Jean Boulbet is an impressive character who had an eventful and heroic life, from the liberation to the Indochina war and who ended his journey in Thailand.
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Biography of Jean Boulbet by Pierre Le Roux
Jean Boulbet (1926-2007), born in Ste-Colombe-sur l'Hers (Aude), self-taught, was a scholar of the world: ethnologist, archaeologist, botanist, cartographer, and geographer, a specialist in South-East Asia, where he lived and researched for half a century, and where he died.
He was undoubtedly one of the best French ethnologists, and became known in particular for the quality of his work on the Cau Maa' of Vietnam, Proto-Indochinese people living in the region of the Donnaï river loop, in the south of the country, one of the fifty ethnic minorities officially recognised by the People's Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Resistance fighter at the age of 15 in Arles, FFI at 17 in the Maquis of Picaussel (Aude), in his native country, Jean Boulbet volunteered in the 1st French Army "Rhine and Danube" (9th DIC) in August 1944, for the campaigns of France and Germany, as a scout, before volunteering for the war in the Pacific with General Leclerc, Massu, and the bulk of the 2nd DB.
He was demobilised in Vietnam at the end of the Second World War and became for a time, from 1946 to 1963, a coffee and tea planter in the South of Vietnam, in the High Plateaux region, devising technical innovations that have survived, and on land that he bought at a high price, beginning the exploration of the region and the meticulous ethnography of the Cau Maa', the Stieng and other Proto-Indochinese who have inhabited it since the beginning.
In 1963, he joined the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, at the Conservation d'Angkor, in Siem Reap, Cambodia, as a scientific member of the EFEO, with the double title of curator of Phnom Kulen and head of the Angkor Forest Park, and soon graduated in geography at the University of Phnom Penh (director: Jean Fontanel) and in ethnology at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes-VIe section (director: Georges Condominas, rapporteur: Claude Lévi-Strauss).
Having filled in blanks on the maps of the Blao region in southern Vietnam, Phnom Kulen in Cambodia, and southern Thailand, he was a collaborator of the Institute for the establishment of the International Map of the Plant Cover and Ecological Conditions at 1:1,000,000 of Toulouse (contribution to the map of South-East Asia, Indian Ocean, Bioclimates of South-East Asia by H. Gaussen, P. Legris, F. Blasco, in 1967; and to the Cambodia map by P. Legris & F. Blasco et al. in 1972).
He also contributed to the work of the International Interim Committee for co-ordination of investigations of the Lower Mekong Basin (Lao People's Democratic Republic, Kingdom of Thailand and Socialist Republic of Vietnam) for the study of forest cover in Laos and Northeast Thailand in the late 1970s.
In the 1980s, he also collaborated with the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok on the mapping of Spot satellite images of the Phuket region (southern Thailand).
As an expert for UNESCO in Cambodia, in 1970, in Angkor, he was in charge of Khmer and European refugees as well as temple security.
He was again recruited as an Expert by UNESCO in 1993 on the future of Angkor Conservation this time.
Jean Boulbet was exceptionally made a knight of the Legion of Honour in 1970 for his heroic action in Cambodia at the very beginning of the Khmer Rouge invasion in 1970.
Founder and first president of the Alliance française de Phuket (southern Thailand) in the late 1980s, he became the first "honorary French consul" of Phuket in the 1990s, upon his retirement as a researcher and scientific member of the EFEO, at the age of 65.
Jean Boulbet, this genius storyteller, this active defender of peace and the environment, adorer of beautiful women but also of the giant trees of the dense equatorial and tropical evergreen forests, the famous "jungles", this visionary concerned with the protection of wild fauna, emulator of Georges Brassens and embarked with him on the famous boat Les copains d'abord, surveyed for more than forty years the primary or secondary forests, He also made long forays into the incredible undergrowth of Borneo, so beautifully decorated with graceful palms and defended by as many thorns or aggressive rattan vines, and into the undergrowth of Sumatra and Sulawesi, in Indonesia, as far as the Amazon (Brazil, Guyana) and Africa (Chad, Ivory Coast, Cameroon).
