Johannes Rahder (December 27, 1898 – March 3, 1988), Dutch Orientalist, professor of Japanese at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of L ...

(1931–1946) and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

(1947–1965).

Biography

Rahder was born in Lubuk Begalung, the Dutch East Indies, now a subdistrict of

Padang Padang () is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. With a Census population of 1,015,000 as of 2022, it is the 16th most populous city in Indonesia and the most populous city on the west coast of Sumatra. Th ...

, where his father was governor of the west coast of Sumatra. The fact that he requested as a birthday present a library when he was five years old suggests that he was a precocious child. He earned his doctorate at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollm ...

for an edition of the text of Daśabhûmikasûtra (1926). Because of his interest in

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and linguistics, he not only studied Sanskrit and Pali, but also Chinese, Japanese and many other languages. After working for several years on the Buddhist Dictionary Hôbôgirin (published by the Maison Franco-Japonaise in Tokyo), he was appointed Professor of Sanskrit, Avestan, Old Persian and principles of Indo-Germanic linguistics at the University of Utrecht (1930). In 1933, during one of his many visits to the Far East, Rahder shared a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway with poet Langston Hughes who characterized Rahder as "a famous authority on obscure Oriental languages," who, having lost his luggage, "had nothing with him but paper and pencils, not even a change of clothing for the trip across the Soviet Union." ("I Wonder as I Wander," Langston Hughes, Hill and Wang Publishers, pages 233-234, 1956 ) Barely a year later, he exchanged the chair for that in Japanese language and literature at Leiden University. In 1946 he resigned from his post at Leiden, and joined the faculty at the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa (University of Hawaii—Mānoa, UH Mānoa, Hawai'i, or simply UH) is a public land-grant research university in Mānoa, a neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawa ...

, where he had been a visiting professor during 1937–1938. The following year he went to Yale University, where he was Professor of Japanese from 1947 until his retirement in 1965.

Publications

* Daśabhûmikasûtra,J.-B. ISTAS, Leuven, 1926 * Glossary of the Sanskrit, tibetain, Mongolian and Chinese versions of the Daśabhûmika-sûtra, Paris, Geuthner, 1928 * Harivarman's Satyasiddhi-śâstra, Philosophy East & West, jan. 1956 * Etymological Dictionary of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Ainu,. Fifth Part, privately printed, New Haven, 1962 * "La satkāyadṛṣṭi d'après Vibhāṣā 8", MCB 1, 1932, 227-239

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahder, Johannes 1988 deaths 1898 births Dutch orientalists Yale University faculty Academic staff of Leiden University Utrecht University alumni People from Padang Dutch expatriates in the United States Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies