Philippe-Edouard Foucaux ( fr. Philippe-Édouard Foucaux ; September 15, 1811 , Angers - May 19, 1894 , Paris ) - pioneer of French Tibetology , the first compiler of Tibetan grammar in France. One of the first Tibetan language teachers in the West. Sanskritologist, Buddhist.
| Foucault, Philippe Edouard | |
|---|---|
| Philippe-Édouard Foucaux | |
| Date of Birth | September 15, 1811 |
| Place of Birth | Angers |
| Date of death | May 19, 1894 (82 years old) |
| Place of death | Paris |
| Citizenship |  France |
| Occupation | Sanskritologist , Buddhist |
| Spouse | |
| Awards and prizes | Legion of Honor |
Biography
F.-E. Foucault was born in the family of a businessman. He easily studied languages, having mastered Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish and German, and in 1838, at the age of 27, he went to Paris to study Indology with Eugene Burnouf at the College de France .
He soon learned of the successes of Chom Köröshi , whose first editions of the Tibetan language appeared in 1835. Then in Paris were the rarest Sanskrit and Tibetan manuscripts brought by Brian Hodgson from India. F.E. Foucault in two years learned Tibetan independently, after which he was appointed teacher of Tibetan at the School of Oriental Languages.
He became a member of the Ethnographic Society of France in 1840.
In 1847-1848, he published Lalitavistara Sutra in a Tibetan text and a French translation.
In 1857, his work was refused payment, but Foucault continued to teach for free. A year later, he took up the chair of Sanskrit, replacing Theodore Pavier, who at one time came to the place of the late Burnouf.
With the proclamation of the Second Empire, Foucault was elected a member of the College de France.
In 1858, his work immortalized, “Grammaire de la langue tibétaine” (L'Imprimerie impériale, Paris, 1858), was published.
In 1859, Foucault married Maria Filon, a writer (under the pseudonym Mary Summer), a scholar in Buddhism. Her father was the notable historian Charles-Auguste-Desiree Filon.
In 1864, Foucault received the Legion of Honor .
In 1873, Tibetan courses were discontinued due to the lack of a sufficient number of people wishing to study it.
After that, he continued teaching Sanskrit, as well as translating and commenting on Buddhist texts.
Links
- Philippe-Édouard Foucaux on ippolito-desideri.net (Italian)