A biographical essay about
Dieter Schuh
Position & Affiliation: Professor Emeritus of Tibetology at Bonn University, Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies
This biographical essay was written by Karl-Heinz Everding as part of the publication “Cüppers, Christoph, Karl-Heinz Everding, and Peter Schwieger (eds). 2022. A Life in Tibetan Studies: Festschrift for Dieter Schuh at the Occasion of his 80th Birthday. Lumbini: LIRI.” The Lumbini International Research Institute has kindly authorised the reproduction of this text and accompanying photographs.

Born on December 14, 1942, in Delme, France, and growing up in Germany in the Harz region and in Krefeld, after finishing school in 1963 Dieter Schuh started to study Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy at the University of Cologne. Unable to study Ancient Greek in Cologne, which would have been useful for his philosophy studies, he and a fellow student took additional lessons in Sanskrit from Prof. Klaus Ludwig Janert (19221994). This is where he first developed his interest in Indian logic (Navya-Nyāya). Klaus Ludwig Janert intended to send Dieter Schuh to southern India with a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Indian government. He had already begun to learn the southern Indian languages Tamil and Malayalam in Cologne from the visiting professor Shri Krishna Sharma when Klaus Ludwig Janert was told by the Mongolist Prof. Walther Heissig (19132005), who had founded the Central Asia Department at the University of Bonn in 1966, that it would be better if Dieter Schuh went to Dharamsala, where he could learn about the almost entirely unexplored fields of Tibetan mathematics and astronomy from Tibetan scholars. So, as a mathematician and without even having completed a basic course of Tibetan, Dieter Schuh was ‘thrown into the deep end’ and sent to Dharamsala with the stipend from the DAAD and the Indian government in 1967. Armed with the Manual of Spoken Tibetan (Lhasa Dialect) by Kun Chang and Betty Shefts and ably assisted by Ye shes sbyin pa, a Lhasaborn monk from the rNam rgyal grva tshang who was instructed by the Dalai Lama to help him and would continue to do this for many years, Dieter Schuh quickly gained proficiency by conversing with the exiled Tibetans from Lhasa. Then he began his studies of Tibetan astronomy and calendrical calculation (Tib. sKar rtsis kyi rig gnas) under the Amdo astronomer and astrologer Blo gros rgya mtsho. During this time in Dharamsala he also encountered other Tibetologists such as Heather Stoddard.

One anecdote will have to suffice here as an illustration of Dieter Schuh’s time in Dharamsala and how quickly he integrated into Tibetan society. During a private meeting with Karl-Heinz Everding in 1998, bsTan ’dzin dge rgyas, the former private secretary of the Dalai Lama, asked about the health of Dieter Schuh and then, without any prompting, added:
“You know, when Dieter Schuh came to Dharamsala, within one year he not only mastered reading Classical Tibetan but also spoke Tibetan perfectly. And one year later he had finished the complete study of Tibetan astronomy. We have never seen a person like him here again. And when he was invited to the meetings of our society, he came and spoke honorific Tibetan (Tib. zhe sa) in a way that even we were barely able to understand. It was a level of elegance in Tibetan we had hardly ever heard before. He was a really astonishing man!”
When asked about this later, Dieter Schuh revealed only that at the time he had read the biography of the 7th Dalai Lama and had memorised a few of its idiomatic expressions to occasionally use in his conversations with Tibetans as a sort of ‘party trick’. He knew full well that these Tibetan idioms are no longer comprehensible, so he enjoyed teasing the Tibetans with their own culture.
Having returned to Bonn, he set about completing his dissertation, which was published in 1973 as Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der tibetischen Kalenderrechnung [Studies on the History of Tibetan Calendrical Calculation]. The issue he initially set out to deal with was described as follows:
“The difficulty of an exact conversion of even the year within a Tibetan date still exists today and lies in the fact that the beginning of the Tibetan year not only differs from the beginning of the Julian or Gregorian calendar year but also changes in its relationship to the ‘fixed’ beginning of the natural year because of its dependence on the variable beginnings of specific phases of the moon. Additionally, the Tibetan calendrical calculation for the length of the natural year takes as its basis a different value to the Julian or Gregorian calendar. This in turn leads to a not insignificant displacement of the average beginning of the year for the Tibetan calendar. For the exact conversion of any date including the month and day, one particular difficulty lies in the inclusion of ‘leap months’ in the Tibetan calendar and another arises due to the pattern of leaving out or adding in certain days of the calendar.”
In his dissertation, he starts with a basic introduction to the history of Tibetan astronomy, divination and calendrical calculation and goes on to provide comprehensive conversion tables which allow any Tibetan calendar days from 1027–1971 to be converted into the modern European calendar. In 1972, he had written his own programme in the programming language Fortran on an IBM computer to calculate these tables. It is no exaggeration to say that this work revolutionised the scientific insights into Tibetan calendrical calculations and continue to form the most significant reference work for the description of the Tibetan calendar and the conversion of Tibetan dates into modern calendar dates, regardless of which Tibetan calendar they were based on. The Korean Sokhyo Jo, who obtained his doctorate in 2016 in Harvard with a work on Tibetan astronomy, made multiple use of Dieter Schuh’s astronomical studies and was therefore well placed to offer the following praise:
“All in all, Schuh, being equipped with the best philology and … astronomical knowledge, has pioneered the new territories of skar rtsis and nag rtsis. His marvellous scholarship has been, is, and will be an inspiration for the research of the Tibetan rtsis.”
