South Asian Core Collections

The South Asia collection at EFEO Central Library in Paris includes: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan.
This collection mainly focuses on classical research in religion, philosophy, religious history, art and religious iconography, archaeology, epigraphy, studies of source material, ancient history, and to a lesser extent, social sciences.

The collection expanded according to fields of research of EFEO researchers, such as Jean Filliozat, Suzanne Karpelès, François Gros, N.R. Bhatt, Françoise l'Hernault, etc.
Nowadays, it consists of approximately 21,000 documents in Western and Eastern languages (mainly in Sanskrit and Tamil), 133 titles of periodicals mainly in English language (including 22 current titles), more than one hundred manuscripts, a hundred maps, some rubbings and works of art (Tibetan figurines), and approximately 19,000 photographs (available for consultation at EFEO Paris photo library).

Since 2011, approximately 5,000 monographs and 50 titles of periodicals were deposited at BULAC (the following fields are in deposit according to documentary policy: literature and linguistics, Tamil studies, law, economics, sciences).
Collections of the Library of Pondicherry EFEO Center, which focus on Tamil and Sanskrit philology, archaeology, art history and epigraphy of South India, are also available in our online catalogs.

Contact: Maïté Hurel, head of the South Asian collection

EFEO News
New Publication
Paris, France,

Sultans-bâtisseurs et innovations architecturales à Java au début de la période coloniale (XVIe - début XIXe siècle)

Hélène Njoto

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Study days
Paris, France, 17 October 2024
Thursday 17 and Friday 18 October, together with Stéphane Gros (CESAH), Pascale-Marie Milan is organising two study days entitled Family Resemblances: Kinship Practices along the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands.

They will be held at the Maison de l'Asie and the Condorcet campus. They will bring together specialists in kinship issues in different communities along the Sino-Tibetan borderlands.

EFEO Field Scholarships - 1st Semester 2025
Paris, France, 13 October 2024

Call for applications for the EFEO Field Scholarships - 1st Semester 2025:

The deadline for submitting an application to an EFEO Field Scholarships for Master and PhD students enabling a field study in Asia at one of the EFEO centers is set to the 13th of Ocotber 2025.
Call for applications
Paris, France, 30 September 2024
As part of its support for international mobility, the InSHS and the EFEO are offering researchers, teacher-researchers and research engineers from research units supervised or co-supervised by the CNRS, assistance in carrying out research activities in 2025.

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Photographic exhibition
Paris, France, 26 September 2024
The exhibition Le corps du texte, tatouages rituels du Cambodge et de Thaïlande is on show at the Maison des étudiants de l'Asie du Sud-Est (House of South-East Asian Students) at the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris until the end of September 2024.

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