Historical figure
Henri Mouhot
French naturalist whose posthumous travel journal made Angkor famous in Europe.
Henri Mouhot was a French naturalist and explorer who traveled through Siam, Cambodia and Laos from 1858 to 1861. His journal, published after his death, described Angkor Wat in such detail that it drew European travelers to Angkor, and he came to be called its "rediscoverer". He was not the first European to see the temples, and his journal makes no claim that he found them.[1][2]
Early life
He was born at Montbéliard, in eastern France, on May 15, 1826. The date comes from a memoir by his brother Charles, printed in the English edition of his travels.[3] He studied Greek and Latin and taught Greek in Saint Petersburg during some twelve years in Russia.[1] In 1856 he married Annette Park, a relative of the Scottish explorer Mungo Park, and settled in Jersey, where he took up natural history again.[1][3] The Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society of London supported his journeys; the French government did not.[1]
Travels in Cambodia
He sailed for Bangkok in April 1857.[4] His second and longest journey ran from December 1858 to April 1860.[5] In Cambodia he met King Ang Duong at Kampot and the future King Norodom at Oudong, the royal capital, and visited the market town of Phnom Penh.[4][2] From the Catholic mission at Pinhalu, near Oudong, he crossed the Tonle Sap lake toward Angkor.[4]
He reached Angkor in January 1860.[1] A French missionary, Father E. Silvestre, guided him through the forest to the temples, and he spent three weeks there, recording measurements and compass bearings of Angkor Wat.[2][5] He wrote that one of the temples might take "an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings".[3] He also named earlier visitors: Father Charles-Émile Bouillevaux, a French missionary, had been there about five years before him, and Portuguese travelers had written about the ruins in the 16th century.[5]
His journal describes Cambodia as a country in decline from a "powerful and populous" past, and it voices the colonial views of his time, but it also shows that the temples mattered to the people living around them.[2] He wrote down Khmer and Lao texts, and his notes are kept at the British Library.[1]
Laos and death
He traveled north into Laos and reached Luang Prabang on July 25, 1861.[6] He fell ill with fever on October 19 and died near the town on November 10, 1861, at 35, most likely of malaria.[6][1] His two servants buried him.[6] His tomb on the bank of the Nam Khan river was put up by the French in 1867 and found again in 1989.[1][5] His servant Phrai carried his journals and collections back to Bangkok, from where they were sent to Europe.[5]
The book
His brother Charles put together the journals and letters. A French version ran in the journal Le Tour du Monde in 1863, and John Murray of London published the fuller English edition in two volumes in 1864.[4][3] The book caused a stir in Europe and made Angkor widely known there.[2] The legend that he discovered Angkor spread after his death.[2][1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Angkor Database, Henri Mouhot (September 20, 2019)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lachlan Peters, "Was Angkor Ever Lost? The Myth of French Discovery", TheCollector (July 26, 2024)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Henri Mouhot, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos, vol. 1, John Murray (1864), Project Gutenberg text
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Angkor Database, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia and Laos, 2 Vols (November 30, 2021)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Ron Emmons, "In Mouhot's Footsteps", Remote Lands (January 20, 2026)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Henri Mouhot, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos, vol. 2, John Murray (1864), Project Gutenberg text