Three Europeans and the Forgotten Buddha

I picked up the book attracted by its unusual title, The Buddha And The Sahibs. Until then I had not read any other book by its author, Charles Allen. The book opened up for me a historical perspective of Buddhism in India that I had not imagined existed. From Charles Allen, I read of how the Buddha was all but forgotten in India and how a few Englishmen rediscovered him and his religion not only for themselves but for the rest of India as well, and most often by chance than by design.

I am now reading Pankaj Mishra's "An End To Suffering - The Buddha In The World" which also contains an account of how a few eccentric Europeans who had no interest in Buddhism per se, and who in fact were not even aware of such a person as the Buddha, were instrumental in resurrecting knowledge about the Buddha and Buddhism.

There is the French botanist Victor Jacquemont who camps at Simla soon after that hill-station was settled by the British in 1820, and who writes detailed accounts of the Buddhist religion practised in the inner Himalayas in what is present-day Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. Jacquemont does not realise at the time that the Buddha is yet a mysterious figure not only to Europe but the rest of India as well.

In his letters to his father, Jacquemont writes of the remarkable Hungarian, Alexander de Koros. Like many nationalists of his time, de Koros tries to trace the origins and establish the independent identity of the Hungarians as a people, separate from the imperial Austrians. He believes his roots lie in Central Asia and sets off on his search. He travels through Egypt and Iran and ends up at Kashmir, from where he moves towards the Tibetan side of the Himalayas and lives there in isolation for nine years under the assumed name of Secunder Beg, studying Tibetan manuscripts and learning the language. Eventually de Koros supervises the publication of a Tibetan dictionary in Calcutta.

de Koros stays on in the Himalayan region longer than he may have wished to because of his chance meeting with an English veterinarian, William Moorcroft, who is managing the East India Company's stud farm. Moorcroft is paranoid about the possibility of Russia's influence over the region and sees Koros as a man who could help in understanding Tibetan language and culture. With that understanding he hopes to lay the ground to preempt the Russians and prevent a possible takeover of Tibet by Russia. Therefore he convinces de Koros to stay on in the Himalayan region bordering Tibet and even sponsors him to an extent.

Jacquemont, de Koros and Moorcroft all die in India without seeing Europe again.

You can read more about these gentlemen in "The Invention of 'Buddhism'", the first chapter of Mishra's book.