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  • Lanikai (Hawaii, United States)
    twin residential communities, southeastern Oahu island, Hawaii, U.S. Extending along Kailua Bay, they lie 13 miles (21 km) northeast of Honolulu and just south of Kaneohe. According to Hawaiian legend, the mountainous area surrounding Kailua was formed from a giant turned to stone. The communities occupy a superb white-san...
  • Lanin, Lester (American bandleader)
    American bandleader (b. Aug. 26, 1907, Philadelphia, Pa.—d. Oct. 27, 2004, New York, N.Y.), provided the music for several decades’ worth of high-society parties and balls with his tasteful mix of music types, including his debutante ball standard “Pink Petal Waltz.” He had as many as 12 bands on the road at times during his more than 70-year career, and they played for...
  • Lanin, Nathaniel Lester (American bandleader)
    American bandleader (b. Aug. 26, 1907, Philadelphia, Pa.—d. Oct. 27, 2004, New York, N.Y.), provided the music for several decades’ worth of high-society parties and balls with his tasteful mix of music types, including his debutante ball standard “Pink Petal Waltz.” He had as many as 12 bands on the road at times during his more than 70-year career, and they played for...
  • Lanín National Park (park, Argentina)
    ...of the Neuquén and Limay rivers, which form the Negro River at the extreme eastern corner of the province. In addition to part of Nahuel Huapí National Park, the province has the Lanín and Laguna Blanca national parks....
  • Lanius (bird)
    ...any bird that impales its prey (small vertebrates, large insects) on a thorn or wedges it into a crack or a forked twig in order to tear it or, sometimes, to store it. The name is given to the Lanius species (see shrike) of the family Laniidae and in Australia to the four to seven species of Cracticus; these are contrastingly patterned (usually black-gray-white) members......
  • Lanius collurio (bird)
    ...Most of these migrants use different routes to cross the Mediterranean, chiefly in the western portion, although some migrate only southeastward. Golden orioles (Oriolus oriolus) and red-backed shrikes (Lanius collurio) go to East Africa by way of Greece and Egypt. Swallows—particularly barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and house martins (Delichon......
  • Lanius excubitor (bird)
    ...thorn, as on a meat hook; hence another name, butcherbird. True shrikes, solitary birds with harsh calls, are gray or brownish, often with black or white markings. The most widespread species is the great gray shrike (L. excubitor), called northern shrike in Canada and the United States, a 24-centimetre (9 12-inch) black-masked bird. The only other New....
  • Lanius ludovicianus (bird)
    ...called northern shrike in Canada and the United States, a 24-centimetre (9 12-inch) black-masked bird. The only other New World species is the similar but smaller loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus) of North America. Several Eurasian species have reddish or brown markings....
  • Laṅkā (Hindu mythology)
    ...creative power. Viśvakarman is the divine carpenter and master craftsman who fashioned the weapons of the gods and built their cities and chariots. He is the architect of the mythical city, Laṅkā, and is also said to have made the great image of Jagannātha at Puri (Orissa). He revealed the sciences of architecture and mechanics to men and is the patron deity of workm...
  • Länkäran (Azerbaijan)
    city, southeastern Azerbaijan. It lies on the shore of the Caspian Sea, in the Länkäran Lowland. First mentioned in the 17th century, it was capital of the Talysh khanate of Iran in the 18th century. It was held by Russia from 1728 to 1735 but only fell definitively to Russia in 1813. Länkäran is now the centre of a rich agricultural region, where subtropical crops, su...
  • Länkäran Lowland (lowlands, Azerbaijan)
    The southeastern part of Azerbaijan is bordered by the Talish (Talysh) Mountains, consisting of three longitudinal ranges, with Mount Kyumyurkyoy as the highest peak (8,176 feet), and the Länkäran Lowland, along the Caspian coast. This lowland, an extension of the Kura-Aras Lowland, reaches the Iranian border near Astara....
  • Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra (Buddhist text)
    (Sanskrit: “Sūtra of the Appearance of the Good Doctrine in Laṅkā”), distinctive and influential philosophical discourse in the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition that is said to have been preached by the Buddha in the mythical city Laṅkā. Dating from perhaps the 4th century, although parts of it may be earlier, it is the chief canonical exp...
  • Lankester, Sir Edwin Ray (British zoologist)
    British authority on general zoology at the turn of the 19th century, who made important contributions to comparative anatomy, embryology, parasitology, and anthropology....
  • Lanman, Charles Rockwell (American scholar)
    American scholar of Sanskrit who wrote the widely used Sanskrit Reader (1884) and helped edit the “Harvard Oriental Series,” which offered scholarly English translations of the ancient Hindu Vedic texts....
  • Lannemezan, Plateau de (plateau, France)
    Many fans in humid areas are actually fossil features created during earlier periods of intense erosion and deposition. The Plateau de Lannemezan on the northern side of the Pyrenees in France, for example, is a large piedmont alluvial fan that is still being built up by the tributaries of the Garonne and Adour rivers. This fan, though, is much too large to have been constructed by present-day......
  • Lannes, Jean, duc de Montebello (French general)
    French general who, despite his humble origins, rose to the rank of marshal of the First Empire; Napoleon said of him, “I found him a pygmy and left him a giant.”...
  • Lanny Budd series (works by Sinclair)
    ...the communist regime caused a decline in his reputation there, but it was revived temporarily in the late 1930s and ’40s by his antifascist writings. Sinclair again reached a wide audience with the Lanny Budd series, 11 contemporary historical novels beginning with World’s End (1940) that were constructed around an implausible antifascist hero who happens to be on hand for ...
  • Lanois, Daniel (Canadian musician and producer)
    In 1989 Dylan once again returned to form with Oh Mercy, produced by Daniel Lanois. When Life magazine published a list of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century in 1990, Dylan was included, and in 1991 he received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. In 1992 Columbia Records celebrated the 30th anniversary of Dylan’s signing with a star-studded......
  • lanolin (chemical compound)
    purified form of wool grease or wool wax (sometimes erroneously called wool fat), used either alone or with soft paraffin or lard or other fat as a base for ointments, emollients, skin foods, salves, superfatted soaps, and fur dressing. Lanolin, a translucent, yellowish-white, soft, unctuous, tenacious substance, is readily absorbed by the skin and thus makes an ideal base for medicinal products ...
  • lanosterol (chemical compound)
    ...of the significance of carbonium ions in bio-organic processes may be found in the biological synthesis of the important material cholesterol from a precursor, squalene, by way of another compound, lanosterol. In this transformation, acid-catalyzed rearrangements—reaction type 6, described earlier—occur repeatedly....
  • Lanoye, Tom (Belgian author)
    ...They include Kristien Hemmerechts, who wrote about loss and sexual tensions in an understated manner, the more philosophical Patricia de Martelaere, and the inventive Koen Peeters. Such authors as Tom Lanoye and Stefan Hertmans made their mark in more than one genre. Lanoye was a performing poet and a passionate, often iconoclastic critic as well as a fiction writer. Hertmans’s critical ...
  • Lanrezac, Charles-Louis-Marie (French general)
    French army commander during the first part of World War I who, though a capable tactician, proved unable to stop the German advance in northern France and was consequently replaced....
  • Lansbury, Angela (American actress)
    British-born American character actress who achieved success and acclaim for her stage, film, and television work....
  • Lansbury, George (British politician)
    leader of the British Labour Party (1931–35), a Socialist and poor-law reformer who was forced to resign the party leadership because of his extreme pacifism....
  • Lansdown Crescent (terrace, Bath, England, United Kingdom)
    ...the city are Queen Square, built by John Wood the Elder between 1728 and 1735; the Circus, begun by Wood in 1754 and completed by his son; the Royal Crescent, 1767–75; the Guildhall, 1775; Lansdown Crescent, built by John Palmer, 1796–97; and the 1795 pavilion in Sydney Gardens, Bathwick, which now houses the Holburne of Menstrie Museum of Arts collection. In 1942 the Assembly......
