Szittyakürt, 1977 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1977-12-01 / 12. szám

July, 1977

TIGHT E*

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THE LEGACY OF ALEXANDER CSOMA DE KŐRÖS

Today when so many Hungarians must live in exile, Körösi Csorna Societies are formed on every continent. His name is a symbol of our roots and his spirit gives us strength to serve our people. Without considering fatigue or danger we will carry his torch forever!

In 1821 the great Hungarian scholar Körösi Csorna Sándor wrote to his friends in Nagyenyed the following:

“Seeing how special our nation is in language, character, and dress in comparison to other European nations; how great an uncertainty rules over the early history, our language’s relation to other languages; furthermore what incorrect views foreign writers have, who neither sufficiently know the nature of our nation’s tongue nor its character or customs, only from similarities of names, they wish to force upon our nation a false origin and history. At last, seeing how lost some of our native scientists are (though they correctly state the language relations) as they followed the directions of foreign writers when judging our nation’s origin and to satisfy my desire as well as to show my love and gratitude toward my nation, without considering fatigue and danger, with the torch that I have lit in Germany, I have left to find the relations of my people.”1

This letter was written in Teheran, one of the many stops during his journey to Tibet. It was a statement of purpose, a reminder for his contemporaries and a testment for future generations. In 1821 Hungary, under the Habsburg rule, was 27 years away from the 1848 Revolution. Searching for the relatives of the Magyars in Asia was not in the interest of the ruling classes. Csorna never asked for their help. He discussed his plans only with close friends and prepared himself to be independent from everyone.

Alexander Csorna was born on April 4, 1784 in the town of Kőrös in Háromszék County in Transsylvania in the southeastern region of Hungary. From early childhood he was regarded as a special child. He was quiet, humble, ambitious and honest beyond reproach. He showed no anger or joy and his self-discipline was so great that later in his life he was admired for it even by his lama masters in Tibet. He was born with the character to fulfill a national destiny! Physically strong, toughened by life in the Catpathian Mountains, he was prepared for later years in the Himalayas. His excellence in school earned him tuition free education in the Kollegium of Nagyenyed. From 1815 to 1818 he studied at Göttingen, Germany, history, anthropology and languages In 1818 he returned from Göttingen to Nagyenyed, and in November 1819 he left the people he loved so much not knowing if he would ever return again.

Csorna followed a systematic pattern well-planned, aware that each step of his journey would bring him new knowledge toward his ultimate goal. Wherever he went first he learned the language and studied the people. He was a Turk in Turkey, an Armenian among the Armenians, became “Skander bég” (Sir Alexander in Moslem) among the Moslems and lived by deep Buddhist philosophy among the Lamas. He lived and dressed like the people. He was one of them. Csoma’s main stop was Tibet. He knew that the language of Tibet was essential for him. Much of the historical and linguistic records of the Turanian people, the role of the

Huns which were lost or forgetten in the West could be found in Tibet since the Buddhist lamas had saved these valuable documents. Furthermore, the language of Tibet was the classical language of ancient history in Asia. The Tibetian language in the East was as important as the Latin language was in the West.

Only 65 years after Körösi Csoma’s death in 1907 another Hungarian scholar, in the service of the British, recovered 25,000 ancient artifacts; scroll’s, paintings, etc. that without a doubt told in detail among other things about the Huns from the time of Attila to Árpád of the Magyars, a span of 600 years.2 This treasure remained buried for almost 900 years and took 5 carts with 24 cases to remove only a portion and cost only 500 Rupias for the British to pay for the materials “that bore true wittness to man’s past.” from the Tunhuang Cave

Temples along the ancient Silk Road in North Western China.

The British and the West, in general, learned soon from Csoma’s investigations and scholarship that opened the door to the East only their intentions were extremely different; just as true science and greedy colonialism are different! Körösi Csoma’s superior mentality (as the YOGA philosophy would

deavors that had even a hint of nationalistic flavor as Körösi Csorna himself found out so frequently.5

When Csorna arrived in India he had a letter of recommandation from a British official, Moorcroft, whom he met in Kashmir and became friend with. Moorcroft relied on Csorna as an interpreter and was sympathetic to him when he saw how dedicated he was to his studies.6 After five months stay with W. Moorcroft, Csorna left for Zangla monastery at Zans-dkar where he met the knowledgeable Sans-RGyas Phun-tshogs Tibetian lama who became Csoma’s teacher and friend. Csorna spent 16 months at Zangla monastery confining himself mostly to an uncomfortably small and cold cell that was poorly lit and vented. Yet in that same cell Csorna managed to further study the Tibetian language, grammar, collected over 30,000 words for his Tibetian-English Dictionary and searched through volumes of religious and historical writings and scrolls.

