To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the teaching of the Siamese language and civilization in France, Inalco - Langues O', the Inalco Foundation and the EFEO have joined forces to organize a symposium on Thai historiography entitled "Prince Damrong Rajanubhab and George Cœdès. Collaboration and crossed views on the history of the Kingdom of Siam".

The writing of Thai history is the fruit of both Thai and European scholarly traditions. Two eminent figures have left a legacy that still resonates in historical studies devoted to Siam and the Thai world: Prince Damrong Rajanubhab and George Cœdès. Their collaboration gave rise to a significant number of writings and scholarly works that have contributed to the development of historical knowledge about Siam and neighbouring countries. It also encouraged new approaches and perspectives that contributed to the local emergence of the historical discipline in its modern form.

This symposium will look back at the exceptional careers of these two figures and identify their intellectual and scientific legacies. It also aims to retrace the genesis of Thai history in a contemporary context focused on the writing of national narratives.

This exceptional event will be opened by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who will honour the occasion with her presence.

15 May 2024, from 9am to 5pm.

EFEO member speakers :

- Gregory Kourilsky (with Thissana Weerakietsoontorn), "De l'historiographie à l'Histoire: Échanges intellectuels et méthodologiques entre le Prince Damrong Rajanubhab et George Cœdès" [From historiography to history: intellectual and methodological exchanges between Prince Damrong Rajanubhab and George Cœdès].

- Christophe Pottier, "The archaeological collections of the National Museum of Thailand".

Registration required, subject to availability and confirmation of individual registration.

As part of the "Kyoto lectures", Daniela Calvo (Kyoto University) gives a lecture on "Afro-Brazilian Religions in Japan: The Flux and Re-territorialization of People, Spirits and Materialities".

At 6pm (Japan) or 10am (France), on site and online on the Zoom platform. Login details are posted on the Kyoto Center's blog.

The LIIe Seoul Colloquium in Korea Studies, organized by the EFEO Center in Seoul, in collaboration with the Royal Asiatic Society, is led by Brother Anthony (Professor Emeritus at Sogang University, Seoul), on the topic "Charles Dallet’s 1874 “History of the Korean Church”: Celebrating the 150th Anniversary"

At 6:00 p.m. (Seoul time), Grand Conference Room (#310), Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University: register with the EFEO Center.

Legend: Title page of Charles Dallet's Histoire de l'Église de Corée.

The GIS Asie co-finances with the EFEO a series of lectures and debates organized by the Saigon Social Sciences Hub (SSSH) for early-career social scientists specializing in Vietnamese studies, hosted by the EFEO's office in Ho Chi Minh City.

Upcoming events:

- 31 may: "Navigating Multi-cites, Method, Disciplinary, Longitudinal Research: 140 Years of Commoditisation in Two Highland Northern Borderland Districts" by Patrick Slack

Contact : Olivier Tessier

At the suggestion of the Luoyang Daily newspaper, the Beijing Centre is organising an exhibition for the general public in Luoyang, starting in mid-May and running for several weeks, entitled "Photographs by the French engineer Skarbek on the Luoyang-Kaifeng railway line at the end of the Qing period".

This initiative is one of a series of events being organised across the country to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. For the EFEO it represents an opportunity to promote part of its iconographic collection, drawing the attention of Chinese researchers to the historical and heritage research prospects to which it could give rise.

The photographs on display are some of those taken by Joseph Skarbek (1879-1961), a French engineer of Polish origin whose company placed him at the disposal of the Imperial Chinese Railway Company, during the construction of the Kaifeng-Luoyang line (central China) in which he took part between 1906 and 1909. Over and above their artistic quality, they are among the first modern accounts of the Henan region, which at the time was only visited by a handful of archaeological expeditions. Their kaleidoscopic nature also makes it possible to document in a lively, albeit necessarily biased way, the way in which certain Europeans, enamoured of 'unknown China', viewed the realities of Chinese society at the end of the Empire.

More information to follow in the Centre's blog.

Legend: Unknown China. Chinese women in festive costume (EFEO_SKAJ00219).

The Pondicherry team of the "Hindu Temple and Legends" Project (Dominic Goodall, S.A.S. Sarma, Krishnasamy Nachimuthu, T. Rajarethinam, M. Vigneswaran, and S. Vishnupriya) has been invited to participate in the international workshop titled "Digital Humanities Methods in the HTL Project."