  • Lansdowne, Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th marquess of (British diplomat)
    Irish nobleman and British diplomat who served as viceroy of Canada and of India, secretary for war, and foreign secretary....
  • Lansdowne Letter (work by Lansdowne)
    ...Conservative opposition in the House of Lords and deplored the disparity of parties there. He was minister without portfolio (1915–16) in Asquith’s government. His controversial published “Lansdowne Letter” (1917), calling for a statement of intentions from World War I Allies, was criticized as contrary to public policy....
  • Lansdowne, William Petty-Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of (prime minister of Great Britain)
    British statesman and prime minister (July 1782 to April 1783) during the reign of George III....
  • Lansel, Peider (Romansh poet)
    Romansh leader of the revival of Rhaeto-Romance language and culture and one of its most accomplished lyric poets....
  • Lansing (Michigan, United States)
    capital of Michigan, U.S., located in Ingham county. The city site, on the Grand River at its junction with the Red Cedar River, was a wilderness when the state capital was moved there from Detroit (about 85 miles [140 km] southeast) in 1847. At first called Village of Michigan, in 1849 it assumed the name of the township in which it was located. (Lansing town...
  • Lansing Declaration (United States government)
    ...States, where he was welcomed by Czech and Slovak groups and where he negotiated the terms of Czechoslovak independence with President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State Robert Lansing. The Lansing Declaration of May 1918 expressed the sympathy of the U.S. government with the Czechoslovak freedom movement, and Czechoslovakia’s liberation became one of Wilson’s Fourteen Points f...
  • Lansing, Robert (United States statesman)
    international lawyer and U.S. secretary of state (1915–20), who negotiated the Lansing–Ishii Agreement (1917) attempting to harmonize U.S.–Japanese relations toward China; he eventually broke with Pres. Woodrow Wilson over differences in approach to the League of Nations....
  • Lansing–Ishii Agreement (United States-Japanese history)
    (Nov. 2, 1917), attempt to reconcile conflicting U.S. and Japanese policies in China during World War I by a public exchange of notes between the U.S. secretary of state, Robert Lansing, and Viscount Ishii Kikujirō of Japan, a special envoy to Washington. Japan promised respect for China’s independence and territorial integrity and for the U.S.-sponsored Open Door...
  • Lansky, Meyer (American gangster)
    one of the most powerful and richest of U.S. crime syndicate chiefs and bankers, who had major interests in gambling, especially in Florida, pre-Castro Cuba, Las Vegas, and the Bahamas....
  • Lansley, Beryl Frances (British artist)
    English artist who painted humorous scenes of plump people enjoying themselves in common social situations, such as shopping, drinking in bars, or dancing in clubs. Cook had no professional training and did not begin painting until she was in her 40s. After a friend persuaded her to allow him to sell some of her paintings, Cook’s reputation grew. In 1975 she had her first exhibition at the ...
  • Lanston, Tolbert (American inventor)
    ...or for producing a matrix of a page to be printed; after use it could be melted for reuse. Mergenthaler’s Linotype (q.v.) machine was patented in 1884; in 1885 another American inventor, Tolbert Lanston, perfected the Monotype (q.v.), a machine in which type is cast in individual letters. Both machines were made possible by the development of machine tools, specifically, th...
  • “Lanstörtzerin Courage, Die” (work by Grimmelshausen)
    Grimmelshausen’s continuations of Simplicissimus include Die Lanstörtzerin Courage (1669; Courage, the Adventuress)—which inspired Bertolt Brecht’s play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1941; Mother Courage and Her Children)—and ...
  • Lantana (Florida, United States)
    Grimmelshausen’s continuations of Simplicissimus include Die Lanstörtzerin Courage (1669; Courage, the Adventuress)—which inspired Bertolt Brecht’s play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1941; Mother Courage and Her Children)—and ......
