Agenda

The following spoke for the EFEO:

- Arlo Griffiths (with Nurmalia Habibah, Universitas Gadjah Mada), "The Legal Order of the Majapahit State (East Java, 13th through 15th centuries)"

- Gregory Kourilsky, "Lawgiver Kings in Laos, 14th–16th Centuries"

- Michel Lorrillard, "A Corpus of Texts Conveying Lao Royal Authority: the rāja-ājñā"

Centres

Bangkok

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"

Chiang Mai

Beginning on June 20, the EFEO Center in Chiang Mai will host weekly sessions of a "Theory, Philosophy and Landscape Design Workshop for a Public Project." The fruit of a new collaboration between the EFEO and the Faculty of Architecture of Chiang Mai University, this workshop for 3rd year students will continue throughout the semester, until October 11, under the direction of Professor Worrasit Tantinipankul with the collaboration of Christophe Pottier.

Phnom Penh

Pondicherry

From June 1 to 3, SLP Anjaneya Sarma is in Kancipuram to participate in the traditional conference entitled "Śrī Chandraśēkharēndrasarasvatīsvāminām ārādhanāprayukta Sabhā" organised at the Sankarmatham. He will address the topic "Kr̥nmējantaḥ (1.1.39) iti pāṇini sūtrārtha vicāraḥ".

In Memoriam : S. Lakshminarasimhan

Well known to colleagues at the Pondicherry Centre and liked by all, he had recently collaborated with the EFEO on several large-scale projects, notably the first study of the Kāvya­darpaṇa, the "Mirror of Poetry" by Rājacūḍāmaṇi Dīkṣita (17th century) and the cataloguing of palm-leaf manuscripts in the Telugu script kept in the Hamburg University Library. His most outstanding achievement, however, will remain his leading contribution to the colossal undertaking of the Pāṇinīyodāharaṇakośa, Dictionary of Examples of Pāṇinian Grammar, which brings together, in four published volumes, the detailed analysis of thousands of examples used in Indian grammatical commentaries. Resulting from a collective labour spanning several decades, this dictionary provides an introduction to the rarely mastered art of prakriyā, the traditional “derivation” of correct grammatical forms of the Sanskrit language on the basis of Pāṇini’s rules.
 
His dedication to the cause of Sanskrit grammar, considered in its most demanding form, earned him, in 2018, the “Presidential Certificate of Honour” from the Government of India, one of the highest civilian distinctions in the country. A hard worker until his very last moments, Lakshminarasimhan had submitted the final proofs of the fifth and last volume of his dictionary, devoted to primary derivatives, on the very day of his death. Those who knew him will miss his warm personality, his humour often imbued with a delightful irony and – well hidden under the veil of unfeigned modesty – the sincere passion for Sanskrit culture of a truly great Pandit.
 
On behalf of all the staff of the IFP and the EFEO Centre, we send our most sincere condolences to his family, with special thoughts for his wife and three children.

Hugo David

Siem Reap

From May 29 to June 2, the EFEO Center in Siem Reap will be hosting three Cambodian colleagues from the National Authority for Preah Vihear, Mr. Tho Thon, Mr. Nem Charan and Mr. Naing Ol, in order to initiate an inventory of the EFEO archives relating to the archaeological sites of Preah Vihear and Koh Ker. This collaborative research work will also be carried out in partnership with the EFEO's library and photo library in Paris.

Taipei

From 13 June to 28 August, Tai Li-Chuan, researcher and vice-director of the Institute of History and Philology at the Academia Sinica, will be in France. On Friday 23 June at 10.30am, she will give a lecture at the Maison de l'Asie (1st floor Salon) entitled "Le premier musée en Chine et sa collection (1829-1834)" (The first museum in China and its collection (1829-1834)).

On June 20, Fabienne Jagou gives a lecture entitled "The Fantastic Journey of a Conch Shell (from the end of the 18th c. to today)" at the South Branch of the National Palace Museum (MNP) in Chiayi, organized jointly by the EFEO and the MNP.

Vientiane

EFEO - CHAMPASAK

Field checks are continuing in the Vat Phou region during June, at sites identified by the analysis of LIDAR data, under the supervision of David Bazin and following the methodology put in place by Damian Evans.

Illustrations: Field verification of Lidar data (© CHAMPA project).

The archiving and entry of inventories of the Savannakhet Museum's collections will begin in June. These operations will be carried out by two members of the Savannakhet museum, in association with the Vientiane National Museum department, under the supervision of and in association with Michel Lorrillard, David Bazin and Bertrand Porte.

