L. A. Waddell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell (1854 - 1938) was a British explorer, collector in Tibet, and author.

Waddell traveled extensively in India throughout the 1890s (including Sikkim and areas on the borders of Nepal and Tibet) and wrote about the Tibetan Buddhist religious practices he observed there. Stationed with the British army in Darjeeling, Waddell learned the Tibetan language and even visited Tibet several times secretly, in disguise. He was the cultural consultant on Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband's 1903-1904 expedition, and was considered alongside Sir Charles Bell as one of the foremost authorities on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.

He is commemorated in the Giant Babax Babax waddelli.

[edit] Published works

• Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism, With Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology and in Its Relation to Indian Buddhism (1895) is Waddell's best-known work, and was one of the first books published in the west to offer such extensive observations of Buddhism, ranging from metaphysics to practical magic. Waddell explains the whole Tibetan pantheon, including transcriptions of hundreds of charms and mantras and detailed coverage of the doctrine of incarnation and reincarnation.
• Among the Himalayas (1899) is an engaging journal of fourteen years of travel. In Waddell's own words, "During the past fourteen years I have traversed portions of the borderlands of Sikkim nearly every year, sketching, shooting, collecting, and especially exploring the customs of the people on the frontiers of Tibet, and of Nepal. This illustrated narrative of my journeyings I hope may reflect, in some measure, the keen enjoyment of travel in these regions, may awaken further interest in a fascinating though little known land, may assist in guiding the traveler to those features that are of greatest general interest, and bring home to the reader a whiff of the bracing breezes of the Himalayas."
• Lhasa and Its Mysteries-With a Record of the British Tibetan Expedition of 1903-1904 (1905) Documents the people and religion of the Tibetan capital, including British-Tibetan military clashes and peace negotiations.
• The Birds of Sikkim (1893)