Bangkok
Thailand
FRANCAIS | ENGLISH


Responsable: Gregory Kourilski

Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre
20 Borommaratchachonnani Road
Bangkok 10170
Thailand
Tel: +66 2 433 12 68
Fax: +66 2 880 93 32 gregory.kourilsky@efeo.net
efeo@sac.or.th


PRESENTATION
P. Skilling and the First International Pali Studies Week @ la Sorbonne, Paris
20 JUNE 14
Between June 16th-20th, 2014, Peter Skilling and his colleages, Nalini Balbir, will conduct the "First International Pali Studies Week" at the Sorbonne, Paris. The First International Pali Studies Week will focus on two aspects of the rich field of Pali studies:

I. The Pali tradition of Thailand, which tends to be neglected:
The Pali tradition of ThailandSince the time of Ayutthaya (fourteenth century on), and no doubt earlier, even much earlier, Siam or Thailand has produced and transmitted a body of texts that deserve to be described as an independent ‘Pali literature of Siam'. Nonetheless, this fact has not been adequately recognized, and this ‘apocryphal' literature has been too often neglected in favour of the ‘authentic' texts from Sri Lanka. 

Throughout the week, the JAMBUPATISUTRA WORKSHOP, Conducted by Santi Pakdeekham and Peter Skilling, will familiarize the participants with reading Pali in the Khom Pali script used in Thailand since the 14th century CE or earlier. The Jambupatisūtra is a lively narrative that was widely disseminated in Pali as well as in vernacular sermons, anisansa texts, and verse forms like klon suat, as also in art and iconography. In the Siam of the Ayutthaya and early Ratanakosin period it was a prominent text in the ‘functional' or ‘practical' canon, and it was known throughout Southeast Asia. We will read selected passages from this sūtra in a palm-leaf manuscript from Surat Thani province that dates to the Ayutthaya period. Participants will be able to compare this with the synoptic romanized edition (Santi Pakdeekham (ed.), Jambupati-sutra: A synoptic romanized edition. Bangkok and Lumbini: Fragile Palm Leaves 2009) (Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka Volume 4).

II. The position of the Pali corpus in the overall textual context of early Buddhism, that is to say, its relationship to the growing corpus of Gandhari manuscripts, and to the Agamas preserved in Buddhist Sanskrits, Prakrits, and Chinese.
The field of Buddhist studies in Europe goes back more than 150 years. From an early stage, the Pali tradition was given pride of place as the sole representative of ‘early Buddhism', and the linguistic development and heritage of Buddhism came to be locked in a binary paradigm of ‘Pali' (= early Buddhism, Theravada) and Sanskrit (= later Buddhism, Mahayana). Although this model was never accurate, it is still predominant. New manuscript discoveries, especially those from Gandhara, show that the old model is completely inadequate. We feel that it is time to re-examine the status of Pali and other Indian languages used by the Buddhists of Jambudvipa.  We propose to address the status of Pali in the light of the emerging corpus of Gandhari manuscripts, of other Prakrits like that of the ‘Patna Dhammapada', of sweeping developments in the study and translation of the Chinese Agamas - and of new perspectives on Vinaya and Abhidharma traditions.  Recent archaeological discoveries in South Asia, such as the epigraphic corpus of the Kanaganahalli Stupa or the pillar inscriptions of Deorkothar and Phanigiri, must also be taken into account. The Pali corpus certainly remains the best preserved corpus of early Buddhist texts and the most enduring and widepread tradition, and is a precious resource that is the foundation of early Buddhist studies. How do the new data affect old paradigms? How should we describe the position of Pali in the complex religious and literary formations of ancient India in the light of the new data? 

The International Pali Studies Week will bring together researchers from different countries and with different specialties to present the results of their research and to exchange ideas and expertise.

Participants from France and French institutes: Nalini Balbir (EPHE /  Mondes iranien et indien); Peter Skilling (EFEO); Georges-Jean Pinault (EPHE); Javier Schnake (Doctorant EPHE); Grégory Kourilsky (Doctorant EPHE, Research Fellow University of Bristol); François Lagirarde (EFEO)

Participants des autres pays: Bhikkhu Analayo (University of Hamburg); Naomi Appleton (Edinburgh University); Rupert Gethin (Bristol University); Oskar von Hinüber (University of Freiburg (Emeritus); Petra Kieffer-Pülz (University of Weimar); Thibaut d'Hubert (University of Chicago); Santi Pakdeekham (Sri Nakharin Wirot University); Ingo Strauch (University of Lausanne); Daniel M. Stuart (University of South Carolina); Toshiya Unebe (Nagoya University) 

