Journey to Southern Thailand and Burma (1912)

Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis (1864–1938) was more than a traveler; he was an explorer, Oriental scholar, and diplomat. Raised in the intellectual climate of the French Third Republic, he absorbed its universalist ideals while simultaneously embodying the colonial paradox: bringing “progress” to distant lands while justifying inequality through pseudo-scientific hierarchies

Southern Thailand in the early 20th century was a mosaic of cultures—Malay, Thai, Burmese—woven together by trade routes, Buddhist monasteries, and Islamic communities. Pontalis’s writings capture this diversity with the eye of both a scholar and a diplomat. He documented villages nestled among limestone cliffs, markets alive with spices and textiles, and temples shimmering in the tropical sun. His observations were not merely descriptive; they reflected the colonial gaze, a mixture of admiration and categorization.

 264 pages, 50 b/w photographs / 8 maps