Translators

Louis Gabaude

Dr. Louis Gabaude, born in France in 1942, began his Asian life by volunteering for civil service in Paksane, Laos, from 1964 to 1966, then switched to Asian and Buddhist studies at the l'École pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) in Paris, before coming back to Laos and Thailand since 1970. He visited Suan Mokkh for the first time in 1976 and completed his PhD on Buddhadasa's system of interpretation in 1979. He has conducted research within the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) or French School of Asian Studies since 1980 and headed the School's Centre in Chiang Mai from 1998 to 2005, creating there a library for research. His main focus has been the history of Buddhist ideas in Thailand. He has published articles, books and given courses in various universities in Europe and Thailand. Retired from the EFEO since 2007, he still lives in Chiang Mai.

Gabaude has contributed several articles and a major and widely-praised reference work on Ajahn Buddhadasa that also contains an exhaustive bibliography and several short texts translated from Thai into French. This major contribution is titled ‘Une hermeneutique bouddhique contemporaine de Thailande: Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’ (A Contemporary Buddhist Hermeneutics) (Paris, 1987).