In 1965, she defended a postgraduate thesis on Khmer toponymy and, in 1978, a state thesis on Rāmakerti (Khmer version of Rāmāyaṇa). From 1954 to 1970, she taught Khmer at the National School of Modern Oriental Languages (ENLOV), renamed the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in 1971, initially as a tutor, before holding the Cambodian chair for five years as a visiting professor. She became a researcher at the CNRS in 1971 and moved to Leeds in England for about 15 years. Returning to France in 1985, she taught Old-Khmer epigraphy and texts in Middle Khmer at the Sorbonne nouvelle - Paris III, then in 1994, after retiring, she continued her seminar at the École française d'Extrême-Orient. For a long time, she will continue her teaching with a small group of assiduous students at her home in Créteil. Some of the researchers in the field of Khmer studies have been her Khmer language students at ENLOV or at her epigraphy seminar. She passed away on June 25, 2020. She was a student of great teachers, including Au Chhieng, André Bareau, François Bluche , George Cœdès , François Crouzet, Jean Filliozat, Gordon Luce, François Martini, Armand Minard, Louis Renou and Harry L. Shorto. Saveros Pou has a considerable scientific output amounting to over 150 publications covering Old Khmer (pre-Angkorian and Angkorian), Middle Khmer and Modern Khmer, which has profoundly shaped the landscape of khmerology. His research on the Khmer language from a diachronic and etymological point of view covers the grammar of Old Khmer, the system of derivation of Khmer terms, botany, zoology, cuisine, the religious practices and mental universe of ancient, middle and modern Cambodia, traditional literature, etc. She is also the author of a number of books on the Khmer language, including a book on the Khmer language and the Khmer culture. Saveros Pou's output includes dictionaries, including her Dictionnaire vieux khmer-français-anglais published by Cedoreck, then by L'Harmattan publishing house; books, in particular his masterful study of Rāmakerti in four volumes published at the EFEO (PEFEO 110 (1997), PEFEO 111 (1977), PEFEO 117 (1979), PEFEO 132 (1982)) and four volumes of Inscriptions nouvelles du Cambodge at the EFEO (Texes et documents sur l'Indochine 17 (1989) and Texes et documents sur l'Indochine 22-23 (2001)) and at L'Harmattan, not to mention a great many articles in French, published among others in the Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient, the Journal Asiatique and Seksa Khmer, in English and more rarely in Khmer. A non-exhaustive list can be consulted here. Michel Antelme |