Hungarian folklorist, linguist, ethnographer, Orientalist, and editor of the first Manchu-Tungus (Manchu-Tungus languages) dictionary. His research focused on the religious beliefs of the Siberian peoples and of the ancient Hungarians (Magyars) before they migrated to the middle basin of the Danube River. It included specific studies of shamanism and shamanistic traits in folklore, the roots of Hungarian folk beliefs, and the cultural characteristics of Hungarian ethnic groups. He conducted field research in Turkey and Mongolia and made three expeditions to Siberia. On the basis of his comparative analyses, he charted ethnohistorical and ethnogenetic processes. In 1958 he completed an archive on shamanistic faith, consisting of 15,000 articles as well as innumerable photographs and manuscripts.

His major works include A sámánhit a magyar népi műveltségben (1958; “Shamanism in Hungarian Folk Culture”), A sámánok nyomában Szibéria földjén (1960; “On the Trail of the Shamans in Siberia”), Sámánizmus (1962; “Shamanism”), and A pogány magyarok hitvilága (1967; “The Religious Beliefs of Pagan Magyars”).