A gilt bronze figure of Maitreya

Alexander von Staël-Holstein (1877-1937) was a legendary pioneer and scholar of Asian studies. Born as a German-Baltic aristocrat, he emigrated from Czarist Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution to China, where he took up an adjunct position teaching Sanskrit and Tibetan at Peking University. He was appointed visiting professor at Harvard University in 1928 and subsequently became a full professor of Asian Studies at Harvard from 1929 until his passing. During his time at Harvard, Staël-Holstein helped to establish the Sino-Indian Institute, where he continuted to emphasize the importance of Sanskrit and Tibetan in the reconstruction of ancient Chinese phonetics.