Christopher I. Beckwith

Christopher I. Beckwith
Born (1945-10-23) October 23, 1945 (age 79)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Philologist, linguist
Academic work
InstitutionsIndiana University Bloomington
Main interestsCentral Eurasian studies

Christopher I. Beckwith (born October 23, 1945) is an American philologist and distinguished professor in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana.[1]

He has a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese from Ohio State University (1968), an Master of Arts in Tibetan from Indiana University Bloomington (1974) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Inner Asian Studies from Indiana University (1977).

Beckwith, a MacArthur Fellow,[2] is a researcher in the field of Central Eurasian studies. He researches the history and cultures of ancient and medieval Central Asia. Concomitantly he specializes in Asian language studies and linguistics, and in the history of Central Eurasia. He teaches Old Tibetan, Central Eurasian languages, and Central Eurasian history and researches the linguistics of Aramaic, Chinese, Japanese, Koguryo, Old Tibetan, Tokharian, Old Turkic, Uzbek, and other languages.[3][1]

His best-known works include Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia and Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Greek Buddha examines links between very early Buddhism and the philosophy of Pyrrho, an ancient Greek philosopher who accompanied Alexander the Great on his Indian campaign. The book is noted for its challenging and iconoclastic approach to multiple issues in the development of early Buddhism, Pyrrhonism, Daoism, Jainism and the Śramaṇa movement.[4] Empires of the Silk Road is a rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of Central Eurasia.[5] Beckwith's methodologies and interpretations have been criticized by other scholars, such as Johannes Bronkhorst[6] Osmund Bopearachchi[7] Stephen Batchelor[8] and Charles Goodman.[9]

  1. ^ a b "Christopher Beckwith: Faculty: Department of Central Eurasian Studies". Indiana.edu. 2009-08-06. Archived from the original on 2015-12-06. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  2. ^ MacArthur Foundation, "Christopher Beckwith, Philologist", 1986.
  3. ^ "Christopher I. Beckwith". Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. Archived from the original on 2018-06-14. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
  4. ^ Beckwith, C. I., Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2015).
  5. ^ Rothstein, E., "Information Highway: Camel Speed but Exotic Links", The New York Times, November 12, 2009.
  6. ^ Bronkhorst, Johannes (21 March 2016). "How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas". How the Brahmins Won. Brill. pp. 483–489. ISBN 978-90-04-31551-8. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  7. ^ Osmund, Bopearachchi (2016). "Reviews". Ancient West & East. 15: 303–486. doi:10.2143/AWE.15.0.3167478.
  8. ^ Stephen Batchelor "Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's encounter with early Buddhism in central Asia", Contemporary Buddhism, 2016, pp 195-215
  9. ^ Charles Goodman, "Neither Scythian nor Greek: A Response to Beckwith's Greek Buddha and Kuzminski's "Early Buddhism Reconsidered"", Philosophy East and West, University of Hawai'i Press Volume 68, Number 3, July 2018 pp. 984-1006