Alexander Csoma de Kőrös and

the Hungarian Narrative of the

Nation

“That man was searching for lead and found gold.”Arthur Schopenhauer
to Ferenc Bizonfy (1855)

Margit Köves, Delhi University

Hungarian Romanticism
• National language ,
• Reform of Language (1790-1844) – Ferenc Kazinczy
• Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1825)
• National Epic – Mihály Vörösmarty, Flight of Zalán (1825)
• National Theatre (1837)

• J.G.Herder Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit(1744)

“ Hungarian lonely in the sea of Germanic and Slavic people”
Göttingen (1816-1818)
• Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752-1827) Sprachenkunde
• Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840)
• Julius Klaproth (1783-1835)
Cult of Csoma
• József Eötvös Memorial Speech (1843)
• “’Was it not a mistake that Kőrösi followed all his life’-many might
have thought when his departure was made known in Hungary
’should we not lament that so much talent, so much enthusiasm was
wasted on an unreachable aim? Do not have Hungarians enough to
do in their homeland, on the vacant fields of science and art or in the
glorious paths of public life?’”
Arthur Schopenhauer
• “ And Arthur Schopenhauer who is well-known about mocking
everybody and everything including his best friends told me shedding
tears ’I am touched by the self-denial which Kőrösi showed in the
interest of scholarship from the very beginning to the end.’ When I
remarked that Kőrösi was mistaken he attacked me furiously. ’How
can you say something so silly. That man was searching for lead and
found gold. And what is even more his views about Buddhist
philosophy show that he knew about the value of precious metal.’ ”
Mór Jókai Eppur si muove (1873)
• Pál Barkó
Biographies
• Tivadar Duka – Life and Works of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös (1885)
• Ervin Baktay - On Top of the World. In Trace of Alexander Csoma d
Kőrös in Western Tibet, 1930, 1934
• The Wanderer of Great Distances, Alexander Csoma de Kőrös in India
and in Tibet, 1934, 1960
• From Háromszék to the Himalayas, the life journey of Alexander
Csoma de Kőrös, 1942
• Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, 1962, 1963, 1981, 2000
András Müllner Alexander Csoma de Kőrös,
novel 2000
• UJFALVY SÁNDOR: THE OVAL SIGNET-RING – KŐRÖSI VIENNA
• BORGÁTAI JÓZSEF: THE CARD – SÁNDOR GÖTTINGEN
• HEGEDÜS SÁMUEL: CALFSKIN ENVELOP –KŐRÖSI NAGYENYED
• WILLIAM MOORCROFT: THE LETTER – CAROSI LADAKH
• SZANGYE PUNCOG: ENGRAVED STONE – SKANDER BEG PUKHTAL
• C.P. KENNEDY: THE REPORT – MR.CSOMA SABATHU
• VICTOR JACQUEMONT: THE BUDDHA-STATUE - MONSIEUR CSOMO KANAM
• HORACE HAYMAN WILSON: THE SHRED – MR. CSOMA CALCUTTA
• SCHOEFFT ÁGOSTON: THE PORTRAIT OF A PHILOLOGIST –CSOMA ÚR CALCUTTA
• DUKA TIVADAR: THE IRONCHEST – KŐRÖSI CSOMA CALCUTTA
• Captain Kennedy: “ His subaltern told him in a few words :’here is a
man who wears the clothes of the locals, speaks English with an
accent and brought a letter from Moorcroft’ ”.
• Tivadar Duka “the officer of the British Army being of Hungarian
origin has to bear the difficulties with double steadfastness. He has to
justify that he is an armyman and an English patriot, which in this
case means the temporary forgetting of his nationality, or at least
downgrading it to secondary importance.”
 • Tivadar Duka: “He was certain of one thing: the work will not be a novel.
Then what? It will highlight the life of an extraordinary person. To check on
data and change the incorrect notes. And then on the basis of facts and
psychological conclusions to draw the external events and the inner
struggles in a way that the person who reads it should be convinced about
the reality, or even the necessity of the events he clarified. Oh, God how
complicated.”
• Sándor Ujfalvy: “..his soul is preparing for the East, says Kőrösi. He only goes to Göttingen to
satisfy the prejudices of people. What do you mean? Does he mean that he cannot go the East
until he goes West? That is it. The Göttingen stamp is expected of him. But he will not take long
time, time is more valueable for him than for others.”
• Tivadar Duka: “ It is funny how a language translates another, and the translated language bleeds
through the language and leaves traces…”
Gábor Lanczkor, The Malaria, play in verse 2010
“ As we stepped in following the Lama
And I closed the door behind us,
tongues of flame entered,
and started whirling,
like wind outside”

“ Two completely different languages, English and Tibetan,

words match in a way that Tibetan would be completely
unknown, the two next to each other are like two shards of a
broken pot dovetailing. The pot before breaking up could have
been one pure language.”