The Chevalier de Chaumont was the devout and unbending ambassador of Louis XIV to King Narai of Siam in 1685, and the Abb? de Choisy, famous for his gambling debts and transvestite exploits, was his unlikely coadjutant. This is the first complete English translation of Chamont's account of his embassy, along with three texts by Choisy and drawings by Jacques Dumar?ay.

Initially seeking converts and trade, the French presence in 17th-century Siam turned into a classic colonial adventure, with troops sent to occupy, by force if necessary, the most important ports of Bangkok and Mergui. Fran?ois Martin, from his unique viewpoint as director of the French trading outpost at Pondich?ry on the coast of India, provides a careful analysis of the motives of the persons involved in the French colonizing venture. Michael Smithies has skillfully translated and assembled all the references to Siam from Martin's M?moirs, linking the segments with his own...

The French travel writer and exotic novelist Pierre Loti (1850?1923), in his day the youngest member elected to the Academie Francaise, had dreamt of visiting the ruins of Angkor when, as a child, he came across illustrations of them among some papers belonging to his elder brother, who had served in Indochina in the navy. Loti, whose real name was Julien Viaud, was a full-time professional naval officer and was able to realize his childhood dream of going to Angkor in 1901 when his ship stayed some time in Indochinese waters.

Though the time he spent at Angkor was brief, he writes...

This long-forgotten tale of the shipwreck off the coast of Africa of a Siamese embassy to Lisbon in 1686 lay buried in the text of a French book printed 300 years ago. The author of the text was the intrepid and intriguing Jesuit Tachard, who published accounts of his first two journeys to Siam. In his second book, written when he was King Narai's personal envoy to Louis XIV and Pope Innocent XI, Tachard relates the account of the shipwreck as told by one of its survivors, Ok-khun Chamnan Chaicong, who was accompanying Tachard on his return to France.

Ok-khun Chamnan, during his...

This account of Kosa Pan's journal describes in great detail the arrival in Brest in 1686 of the first full Siamese embassy to reach France. This fragment is apparently all that survives of a massive report of the activities of the embassy written for King Narai. It was discovered in Paris in the early 1980s, was published in Thai in 1984, and appears here in English for the first time.

Two years after the 1685 French embassy to Siam led by Chaumont and Choisy, King Louis XIV sent a second embassy to Phra Narai led by the two envoys La Loub?re and C?beret, and a third unofficial emissary, Father Tachard, who was working behind the scenes and often against his colleagues. Accompanying them were expeditionary troops to be installed in Bangkok and Mergui once a Franco-Siamese treaty could be negotiated.

This volume conveniently presents, in English translation, three important accounts of that second French embassy to Siam in 1687: Tachard's Second Voyage, published in...

Can Laos?with its small, scattered, ethnically diverse population, enchanting but rugged landscapes, and rich natural resources?emerge from the shadows of its more powerful neighbors? It has been carved up by colonial powers in the nineteenth century and dragged into devastating revolution and war in the twentieth. The authors provide a full, frank, and engaging survey of Laos today, assessing its history, prospects, and hopes. The book is essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and anyone interested in coming to grips with Laos today.

This book concerns the French intervention in Siam, 1685-1688, particularly the cataclysmic last year, during which Phetracha, the usurper and future king, held the ailing King Narai prisoner until his death. Marcel Le Blanc was one of fourteen Jesuits who arrived in Siam at the request of King Narai to promote the study of mathematics and astrology, but he became inextricably involved in events surrounding Phetracha's coup d'etat. He was in Bangkok during the siege and the arrival of the King's favorite, Madame Phalkon, who was subsequently arrested and killed. He describes his departure...

Thailand is usually closely associated with Buddhism, but since 1998 the country has been one of the observer members of the Islamic Conference Organization, and senior figures in the present and previous governments have been Muslim. Some 8 percent of the population is Muslim, and in the three southernmost provinces of the country they constitute a majority. Islam is ever more visible in Bangkok, where the demographic increase of Muslims is marked.

Michel Gilquin, a sociologist specializing in the study of Muslim societies and a resident of Morocco, examines the origins of Islam in...