LT.
COL. LAURENCE A. WADDELL
![](Laurence_Austine_Waddell.jpg)
Lt.
Col. Laurence Austine Waddell
![](LaurenceWaddellPhoto.jpg)
British
Army officers in Tibet during 1904, Laurence Waddell (center)
Lieutenant
Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell, CB, CIE, F.L.S., L.L.D, M.Ch.,
I.M.S. RAI, F.R.A.S (1854–1938) was a Scottish explorer,
Professor of Tibetan, Professor of Chemistry and Pathology, Indian
Army surgeon, collector in Tibet, and amateur archaeologist. Waddell
also studied Sumerian and Sanskrit; he made various translations
of seals and other inscriptions. His reputation as an Assyriologist
gained little to no academic recognition and his books on the
history of civilization have caused controversy. Some of his book
publications however were popular with the public, and he is regarded
by some today to have been a real-life precursor of the fictional
character Indiana Jones.
Life
:
![](Waddell-p410-Chinese-LONG-Horse-Or-Horse-Dragon.jpg)
A
Chinese Horse-Dragon, Reproduced in Waddell's, "The Buddhism
of Tibet: Or Lamaism, with Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology
...", 1895. Unknown Chinese artist.
![](Waddell-p411-The-Tibetan-LUNG-Horse.jpg)
A
Tibetan Lung-Horse, Reproduced in Waddell's, "The Buddhism
of Tibet: Or Lamaism, with Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology
...", 1895. Unknown Tibetan artist.
![](Paljor_Dorje_Shatra.jpg)
A
photo of Paljor Dorje Shatra, Reproduced in Waddell's "Lhasa
and Its Mysteries-With a Record of the British Tibetan Expedition
of 1903–1904", 1905.
Laurence Waddell was born on 29 May 1854, and was the son of Rev.
Thomas Clement Waddell, a Doctor of Divinity at Glasgow University
and Jean Chapman, daughter of John Chapman of Banton, Stirlingshire.
Laurence Waddell obtained a bachelor's degree in Medicine followed
by a master's degree in both Surgery and Chemistry at Glasgow
University in 1878. His first job was as a resident surgeon near
the university and was also the President of Glasgow University's
Medical Society. In 1879 he visited Ceylon and Burma and was 'irresistibly
attracted' towards Buddhism which in later years led him to study
the tenets, history and art of Buddhism. In 1880 Waddell joined
the British Indian Army and served as a medical officer with the
Indian Medical Service (I.M.S), subsequently he was stationed
in India and the Far East (Tibet, China and Burma). The following
year he became a Professor of Chemistry and Pathology at the Medical
College of Kolkata, India. While working in India, Waddell also
studied Sanskrit and edited the Indian Medical Gazette. He became
Assistant Sanitary Commissioner under the government of India.
After
Waddell worked as a Professor of Chemistry and Pathology for 6
years, he became involved in military expeditions across Burma
and Tibet. Between 1885–1887 Waddell took part in the British
expedition that annexed Upper Burma, which defeated Thibaw Min
the last king of the Konbaung dynasty. After his return from Burma
Waddell was stationed in Darjeeling district, India, and was appointed
Principal Medical Officer in 1888. In the 1890s Waddell, while
in Patna, established that Agam Kuan was part of Ashoka's Hell.
His first publications were essays and articles on medicine and
zoology, most notably "The Birds of Sikkim" (1893).
In 1895 he obtained a doctorate in law.
![](Map_of_1895_excavations_at_Pataliputra.jpg)
Map
of 1895 excavations by Laurence Waddell at Pataliputra
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 the 1903–1904
British invasion of Tibet led by Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband,
and was considered alongside Sir Charles Bell as one of the foremost
authorities on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. Waddell studied archaeology
and ethnology in-between his military assignments across India
and Tibet, and his exploits in the Himalayas were published in
his highly successful book Among the Himalayas (1899). Various
archaeological excavations were also carried out and supervised
by Waddell across India, including Pataliputra, of which he did
not receive recognition of discovery until long after his death,
in 1982, by the government of Bengal. His discoveries at Pataliputra
were published in an official report in 1892.
