Zwi Werblowsky, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1924. Ph.D. from the University of Geneva. Martin Buber Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Distinguished Visiting Scholar (1 February 1996 – 30 June 1996)
My two-part NIAS research was: 1. the life and work of J.J.M. de Groot, Professor in Leiden (1892-1911) and Berlin (1912-1921), and one of the founding fathers of modern sinology and especially of the ethnographic study of Chinese religion; and 2. the iconography of the pantheon of Fujian (South China) folk-religion. The latter is based on the collection of statues and ritual objects assembled by De Groot in Fujian in the years 1886-89, and now divided between France (Musé Guimet) and Leiden (National Museum of Ethnology).
The latter aspect of my work is closely related to theme (1) but can also be treated as an independent subject ‘the iconography of Chinese folk-religion’