Wladimir Zwalf (1932-2002) was a Sanskritist and expert on Buddhist art and

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. An Assistant Keeper at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, he produced ''A Catalogue of Gandharan Sculpture in the British Museum'' (1996).

Life and career

Zwalf was born on 30 August 1932. He studied Sanskrit at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

( Lincoln College, 1952-1955), under Professor Thomas Burrow. In 1957, he was appointed Assistant Keeper of Indian Printed Books and Manuscripts at the

India Office Library The India Office Records are a very large collection of documents relating to the administration of India from 1600 to 1947, the period spanning Company and British rule in India. The archive is held in London by the British Library and is public ...

. He kept this title when he transferred to the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the

in 1962, where he worked until he retired in 1993. He died on 15 September 2002.

Publications

*''The Shrines of Gandhara'' (British Museum, London, 1979) *''The Heritage of Tibet'' (British Museum, London, 1981) *(ed. with W. A. Oddy) ''Aspects of Tibetan Metallurgy'' (British Museum, 1981) *(ed.) ''Buddhism: Art and Faith'' (British Museum, London, 1985) *''A Catalogue of Gandharan Sculpture in the British Museum'', 2 vols (British Museum, London 1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwalf, Waldimir Employees of the British Museum British Sanskrit scholars 1932 births 2002 deaths