Giuseppe Tucci

Tucci drinking butter tea in Tibet. Photo by Fosco Maraini.

Giuseppe Tucci (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈtuttʃi]; 5 June 1894 – 5 April 1984) was an Italian scholar of oriental cultures, specialising in Tibet and history of Buddhism. During its zenith, Tucci was a supporter of Italian Fascism, and he used idealized portrayals of Asian traditions to support Italian ideological campaigns. Tucci was fluent in several European languages, Sanskrit, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit, Chinese and Tibetan and he taught at the University of Rome La Sapienza until his death. He is considered one of the founders of the field of Buddhist Studies.

Life and work

Education and background

He was born to a middle-class family in Macerata, Marche, and thrived academically. He taught himself Hebrew, Chinese and Sanskrit before even going to university and in 1911, aged only 18, he published a collection of Latin epigraphs in the prestigious Review of the Germanic Archaeological Institute. He completed his studies at the University of Rome in 1919, where his studies were repeatedly interrupted as a result of World War I.

After graduating, he traveled to India and settled down at the Visva-Bharati University, founded by the Bengali poet and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. There he studied Buddhism, Tibetan and Bengali, and also taught Italian and Chinese. He also studied and taught at Dhaka University, the University of Benares and Calcutta University. He remained in India until 1931, when he returned to Italy.

Scholarship and reputation

He was Italy's foremost scholar of the East, with such diverse research interests ranging from ancient Iranian religion to Chinese philosophy. He taught primarily at the University of Rome but was a visiting scholar at institutions throughout Europe and Asia. In 1931, the University of Naples made him its first Chair of Chinese Language and Literature. In 1933 he promoted the foundation the Italian Institute for the Middle and Far East - IsMEO (Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente), based in Rome. The IsMEO was established as a "Moral body directly depending on Mussolini".[1] Until 1945, when the IsMEO was closed, Gentile was its President and Tucci was its Managing Vice-President and, later, Director of the courses of languages.

Tucci officially visited Japan for the first time in November 1936, and remained there for over two months until January 1937, when he attended at the opening of the Italian-Japanese Institute (Istituto Italo-nipponico) in Tokyo.[2] Tucci traveled all over Japan giving lectures on Tibet and "racial purity".[3]

He organised several pioneering archaeological digs throughout Asia, such as in Swat in Pakistan, Ghazni in Afghanistan, Persepolis in Iran and in the Himalayas. He was also the promoter of the National Museum of Oriental Art. In 1978 he received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding,[4] in 1979 the Balzan Prize for History (ex aequo with Ernest Labrousse). During the course of his life, he wrote over 360 books and articles.

Politics

Tucci was a supporter of Italian Fascism and Benito Mussolini.[3] His activity under Il Duce started with Giovanni Gentile, at the time Professor of the History of Philosophy at the University of Rome and already close friend and collaborator of Mussolini, when Tucci was studying at the university of Rome, and went on until Gentile killing, and the compulsory administration of IsMEO for over two years until 1947.[5] In November 1936 - January 1937 he was the representative of Mussolini in Japan, where he was sent to improve the diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan and to make Fascist propaganda. On April 27, 1937 he gave a speech on the radio in Japanese on Mussolini's behalf.[6] In this country his strong and tireless action paved the way to the inclusion of Italy to the Anti-Comintern Pact (November 6, 1937).[7] He wrote popular articles for the Italian state that decried the rationalism of industrialized 1930s-1940s Europe and yearned for an authentic existence in touch with nature, that he claimed could be found in Asia.[8] According to Tibetologist Donald S. Lopez, "For Tucci, Tibet was an ecological paradise and timeless utopia into which industrialized Europe figuratively could escape and find peace, a cure for western ills, and from which Europe could find its own pristine past to which to return."[9]

Death

Tucci died in San Polo dei Cavalieri, near Rome, in 1984.

Biography

The only biography on Tucci is by Enrica Garzilli, L'esploratore del Duce. Le avventure di Giuseppe Tucci e la politica italiana in Oriente da Mussolini a Andreotti. Con il carteggio di Giulio Andreotti, Roma/Milano: Memori, Asiatica, 2012 (3rd ed. 2014), 2 vols.; vol. 1, pp. lii+685, ISBN 978-8890022654; vol. 2, pp. xiv + 724 ISBN 978-8890022661.

Selected bibliography

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ On the foundation of IsMEO until 1947, when it was re-opened after its compulsory administration, see Enrica Garzilli, L'esploratore del Duce. Le avventure di Giuseppe Tucci e la politica italiana in Oriente da Mussolini a Andreotti. Con il carteggio di Giulio Andreotti, 2 Vols., Memori /Asiatica Association, Vol. 1, pp. 355-493. ISBN 978-8890022654
  2. ↑ {{The newsreel Giornale Luce B1079, 21 April 1937, on the opening entitled Giappone Tokyo. L'Istituto Italo-Nipponico, produced by Asahi and distributed in the Italian Cinemas, can be viewed at the site of Istituto Luce in Rome url=http://www.archivioluce.com/archivio/}}
  3. 1 2 "Fosco Maraini". Obituaries (The Independent). 2004-06-19. Retrieved 2010-09-25. On Tucci's mission in Japan and the related diplomatic documents see Enrica Garzilli, L'esploratore del Duce. Le avventure di Giuseppe Tucci e la politica italiana in Oriente da Mussolini a Andreotti. Con il carteggio di Giulio Andreotti, 2 Vols., Memori/Asiatica Association, Rome, Milan, 2012, Vol. 1, pp. 401-418.
  4. ↑ "List of the recipients of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award". ICCR website.
  5. ↑ See Enrica Garzilli, L'esploratore del Duce. Le avventure di Giuseppe Tucci e la politica italiana in Oriente da Mussolini a Andreotti. Con il carteggio di Giulio Andreotti, 2 Vols., Memori/ Asiatica: Rome and Milan, 2012, Vol. 1, Chaps. 2-6; Vol. 2, Chap. 8.
  6. ↑ Reported in the newspaper Il Messaggero of April 27, 1937. See Enrica Garzilli, L'esploratore del Duce. Le avventure di Giuseppe Tucci e la politica italiana in Oriente da Mussolini a Andreotti. Con il carteggio di Giulio Andreotti, 2 Vols., Memori/ Asiatica: Rome and Milan, 2012, Vol. 1, p. 405 ISBN 978-8890022654.
  7. ↑ On Tucci's collaboration with Fascism see Enrica Garzilli, L'esploratore del Duce, cit., Vol. 1, pp. 283-493; Vol. 2, pp. 5-82 et passim ISBN 978-8890022661. On Tucci's mission in Japan, idem, Vol. 1, pp. 387-413 ISBN 978-8890022661.
  8. ↑ Clarke, John James (1997). Oriental enlightenment: the encounter between Asian and Western thought. Psychology Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-415-13376-0.
  9. ↑ Mullen, Eve (2001). The American occupation of Tibetan Buddhism: Tibetans and their American hosts in New York City. Jugend, Religion, Unterricht 6. Waxmann Verlag. p. 94. ISBN 978-3-8309-1053-4.

External links

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