André Bareau was born on 31 December 1921 inSaint-Mandé into a modest family. At the age of seventeen, in 1938, he was admitted to the École normale d'instituteurs de Paris (Teacher Training College).In 1941, he began his career as a teacher inLa Varenne-Saint-Hilaire (a district of Saint-Mandé). That same year, he beganPostgraduate education at theSorbonne University, which he completed in 1946[1]
Then, while preparing a degree in philosophy at this institution, he discovered languagesSanskrit andPāli. In 1947, he defended amémoire under the supervision ofJean Filliozat, on the Pali Buddhist notion of "asaṅkhata" ("the unformed, the unconditioned "[2]), and joined theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). He went on to study Chinese and Tibetan, and in 1951 defended histhesis entitled « L'Absolu en philosophie bouddhique. Évolution de la notion d'asaṃskṛta (The Absolute in Buddhist philosophy. Evolution of the notion ofAsaṃskṛta).[3][1]Doctor of Letters (Docteur ès lettres), he was professor at the Collège de France from 1971 to 1991 and director of studies in Buddhistphilology at theÉcole pratique des hautes études.[3]
A few years before his death, he fell seriously ill. Deprived of speech, he never complained and continued his work as long as he could. He died on 2 March 1993.
At the end of a life dedicated to the study of Buddhism, his funeral was celebrated according to the rite of theProtestant church, under the aegis of a verse from theGospel of Luke :
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men"[4][3]
In his posthumous tribute to Alain Bareau, his friend and colleagueGérard Fussman, professor at theCollège de France wrote on 15 January 1994:
His great qualities quickly won him academic recognition. [...] His writings include many popular texts : like most Orientalists, he felt it was his duty to give the public as accurate a picture as possible of the field he was studying;[...] he also knew that a text, however ancient, cannot be interpreted solely by the methods of philology. He had interviewed many Sinhalese monks visiting Paris, the venerableWalpola Rahula Thero in particular; he had visited Buddhist communities inCeylon andIndochina, visited ancient sites and travelled the roads of India, sometimes in difficult conditions. Having travelled with him, I know that he was a man of the land, a tireless walker looking at his maps, scanning the landscape and capable, if need be, of sleeping on the ground on a half-empty stomach without thinking of complaining. […]Modest to excess. Mr Bareau shunned titles, honours and so-called positions of power: it was out of a sense of duty that he agreed to be a member of the CNRS National Committee for a time.[5][3]
André Bareau's work was aimed at understanding the essential notions of Buddhism, for in his view, multiple interpretations, too often far removed from one another, had led to great divisions within the Buddhist community.[1]
His works, which focused mainly on the biography of the Buddha, has become an essential reference. His research was not limited to texts alone. He was also interested in the archaeological aspect, paying particular attention to thestupas and also to theepigraphics texts. Between 1955 and 1985, he made eight trips, as part of the missions organised by theCollège de France, to the various countries where Buddhism has been practised for 2,500 years:India,Ceylon,Cambodia,Thailand[6]
His research led him to the conclusion that the birthplace of the Buddha was notLumbini, as is generally accepted, butKapilavastu[7][1]
André Bareau wrote numerous books, 307 articles and reviews between 1951 and 1994 (2 of which were published posthumously). It is impossible to mention them all in the context of this article, but the full list can be consulted online.[8]
Here are just a few of them (all texts are in French).
L'absolu en philosophie bouddhique : évolution de la notion d'Asmskrta, Paris, Centre de documentation Universitaire, 1951, 307p.[1]Retrieved 22 October 2024.
Les religions de l'Inde, with Walter Schubring, Christoph von Fürer-Halmendorff, (original edition in German, translation by L.Jospin), Lausanne, Payot Éditions:[11][12]
La date duNirvana, Journal Asiatique, vol. 241, p. 27-52, Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1953, 150 p[14]
Les sectes bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule et leur Abhidharmapitaka, tome 44 n°1, p. 1-11, PEFEO, 1951[15]
La composition et les étapes de formation du Mahâparinirvânasûtra ancien, Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, vol. LXVI, p. 45-103, 1979[16]
Les origines de la pensée bouddhique, Institut bouddhique Truc lâm, 1987[17]
^Text in French : « Ses grandes qualités lui attirèrent rapidement la reconnaissance académique. [...] On trouve [dans ses écrits] de nombreux textes de vulgarisation : comme la plupart des orientalistes, il jugeait de son devoir de donner au public une image aussi exacte que possible du domaine qu'il étudiait; [...] il savait aussi qu'un texte, si ancien soit-il, ne s'interprète pas seulement par les méthodes de la philologie. Il avait beaucoup interrogé les moines singhalais de passage à Paris, le vénérable Walpola Rahula en particulier, il avait fréquenté les communautés bouddhiques de Ceylan et d'Indochine, visité les sites anciens et arpenté, dans des conditions parfois difficiles, les routes de l'Inde. Pour avoir voyagé avec lui, je sais que c'était un homme de terrain, un marcheur infatigable regardant ses cartes, scrutant le paysage et capable, s'il le fallait, de dormir à même la terre le ventre à moitié vide sans songer à se plaindre. Modeste à l'excès. Monsieur Bareau fuyait les titres, les honneurs et les positions dites de pouvoir : c'est par sens du devoir qu'il accepta d'être un temps membre du Comité National du CNRS.»
^Please note : Concerning the « volume IIIArticles complémentaires ». This is a posthumous work, composed of articles originally published separately, which have been brought together to form the present book.
^Les religions de l'Inde :only volume 3 is mentioned here, as André Bareau was not involved in writing of volume 1 :Védisme et hindouisme ancien, 1962, 435 p., and volume 2 :L’Hindouisme récent, 1963, 422 p.
