ANGKOR and I

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19 within me a keen interest in the everyday lives of those Cambodian people, who had been left behind in Thailand. This was my third encounter. While investigating the ruins either in Cambodia or Thailand, what seized my attention was the fact that no matter which village I went to, the people were healthy and teeming with the joy of life. Their morale was superb. Why was this so when their everyday lives were marked by destitution, to the extent that they lacked even electricity and running water? I felt it was because they led lives face-to-face with nature, and in their innermost hearts lay the Buddhist concepts of reincarnation. Due to the fact that they were 100% self-sufficient, materialism was never the norm on which their lives were based. I felt this was the way of life human beings originally followed. On the other hand, I was acutely aware that on returning to Japan, if I did not attain a good grasp of the methodology pursued by French Oriental Studies, my research both on Angkor and Cambodian society would end up like the knowledge provided by a tourist guide, even despite my being able to speak French. On my return to Japan I commuted to the graduate school of Chuo University, while working part-time as a teacher of French. Professor Shimada Jōhei, a leading expert on Islamic research, happened to be there. I studied Arabic, since the Angkor monuments had Arabic inscriptions and my aim was to decipher them. I had hoped they were some historical records, but my guess was wrong because they were passages from the Quran. Arab merchants too on their way to China stopped by in Cambodia, and some of them left behind those inscriptions. Prior to leaving Cambodia I had heard from Dr. Groslier of the EFEO that although some Chinese literature recordings of the Angkor period were known in parts, most of the historical material was still in Chinese, and that they had not yet been translated into French. He produced some French translations of Angkor-