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Lusos BELKA nominational perspectives. Buddhism is understood as a religion, not a worldview, psychological method of managing life, or philosophy (although all these aspects may be identified in Buddhism). Scientific nature and approach void of assessment is conditio sine qua non of the academic study of religions. Thus, the subject of study is Buddhism as a manifestation of human history in its most varied forms and throughout the two and a half millennia. The ideal context for the study of religions is the combination of textual and field research, which is a later phenomenon in the history of Buddhology, with the first researchers in situ appearing at the turn of the 19" and 20" centuries. These brave men conducted rare and exceptional research, which formed the foundations of the modern academic study of Buddhism. The interconnection of field research and textual study is a standard of scientific work nowadays. However, the situation used to be very different, as will be demonstrated in the following contribution. The well-known academics in the area of Oriental studies and founders of the study of religions in Czechoslovakia included Vincenc Lesny°, Otakar Pertold’, and Jaroslav Prüsek.® After World War II, they were joined by new academics who had field experience with Buddhism in Asia, namely its Tibetan form. These were in particular Pavel Poucha and Lumir Jisl, who travelled to Mongolia and China for research purposes at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. Pavel Poucha was the founder of Mongolian studies in Czechoslovakia as an academic discipline before World War II; however, he was able to start field research in Mongolia and China as late as in the 1950s. He was also an extraordinarily productive writer, who published a number of monographs, reports and specialized articles in various languages’ etc. Mongolian studies were established as a field of study in the 5 Vincenc Lesny (3 April 1882, Komärovice — 9 April 1953, Praha), was Indologist, professor at Charles University; more about him in: Filipsky, Jan (ed.): Vincenc Lesny and Indian Studies. Oriental Institute, Praha 1982; see also Smekal, Odolen (ed.): Vincenc Lesny a ceska indologie. [Vincenc Lesny and the Czech study of India] Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Philosophica et Historica Vol. 4. Univerzita Karlova, Praha 1991. 7 Otakar Pertold (21 March 1884, Jaromëï — 3 May 1965, Praha), was Indologist; professor of comparative religious science at Charles University; more about him in: Horyna, Bfetislav — Pavlincovä, Helena: Dejiny religionistiky. Antologie [History of the Studying Religions. An Anthology] Nakladatelstvi Olomouc, Olomouc 2001, pp. 336-343; Bubik, Tomas: West Sees East: Cultural Stereotypes in TwentiethCentury Czech Discourse about Indian Religions. Zemenos Vol. 49. No. 1. (2013), pp. 131-154. 8 Jaroslav Prisek (14 September 1906, Praha — 7 April 1980, Praha), was Sinologist and Japanologist, professor at Charles University, Director of the Oriental Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences; more about him in: Sima, Jifi (ed.): Jaroslav Prüsek. Bibliografie 1931-1991 [Jaroslav Prüsek. A Bibliography 1931-1991]. Orientälni üstav, Praha 1994. ° Biography and bibliography see Kolmai, Josef — Sima, Jiti: Bibliography of Pavel Josef Poucha 5 Works, Oriental Institute, Praha 1970, p. 57; see also Schwarz, Michal — Blazek, Vaclav: Pavel Poucha (29. 12. 1905 Vienna — 15. 1. 1986 Prague) — his Life, Travels and Complete Bibliography. Tocharian Studies. Works 1, Masaryk University, Brno 2011, pp. 173-210. 408
