Swarnim Lamsal
Kathmandu, September 16: Theodore (Ted) Riccardi, the erudite American professor and researcher in South Asian and Himalayan region with deep interest in Nepali language and culture, died Tuesday afternoon in New York. He was 83.
Riccardi first came to Nepal in 1968 and started traveling to several streets of Kathmandu to study about the rituals, including jatras of Newari culture. His researches also included the study of the stolen images of the country. He has written a numberofarticles on Nepal with titles ‘An Account of Nepal from the Vir Vinod of Shyamaldas’ (1975), ‘The Nepala-Rajaparampara: A Short Chronicle of the Kings of Nepal’ (1986), and ‘The Inscription of King Manadeva at Changu Narayan’ (1989).
All of these writings soon established him as an important scholar in Nepalese culture. After all these researches, in 1993, he uttered one of the most instigating statements about Nepalese literature: “Nepali literature has, by and large, remained unknown” to the outside world. But he still continued introducing Nepal to the world. He helped in bringing an unknown Italian-Newari Dictionary in light. He also helped other researchers, who had Nepal Studies as their subject.
Besides these, Riccardi published his first work of fiction, The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (2003), consisting of nine short stories about Holmes’ wanderings in Nepal, India, Indonesia, Tibet, and Sri Lanka.
A piano lover, he also served as Chairman of the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University, where he remained as professor emeritus till his last breath.
Riccardi is survived by his wife Ellen Coon, and their two children, Miranda and Nicholas.
