Yevgeny Kychanov - Biography

Biography

Evgenij Kychanov was born 22 June 1932 in Sarapul, Udmurtia.

Evgenij Kychanov graduated from the Oriental Department of Saint Petersburg University (known at the time as Leningrad University) in 1955, majoring in the history of China. He did his graduate work at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, and in 1960 he defended his PhD thesis on the Xi Xia State. He has been working at that institute ever since, spending many years as the head of the Tangut research group, and, later, as the head of larger units. From 1997 to 2003 he was director of the St Petersburg Branch (now the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts).

Kychanov is the author of around 300 articles and books on the history and culture of peoples of China and Inner Asia, including a number of pioneering research papers on the Xi Xia state and translations from the Tangut language, summarizing works on the history of Tibet and nomadic civilizations of Inner Asia, as well as popular books about Tibet, Genghis Khan and other steppe leaders.

In May 2011 Kychanov was awarded the S. F. Oldenburg Award in recognition of his achievements in the field of Central Asian studies, in particular his role in the decipherment of the Tangut script.

In June 2012 a conference in his honour, entitled The Tanguts in Central Asia, was held at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts to mark Kychanov's 80th birthday. A collection of 34 papers written by scholars from Russia, China, Japan and other countries was published as a Festschrift with the same title.

He died in St Petersburg in May 2013.