  • Lantana (plant genus)
    genus of more than 150 shrubs native to tropical America and Africa and belonging to the verbena family (Verbenaceae), order Lamiales. Common lantana (L. camara; see ), growing to 3 metres (10 feet) tall, is a weed in tropical America, but elsewhere it is much used as a garden plant. It blooms almost continuously with yellow, orange, pink, and white flower heads in vario...
  • Lantana camara (plant)
    ...to shoot, fishermen have wanted challenging fish, and gardeners have wanted beautiful flowers. Nonetheless, the consequences in some cases have been devastating. Cacti and the shrub Lantana camara, for example, which were introduced as ornamental plants, have destroyed huge areas of grazing land worldwide....
  • Lantana montevidensis (plant)
    Trailing lantana (L. montevidensis), from South America, is a small-leaved, drooping, thinly branched species that bears rose-lavender flowers. Other species are variously known as yellow sage, weeping (or trailing) lantana, and polecat geranium....
  • Lantao Island (island, Hong Kong, China)
    island located about 6 miles (10 km) west of Hong Kong Island, part of the New Territories of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. About 17 miles (27 km) long and 6 miles (9.5 km) wide, it has an area of 58 square miles (150 square km). Consisting of mountains rising to 3,064 feet (934 m) at Lantau Peak, the island is covered by grass and scrub with pockets of arable land along its...
  • Lantau Island (island, Hong Kong, China)
    island located about 6 miles (10 km) west of Hong Kong Island, part of the New Territories of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. About 17 miles (27 km) long and 6 miles (9.5 km) wide, it has an area of 58 square miles (150 square km). Consisting of mountains rising to 3,064 feet (934 m) at Lantau Peak, the island is covered by grass and scrub with pockets of arable land along its...
  • Lantau Peak (mountain, Hong Kong, China)
    ...From Mount Tai Mo—at 3,140 feet (957 metres) the highest peak in the territory—the series of ridges extends southwestward to Lantau Island, where the terrain rises to 3,064 feet on Lantau Peak and 2,851 feet on Sunset Peak. Extending southeastward from Mount Tai Mo, the Kowloon Peak attains an elevation of 1,975 feet, but there is an abrupt drop to about 650 feet at Devil’s...
  • Lante, Villa (villa, Bagnaia, Italy)
    ...view over Florence from the front and thus suggests intimate use by members of a small household. The more extensive parterre garden (an ornamental garden with paths between the beds) of the Villa Lante at Bagnaia (begun 1564) is designed neither for solitary enjoyment nor for a crowd but for a select, discerning company—as is the garden of the far more splendid Villa Farnese at......
  • lanterloo (card game)
    gambling card game often mentioned in English literature. The name derives from the French lanturlu, the refrain of a popular 17th-century song. Popularity of the game faded in the 20th century....
  • lantern (lighting)
    a case, ordinarily metal, with transparent or translucent sides, used to contain and protect a lamp....
  • lantern (architecture)
    in architecture, originally an openwork timber construction placed on top of a building to admit light and allow smoke to escape. Something of this idea persists in medieval examples such as the lantern above the central octagon of Ely Cathedral (14th century). The term lantern soon came to refer to the open top story of a tower, because such a construction resembled a lamp container and because b...
  • Lantern Festival (holiday)
    holiday celebrated in China and other Asian countries that honours deceased ancestors on the 15th day of the first month (Yuan) of the lunar calendar. The Lantern Festival aims to promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. The holiday marks the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year (see Lunar New Year...
  • lantern fish
    any of the numerous species of small, abundant, deep-sea fish of the family Myctophidae. Some lantern fish live in the depths to 300 metres (about 1,000 feet) by day, but at night they may approach the surface. Others live deeper and do not approach the surface. They are somewhat elongated fish with large mouths and eyes and numerous light organs on the head, underside, and tail base. The arrangem...
  • lantern of the dead (architecture)
    small stone structure with windows in the upper part, in which lamps were placed to mark the position of a cemetery at night. Their use, which seems limited to western and central France, is probably owing to a traditional survival of primitive Celtic rather than Christian ideas....
