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…
LAMBRICK, Hugh Trevor. Shardlow, Derbyshire 20.4.1904 — Oxford 31.8.1982. British Civil Servant and Historian in India. Son of Rev. Charles Mengier (Menzies?) Lambrick (1862–1947) and Jessie Mabel Trevor (1875–1946). Educated at schools in Caterham, Surrey and in Fleetwood, Lancashire. Born in a family with long traditions in colonial service and…
LAMAIRESSE, Pierre Eugène. Châlons-sur-Marne (now Châlons-en-Champagne) 14.7.1817 — Marengo (Hadjout), Algeria 17.4.1898. French Engineer interested in India. The youngest son of Jean-Baptiste-Cyprien Lamairesse, an agriculturalist, studied from 1837 at École polytechnique and became 1845 a hydraulic engineer. Worked in various parts of France. Served as engineer in French India in…
LALOU, Marcelle. Meudon-Bellevue near Paris 23.8.1890 — Paris 15.12.1967. French Tibetan Scholar. Daughter of Georges Lalou, an advocate. Conforming to the demands then put to a girl she studied history and art history at Sorbonne only privately without graduation. During the war in 1914-18 worked as a nurse. In 1916…
LAIDLAY, John Watson. Glasgow 27.3.1808 — 8.3.1885. British (Scottish) Archaeologist and Numismatist in India. Son of John Laidlay (1782–1855), a businessman, and Elizabeth Watson, educated in London. Studied chemistry under Faraday, then, for India, Hindustani in London under Gilchrist. At 17 in 1825 went to India, employed in the mercantile…
LĄCZAK, Józef (until the 1970s Lonczak). Książnica (near Mielec, South-Eastern Poland) 5.12.1926 — 21.8.1989. Polish Linguist, began as an Indologist, but moved into the Finno-Ugrian studies. After school (in wartime in secret courses) at Mielec, from 1947 studies of Indology (Willman-Grabowska) and Polish Philology at Cracow, graduated M.A. in 1952 (diss.…