Ethnographing the peoples he met, exploring and mapping, discovering botanical treasures, human inhabitants and wild animals of these distant forests and countries, uncovering rock paintings and rare plants in Thailand, prehistoric lithophone in Vietnam, forgotten archaeological sites in Cambodia, including, in 1968, Kbal Spean, the famous "River of a Thousand Lingas" (Phnom Kulen, Angkor Conservation), where his ashes were scattered according to his wishes shortly after his death on 11 February 2007.
As a result, it has become one of the protective genies of the place, according to the beliefs of the inhabitants.
This assertive miscreant, filled with an inextinguishable tolerance for humanity's shortcomings, this man with a sharp, ice-blue gaze, of whom the Cau Maa', the Khmers of Siem Reap, the Jawis and the southern Thais were unanimous in saying that he had the eyes of a shaman, was cremated on Valentine's Day, according to Buddhist rite.
Photos of Jean Boulbet
Main works of Jean Boulbet
"Some Aspects of the Customary (Ndrii) of the Cau Maa'", Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises (Saigon), xxxii (2), pp. 3-178, 1957.
"Trois légendes maa'", France-Asie (Saigon), 139, p. 399-402, 1957.
"Découverte d'un troisième lithophone préhistorique en pays mnong-maa', L'Anthropologie, 62 (5-6), p. 486-502, 1957 (preface by Georges Condominas).
"Introduction à l'étude de la forêt dense", Annales de la Faculté des Sciences (Saigon), pp. 239-260, 1960 (with Jean-Pierre Barry, Phung Trung Ngân and H. Weiss).
"Description de la végétation en Pays maa'", Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises (Saigon), xxxv (3), pp. 545-574, maps, photos, 1960.
"Bördee au rendez-vous des Génies", Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises (Saigon), xxxv (4), pp. 627-650, 1960.
"Modes et techniques du Pays maa'", Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient, lii (2), pp. 359-414, drawing, photos, 1965.
"Le miir, culture itinérante avec jachère forestière en Pays maa'", Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient, liii (1), pp. 77-98, photos, 5 maps, 1966.
Land of the Maa'. Domain of the geniuses. Nggar Maa', Nggar Yaang. Essai d'ethno-histoire d'une population proto-indochinoise du Vietnam Central, Paris, École française d'Extrême-Orient ("Pub. de l'EFEO", lxii), 152 p, photos, maps, 1967 [unpublished map of the Donnaï loop region].
"Le tragique destin des Maa'", Études cambodgiennes (Phnom Penh), n° 11, p. 14-21, 1967.
"Phnom Kulen", Cambodian Studies (Phnom Penh), No. 16, pp. 20-35, 1968.
"From Budih women to some original apsaras of Angkor Wat", Asian Arts, xvii, pp. 209-218, 1968.
"Nokor Khmer (Phnom Penh), i (1), pp. 48-61, 1969.
"Kbal Spean, la Rivière aux Mille Linga", Nokor Khmer (Phnom Penh), i (2), p. 2-17, preface by Jean Filiozat, of the Institute, director of the EFEO, 1970 [discovery and description of the site].
"Le décor forestier", Nokor Khmer (Phnom Penh), ii (3), p. 44-69, drawings by Hervé Manac'h, 1970.
Tam Pöt Maa'. Dialogue lyrique des Cau Maa', Paris, École française d'Extrême-Orient ("Pub. de l'EFEO", lxxxv), 116 p., photos, 1972.
Les Sites archéologiques de la région du Bhnam Gulen (Phnom Kulen), Paris, Annales des musées Guimet et Cernuschi (special issue on Asian arts, xxvii), 132 p., photos, maps, 1973 (with Bruno Dagens) [exhaustive survey and unpublished map of sites discovered by Jean Boulbet].
"Phnom Kulen, paysage rural particulier au Cambodge", p. 193-205 in Jacques Barrau, Lucien Bernot, Isaac Chiva and Georges Condominas (under the dir. of): Agricultures et sociétés en Asie du Sud-Est, Paris, Mouton, n. s. Études rurales, 53-56, 1974.