After this pioneering study, which would later pave his way to receiving a Heisenberg Grant from the German Research Foundation, he then moved into a completely different subject within Tibetology, whose fundamental sociopolitical significance made it very important to him: Tibetan diplomatics. Having set himself the task of editing, translating and analysing every Tibetan language legal document from the period of the Mongolian empire that he could lay his hands as an original or copy, his habilitation dissertation Erlasse und Sendschreiben mongolischer Herrscher für tibetische Geistliche. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Urkunden des tibetischen Mittelalters und ihrer Diplomatik (1977, A5) [Decrees and Missives of the Mongolian Rulers for Tibetan Clergy. A Contribution to Knowledge of the Official Documents from the Tibetan Middle Ages and their Diplomatics] could offer significant clarity on many key questions related to the history of Tibet in the 13th/14th centuries. This work was later supplemented by various monographs, some of which he authored together with Jampa Kalsang Phukhang: Urkunden und Sendschreiben aus Zentraltibet, Ladakh und Zanskar (A3 and A7) [Diplomas and Missives from Central Tibet, Ladakh and Zanskar], Historiographische Dokumente aus Zaṅs-dkar (A13) [Historiographical Documents from Zaṅs-dkar] and Urkunden, Erlasse und Sendschreiben aus dem Besitz sikkimesischer Adelshäuser und des Klosters Phodang (A6) [Diplomas, Decrees and Missives Held by Sikkimese Aristocratic Houses and Phodang Monastery], and also by official documents from the Ladhakhi ruling house (A11) and Tibeto-Mongolian documents from the Qing era (A12). He conducted further studies at this time which focussed on individual documents or legal issues (B2, B4-B7, B9, B11 and B13), but here we merely mention his publication Politische Implikationen tibetischer Urkundenformeln (A14) [Political Implications of the Wording of Tibetan Diplomas] and the two essays Zum Entstehungsprozeß von Urkunden in den tibetischen Herrscherkanzleien (1983, B18) [On the Process of Formation of Diplomas in the Chanceries of Tibetan Rulers] and Recht und Gesetz in Tibet (1984, B19) [Laws and the Law in Tibet], that dealt with the fundamental questions of judicial practice and jurisprudence, chancellery and judicature in Tibet. The issue of the law in Tibet had previously been rather neglected, so this abundance of studies put the field on an entirely new footing.
His work in diplomatics then received its – interim – crowning glory with his pioneering monograph Grundlagen tibetischer Siegelkunde. Eine Untersuchung über tibetische Siegelaufschriften in ’Phagspa-Schrift (1981, A9) [The Foundations of Tibetan Sigillography. A Study of Tibetan Seal Imprints in the ’Phags-pa Script]. In total, in a period of no more than ten years, Dieter Schuh edited, translated and analysed more than 200 Tibetan royal charters from the 13th-20th centuries which he had photographed during his time in India, Sikkim and Ladakh. He was dealing with material which is exceedingly difficult to process due to the diversity of idiomatic expressions, its ever-changing, lexically more-or-less undocumented legal terminology, and many other linguistic peculiarities. Indeed, translating the material with almost no omissions was an almost miraculous achievement and demonstrates his profound understanding of the legal structures and judicial behaviour of the Tibetan state, his familiarity with the Tibetan sense of justice, societal realities and cultural influences, and also his unique marriage of incredible intuition with logical thought, which was practically predestined to produce a sufficient grasp of the legal statements. He set in place an almost inestimable foundation for the study of Tibetan law and diplomatics.
The works which deal with the study of history and jurisprudence mainly appeared during the period when Dieter Schuh was working in a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 1969 to 1978 which was later taken up by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. It was intended to complete the cataloguing of all the Tibetan manuscripts and block prints that he himself had photographed while funded by the DFG in India or which were stored in the Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage. These comprised the Collected Works of rJe Mi pham rnam rgyal (1846–1912, A2) and of Kong sprul Blo gros mtha’ yas (1813–1899, A4) as well as a large part of the documents and scriptures collected by Laurence Austine Waddell (1854–1938) in Tibet (A8). By working on the writings of two important lamas of the rNying ma school and Waddell’s collection of deluxe editions and standard works of Tibetan literature, he opened up significant Tibetan source material to further study which was of exceptional exemplary value and which, thanks to his numerous translations and content analyses, presented crucial aspects of Tibetan literary history. The publication of these three volumes, comprising more than 1000 individual descriptions, took place as part of the project Katalogisierung orientalischer Handschriften in Deutschland (KOHD) [Cataloguing of Oriental Manuscripts in German Collections] within the Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland [Union Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts in German Collections]. This series of monographs was published by the Indologist Dr Wolfgang Vogt, Berlin State Library, who played a decisive role in the academic development of Dieter Schuh in this period.
During his stay in India from January 1967 to Autumn 1969, the jubilarian had followed the advice of his Indologist tutor in Cologne Prof. Klaus Ludwig Janert to carry out comprehensive microfilm photography of Tibetan texts, for which he visited various libraries and monastical institutes in Dharamsala, Darjeeling, Gangtok, Kalimpong, Dehradun and Solan. In this way, his trusty Leica preserved microfilm copies of 6000 works with 350,000 pages of texts for the archives of the Berlin State Library – and as Dieter Schuh once noted, without any erroneous ‘improvements’ by (overly) enthusiastic editors keen to enhance the faded parts of the pages for their offset printing, which would often result in spelling mistakes. A vivid image of these elaborate efforts, often involving long and arduous journeys but also leading to encounters with the Dalai Lama, Sa skya khri ’dzin, bDud ’joms rin po che, lJongs ldong Sangs rgyas bstan ’dzin, Bya ’bral rin po che and other high-ranking lamas, was given by Dieter Schuh himself in his research report (A2, Introduction).