Researchers

Éric Bourdonneau

Élisabeth Chabanol

Guillaume Dutournier

As part of the Philosophy of Self-Cultivation conference, organised on June 22 and 23 by the Department of Philosophy at Royal Holloway College University of London, Guillaume Dutournier presents an aspect of the intellectual history of the Songs in a talk entitled "Inferring the Intention of the Saints. Canon, Self-Cultivation and Controversy in Neo-Confucian Thought".

On June 24 and 25, he will also be taking part in the online conference organised by Yale University, The Third Middle Period China Humanities Conference, with a paper on "Decontextualizing Discussions: 'Double Present' and Intellectual Controversy in Song Dynasty".

Nicolas Fiévé

Nicolas Fiévé, Director of the EFEO and Director of Studies at the EPHE (CRCAO), organizes with Sabine Frommel, Director of Studies at the EPHE (HISTARA), the fourth edition of the lectures on L'art des jardins dans les civilisations de l'Europe et de l'Asie orientale [The art of gardens in the civilizations of Europe and eastern Asia] on the topic "The relation between the garden and the house," on Monday, June 19, at the Technische Universität Berlin (in the Forum in the architecture building at Ernst-Reuter-Platz, room A 104).

Programme :

- 3:45 p.m.: Introduction: Nicolas Fiévé (EFEO, EPHE, CRCAO), Sabine Frommel (EPHE, HISTARA) and Hermann Schlimme (Technische Universität Berlin)

- 4.15 p.m.: LU Andong (School of Architecture and Urban Planning SAUP, Nanjing University) presents The Chinese Garden between Domestic and Public Landscape

- 5 p.m.: Felix Arnold (German Archaeological Institute, Madrid) presents Constructing a New World Order: Gardens in Islamic Purpose-built Capital Cities

Luca Gabbiani

On June 7, Luca Gabbiani and Frédéric Constant are organising a study day entitled Les savoirs administratifs (16e-19e siècles): approches comparatives, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Salon on the 1st floor of the Maison de l'Asie (22 avenue du Président Wilson). He will be presenting a paper entitled "La bureaucratie et ses savoirs dans l'empire Qing (1644-1911)".

From June 12 to 16, Luca Gabbiani will be taking part in the international conference entitled Chinese Legal Tradition organised by the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften in Bad Homburg and the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt. The conference will be held on the premises of the Forschungskolleg in Bad Homburg. He will be presenting a paper focusing on the question of property in the Chinese legal tradition.

On June 19, starting at 2 p.m., Luca Gabbiani will take part in the jury for Emmanuel Caron's dissertation entitled "Taking a foothold in Beijing. Habiter la ville depuis les espaces de logements partagés : souterrains, villages urbains, interstices et colocations". This thesis was supervised by Isabelle Thireau (EHESS). The defence will be held at the EHESS (54 Bd Raspail).

On June 21 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., Luca Gabbiani will be presenting a paper on urban history in China during the late imperial period as part of the seminar organised by the Centre Chine de l'EHESS that he is co-organising with Marie-Paule Hille.

On June 21, starting at 2 p.m., he will take part in a videoconference with Dong Yufei's thesis jury, entitled "The cultural critique and political thought of Ku Hung-ming (1857-1928): revisiting the emergence of modern conservatism in China". The thesis was supervised by Laure Zhang (University of Geneva). The defence will be held in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Geneva.

On June 22, Luca Gabbiani will take part in the study day entitled "La liberté contractuelle saisie par ses limites" organised by Simona Cerutti (EHESS), Michele Spanò (EHESS) and Naveen Kanalu Ramamurthy (EHESS), which will be held in room B4-01 of the EHESS building at 54 Bd Raspail in Paris. He will be presenting a paper entitled "La pratique 'contractuelle' dans la Chine de l'empire tardif (17e-19e siècles): un droit ? une liberté ?".

On June 29, Luca Gabbiani is organising a workshop in collaboration with Paola Calanca and Guillaume Gaudin (University of Toulouse) on the theme of "Circulations, Transfers and Environment around the East Asian Seas (1560-1740)". It will be held in the Salon on the 1st floor of the Maison de l'Asie between 10am and 5pm and will bring together around ten participants from the "Communities, Mobilities and Environment around the East Asia Seas (1560-1740)" research group.

Benoît Jacquet

Fabienne Jagou

Fabienne Jagou (EFEO) is on mission in Taiwan until July 9.

Gregory Kourilsky

François Lachaud

On June 23, François Lachaud will take part in the jury for Pierre Gautier's thesis entitled "Objet politique, objet de contestation: le nu féminin dans l'art japonais de 1907 à nos jours". The thesis is directed by Annie Claustres, Université Lumière Lyon II. The other members of the jury are Thierry Dufrêne (Université Paris Nanterre), Michael Lucken (INALCO) and Yoshida Noriko (Gakushūin University, Tōkyō).