  • lantern-eye fish
    any of three species of fishes in the family Anomalopidae (order Beryciformes), characterized by the presence of luminescent organs just below the eye. They are among the few species of non-deep-sea fishes to possess such organs. Phosphorescent bacteria create the light continuously, but each species has its own mechanism for decreasing the luminescence; when swimming, some fishes create a blinkin...
  • Lanternaria phosphorea (insect)
    (Lanternaria phosphorea), a large, brightly coloured South American plant hopper (order Homoptera) that lives on trees and is relatively uncommon. Its most remarkable feature is the inflated anterior prolongation of the head, which contains a pouchlike extension from the digestive tract. This structure appears to be luminous at times, a phenomenon that may be related to mating behaviour....
  • lanterne des morts, la (architecture)
    small stone structure with windows in the upper part, in which lamps were placed to mark the position of a cemetery at night. Their use, which seems limited to western and central France, is probably owing to a traditional survival of primitive Celtic rather than Christian ideas....
  • lanternfly (insect)
    (Lanternaria phosphorea), a large, brightly coloured South American plant hopper (order Homoptera) that lives on trees and is relatively uncommon. Its most remarkable feature is the inflated anterior prolongation of the head, which contains a pouchlike extension from the digestive tract. This structure appears to be luminous at times, a phenomenon that may be related to mating behaviour....
  • Lanterns, Feast of (Buddhist holiday)
    The three major events of the Buddha’s life—his birth, enlightenment, and entrance into final nirvana—are commemorated in all Buddhist countries but not everywhere on the same day. In Theravada countries the three events are all observed together on Vesak, the full moon day of the sixth lunar month (Vesakha), which usually occurs in May. In Japan and other Mahayana countries,....
  • lanthanide contraction (chemistry)
    in chemistry, the steady decrease in the size of the atoms and ions of the rare-earth elements with increasing atomic number from lanthanum (atomic number 57) through lutetium (atomic number 71). For each consecutive atom the nuclear charge is more positive by one unit, accompanied by a corresponding increase in the number of electrons prese...
  • lanthanide element
    any of a large family of chemical elements consisting of the lanthanoids (the 15 elements from lanthanum to lutetium, atomic numbers 57–71) and, because of chemical similarities to the lanthanoids, the elements scandium (atomic number 21) and yttrium (atomic number 39) of group IIIb. They form a series of 17 chemically similar metals, all but one of which occur in nature. Often they are cal...
  • lanthanoid contraction (chemistry)
    in chemistry, the steady decrease in the size of the atoms and ions of the rare-earth elements with increasing atomic number from lanthanum (atomic number 57) through lutetium (atomic number 71). For each consecutive atom the nuclear charge is more positive by one unit, accompanied by a corresponding increase in the number of electrons prese...
  • Lanthanotus borneensis (lizard species)
    The earless monitor (L. borneensis), a rare and little-known lizard native to Borneo, is the only species in the subfamily Lanthanotinae. It too is elongate with a relatively long neck, but the limbs are small. It grows to a length of 40 cm (16 inches)....
  • lanthanum (chemical element)
    (La), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table, prototype of the lanthanoid series of elements. Lanthanum is a ductile and malleable, silvery-white metal, soft enough to be cut with a knife. The element was discovered as the oxide (lanthana) in 1839 by Carl Gustaf Mosander, who distinguished it from cerium oxide (ceria). Its name is deriv...
  • lanthanum oxide (chemical compound)
    Highly purified lanthanum oxide is an ingredient in the manufacture of low-dispersion, high-refraction glasses for lens components. The technical grade fluoride is used as core material for arc-light carbons....
  • Lantian man (anthropology)
    fossils of hominins (members of the human lineage) found in 1963 and 1964 by Chinese archaeologists at two sites in Lantian district, Shaanxi province, China. One specimen was found at each site: a cranium (skullcap) at Gongwangling (Kung-wang-ling) and a mandible (lower jaw) at Chenjiawo (Ch’en-chia-wo). Both appear to be female. Stone implements from a third site in Lantian may be contemp...
