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Paul Ambroise Bigandet
1813–1894
A French Catholic missionary in 19th-century Burma, he became one of the best-known Western writers on Burmese Buddhism. His work brought together decades of firsthand experience, church leadership, and careful study of local religious traditions.
2 Audiobooks
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I)
by Paul Ambroise Bigandet
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume II)
by Paul Ambroise Bigandet
About the author
Born in Besançon, France, on August 13, 1813, Paul Ambroise Bigandet trained with the Paris Foreign Missions Society and was ordained a priest in 1837. He was sent to Burma the same year, where he worked for decades and eventually became a leading Catholic figure in the region, serving as bishop and later Vicar Apostolic of Southern Burma.
Bigandet is remembered not only as a missionary but also as an important early interpreter of Burmese Buddhism for English-language readers. His best-known book, The Life or Legend of Gaudama, drew on Burmese sources and became a widely noted study of the Buddha and Buddhist tradition in Burma. He also wrote on the history of the Catholic mission in Burma and on Buddhist monastic life.
He spent roughly half a century in Burma and died in Rangoon on March 19, 1894. His legacy stands at an unusual crossroads of religion, scholarship, and colonial-era cultural contact: a church leader whose writings remain part of the historical record on Buddhism in Myanmar.