Teofil Mihăilescu

The exhibition is dedicated to the exploration of the sacred space and the architectural universe of Buddhism and Hinduism, imagined as Worlds seen through a symbolic window opened in Braşov by Johann Martin Honigberger (1795-1869), a prominent personality of the city, tirelessly (sometimes primus inter pares) globe-trotter and explorer of the Oriental world, one of the most spectacular characters of 19^th century Transylvania. The exhibition is part of my cultural project dedicated to the exploration of the universe of architecture and sacred space from an anthropological perspective in the context of traveling the symbolic paths of religions. The idea of ​​the Honigberger “filter” crystallized with his rediscovery in the fantastic prose Dr. Honigberger’s Secret (1940) written by Mircea Eliade. The re-discovery of Eliade’s fantastic prose, the re-discovery of Honigberger’s personality and revelatory personal experiences have recently coincided for me with a period of exploration of the Orient, hence the natural crystallization of the expo’s concept, a timeless synthesis between the Past-Presents of Honigberger’s Orient, Eliade’s Orient and “my” Orient. The exhibition invites you to “taste” these Orients as seen through a symbolic open window of a house in Braşov from where an enthusiastic spirit set off almost two centuries ago on roads and towards lands unimaginable for his contemporaries. Unfortunately, until now (April, 2023), no significant central public space in Braşov bears the name of J. M. Honigberger, although the/his city would have deserved such an honor. The opening of the exhibition took place on Friday, April 07, 2023. Along with me, the exhibition was introduced by Simona Oana Neagu, musician (Bucharest Radio Chamber Orchestra), writer Dan Moruzi and historian Valer Rus, PhD (director, Casa Mureşenilor Museum). The exhibition had over 5200 visitors.

About Johann Martin HONIGBERGER

J. M. Honigberger was born on March 10, 1795 in Braşov. He studied at the J. Honterus High School (Braşov), and was a pharmacy apprentice (Braşov and Bistrița). At the age of 20 he began a life full of exploratory journeys with added value (research, publications, pioneering actions, collections and scientific experiments) spent especially in Orient. His name began to be re-known in Romania, thanks to Mircea Eliade, with his fantastic short story Dr. Honigberger’s secret (1940).
In 1815, Honigberger went on a first trip through Wallachia, Moldova and Bucovina, to Constantinople (1816). On his way to Orient, he became for a while the doctor of the governor of Tocat (Anatolia). In 1818 he left for Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, arrived in Cairo (1820), then returned to Syria, from where he left (1828) to Lahore (India, today Pakistan). Proving practical skills, he became the personal physician of King Ranjit Singh, head of the court pharmacy and administrator of an explosives factory, with the rank of admiral. In 1833 he returned to Braşov (1834), from where he left (1836) for Vienna, Paris (he was elected a member of Société Asiatique and met S. Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy) and London. From there he started for Constantinople, later heading to Lahore (1839). In 1849 (when the Punjab State became a British possession) he left for London (via Cape of Good Hope), returned (1853) to Lahore (exploring Kashmir until 1855), than left for Europe, to return again to Lahore (1867), from where he left (via London, Paris) seriously ill to Braşov (1868), where he died on December 18, 1869.
J. M. Honigberger discovered that infectious diseases are transmitted by bacilli, publishing (1857) Cholera, Its Cause and Infallible Cure and on Epidemics in General (an inspiration for later researches of L. Pasteur and R. Koch), established the first three hospitals in India (a public hospital for the underprivileged, a hospice and a hospital for prisoners), experimented with the medial system (a fusion of allopathy with homeopathy), published his main work The Fruits of the East, or Incidents of Travel, accompanied by experiences from the natural and medical sciences, several hundred verified medicinal substances and a new method of treatment, the Medial system (1851), he was the initiator of the practice of homeopathy in India, he developed the first work on the treatment of neurological diseases with plants, he collected antiquities, plants and rarities, donating collections to prestigious European museums and archives, he was one of the first Europeans to make archaeological explorations in Afganistan, wrote a botanical-medical dictionary in the Kashmiri and Punjabi languages, was among the first to introduce yoga to Europe and developed one of the first lexicons dedicated to Orient (in nine languages: Latin, German, French, English, Turkish, Arabic , Persian, Punjabi and Indo-Kashmiri).