  • Lanting Xu (work by Wang Xizhi)
    ...are not abbreviated or connected, but strokes within the characters are often run together. The best-known example of early surviving Chinese calligraphy, Lanting Xu (“Essay on the Orchid Pavilion”), written in 353 by Wang Xizhi but surviving only in several fine tracing copies and other forms of duplication such as rubbings, is......
  • “Lantingxu” (work by Wang Xizhi)
    ...are not abbreviated or connected, but strokes within the characters are often run together. The best-known example of early surviving Chinese calligraphy, Lanting Xu (“Essay on the Orchid Pavilion”), written in 353 by Wang Xizhi but surviving only in several fine tracing copies and other forms of duplication such as rubbings, is......
  • Lantz, Walter (American animator)
    American motion-picture animator, cartoon producer, and creator of the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker....
  • lanugo (mammalian hair)
    Human beings have several different types of hairs. The first to develop is the lanugo, a layer of downy, slender hairs that begin growing in the third or fourth month of fetal life and are entirely shed either before or shortly after birth. During the first few months of infancy there grow fine, short, unpigmented hairs called down hair, or vellus. Vellus covers every part of the body except......
  • Lanús (Argentina)
    cabecera (county seat) and partido (county) of Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires, eastern Argentina, directly south of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires provincia (province). Much of the early settlement of Lanús, formerly called the county of Cuatro d...
  • Lanús (county, Argentina)
    cabecera (county seat) and partido (county) of Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires, eastern Argentina, directly south of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires provincia (province). Much of the early settlement of Lanús, formerly called the county of Cuatro de Junio, was......
  • Lanusse, Alejandro Agustín (president of Argentina)
    Argentine general and politician (b. Aug. 28, 1918, Buenos Aires, Arg.--d. Aug. 26, 1996, Buenos Aires), as president of Argentina from 1971 to 1973, attempted to restore democracy to the country. Born into an upper-middle-class family, Lanusse graduated from military college in 1938 and joined the cavalry. In 1951 he was sentenced to life in prison for his participation in a failed attempt to ous...
  • Lanuvinus, Lucius (Roman dramatist)
    Terence faced the hostility of jealous rivals, particularly one older playwright, Luscius Lanuvinus, who launched a series of accusations against the newcomer. The main source of contention was Terence’s dramatic method. It was the custom for these Roman dramatists to draw their material from earlier Greek comedies about rich young men and the difficulties that attended their amours. The......
  • Lanxide process (chemical bonding)
    Another chemical bonding method is the Lanxide process, introduced by the Lanxide Company in the United States. In this process a molten metal is reacted with a gas to form a metal-ceramic composite at the metal-gas interface. As the composite grows at the metal-composite interface, edges remain in contact with the melt and act as a wick for additional reactant metal. The Lanxide process has......
  • Lány, Treaty of (Austria-Czechoslovakia)
    ...government supported by the Christian Socialists and Pan-Germans. He took the initiative in reestablishing friendly relations with the successor states of the late Habsburg Empire by signing the Treaty of Lány with Czechoslovakia in December 1921. But the Pan-Germans, who viewed the treaty as a possible obstruction to Austria’s ultimate union with Germany, withdrew from the......
  • Lanz, Johann Wilhelm (German potter)
    ...green was also used. Deutsche Blumen (“German flowers”) were introduced, perhaps by A.F. von Löwenfinck, about 1750, and inspired similar painting elsewhere. Figures by J.W. Lanz, who also worked in porcelain here and at Frankenthal, are to be seen. Much work was done in the fashionable Rococo style, including objects, such as clock cases and wall cisterns, and......
  • Lanza, Giovanni (Italian statesman)
    Italian statesman and political activist of the Risorgimento who was premier in 1870 when Rome became the capital of a united Italy and who helped organize the political forces of the centre-left....
  • Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain)
    island, Las Palmas provincia (province), in the Canary Islands comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), Spain. It is the easternmost of the Canary Islands, in the North Atlantic Ocean. Although it rises to only 2,198 feet (670 metres) at Peñas del...
