Yangon

The Yangon Branch Office, Myanmar

Head: Gregory Kourilsky
EFEO
c/o Institut français de Birmanie
340 Pye Road, Sanchaung township
Yangon, Myanmar
Tél : + 95 (1) 536 900 / 537 122 / 535 428

Assistant: Ms Khin Khin Zaw
gregory.kourilsky@efeo.net

History

The EFEO has been active in Burma with the inventory of the Pagan monuments since the 1980's. Work on this site was undertaken by Pierre Pichard from 1980 - 1987 in the framework of a UNESCO project. In 2002, with the arrival of Jacques Leider, the School opened a Branch Office in Myanmar. Up until 2008 it was located in the Regional Centre for History and Tradition (CHAT), an institution founded under the international aegis of SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization). Currently the EFEO branch office has been relocated to the French Cultural Centre.

Current projects:

Today the EFEO Burma Centre, enjoys limited access to cooperative activity, although, considerable opportunities exist for individual projects.

Since 2002, the Centre's projects have focused, above all, on transcribing the previously unpublished Arakan manuscripts that have provided new data in historiography and political history and offered better understanding the Arakan culture and religion during the Mrauk-U epoch. Since 2005 a project to collect the Arakan inscriptions has contributed to the first systematic collection of lithographs from the region of Burma.

Since 2007 research on the first period of the Konbaung dynasty has led to the reexamination of the royal chronicles by comparing them to the royal orders, more precisely the chronicles issued under the reign of Alaungmintaya.

Despite its limitations the EFEO Yangon Branch Office - a unique facility in a complex environment -- members continue advising doctoral students and welcoming French and international scholars.