Heinz Bechert

Heinz Bechert (born June 26, 1932 in Munich , † June 14, 2005 in Göttingen ) was a German Indologist and Buddhologist .

Life

He was the son of the lawyer Rudolf Bechert and his wife Herta nee Bade.

Bechert held the Indology chair at the University of Göttingen from 1965 to 2000 . In 1971, on his initiative, the former “Indological Seminar” was renamed “Seminar for Indology and Buddhist Studies”.

Bechert's main research areas were Indology and Buddhism, with a focus on Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka , Southeast Asia and Nepal . In addition, he dealt with Buddhist Sanskrit tradition in Central Asia as well as the political and social significance of the Buddhist religious community to the present day.

His language skills included Sanskrit , Middle Indian languages ​​( Pali , several Prakrits ), Tibetan , Sinhala and Burmese .

He published numerous scientific papers and works. Together with Ernst Waldschmidt he was the editor of the Sanskrit dictionary of Buddhist texts from the Turfan finds .

Memberships

• Académie Royale de Belgique in Brussels
• Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Academy (Royal Swedish Academy)
• Academia Europaea (Cambridge)
• Membership in the Board of Trustees for the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
• Royal Asiatic Society, Sri Lanka Branch (Colombo)
• The Siam Society (Bangkok)
• International Institute of Tamil Studies (Chennai)
• Maha Bodhi Society (Kolkata)
• Tokai Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies (Nagoya)

Fonts (selection)

as an author

• together with Richard Gombrich : The Buddhism. Past and present ("The world of buddhism"). 3rd edition CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57346-0 (former title Die Welt des Buddhismus ).
• together with Hans Küng : Christianity and world religions. Buddhism . 4th edition Piper, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-492-22130-0 .

as editor

• The speeches of the Buddha ( Gautama Buddha ). Doctrine, verses, stories (Herder spectrum; 4797). Herder, Freiburg / B. 2000, ISBN 3-451-04797-7 .
• together with Klaus Wille : Sanskrit manuscripts from the Turfan finds . Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1989 ff.
  • Vol. 6: Catalog numbers 1202–1599 . 1989, ISBN 3-515-03023-9 .
  • Vol. 7: Catalog numbers 1600–1799 . 1995, ISBN 3-515-07205-5 .
  • Vol. 8: The catalog numbers 1800–1999 . 2000, ISBN 3-515-07205-5 .
  • Vol. 9: Catalog numbers 2000–3199 . 2004, ISBN 3-515-07346-9 .
• Burmese manuscripts . Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2000 ff.
  • Vol. 4: Catalog numbers 736–900 . 2000, ISBN 3-515-07363-9 .
  • Vol. 5: Catalog numbers 901-1015 , 2004, ISBN 3-515-08460-6 (together with Anne Peters ).
• together with Ernst Waldschmidt : Sanskrit dictionary of Buddhist texts from the Turfan finds and the canonical literature of the Sarvāstivāda school . Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993 ff. (Appears in deliveries; volumes 1 to 3 published until 2014, volume 4 in part).

literature

• Jens-Uwe Hartmann: Heinz Bechert (1932-2005) , magazine of the German Oriental Society 158 (1), 1-7 (2008) ULB Halle
• Russel Webb (2005). Heinz Bechert 26 June 1932-14 June 2005 , Buddhist Studies Review 22 (2), 211-216

Web links

• Literature by and about Heinz Bechert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Heinz Bechert  in the German Digital Library