July - August 2012
L'Agenda de l'EFEO
Editorial
 
The ministerial level visit to Myanmar, in which the EFEO took part (see the EFEO's June Newsletter), now gives us the prospect of signing an agreement for cultural and scholarly cooperation with the Burmese Ministry of Culture. The main provisions of such an agreement would cover archaeology and the preservation of cultural monuments, training of personnel, technical assistance in entering several sites in the UNESCO world heritage register, and the preservation of the urban heritage of Yangon.

In this context the EFEO plans to increase its on-site research in Myanmar, especially in archaeology, history, religious studies, and ethnology, as well as its already longstanding cooperation with the country's scholarly community. The EFEO has been active in Myanmar since 1980, working on the inventory of the Pagan temples and monuments (Pierre Pichard, 8 volumes published by EFEO/UNESCO, 1992-2001), and has had a center there since 2002.
In Memoriam
 
Miss Yvonne Bongert (1921-2012), who died on June 12, was the last person to hold the title of corresponding member of the École française d'Extrême-Orient. She was given this title in 1959. A lawyer specializing in penal law, Yvonne Bongert began her career as a professor in the law faculty in Phnom Penh in 1954 before being appointed to the University of Lille and becoming professor at the Panthéon-Assas University from 1965 to 1988. Her work in Oriental studies began at the time of her participation, along with Robert Lingat, in the Colloque sur les recherches des instituts français des sciences humaines en Asie [Colloquium on research by French institutions in the humanities in Asia] organized at the Singer-Polignac Foundation in October 1959.
Paris
Colloquia, visits, and meetings
On July 3 Franciscus Verellen, Director, is taking part in a working meeting bringing together the directors and the chairs of the administrative councils of the five Écoles françaises à l'étranger [Overseas French Schools] (EFE) and Jean-Louis Mucchielli, Director General for Higher Education and Professional Integration at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
direction@efeo.net
From July 12 to 20, Pascal Royère, Director of Studies, is visiting Cambodia as part of the FSP Patrimoine angkorien et non-angkorien: formation professionnelle et valorisation [Angkor and non-Angkor Heritage: professional training and improvement]. He is to continue the work being undertaken on the Western Mebon.
pascal.royere@efeo.net
During July and August François Lagirarde is in Thailand, where he will visit the EFEO Centers in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
françois.lagirarde@efeo.net

Until September 15, Dominic Goodall is in Pondicherry, where he is working with S.A.S. Sarma, R. Sathyanarayanan and Manjunath Bhat on various Shaiva projects.
Dominic.goodall@efeo.net

From June 30 to July 14 Marianne Bujard is in Tokyo to consult Japanese document collections as part of the Temples de Pékin [Peking temples] project.
marianne.bujard@efeo.net

Personnel
Frédéric Girard, attached to the EFEO's Tokyo Center, and Po Dharma Quang, from the Kuala Lumpur Center, are to be stationed in France beginning on July 1.
valerie.liger-belair@efeo.net
Library
On July 6 and 7 Maïté Hurel is taking part in the 87th Conference of the South Asia Archive and Library Group (SAALG), taking place in Cambridge (Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge, UK) on the topic of comparative studies between South and Southeast Asia.
maïté.hurel@efeo.net
Publications
Jean Deloche, contributions to History of Indian Technology, vol. II, The medieval Period, National Academy of Sciences, New Delhi, May 2012.

François Lachaud (text) and Jean Marc Forax (artist), Jizō divinité japonaise (bilingual publication), Paris, Talmart, 2012.

Jacques P. Leider, "La lettre du roi birman Alaungmintaya au roi de Grande-Bretagne George II (7 mai 1756): la re-découverte du manuscrit en or et son contexte historique [The letter from the Burmese king Alaungmintaya to King George II of Great Britain (7 March 1756): the rediscovery of the gold manuscript and its historical context]." Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres 2011, I (January-March), 2012, pp. 155-173.

Jacques P. Leider, "Le bouddhisme - matrice culturelle et valeurs sociales [Buddhism-cultural matrix and social values]," Diplomatie-Affaires stratégiques et relations internationales, Les grands dossiers n°9 (June-July 2012), pp. 23-24.

Lü Pengzhi, "Fawei yu zhonggu daojiao yishi de fenlei [Levels of ordination and classification of rituals in medieval Daoism]," Zongjiao xue yanjiu 2012.2, pp. 1-10.

Christophe Pottier, "Unearthing an Atlantean Myth in Angkor: Geoarchaeological Investigation of the Underwater Road Crossing the Tonlé Sap Lake, Cambodia," Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012), pp. 2604-2611.
EFEO Paris Seminar
The next EFEO Paris Seminar will take place on September 24 with a talk by Philippe Le Failler (EFEO).
vincent.paillusson@efeo.net
Awards and honors
Jean Deloche has been named a member of the editorial committee of the Indian Journal of History of Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences in New Delhi.
Maison de L'Asie
During the summer, the Maison de l'Asie is open from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The library is also open at its usual times, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
vincent.paillusson@efeo.net
Life in the Centers
Pondicherry
Alexis Avdeeff, doctoral student at the EHESS, Laureate of Fonds Louis Dumont, has arrived at the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO for a period of two months to finalize his analysis and translation of the material gathered during his field-trips for his thesis, which is entitled "Les feuilles de palme et le stylet: savoirs et savoir-faire au sein d'une communauté d'astrologues en Inde du Sud [Palm leaves and the stylus: knowledge and know-how within a South Indian community of astrologers]."

