Hugh Edward Richardson
Hugh Edward Richardson , OBE , CIE (born December 22, 1905 in St Andrews , † December 3, 2000 in St Andrews) was a British diplomat and Tibetologist . His academic interests were in the field of Tibetan history and epigraphy .
Life
Hugh Richardson was born in St Andrews in 1905. He first attended the local Salvator's School, then the Trinity College in Glenalmond and later the Keble College in Oxford. After graduating from college, he became a teacher at his old school in Glenalmond. In 1930, however, like his grandfather, he decided to join the Indian Civil Service .
His interest in Tibet developed during his work as a sub-divisional officer in Bengal between 1932 and 1934, where he also began to learn Tibetan and conversed in Bengali with the polymath Rabindranath Tagore .
He came to Lhasa in 1936 as part of a British government delegation led by Basil Gould . From 1936 to 1947, Hugh Edward Richardson was a British government diplomat in Lhasa. His Tibetan has been described by the Dalai Lama's government officials as "immaculate Lhasa Tibetan with a slight Oxford accent."
In 1944 he received the Order of the British Empire and in 1947 he became Companion of the Indian Empire .
After the founding of the Indian Union , Richardson was a diplomat for the Indian government in Lhasa from 1947 to 1950, where he also became friends with Peter Aufschnaiter and Heinrich Harrer . His hobbies were ornithology and botany , as well as golf , which he played in Lhasa, "although the balls fly far too far due to the thin air," he noted.
In 1950 he accompanied a delegation to New York to campaign at the United Nations against the incipient occupation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China .
After deciding to return to St Andrews, Hugh Edward Richardson married Huldah Rennie in 1951 and began a second career as a writer and Tibetologist. He started writing books and lecturing on Tibetan history and the Tibetan language at several universities. Together with David Snellgrove he was a founding member of the Institute of Tibetan Studies in Tring . In 1959 he played a major role in founding the Tibet Society of the UK . In 1981 he became an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, 1985 awarded him the University of St Andrews , the honorary doctorate , and he was 1952 Honorary Fellow of the British Academy .
Hugh Edward Richardson died in St Andrews in 2000 after a long illness.
Awards
- 1999: Light of Truth Award
Works
- with Basil Gould: Tibetan Word Book . Oxford University Press, London 1943
- Ancient Historical Edicts at Lhasa . Royal Asiatic Society, London 1952
- Tibet and its History . Oxford University Press, London 1962
- with David Snellgrove: A Cultural History of Tibet . Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1968
- Ch'ing Dynasty Inscriptions at Lhasa . Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Rome 1974
- A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions . Royal Asiatic Society, London 1985
- Ceremonies of the Lhasa Year . Edited by Michael Aris . Serindia, London 1993
- High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings of Tibetan History and Culture . Edited by Michael Aris. Serindia, London 1998
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed July 24, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Richardson, Hugh Edward |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British diplomat and Tibetologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 22, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St Andrews |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 3, 2000 |
| Place of death | St Andrews |