Nicolas Revire

My research focuses primarily on the history of art, archaeology, and visual culture of Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia, from the first millennium to the early modern period, using an interdisciplinary approach that combines iconography, archaeology, epigraphy, and textual sources. It is structured around two main areas.

The first area is devoted to the origins and transformations of the image of the Buddha, particularly the type of Buddha seated in majesty (bhadrāsana), attested as early as the 7th–8th centuries in the so-called Dvāravatī culture in Thailand, as well as the visual and narrative construction of the life of the Buddha in mainland Southeast Asia from the second millennium onwards, in connection with vernacular and oral textual traditions.

A second area of focus is on the Mon people and the « buddhisation » of the Indochinese Peninsula, through a critical reinterpretation of the concept of Dvāravatī and the study of major regional centers such as Si Thep (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Hariphunchai, with an emphasis on long-standing cultural, religious, and artistic networks.

At the same time, I am conducting extensive research into the provenance, history of collections, and restitution of works of art, particularly in American museums, with the aim of documenting the trajectories of objects, reconstructing their original contexts, and contributing to ethical and institutional reflections on the circulation and restitution of heritage in Southeast Asia.

• 2008, Master’s degree in Oriental Languages, Literatures, and Civilizations, Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle
• 2016, Doctorate in Oriental Languages, Civilizations, and Societies, Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle