Between Indigenous Knowledge and Imperial Scholarship: Buryat Lama Galsan Gomboev as a Russian Orientologist

Abstract

This article examines Buryat lama Galsan Gomboev, the 19th-century Buddhist monk integrated into European scholarship, who bridged Buddhist knowledge and Russian Orientology. Despite lacking formal European education, he became a translator, author, and cultural mediator. Drawing on postcolonial theory, the paper explores his hybrid scholarly identity and contributions to Mongolian studies, emphasizing how Gomboev’s work challenged Eurocentric epistemologies and illuminated alternative modernities within nineteenth-century Russian academic and imperial contexts.