EFEO Newsletter

Newsletter

September 2023

Content

Research news
- Agenda
- Centres
- Researchers
- Publications
- Researchers' publications
- Research Services

In Memoriam
Gérard Diffloth (1939-2023)

Staff and service news
- Director
- Staff
- Library

Of particular note

Research news

Agenda

Thursday, September 7 - Seoul

The LII Seoul Colloquium in Korea Studies, organized by the EFEO Center in Seoul, in collaboration with the Royal Asiatic Society, is led by Olga Fedorenko, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Seoul National University, on the topic "‘Flower of capitalism’: Dreams and Realities of South Korean Advertising."

At 6:00 p.m. (Seoul time), room 310, Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University: register with the EFEO Center.

Flower of capitalism’: Dreams and Realities of South Korean Advertising

Friday, September 15 - Paris

Pietro De Laurentis, professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (廣州美術學院) will give a lecture on Buddhist Calligraphy in Tang China.

From 2 to 4 pm, at the Maison de l'Asie, Grand Salon, 1st floor (22 avenue du Président Wilson, 75016 Paris).

Monday 18 to Friday 22 September - Aubervilliers

From 18 to 22 September, the 8th International Vedic Workshop will be held in Paris on the Campus Condorcet.

- Hugo David will be presenting some of the results of his fieldwork on the manuscript collections of the Thrissur region (central Kerala), with particular reference to the collections of Vedic works.

- S. A. S. Sarma will present a paper entitled "Comprehensive Insights into Sanyāsadīkṣā Rituals: Exploring Baudhāyanacaṭaṅṅu, a Malayalam Domestic Ritual Manual, and Namputiri Monastery Practices in Kerala".

More information

Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 September - Aubervilliers

Pierre-Yves Manguin and Yves Goudineau will be chairing session as part of the journées de rentrée du CASE (Centre Asie du Sud-Est) :

- Éric Bourdonneau will present a paper entitled "Avec ou sans "Moyen-Âge"? Les enjeux du travail de périodisation de l'histoire du Cambodge ancien".

- Hélène Njoto will present a paper entitled "Retour de terrain sur l'art et l'architecture du début de la période islamisée en Indonésie" ("Fieldwork on the art and architecture of the early Islamic period in Indonesia").

More information

Friday 29 and Saturday 30 September - Aubervilliers

For the first time, the Association française d'études chinoises, the Association française pour l'étude de la Corée and the Société française d'études japonaises are jointly organising a conference entitled "China, Korea, Japan: Comparison(s)".

Room 0.33 bâtiment recherche sud (29/09) and room 50 centre des colloques (30/09) at Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers.

More information

The following speakers will represent the EFEO:

- In the session "Looking Inside East Asian Statues," chaired by François Lachaud, Alain Arrault will present the paper: "Inside Chinese Statues in China or Chinese Society as Seen from Below" and Benedetta Pacini (EFE/EFEO doctoral contract): "Consecration of Buddhist Statues and the Practice of Nōnyūhin in Medieval Japan."

- Frédéric Constant (University of Nice - visiting researcher at the EFEO) will present the paper "Les droits des pays d'Asie orientale: une approche comparatiste" with Justine Guichard (Université Paris Cité), Isabelle Konuma (Inalco), and Pierre-Emmanuel Roux (Université Paris Cité) in the session "Comparer les fabriques des émotions, du droit, et des stratégies médicales."

Centres

Chiang Mai

On September 15, the EFEO Center in Chiang Mai will be hosting the final presentation session for the work of the 25 third-year architecture students from Chiang Mai University in the "Theory, philosophy and landscape design studio in public project" project, which this semester focused on the grounds of the EFEO and nearby Vat Mongkon Wanaram. The jury of architects will be made up of four CMU supervisors, Prof. Worrasit Tantinipankul, Ms. Nalin Butkham, Mr. Kraitheera Lolurlert and Mr. Rafael Belhache, Aline Hetreau-Pottier and Christophe Pottier.

