Louis Finot

French archeologist, Indianist, philologist and researcher Louis Finot (1864, Bar sur Aube ‑1935, Toulon, France) was named in 1898 director of the archaeological mission in Indochina, which would become two years later the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO). He remained its director until 1926, then from 1928 to 1929 when he had to substitute Léonard Aurousseau, George Coedès taking over in 1929. In 1933, after leaving Indochina in January 1930, he became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

Louis Finot wrote extensively on sanskrit, pali, lao and khmer linguistics, as well as the religious practices of the Cham people. His contribution to the study of Khmer history, architecture and epigraphy is widely recognized.

Founder of the Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient (1901) and Bulletin de la Commission archéologique de l’Indochine (1908), Louis Finot extensively published, his major published works including: 1896. Les Lapidaires indiens. — 1900. Inventaire sommaire des monuments chams de l’Annam (with E. Lunet de Lajonquière). — 1901. Rāstrapālapariprcchā sūtra du Mahayana. — 1910. Les populations indigènes de l’Annam. Étude de sociologie coloniale (with R. Maunier, E. Chauffard, L. Boulloche et Ch. Prêtre). — 1910 – 1914. Documents historiques et géographiques relatifs à l’Indochine publiés sous la direction de MM. H. Cordier et L. Finot. — 1917. « Recherches sur la littérature laotienne » (in Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient). — 1920. Çantiveda. Bodhicaryaâvatāra. La marche à la lumière (translation). — 1923. Les questions de Milinda. Milinda-Pañha (annotated translation). — 1926 – 1931. Inscriptions du Cambodge, 4 vol. — 1926. Le temple d’Içvarapura (Bantāy Srěi, Cambodge). — 1929. Le temple d’Angkor Vat. I, Architecture du monument. — 1929. Le bouddhisme, son origine, son évolution. — 1933. Stèles historiées du Cambodge.