The workshop, scheduled from April 29th to May 8th, 2024, in Heidelberg, Germany, is organized by the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University as part of the “Hindu Temple Legends in South India (HTL)” Project, funded by the Academies Programme of the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities (Vorhabennummer II.C.28).

The event will feature two components: a project-internal event and an in-house conference. During the project-internal event, participants will engage in collaborative work and discussions, with each individual delivering an informal presentation about their work and the texts they are dealing with. The in-house conference, though a public event, will primarily involve members of the project commissions and possibly some colleagues from Heidelberg. Each participant will prepare a more formal presentation on specific topics derived from their material.

The Pondicherry team will present the following lectures during the conference, contributing their expertise to enrich the discourse and further the objectives of the HTL Project:

- M. Vigneswaran: "The Take of a Master (Civañāņa Munivar) and his Disciple (Kacciyappa Munivar) on the Legend of Pārvatī Covering the Sacred Eyes of Siva"

- K. Nachimuthu: "The confluence of myth, legend and oral history in the Nakarērrupaţalam of the Kāñcippurāņam of Kacciyappa Munivar"

- T. Rajarethinam: "The Śiva Temples of Kanchipuram as described in the Kāñcippurāņam of Kaccālaiyar with special reference to e to the Civālayaccarukkam"

- S. Vishnupriya: "The source of KV Coulal the manuscript ORI 2519 be a draft version of the text?"

- S.A.S. Sarma: "Dīkṣā in the Saubhāgyacintāmani"

- Dominic Goodall: "Elements of Saiddhantika Teachingin the mahatmyaliterature on Kanchi"

Given the current extreme weather conditions, the LIDAR team is concentrating on processing and archiving the data collected during the surveys of recent months. The Georadar survey operations in the vicinity of the Nandin temple and on the Nong Vienne site have been put on hold due to the temperatures, which could cause damage to the electronic equipment.

Legend: Sybounheuang Phimmaseng (member of the LIDAR team) - Processing survey data (© CHAMPA project).

Dominic Goodall is in Vienna for a workshop organised from 24 to 26 May by Akane Saito at the Austrian Academy of Sciences on an unpublished Sanskrit commentary on the Ratnatrayaparīkṣā, a tenth-century philosophical treatise that advocates the existence of speech as the raw material that sustains the cosmos. The workshop will also bring together Francesco Sferra (Naples), Judit Törzsök (EPHE) and Harunaga Isaacson (Hamburg) in Vienna.

From 27 to 31 May, Dominic Goodall is taking part in a working meeting to prepare the 4th volume of the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa, the Viennese dictionary of Tantric terminology, which he co-edits with Marion Rastelli of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Legend: Two leaves of a manuscript on oles in Grantha script that transmits the Sanskrit commentary on the Ratnatrayaparīkṣā, a manuscript from the śivait monastery of Tiruvāvaṭutuṟai.

At the invitation of the Regional Economy Research Centre at Fukui Prefectural University, Benoît Jacquet is visiting the village of Mikuni, Sakai urban community, Fukui prefecture, on 1 and 2 May, for a study on the rural revitalisation of this region, in the company of the architect Akado Zenzō.

Legend: Group of traditional houses (machiya) on the pilgrimage path (sandō) leading to the Mikuni shrine (Fukui prefecture) (@Benoît Jacquet, 2 May 2024).

As part of an FEF-R project funded by the French Embassy in Vientiane, Michel Lorrillard is starting a twelve-month programme in May to enhance the Vat Ho Phra Kaeo and its museum collections.

The situation at the library is gradually returning to normal. A small number of books will be sent for mould treatment and we have had to part with a few others, but the main part has been saved. Work still needs to be carried out in the reading room and the storerooms. We invite you to check the "News" section of the EFEO website regularly for more information as soon as we have it.

Until the library is fully reopened, we will be offering a partial opening service, by reservation only, from Monday to Wednesday, 9am to 5pm. To take advantage of this service, please write to bibliotheque@efeo.net, and the team will tell you how.

Returns are possible without an appointment, but only from Monday to Wednesday, 9am to 5pm.

The library will be closed on 1 and 8 May, on Wednesday 15 May from 12 noon for the whole afternoon, and on Pentecost Monday (20 May).

Since September 2022, the EFEO has been responsible for the CollEx IndexAngkor, a project financed with the support of CollEx-Persée, which has as its corpus three sets of documents from the archives of the Angkor Conservation Office, kept at the EFEO's Paris headquarters:

- Handwritten excavation diaries produced by the curators between 1908 and 1955.

