One of the first French planters, breeders and merchants in Cambodia, Octave Vandelet (28 June 1848, Chaumont-en-Vexin, Frances - 30 Sept. 1912, Phnom Penh) started to reside and work in Cochinchina and Cambodia as early as 1873.A close confidant of Kings Norodom and Sisowath, Vandelet served as… Read more

Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (1863, Avon, France – 31 Oct. 1931, Paris) was a professional French explorer, photoengraver and photographer whose photographs of French Indochina and Cambodia were widely published, often without his knowledge.In 1874, the young Jules moved to Algeria with his mother… Read more

Joseph Gervais alias Alfred Raquez (1 June 1864 (?), Dunkerque - 9 Jan. 1907, Marseille, France) was a prolific writer, photographer, traveler and editor who vividly described China, Laos, Cambodia, Siam, Annam, and Java at the turn of the century.Declared bankrupt in March 1898 after some… Read more

Doctor in Archaeology, director of the International Archaeological Research Institute (IARII, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA), David J. Welch has particularly studied the archaeological evidence of Khmer settlements and state organization in Northeastern Thailand. With its laboratories in Hawai'i and Guam,… Read more

លឹម ស្រេង Lim Sreng or Sylvain Lim (b. 1951, Kep, Cambodia) has developed since his childhood a passion for Khmer traditional dance and the Apsara costumes of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia. He'd always remember that, visiting one uncle in Battambang when he was around 7, and asked what present would… Read more

A Doctor in Archaelogy and Environmental Sciences, Thonghlit Luangkhoth is the head of the Department of Heritage, Ministry of Information Culture and Tourism, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic.As an associate researcher with the University of Melbourne, Australia, he joined several… Read more

Prince Esper Esperovich Ukhtomsky (князь Эспер Эсперович Ухтомский, 26 Aug. 1861, Orianenbaum, Imperial Russia – 26 November 1921, Detskoe Selo) was a poet, publisher and Oriental enthusiast in late Tsarist Russia. He was a close confidant of Tsar Nikolay II and accompanied him when we as Tsarevich… Read more

Nikolay Mikhailovich Przhevalsky or Prjevalsky (Никола́й Миха́йлович Пржева́льский, 12 April 1839, Kimborovo, Russian Empire – 1 Nov. 1888, Karakol (nowadays in Kirghiztan)) was a Russian Imperial geographer and a renowned explorer of Central and East Asia who tried to locate the main springs of… Read more

Marie de Ujfalvy-Bourdon (18 Jan. 1842, Chartres, France - 31 Aug. 1904, Firenze, Italy), and her spouse Károly Jenő Ujfalvy de Mezőkövesd, also known as Charles Eugene de Ujfalvy (1) (16 May 1842, Székelykövesd/Cuieşd, Transylvania – 31 Jan. 1904, Firenze, Italy) were pioneer travelers who… Read more

Jules Marcel Brossard de Corbigny (14 Apr. 1841, Orléans - 14 Dec. 1934, Meung-sur-Loire, France) was a French Navy officer (lieutenant-de-vaisseau capitaine and contre-amiral) and cartographer, famous for his journey on elephant back from Saigon to Bangkok in Jan-Feb 1871, when King Norodom asked… Read more

Prince Konstantin Alexandrovich Viazemsky, Князь Константи́н Алекса́ндрович Вя́земский (1852, Ратмино-Ratmino, Russian Empire -1903, Святая гора Афон-Sacred Mount Athos, Macedonia) was a Russian traveler, botanist and aristocratic 'enfant terrible' who visited China, Southeast Asia and Cambodia in… Read more

Educationist, historian and sociologist Edouard Petit (17 March 1858, Marseille - 19 Feb. 1917, Perpignan, France) was an Inspector-General of French Public Education, a professor and an essayist who promoted the 'civilizing mission' of French colonialist endeavor. After presenting a doctorate… Read more

Author of popularization history and geography books, Vera Yakovlevna Kolokolnikova (Колокольникова Вера Яковлевна), was a 'very prolific and popular published author in Moscow at the turn of the century', to quote the document 'Russian Female Writers'. Among her books registered at the Russian… Read more

Grigory Alexandrevich de Vollan (also de Vollant or de Wollant, name of Dutch origin) (Г.А. де Воллан, 20 Feb. 1847, St. Petersburg – 28 Apr. 1916, Yalta) was a noted Russian diplomat, traveler, ethnographer, and publicist who served in the Imperial Asian Department and in consulates in Budapest… Read more

Lieutenant-de-vaisseau (French Navy Lieutenant) Marie Joseph François 'Francis' Garnier  (in Vietnamese: Ngạc Nhi) (25 Jul. 1839, Saint-Étienne - 21 Dec. 1873, Hoy-en Khe, in action during the Hanoi siege) was one of the first French explorers to extensively write about Cambodia, the Mekong River,… Read more

Elena A. Zapadova (Западова Елена Александровна, 22 Feb. 1938, Leningrad - 21 Oct. 1991, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian Orientalist and philologist specialized in Burmese language and history.She authored numerous essays and books, including In The Land Where The Irrawaddy Flows (В стране, где… Read more

In 1886, a N.V. Sultanov published the first major scientific research on Khmer Art in Russian, in the Bulletin of the Imperial Academy of Arts (Xмерское искусство). Soviet and Russian historians have never identified the author so far. Our guesswork is that he might have been N.V. Sultanov, the… Read more

Mystery novelist, libertarian pamphleteer, co-founder of the famous French periodical "La Revue Universelle", Jules Lermina (27 Mar 1839, Paris - 23 June 1915, Paris) wrote many Edgar Allan Poe-inspired novels, including Les Loups de Paris (Parisian Wolves, 1876, under the pseudonym of William… Read more

Colin Sterling, a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Archaeology, University College of London, and an associate researcher for heritage consultancy with Barker Langham, is since January 2021 Assistant Professor in Memory and Museums at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on… Read more

Kenro Izu (井津 建郎, Izu Kenrō, 1949, Osaka, Japan) is a worldwide acclaimed photographer who published two books on Angkor, Light Over Ancient Angkor (Friends Without A Border, 1996, with all proceeds donated to the association he founded) and Passage to Angkor (id., 2006, with poems by Helen… Read more