During
the 1890s Waddell specialised in Buddhist antiquities and became
a collector, between 1895–97 he published "Reports
on collections of Indo-Scythian Buddhist Sculptures from the Swat
Valley", in 1893 he also read a paper to the International
Congress of Orientalists: "On some newly found Indo-Grecian
Buddhistic Sculptures from the Swat Valley". In 1895 Waddell
published his book Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism, which was one
of the first works published in the west on Buddhism. As a collector,
Waddell had come across many Tibetan manuscripts and maps, but
was disappointed to not find a single reference to a lost ancient
civilization, which he had hoped to discover.
Waddell
continued his military service with the Indian Medical Service.
He was in China during the Boxer Rebellion (1898–1901),
including the Relief of Peking in August 1900, for which he was
mentioned in despatches, received the China War Medal (1900) with
clasp, and was in 1901 appointed a Companion of the Order of the
Indian Empire (CIE). By late 1901 he had moved to North-West Frontier
Province and was present during the Mahsud-Waziri Blockade, 1901–1902.
He was in Malakand in 1902 and took part in the Tibet Mission
to Lhasa 1903–04, for which he was again mentioned in despatches,
received a medal with clasp and was appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Bath (CB). Waddell then returned to England, where
he briefly became Professor of Tibetan at the University College
of London (1906–1908).
In
1908, Waddell began to learn Sumerian. Thus in his later career
he turned to studying the ancient near east, especially Sumeria
and dedicated his time to deciphering or translating ancient cuneiform
tablets or seals, most notably including the Scheil dynastic tablet.
In 1911, Waddell published two entries in the Encyclopædia
Britannica. By 1917, Waddell was fully retired and first started
exclusively writing on Aryans, beginning in an article published
in the Asiatic Review entitled "Aryan Origin of the World's
Civilization". From the 1920s Waddell published several works
which attempted to prove an Aryan (i.e., Indo-European) origin
of the alphabet and the appearance of Indo-European myth figures
in ancient Near Eastern mythologies (e.g., Hittite, Sumerian,
Babylonian). The foundation of his argument is what he saw as
a persistence of cult practices, religious symbols, mythological
stories and figures, and god and hero names throughout Western
and Near Eastern civilizations, but also based his arguments on
his deciphered Sumerian and Indus-Valley seals, and other archaeological
findings.
Waddell
died in 1938. That same year, he had completed writing Trojan
Origin of World Civilization. The book was never published.
Discovery
of Buddha's Birthplace :
Waddell had travelled around British controlled India in search
for Kapilavastu, the Buddha's supposed birthplace. Cunningham
had previously identified Kapilavastu as the village of Bhuila
in India which Waddell and other orientalists concluded to be
incorrect. They were searching for the birthplace by taking into
account the topographical and geographical hints left by the ancient
Chinese travellers, Fa Hien and Hiuen Tsiang. Waddell was first
to point out the importance of the discovery of Asoka's pillar
in Nigliva in 1893 and estimate Buddha's birthplace as Lumbini.
He subsequently corresponded with Government of India and arranged
for the exploration of the area. Waddell also was appointed to
conduct the exploration to recover the inscriptions, etc.; but
at the last moment, when due to adverse circumstances prevented
him from proceeding, and Mr. Führer was sent to carry out
the exploration arranged by him, he found the Lumbini grove, etc.,
with their inscriptions at the very spots pointed out by him.
Waddell's
theories :
Waddell's voluminious writings after his retirement were based
on an attempt to prove the Sumerians (who he identified as Aryans)
as the progenitors of other ancient civilizations, such as the
Indus Valley Civilization and ancient Egyptians to "the classic
Greeks and Romans and Ancient Britons, to whom they [the Sumerians]
passed on from hand to hand down the ages the torch of civilization".