There followed his appointment at the Department for Linguistics and Cultural Sciences of Central Asia (ZAS) at the University of Bonn, which gave him extraordinary freedom in his research. In 1978 the DFG had awarded him a Heisenberg Grant for a period of seven years, and then, shortly before this came to an end, the University of Bonn received funding for two top-level research posts from the Federal State of Nordrhein-Westfalen. Dieter Schuh was appointed to one of these posts at the ZAS. He had already begun to teach Tibetology at the University of Bonn in 1976, and this location remained the base for his work until he retired. The priorities in his long years of teaching activity were seminars in astronomy and calendrical calculation, divination, Tibetan history, historiography, emic grammar, logic, general literature and diplomatics. These informative and inspiring lessons were attended by an active circle of students, including Roland Bielmeier, Margret Causemann, Christoph Cüppers, Karl-Heinz Everding, Silke Hermann, Joachim Karsten, Andreas and Monika Kretschmar, Shen-yu Lin, Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Petra Maurer, Hanna Schneider, Peter Schwieger, Weirong Shen and Teming Tseng.

Seeing the need for an efficient, inexpensive platform to publish, present and publicise specialist works in Tibetology, in 1976 he joined forces with colleagues such as the Indologist Dr Richard Othon Meisezahl and TibetoMongolist Prof. Rainer Kämpfe to found the Association for Historical Studies on High Asia [in German, Vereinigung für Geschichtswissenschaft Hochasiens GmbH (VGH)] and its publishing arm, the VGH-Wissenschaftsverlag, which initially had its registered office in St. Augustin, then in Bonn and later in Halle (Saale). The association was immediately granted charitable status for its objectives of promoting science and research. It was responsible for a range of serial publications, the most notable of which was the Monumenta Tibetica Historica (MTH), which was established in 1977 after a series of individual and group discussions during the Csoma de Kőrös Memorial Symposium. The founding committee included Dieter Schuh alongside Prof. Luciano Petech (Rome), Prof. Wang Yao (Beijing), Prof. Rolf A. Stein (Paris), Dr Geza Uray (Hungary), Prof. Hans-Rainer Kämpfe (Bonn) and Dr Richard Othon Meisezahl (Bonn) (B12). The aim of the MTH was to edit and make accessible historical materials from the Tibetan cultural region. Inspired by the Monumenta Germaniae Historiae (MGH), it comprises the five sections I. Scriptores, II. Vitae, III. Diplomata et Epistolae, IV Leges et documenta iuris and V. Antiquitates.
In addition, in order to publish papers on the Tibetan sciences, on the geography and history, art and culture, society, and economics and material culture of Tibet, as well as on the religion and philosophy of Buddhism and Bon, it set up the serial publications Archiv für zentralasiatische Geschichtsforschung (AZG) [Archive for Central Asian Historical Research] and Beiträge zur Zentralasienforschung (BZF) [Contributions to Central Asia Studies], Beiträge zur tibetischen Erzählforschung (BTE) [Contributions to Tibetan Story Studies] and Sonderausgaben der Tibet-Encyclopaedia (STE) [Special Editions of the Tibet Encyclopaedia]. The series Beiträge zur Tibetischen Erzählforschung, one volume of which was authored by Dieter Schuh himself (A2), deserves a particular mention here. The fifteen volumes published to date contain nearly 400 Tibetan fairy tales, fables and anecdotes recorded and transcribed in the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) in the dialects of Ding ri, sKyid grong and Shigatse, from nomads in Amdo, in Nang chen in eastern Tibet and in southeastern Tibet, as well as in various regions of eastern, western and central Tibet. A linguistic analysis of the different dialects was also conducted adding to the benefits of this collection of stories from oral traditions which are under extreme threat from societal change and may very well soon be completely lost.
Furthermore, the well-known Zentralasiatischen Studien (ZAS) [Central Asia Studies], the journal published by the Central Asia Department at the University of Bonn, which has now become the Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies within the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies at the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn, benefitted from an initiative of Dieter Schuh in 2003 and experienced a renaissance after it was threatened with closure: Volumes 1–31 (1967–2002) had been published by the Otto Harrassowitz-Verlag, Wiesbaden, and it was Dieter Schuh who ensured that its publication could continue until the present day. This became possible in part due to the establishment of the International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies (IITBS) in 2005 by renaming the Association for Historical Studies on High Asia (VGH). The new institute was initially based in Halle, moving in 2010 to Andiast, Graubünden, Switzerland, where it still serves the study of the culture and history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism today. Thanks to this initiative of Dieter Schuh, more than 100 monographs and collected volumes have been published, alongside hundreds of papers with research results. It is this untiring commitment and effort to benefit the field of Tibetology which inspired the title of this present Festschrift: A Life in Tibetan Studies.

