People from around the world, wanting to give there condolences, jammed telephone lines at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Monday morning after learning of the death of Jia Lanpo, who discovered the Peking Man skull.
"Father died with his eyes open," said the scientist's son Jia Yuzhang.
Jia's everlasting regret lied with the three fossilized Peking Man skulls, which he discovered in 1936 and later lost during the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945).
Jia, senior academician of the CAS and also foreign academicians of U.S. and Russian science academies, died of a cerebral hemorrhage with complications of viscera failure at 11:44 a.m. Sunday at the age of 92.
In an air of solemnity, researchers and workers with the CAS institute voluntarily paid tribute to the well known paleoanthropologist.
According to CAS sources, an official funeral is scheduled for July 16 at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, where many famous Chinese people are buried.
Because of paroxysmal encephalemia, the scientist was sent to Beijing Hospital on March 19, where he spent his last days with best wishes from personages of various circles and a calligraphy scroll with a character of "shou" upside down indicating longevity.
With his outstanding research on paleontology and paleoanthropology, Jia had been regarded as China's first outstanding leader in the world of natural sciences in modern times.
After finding the treasured skulls, Jia dated the history of homo erectus back to 500,000 years ago.
At Jia's 90th birthday celebration in November 1998, CAS leading scientists praised Jia for his pioneering study in paleoanthropology, which was extremely beneficial to both Chinese and global scientific circles.
"I would like to parallel study a rolling snow ball," the late scientist said at that celebration, citing that only continuous endeavor would lead to academic achievements.
Sticking to the life-long principle, Jia even studied and wrote books in his 90s.
A total of 23 books and more than 400 academic articles summarized the scientist's glorious life and prominent achievements.
In addition, being deeply concerned with the lost Peking Man skull fossils, Jia, together with 13 CAS senior academicians, published an open letter soliciting global people to look for the fossils, which have remained unknown for the past five decades.
Meanwhile, he proposed to restore primitive conditions of the heritage site near Zhoukoudian in the southwestern suburbs of Beijing, where the Peking Man skull was found.
He hoped that the berth of remote Peking Man be a scientific popularization base for the youth.
In line with his own will, Jia's cremated remains will be placed in Zhoukoudian, neighboring Pei Wenzhong, a paleoanthropologist who for the first time found a broken Peking Man skull, and Yang Zhongjian, another founder of the country's paleontology and paleoanthropology research.
"Although he had never left any written testament," the son said, "father chose the graveyard in Zhoukoudian for a long time."
(People's Daily 07/09/2001)
