Étienne Paul Marie Lamotte (; 21 November 1903 – 5 May 1983) was a Belgian priest and Professor of Greek at the Catholic University of Louvain, but was better known as an Indologist and the greatest authority on

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

in the West in his time. He studied under his pioneering compatriot Louis de La Vallée-Poussin and was one of the few scholars familiar with all the main Buddhist languages:

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, Chinese and Tibetan. His first published work was his PhD thesis: ''Notes sur le Bhagavad-Gita'' (Paris, Geuthner, 1929). - In 1953, he was awarded the Francqui Prize in Human Science.

The Translation of Da zhi du lun

He is also known for his French translation of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa (, English: Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom), a text attributed to Nāgārjuna. Lamotte thought that the text was most likely composed by an Indian bhikkhu from the Sarvastivada tradition, who later became a convert to

Mahayana Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...

. Lamotte's translation was published in five volumes but unfortunately remains incomplete, since his death put an end to his efforts.

Other works

In addition to the Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa, Lamotte also composed several other important translations from

sutra ''Sutra'' ()Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a ...

s, including the Suramgamasamadhi sutra, and the Vimalakirti

Publications

Paul Williams, author of a book review of one of Lamotte's books for the '' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', wrote that his "works are always more than just translations or interpretations. They are vast encyclopedias of references and primary source materials from half a dozen languages which he seems to handle with complete familiarity."Williams, p. 171. *''Le traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra)'' vol. 1 (1944) *''Le traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra)'' vol. 2 (1949) *''Histoire du bouddhisme indien'' (1958) trans. into English as ''The History of Indian Buddhism'' 1988. *''The Spirit of Ancient Buddhism'' (1961) *'' The Teaching of Vimalakirti (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa)'' (1962) ( Pali Text Soc. trans. 1986) *'' Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra, The Concentration of Heroic Progress: An Early Mahayana Buddhist Scripture'' (1965) (Eng. trans: Curzon Press 1998) *''Le traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra)'' vol. 3 (1970) *''Le traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra)'' vol. 4 (1976) *''Le traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra)'' vol. 5 (1980) *''Karmasiddhi Prakarana'', English trans. Leo M. Pruden 1988.

References

* André Bareau: ''Etienne Lamotte 1903-1983'', '' T'oung Pao'', Second Series, Vol. 69, No. 1/3 (1983), pp. i-ii. * Heinz Bechert, In Memoriam Etienne Lamotte (1903-1983), '' Numen'', Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jul., 1985), pp. 119-129. * Heinz Bechert
Etienne Lamotte (1903-1983)
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 8 (2), 151-156, 1985. * Durt Hubert
Etienne Lamotte (1903-1983)
'' Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient'', Tome 74, 1985. pp. 6-28. * Williams, Paul M. " The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa)" (book review) '' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', , 04/1979, Volume 111, Issue 2, pp. 171 – 172.

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