In the 1990s, Dieter Schuh’s creative abilities were primarily dedicated to the implementation of a Priority Programme from the German Research Foundation (DFG) which he led together with Prof. Willibald Haffner from the Geographic Institute at the Justus Liebig University Giessen: the research programme Siedlungsprozesse und Staatenbildungen im westtibetischen Himalaya [Settlement Processes and State-Building in the Western Tibetan Himalayas], which comprised numerous individual projects: on prehistory and cave studies, archaeology and settlement history, population statistics and local history, land usage and social communities, hippiatry, geography and topography, local and regional historical development, dendrochronology and climate change, historic roads and linguistics, economics and trade, flora and fauna, and also art, culture and architecture. The opening-up of Mustang then offered a unique opportunity to conduct research in a largely unexplored Tibetan-Buddhist cultural area with an interdisciplinary approach networking between various academic disciplines.
This opportunity was taken up by many students of Dieter Schuh alongside other Tibetologists such as Katja Buffetrille, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Helmut Eimer, John Harrison and Charles Ramble. Indeed, this Priority Programme alone, carried out from July 1992 to the end of 1999, led to 202 publications (B28) from more than 60 authors and co-authors. Alongside the management of this Priority Programme, in this period Dieter Schuh also conducted studies of the political organisation of southern Mustang (B20) and the history of the Muktinath Valley (B22 and B23). Furthermore, he was involved in several projects to explore the caves of Muktinath Valley (B26 and B27).

Dieter Schuh was not satisfied with the details of the population statistics being noted in tibetological and anthropological studies. In his opinion they were based on poorly evidenced estimates, so they were too imprecise and unreliable. For this reason, when conducting field studies he was always on the lookout for documents that would help with demographic research, alongside the historical and legal documents his other research needed. In the early 1980s his search bore fruit in the archives of the Tashi Samten Ling monastery in Kathmandu, located at the foot of the Swayambhunath Stupa: he was able to microfilm 190 diplomas, fundamental legal documents, and important documents for demographical studies, as well as the inventories and catalogues of the monastery (A15). These discoveries enabled him to study wages, calculate prices for food and rent payments, and estimate the life expectancy of Tibetans as well as the proportion of monks relative to the general population. He could also look into the political and social factors behind the transfer of land and other resources to Tibetan monasteries. One very illustrative example of these studies is his long essay with the title: Klosterfeudalismus in Tibet aus historischer und ökonomischer Sicht [Monastic Feudalism in Tibet from a Historical and Economic Perspective]. By presenting one particular case study, it describes the land ownership, the number and size of the fields, farmers and herders belonging to the monastery, as well as the effects of the distribution.
In 2007, a year before the controversial Olympic Games in Beijing (2008), he was invited by the German TV broadcaster ZDF to be a consultant travelling with their team following the footsteps of Heinrich Harrer. This resulted in a two-part film Tibet — Reise durch ein verbotenes Land [Tibet — Journey through a Forbidden Land] which was an enormous success, not least because it delivered a visual impression of present-day Tibet under Chinese rule alongside the many historical references. Dieter Schuh published his own book illustrated with numerous photos taken during that trip entitled Tibet – Traum und Wirklichkeit. Chinatowns und das Ende der tibetischen Zivilisation (A16) [Tibet — Dream and Reality. Chinatowns and the End of Tibetan Civilisation] to document the radical reorganisation of Tibetan cities and the marginalisation of the Tibetan population due to the influx of Han Chinese people.

Commenting on the photo, he could not resist noting that the price of the businessman’s economic success seems to be hanging over them both.”
The year 2012 saw the publication of his four-volume Contributions to the History of Tibetan Mathematics, Tibetan Astronomy, Tibetan Time Calculation (Calendar) and Sino-Tibetan Divination, forming a compendium on the Tibetan calculation sciences. This included reproductions of all significant works that had appeared in this field before 2012, including Dieter Schuh’s out-of-print dissertation. In the first volume this reprint was supplemented with the first systematic, generally comprehensible introduction to Tibetan astronomy (rtsis) and mathematics, encompassing every explanation imaginable that a Tibetologist unfamiliar with these fields could desire, ranging from the abacus to the “slow and quick feet of the planets” and the planet Engke. In the fourth volume he included a glossary of all the specialist terms appearing in the first three volumes, which was certainly a milestone whose importance for this field of study will never fade.
At more or less the same time, Dieter Schuh was investigating the areas on the western and south-western peripheries of the Tibetan high plateau. Here we will mention his study of the royal and private diplomas and documents in the collection of the Ladakhi intellectual Sonam Skyabldan Gergan (A17). During several stays in Ladakh, Dieter Schuh had developed a close relationship with S. S. Gergan, who had already offered to let him microfilm part of his archive back in the 1970s. With great pleasure Dieter Schuh had, of course, at the time selected the diplomas in the collection, of which there were 69 examples. Although the jubilarian was once more returning to the Western Tibetan areas as the object of his study, particularly the Ladakhi area and history, this then led his interest towards the Baltistan area of north-eastern Pakistan, which had formed part of the Greater Tibetan Kingdom in the 7th9th centuries and where even today the dialect spoken resembles the Tibetan of that period. In order to study and visually and textually document the generally unknown mountainous regions of this country, its former minor kingdoms, its monuments and early-era petroglyphs, between 2007 and 2011 he undertook several journeys through remote terrain, involving considerable difficulties. The results were published in his four-volume Reise in die Geschichte Baltistans [Journey into the History of Baltistan] (2012, A18 and A19).