- Records of the items in the Conservation Depot, listing archaeological excavation material, statues and architectural elements, which were kept in the Conservation Depots before 1975 and the Khmer Rouge seizure of power.

- Photographs documenting excavation activities, archaeological discoveries, anastylosis work, and life on the sites and at the Conservancy.

The team reports on its progress in a series of articles in the Hypotheses notebook in the EFE archives. The first article presents the corpus concerned, the context and an overview of the project.

Katia Juhel, Head of Libraries, will be visiting Athens from 21 to 23 May inclusive to take part in the study days on "Les archives de l’archéologie française à l’étranger : de l’inaccessibilité des documents à la réutilisation des données". She will be presenting a paper prepared with Sovannara Mey entitled "Le signalement des archives et manuscrits à l'EFEO: entre Calames et AtoM".

The library is opened Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Consult the catalogues and digital tools :
- Catalogue of books and periodicals
- Catalogue of Archives and Manuscripts
- Digital heritage library

Check the EFEO's Facebook page and Twitter account regularly for any updates on the terms and conditions of the public reception service.

Isabelle Poujol is in Cambodia from May 1 to 10 to set up the exhibition Retrouver la danse [Finding the Dance], which features works by the painter Romain Bernini and some thirty photographs taken by the EFEO. The exhibition runs from 9 May to 29 June as part of the cultural season on the theme of "Danse comme je bouge". The exhibition also includes two videos: a compilation of stereoscopic glass plates taken in Angkor at the beginning of the 20th century and processed in anaglyph to give a 3D view, and a compilation of short amateur films taken in Angkor and Siem Reap between the 1930s and 1960s.

Romain Bernini, artist and professor at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, was in residence at the Siem Reap Centre last summer, thanks to a partnership between the EFEO and the Institut français de Phnom Penh.

Legend: Drawing by the artist Romain Bernini.

At the same time, some thirty photographs from the EFEO archives will be displayed on the wall of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh, illustrating in a chronological frieze the major events that have marked the life of the EFEO in Cambodia from 1900 to the present day.

Legend: Leng Trot dance during the agrarian rites of the Khmer New Year, in Siem Reap, before 1937, by Henri Marchal (EFEO_CAM00233).

To accompany the symposium organized by Inalco, the Inalco Foundation, and the EFEO Le Prince Damrong Rajanubhab et George Cœdès. Collaboration et regards croisés sur l'histoire du royaume de Siam, to be held on Wednesday, May 15 at the Inalco, the EFEO is installing 26 photographs at its Paris headquarters dedicated to the Siamese prince Damrong Rajanubhab and the French historian George Cœdès, and to the scientific and emotional ties that united them throughout the first decades of the 20th century.

These photographs show the two scholars in Siam, Cambodia and France, carrying out field research, attending rites and ceremonies, accompanying official delegations or simply posing with their families.

Free admission, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., 15 April to 30 June 2024, at the EFEO, 22 avenue du Président Wilson, Paris 75116, 1st floor landing.

Since 1990, under the responsibility of Olivier de Bernon (EFEO), the FEMC's five-strong team has been methodically locating, physically restoring, identifying and microfilming the manuscripts that remain in Cambodia's monastic libraries. In 2010, this microfilmed inventory of some 7,000 works was digitised. In 2023, the database and website were compiled on a heurist basis and put into production at the beginning of 2024. The images, organised in bundles, and their associated metadata are stored in the Nakala data warehouse (IR* Huma-Num).

As part of the support provided to international cooperation actions, the Ministry of Higher Education, Research (MESR) and the Réseau des Écoles françaises à l'étranger (EFE) are pleased to announce the opening of the call for applications for doctoral contracts of the EFE Réseau.

This year, four doctoral contracts are open, supported by the École française d'Athènes, the École française de Rome, the Institut français d'Archéologie orientale du Caire and the Casa de Velázquez (École des hautes études hispaniques et ibériques).

Applications should be sent directly to the EFE concerned, in the form of a pdf document including
- A thesis proposal of no more than five pages;
- the CV of the candidate proposed to undertake the research;
- a letter of introduction from the prospective thesis director(s);
- the opinion of the Director of the Doctoral School.

The application documents can be sent until May 5 2024, according to the procedures of each EFE.