Louis-Charles Damais (1911 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

– 23 May 1966 in

Djakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...

) was a researcher at the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO). In 1937, he moved to

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

, in what was then the Dutch East Indies, studying the monuments and history of the island. He remained in Java for the duration of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After the war, the EFEO sent him to Hanoi, Vietnam. In 1952, he opened the Indonesian office of the EFEO in Jakarta, where he spent the rest of his life. The French international school in Jakarta was named Lycée Louis-Charles Damais after him in 2008.

Early life and education

Damais was born in

Paris, France Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. Damais had an early passion for foreign languages, where enrolled at the National School of Oriental Languages. He showed exceptional talent and obtained six degrees:

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, oriental

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, literary Arabic, Turkish, Malay, and Chinese. He also spoke Hungarian,

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, English,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

, and learned

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

. At the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, Damais received various graduate certificates: Arabic studies,

Indology Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

, and

history of religions The history of religion refers to the written record of human religious feelings, thoughts, and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,200 years ago (3200 BC). The prehistory of religion involves th ...

. In 1935, the Fondation de Montfort awarded him a scholarship to the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

to learn Javanese and Dutch.

Career

In April 1937, he went to Batavia, as project manager of the Ministry of Education and in Surakarta, where he studied dance, music and Javanese language. A musician himself, he developed a passion for gamelan and learned to play numerous instruments. He was also interested in the socio-political future of Java that later became Indonesia. Living in Java during the years of the Japanese occupation, he befriended Dr. Willem F. Stutterheim, head of the Archaeological Service in the

Dutch Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

. He returned to France in 1947, and then went to Saigon in 1949 to teach at the university. It was at this time that he joined the EFEO as general secretary: he moved to Hanoi a year before the school established a research center in Jakarta in 1952. In 1954, he participated in meetings to determine the use of neologisms in Indonesian, the official language of the young Republic. In the 1950s, he published in BEFEO six major series of studies for Indonesia. In 1959, at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, in the historical and philological sciences department, he created a management study of Indonesian languages and civilizations. He died suddenly in Jakarta in May 1966, leaving behind much unfinished work.

External links

Damias biography

Damias obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Damais, Louis-Charles 1911 births 1966 deaths Writers from Paris French orientalists French epigraphers French philologists 20th-century philologists French expatriates in the Dutch East Indies French people in colonial Vietnam

Early life and education

Career

See also

External links