Alexandre Henri Mouhot (May 15, 1826 — November 10, 1861) was a French naturalist and explorer of the mid-19th century. He was born in

Montbéliard Montbéliard (; traditional ) is a town in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France, about from the border with Switzerland. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department. History Montbéliard is ...

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.Naphan,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...

. He is remembered mostly in connection to

Angkor Angkor ( km, អង្គរ , 'Capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura ( km, យសោធរបុរៈ; sa, यशोधरपुर),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-Engl ...

. Mouhot's tomb is located just outside of Ban Phanom, to the east of

Luang Prabang Luang Phabang, ( Lao: ຫລວງພະບາງ/ ຫຼວງພະບາງ) or ''Louangphabang'' (pronounced ), commonly transliterated into Western languages from the pre-1975 Lao spelling ຫຼວງພຣະບາງ (ຣ = silent r ...

Early life

He traveled throughout Europe with his brother Charles, studying photographic techniques developed by

Louis Daguerre Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre ( , ; 18 November 1787 – 10 July 1851) was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the eponymous daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photog ...

. In 1856, he began devoting himself to the study of

Natural Science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

. Upon reading "The Kingdom and People of Siam" by

Sir John Bowring Sir John Bowring , or Phraya Siamanukulkij Siammitrmahayot, , , group=note (17 October 1792 – 23 November 1872) was a British political economist, traveller, writer, literary translator, polyglot and the fourth Governor of Hong Kong. He was a ...

in 1857, Mouhot decided to travel to

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

to conduct a series of botanical expeditions for the collection of new zoological specimens. His initial requests for grants and passage were rejected by French companies and the government of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

. The Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society of London lent him their support, and he set sail for

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, via

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Expeditions

From his base in

in 1858, Mouhot made four journeys into the interior of

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

and

. Over a period of three years before he died, he endured extreme hardships and fended off wild animals, to explore some previously uncharted jungle territory. On his first expedition, he visited Ayutthaya, the former capital of

(already charted territory), and gathered an extensive collection of insects, as well as terrestrial and river shells, and sent them on to England. In January 1860, at the end of his second and longest journey, he reached

(already charted territory) — an area spread over more than 400 km²., consisting of many sites of ancient terraces, pools, moated cities, palaces and

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

s, the most famous of which is

Angkor Wat Angkor Wat (; km, អង្គរវត្ត, "City/Capital of Temples") is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world, on a site measuring . Originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the g ...

. He recorded this visit in his travel journals, which included three weeks of detailed observations. These journals and illustrations were later incorporated into ''Voyage dans les royaumes de Siam, de Cambodge, de Laos'' which were published posthumously.

Angkor

Mouhot is often mistakenly credited with "discovering" Angkor, although Angkor was never lost — the location and existence of the entire series of Angkor sites was always known to the Khmers and had been visited by several westerners since the 16th century. Mouhot mentions in his journals that his contemporary Father Charles Emile Bouillevaux, a French missionary based in

Battambang Battambang ( km, បាត់ដំបង, UNGEGN: ) is the capital of Battambang Province and the third largest city in Cambodia. Founded in the 11th century by the Khmer Empire, Battambang is the leading rice-producing province of the cou ...

, had reported that he and other Western explorers and missionaries had visited

and the other Khmer temples at least five years before Mouhot. Father Bouillevaux published his accounts in 1857: "Travel in Indochina 1848–1846, The Annam and Cambodia". Previously, a Portuguese trader Diogo do Couto visited Angkor and wrote his accounts about it in 1550, and the Portuguese monk Antonio da Magdalena had also written about his visit to Angkor Wat in 1586. Mouhot did, however, popularise Angkor in the West. Perhaps none of the previous European visitors wrote as evocatively as Mouhot, who included interesting and detailed sketches. In his posthumously published "Travels in Siam, Cambodia and Laos," Mouhot compared Angkor to the pyramids, for it was popular in the West at that time to ascribe the origin of all civilization to the Middle East. For example, he described the Buddha heads at the gateways to

Angkor Thom Angkor Thom ( km, អង្គរធំ ; meaning "Great City"), alternatively Nokor Thom ( km, នគរធំ ) located in present-day Cambodia, was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer Empire. It was established in the late twe ...

as "four immense heads in the Egyptian style" and wrote of

"One of these temples—a rival to that of
Solomon Solomon (; , ),, ; ar, سُلَيْمَان, ', , ; el, Σολομών, ; la, Salomon also called Jedidiah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew, Modern: , Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yăḏīḏăyāh'', "beloved of Yahweh, Yah"), ...
, and erected by some ancient Michael Angelo—might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
or
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."

Mouhot also wrote that:

"At Ongcor, there are ...ruins of such grandeur... that, at the first view, one is filled with profound admiration, and cannot but ask what has become of this powerful race, so civilized, so enlightened, the authors of these gigantic works?"

Such quotations may have given rise to the popular misconception that Mouhot had found the abandoned ruins of a lost civilisation. The Royal Geographical Society and The Zoological Society, both interested in announcing new finds, seemed to have encouraged the rumor that Mouhot — whom they had sponsored to chart mountains and rivers and catalog new species — had discovered Angkor. Mouhot himself erroneously asserted that Angkor was the work of an earlier civilization than the Khmer. For although the very same civilization which built Angkor was alive and right before his eyes, he considered them in a "state of barbarism" and could not believe they were civilized or enlightened enough to have built it. He assumed that the authors of such grandeur were a disappeared race and mistakenly dated Angkor back over two millennia, to around the same era as Rome. The true history of

was later pieced together from the book ''The Customs of Cambodia'' written by

Temür Khan Öljeytü Khan ( Mongolian: Өлзийт; Mongolian script: '; ), born Temür ( mn, Төмөр ; ; October 15, 1265 – February 10, 1307), also known as Emperor Chengzong of Yuan () by his temple name ''Chengzong'', was the second emperor of the ...

