Professor Oetke was known for his research in Indian and Tibetian studies and he was head of the Section for Indology at the department from 1993 to 2014. He taught extensively in Sanskrit, Hindi, classical Tibetan and other languages.
In 1973 he received a doctorate at University of Hamburg and until the early 1980’s he was a lecturer at the Institute for Culture and History of India and Tibet in Hamburg. His Habilitation in 1983 at the same institute was followed by professorships on deputation in Vienna and Kiel. Before he came to Stockholm University he held a Heisenberg Professur of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DGF) which led to visiting professorships at universities in the USA and Australia.
Professor Oetke had a great interest in Buddhist texts and philosophy. His research focused on Tibetan translations to Chinese Buddhist texts, problems of self in the Indian philosophical tradition, studies in early Madhyamaka Buddhism, Indian theories of inference and proof, and theoretical issues of interpretation and semantics.
During his time at Stockholm University Claus Oetke was a valuable colleague, lecturer and researcher and we will always be grateful for his contributions to our department.