On June 27, he will moderate the conference-debate "Vingt-deux ans à la tête du musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac" organised by the EFEO Centres in  Tokyo and Kyoto with the Institut français de recherche sur le Japon (UMIFRE 19 MEAE-CNRS), at the Maison franco-japonaise in Tokyo.

Michel Lorrillard

Costantino Moretti

On May 31, Costantino Moretti is organising a visit to the BnF with students from the PSL-EHESS-EPHE-EFEO 'Asian Studies' Master's programme, to study a selection of Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang.

On June 8, Costantino Moretti is a member of the jury for Léo Thénot's Master 2 dissertation, "Dunhuang and Japanese literature. Le cas de Wang Zhaojun", under the supervision of François Lachaud.

Kim Youn-mi, lecturer in Asian art history at Ewha Womans University (Seoul) will be giving a lecture on: "Architecture of Virtuality: Liao Pagodas (907-1125), Emptiness, and Cosmology", on Friday 23 June 2023, from 2 to 4 pm, at the Sorbonne, Gaston Paris room. This lecture is being organised by Isabelle Charleux (CNRS, GSRL), in collaboration with the EFEO and the EPHE.

From June 26 to 29 Costantino Moretti will be in London to take part in the Dunhuang summer workshop organized by Michelle C. Wang (Georgetown University). As part of this workshop for international students, he will be leading a working session at the British Library, as well as a session on scribal practices in medieval Chinese manuscripts at SOAS.

Frank Muyard

Frank Muyard will be taking part in the annual conference of the Archaeological Society of Taiwan, which will be held at the National Taiwan University in Taipei on June 17 and 18.

Frank Muyard is a member and chairman of the jury for Chao Yi-wen's master's thesis "Le dilemme de l'entre-deux: culture kabyle et conflits identitaires dans l'œuvre de Mouloud Feraoun", directed by Hsu Chia-hua, National Central University, Taoyuan, 20 June 2023.

Hélène Njoto

As part of the ALIPH project in Indonesia, Hélène Njoto will be in Ambon (Moluccas) from June 9 to July 4 to supervise the construction of the exhibition hall/training centre for East Indonesian carpentry techniques. She will also be coordinating restoration work on the coral stone wall of the Wapauwe mosque. She will also be coordinating a workshop on museography with Marcelo Nishiyama from the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum (Kobe, Japan, Dogukan).

Catherine Scheer

On June 21, as part of the study day on Les relations humains/ non-humains à la mesure de l’expansion des pratiques agricoles productivistes et des systèmes d’irrigation en Inde et Asie du Sud-Est organised by Maria Chauveau, Catherine Scheer will be presenting a paper entitled: "Rice souls under pressure: reflections of Bunong farmers between subsistence and commercial farming".

Brice Vincent

Dominique Soutif will be taking part in the 37th Technical Session of the ICC-Angkor/Sambor Prei Kuk, to be held on June 12 and 13 at Angkor. There, in collaboration with Julia Estève (UTK ISIC), Chea Socheat (EFEO) and Edward Swenson (University of Toronto), he will present the results of the excavation campaign carried out in 2023 at Prei Prasat as part of the Yaśodharāśrama research program: "Study of the eastern zone of the āśrama of Prei Prasat."

Lectures

Alain Arrault & Michela Bussotti
- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Archives et société locale en Chine

Éric Bourdonneau
- Joint EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies - INaLCO, Lecture des inscriptions angkoriennes

Paola Calanca
- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Le monde maritime chinois à travers l'Étude des Mers orientale et occidentale de Zhang Xie (1617) (histoire et traduction)

Luca Gabbiani
- Research Training Seminar of the Centre d’études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, La Chine au prisme des sciences sociales

Benoît Jacquet

- Post-master seminar, Les saisons : l’adaptation de l’architecture au milieu japonais, Post-master "Recherches en architecture" (HESAM-ENSAPLV), at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-La Villette

- Master 2 seminar, Introduction au Projet de fin d’études, at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-La Villette

- Master 1 seminar, Par-delà la modernité : retour d’Asie, at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-La Villette

- Master 1 seminar, Histoire de la construction en bois au Japon, at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-La Villette.

