[KS] Obituary: Jaroslav Bařinka

Glomb Vladimir vladous2000 at yahoo.com
Sun Oct 4 09:10:34 EDT 2020


Dear List members,
 weregretfully announce the passing of a doyen of Czech Korean studies, JaroslavBařinka, at the age of 89. A witness to the long twentieth century and adedicated scholar, Jaroslav Bařinka studied Korean language in Prague under Han Hŭngsu (1909-?) and since 1950 in thenewly established Korean studies department at Charles University. His career included numerous staysin the DPRK, where he continued his research on historical topics under theguidance of Hong Kimun (1903-1992) and other luminaries of North Koreanacademia. Later, he served as a career diplomat and participated in the establishmentof diplomatic relations between Czechoslovakia and the Republic of Korea after1989. Following his retirement he taught a small, but dedicated, circle ofdisciples at Charles University and continued his research until his lastmoment. Never satisfied with the results, he rarely published his findings buthis Art of Ancient Korea (1962,together with photographer Werner Forman) documenting North Korean arttreasures from local museums is considered to be a classic and his wonderfulCzech translation of Kim Sisŭp’s Kŭmo sinhwa from 1975 stillshows his many talents. There are many materials left by him on diverse topics like Jurchenepigraphy or destroyed monasteries in the DPRK, which will be surely studiedfurther. However, his biggest legacy to follow is an answer and example to the dilemmafaced by many scholars of twentieth-century Eastern Europe: how to live a cleanlife under difficult circumstances.
 Vladimír Glomb (Senior Researcher at Freie Universität Berlin) and Miriam Löwensteinová (Head of the Department of Korean Studies atCharles University Prague)

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