Simon De La Loubere was the first European scholar who drew westerners' attention to the existence of the Pali /Balie/language and its literature. He informed his European colleagues about this interesting language of Southeast Asia in a formal manner. More than 300 years ago he wrote:
„On leur enseigne aussi la langue Balie, qui est comme j'ay dit plus d'une fois la langue de leur Réligion & de leurs Loix:... . .
Ils écrivent le Siamois & le Balie de la gauche à la droite, du même sens que nous écrivons nos langues d' Europe:... “
Such a fascinating primary source that provides invaluable historiographical insight into the late 17th-century diplomatic relations of the Ayutthaya Kingdom While the archaic French typography demands a high level of concentration, the cultural and anthropological observations recorded by La Loubère remain deeply compelling, A magnificent digital preservation from my all time favorite diplomat
(Read in the German translation from 1800) Beschreibung Thailands vor über 300 Jahren: interessant, spannend, gut geschrieben, wirklich sehr lesenswert