He is perhaps most remembered for his controversial translations;
the Scheil dynastic tablet, the Bowl of Utu and Newton Stone,
as well as his British Edda.
Phoenicians
:
Waddell in Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons
(1924) argued for a Syro-Hittite and Phoenician colonization of
the British Isles, turning to British folklore that mentions Trojans,
such as the "Brutus Stone" in Totnes and Geoffrey of
Monmouth; place-names that supposedly preserve the Hittite language,
and inscriptions, as evidence.
According
to Waddell the "unknown" script on the Newton Stone is
Hitto-Phoenician. His translation is as follows :
"This
Sun-Cross (Swastika) was raised to Bil (or Bel, the God of Sun-Fire)
by the Kassi (or Cassi-bel[-an]) of Kast of the Siluyr (sub-clan)
of the "Khilani" (or Hittite-palace-dwellers), the Phoenician
(named) Ikar of Cilicia, the Prwt (or Prat, that is 'Barat' or
'Brihat' or Brit-on)."
Brutus
of Troy, Waddell also regarded to be a real historical figure.
In a chapter entitled "COMING OF THE "BRITONS"
OR ARYAN BRITO-PHOENICIANS UNDER KING BRUTUS-THE-TROJAN TO ALBION
ABOUT 1103, B.C", Waddell writes:
"This
migration of King Brutus and his Trojan and Phoenician refugees
from Asia Minor and Phoenicia to establish a new homeland colony
in Albion, which event the British Chronicle historical tradition
places at 1103 B.C. was probably associated with, and enforced
by, not merely the loss of Troy, but also by the massacring invasion
of Hittite Asia Minor, Cilicia and the Syria-Phoenician coast
of the Mediterranean by the Assyrian King Tiglath Pileser I. about
1107 B.C. to 1105 B.C."
Reception
:
![](Lhasa_and_its_mysteries.djvu.jpg)
Book
cover "Lhasa and its Mysteries" 3rd edition in 1906
Waddell's contemporaries reviewed the book very negatively. One
reviewer considered the content to be "admirable fooling",
but that he had "an uneasy feeling that the author really
believes it". It has also been pointed out that Waddell took
the Historia Regum Britanniae to be literal history which is why
he was almost asking to be ridiculed by historians:
"Contrary
to the general opinion of historians, he [Waddell] accepts as
authentic the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and regards as
historical the legend of King Brut of Troy having reached Britain
with his followers about the year 1103 BC, founded London a few
years later, and spread through the land Phoenician culture, religion
and art [...] His views indeed are so unorthodox that he is no
doubt prepared for strong criticism, and even ridicule. King Brut
of Troy has long been relegated to the company of old wives' tales."
Indus-Valley
seals :
The first Indus Valley or Harappan seal was published by Alexander
Cunningham in 1872. It was half a century later, in 1912, when
more Indus Valley seals were discovered by J. Fleet, prompting
an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall in 1921–22,
resulting in the discovery of the ancient civilization at Harappa
(later including Mohenjo-daro). As seals were discovered from
the Indus Valley, Waddell in 1925 first attempted to decipher
them and claimed they were of Sumerian origin in his Indo-Sumerian
Seals Deciphered.
Reception
:
In the 1920s, Waddell's theory that the Indus-Valley seals were
Sumerian had some academic support, despite criticisms; Ralph
Turner considered Waddell's work to be "fantasy". Two
notable supporters of Waddell included John Marshall, the Director-General
of the Archaeological Survey of India until 1928, and Stephen
Herbert Langdon. Marshall had led the main excavation campaign
at Harappa and published his support for Waddell's Sumerian decipherment
in 1931. Preston however in a section of her biography of Waddell
entitled "Opposition to Indo-Sumerian Seals Deciphered"
points out that support for Waddell's theory had disappeared by
the early 1940s through the work of Mortimer Wheeler:
"However,
a shift, which made his [Waddell's] claim appear untenable, occurred
in the consensus in archaeology after Sir Mortimer Wheeler was
put in charge of the Archaeological Survey of India [...] Wheeler's
interpretation of the archaeological data was the guideline for
scholars who appear to have ruled out the possibility that the
language of the seals could be akin to Sumerian and Proto-Elamite."
