Heinrich August Jäschke (17 May 1817 in

Herrnhut Herrnhut (; ; ; Upper Lusatian: ''Harrnhutt'', ''Harrnutt'') is a town of around 6,000 inhabitants in Upper Lusatia, in the district of Görlitz, in eastern Saxony, Germany. The town is mainly known as the place of origin of the community of t ...

– 24 September 1883) was a German Tibetologist missionary and Bible translator. From 1857 to 1868 he was missionary of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine (the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...

or Moravian Brethren) in Kyelang, Lahaul District and Spiti in North India. Jäschke has been called "the most distinguished linguist in the whole history of the

" by

James Hutton James Hutton (; 3 June Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. 1726 – 26 March 1797) was a Scottish geologist, Agricultural science, agriculturalist, chemist, chemical manufacturer, Natural history, naturalist and physician. Often referred to a ...

in his ''A History of the Moravian Missions'' (1923).

Early life and career

Heinrich August Jäschke was born on May 17, 1817, in

, Germany. He attended Moravian schools, where he stood out for his remarkable gift for learning new languages. His ties to Moravian schools continued in adult life as he taught in various schools in Germany and Denmark. In 1847, he became co-director of the Moravian boarding schools in Niesky, Germany. The following year, he was ordained.

Tibetan Mission

Jäschke's gift for language made him an ideal choice for the Moravian mission in Western Tibet. So in 1856 Jäschke joined two missionaries, Wilhelm Heyde and Eduard Pagel, in what is today northern India.

Works

''A Tibetan-English Dictionary''
(1881)
''Tibetan Grammar''
(1883) *''New Testament in Tibetan''

Honours

In 1870, botanist Federico Kurtz named a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s from Central Asia (belonging to the family

Gentianaceae Gentianaceae is a family of flowering plants of 105 genera and about 1600 species. Etymology The family takes its name from the genus ''Gentiana'', named after the Illyrian king Gentius. Distribution Distribution is cosmopolitan (species), cosm ...

), as '' Jaeschkea'' in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaeschke, Heinrich August 1817 births 1883 deaths Translators of the Bible into Tibetan Tibetologists German Protestant missionaries People from Keylong People from Herrnhut 19th-century translators Moravian Church missionaries Protestant missionaries in Tibet Protestant missionaries in India German expatriates in India German missionary linguists 19th-century German linguists People related to Lahaul and Spiti district