Découvertes de l'Asie

An exploration of Asia based on the itineraries of Asians and Europeans who began traveling throughout the continent in the earliest centuries of our era.

The spread of Buddhism in Asia:

  • Between the fourth and the seventh centuries, three Chinese pilgrims in search of manuscripts (Faxian, Xuanzang et Yijing) traveled to India along the Silk road and the maritime routes that linked the Far East and the subcontinent.

The first Westerners to discover Asia:

  • Commercial and other motives prompted the voyages of 14th century Italian traveler Odoric of Pordenone, who sailed from Europe to Japan, stopping in, among other places, southern Indian and the islands of South Asia.
  • Lastly, French colonial civil servant Auguste Pavie traveled throughout continental Southeast Asia. One section will be devoted to the restoration of the temples of Angkor.
EFEO News
Annual EFEO-Faculty of Archaeology Seminar
Bangkok, Thailand, 29 June 2023

On June 29, as part of the Annual EFEO-Faculty of Archaeology Seminar on "Inscriptions, manuscrits et archéologie en Asie du Sud-Est [Inscriptions, manuscripts, and archaeology in Southeast Asia]," at Silpakorn University in Bangkok, the following spoke for the EFEO:

Gregory Kourilsky gives a talk entitled "Relative Dating of a Code of Law from Luang Prabang (Laos)"

Christophe Pottier gives a talk entitled "Archaeology beyond monumentality: some recent works in Cambodia"

Dominique Soutif gives a talk entitled "Continuing the K. Number inventory"

Lecture-debate
Tokyo, Japan, 27 June 2023

From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the EFEO Centres in Tokyo and in Kyoto are co-organising with the French Institute for Research on Japan (UMIFRE 19 MEAE-CNRS), at the Maison franco-japonaise in Tokyo, a lecture-debate on the topic "Vingt-deux ans à la tête du musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac" [Twenty-two years at the head of the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac], with Stéphane Martin (former president of the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac) and Ozawa Kei (University of Tokyo), moderated by François Lachaud (EFEO).

Participation on registration

Lecture ''Le premier musée en Chine et sa collection (1829-1834)''
Paris, France, 23 June 2023
TAI Li-Chuan, researcher and vice-director of the Institute of History and Philology at the Academia Sinica, gives a lecture on "Le premier musée en Chine et sa collection (1829-1834)" 

Friday 23 June 2023 at 10.30 a.m., in the Grand Salon of the Maison de l'Asie
Study day
Paris,France, 21 June 2023

Maria Chauveau, EFEO post-doctoral fellow, is organizing a study day on Les relations humains/non-humains à la mesure de l'expansion des pratiques agricoles productivistes en Inde et en Asie de Sud-Est [Human/non-human relations in the context of the expansion of productivist agricultural practices in India and Southeast Asia].

From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Grand Salon of the Maison de l'Asie.

Programme

Kyoto Lectures
Kyoto, Japan, 20 June 2023

As part of the "Kyoto lectures", Antonio Manieri (University of Naples "L’Orientale") gives a lecture on "“Everyday Uncertainties”: Sharing and Learning Terminologies in Eighth-century Japan".

At 6pm (Japan time), online on the Zoom platform: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82464622137