Illustration: Example of a plate from a student project by Mr. Kampanad Chanchomphu.

Pondicherry

S. A. S. Sarma will participate in the 8th International Vedic Workshop organised by the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), to be held at Campus Condorcet, Paris-Aubervilliers, from 18 to 22 September 2023.

S. A. S. Sarma will participate in a working seminar on "Actors, Patrons, and Audiences in the Making of Performing Genres and Religious Traditions across early modern and colonial South Asia" organized by NCN Patronage Project KPSC UJ Kraków and IIS RUG Groningen to be held at the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisation, Jagiellonian University in Krakow
from 27 to 28 September 2023.

David Pierdominici Leão, post-doctoral student funded by the National Science Centre at the Jagiellonian University of Cracow (Poland) who has completed a doctorate in Sanskrit at "La Sapienza" University in Rome, will complete his distance-internship of four months (June-September) at the Pondicherry Centre of the École française d'Extrême-Orient.

After working for 6 months on transcribing manuscripts (i.e., the Upāsanāsārasaṅgraha, Haṭhasaṅketacandrikā and Godāvaramiśrā’s YCM) and overseeing the conversion of e-texts to roman transliteration and posting them on the project’s website, S. Vishnupriya has been selected to join the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO as a Sanskrit scholar for the long-term “Hindu Temple Legends in South India” Project, a cooperation between the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO). The project is committed to producing digital editions and English translations of the Sanskrit and Tamil māhātmyas and sthalapurāṇas relating to Kanchipuram. S. Vishnupriya will work on editing, translating and conducting in-depth research analysis of Sanskrit māhātmya texts.

Krishnadas C. will also join the project as a transcription service provider for 4 months. He will transcribe Sanskrit manuscripts with electronic markup in granthi and/or Telugu script.

As of 31st August 2023, the collaboration agreement between the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), SOAS University of London, and Philipps-Universität Marburg for the project "Light on Hatha Yoga: A critical edition and translation of the Haṭhapradīpikā, the most important premodern text on physical yoga," directed by James Mallinson and Jason Birch, has concluded. This AHRC and DFG project, which originated in September 2021, marks the culmination of our joint efforts.

Over the span of these two years, several associate researchers contributed significantly to the project from the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO, working remotely. Paras Mehta (one year), Muralikeishnan M.V. (4 months), Harshal Bhat and Dibakami Krutarth (2 years), along with Priyanka Avula (20 months), dedicated their efforts to the collection, transcription, and collation of manuscripts related to the Haṭhapradīpikā.

Sushmita Das, Dominic Goodall and R. Sathyanarayanan will be taking part in the International Seminar on Tantric Religion: Philosophy, Literature, Cults, Art, History & Continuities, organised by the Department of History at the University of Pondicherry in collaboration with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) from 25 to 29 September at the University of Pondicherry.
- Sushmita Das's paper is entitled: "The Worship of Gaurī in 'aniconic' form as pañcapiṇḍī: the evidence of the unpublished Bṛhatkālottara" ;
- Dominic Goodall's "On archaic features of doctrine and practice preserved in the Sarvajñānottaratantra";
- Sathynarayanan's is entitled "How the Śaiva concept of liberation is different from other philosophical systems - As discussed by Sadyojyoti and Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇakaṇṭha".

Photo: Two leaves of an IFP manuscript (RE 39802) in Grantha script on 19th-century poles which transmits the Kiraṇatantra.

Vientiane

EFEO - CHAMPASAK

Following on from the LIDAR data analysis, field and laboratory verification operations will alternate according to weather conditions, under the supervision of David Bazin and using the methodology developed by Damian Evans.

data acquisition and archiving (© CHAMPA project)

Photos: On the left, data acquisition and archiving. On the right, updated site mapping (© CHAMPA project).

a visit to the Houay Sa Houa 2 site in November 2022. (© CHAMPA Project).