In 1824 Csorna left Zangla and went to Sabathu, a British-Indian border town, where he was detained for some time by the skeptical British authorities. Csorna became totally subject to the politics of the time and of the place and was forced to offer his scholarly services to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, however they did not show much interest in his work. He was living withdrawn, disinterested in the British social life, waiting for official words for his studies. Repeated appeals to Lord Amherst’s colonial government produced no results. Even though Csorna never asked for more than

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attention of the Colonial Government their dissatisfaction with their scientists’s efforts. Thus, as a result of Klaproth’s criticism and English pride, the Colonial Government could not completely forget Csorna. In 1827 the Government Gazette reported the news that Mr. Csorna de Kőrös, a Hungarian scholar would be supported to complete his Tibetian studies.8 Csorna left Sabathu and went to Kanum. Here he was joined by his Lama teacher Sans-RGyas Phun-tshogs who engaged to remain for two years with him. In 1830 Csorna completed his work and in 1831 he went to Calcutta. Within a year he was ready to publish the following:

Bundles ol scrolls, in the original wrappers were unwrapped for examination after removal

that had protected them for nearly a millennium, from walled-up temple library nt limlntang.

express it: “mono-ideism”) concentrated solely on scholastic matters and historicity with which to best serve his Magyar people.3

In 1822 Csorna set foot in India at the time when British rule already extended over most of that area. The British colonial structure was a commercial enterprize run by the East India Company. Their employees were the mercanery soldiers, adventurers and all sorts of opportunists who came to make their fortune in the colonies. The capital of the British Indian colonies was Calcutta, ruled by a Governor- General, who was appointed by the British Parliament since their Regulation Act of 1773 to oversee all activities.4 Fortunately, besides those who came for money there were also a few English gentlemen who had a genuine interest in knowledge. Thus, scholars like Sir William Jones who was the founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the world’s first Orientalist Institute, made positive contributions to this land. However, the British, like many other European colonizers, jealously guarded and often hindered scholarly ensubsistance level support, this was still less important than all other matters. The event that made Csoma’s circumstances even more difficult was the so-called “Serampore Dictionary” published by the British India Company. Upon H. H. Wilson’s request Csorna had expressed his opinion that in this collection five out of nine words were incorrect.7 In spite of this, without any knowledge of the Tibetian language they translated it from Italian to English and published it. This manuscript was a collection of missionaries who recorded the words for their personal use and not as a scientific study. Csorna was not informed of this publication’s appearance. While he was waiting in Sabathu the Serampore Dictionary had reached Europe as the “pride” of British pioneering in this field. Fortunately H. J. Klaproth, a German orientalist language professor, pointed out the futile British effort to study the Tibetian language in India. The British Indian Company was very disturbed about such a humiliation. The Company’s directors in London brought to the

Essay towards a DICTIONARY TIBETAN AND ENGLISH

prepared

with the assistance of

Bandé Sans-RGyas Phun-tshogs a learned Lama of Zangskar by

ALEXANDER CSOMA DE KÖRÖS Siculo-Hungarian of Transylvania during a residence at Kanarn in the Himalaya Mountains on the confines of India and Tibet

1827-1830

Calcutta

Printed at the Baptist Mission Church, Circular Road 1834

In the same year his Tibetian Grammar appeared with this coverpage:

A Grammar of the Tibetan Language in English

Prepared under the Patronage of the Government and the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal by

Alexander Csorna de Kőrös Siculo-Hunga rian

Calcutta 1934.

Körösi Csorna Sándor has been admired by those who knew his work, studied Buddhism, or the Tibetian language. B. Saint-Hilaire, the great French orientalist expressed it this way: “Körösi Csorna Sándor deserves his name to be remembered forever."9 Csorna never complained. He mastered seventeen languages and worked under miserable conditions such as no one has ever done. He walked most of the way from Transylvania to Tibet. He received little help but left great treasures for posterity. Most of his notes were left behind in Calcutta and it is regretable and unforgivable that a considerable amount of his documents disappeared. Csorna studied the Tibetian language because he knew that he would find valuable documents in their libraries in reference to the history of the Magyars, yet strangly not one single page of his diary has been found on that subject. Those who say that he found no reference to our ancestors and that is why he left no records,