Biography

Dr. Kahar Barat

barat@post.harvard.edu

When I first saw the originals of Ripin and Shishkin in Leningrad in 1989, I felt as if my Ili 3rd Middle School art teacher Helil was standing next to me with a great excitement. Under the statue of Copernicus in Warsaw, I remembered our physics teacher Ablet. True educators are middle school teachers. Mijit, Zordon, Abdukerim, Patime and much more … those tireless teachers laid a foundation for almost all what I learned since then. I was not the best student though, and always burying my head under table and read Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy and or Krishan Chandra. By the age of 12, I finished 68 of them. Student should not afraid of big dreams and never hesitate to pursue them. That was after the Cultural Revolution. I was rejected for three years to enter the university due to my "landlord" family background. That did not stop me from learning. One of the romantic times in my life was to learn classical Chinese carrying a dictionary and 3-volume "A Dream of Red Mansions" in a beautiful Ili mountain herding a flock of sheep. Finally I got the permission to the Beijing Minority Institute to study language and translation in 1974-1976. I re-entered the same institute to study Turkology in 1976-1980 from Geng Shimin, a very knowledgeable scholar in the field. Hemit, Enver were also the best linguist and historian of ours. In Beijing, I had chance to meet and learn from famous scholars Han Rulin, Ji Xianlin and heard many interesting storied from Burhan Shehidi and Seypidin Eziz. As a luckiest one after the graduation, I was assigned to attend translation of the famous "Divan Lugat at-Turk", the group formed with the best Uighur scholars Ibrahim Mutii, Abdurehim Otkur, Haji Yaqup, Imin Tursun, Ehmet Ziyai, Mirsultan Osman, and others. We were busy that days, but I wanted to continue my English learning. I heard the Urumchi foreign bookstore had only one English textbook under the stack, but they asked me to get a written permission from authorities stating my motivation of learning foreign language was for a "research purpose".

During 1981-1986, I taught Inner Asian and Turkic history in Xinjiang University. I did not miss the chance to take one year intensive Turkish offered by Reveydulla and Haji Yaqup. Great Turkololist Gabain came to our university in 1982. She was my god. Since then I followed her every advice and instruction. I am keeping her 14 letters as my best treasure. I got permission from the university to learn German in Nanjing University in 1984-1985. In 1986 I was accepted to the Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Ph.D. program at Harvard under the supervision of professors Frye, Pritsak, Tekin, Barfield, Cleaves and Thackston. Harvard's libraries and lecturing programs are unsurpassed. I listened the speeches from Lattimore, Pulleyblank, Sinor, Victor Mair, Klimkeit, Zieme and many other great scholars. In 1993, I received Ph.D. with my dissertation "Uighur Xuanzang Biography Volume IX". In 1994 I went to Hawaii East West Center for post-doctoral study and completed my article "A Turkic Chinese Transcriptions System". Prof. Gladney became my intimate advisor and best friend. Back to Harvard I continued my research at the Center for the Studies of World Religions and Yenching Institute. In 1996-1997 I studied Middle Chinese in the Academia Sinica and taught Inner Asian Buddhist texts at Fokuang University in Taiwan. Back to Harvard, in and out for 15 years, I attended more than a thousand Inner Asia related lectures. In 2000, my book "The Uygur-Turkic Biography of the Seventh-Century Chinese Buddhist Pilgrim Xuanzang: Ninth and Tenth Chapter" was published in Indiana University edited by Sinor. In 2000-2001 I worked in Comverse Inc. as a senior linguistic engineer on the voice recognition applications in Japanese and Chinese languages. Since 2003 I am teaching at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University. I have published near 40 articles and here are some selections.

2000 The Uygur-Turkic Biography of the Seventh-Century Chinese Buddhist Pilgrim Xuanzang. Ninth and Tenth Chapter. Uralic and Altaic Series 166. p. 430+xxxvii, Denis Sinor, Editor. Indiana University. ISBN: 0-933070-462

1993 The Uygur Xuanzang Biography Volume IX. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University.

2002 “Alopen: A Nestorian Missionary in 7th Century China,” Journal of Asian History.

1999 “The Beijing Library Collection of the Uygur Xuanzang Biography,” Geng Shimin Xiangsheng 70 Shouchen Jinian Wenji, 300-312, Bejing: Minzu Chubanshe.

1998 "Dunhuang and Uygur Sangha Officials," The Third Silk Road Conference at Yale University: Conference Proceedings Volume 1: 83-98. July 10-12, 1998. New Haven: Yale University.

1996 "A Turkic Chinese Transcriptions System," Proceedings of the 38th Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC). pp. 5-83. August 7-12, 1995. Kawasaki, Japan. Ed. by Giovanni Stary. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

1994 "Discovery of History: The Burial Site of Kashgarli Mahmud," Central Asian Reader: The Rediscovery of History. Ed. by Hasan Paksoy, New York: Armonk.

1992 "The Uygur Xuanzang Biography Volume III," Journal of Turkish Studies, 16: 5-65, Harvard University.

1991 "Navayi - After 550 years," Yengi Hayat June 15-16, 1991 Almaty (in Uygur); Bishkek Shami August 9, Bishkek (in Kirgiz)

1990 "Singqo Sali Tutong - trducteur du Sakiz Yukmak Yaruq Nom ?" Journal Asiatique No. 1-2, Paris (in French)

1987a "Old Uighur Christianity and the Bible," American Asian Review vol. 5, N0 2 , New York.

1987b "Huihuwen Xuanzang zhuan yanjiu qingkuang,” Lishi Yanjiu Cankao Ziliao. (in Chinese)

1987c "Huihuwen xieben 'Huiyuan zhuan' canye,” Wenwu. (in Chinese)