April 2011 |
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The Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient and Japan
In the face of the terrible sequence of catastrophes that have befallen Japan, and deeply concerned about the trials now facing the Japanese people, the members of the EFEO's Board of Administrars and Academic Council extend to their Japanese colleagues the expression of their deep sympathy and strong solidarity. For more than three-quarters of a century the EFEO has maintained with the Japanese academic and university communities a close, ongoing relationship exemplified by its two centers, in Kyoto and Tokyo. EFEO members specializing in Japanese and other East Asian studies have spent extended periods in Japan, carrying out research in close collaboration with Japanese scholars, and each of them is naturally deeply concerned at these disasters whose full extent is still impossible to assess. Thus we wish to remind our Japanese colleagues and friends that we are with them in spirit, and more than ever dedicated to maintaining with them our fruitful and amicable scholarly cooperation, established over so many decades. We are prepared to provide any scholarly and humane aid as may be needed.
Jean-Noël Robert, member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres and Professor, Collège de France, is a member of the Board of Administrators and of the Academic Council of the EFEO
On March 11, at 2:46 p.m., the entire northeast part of Honshû was hit by an earthquake of unheard-of intensity. This earthquake was almost immediately followed by tsunamis that devastated the entire Pacific coast of this part of Japan, causing damage whose full extent is still unclear; it is already known that some 27,000 people are dead or missing. In addition, after this disaster, a very serious accident occurred at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, still (as of writing this on March 31) not fully under control. The Japanese authorities are doing all they can, but it is no easy task to stop the escape of radioactive emissions. Tokyo, where the EFEO has a center, suffered strong shocks, but damage is minimal compared with what has happened in the Northeast. There are obvious changes in daily life in Tokyo: foodstuffs may not be available at all times on supermarket shelves, there are power cuts, and there is some fear of radioactivity. However, through it all everyday life continues: people go to work each morning, and return home in the evening. The EFEO Center, as well as the Tôyô bunko which houses it, are in full operation. Clearly March 11, 2011, will be remembered as a turning point in the history of Japan, but the Japanese, helped by the international community, are doing everything they can to recover from this tragedy.
Nobumi Iyanaga, Head of the EFEO Center in Tokyo
The earthquake that has devastated the eastern part of Japan has had only indirect effects on Kyoto. On Sunday, March 13, at 6:00 p.m., the French Embassy in Tokyo directed French nationals to leave the capital and move to the south of the country. Many people thus sought refuge in Kansai. Several French companies moved to Osaka, and the families of children who had been attending the French High School in Tokyo were received by the Kansai French School. Of the 9,000 French residents in Japan, some 8,000 left the country within a week - a thousand of them being repatriated by planes chartered by the French government. Although we can bless the eighth-century geomancers who chose to establish the city of Kyoto on a site that is generally well protected from natural risks, we are constantly aware of the suffering of a large part of the Japanese population and the continuing concern about a possible ecological disaster resulting from damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant. Our thoughts and our hopes go out also to all the teams of technical personnel, engineers, architects, and city planners who have already begun work on the reconstruction of the country. This is an immense project, but the Japanese will, as in the past, know how to face up bravely to the terrible events that have once again marked their history.
Benoît Jacquet, Head of the EFEO Center in Kyoto.
On March 11, 2011, just as France was waking up and schools were letting out in Japan, an earthquake of over 9 degrees on the Richter scale hit the northeast coasts of Japan causing death and destruction to an extent formerly unheard of in this country so often hit by this type of disaster in the past. Once the disbelief and anguish passed, I could only try to get in touch with the people who were close to me, the colleagues to who I owe much, and the friends so sorely tested - all those without whom not only my work at the EFEO but also the almost fifteen years that I lived in Japan would not have had the same human and scholarly significance. But it was also impossible, in the face of all the images reaching us from Minami Sanriku, from Sendai, from Ōfunato, and all the other places that fell victim to the forces of natural destruction that gave rise to serious consequences (as at Fukushima), not to feel for the suffering of the victims and their families. Like all those who remain comparatively unaffected - in Tokyo and in western Japan where the terrible shocks were hardly felt - I can only express I myself, the members of the EFEO, and many in France want to send to this country with whom we have so many connections: a message of support and hope.
François Lachaud, Professor in Buddhism and Japanese Civilization at the EFEO. (See also Le Monde, 17 March 2011, Ces Japonais à l'héroïsme poignant).
