Historical figure
Louis Finot
Louis Finot (born 1864) was a French scholar of Sanskrit and Khmer inscriptions who headed the École française d'Extrême-Orient (the EFEO) in several terms.[1][2]
Training
Finot was born at Bar-sur-Aube in 1864.[2] He trained as an archivist-paleographer at the École des chartes, which he entered in 1886. He read Sanskrit with Sylvain Lévi at the École des Hautes Études and took his diploma in 1894.[1]
Director in Indochina
In 1898 Finot was put at the head of the Mission archéologique in Indochina, which took the name EFEO in 1900.[1] Karttunen dates the founding differently: Finot set up the school in Saigon in January 1899, and it moved to Hanoi in 1902.[2] He gave it a library and a museum in Saigon and founded its bulletin, whose first issue in 1901 carried his study of the religion of the Chams.[1][3] He also set up French Indochina's archaeological service and the museum in Hanoi that was given his name.[2] His first term ended on December 31, 1904.[1]
In 1907 he took a chair in the history and philology of Indochina at the École des Hautes Études and the Collège de France;[1] another account dates the Collège de France post to 1920 to 1930.[2] He led the school again from 1914, while its director was at war, until 1918, a term another account starts in 1913.[1][2] He led it once more from December 1920 to 1926, and as interim director from 1928[1] in place of Léonard Aurousseau.[3] George Coedès succeeded him in 1929, and Finot retired in 1930.[1][2]
Angkor and Buddhism
After 1926 Finot traveled to Angkor with Victor Goloubew to see the Bayon and Neak Pean (ប្រាសាទនាគព័ន្ធ), and went on to Banteay Chhmar. What he saw persuaded him that a Buddhist king had built them, and his articles allowed Philippe Stern in 1927 and Coedès in 1928 to place the buildings in the reign of Jayavarman VII (ព្រះបាទជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៧).[1] He secured the creation of the Angkor Archaeological Park, with closer guarding of the monuments and laws of its own. He stayed close to the Pali School of Phnom Penh, and through Suzanne Karpelès he helped found the Royal Library in August 1925.[1]
Works
In 1916 his early bulletin articles were collected in Hanoi as Notes d'épigraphie indochinoise.[2] He went on to publish Inscriptions d'Angkor (1925), Lokesvara en Indochine (1925) and Nouvelles inscriptions du Cambodge (1928).[1] With Goloubew and Henri Parmentier he wrote Le Temple d'Içvarapura (1926),[1] and with Goloubew and Coedès the first volume of Le temple d'Angkor Vat (1929).[2] On Buddhism he translated Les questions de Milinda (1923)[2] and wrote Outlines of the History of Buddhism in Indo-China (1931).[1]
References 3
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Lucie Labbé, "FINOT Louis", AGORHA, Institut national d'histoire de l'art (March 21, 2022; English translation by Jennifer Donnelly)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Klaus Karttunen, "FINOT, Louis", Persons of Indian Studies (November 28, 2025)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Angkor Database, Louis Finot (undated)
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