In the same way, he then devoted his efforts to Purig (A20, A22, A23, A25, B30, B33), Spiti (A24, A26) and the southern and northern regions of Mustang (A21, B20, B38-B40). While undertaking journeys to these regions and looking for official documents, his excellent Tibetan language skills and his open, friendly manner always rapidly ensured he was invited into monasteries and the houses of the descendants of the families who once ruled the regions, and these then readily granted him access to and permission to photograph their archives of documents, which nobody had ever previously shown any interest in. This resulted in studies whose density and factuality are unrivalled and whose academic importance cannot be underestimated. They grant a completely new insight into the political, legal and social relations of these peripheral and more locally organised regions, some of whom had themselves abolished the feudal system and replaced it with community-oriented, democratic types of administrative structures.
The numerous official documents which he had photographed himself over many years and which Peter Schwieger was able to digitise in 1999–2001 in the project Digitalization of Tibetan documents in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, PR China within the Archives of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, enabled him to compile two catalogues of seals reproducing well over 1000 Tibetan seal impressions (B32 and B36) – another remarkable and astonishing achievement.
From June 8–12, 2014, to celebrate the 65th birthday of Christoph Cüppers, he organised a symposium at the IITBS in Andiast with the title Secular Law and Order in the Tibetan Highland (D6). It dealt with a range of aspects of the history of law in Tibet from the period of the Greater Tibetan Kingdom through to the 20th century and encompassed contributions on Tibetan legal codices, jurisprudence and courts, public administration and penal codes.
His long essay on Landwirte im tibetischen Hochland: Im Elend lebende Leibeigene oder sozial und wirtschaftlich stabile Säulen feudaler Herrschaften? Statistische Analysen zur Vermögensungleichheit [Agriculturalists in the Tibetan Highlands: Serfs Living in Hardship or Socially and Economically Stable Pillars of Feudal Regimes? Statistical Analyses of Wealth Inequality] represented another crucial study which, typically for him, was pioneering and cast a much-needed light on an under-researched area here, social life in Tibet. Finally, mention must be made here of his interesting essays Das Märchen von der Einkerkerung einer ladakhischen Prinzessin in der Burg von Kagbeni (B35) [The Fairy Tale of the Imprisonment of a Ladakhi Princess in the Dungeons of Kagbeni Castle], Politik und Wissenschaft in Tibet im 13. und 17. Jahrhundert [Politics and Science in Tibet in the 13th and 17th Centuries] (B24) and Srid ohne Chos? Reflektionen zum Verhältnis von Buddhismus und säkularer Herrschaft im tibetischen Kulturraum (B25) [Srid without Chos? Reflections on the Relations between Buddhism and Secular Rule in the Tibetan Cultural Area]. – papers which are certainly well worth reading.
In addition to these publications in book format, after years of frustration attempting to contribute to Wikipedia, Dieter Schuh began work on his own digital platform for the results of his work in 2010: the Tibet Encyclopaedia (http:// www.tibet-encyclopaedia.de/). In more than 100 entries, he commented on key terms that had formed the focus of his earlier publications. Frequently illustrated and generally very comprehensive, these digital articles contain a wealth of material which cannot be found elsewhere.
The above overview of the results of Dieter Schuh’s research makes it abundantly clear how his work has formed an essential building block for everyone interested in a deeper understanding of diplomatics, history, population studies, social sciences, linguistics and many other research areas relating to Tibet. The methodology, formality and contents of his research have always been firmly rooted in academic theory and critical rationalism. The approaches he took were convincing and pioneering, leading to results which are as fundamental to the studies of today’s researchers as the works of Giuseppe Tucci, Rolf A. Stein or David Seyford Ruegg were to his own. He never evaded critical discussion of the results of his research and also did not hold back when he felt that criticism of others was justified and necessary. For him, basic academic principles were beyond discussion.
Even though he revolutionised numerous fields of Tibetology, his works have still not achieved the level of widespread familiarity among Tibetologists that they deserve. This can surely only be explained by the reluctance of contemporary Anglo-American Tibetology to engage more than superficially with German-language research – and Dieter Schuh’s publications are almost exclusively in German.
In the course of his life, Dieter Schuh always had an open ear for everyone who turned to him with specialist questions and research projects. He was able to help many of them find answers to their difficult questions, give them important impulses and open up perspectives – all helping to significantly enhance the results of their work. Access to important source material under his control or ideas on the implementation of project ideas were always willingly granted, and he has never ceased to support the work of his students and colleagues to the best of his ability. More than a few of those seeking his advice or support received an invitation to the IITBS in order to further discuss the details of their difficult questions and problems.
Additional info
A. Monographs
A1. Untersuchungen zur tibetischen Kalenderrechnung. Wiesbaden 1973 (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Supplementband 16).
A2. Tibetische Handschriften und Blockdrucke sowie Tonbandaufnahmen tibetischer Erzählungen. Teil 5. Wiesbaden 1973 (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Bd. XI, 5).
A3. Urkunden und Sendschreiben aus Zentraltibet, Ladakh und Zanskar. 1. Teil. St. Augustin 1976 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 2).
A4. Tibetische Handschriften und Blockdrucke. Teil 6. Gesammelte Werke des Koṅ-sprul Blo-gros-mtha’-yas. Wiesbaden 1976 (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Bd. XI, 6).
A5. Erlasse und Sendschreiben mongolischer Herrscher für tibetische Geistliche. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Urkunden des tibetischen Mittelalters und ihrer Diplomatik. St. Augustin 1977 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 1).
A6. Urkunden, Erlasse und Sendschreiben aus dem Besitz sikkimesischer Adelshäuser und des Klosters Phodang. St. Augustin 1978 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 3). Unter Mitarbeit von L. S. Dagyab.