Proposals for the development and enhancement of the Houay Sa Houa 2 archaeological site in the ancient city will be drawn up by Vissa Chanthaphasouk, in collaboration with Maric Beaufeist and Nicolas Nauleau.

Photos: On the left, a visit to the Houay Sa Houa 2 site in November 2022. Right, drone view of the Houay Sa Houa 2 excavation site (© CHAMPA Project).

Researchers

Éric Bourdonneau

Éric Bourdonneau will be taking part in the CASE/Centre Asie du Sud-Est back-to-school days on 27 and 28 September.

Michela Bussotti

Michela Bussotti is the coordinator of the ChEDiL project "Dictionnaires sino-européens: manuscrits lexicographiques pour l'étude historique des échanges entre la Chine et l'Europe (fin du XVIe s.-début du XIXe s.)" which has been selected by the ANR as one of the PRC CE27 projects (Projet de Recherche Collaborative - Études du passé, patrimoines, cultures) in the call for generic projects 2023.

Vincent Paillusson, François Lachaud and Alain Arrault from the EFEO are taking part in this project, which involves the collaboration of around twenty researchers from institutions in France (LIRIS, Université Paul-Valéry, Umr CCJ, CAK, CRLAO, etc.) and abroad (the universities of Bergamo, Boston, Utrecht and Tsing-hua in Taiwan).

ChEDiL focuses on the study of multilingual Chinese-European dictionaries, in particular those compiled up to 1813, taking into account their production and circulation, as well as linguistic and lexicographical aspects, with computer input for data processing. The project will start in December 2023 and will run for four years.

Hugo David

From 18 to 22 September, Hugo David will be taking part in the 8th International Vedic Workshop, to be held in Paris on the Campus Condorcet.

Lecture:
License 3 Seminar in Indian Studies, "Dramatic Texts 1 and 2" (O5IS413/06IS414), Université Paris-3 "Sorbonne Nouvelle".

Arlo Griffiths

Arlo Griffiths, head of the Jakarta centre, will be travelling from 22 September. On 29 and 30 September he will be taking part in the symposium Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE-400 CE organised by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to coincide with an exhibition of the same title. He will be speaking on the subject: "Towards a Corpus of Inscriptions of Early Historic Āndhradeśa". Ahead of the conference, he will be spending a few days with Timothy Lubin (Washington & Lee University) in Virginia working on their edition of the Old Javanese text Svayambhu.

Benoît Jacquet

On 13 September, Benoît Jacquet will give a lecture entitled "Learning from scratches: a history of Japanese architecture from the hut to the townhouse" at the University of Hawaii School of Architecture in Mānoa, as part of Kevin Nute's "Asia Pacific Architecture" seminar.

Illustration: The "house of the low people", an example of an "inhabited" medieval machiya, in the "Illustrated Scrolls of the Shintō Deities of Kasuga" (Kasuga gongen genki-e, 1309). Drawing reproduced from scroll no. 8.

Lecture:
License 3 seminar, History of Modern Architecture in Japan, École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-La Villette / Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies.

Gregory Kourilsky

Gregory Kourilsky will give a lecture on "Offense, sentence and status. A preliminary study of the Lao Soy Say Kham Code of Law", at the Third International Conference on Buddhism and Law, at the University at Buffalo School of Law, New York, on 29 and 30 September 2023.

François Lachaud

On 23 September, François Lachaud will be part of the jury for Daniel Said Monteiro's thesis, Monitored Connections:Transnational Nagasaki and the Circulation of Hybridized Cosmologies in Early Modern Japan (1630-1720), for which he was one of the two rapporteurs. The thesis is supervised by Annick Horiuchi and Catherine Jami.

On 30 September, François Lachaud will be chairing a session at the colloquium on China, Korea and Japan: Comparassions, entitled "Looking Inside Asia Statues", in which Alain Arrault, Benedetta Pacini (EFE/EFEO doctoral contract) and Ms Seunghye Lee will be taking part.

