In 1947, he defended a mémoire under the supervision of Jean Filliozat, on the Pali Buddhist notion of "asaṅkhata" ("the unformed, the unconditioned "[2]), and joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

[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 Buddhist philology at the École pratique des hautes études.

At the end of a life dedicated to the study of Buddhism, his funeral was celebrated according to the rite of the Protestant church, under the aegis of a verse from the Gospel 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 colleague Gérard Fussman, professor at the Collège de France wrote on 15 January 1994: His great qualities quickly won him academic recognition.

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.

Between 1955 and 1985, he made eight trips, as part of the missions organised by the Collège 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 not Lumbini, as is generally accepted, but Kapilavastu[7][1] André Bareau wrote numerous books, 307 articles and reviews between 1951 and 1994 (2 of which were published posthumously).