Nirmal C. Sinha

Nirmal Chandra Sinha (1911–1997) was an Indian tibetologist, author, the founder director of Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology (SIRT), presently known as the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Deorali near Gangtok. He was known for his contributions to Buddhism and the documentation of the history of Tibet and other states of Central Asia. He was honoured by the Government of India in 1971 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.

Biography

Nirmal Chandra Sinha was born in 1911 in Ranchi in the Indian state of Jharkhand, formerly in Bihar. After securing a master's degree from the Presidency College, Calcutta, he joined as a member of faculty of Hooghly Mohsin College, in Chinsurah, West Bengal and later, as a professor of history at Behrampur College before joining the government service and was appointed as the cultural attache at the political office (residency) in 1955. Working as the attache, he toured Tibet in 1956 as a member of the Indian delegation that toured the country for inviting Dalai Lama. Thereafter, he worked at the Indian Archive where he had the opportunity to work under renowned educationist and former Union Minister of Education, Triguna Sen. In 1958, when the Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology, present day Namgyal Institute of Tibetology (NIT), was established, Sinha was appointed as its founder director. He worked there till his retirement in 1987 after which he moved to Siliguri and took up the post as the Centenary Professor of International Relations at the University of Calcutta.

During his tenure as the director of NIT, Sinha contributed significantly to the ''Bulletin of Tibetology'', a bi-annual publication by the institute. He was a scholar of many languages such as Tibetan, Sanskrit, Mongolian and Chinese which helped him in his writings. He wrote several articles in Sikkim Express and Gangtok Times and his last article, ''Lenin and Buddhism'', written in July 1997 was published in the latter. He also published a book, ''Indian war economy'', in 1962, co-written with P. N. Khera. A recipient of ''Prema Dorjee'' award from the Chogyal of Sikkim, he was awarded the civilian honour of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1971. Sinha died on 3 August 1997 at Sunrise Nursing Home, Siliguri, at the age of 86. Namgyal Institute of Tibetology honoured him by compiling his selected works which was published as a book in 2008 under the name, ''A Tibetologist in Sikkim''.

Articles

List of articles published by Sinha in ''Bulletin of Tibetology''.

# Historical status of Tibet
# Hacha for Lhasa
# Tibet's status during the World War
# On tantra
# The missing context of Chos
# Was the Simla Convention and Kshatriya
# Gilgit (and Swat)
# The Simla Convention 1914: a Chinese puzzle
# Obituary Yapshi Pheunkhang
# Sanskrit across the Himalayas
# India and Tibet
# In memoriam
# Budddhasasana in Tibet
# Stupid barbarian / animal symbols in Buddhist art
# Tibetan Studies in modern India
# Peace and war in man's mind
# Aspects of Buddhism
# Publications through twenty years
# The universal man
# Articles of Tibet trade 1784
# Publications through twenty-five years
# Losar
# About Dipankara Atisa
# Geographical notices of India
# On Tibetology
# Ten priceless images
# Relics of Asokan monks
# Tradition and traditional sources
# Dharma Tantra and Atisa
# On names and titles
# What constitute the importance of Atisa
# Uttarukuru in Tibetan tradition
# Inventory of Tibetan historical literature
# Tantra in Mahayana texts
# Stupa symbol
# Inner Asia and India through the ages
# A preface to Mahayana icononography
# Tibetology contra Nepalese
# Sahasra Buddha
# Kalachakra Tantra
# Buddharupa: observation on the evolution of Buddha image
# Making of Dharmaraja
# Dharamaraja Asoka
# Asoka's dhamma: a testimony of monuments
# Asoka's Dharma

See also

* Namgyal Institute of Tibetology

References

Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinha, Nirmal Chandra
1911 births
1997 deaths
People from Ranchi
Scholars from Jharkhand
Indian male writers
20th-century Indian historians
Tibetologists
University of Calcutta alumni
Academic staff of the University of Calcutta
Indian Foreign Service officers