Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v1.c6.4

v1.c6.4

The first serious attempt to study the geography, history and civilisation of the Far East was made by Christian missionaries of Europe as far back as the early seventeenth century. The most memorable scholarly work of this period was the "Dictionnaire annamite-latin-portugais" by P. Alexandre de Rhodes, published in 1651. This monumental work has served as the basis of all future research and placed it on a secure foundation. The same author published in the following year a history of Tonkin in Latin. Similar works continued to appear from time to time but it was not till two centuries later that a beginning was made of an archaeological investigation in Indo-China. In 1858 Henri Mouhot explored the valley of the Mekong as far as the country of Laos between Korat and Luang-prabang. Although a naturalist, Mouhot was attracted by the beauties of Angkor Vat and other monuments of antiquity and his rapturous description made them known for the first time to the outside world.