Programme
Monday 16 June
10h00-10h30    Peter Skilling (EFEO) and Nalini Balbir (EPHE/Mondes iranien et indien), Introduction to the International Pali Studies Week
10h30-11h30 Venerable Analayo (University of Hamburg), 
Developments in Agama studies and the ‘Pali paradigm'
11h30-13h00 DIVERSITY OF PALI: TEXT, IMAGE, AND NARRATIVEPetra Kieffer-Pülz (University of Weimar), Observations on the various Buddhist countries' extracanonical Parittas
Toshiya Unebe (Nagoya University), The Unhissavijaya in samut khoi (illustrated accordion-fold manuscripts in khoi paper)
Naomi Appleton (Edinburgh University) and Arthid Sheravanichkul (Edinburgh University), An online Jataka database: plans and principles
14h30-17h00 JAMBUPATISUTRA WORKSHOP conducted by Santi Pakdeekham (Sri Nakharin Wirot University) and Peter Skilling (EFEO),
Introduction to the Jambupatisutra
Reading manuscripts of the Jambupatisutra (session 1)



Tuesday 17 June
9h00-12h00 JAMBUPATISUTRA WORKSHOP (session 2)
14h00-14h30 Oskar von Hinüber (University of Freiburg, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres),
The importance of inscriptions and manuscripts for the history of Pali
15h00-17h00 ROUND TABLE: IN QUEST OF NEW PARADIGMS: THE POSITION OF PALI IN THE CORPUS OF EARLY BUDDHIST TEXTS
Leader of discussion:  Peter Skilling
Participants: Oskar von Hinüber, Georges-Jean Pinault (EPHE/Mondes iranien et indien) Ingo Strauch (University of Lausanne), Rupert Gethin (Bristol University), Bhikkhu Analayo 



Wednesday 18 June
9h30-12h00 A MULTIPURPOSE LANGUAGE: PALI IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
1. François Lagirarde (EFEO), Pali and the Tamnan literature of northern Thailand
2. J. Schnake (PhD student, EPHE), Current research on the Vajirasāratthasaṅgaha
3. Gregory Kourilsky (Bristol University), Current research on the Maṅgalatthadīpanī
4. Nalini Balbir & Peter Skilling, Uppātasanti: Evoking a Buddhist pantheon in Pali 
13h30-15h00 (continue)
5. Thibaut d'Hubert (University of Chicago) with Nalini Balbir, Vidaddhamukhamaṇḍana: Enigmas in the transmission of a corpus of riddles
6. Daniel M. Stuart (University of South Carolina), Refiguring Maitreya: The Anāgatavaṃsa Commentaries and Narrative Agency in Pali Literary Culture
15h15-17h00 JAMBUPATISŪTRA WORKSHOP (session 3)



Thursday 19 June
9h00-12h00 JAMBUPATISUTRA WORKSHOP (session 4)
14h00-16h00 Manuscript collections of Thailand, North and South
Oskar von Hinüber, Scribes, Leaves and Libraries. The Pali Manuscript Tradition in South and Southeast Asia
Santi Pakdeekham & Peter Skilling, Manuscript collections in Chaiya District, Surat Thani
16h00-18h00 ROUND TABLE: NARRATIVE LITERATURE, HINDU, JAIN AND BUDDHIST
Leader of discussion: Naomi Appleton (University of Edinburgh)
Participants: Nalini Balbir, Rupert Gethin, Peter Skilling, Daniel M. Stuart, Toshiya Unebe 



Friday 20 June
9h00-12h00 JAMBUPATISUTRA WORKSHOP (session 5)

End of programme.


DETAILS ON WORKSHOP:
READING THE JAMBUPATI SUTRA IN KHOM PALI
Conducted by Santi Pakdeekham (Department of Thai and Oriental Languages, Srinakharinwirot University) and Peter Skilling (EFEO)

Registration: This workshop ‘Reading the Jambupati Sutra' is one of the events featured in the First International Pali Studies Week. IT IS FREE OF CHARGE AND OPEN TO THOSE WHO FULFILL THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS:
•    Knowledge of Pali grammar with experience in reading Pali with facility, especially in the sutta/narrative genres.
•    Basic familiarity with the Khom Pali script.

The workshop will be conducted in English. Members will individually read passages of the Pali text out loud and then translate the passages into English on a rotation basis. 

PLEASE REGISTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE by writing to Nalini BALBIR nalini.balbir@wanadoo.fr and/or to Peter SKILLING vararuci@mac.com, giving the following information:
•    Name
•    Email ID
•    Address
•    Academic affiliation
•    Pali training/experience


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Escalier U, Fourth Floor (Salle H 637)
Sorbonne, École pratique des hautes études (EPHE)
Organized by Nalini Balbir and Peter SkillingSupported by EFEO, UMR 7528 Mondes iranien et indien and PRES HESAM (DYNASIA programme)

 conference