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Colloquia, Visits, and Meetings
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On April 18, Franciscus Verellen, Director, is chairing the Steering Committee meetings of the ECAF European Consortium of Asian Field study) and the FP7 program IDEAS, both of which held at the EFEO headquarters, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. respectively.
ecaf.secretariat@efeo.net; ideas.lacroix@gmail.com
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On April 12 Pascal Royère, Director of Studies and head of the Baphuon restoration program at Angkor, Cambodia, is closing the restoration site. A onsite celebration for the team of 300 artisans marks the completion of more than 15 years of work on the monument. From April 18 to 20 Pascal Royère participates in in the ECAF and IDEAS meetings in Paris (see above).
pascal.royere@efeo.net
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On Friday, April 1, the EFEO's Board of Administrators is meeting at 9:30 a.m., to be followed by the meeting of the Academic Council.
valérie.liger-belair@efeo.net
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Fabienne Jagou is giving a talk entitled "Lifanyuan's limits of competence with regard to Tibet," at the workshop on Administrative and Colonial Practices in Qing ruled China Lifanyuan and Libu Revisited, being organized by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, at Halle on April 7 and 8.
Fabienne Jagou is giving a talk entitled "Momification de maîtres bouddhistes: représenter sa foi en Asie à l'époque contemporaine [Mummification of Buddhist masters: demonstration of faith in Asia at the present time]," at the daylong workshop Représenter et dire sa foi: images et identités religieuses organized by the Conseil Général des Vosges, at Domrémy, on April 20.
fabienne.jagou@efeo.net
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On April 27 Pierre-Yves Manguin is giving two lectures at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London as part of the Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art. They will deal with "Art and Archaeology of Srivijaya" and "Indian inputs in Early Southeast Asia."
pierre-yves.manguin@efeo.net
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From April 3 to 8, Christophe Pottier is taking part in the Amerind seminar The Sustainability of Low-Density Urbanism in Tropical Forest Environments in Dragoon, Arizona, USA, at the invitation of John A. Ware, Director of the Amerind Foundation.
christophe.pottier@efeo.net
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Anne Bouchy, "Transformation, Rupture and Continuity: Issues and Options in Contemporary Shugendô", in Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, 18 (2009). Special issue "Shugendô. The History and Culture of a Japanese Religion / L'histoire et la culture d'une religion japonaise", Bernard Faure, Max D. Moerman, Gaynor Sekimori (eds), 2011, p.17-45.
Frédéric Girard, " Le rêve de la fleur de prunier ; La transmission généalogique chez Dōgen (1200-1253) en Chine" (Note d'information), in Comptes rendus des séances de l'année 2009, Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, juillet-octobre, pp. 997-1017.
Christophe Pottier, " A temple revealed ", in Preah Khan monastic complex, Ed. Michael D. Coe et John H. Stubbs, World Monuments Fund, Scala Publications, Londres, 2011, pp. 50-57.
Peter Skilling, "Scriptural Authenticity and the Śrāvaka Schools: An Essay towards an Indian Perspective", in The Eastern Buddhist, Vol. 41, no. 2, 2010, pp. 1-47.
Peter Skilling, Foreword to Claudio Cicuzza, A Mirror Reflecting the Entire World: The Pali Buddhapadamangala or "Auspicious Signs on the Buddha's Feet", Bangkok and Lumbini, Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation/Lumbini International Research Institute 2011 (Materials for the Study of the Tripitaka Volume 6), pp. ix-xii
Nobumi Iyanaga, " Seimei no kongen ni tsuite : Yōroppa dentō ni oite " (Sur l'origine de la vie : dans la tradition européenne), in Takachio Hitoshi, éd., Hito to hyōshō (L'homme et la représentation), Tōkyō, Yūshokan, 2011, p. 63-113.
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The next EFEO Paris seminar is taking place on Monday, April 4 (11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) at the Maison de l'Asie. Pierre Lachaier (EFEO) talks on "Les quartiers communautaires d'Ahmadabad (Gujarat): la caste dans son habitat urbain traditionnel [Community quarters in Ahamadabad (Gujarat): caste in its traditional urban setting]."
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The Seminar on Archéologie de l'est de l'océan Indien: échanges préhistoriques et du début de la période historique depuis les confins iraniens jusqu'à la mer de Chine méridionale [Archaeology in the eastern Indian Ocean: trade in prehistoric times and from the beginning of the historic period from the Iranian coasts to the South China Sea], organized by Bérénice Bellina (CNRS-UMR "Mondes iranien et indien"): Tuesday, April 26, talk by Cédric Ferrier, on the topic "Le Bengale, confins ou périphérie de l'empire gupta [Bengal, borders or outskirts of the Gupta empire.]"