Christophe Marquet

On 3 September, Christophe Marquet will take part in a round table discussion on "The Classics: the heritage of the future" (古典それは未来への遺産), alongside H.R.H. Princess Akiko of Mikasa, Professor Kobayashi Kazuhiko (Kyōto Sangyō University) and Murata Jun.ichi, president of the jury, at the 3rd Classics Day Prize, at the Kyōto Concert Hall.

On 14 September, Christophe Marquet will give a lecture on "Ōtsu imagery under the international gaze" (世界が見た大津絵-日本の民画の魅力-), as part of the Global Women's Club meetings, at the New Otani Hotel in Ōsaka.

Illustration: Benkei with halberd, Ōtsu painting, 18th c., 61.4 x 22.5 cm, acquired in Japan by Pierre Barboutau around 1886-1898, Minneapolis Institute of Art, gift of Harriet and Edson Spencer.

Benkei with halberd, Ōtsu painting, 18th c., 61.4 x 22.5 cm, acquired in Japan by Pierre Barboutau around 1886-1898, Minneapolis Institute of Art, gift of Harriet and Edson Spencer.

Hélène Njoto

On 6 September, Hélène Njoto has been invited to give a seminar on "Early Nusantara Mosques: A Disappearing Heritage", from 9am to 11am (poster attached). Padjajaran University, Centre for Historical Studies, Bandung, West Java.

On 11 and 15 September, Hélène Njoto, Dimas Seno Bismoko (BRIN) and Arlo Griffiths will be visiting the island of Sebesi in South Sumatra and Banten Lama, West Java.

From 25 September to 8 October, Hélène Njoto will be in the Moluccas (Kaitetu) to prepare the ALIPH exhibition on the Wapauwe mosque and the knowledge of the master carpenters of Ambon.

Daniel Perret

Daniel Perret will be leading the third excavation campaign on the Sungai Jaong site (Sarawak) from 18 September to 26 October, in cooperation with the Sarawak Museum Department.

Photo: Photo of the 2022 archaeological excavations.

Christophe Pottier

On September 19 Christophe Pottier and Jean-Sébastien Cluzel are relaunching their Master's seminar at Sorbonne University entitled "Archéologie en Extrême-Orient", devoted to current archaeological issues in Asia. The weekly session of this hybrid format seminar takes place on Tuesdays from 11.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. in the Grand Salon of the EFEO, at the Maison de l'Asie in Paris.

From 16 to 20 September, Christophe Pottier will be taking part in a study mission led by Prof. Rasmi Shoocongdej of the Faculty of Archaeology at Silpakorn University, together with Dr Vasu Poshyanandana, architect at the Department of Fine Arts, for the preservation of the prehistoric log coffins in Phi Man Long Rak Cave in Mae Hong Son Province.

Photo: Rasmi Shoocongdej, The Preservation of the Prehistoric Log Coffins in Phi Man Long Rak Cave in Mae Hong Son Province Project.

Publications

All EFEO publications are available on the publications website.

Michela Bussotti and Alain Arrault (eds), Nouvelles perspectives pour l'histoire de la Chine ? Société locale et archives, Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 31 (2022), Paris, EFEO, 2023, 408 pages.

Dossier

- WANG Zhenzhong 王振忠, Les documents de Huizhou et l’histoire chinoise

- A Feng 阿風, La "compensation après-vente" (zhaojia) au Jiangnan sous les dynasties des Ming et des Qing. Étude de cette pratique à travers l’évolution de la taxation des transactions foncières

- ZHANG Yi 章毅, Microhistory of an Immigrant Community in Late Imperial China: A Study Based on Local Archives in Southern Zhejiang

- SATŌ Yoshifumi 佐藤仁史, Oral History and the Study of Local Social History in China: The Case of Rural Society in the Taihu Lake Basin Area

