Author: Christine PrestonPublisher:
ISBN: 9781845193157
Category : Archaeologists
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Lieut. Col. Laurence Austine Waddell (1854-1938) was a British Army officer with an established reputation, mainly due to his study on the 'Buddhism' of Tibet, his explorations of the Himalayas, and a biography which included records of the 1903-1904 military expedition to Lhasa (Lhasa and Its Mysteries). Waddell was also in the limelight due to his acquisition of Tibetan manuscripts which he donated to the British Museum. His overriding interest was in 'Aryan origins.' After learning Sanskrit and Tibetan, and in between military expeditions and gathering intelligence from the borders of Tibet in the Great Game, Waddell researched Lamasm. He extended his activities to archaeology, philology, and ethnology, and was credited with discoveries in relation to Buddha. His personal ambition was to locate records of ancient civilization in Tibetan lamaseries. Waddell is little known as an archaeologist and scholar, in contrast with his fame in the Oriental field, due to the controversial natu