A7. Urkunden und Sendschreiben aus Zentraltibet, Ladakh und Zanskar. 2. Teil. St. Augustin 1979 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 4). Unter Mitarbeit von J. K. Phukhang.
A8. Tibetische Handschriften und Blockdrucke. Teil 8. Sammlung Waddell der Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Wiesbaden 1981 (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Bd. XI,8).
A9. Grundlagen tibetischer Siegelkunde. Eine Untersuchung über tibetische Siegelaufschriften in ’Phags-pa-Schrift. St. Augustin 1981 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 5).
A10. Märchen, Sagen und Schwänke vom Dach der Welt. Teil 1. Erzählgut aus Zentralund Osttibet, erzählt in der Sprache von Lhasa. St. Augustin 1982 (Beiträge zur tibetischen Erzählforschung, Bd. 1).
A11. Frühe Beziehungen zwischen dem ladakhischen Herrscherhaus und der südlichen ’Brug-pa-Schule. St. Augustin 1983 (Archiv für Zentralasiatische Geschichtsforschung, Heft 2).
A12. Zwei ch’ing-zeitliche tibeto-mongolische Dokumente. St. Augustin 1983 (Archiv für Zentralasiatische Geschichtsforschung, Heft 4).
A13. Historiographische Dokumente aus Zaṅs-dkar, herausgegeben, übersetzt und kommentiert unter Mitarbeit von J. K. Phukhang. St. Augustin 1983 (Archiv für Zentralasiatische Geschichtsforschung, Heft 6).
A14. Politische Implikationen tibetischer Urkundenformeln. St. Augustin 1985 (Archiv für Zentralasiatische Geschichtsforschung, Heft 9).
A15. Das Archiv des Klosters bKra-sis-bsam-gtan-gliṅ von sKyid-groṅ. 1. Teil: Urkunden zur Klosterordnung, grundlegende Rechtsdokumente und demographisch bedeutsame Dokumente, Findbücher. Bonn 1988 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 6).
A16. Tibet — Traum und Wirklichkeit: Chinatowns und das Ende der tibetischen Zivilisation. Halle (Saale) 2007 (Beiträge zur Zentralasienforschung 13) A17. Herrscherurkunden und Privaturkunden aus Westtibet (Ladakh). Halle (Saale) 2008 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 11) A18. Reise in die Geschichte Baltistans, Band 1–3. Expedition in ein immer noch unbekanntes Land. Andiast 2011.
A19. Reise in die Geschichte Baltistans, Band 4. Expedition in ein immer noch unbekanntes Land. Andiast 2012.
A20. Travel into the History of Purig. Preliminary Report about a Journey to Purig in 2013. Andiast 2014 (Beiträge zur Zentralasienforschung 29) A21. unter Mitarbeit von Wangdu Lama. Rekonstruktion von Sozialgeschichte anhand von Rechtsdokumenten: Untersuchungen zur historischen Demographie von Marpha (Südmustang). X, 562 Seiten, Andiast 2015 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 12).
A22. unter Mitarbeit von Ajaz Hussain Munshi, Temba Schuh, Mohammed Fayaz und Junichiro Honjo. Burgen und Altertümer von Purig. Andiast 2015.
A23. Herrschaft, örtliche Verwaltung und Demographie des äußersten Westens des tibetischen Hochlandes: Rechtsdokumente aus Purig und Spiti. Teil 1: Purig. Andiast 2016 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 14).
A24. Herrschaft, örtliche Verwaltung und Demographie des äußersten Westens des tibetischen Hochlandes: Rechtsdokumente aus Purig und Spiti. Teil 2: Spiti. X, 284 Seiten, Andiast 2016 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 15).
A25. unter Mitarbeit von Quentin Devers und Gulzar Hussain Munshi: Die erfundene Geschichte (Fake-Story) vom tragischen Schicksal der muslimischen Königin Bhi-bhi. Neue Urkundenfunde aus Sangrah: Quellen zur Geschichte des niederen Landadels im Suru-Tal (Purig). Andiast 2018 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 17).
A26. und Jörg Heimbel: Beiträge zur politischen Geschichte von Spiti zwischen 1629 und 1842 und zur Geschichte der Sa-skya-pa-Schule im äußersten Westen des tibetischen Hochlandes: Rechtsdokumente aus dem Kloster Gog-mig ( ~ sTengrgyud) in Spiti. 1. Teil: Beiträge von Dieter Schuh. Andiast 2019 (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 18 (1)).
B. Articles
B1. Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Astronomie in Tibet. Teil 1: Elementare Arithmetik, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 4 (1970), S. 81–181.
B2. Über die Möglichkeit der Identifizierung tibetischer Jahresangaben anhand der sMe-ba dgu, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 6 (1972), S. 485–504.
B3. Die Darlegungen des tibetischen Enzyklopädisten Koṅ-sprul Blo-gros mtha’yas über osttibetische Hochzeitsbräuche, in: Serta Tibeto-Mongolica. Wiesbaden 1973, S. 295–349.
B4. Die Darlegungen des 5. Dalai Lama Ṅag-dbaṅ blo-bzaṅ rgya-mcho zur Kalkulation der neun sMe-ba, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 7 (1973), S. 353–423.
B5. Der chinesische Steinkreis. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Sino-tibetischen Divinationskalkulationen, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 7 (1973), S. 353–423. B6. Grundzüge der Entwicklung der tibetischen Kalenderrechnung, in: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Supplement II 1974, S. 554–556.
