Since opening in 2001, the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS) Library in Siem Reap has grown from a few hundred to over 19,000 titles.  Situated within Wat Damnak, a thriving Buddhist monastery in the heart of Siem Reap, the CKS Library is the largest academic library in Cambodia outside of the capital… Read more

Jean-Claude Demariaux was a French civil administrator working at Postes et Télécommunications de l'Indochine [colonial postal services] in the 1940s and 1950s.A member of the Societe des Etudes Indochinoises (SEI) in Saigon, he authored a book on Poulo Condore Island 'bagne' [penal colony].Other… Read more

Frederik David Kan (F.D.K.) "Frits" Bosch (17 June 1887, Potchefstroom, Transvaal [South Africa] - 20 July 1967, Leiden, Netherland) was a Dutch Orientalist and epigraphist specializing in archaeology of Indonesia and its relation to India and mainland Southeast Asia.After studying Dutch literature… Read more

Michel Igout is a French geographer who taught at several military academies in France and was an Associate Professor at the Institute of French Studies for Foreign Students at University of Aix-Marseille III (Law, Economics and Science), Aix-en-Provence, France.As a special envoy to Cambodia from… Read more

Joseph Ferdinand Perrot [signed J. Perrot] (17 June 1873, Saint-Jean-en-Royans, France - 1929, Saigon?) was a French military photographer and the founder of the Service de l’Identité judiciaire du Cambodge in 1908, in particular the anthropometric photography department.  After joining the French… Read more

Keo Kinal កែវ គីណាល់ (10 Dec. 1973, Siem Reap - 13 Nov. 2011, Stung) was a Cambodian archaeologist and cultural heritage specialist who died prematurely before he could further his research on the Sambor Prei Kuk site and on comparative archaeology in the Mediterranean area. The son of eminent… Read more

A. Kathirasen is a veteran Malaysian journalist and editor who has been writing columns for print newspapers and online publications since the 1970s.He has contributed to several mainstream publications, covering politics, society, culture, and governance, earned over the years a solid reputation… Read more

Dr. Nguyen Tien Dong [Nguyễn Tiến Đông] (1962, Hanoi, Vietnam - 1 March 2022, Hanoi) was a Vietnamese archaeologist and lecturer on archaeology specializing in Champa culture and history. Before and after being appointed Head of the Historical Archaeology Department, Institute of Archaeology,… Read more

Shen Fuwei 沈福伟 (March 1935, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province - 2021) was a Chinese historian specializing in the history of ancient China relations with the outer world, including maritime and cultural exchanges, as well as world history.After graduating from Fudan University in Shanghai in 1958, Shen… Read more

François Marie Léon de Marliave (10 Oct. 1874, Toulon, France ‑1953, Draguignan, France) was, like Loti, a French navy officer (captain of 2d class aviso ​“Brandon”) and an artist: ​‘peintre-voyageur’ (traveling visual artist) and illustrator.His career as an established artist spanned from 1904 to… Read more

Chas Gerretsen (b. 22 July 1943, Groningen, Netherlands) is a Dutch-born war photographer, cameraman and film advertising photographer whose coverage of the American war on Vietnam and the 1970 crisis in Cambodia caught the eye of movie director Francis Ford Coppola, leading him to become in 1976… Read more

Prof. George Chigas is an Emeritus Associate Teaching Professor in Cambodian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he taught courses on Cambodian literature and cultural history. He earned his doctorate in Southeast Asian Languages and Cultures from the School of Oriental and… Read more

Lorraine M. Gesick is Professor Emerita, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Ohama, Nevada, a researcher in Southeast Asian social and political history whose doctoral dissertation, Kingship and Political Integration in Traditional Siam 1767-1824 (Cornell University, 1976, 400 p.)… Read more

Ergy (Erzsy) Landau (1896, Budapest, Hungary - 1967, Paris, France) was a Hungarian-French photographer, a portraitist who explored the genre of documentative humanist photography particularly in Mongolia and China during the 1940s and 1950s.After studying with experienced photographers in Vienna… Read more

Jacob Elon Conner (21 Oct. 1862, Ohio, USA - 27 July 1949, Brooklyn, New York, USA) was an American political scientist, diplomat and writer who served as the first US Consul in Saigon from December 1907 to July 1909 (replaced with Miller Joblin) and visited Angkor at that time, with his account… Read more

John White (1782-1840) was an American shipmaster, a Sailing Master in the US Navy since 1813 (Lieutenant in 1816, Commander in 1937), a merchant mariner working with the East India Company from 1812, and the captain of the brig Franklin, first American vessel to reach Saigon in May 1819.In Sept.… Read more

Hugh Macomber Ferriss (12 July, 1889, St Louis, Missouri, USA – 28 Jan. 1962, New York City, USA) was an American architect, architectural artist, and poet who found inspiration in ancient cities, Angkor among others, in his visual exploration of modern urban life.From the 1920s, he moved from… Read more

François-Ernest Ménétrier [pen name E. Ménétrier] was a French teacher and Inspector of primary schools in Cambodia during the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s who authored studies in Khmer philology and a monograph of Kampot province.He taught at several French primary schools in Phnom Penh before being… Read more

René Piot (14 Jan. 1866, Paris, France - 24 Apr. 1934, Paris) was a French painter, frescoist, stage set and costume designer who had a lasting influence on Paris theater and decorative arts scenes in the 1910s and 1920s, and experienced a kind of 'Rodin moment' when he saw the Cambodian Royal… Read more

Harry La Tourette Foster (1895, Brooklyn, New York City, USA - 15 March 1932, Queens, New York City) was an American travel writer, a First World War veteran and "a tropical tramp at heart" who visited Cambodia in 1922 as the ultimate 'Beachcomber in the Orient' wandering through Asia from Japan to… Read more