Kolmash, Joseph

He studied at the gymnasium of the city of Kiyov in the Hodonin district , where Professor Ladislav Dlougi prompted him to interest in learning Oriental languages. The professor signed the student on a journal for Chinese learners, Nový Orient ^[1] . Having received a certificate of maturity, he, in order to continue studying the Chinese language, entered the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University in Prague, which he graduated in 1957 . Its lead professor was Ladislav Prushek. For two years after graduation, he studied at the Institute of National Minorities in Beijing , where he was the only student to study Tibetan language and literature.

During his stay in China, he had the opportunity to visit the main centers of Tibetan research in Chengdu and Lanzhou , as well as receive and transport to Prague a full woodcut edition of the Tibetan canon Ganjur and Danjur from the mid-18th century (now in the library of the Institute of Oriental Studies).

Joseph Kolmash is the author of a significant number of scientific monographs, bibliographic studies and translations. Most of the information about Tibet in Czech comes from it.

The first major work of J. Kolmash was the dissertation “ Simla Conference 1913-1914 ”, which addressed the unresolved issue of the political status of Tibet during the Xinhai Revolution and the creation of the Republic of China in 1911 , as well as determining its borders with China itself. This work completed the three-year ( 1961 - 1964 ) graduate school of J. Kolmash, and according to the results of her defense, he received a candidate of historical sciences.