's envoy Zhou Daguan to Cambodia in 1295-1296 and from stylistic and

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole

site. It is now known that the dates of Angkor's habitation were from the early 9th to the early 15th centuries.

Colonialism

Some have argued that Mouhot may have been a tool for French expansionism and the annexation of territories which followed shortly after his death. Mouhot himself, however, did not seem to be a hardcore colonialist, for he occasionally doubted the beneficial effects of European colonisation:

"Will the present movement of the nations of Europe towards the East result in good by introducing into these lands the blessings of our civilization? Or shall we, as blind instruments of boundless ambition, come hither as a scourge, to add to their present miseries?"

Death and legacy

Mouhot died of a

malarial fever Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...

on his 4th expedition, in the jungles of Laos. He had been visiting

, capital of the

Lan Xang existed as a unified kingdom from 1353 to 1707. For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The meaning of the kingdom's name alludes to the power of the kingship and formidable war machine of the ea ...

kingdom, one of 3 kingdoms which eventually merged into what can be known as modern day

, and was under the patronage of the king. Two of his servants buried him near a French mission in Naphan, by the banks of the Nam Khan river. Mouhot's favourite servant, Phrai, transported all of Mouhot's journals and specimens back to Bangkok, from where they were shipped to Europe. A modest monument was erected over his grave in 1867 under the orders of French commander Ernest Doudart de Lagrée, who gave him this eulogy:

"We found everywhere the memory of our compatriot who, by the uprightness of his character and his natural benevolence, had acquired the regard and the affection of the natives."

The monument was destroyed by the overflow of the river Nam Khan. It was replaced in 1887 by a more durable crypt monument, and a maisonnette was built nearby to house and feed visitors to the white shrine. Some restoration work was done on the tomb in 1951 by the

EFEO The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...

(Ecole Française d'Extrème Orient—The French School of the Far East). Mouhot's tomb was consumed by the jungle and lost until it was accidentally rediscovered in 1989 by a French Laos scholar, Jean-Michel Strobino, who played a part in rehabilitating it with the support of the French embassy and the Municipality of Montbeliard, Mouhot's birth town. A new plaque was fixed to one end of the crypt in 1990 to commemorate this rediscovery. The location is now known to hotels and tourist operators in Luang Prabang, and a minivan or "tuk tuk" may be hired to take one the 10 km from town to visit it. This entails a walk down a steep track on the southern bank of river Nam Khan, over a small wooden bridge, and then up to a well-cleared track to the tomb, altogether about 150 meters. A new road being constructed nearby (June 2013) will make access easier. The tomb is still quite near the river (only about 20m), and access by boat from town should be possible. As more people visit the tomb, the pathway hopefully will be improved, as it is quite slippery after rain; sensible shoes are a must. The popularity of Angkor generated by Mouhot's writings led to the popular support for a major French role in its study and preservation. The French carried out the majority of research work on Angkor until recently. Two

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

of Asian reptiles are named in his honor: ''

Cuora mouhotii The keeled box turtle (''Cuora mouhotii''; syn. ''Pyxidea mouhotii'') is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae. The species is endemic to Asia. Geographic range ''C. mouhotii'' occurs in Burma, China, India, Laos, and Vietnam,Asian Tur ...

'', a turtle; and '' Oligodon mouhoti'', a snake.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Mouhot", p. 183).

Works

Mouhot's travel journals are immortalized in ''Voyage dans les royaumes de Siam, de Cambodge, de Laos et autres parties centrales de l'Indochine'' (published 1863, 1864). English title: ''Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, Cambodia and Laos During the Years 1858,1859, and 1860.'' * ''Travels in Siam, Cambodia, Laos, and Annam''. Henri Mouhot * ''Travels in Siam, Cambodia and Laos, 1858-1860'' Henri Mouhot, Michael Smithies - * ''Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos During the Years 1858, 1859, and 1860''. Mouhot, Henri— (B/W illustrations)

References

* Encyclopædia Britannica * The history of Henri Mouhot's shrine near Ban Phanom (1861-1990), by J.M. Strobino : https://www.academia.edu/11773322/La_sépulture_dHenri_MOUHOT_à_Luang_Prabang_Laos_ * Angkor Guide, published in Siem Reap by the Cambodian Ministry of Information * The Siem Reap Angkor Visitors Guide (''quarterly''—March–May 2005), Canby publications ''(www.canbypublications.com)'' * University of California Irvine, Cambodian Students Organization, Knowledge Section ''(see http://spirit.dos.uci.edu/cambo/)'' * Ron Emmon's Biographies ''(http://ronemmons.com/biographies/mouhot/)'' * Angkor.com - The Forgotten Crypt of Henri Mouhot (1826–1861) ''(see http://www.angkor.com/hd.shtml)'' * German Wikipedia: '' :de:Henri Mouhot'' * Henri Mouhot's diary; travels in the central parts of Siam, Cambodia and Laos during the years 1858-61. * Angkor Wat Online ''http://angkor.wat.online.fr/dec-henri_mouhot.htm'' * Bryson, 2003, A Short History of Nearly Everything, chap. 6, * Petrotchenko, Michel (2011), ''Focusing on the Angkor Temples: The Guidebook'', 383 pages, Amarin Printing and Publishing, 2nd edition,

External links

*
Short biography
(French)

(French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mouhot, Henri 1826 births 1861 deaths Scientists from Montbéliard French explorers 19th-century explorers Deaths from malaria