Lambert Schmithausen

is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hamburg, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Abt. Indien und Tibet

Lambert Schmithausen, born in Cologne in 1939, studied Indology, Philosophy and Islamic Studies at the Universities of Cologne, Bonn and Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1963 ("The Development of the Indian Theory of Error up to Maṇḍanamiśra"). After his habilitation (1966) in Indology at the University of Münster, he worked there as a lecturer and later as an associate professor. From 1973 until his retirement in the spring 2005, he was full professor of Indology at the University of Hamburg, specialising in Indian Buddhism, including its extra-Indian transmissions. Main areas of research: Philosophy and spiritual practice of Buddhism, especially the Yogācāra school; attitudes towards animals, plants and the environment in the Buddhist tradition; meat eating and vegetarianism in Indian Buddhism.