François Lachaud
- EPHE seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Bouddhisme japonais : Démons à la fenêtre nocturne (suite) : littérature bouddhique et récits étranges dans le Japon moderne

- EPHE seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Bouddhisme japonais : Yinyuan Longqi (1592-1673) : un moine chinois dans le Japon d'Edo

Costantino Moretti
- EPHE seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Histoire et philologie du bouddhisme chinois médiéval

Hélène Njoto
- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Interactions between islamicate and indic societies in South and South-East Asia : comparative perspectives

On 1 June, a session dedicated to student presentations

Martin Nogueira Ramo
- EPHE seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Histoire du premier christianisme japonais (XVIe-XVIIe s.)

Catherine Scheer
EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Anthropologie de l'Asie du Sud-Est: Ethnicité et dynamiques historiques d'intégration politique et culturelle

On 8 June, Grégoire Schlemmer (URMIS, IRD) will give a presentation entitled "Par-delà l'ethnicité: les structures spatiales des pratiques religieuses du nord Laos".

On 15 June, Vanina Bouté and Catherine Scheer will conclude this year's seminar.

Publications

All EFEO publications are available on the publications website.

Research Services

Recipients of allocation currently on mission

- Jérôme Collet is in Japan, for a field approach to the transmission of traditional Japanese arts: identity in transformation

- Bin Sophie Ha is in Beijing, for an analysis of Pe kinship and marriage relationships - from endogamy to inter-ethnic marriage

- Hugo Trévisan is in Tokyo, for a study of charismatic churches in Japanese social space: local ethnographies of minority religious practices

Post-doctoral contracts for the year 2023

- Maria Chauveau, Territorialité Bishnoï et enjeu identitaire. La transformation des terres agricoles dans les zones arides du Rajasthan : recomposition des espaces et mutations des relations entre humains, animaux et végétaux (6 months)

- Ashwini Lakhsminaryanan, Music and Dance in Gandhāran art (10 months)

New Recipients of allocation
for the second half of 2023

From among the many very good applications, the committee awarding fieldwork grants has singled out the following projects:

- Abednego Andhana Prakosajaya, for a project in Malaysia entitled "Srivijaya Art Objects in Malaysia: Historical Reconstruction and National Narrative"

- Alexis Cabrié, for a project in Japan entitled "Repenser le 'monde', la 'civilisation' et l’'humain' au prisme du bouddhisme indien : analyse historique comparée des pratiques et des représentations dans les bouddhologies japonaise et française, 1890-1940"

- Ming-Zong Chen, for a project in China entitled "Les normes forestières: les gestions sylvicoles et les pratiques contractuelles en aval de la rivière Qingshui au Guizhou du 18e siècle à la première moitié du 20e siècle"

- Spoorthi Gangadikar, for a project in India entitled "Privatisation de l’enseignement indien et inégalites sociales - Études comparative des pratiques et représentations des enseignants des écoles publiques et privées au Rajasthan et au Karnataka"

- Julia Goujon, for a project in Cambodia entitled "Les Cambodgiens surveillés par les autorités françaises de 1946 à 1953. Matériaux pour une histoire culturelle des réseaux élitaires sous le premier règne de Sihanouk (1941-1955)".

- Junxi Long, for a project in Japan entitled "Hagiographies et cultes locaux sur le mont Lu en Chine prémoderne"

- Raphaël Louvet, for a project in Taiwan entitled "西北热 La fièvre du Nord-Ouest : Voyager aux frontières. La recherche ethnographique et la représentation des marges en Chine républicaine (1912-1949)"

- Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, for a project in Vietnam entitled "Working in the Dark: Vietnamese photography and nationalism, 1865-1945"

- Chao-Hsuan Peng, for a project in Taiwan entitled Idées en démocratisation : Militantisme intellectuel des étudiants taiwanais des années 1980"

- Rizki Syukri, for a project in Indonesia entitled "Dynamics of changes in the Acèhnese manuscript tradition during the 19th century Dutch occupation"

- Jade Thavixay, for a project in Laos entitled "Le Projet Kunming-Vientiane : Un exemple de coopération Sud-Sud ou un moyen de renforcer l'influence de la Chine en Asie du Sud-Est ?"

- Bruno Vilela da Silva, for a project in India entitled "Édition critique et étude du Kālottaratantra (recensions Trayodaśaśatikakālottara et Saptaśatikakālottara)"

- Jingxian Wu, for a project in China entitled "Un art en fragments. Enquête ethnographique sur une redéfinition contemporaine de l’art muqam ouïghour de Yarkend à Pékin"

- Chuqing Yao, for a project in China entitled "Patrimonialisation et mise en tourisme de l’architecture coloniale de la ville de Qingdao"

Library

Photo Library

Of particular note

Réseau des Écoles françaises à l'Étranger

News from PSL Université Paris

News from EURICS