From Ladakh to Budapest Via Broadwindsor: The Journey of an Unusual Gift of Tibetan Books

Proverbially it has been stated that “great things proceed and increase from small and obscure beginnings.” Though the initial contract he made in 1823 related to the production of a dictionary and grammar of Tibetan language in English was with a British veterinarian and explorer working for the Indian government, William Moorcroft (1765-1825), the complete cost for the publication of 500 copies of those two major works in 1834 was also covered by the coffers of the British colonial government in India. Csoma de Kor6s was born and grew up in a Protestant sub-culture in the Hungarian Transylvanian mountains, a form of Protestant spirituality deeply influenced by Calvinist traditions. In April 1880, Solomon Caesar Malan (SCM) had been presented with an honorary Doctorate in Divinity by the Senatus Academicus of the University of Edinburgh. Though the statements in this letter are put politely enough, one might sense at points that its straightforwardness extends beyond what propriety would require.