Each year, the Hungarian government sends a delegation to the Old Darjeeling Cemetery to honor Alexander Csoma (or more properly in Hungarian, Sándor Csoma de Kőrös) whose pioneering linguistic studies helped open Central Asia to the West. Csoma died of malaria in Darjeeling in 1844, but the effects of his scholarly contributions continue to be felt nearly 2 centuries later. Born in Transylvania (which was then under the Hungarian crown) in around 1784, Csoma was initially interested in finding the origins of the Hungarian people, which he believed were secreted…