Dominic Goodall is spending 3 months at the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO to continue his various projects in collaboration with the Sanskritists of the Centre and to participate in the 10th Classical Tamil Summer Seminar.

On 21 July 2012 (4-6 p.m,) Jean-Luc Chevillard and Eva Wilden give a twin lecture at the Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai. Jean-Luc Chevillard gives "A preliminary survey of the musical and metrical colophons in the /Nālāyira Tivya Prapantam/ Palm-leaf Manuscripts from the EFEO collection", while Eva Wilden talks about "Vēru oru tanip pāshai: Deciphering, Copying and Printing Cankam Texts from Manuscript"

James Reich, doctoral student at Harvard University, has arrived at the Pondicherry Centre for a two-month stay to pursue his research on the links between Sanskrit literature and religion. He will also participate in the Saiva reading sessions conducted by Dominic Goodall.

On July 1 Peter Pasedach (doctoral candidate at the University of Hamburg and an EFEO scholarship holder) is arriving for a six-month stay at the Pondicherry Center to continue his research for his dissertation on "Haravijaya of Ratnākara, a Mahākāvya from 9th century Kashmir."

The 10th Classical Tamil Summer Seminar is taking place from August 6 to 31 at the Pondicherry Center. For more details, see http://www.efeo.fr/CTSS_2012 valerie.gillet@efeo.net
Bangkok
Peter Skilling is visiting Paris to attend the 21st conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art, at the École du Louvre, July 2 to 6, where he presents a paper, "Stupas and the spread of Buddhism in India: the early period," on Tuesday, 3 July 3, at 10 a.m.

Peter Skilling is visiting Cardiff, Wales, to attend the international conference on Early Mahayana organized by the UK Association of Buddhist Studies at St Michael's College, Llandaff, where he presents a paper, "Ensuring the continuity of the Three Jewels, or, Why become a bodhisattva?" on Saturday, July 7, at 8 a.m.

From July 25 to August 15 Dr. Saerji from the Research Institute of Sanskrit Manuscripts and Buddhist Literature, Department of South Asian Studies, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, is visiting Bangkok to work with Peter Skilling and colleagues from Chulalongkorn and Mahidol Universities on the project, "History and evolution of the Tibetan canon, the Kanjur", a study of Indian Buddhist literature through the corpus of Tibetan translations.
peter.skilling@efeo.net

Christophe Pottier visits Siem Reap to participate in the seminar Tropical Forest Urbanism: comparing Angkor and the Maya urban settlements of Mesoamerica coorganised by the University of Sydney, APSARA and the EFEO from 7th to 12th July.
christophe.pottier@efeo.net

Hanoi
As part of the 6th annual Journées de Tam Dao [Tam Dao Days] (a summer university session on social and humane studies organized jointly by the AFD, EFEO, IRD, and ASSV), this year dedicated to the subject of L'eau dans tous ses états [Water, in all its aspects], Olivier Tessier is presenting on July 13 an address entitled "L'aménagement hydraulique du delta du fleuve Rouge: mise en perspective historique du rôle de l'État impérial puis colonial [Hydraulic control of the Red River delta: a historical overview of the role of the imperial and then colonial state."

Then, from July 16 to 21, he is coordinating and running, with Mireille Razafindrakoto (economist, the IRD Paris), Christophe Gironde (economist, the IHEID, Geneva), and Pascal Bourdeaux (historian, the EPHE, Paris), a workshop on Formations aux techniques d'enquêtes [Training in research techniques] on the topic "Gestion sociale et économique de l'eau [Social and economic management of water]."
olivier.tessier@efeo.net

Taipei
On July 9 (1:00-6:00 p.m.), Paola Calanca (EFEO) and Françoise Ged (of the Contemporary Chinese Architecture Observatory) are organizing a daylong workshop La Terre en Chine [China and the land], at the EFEO, 22 avenue du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris,
Programme:
- 1:00 p.m: projection du film Yaodong, petit traité de
construction [Yandong: a small construction treatise].
- 2:30 p.m.: presentations and discussions with Caroline Bodolec, Hubert Guillaud, Marc Auzet, Anne-Monique Bardagot, Victoire Surio, Benjamin Mouton, and Fabrice Duffaud.
paola.calanca@efeo.net
Seoul
From July 11 to August 10 Élisabeth Chabanol Is giving an intensive course entitled "Cultural Heritage Sites in North Korea" as part of the International Summer Session in Korean and East Asian Studies at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
elisabeth.chabanol@efeo.net
Tokyo
The Buddhism seminar at the EFEO Center in Tokyo is taking place on Mondays, July 9 and 23, and covers an introduction to the Buddhist Kanbun: reading the Xianyu-jing/Kengu-kyo, 21 and 22 (6:00-8:00 p.m., lecture hall, Tôyô bunko).
nobumi.iyanaga@efeo.net
Kyoto
On July 6 and 7, Benoît Jacquet is giving a series of eight lectures in the Architecture Department of Hiroshima University as part of an intensive course on "L'histoire croisée de l'architecture moderne au Japon [The checkered history of modern architecture in Japan]."
efeo.kyoto@gmail.com
benoit.jacquet@efeo.net
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