Sarat Chandra Dash () (18 July 1849 – 5 January 1917) was an Indian scholar of

Tibetan language Tibetan language may refer to: * Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dialect * Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard * Any of the other Tibetic languages See also * Ol ...

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

most noted for his two journeys to Tibet in 1879 and in 1881–1882.

Biography

Born in Chittagong, eastern Bengal to a

Bengali Hindu Bengali Hindus () are adherents of Hinduism who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. They make up the majority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Assam's Barak Valley ...

Vaidya-Brahmin family, Sarat Chandra Dash attended Presidency College, as a student of the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

. In 1874 he was appointed headmaster of the Bhutia Boarding School at Darjeeling. In 1878, a Tibetan teacher, Lama Ugyen Gyatso arranged a passport for Sarat Chandra to go the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

at Tashilhunpo. In June 1879, Das and Ugyen-gyatso left

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

for the first of two journeys to

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. They remained in Tibet for six months, returning to Darjeeling with a large collection of Tibetan and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

texts which would become the basis for his later scholarship. Sarat Chandra spent 1880 in Darjeeling poring over the information he had obtained. In November 1881, Sarat Chandra and Ugyen-gyatso returned to Tibet, where they explored the Yarlung Valley, returning to India in January 1883. Along with Satish Chandra Vidyabhusan, he prepared Tibetan-English dictionary. For a time, he worked as a spy for the British, accompanying Colman Macaulay on his 1884 expedition to

to gather information on the Tibetans, Russians and Chinese. After he left Tibet, the reasons for his visit were discovered and many of the Tibetans who had befriended him suffered severe reprisals. For the latter part of his life, Das settled in Darjeeling. He named his house "

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

Villa" and played host to many notable guests including Sir Charles Alfred Bell and Ekai Kawaguchi. Johnson stated that, in 1885 and 1887 Das met with Henry Steel Olcott, co-founder and first President of the

Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S.A. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the ...

.The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge, Johnson, Paul K., p 191-192, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1994

Publications

''Contributions on the Religion, History &c., of Tibet''.
In Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume LI (51), Part I for 1882. Publisher: Asiatic Society, Calcutta (1882). Also, PDF file her

* ''Narrative of a journey to Lhasa in 1881-82''. Publisher: s.n. (1885). * ''Narrative of a journey round Lake Yamdo (Palti), and in Lhokha, Yarlung, and Sakya, in 1882''. publisher: s.n (1887).
''Avadānakalpalatā: a collection of legendary stories about the Bodhisattvas''.
Asiatic Society (1890). * ''The doctrine of transmigration''. Buddhist Text Society (1893).
''Indian Pandits in the Land of Snow''.
Originally published at the end of the 19th century. Reprint: Rupa (2006)..
Sarat Chandra Das, Graham Sandberg & Augustus William Heyde ''A Tibetan-English dictionary, with Sanskrit synonyms''.
1st Edition - Calcutta, 1902. Reprint: Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi, 1989 and Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979, 1983, 1991, 1995 and 2000. * A Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet, ''Journey To Lhasa & Central Tibet''. 1st Edition: John Murray (England) (1902). Reprint: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (2007). . Republished as: ''Lhasa and Central Tibet'', Cosmo (Publications, India); New edition (2003). . * ''An introduction to the grammar of the Tibetan language;: With the texts of Situ sum-tag, Dag-je sal-wai melong, and Situi shal lung''. Darjeeling Branch Press, 1915. Reprint: Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1972 and 1983. * ''Autobiography: Narratives of the incidents of my early life''. Reprint: Indian studies: past & present (1969).

References

External links

*
Map
of Tashilhunpo in 1902, Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection
Grand Temple
at

in 1902, Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection
Fort
of

Shigatse Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê () or Rikaze ( zh, s=日喀则, p=Rìkāzé), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histo ...

in 1902, Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Das, Sarat Chandra Tibetologists 1849 births 1917 deaths People from Chittagong Photography in Tibet Indian explorers Scholars from British India Explorers from British India University of Calcutta alumni British spies against the Russian Empire