  • Lanzelet (German poem)
    ...legend about Guinevere’s abduction, making Lancelot her rescuer and lover. It also mentioned Lancelot’s upbringing by a fairy in a lake, a story that received fuller treatment in the German poem Lanzelet. These two themes were developed further in the great 13th-century Vulgate cycle, or Prose Lancelot. According to this, after the death of his father, King Ban of Be...
  • Lanzhou (China)
    city, capital of Gansu sheng (province), west-central China. It is situated in the southeastern portion of the province on the upper course of the Huang He (Yellow River), where the river emerges from the mountains. Lanzhou has been a centre since early times, being at the southern end of the route leading via the Gansu (H...
  • Lanzi, Loggia dei (loggia, Florence, Italy)
    The Renaissance began in Italy, where there was always a residue of Classical feeling in architecture. A Gothic building such as the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence was characterized by a large round arch instead of the usual Gothic pointed arch and preserved the simplicity and monumentality of Classical architecture. The Renaissance might have been expected to appear first in Rome, where there......
  • Lanzi, Luigi (Italian archaeologist)
    ...in Florence and Rome and spread to northern Italy and, ultimately, to much of central and northern Europe. The term was first used around the end of the 18th century by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Lanzi to define 16th-century artists who were the followers of major Renaissance masters....
  • Lanzón, El (Chavin god)
    This figure, which has variously been called El Lanzón, the Great Image, and the Smiling God, is thought to have been the chief object of worship in the original temple. The southern arm of the temple was subsequently twice widened by rectangular additions, into which some of the original galleries were prolonged. After the second addition, the two were joined by a freestanding facade......
  • Lao (people)
    The Lao people, the predominant ethnic group in present-day Laos, are a branch of the Tai peoples who by the 8th century ad had established a powerful kingdom, Nanchao, in southwestern China. From Nanchao the Tai gradually penetrated southward into the Southeast Asian mainland; their migration was accelerated in the 13th century by the Mongol invasions of southern China by Kublai Kha...
  • Lao Cai (Vietnam)
    town, northwestern Vietnam, on the China-Vietnam border. It lies at the junction of the Red River (Song Hong) and the Nam Ti River about 160 miles (260 km) northwest of Hanoi. It is a market town for timber from the surrounding mountains and is strategically important because of its location on the Haiphong railway to Yunnan province, China. It has a carbide factory....
  • Lao Country (nationalist organization, Laos)
    left-oriented nationalist group in Laos that took control of the country in 1975. Founded in 1950, the Pathet Lao (Lao Country) movement joined with the Viet Minh, the Communist-oriented Vietnamese nationalist organization, in armed resistance to French rule in Indochina. In 1956 a legal political wing, the Lao Patriotic Front (Neo Lao Hak Xat), was founded and participated in several coalition g...
  • Lao Dong (Vietnamese political organization)
    ...regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. Their leaders, veterans of the Viet Minh, appealed to North Vietnam for aid. In July 1959, at a meeting of the central committee of Ho Chi Minh’s Lao Dong (Worker’s Party), it was decided that the establishment of socialism in the North was linked with the unification with the South. This policy was confirmed by the third congress of the L...
  • Lao Issara (political movement, Laos)
    Laotian political movement against French colonial control, founded in 1945. The departure of the Japanese from Laos in 1945 left the Laotian ruling elite divided over the issue of the restoration of French control. The king welcomed the French return, but Prince Phetsarath, the viceroy, and his brothers, Souvanna Phouma and Souphanouvong, were prominent in the noncommunist Lao Issara, which deman...
  • Lao Khamhom (Thai writer)
    ...of speech was severely curtailed; in the later years only escapist fiction, called “stagnant water literature,” survived. One writer who proved an exception during this period was Lao Khamhom (Khamsing Srinawk), whose subtle stories about country folk, first published in a collection called Fa bo kan (1959; The Politician and Other Stories), often......
  • Lao language
    one of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia, and the official language of Laos. Lao occurs in various dialects, which differ among themselves at least as much as Lao as a group differs from the Tai dialects of northeastern Thailand. The latter are usually called Northeastern Thai, but the difference between Lao and Northeastern Thai is more political than linguistic. Like the other Tai languages, L...
