Александр Мухо: Оңтүстік-Шығыс Азия саяхатшысы және табиғатты зерттеушісі

French naturalist and explorer

Alexandre Henri Mouhot (15 May 1826 — 10 November 1861) was a French naturalist and explorer of the mid 19th century. He was born in Montbéliard, Doubs, France, near the Swiss border, but spent his childhood in Russia and, possibly, parts of Asia. He died near Luang Prabang, Laos. He is remembered mostly in connection to Angkor. Mouhot's tomb is located just outside of Ban Phanom, to the east of Luang Prabang.

He traveled throughout Europe with his brother Charles, studying photographic techniques developed by Louis Daguerre. In 1856, he began devoting himself to the study of Natural Science. Upon reading "The Kingdom and People of Siam" by Sir John Bowring in 1857, Mouhot decided to travel to Indochina 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. The Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society of London lent him their support, and he set sail for Bangkok, via Singapore.

From his base in Bangkok in 1858, Mouhot made four journeys into the interior of Siam, Cambodia and Laos. 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 Siam (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 Angkor (already charted territory) — an area spread over more than 400 km2., consisting of many sites of ancient terraces, pools, moated cities, palaces and temples, the most famous of which is Angkor Wat. 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.

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? "However, Henri Mouhot appears in his notes as genuinely interested in South East Asia and its culture, and kept in mind the benefits he thought France could provide to those countries. He notably wrote in the Tour du Monde: