Sir Aurel Stein, Lajos Ligeti and a case of mistaken identity

Abstract

In the spring of 1930, Sir Aurel Stein visited Shanghai and Nanking in order to obtain permission from the Chinese government for his fourth expedition to Western China. At the same time, the semi-official Society for the Preservation of Cultural Objects mounted a full-scale publicity campaign trying to force the government to withdraw Stein’s permits. It was at this moment that the young Lajos Ligeti, who had been quietly studying Buddhist texts in the Mongolian monasteries of Northern China, came to the notice of local authorities. The
primary reason for this was his interest in old texts and his Hungarian passport, and these two characteristics immediately raised a suspicion that he might in fact be Stein.