  • Lao literature
    body of literature written in Lao, one of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia and the official language of Laos....
  • Lao Loum (people)
    ...communities amounting to only a few hundred persons. By the late 20th century the various peoples of Laos were officially grouped primarily by language and location into one of three categories: Lao Loum (“Lowland Lao”), Lao Theung (“Lao of the Mountain Slopes”), and Lao Soung (“Lao of the Mountain Tops”). These groupings have simplified administration,...
  • Lao, Mount (mountain, China)
    ...part is lower, lying at elevations averaging below 1,500 feet (450 metres), with only certain peaks and ridges rising to 2,500 feet and (rarely) to 3,000 feet (900 metres); the highest point, Mount Lao, reaches 3,714 feet (1,132 metres). The western part is slightly higher, rising to 5,000 feet (1,524 metres) at Mount Tai, one of China’s most sacred mountains. The Shandong Hills meet the...
  • Lao Patriotic Front (political organization, Laos)
    ...Lao (Lao Country) movement joined with the Viet Minh, the Communist-oriented Vietnamese nationalist organization, in armed resistance to French rule in Indochina. In 1956 a legal political wing, the Lao Patriotic Front (Neo Lao Hak Xat), was founded and participated in several coalition governments. In the 1960s and early ’70s the Pathet Lao fought a civil war against the U.S.-backed Vie...
  • Lao People’s Democratic Republic
    landlocked country of northeast-central mainland Southeast Asia. It consists of an irregularly round portion in the north that narrows into a peninsula-like region stretching to the southeast. Overall, the country extends about 650 miles (1,050 km) from northwest to southeast. The capital is Vientiane (Lao: Viangchan), located on the Mekong River in the northe...
  • Lao People’s Party (political party, Laos)
    Since its establishment in December 1975, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) has been effectively controlled by the communist Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP). This party, in alliance with the Vietnamese communists, carried out the revolution that ended in its seizure of power and the abolition of the monarchy. Top government positions—beginning with the presid...
  • Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (political party, Laos)
    Since its establishment in December 1975, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) has been effectively controlled by the communist Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP). This party, in alliance with the Vietnamese communists, carried out the revolution that ended in its seizure of power and the abolition of the monarchy. Top government positions—beginning with the presid...
  • Lao Shan (mountain, China)
    ...part is lower, lying at elevations averaging below 1,500 feet (450 metres), with only certain peaks and ridges rising to 2,500 feet and (rarely) to 3,000 feet (900 metres); the highest point, Mount Lao, reaches 3,714 feet (1,132 metres). The western part is slightly higher, rising to 5,000 feet (1,524 metres) at Mount Tai, one of China’s most sacred mountains. The Shandong Hills meet the...
  • Lao She (Chinese author)
    Chinese author of humorous, satiric novels and short stories and, after the onset of the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), of patriotic and propagandistic plays and novels....
  • Lao Soung (people)
    The Lao Soung group includes peoples who have migrated into northern Laos since the early 19th century and speak Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) or Tibeto-Burman languages. Among the most prominent of those communities are the Hmong, Mien (also called Man or Yao), Akha (a subgroup of Hani peoples), and Lahu. The Lao Soung account for roughly one-tenth of the population....
  • Lao Tai (people)
    Lao Tai peoples of the Lao Loum group also once had a clear political hierarchy and a stratified social structure. Black Tai tribal organization, for instance, had three levels: the village, which was the smallest unit; the commune, which comprised several villages; and the muong, which embraced multiple communities and villages. Each muong was led......
  • Lao Tan (Chinese Taoist philosopher)
    the first philosopher of Chinese Taoism and alleged author of the Tao-te Ching, a primary Taoist writing. Modern scholars discount the possibility that the Tao-te Ching was written by only one person but readily acknowledge the influence of Taoism on the development of Buddhism. Lao-tzu is venerated as a philosopher by Confucia...
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