B7. Ein Rechtsbrief des 7. Dalai Lama für den tibetischen Residenten am Stūpa von Bodhnāth. Zentralasiatische Studien 8 (1974), S. 554–566.
B8. Das Theaterstück ’Gro-ba bzaṅ-mo in der Version der Theatergruppe von Dharamsala, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 8 (1974), S. 455–523.
B9. Wie ist die Einladung des fünften Karma-pa an den chinesischen Kaiserhof als Fortführung der Tibetpolitik der Mongolen-Khane zu verstehen?, in: Altaica Collecta. Wiesbaden 1976, S. 209–244.
B10. Der Schauspieler des tibetischen Lha-mo-Theaters, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 10 (1976), S. 339 – 384. Englische Übersetzung: The actor in the Tibetan Lha-mo theatre, in: The Singing Mask. Echoes of Tibetan Opera (= Lungta 15), Amnye Machen Institute, Tibetan Centre for Advanced Studies. Dharamshala 2001: 97–118.
B11. Eine kollektive tibetische Schuldurkunde, in: Folia Rara. Wiesbaden 1976, S. 93110.
B12. Bericht über die Gründung der Monumenta tibetica historica. Bulletin of the Csoma de Körös Symposium, No. 1 – 2 (1977), S. 16–18.
B13. Ergebnisse und Aspekte tibetischer Urkundenforschung, in: Proceedings of the Csoma de Körös Memorial Symposium. Budapest 1978, S. 411–425.
B14. Bericht über die filmische Dokumentation einer tibetischen Orakel-Séance, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 13 (1979), S. 511–531.
B15. A tibeti ido”számitás, in: Bevezetées a magyar östörténet kutatásának forrásaiba III. Budapest 1980, S. 221–228.
B16. Beiträge „Tibetische Quellen“ und „Tibet unter der Mongolenherrschaft“, in: Die Mongolen. Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur. Darmstadt 1986, S. 14–17 und 283–289.
B17. Zu den Hintergründen der Parteinahme Ladakh’s für Bhutan im Krieg gegen Lhasa, in: Recent Research on Ladakh. München – Köln – London 1983, S. 37–50.
B18. Zum Entstehungsprozeß von Urkunden in den tibetischen Herrscherkanzleien, in: Contributions on Tibetan Language, History and Culture, Vol. 1. Wien 1983, S. 303–328.
B19. Recht und Gesetz in Tibet, in: Tibetan and Buddhist Studies. Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Alexander Csoma de Körös. Budapest 1984, S. 291–311.
B20. The political organisation of Southern Mustang during the 17th and 18th Centuries, Ancient Nepal 119, 1990, S. 1–7.
B21. Introduction und Research Proposal : Joint Nepal-German archaeological research project. High Mountin archaeology on prehistoruc dwellings in the Mustang
zone. Ancient Nepal 130–133, 1993, S. c‑m. (Auch erschienen in: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Reports on research activities in the Nepal-Tibetan border area of Mustang during the years 1992–1998, Bonn 1999).
B22. Investigation in the History of the Muktinath Valley and Adjacent Areas, Part I.
Ancient Nepal 137, 1994, S. 9–92. (Auch erschienen in: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Reports on research activities in the Nepal-Tibetan border area of Mustang during the years 1992–1998, Bonn 1999).
B23. Investigation in the History of the Muktinath Valley and Adjacent Areas, Part II.
Ancient Nepal 138, 1995, S. 5–54, 14 Tafeln. (Auch erschienen in: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Reports on research activities in the Nepal-Tibetan border area of Mustang during the years 1992–1998, Bonn 1999).
B24. Politik und Wissenschaft in Tibet im 13. und 17. Jahrhundert, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 33 (2004), S. 1–23.
B25. Srid ohne Chos? Reflektionen zum Verhältnis von Buddhismus und säkularer Herrschaft im tibetischen Kulturraum. In: Christoph Cüppers (ed.): The Relationship Between Religion and State (chos srid zung ‘brel) Traditional Tibet. Proceedings of a Seminar Held in Lumbini, Nepal, March 2000. Lumbini International Research Institute. Lumbini 2004: 291–97). Auch erschienen in: Zentralasiatische Studien 33 (2004), S. 153–162.
B26. Reisen zu den Höhlen von Süd-Mustang (1985–1992), in: Zentralasiatische Studien 35 (2006), S. 1–106.
B27. (zus. mit R. Bielmeier, C. Cüppers und B. Schmidt), Forschungsbericht über die Exploration der Höhlen des Muktinath-Tales (1986–1987), in: Zentralasiatische Studien 35 (2006), S. 107–166.
B28. Bibliographie von Veröffentlichungen des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms „Staatenbildung und Siedlungsprozesse im tibetischen Himalaya“, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 35 (2006), S. 273–288.
B29. Die sa-bdag (Erdherrengeister) und die Schwierigkeiten der Interpretation illuminierter Manuskripte, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 40 (2011), S. 7–163. B30. Vier Rechtsdokumente des „Munshi Aziz Bhat Museum of Central Asian and Kargil Trade Artefacts” in Kargil (Purig), in: Zentralasiatische Studien 43 (2014), S. 311–338.
B31. Zwischen Großreich und Phyi-dar: Eine dunkle, kulturlose Zeit? Das Beispiel des Lehrsystems von sinotibetischen Divinationskalkulationen (nag-rtsis), Geomantie (sa-dpyad), gTo-Ritualen und Erdherrengeister (sa-bdag), in: Zentralasiatische Studien 45 (2016), S. 361–395.
