Denys Lombard (1938 – January 8, 1998) was a leading
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
n expert with contributions to
Southeast Asian studies,
Sinology
Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization p ...
, and the history of maritime Asia. He was famous for efforts to compare insular Southeast Asia and the Asian Seas to the Mediterranean area.
Early life and education
Lombard was born in
Marseilles
Marseille (; ; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean S ...
, France.
His father was Maurice Lombard, Director of Studies at the
École Pratique des Hautes Études
École or Ecole may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* Éco ...
(EPHE) in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and colleague of
Fernand Braudel
Fernand Paul Achille Braudel (; 24 August 1902 – 27 November 1985) was a French historian. His scholarship focused on three main projects: ''The Mediterranean'' (1923–49, then 1949–66), ''Civilization and Capitalism'' (1955–79), and the un ...
.
Lombard possessed at least six academic degrees, including a graduate degree in history and four degrees in languages (Chinese, Malay-Indonesian, Cambodian and Thai).
He spoke over a dozen languages.
Career
Lombard was the head of the Division des Aires Culturelles in the
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the director of the
École Français d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) from 1993 to 1998.
His major work on Indonesia was the three volume work ''Le carrefour javanais''.
Personal life
Lombard was married to another scholar of Asia,
Claudine Salmon.
He died in 1998 in Paris.
A Festschrift in honour was produced a year later.
Publications
*
* , Third Edition: -
*
*
* ''Le carrefour javanais. Essai d'histoire globale''
he Javanese Crossroads: Towards a Global History By Denys Lombard. Three volumes. Paris: Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1990.
*
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References
1938 births
1998 deaths
Historians of Southeast Asia
20th-century French historians
Indonesianists
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