12/05/2026
As you walk along the Mall Road in Darjeeling and cross the imposing St. Andrew’s church, you come across a totem pole adorned with vibrant scarves. Upon closer inspection, you learn that the totem pole was gifted by the people of Covasna (Romania), in memory of Alexander Csoma de Koros, the pioneering Hungarian linguist and traveller, to the people of Darjeeling.
In 1842, Csoma wanted to go to Lhasa and from there to northern China, the land of Uyghurs. In April 1842, he arrived in Darjeeling but was stricken with cerebral malaria. He had fever for several days and eventually passed away on 11th April. He was interred at the Old Cemetery along the Lebong Road. To commemorate his passing, the Hungarian government sends a delegation every year to Darjeeling to pay respects to a revered figure back home in Hungary.
This year Dr. Margit Koves, who has been teaching Hungarian at the Department of Slavonic and Finno-Ugrian Studies at Delhi University for the past 35 years, was part of the delegation. She graciously accepted an invitation by Darjeeling Hills University to address the students and faculty. She was accompanied by Aruna Chaudhary, a poet and student of Hungarian studies. Prof. Koves has been working on Buddhism, Indian and Hungarian cultural Encounters and published stories about Alexander Csoma de Koros, Amrita Sher-Gill, Charles Fabri and Elizabeth Brunner. She has edited collections of the bi-monthly Social Scientist (vol.45 & 46) on the works of the Hungarian philosopher Georg Lukas.
Soft spoken Prof. Koves explained that from time to time we have this revival, this question of what is the fate of our nation going to be. Are we going to survive or just melt into the surrounding nations? The book of Johann Gottfried von Herder, the German philosopher, which spoke about the philosophy of mankind and especially after its Hungarian publication in 1811, reinforced this necessity of a narrative of Hungarian history because Herder forecasted that Hungarians, lonely in the sea of Germanic and Slavic people, would have to face extinction. This deeply emotionalised the issue of language as a question of origin and the survival of Hungarian nation.
Csoma was in school when these events took place and they left a deep impression on him. The issue of national survival energised the movement for the renewal of Hungarian language and the romantic idea that you have to find a narrative of its past as an inspiration for your nation to actually help it survive.
Alexander Csoma was born in the village of Koros in Romania. Csoma's conditions were such that his father could not pay the fees at Bethlehem Collegium. He was a free student and free students at the time had to service the rich students. Hence, he polished shoes which could be considered a menial job but Prof. Koves said, ‘I think it really strengthened his own resolve to study and go further’.
He reached Göttingen University in 1816, equipped with the knowledge of German, Hungarian, Greek, Latin and Romanian. He studied books which dealt with theology, history and literature. He also studied with Johann Gottfried Eichhorn who was a scholar of languages. At the time of Csoma’s studies, the whole system of historical linguistics and the rules of its functioning, the institutional framework of modern comparative linguistics was still missing. It was Eichhorn who advised Csoma that he should look at the Arabic and Turkish sources, which perhaps would reveal something more about the history of Hungarians. After his return to Transylvania from Göttingen, Csoma was offered several jobs but now he was exclusively interested in travelling to Central Asia, to see the predecessors of Hungarians.
He reached Lahore in March 1822 and made the acquaintance of William Moorcroft who was a British agent. After realising Csoma’s knowledge of languages and his training in Göttingen, Moorcroft suggested that he should go to Tibet. Moorcroft provided him the Alphabetum Tibetanum, which was a work by an Italian missionary, Agostino Antonio Giorgi, published in 1759. He gave him letters of recommendation to the Tibetan Royal Court and to the head of Zangla settlement. This led to Csoma’s first stay in Ladakh at Zangla Palace where he worked with a teacher named Lama Sangay Phuntsog.
The results of his Zangla stay were the Alexander Books. They are replies to the questions put by Csoma to the monks about the basics of Buddhist religion and Tibetan culture and the last two books contain tantras and grammar. They include topics like medicine, astronomy, poetry, and linguistics. The Ladakhi winter was harsh but Csoma survived. He used to say that he survived on Tibetan tea which gave him enough energy. Today, the Alexander Books are considered the beginnings of Tibetology and Western Buddhist studies and UNESCO has recognised it as part of the World Heritage of Cultures.
Csoma acknowledged his teacher, Lama Sangay Phuntsog, a learned scholar of Zanskar, in the cover page of his dictionary which was a rare gesture at the time. He emphasised that he did not stand in the service of any government. These were the times of the Great Game in Central Asia where the Russians and the British were competing for Central Asia and there were several agents of various empires entering into India. He described himself as a pilgrim who went in search of Hungarian history and because he was an honest person, not hunting for cheap popularity and recognition, he stuck to the academic data and this is also why his work is revered even today.
After her lecture, Prof. Koves engaged in a Q & A session with the faculty and students of Darjeeling Hills University and patiently answered questions, one of which was, ‘when we call him the founder of modern Tibetan studies, is there a risk of discounting generations of monastic scholarship that already existed in Tibet?’ Prof. Koves answered, ‘we do have to consider Tibetan knowledge as an internal system already in existence before Csoma arrived. But he actually opened up Tibetan knowledge towards Europe. And knowledge is also circulation, so in that, he was able to circulate knowledge in a wider circle than scholars before him’.
The programme was moderated in an atmosphere of warmth, reflection and intellectual exchange by Malavika Pradhan, faculty member of the Department of Political Science at DHU. The lecture thoughtfully revisited the life and scholarly legacy of Alexander Csoma de Koros, highlighting his enduring contribution to Tibetan studies and cross-cultural understanding. The event concluded with an enriching discussion that celebrated the spirit of scholarship, cultural dialogue and historical reflection.
Finally, Prof. Koves recounted an anecdote where a Hungarian went to Schopenhauer, the German philosopher and asked, ‘what do you say about Csoma’s work? He neglected Hungarian studies, could not complete his work on the origins of the Hungarians’.
Schopenhauer replied, ‘but that man was searching for land and found gold’.
