Continuing our series of interviews with the winners of the Grand Prix du Rayonnement Français 2026. Louis Gabaude was born in the countryside in Burlats, in the Tarn region, in 1942. His father was a stone mason, first as a worker, then on his own. This man, who only had a certificate of studies obtained in 1912, had read Pindare and the Greeks, studied Occitan culture, wrote flawlessly, “which was amazing,” emphasizes his son whom he raised in the worship of higher education “thinking that it made men superior.” The youngest of five siblings, Louis initially felt that he was receiving an education too lenient to prepare him well for the world. But can an education ever be too kind? His mother cultivated and raised ducks and rabbits. Leading a group of about twenty workers, Mr. Gabaude, father, was elected mayor of his village of 1,500 inhabitants when Louis was born. A devout Catholic, he sent his son to a Catholic boarding school in Castres. “From village friends to bourgeois sons, they had a culture that I did not have, including in soccer and ping-pong,” remembers Louis. “My only fortune was being able to teach Occitan to my neighbor on the right.”
In Laos, the discovery of Asia
Coming from a granitic region, he initially wanted to be a geologist. But the school was in Nancy and the adventure proved too complicated. Seduced by the religious vocation, he eventually embarked on theology and joined the major seminary in Toulouse, then a religious congregation.
It was then time for military service. His family was interested in Asia. At the end of sixth grade, he received a prize: a book that took place in Ngao, 100 kilometers from Chiang Mai. Additionally, a cousin had married a soldier who fought in the Indochina War. “I went to her house, amidst memories of Indochina, photos, and fans. It was my first awareness of Asia.” His father had been conscripted in Germany in 1920.
Heading to Chiang Mai
From 1966 to 1970, Louis Gabaude returned to France to study Buddhism. He later returned to Asia with the one he would marry in Bangkok in 1973 (religion yes, orders no!).
He began teaching French at the Alliance but the couple did not like big cities and looked for a place in the provinces. Louis asked the cultural counselor if he had anything for him. He submitted a CV without much hope. A French teacher at Chiang Mai University was leaving his position. He took his place. They settled permanently in Chiang Mai.
“Both Catholic and Buddhist”
“I had only one idea in mind,” says Louis Gabaude: “to prepare for my diploma at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, on the ancient languages of local Buddhism. Then a third cycle thesis. I prepared both in parallel. These were ten quite heavy years. I defended my thesis in 1979 and was recruited by the French School of the Far East (EFEO) in 1980. I depended on Paris but could stay in my research site, in Chiang Mai. I worked on Buddhism and oriental languages.” And since then, Louis Gabaude tries to be “both Catholic and Buddhist,” as he himself says.
“EFEO is a boxing ring of ideas”
Louis Gabaude describes EFEO as a research school, not a teaching school. “We start from blank slates and devote an institution to decipher what we do not yet know. After over a hundred years, we have just learned a little more. EFEO is a boxing ring of ideas, a place of debate. It is mainly known for its archaeological role, its archaeological mission in Indochina in the second half of the 19th century. But one cannot work on archaeology without working on history, languages, religions, cultures. One must understand China and India to understand Southeast Asia.”
This is all EFEO. This is all Louis Gabaude.
The EFEO Center in Chiang Mai, which he founded the library for, currently has over 45,000 books and over 40,000 periodical numbers. Louis Gabaude’s main publications are: Les cetiya de sable au Laos et en Thaïlande (1979); Une Herméneutique bouddhique contemporaine de Thaïlande: Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (1988); La Thaïlande: continuité du partenariat avec la France – Actes du colloque tenu en Sorbonne le 18 septembre 2006 (edited with Pensiri Charoensophat).
