George
Roerich (Yuriy Roerich : 16.08.1902 - 21.05.1960) is an outstanding
Russian orientalist, philologist, art critic, ethnographer, traveller. He
contributed very much to the world Tibetology, Indology and Mongology. He
was born in a village Okulovka of Novgorod province. His child's and adolescent
years passed in St.Petersburg. Already at his school years George Roerich
showed a serious interest for the Orient. In 1919 he graduated from the
Indo-Iranian department of the School of oriental languages at the University
of London. And then in 1922 he graduated from the Harvard University in
the USA, the department of Indian philology, with a bachelor's degree. G.Roerich
completed his education in 1923 in France at the School of oriental languages
of the University of Paris (the biggest center of the European oriental
studies) where he received a title of Master of the Indian philology. In
1923-1928 he participated in the Central-Asian expedition organized by his
father N.Roerich. Since 1928 and until the beginning of the Second World
War George Roerich was a director of the Himalayan Institute of Scientific
Studies "Urusvati" the work of which was directed towards complex
studies of the Orient. In the sphere of public activity he participated
in propaganda and struggle for the ratification of the Pact of Roerich.
In 1949-1957 he taught at the University of Kalimpong (India). In autumn
1957 he returned to the Motherland and headed the sector of Indian history
of religion and philosophy at the Institute of the Oriental Studies of the
Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow. It is George Roerich to whom
belongs the invaluable service of "returning" to the Motherland
of the art heritage of his father - the great Russian Artist, thinker and
public figure - Nicholas Roerich. On May 21, 1960, George Roerich passed
away in Moscow.
