Löffler was born near Jena in Thuringia (1930).
He studied General Culture and Language at the University of Jena with Ferdinand Hestermann, later in Leipzig and from 1952 onwards in Mainz (with Friedrich).
In 1955/56 he joined Dr. Kauffmann during his research on the Naga (Chittagong Hills).
In 1962 he became assistant and secretary at the newly founded South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg, later professor there.
Löffler headed the newly founded Ethnologisches Seminar at the UZH/Zürich from 1971-1995. He passed away 28.12.2013 and is buried in Reinhardswald/Kassel.
He recently finished a large book:
2012 Ethnographic Notes on the Mru and Khumi of Chitagong and Arakan Hill Tracts. A Contribution to our Knowledge of South and Southeast Asian Indigenous Peoples mainly based on field research in the Southern Chittagong Hill Tracts. Harvard Oriental Series 74, Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 690 pp.
(photography: Brigitte and Lorenz Löffler, http://www.supras.biz/hosting/loeffler/index.html)
