Specialized in pre-Thai polities, archeologist and art historian Pierre Dupont (1908, Paris -1955, Bangkok) has particularly studied the Mon kingdom of Dvaravati which predated the Sukhothai, Chiang Mai or Ayutthaya kingdoms that thrieve between the 13th and the 15 centuries. First at École du… Read more

Étienne Lunet de Lajonquière (or La Jonquière) (8 Aug 1861, Rodez, France - 23 Dec 1933, Saint-Sigismond, France) was a French Naval Infantry officer, explorer and geographer, author of the first comprehensive Atlas Archéologique de l'Indochine (1901) and, ten years later, the first Inventory of… Read more

Ethnologist Jacques Népote (14 Jan 1943, St-Nazaire d'Aude, France - 26 Jan 2006, Roissy) discovered Cambodia when he was sent to Battambang as a volunteer for the French Cultural Cooperation Service. Three years later, he came back all the way from France by car and started a prolific academic and… Read more

Charles Duroiselle (1871-1951) was a French-born Burmese historian and archaeologist, noted Pali scholar and epigrapher, who published monographs on Mandalay Palace and other related Burmese subjects. Throughout his career, he excavated over 120 monuments around Burma (now Myanmar).A member of the… Read more

Philippe Stern (11 April 1895 – 4 April 1979) was a historian of art, professor at École du Louvre, musicologist, curator of the Trocadéro Indochinese Museum and, after World War II, director of the Musée Guimet (from 1954 until 1965). During the anti-Jewish persecutions in France, he stayed hidden… Read more

Countess Gilberte de Coral-Rémusat (17 Dec. 1903, Paris - 19 Oct.1943, Lausanne, Switzerland) was an independent archaeologist and art historian who explored Indochina first in 1928-1929, part of a round-the-world trip, then in 1935-1937 as a correspondent for EFEO and Musée… Read more

Thérese Le Prat born Cahen (19 March 1895, Pantin, France - 6 March 1966, Neuilly sur Seine) was a renowned photographer who worked on Cambodia, Tonkin and Annam (Vietnam) during several decades. When she divorced French publisher Guillaume Le Prat in the early 30s, he offered her a Rollex camera… Read more

Indian Art historian Claudine Bautze-Picron has studied artworks in Bihar, West Bengal, Bangladesh, and Southeast Asia, focusing on Buddhist iconography.A researcher with CNRS (France), she has authored books book on mural carvings and paintings at Pagan (Burma/Myanmar), and The Bejewelled Buddha,… Read more

Distinguished linguist and language historian, Ginette Martini (also Ginette Martini-Terral or Terral-Martini) extensively studied Khmer scriptures and traditions. She was married to the linguist Francois Martini. Read more

Cambodian archaelogist and historian Lan Sunnary (22 Feb 1945, Kampot - 15 Jul 2014, Paris) co-founded the cultural association Pierres d'Angkor in the 1980s. After working with the Angkor Conservation Office until 1972, he took part in many archeological discoveries, including a statue of Vishnu… Read more

François Martini (1895, Can Tho, Vietnam - 1965, France) was a major linguist versed in Khmer, Mon, Sanskrit and Pali languages. Born from Corsican and Cambodian parents, he was severely wounded in action during World War I. Under Sylvain Lévi's and André Martinet's guidance, he studied Sanskrit… Read more

William J. Gedney (4 Apr 1915, Orchards, WA - 14 Nov 1999, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) was a linguist specialized in Southeast Asian languages, studying and documenting Thai and twenty-two more idioms. in 1947, he moved to Thailand and worked with some of the most important scholars in Thai literature and… Read more

May Mayko Ebihara អបិហរៈ ម៉ែកុ មេយ (12 May 1934, Portland OR. - 23 Apr 2005) was an eminent anthropologist with a passion for Cambodia.During World War II, she and her family were sent with other Japanese Americans to an internment camp in Idaho. She received her bachelor’s degree from Reed College… Read more

Boreth Ly is Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Art and Visual Culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Born in Cambodia, he was educated in France and the United States. Dr. Ly has conducted field research and traveled extensively in Southeast Asia. At the University of California… Read more

Donald M. Stadtner (b. 1947) was for many years an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Texas, Austin, after receiving his Ph.D in Indian art at the University of California, Berkeley. He was first in Burma in 1979, followed by visits in the 1980's sponsored by the Smithsonian… Read more

A trustee of the Burma Studies Foundation (USA), Sylvia Fraser-Lu is the author of several art history books, including Burmese Lacquerware (1994), Splendor in Wood, The Buddhist Monasteries of Burma (2008), Tapestry Weaves of Southeast Asia and Indonesian Batik. Read more

Jan Jetso Boeles (1909, Leeuwarden - ?) was a Dutch independent researcher and photographer based in Thailand for many years. In 1976-1978, he photographed the Phimai temple and the Wat Sethupon in Bangkok. He directed the Siam Society Research Center, and was an honorary member of the Siam… Read more

Oliver William Wolters (8 June 1915, Reading, UK – 5 December 2000, Ithaca, N.Y., USA) was a British academic, historian and author who did pioneering work on the ancient Malay kingdom of Srivijaya - following the exploratory studies by George Coedès - and Southeast Asia ancient history.Wolters was… Read more

Sulak Sivaraksa (Thai: สุลักษณ์ ศิวรักษ์) (27 March 1933, Siam) is a Thai social activist, professor, writer and the founder and director of the Thai NGO "Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation". He initiated a number of social, humanitarian, ecological and spiritual movements and organizations in… Read more

A leading expert in Thai, Burmese and Khmer Arts history, Hiram W. Woodward Jr., "Woody", (b. Baltimore, Md., USA) fostered one of the main Asian art collections worldwide when he was the The Walters Arts Museum, 1986-2003. Since his retirement in 2003, he is Curator Emeritus of Asian Art at… Read more