Harriett Winifred [H.W.] Ponder (1883, Buckinghamshire, UK - 1967, Brisbane Australia) was a reputed travel writer who wrote extensively on Cambodia, Java and the South Pacific. First published in 1936, her book about Angkor, Cambodian Glory, was almost as successful as the one by her American… Read more

Pech Tum Kravel ពេជ្រ ទុំក្រវិល (1943, Kandal- 2015, Phnom Penh) was an actor, writer, and the director of the Dance Department at Royal University of Fine Arts. He is the author of more than 20 books and essays on Cambodian culture and art, in particular at theater and dance. Born Chhorn Tort (ឈន… Read more

Hideo Sasagawa (XX) is a professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, College of Asia Pacific Studies, where he teaches the course "Religions of Asia Pacific". With a PhD in Areas Studies at Sophia University (Tokyo), and a master in Chinese Literature, he started to work on Cambodia in the… Read more

Henri Marchal (24 June 1876, Paris - 12 Apr. 1970, Siem Reap), director of the Archaeology Department at the École française d'Extrême-Orient, served as Chief Conservator of Angkor from 1916 -- after Jean Commaille was killed by looters -- to 1936, and then again after Second World War II, from… Read more

Samdech Chauvea ('Lord Prime Minister' in Khmer) Thiounn (8 Apr. 1864, Kompong Chhnang - Sep. 1946, Phnom Penh), also titled Samdech Chauvea Veanjay ("Lord Head of the Palace") served as Prime Minister, Minister of The Royal Palace and Treasury, and Minister of Fine Arts under the French… Read more

Sakada Sakhoeun (1986, Phnom Penh) is a senior archeologist with ADFKulen. Involved in several archaeological projects for Sydney University (Australia) and Sophia University (Japan), Sakhoeun joined the Archeological and Development Foundation/Phnom Kulen in 2009, spending his time between the ADF… Read more

A specialist in archeological laser scanning, Nina Hofer is a graduate of Vienna University, Department of Geography and Regional Research. In 2018, she co-directed the CALI (Cambodian Lidar Initiative) field season with Leng Vitou of the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. She wrote about… Read more

After graduating from École du Louvre in 1997, and obtaining a PhD in Khmer Archeology in 2011 at Sorbonne-Paris III University, Jean-Baptiste Chevance has focused his research on the Phnom Kulen Mountain, 25 miles north-east from Angkor proper.Prospecting the mountainous area right after the… Read more

A graduate student and researcher associated with The Manusastra Project (INALCO, France, and RUFA (Royal University of Fine Arts), Cambodia), Prakaido Phurksakasemsuk is currently involved in a history research on the Bayon bas-reliefs. In September 2018, the theme of her Master's dissertation… Read more

American artist Lucille Sinclair Douglass (1878, Tuskegee, Alabama –1935, Andover, Massachusetts) graduated in 1895 from the Alabama Conference Female College, where her mother taught art. In 1899, she moved to Birmingham, where she made a living as both an artist and an art teacher. In 1907 she… Read more

Cecyl Holliday (who signed her contributions to The Mid-Pacific Magazine "Mlle. Cecyl Holliday") was a French teacher at Maui High  -- the first English-speaking high-school in Honolulu, inaugurated in 1913 --, an interpreter and a trustee of the Pan-Pacific Union. In 1926, she was awarded in… Read more

Social anthropologist and essayist Geoffrey Gorer (1905-1985) has studied art, literature and societal formations through the prism of psychoanalysis and out-of-body experiences such as the influence of drugs or spiritual trance. With the constant theme of death and sex for background, this true… Read more

Charles Mouhot (1828 - 1904) was a younger brother of Henri Alexandre Mouhot, the famous French explorer who gave a vivid description of Angkor in 1859. Just a year after Henri's death in Laos in 1861, Charles Mouhot completed the English translation of his brother's travelogue, Travels in the… Read more

General Léon de Beylié (1840, Strasbourg - 1910, Tha Dua Pass, Laos) was a French colonial military officer as well as a tireless archeologist and collector of Islamic, Byzantine, Hindu and Buddhist art. His sum on Hinduist architecture (L'Architecture Hindoue, Paris, 1907) includes important… Read more

French artist André Maire (28 Sept. 1898, Paris - 4 Oct. 1984, Paris) has extensively sketched and painted Angkor with both artistic and architectural perspectives.After studying painting under the guidance of his mentor Émile Bernard [1] -- renowned artist whose daughter, Irène, he married in… Read more

A French administrative officer in the 1920s, Charles Bellan served as "Résident" (Governor-Delegate) of Kompong Speu Province, "Administrateur des Services Civils de l'Indochine" et "Résident de France" in Cambodia during 25 years.He authored a novel, Fleur de Lotus (Lotus Flower), published in… Read more

A French official in Indochina, Albert Edouard Lazare Tricon (1867, Marseille - ?) served as "Président de la Cour d'Appel" (President of the Appeal Court) in Saigon, "Procureur du Tribunal de 1ere instance" (Public Prosecutor) in Phnom Penh , and as "Conseiller a la Cour" (King's Counsel) in… Read more

Philologist, self-taught photographer and naturalist Henri Alexandre Mouhot (15 May 1826, Montbeliard, France -10 Nov. 1861, Naphan, Laos) started exploring South East Asia in 1857 with the support of the Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society of London. French authorities never… Read more

Founded in 2006 by internationally-awarded filmmaker Rithy Panh and Ieu Pannakar, Senator, Minister of the Royal Palace, who was in charge of broadcasting and cinema services from 1955 until 1970 in independent Cambodia. A rich film and audio archive collection, the Bophana Center in Phnom Penh has… Read more