António da Madalena

António da Madalena (sometimes spelled, in English, Antonio da Magdalena) was a Portuguese Capuchin friar who was the first Western visitor to Angkor. He was born in Coimbra and lived in the Alcobaça Monastery from 1575 to 1579. He travelled to Goa in 1580, to establish a library for his order. In 1583 he travelled overland to what is today Cambodia, where in 1586 he was the first Western visitor to Angkor. In 1589 gave an account of his impressions to the historian Diogo do Couto before being killed in a shipwreck off Natal. He attempted to aid in a reconstruction effort of Angkor, but the project was unsuccessful.

References

• Manuel Teixeira, "The Portuguese Missions in Malacca and Singapore (1511-1958): Malacca", Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1961
• Charles Higham, "The Civilization of Angkor", p. 1, University of California Press, 2004, ISBN 0-520-24218-1
• Bernard Philippe Groslier, "Angkor and Cambodia in the sixteenth century: according to Portuguese and Spanish sources", p. 23, Orchid Press, 2006, ISBN 974-524-053-2