B32. Ein Katalog von Siegelabdrücken aus Ladakh, Purig und Spiti, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 45 (2016), S. 493–582.
B33. Neue Urkundenfunde aus der Herrschaft dKar-rtse: Ein Beitrag zur Verwaltungsund Rechtsgeschichte von Purig zwischen 1767 und 1842, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 46 (2017), S. 159–182.
B34. Die Inschrift III von Feekar in der Herrschaft Sod von Purig, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 46 (2017), S. 183–188.
B35. Das Märchen von der Einkerkerung einer ladakhischen Prinzessin in der Burg von Kagbeni: Eine Herrscherurkunde des 7. Dalai Lama zum Krieg zwischen Mustang und Jumla des Jahres 1723, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 47 (2018), S. 7–27. B36. Ein Katalog von Siegelabdrücken aus der Zeit der dGa´-ldan pho-brang-Regierung in Tibet, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 47 (2018), S. 111–435.
B37. Landwirte (khral-pa, khral-´dzin, grong-pa, khang-chen) im tibetischen Hochland: Im Elend lebende Leibeigene oder sozial und wirtschaftlich stabile Säulen feudaler Herrschaften? Statistische Analysen zur Vermögensungleichheit, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 48 (2020), S. 125–234.
B38. (zus. mit C. Cüppers und Kashinath Tamot), Historische Quellen zur Geschichte von Süd-Mustang (Glo-bo smad) Teil 1: Fünfzehn auf Kupferplatten ausgefertigte Urkunden der Könige von Parbat (Gru) aus dem 18. Jahrhundert für Destinatäre in Südmustang, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 48 (2020), S. 235–347.
B39. Herrscherurkunden der Könige von Nord-Mustang (Glo sMon-thang) Teil 1: Urkunden der Könige dBang-rgyal rdo-rje, bKra-shis snying-po und ´Jam-dpal dgra-´dul, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 48 (2020), S. 349–503.
B40. Herrscherurkunden der Könige von Nord-Mustang (Glo sMon-thang) Teil 2: Urkunden der Könige Kun-dga´ nor-bu, ´Jam-dbyangs dbang-´dus alias bDud-´dul spen-pa rnam-rgyal und dBang-rgyal nor-bu, der Königsmutter (rgyal-yum) bKrashis bu-khrid, des Königs sNyigs-dus karma ´dus-pa alias Anāthasiddhishribhadra (~ mGon-med dngos-grub dpal-bzang) alias Siddhishribhadra alias Siddhishrijāla, der Königsmutter (a‑yum) Zla-ba lha-mo und der Könige ´Jam-dbyangs rgyalmtshan alias Mañjughoṣa alias ´Jam-dpal dpal-´bar, ´Jam-dpal bstan-´dzin dgra´dul, dBang-´dus snying-po alias dBang-mgon snying-po und ´Jig-med spar-ba, in: Zentralasiatische Studien 49 (2021), S. 7–280.
C. Book reviews
C1. R. Kaschewsky: Das Leben des lamaistischen Heiligen Tsongkhapa Blo-bzaṅgrags-pa (1357 – 1419). Wiesbaden 1971, in: Mundus, Vol. IX, 1973, N. 3, S. 216–218.
C2. L. Petech: Aristocracy and Government in Tibet, 1728 – 1959. Roma 1973, In: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 127 (1977), S. 172–175.
C3. M. Abelein: Shisha Pangma. Bergisch Gladbach 1980, In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 3. Februar 1981, S. 10.
C4. Manfred Gerner: Schneeland Tibet. Frankfurt 1981, in: Das neue China, 8. Jahrgang, Nr. 6, 1981, S. 32–33.
C5. Per K. Sørensen and Guntram Hazod in Cooperation with Tsering Gyalpo, Rulers on the Celestial Plain. Ecclesiastic and Secular Hegemony in Medieval Tibet . A Study of Tshal Gung-thang. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. S. 190–205. ZAS 37 (2008).
C6. Svante Janson, “Tibetan Calendar Mathematics”. Internet publication on the server of the Department of Mathematics, Uppsala Univerity. Nachum Dershowitz and Edward M. Reingold, Calendrical Calculations. Edward Henning, Kalacakra and the Tibetan Calendar. S. 205–242. ZAS 37 (2008)
D. Published series and works
D1. Monumenta tibetica historica (Bände 1–19).
D2. Archiv für zentralasiatische Geschichtsforschung (Hefte 1–20).
D3. Beiträge zur tibetischen Erzählforschung (Bände 1–15).
D4. Beiträge zur Zentralasienforschung (Bände 1–29).
D5. Sonderausgabe der Tibet-Encyclopedia (STE).
D6. Tibetische Handschriften und Blockdrucke. Teil 9. Eingeleitet und beschrieben von Peter Schwieger. Stuttgart 1985 (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Bd. XI, 9).
D7. Secular Law and Order in the Tibetan Highland. Contributions to a workshop organized by the Tibet Institute in Andiast (Switzerland) on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Christoph Cüppers from the 8th of June to the 12th of June 2014. Andiast 2015. (Monumenta tibetica historica, Abteilung III: Diplomata et epistolae, Bd. 13).
D8. Contributions to the History of Tibetan Mathematics, Tibetan Astronomy, Tibetan Time Calculation (Calendar) and Sino-Tibetan Divination. Andiast 2012. (Archiv für zentralasiatische Geschichtsforschung, Heft 17–20).