Sumerian
language :
The non-Semitic source of the Sumerian language was established
in the late 19th century by Julius Oppert and Henry Rawlinson
from which many different theories were proposed as to its origin.
In his works Aryan Origin of the Alphabet and Sumer-Aryan Dictionary
(1927) Waddell attempted to show the Sumerian language was of
Aryan (Indo-European) root.
Reception
:
Waddell's Sumerian-Aryan equation did not receive any support
at the time, despite having sent personal copies of his two books
to Archibald Sayce. Professor Langdon, who had earlier offered
Waddell his support for a Sumerian or Proto-Elamite decipherment
of the Indus-Valley seals, dismissed Waddell's publications on
the Sumerian language itself:
"The
author [Waddell] has slight knowledge of Sumerian, and commits
unpardonable mistakes [...] The meanings assigned to Sumerian
roots are almost entirely erroneous. One can only regret the publication
of such fantastic theories, which cannot possibly do service to
serious science in any sense whatsoever."
Chronology
:
Waddell in The Makers of Civilization (1929) and Egyptian Civilization
Its Sumerian Origin and Real Chronology (1930) revised conventional
dates for most ancient civilizations and king lists. For example,
he believed the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt began c. 2700 BC,
not c. 3100 BC, arguing that Menes, was Manis-Tusu, the son of
Sargon, who in turn was King Minos of Crete. For Waddell, the
earliest ancient rulers or mythological kings of Sumer, Egypt,
Crete and the Indus Valley civilizations were all identical Aryan
personages.
Reception
:
To support his revised chronology, Waddell acquired and translated
several artefacts including the Scheil dynastic tablet and the
Bowl of Utu. Waddell was praised for his acquisition of the latter.
However Waddell's translations were always highly unorthodox and
not taken serious. The Makers of Civilization was panned in a
review by Harry L. Shapiro:
"The
reader does not need to peruse this work very far to become aware
of its distinct bias and unscientific method. Fortunately the
'Nordic race-mongers' have become discredited that there is little
to fear from the effect of this opus on the intelligent lay public.
Succinctly, Mr. Waddell believes that the beginning of all civilization
dates from the Nordic [Aryan] Sumerians who were blond Nordics
with blue eyes."
Waddell
during his own life, was deemed to be anachronistic by most scholars
because of his supremacist views regarding the Aryan race:
"One
of the reasons for the literary oblivion of Waddell's works on
the history of civilization with an Aryan theme is [...] in relation
to the fact that he did not give up the quest for the Aryans in
terms of racial origins when it was abandoned in the 1870s, and
it was very influential in his choice of career [...] His comparative
studies and decipherment led him to a completely controversial
and alternative perspective of ancient history. Furthermore, the
titles that are now little known may have been sidelined due his
use of the term 'Aryan' as it became associated with the rise
of Nazism."
Pan-Sumerism
:
Waddell from 1917 (having first published the article "Aryan
Origin of the World's Civilization") until his death was
a proponent of hyperdiffusionism ("Pan-Sumerism") arguing
that many cultures and ancient civilizations, such as the Indus
Valley Civilization, Minoan Crete, Phoenicia, and Dynastic Egypt,
were the product of Aryan Sumerian colonists.
Grafton
Elliot Smith who pioneered hyperdiffusionism (but of the Egyptians)
was an influential correspondent to Waddell.
