A very good copy of Heinrich Jaeschke’s (1817-1883) little-known, entirely lithographed Tibetan dictionary.
Jaeschke was born in Herrnhut, Saxony and educated at Moravian schools in Christiansfeld and Niesky. An extremely accomplished linguist, he was fluent in German, English, French, Latin, Greek, Danish, Polish and Swedish, and competent in Hebrew, Bohemian, Hungarian and was familiar with Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. He was appointed the Superintendent of the new Moravian Mission station in Kyelang, Lahaul in 1856.
“Jaeschke’s special task was … to study Tibetan with a view to translating the Bible. This was pioneering research not only for the Moravians but for Western scholarship as a whole. It was to take him the rest of his life - eleven years in India until 1868 and fifteen years back in Germany until his death in 1883” (Bray). He had recourse to the first Tibetan-English dictionary which was published at the Baptist Mission Press in Calcutta in 1834 by the Hungarian Sándor Csoma de Korös (1784-1842).
This Romanised Tibetan and English Dictionary was an interim practical publication before his magnum opus on the subject appeared in 1881. The preface reads: “The principal object of this little dictionary being rather to afford some aid to those who wish to acquire a practical knowledge of the living Tibetan language, than to give a complete collection of words necessary to those who study exclusively the ancient literature.” At the beginning of each section (by letter) there are introductory remarks and tips on pronunciation.
OCLC finds 7 copies at Moravian College Library in Pennsylvania, BL, Bern, Berlin, Strasbourg and 2 in Denmark. Rare Book Hub locates two copies for sale at Francis Edwards in 1944 and Goldschmidt’s in 1933.
Bray, J., “Heinrich August Jaeschke: Pioneer Tibetan Scholar” in The Tibet Journal, Vol.8, No. 1 (Spring, 1983), pp.50-55; Yakushi, J70; not in Zaunmuller.
