George Coedès

Portrait of George   Coedès

George Cœdès (to be pronounced Zsedes) (10 Aug 1886, Paris, France – 2 Oct 1969, Paris) was a leading archeologist, linguist and historian in the field of Khmer studies.

Director of the National Library of Thailand in 1918, he became director of École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in 1929, until 1946. In 1935, he married a young Thai woman, Neang Yao -- yet Prince Damrong, whom he accompanied in his first visit to Angkor in 1919, noted in his travelogue that "Prof. Coedes' young wife, Asarai [?], took her children" with them for the trip.

A specialist in the history of Indo'Chinese ´Indianized kingdoms´, he wrote The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (1968, 1975, first published in 1948 in French as Les états hindouisés d'Indochine et d'Indonésie) and The Making of South East Asia (1966). He was also a leading researcher in Sanskrit and Old Khmer inscriptions from Cambodia.

Professor George Cœdès is also credited with rediscovering the former kingdom of Srivijaya (modern Palembang), which was influent from Sumatra to the Malay Peninsula and Java. The matter remains controversed until today.

See an eulogy by Milton Osborne.

Prof. Coedes in his office, Central Archive of Siam, circa 1919.

Publications

George Coedes was a prolific author. The most exhaustive attempt to a complete bibliography was presented by A. Zigmund-Cerby and J. Boisselier in "Travaux de M. George Coedès. Essai de Bibliographie", Artibus Asiae, 1961, vol. 24-3/4, pp.155-186. We have edited it for an English version:

Listed works