Paysans de la forêt, Paris, École française d'Extrême-Orient ("Pub. de l'EFEO", cv), 147 p., maps, photos, 1975.
Phuket, Bangkok, Sangwan Surasarang, 47 p., maps, photos (French-English), 1979 (revised and enlarged ed. 1984).
Le Phnom Kulen et sa région. Carte et commentaire, Paris, Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient ("Textes et documents sur l'Indochine", xii), 136 p., photos, maps, 1979. [unpublished map of the region and exhaustive survey of archaeological sites, by Jean Boulbet].
"Forest degradation in Northeastern Thailand between 1954 and 1973", chapter 2, "Rural Landscapes", chapter 3 (photos) in: Interim Committee for co-ordination of investigations of the Lower Mekong Basin. Lao People's Democratic Republic, Kingdom of Thailand and Socialist Republic of Vietnam (eds): Interpretation of Remote Sensing Imagery, mkg/R.231, 1979.
Évolution des paysages végétaux en Thaïlande du Nord-Est, Paris, École française d'Extrême-Orient ("Pub. de l'EFEO", cxxxvi), 76 p., photos, 1982.
"Découvrir ou retrouver. Autour des dernières prospectives de l'EFEO dans la région du Phnom Kulen (1967-1970)", pp. 165-181 in Cambodge ii, Paris, Éd. de l'École des Hautes études en sciences sociales [n. s. Asie du Sud-Est et Monde Insulidien, xv (1-4)], 497 p., 1984 [genèse de la découverte du site de Kbal Spean par Jean Boulbet].
Forests and countries. Schematic map of dominant forest formations and human occupation. Asie du Sud-Est, Paris, École française d'Extrême-Orient ("Pub. de l'EFEO", cxliii), 134 p., maps, photos, 1984 [unpublished map of forest cover in Southeast Asia].
A Strange Legacy: Painted Rocks. Unpublished sites in Southern Thailand. Provinces of Phang Nga and Krabi, Bangkok, Sangwan Surasarang, 36 p., maps, photos (French-Thai-English summaries), with the assistance of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1985 [description of the parietal sites discovered by Jean Boulbet].
Phuket. Khao Phra Thaew Wildlife Reserve, Phuket, Andaman Press, 80 p., maps, photos (French-English-Thai), 1986 (with Nophadol Briksavan).
Phuket. Spot satellite image and its exploitation in the field. Six panels with commentary, Toulouse/Paris/Bangkok, Centre national d'études spatiales, École française d'Extrême-Orient, Asian Institute of Technology, 1988.
Towards a sense of the Earth. Towards a sense of the Earth. The retreat of the dense forest in Southern Thailand during the last two decades, Pattani, Prince of Songkla University ("Grand Sud") and École française d'Extrême-Orient, 138 p., maps, photos (French-English), 1995 [unpublished map of southwestern Thailand, by Jean Boulbet].
De Palmes et d'épines, Tome 1, Vers le Domaine des génies (Pays des Maa', Sud Vietnam, 1947-1963), Paris, SevenOrients, 345 p., 32 pl. photos, maps, 2002.
See the presentation: Books of Jean Boulbet : Of palms and thorns
De Palmes et d'épines, Tome 2, Vers le paradis d'Indra (Cambodge, 1963-1975), Paris, Seven Orients, 221 p., 32 pl. photos, maps, 2003.
"Du mythe à la parure.L'oiseau chez les Cau Maa' (Vietnam)", p. 695-716 in Pierre Le Roux & Bernard Sellato (eds.): Les Messagers divins.Aspects esthétiques et symboliques des oiseaux en Asie du Sud-Est / Divine Messengers.Bird Aesthetics and Symbolism in Southeast Asia, Paris/Bangkok, Connaissances et Savoirs and SevenOrients, IRASEC, 862 p., 2006.
De Palmes et d'épines, Tome 3, Vers le port d'attache (Phuket, sud de la Thaïlande, 1975-2007), Paris, Seven Orients, 211 p., 32 pl. photos, maps, 2009.
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