Category Archives: History of scholarship

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 role of A. O. Hobbs in the third Otani expedition

Putting my earlier articles online: An English participant in the Japanese exploration of Central Asia: The role of A. O. Hobbs in the third Otani expedition (Imre Galambos) In I. F. Popova, ed., Russian Expeditions to Central Asia at the … Continue reading

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A Hungarian Visitor Among the Ainu

Putting some of my older publications online: A Hungarian Visitor Among the Ainu: A Translation of Benedek Baráthosi-Balogh’s Travel Reports to Sakhalin and Hokkaido (Imre Galambos) Japanese Religions, Vol. 33, 1&2 (2008): 55-74 Benedek Baráthosi-Balogh (1870-1945) was a public school … Continue reading

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Sir Aurel Stein, Lajos Ligeti and a case of mistaken identity

Putting online some of my older publications: Another Hungarian looting China’s treasures? Sir Aurel Stein, Lajos Ligeti and a case of mistaken identity (Imre Galambos) Tonkō shahon kenkyū nenpō 敦煌写本研究年報, no. 4 (March 2010): 195-207. The voluminous publication Zhonghua minguo … Continue reading

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Chinese seals in Ireland

Putting online some of my older publications: The story of the Chinese seals found in Ireland (Imre Galambos) Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 18, 4 (2008), pp. 465-479. In 1850, a paper was read before the Royal … Continue reading

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Aurel Stein – Flowers to Lajos Lóczy

Last summer we were at Lake Balaton in western Hungary and decided to take a day trip to the Balatonarács cemetery to visit the grave of the famous Hungarian explorer and geologist Lajos Lóczy (1849-1920). In the West, he is … Continue reading

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Denison Ross and the Tibetan monks in London

While in Shanghai, I also visited the Xujiahui branch of the Shanghai Library, where they have old western books and newspapers. This is the old Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei with an amazing architecture and equally impressive holdings of books. I spent some … Continue reading

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Impossible dates in manuscripts

Every now and then we come across impossible dates in Chinese manuscripts and inscriptions, which refer to years in reign periods that never existed. The common explanation for these is that the place where the manuscript was written was remote … Continue reading

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A mysterious manuscript about the discovery of Dunhuang manuscripts

The mysterious manuscript referred to in the title is a little notebook written in a cursive caoshu hand and is currently located at the Gansu Provincial Library. The title Dunhuang xianhua 敦煌闲话 (Idle Chat about Dunhuang) is included in the notebook so … Continue reading

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Chinese books, starting at the end

William B. Langdon’s catalogue of Nathan Dunn’s Chinese collection (A Descriptive Catalogue of the Chinese Collection, Now Exhibiting at St. George’s Place, Hyde Park Corner, London 1843) has been one of the best-sellers of its time, selling about a 100,000 copies. … Continue reading

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