Reception
:
R. Sawyer (1985) points out that Waddell "was of the eccentric
opinion that Western, Indian and ancient Egyptian culture derived
from a common Sumerian ancestry" and that his ideas were
far-fetched to untenable. Gabriel Moshenska of the UCL Institute
of Archaeology has noted:
"Waddell's
hopes of rewriting the story of civilization with the Aryan race
as the first and only protagonist rapidly faded as his works and
ideas remained restricted to, if well rooted in, the ultra right
wing fringes of society and scholarship. J. H. Harvey, member
of the pro-Nazi Imperial Fascist League and later a respected
medievalist, wrote a short book The Heritage of Britain (1940)
which aimed to summarise Waddell's works for a narrower audience
on the fringes of the British Fascist movement (Macklin 2008).
The British-Israelite W. T. F. Jarrold used Waddell's study of
the Newton Stone to support a Biblical origin for the Anglo-Saxon
race (1927). Today Waddell's works are read and referenced most
commonly by white supremacists, esoteric scholars and conspiracy
theorists such as David Icke (1999)."
Collections
:
Waddell collected bird specimens and it was on the basis of one
of them that Henry Dresser named the species Babax waddelli (the
giant babax) in 1905. His collections were donated in 1894 to
the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow. Some specimens
are in the Manchester Museum and at the Natural History Museum
at London. The University of Glasgow holds Waddell's papers and
manuscript collection.
Tribute
:
The fish Gymnocypris waddellii Regan, 1905 was named in honor
of Waddell, who preserved the type specimens in salt before presenting
them to the British Museum (Natural History).
Published books :
|
Particulars |
• |
The
non-bacillar nature of abrus-poison : with observations
on its chemical and physiological properties (1884) |
• |
The
Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism, With Its Mystic Cults,
Symbolism and Mythology and in Its Relation to Indian
Buddhism (1895) |
• |
Among
the Himalayas (1899) |
• |
The
Tribes of the Brahmaputra valley (1901)
|
• |
Lhasa
and Its Mysteries – With a Record of the British
Tibetan Expedition of 1903–1904 (1905) |
• |
The
"Dharani" cult in Buddhism: its origin,
deified literature and images (1912)
|
• |
Phoenician
Origin of the Britons, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons (1924,
2nd ed. 1925) |
• |
Indo-Sumerian
Seals Deciphered discovering Sumerians of Indus
Valley as Phoenicians, Barats, Goths & famous
Vedic Aryans 3100-2300 B.C. (1925) |
• |
Sumer-Aryan
Dictionary. An Etymological Lexicon of the English
and other Aryan Languages Ancient and Modern and
the Sumerian Origin of Egyptian and its Hieroglyphs
(1927) |
• |
Aryan-Sumerian
Origin of the Alphabet (1927) |
• |
Questionary
on the Sumerian markings upon prehistoric pottery
found in the Danube & associated valleys of
Middle Europe (1928, small booklet) |
• |
Makers
of Civilization in Race and History (1929) |
• |
Egyptian
Civilization Its Sumerian Origin and Real Chronology
(1930) |
• |
The
British Edda (1930)
|
|
Sources :
|
Particulars |
• |
Buckland,
C. E. (1906). Dictionary of Indian Biography. London
: S. Sonnenschein.
|
• |
Thomas,
F. W. (1939). "Colonel L. A. Waddell".
The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great
Britain and Ireland. 71 (3): 499–504. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00089577.
JSTOR 25201976. |
• |
Preston,
C. (2009). The Rise of Man in the Gardens of Sumeria:
A Biography of L.A. Waddell. Sussex Academic Press. |
• |
Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography: Waddell, Lawrence
Augustine (1854–1938).
|
• |
Waddell
Collection at the University of Glasgow: A collection
of over 700 volumes dealing mainly with Assyrian
and Sumerian languages, Archaeology, Asian history
and folk-lore, and Buddhism. He made a notable contribution
to the history of Buddhism. The printed book collection
is supplemented by associated correspondence, working
notes, photographs and press cuttings. Some of the
books have manuscript annotations and inserts.
|
|
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Laurence_Waddell