LEE, Lionel Frederick. Colombo 3/4.12.1845 — Colombo 4.12.1899. Hon. British Civil Servant in Sri Lanka. Son of George Lee (1799?–1860), Postmaster-General of Ceylon, and Martha Austin. Educated at Elizabeth College in Guernsey (1861-63). Joined C.C.S. in 1864. In 1869 Assistant Government Agent, in 1881 Registrar-General, in 1887 short time Mayor…
LECOUTERE, Carolus (Charles) Franciscus Petrus. Antwerpen 11.12.1865 — Knokke, West Flanders 19.9.1921. Belgian Linguist. Professor in Leuven. Son of sculptor Petrus Lecoutere and Ludovica Vandenbroucke. Student of de Harlez at Leuven, but concentrated more on Classics (Ph.D. 1892) and then turned to Germanistics. Eo. Professor at Louvain (Leuven) from 1895,…
LE COQ, Albert von. Dahlem, Berlin 8.9.1860 — Berlin 21.4.1930. German Archaeologist and Central Asian Scholar. Born in a huguenot family in Berlin, son of André Auguste Le Coq (1827–1894; knighted “von” 1875) and Marianne Poppe (1826–1902). He was educated at Französisches Gymnasium (Berlin) and at Darmstadt gymnasium, but was…
LE BON, Charles Marie Gustave. Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure-et-Loir) 7.5.1841 (or 7.12.1842?) — Paris 13.12.1931. French Psychologist, Sociologist and Anthropologist. Son of Jean-Marie Charles Le Bon, an official of Breton ancestry, and Annette Tétiot Desmarlinais. Educated in Tours, from 1860 studies in Paris. Dr.med. 1866 Paris. Instead of work as a physician he…
LEBEDEV, Gerasim Stepanovič (Herasim Lebedeff). Jaroslavl 1749 (not 1746) — St.Petersburg 15.7.(27.7.)1817. Russian Musician, Traveller and Pioneer of Indology. Son of Stepan Lebedev and his wife Paraskov’a. Father was a poor Orthodox clergyman, who did not allow him to obtain higher education. The family moved to St.Petersburg, where he studied…
LA VALLÉE POUSSIN, Louis Étienne Marie de. Liège 1.1.1869 — Brussels 18.2.1938. Belgian Indologist, a specialist of Buddhism and History. Professor in Ghent. Son of a French father, Gustave de La Vallée Poussin (1829–1910), and Belgian mother, Marie Pauline de Monge de Franeau (1845–1876), both of families with great scholarly…
LAUFER, Berthold. Köln 11.10.1874 — Chicago 13.9.1934. German Sinologist and Anthropologist in the U.S.A. Son of Max Laufer (of Jewish background) and Eugenie Schlesinger, a wealthy family. His younger brother was —> Heinrich Laufer (1877–1925). After gymnasium in Cologne studied at Berlin 1893-95, first law, but soon ethnology and Oriental…
LA TERZA (LATERZA), Ermenegildo. Putignano (Bari) 2.3.1866 — Naples 1939. Italian Indologist. Son of land surveyor Giuseppe Laterza and Marianna Francavilla di Castellana. After Liceo classico di Putignano studied at Naples. Graduated at Naples as student of Kerbaker. In 1895-1911 schoolteacher of classical languages in several places (i. al. in…
LASSEN, Christian. Bergen 22.10.1800 — Bonn 8.5.1876. Norwegian Indologist in Germany. Professor in Bonn. Son of Nicolai Christian Vendelboe Lassen (1748–1818), a lawyer, and Frederikke Elisabeth Frisch (1761–1830). Matriculated 1818 from Bergen school and after his father’s death went in 1819 with his mother to his married sister living in…
LARIN, Boris Aleksandrovič. Poltava 12.1.1893 — Leningrad 26.3.1964. Ukrainian Linguist in Russia, Specialist of Balto-Slavonian also interested in Sanskrit. Professor in Leningrad. Son of a schoolteacher. Educated in 1902-06 at Kamenec-Podol’skoj gimnazii and 1906-10 at Kievskoj Kollegij im. Pavla Galagana. In 1910-14 studies at Kiev University, of Slavonian philology and…