[INDOLOGY] Diego Loukota (16 April 1985 – 17 March 2024)

[Richard G. Salomon]

Dear Friends,

Truly a sad and bitter loss to our scholarly community as well as, of
course, to Diego's family and friends. He was a truly gifted scholar who
would certainly have gone on to great things. Condolences to everyone who
is affected by this tragedy.

Rich Salomon

On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 11:32 AM Stefan Baums via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Our dear friend and colleague Diego Loukota has passed away. Even
> in his last days, the fields of study to which he gave so much
> were in his thoughts, and he asked for the following obituary to
> be shared with you.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Diego Loukota, Assistant Professor in Indian and Central Asian
> Buddhism at UCLA, died at the age of 38 on Sunday, March 17th,
> 2024 in his home in Santa Monica, California, surrounded by family
> and friends. He had been diagnosed with an incurable and
> aggressive form of brain tumor (glioblastoma) in March 2023. Diego
> was a proud husband to his colleague Stephanie Balkwill, Assistant
> Professor of Chinese Buddhism at UCLA, and father to 8-year-old
> Remedios, as well as a proud citizen of Guatemala, Colombia, and
> Canada. He continued his activity as instructor, graduate
> supervisor, and researcher throughout the course of his illness up
> until the end of 2023, when his physical limitations made work
> difficult and secondary to end-of-life considerations.
>
> Diego had unfinished studies in Classics and Music (cello) from
> the National University of Colombia, a BA in Asian History from
> the University of Bologna in Italy, and an MA in Sanskrit and Pāli
> from Peking University, where he also studied Khotanese and
> Gāndhārī under the late Prof. Duan Qing; after this he completed
> his doctoral studies under Prof. Gregory Schopen in Buddhist
> Studies at UCLA.
>
> Diego focused on the philological treatment of unpublished
> documents, fragments, and inscriptions in Central Asian languages,
> with an eye to their contribution to the history of Buddhism and
> of the Silk Road.
>
> If you would like to contribute a personal reminiscence or
> anecdote to be shared at an upcoming memorial event at UCLA,
> please write it in this thread or write to his wife Stephanie at
> balkwill at humnet.ucla.edu.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> --
> Stefan Baums, Ph.D.
> Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
> Ludwig‐Maximilians‐Universität München
>
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