Background
He was born in Kristiansand as the son of a carpenter.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Theo Sorensen
Edit ProfileEducation
From 1892 to 1894 he attended a bible school in the United Kingdom. Here he studied the Chinese language, and proclaimed that learning Chinese was a "delight" compared to Tibetan.
Career
He then went to British India with the Tibetan Pioneer Mission, settled near the Tibetan border and undertook studies of its language and religions together with Edvard Amundsen. He wanted to travel within Tibet, but as this was rejected by the British colonial power, he moved to Chengdu, Chinese Empire in 1896. From 1899 to 1923 he lived and worked for the China Inland Mission in Kangding, Sichuan.
He did not particularly succeed as a missionary, but conducted several longer travels in Eastern Tibet and became known for collecting Tibetan scripture.
Among others, he found a series of written sheets in the ruins of a monastery. Foreign his contribution, Sørensen was declared a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1922 and the Royal Geographical Society in 1923.
He lived the rest of his life in Norway, except for the years 1925 to 1936 which he spent in Peking. He died in September 1959 in Kristiansand.
In 2009, his grandniece donated another set of scriptures to the University of Oslo.
Achievements
-
Born
-
Died
September 2, 1959 (aged 86) -
Nationality
Norway