For his undergraduate education he studied at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest under Gyula Németh, Barnabás Csongor, and Lajos Ligeti.
The latter professor insisted that his students use Hungarian or Altaic surnames, so György's adopted surname became Kara, the Turco-Mongol word for "Black", thereafter being known as György Kara or Khar Dorj (Mongolian: Хар Дорж, romanized: Khar Dorj or Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠷᠠᠳᠣᠷᠵᠢ, romanized: Kara Dorji, lit.
He joined the ELTE faculty in 1958 and was promoted to professor in 1978, during which time he served under various positions at the Hungarian Academy and his university.
[2] In 1986 and 1988 he was invited as a visiting professor at the Central Eurasian Studies Department of Indiana University Bloomington, and soon after in 1992 received tenure as a full professor with the fall of the Eastern Bloc, though he continued teaching at ELTE.
[3][2] György Kara's first wife was the daughter of noted Mongolian scholar Byambyn Rinchen, Rinchenii Shinzaa (−1999).