian Fo baoenjing 大方便佛報恩經 (The sutra of requiting kindness) at the National Library of China (shelfmark BD01534) which has a number of interesting character variants. One of them is the character 爾 … Continue reading

Posted in Character variants, Chinese writing, Dating, Dunhuang, Orthography, Palaeography, Scribal habits | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Aurel Stein’s visit to Japan

Galambos, Imre. “Sir Aurel Stein’s visit to Japan His diary and notebook.” In Helen Wang, ed., Sir Aurel Stein: Colleagues and collections. British Museum Research Publication 184 (2012): 1-9. This paper is based on Aurel Stein’s diary and notebook he kept while travelling in … Continue reading

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Grid lines in medieval Chinese scrolls: Functionality or design?

Medieval manuscript scrolls are often ruled with grid lines to guide the hand of the calligrapher. These lines are a basic feature of most standard Buddhist and Taoist scrolls, which typically have 17 characters per line and 27-28 (or 31) … Continue reading

Posted in archaeology, Chinese writing, Dunhuang, epigraphy, Palaeography, Scribal habits | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

An unrecognized photo of Aurel Stein

Last week we went down for a few days to the south of Hungary and while there I wanted to see at a village called Gádoros, near Orosháza, the “museum” of Zsigmond Justh (1863-1894), a talented Hungarian writer who died … Continue reading

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Manuscripts and Travellers in your local bookstore

Sam van Schaik and Imre Galambos, Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012). Our book is finally out. It all started about 5 years ago when Sam asked me if I wanted to join … Continue reading

Posted in archaeology, Aurel Stein, books, Dunhuang, Palaeography, published papers, Scribal habits, Tibetan, Travel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Manuscripts of translations made from printed texts

Recently a 16-volume publication came out with “rare and precious” (guji zhenben 古籍珍本) travel manuscripts in the collection of the National Library of China (NLC). Having flipped through the volumes, I was surprised to find a text titled Xiongyali youji 匈牙利游記 (Record … Continue reading

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The beginnings of Tibetan studies: Denison Ross and Alexander Csoma de Kőrös

This is an article of mine that has just come out: Imre Galambos. “‘Touched a nation’s heart’: Sir E. Denison Ross and Alexander Csoma de Kőrös.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 21, No. 3 (July 2011): 361-375. Read … Continue reading

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The earliest Chinese manuscript corrections

The Houma covenant texts (Houma mengshu 侯馬盟書) are a large group of jade and stone tablets from the early 5th century BC. Accordingly, they are 2,500 years old and were written approximately during the last years of the life of Confucius. … Continue reading

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