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During March a joint archaeological/epigraphic project of the EFEO and the Freie Universität Berlin was launched in the Minangkabau region (Tanah Datar, West Sumatra), around the site of Bukit Gombak and King Ādityavarman. Professor Dominik Bonatz (Berlin) is directing the excavation work while Arlo Griffiths is handling the epigraphic research. The project ends on April 17.
arlo.griffiths@efeo.net
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On April 8, Olivier Tessier is taking part in the colloquium on Comprendre la solidarité [Understanding solidarity] organized by the Institute for Advanced International Studies and Development (IHEID) in Geneva. He is presenting a talk on "Solidarité codifiée et dépendance: l'échange comme espace de médiation dans un village du Nord du Vietnam [Codified solidarity and dependence: trading as a mediation space in a North Vietnamese village]."
olivier.tessier@efeo.net
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On Wednesday, April 20, the EFEO's Hong Kong Center and the Center for Research on Taoist Culture is organizing a lecture on Le taoïsme du Lüshan dans la province de Fujian [Lüshan Taoism in Fujian Province] to be given by Ye Mingsheng (researcher at the Institute for the Study of the Arts of Fujian Province) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
From April 21 to 23, Lü Pengzhi is taking part in the international colloquium on The Comparative Ethnography of Local Daoist Ritual organized by the Department of Sociology (HKU), the Centre for Anthropological Research (HKU), the Centre for East Asian Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the UGC AOE Project "Historical Anthropology of Chinese Society" at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is giving a talk entitled "Catalogue descriptif des manuscrits rituels provenant de l'Autel du tonnerre de la réponse transcendante du district de Tonggu du Jiangxi [Descriptive catalogue of ritual manuscripts from the Thunder Altar of the Transendant Response in Tonggu district, Jiangxi]."
pengzhi.lu@efeo.net
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On April 28 and 29, as part of the program Régir l'espace chinois [Governing Chinese space] funded by the Agence Nationale de Recherche, the EFEO's Taipei Center is organizing, in collaboration with the History and Philology Institute of the Academia Sinica, and with the support of the Cultural Sercice of the French Institute of Taipei, a workshop on "Droits de propriété, commerce et fiscalité sous la dynastie des Qing: perspectives tirées du Code impérial [Property rights, trade, and taxation under the Qing dynasty: perspectives drawn from the Imperial Code]." Participants: Zhang Xiaoye (Zhengfa University, Peking); Matsubara Kentarô (University of Tokyo); Ch'iu Peng-sheng (History and Philology Institute); Wu Ching-chieh (Taiwan National University); Jérôme Bourgon (CNRS-Institut d'Asie Orientale, Lyon); Luca Gabbiani (EFEO Center, Taipei).
luca.gabbiani@efeo.net
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On April 9 Nobumi Iyanaga is taking part in the meeting of the Kodai bungakukai Association (Ancient Japanese Literature), at Kyôritsu joshi daigaku University, and will talk on the topic "Bukkyô shinwa to chûsei nihon shinwa: riron-teki shiten kara [Buddhist mythology and medieval Japanese mythology: from a theoretical point of view]."
The Tokyo Center's seminar on Buddhism is taking place on Monday, April 25 (6:00-8:00 p.m., Toyo Bunko lecture hall): reading of Keiran-shūyō-shū de Kōshū, 4.
nobumi.iyanaga@efeo.net
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On April 8 (9:00 a.m. to noon) Benoît Jacquet is talking on the topic of Japanese architecture at the global history seminar of Tamar Zinguer's course on the history of architecture at the Cooper Union, New York.
http://cooper.edu/architecture
From April 12 to 17, Benoît Jacquet is visiting the study center at the Centre canadien d'architecture in Montréal to do research on "modern architects' view of Japanese architecture."
http://www.cca.qc.ca/fr/centre-d-etude/bourses-d-appui
On April 18 (6:30-8:00 p.m.), Benoît Jacquet is talking on the topic "Defining a Japanese Modern Monumentality: Kenzô Tange's Early Works" at the PhD seminar at the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University.
Then, on April 29 (5:00-7:00 p.m.), he is to talk on the topic "Du chemin de pèlerinage à la place publique: diverses approches de l'espace sacré dans l'architecture moderne japonaise [From pilgrimage route to the public square: various approaches to sacred space in modern Japanese architecture]" at the EHESS.
efeo.kyoto@gmail.com
benoit.jacquet@efeo.net
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On Wednesday, April 6, as part of the EFEO program "Histoire et archéologie du site de Kaesông, RPDC [History and archaeology of the Kaesông site [PDRK]," Elisabeth Chabanol is organizing a conference on Kaesông, une belle endormie: patrimoine et patrimonialisation d'une capitale historique de Corée [Kaesông, a sleeping beauty: heritage and creation of the heritage of a historic Korean capital] at the Maison de l'Asie (2:00-6:00 p.m.). Yannick Bruneton, Elisabeth Chabanol, and Alain Delissen are presenting their work on this subject.
elisabeth.chabanol@efeo.net
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Si vous souhaitez recevoir (ou ne plus recevoir) l’Agenda de l’EFEO, ou si vous rencontrez des anomalies dans l’affichage merci d’en informer Isabelle Poujol : isabelle.poujol@efeo.net.
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