Description:
<jats:p>The paper was written for the 100th anniversary of the outstanding Russian Tibetologist, researcher of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences) Yuri M. Parfionovich. The publication provides main periods of his life, including his participation in military operations of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 and his work in peacetime as a specialist in the field of Oriental studies. Collaboration with the world-famous orientalist Yuri N. Roerich was of crucial importance for Yu. M. Parfionovich in his self-development as a Tibetology scholar. Later, following the path laid by Yu. N. Roerich, Yu. M. Parfionovich carried out several major academic projects in Tibetology, highly appreciated by his colleagues in the Soviet Union and by some eminent foreign specialists. Such scholarly works include, first of all: “A Concise Tibetan-Russian Dictionary” (co-authored with B. V. Semichev and B. D. Dandaron), published more than a hundred years after the previous similar publication by Ya. I. Schmidt; the textbook “Tibetan Written Language”; the multi-volume edition “Tibetan-Russian-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Parallels”, conceived by Yu. N. Roerich and significantly supplemented and prepared for publication by Yu. M. Parfionovich and V. S. Dylykova; translations of two major Buddhist texts from Tibetan — philosophical and moral treatise “The Sutra on Wisdom and Folly” and the medical treatise “Blue Beryl” (“Atlas of Tibetan Medicine”). The academic heritage of Yu. M. Parfionovich remains relevant for domestic Oriental studies and stays important for the development of cultural cooperation between Russia and Asian countries that profess Buddhism.</jats:p>