- HUANG Zhifan 黃志繁, Histoire, lignage et révolution dans la société rurale du Gannan du XVIIe au XXe siècle. Exemple du village de Changxi dans le district de Shicheng (province du Jiangxi)

- LIU Shigu 劉詩古, Ressources naturelles, droits de propriété et gouvernance. Mesures d’imposition sur la pêche et la société aquacole de la région du lac Poyang au cours des dynasties des Ming (1368-1644) et des Qing (1644-1911)

- ZHENG Zhenman 鄭振滿, Documents contractuels des forêts de montagne et histoire sociale des régions montagneuses du Fujian. Le district de Yongtai (Fuzhou)

- LUI Wing Sing 呂永昇,Spiritual Colonisation: Society and Religious Cults in Central Hunan since the Song Dynasty

Note de recherche / Research Note

- LIU Boshan 劉伯山, De la mise en œuvre des principes éthiques dans un village chinois : la pratique rituelle contemporaine des habitants de Huanglong kou à Qimen (province de l’Anhui)

Varia

- Cheng YANG 楊成, Existing Debates, Problems, and the Need for New Quantitative Insight in the Economic History of Late Imperial China

Christophe Marquet and Nicolas Grimal (eds.), L'École française d'Extrême-Orient: 120 ans de recherches en Asie, proceedings of the colloquium organized by the EFEO at the AIBL on December 3, 2021, to mark its 120th anniversary. Contributions by Jean-Pierre Mahé, Alain Arrault, Dominic Goodall, Yves Goudineau, Arlo Griffiths, Damian Evans, Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat, Franciscus Verellen and Christophe Marquet. Paris, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, published with the support of the EFEO, 2023, 186 pages.

Publications website

Researchers' publications

Martin Nogueira Ramos, "Nagasaki chihō ni okeru katorikku shinto - hi-katorikku shinto kankei no shosō: 'Nihon shūzoku ni kansuru rokēnyu shi no shuki' (1880 nengoro) o chūshin ni [Different facets of relations between Catholics and non-Catholics in the Nagasaki area (circa 1880): a study of the Notes of Mgr. Laucaigne on the customs of Japan]", in Ōhashi Yukihiro, ed., Kinsei Nihon no kirishitan to ibunka kōryū, Tokyo, Bensei shuppan, Ajia yūgaku 284, 2023, pages 228-251.

Kinsei Nihon no kirishitan to ibunka kōryū

The photographic work Aiyanar, dieu protecteur des villages tamouls, protector god of tamil Villages by Jean-Louis Cardin, in which Charlotte Schmid and Dominique Goodall wrote the article "Qui est Aiyanar, une brève présentation (Who is Aiyanar? A short essay)", has just been published.

Jean-Louis Cardin, architect and photographer, has donated this collection of images of southern India to the EFEO.

Photo: Terracotta horses at Illayankudipatti, one of the largest Aiyanar sites in Tamil Nadu before cyclone Gaja hit in September 2018, photo by Jean-Louis Cardin, 4 September 2015 (photo 7663).

Terracotta horses at Illayankudipatti, one of the largest Aiyanar sites in Tamil Nadu before cyclone Gaja hit in September 2018, photo by Jean-Louis Cardin, 4 September 2015 (photo 7663).

Frédéric Girard edited issue no. 12 of the journal Des mots et des Actes, entitled "L'identité du japonais face aux traductions: les cas du bouddhisme, de la philosophie et du kanbun", Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2023, 361 pages.

Frédéric Girard, co-editor of the book edited by Prof. KURANAKA Shinobu (compilation): Généalogie du thé, Chafu, volume 13, Commentaire, Research Institute of Daitō bunka University, Tokyo, 2023, 188 pages.

Dominic Goodall, Kālidāsa’s Kingship among the Khmers, 29e Conférence "Gonda" (2023), Amsterdam : Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. 65 pages.

K. Nachimuthu, "Kalvi Nilaiyaṅkaḷil Cāti, Iṉi Eṉṉa Viti Ceyvōm", Tamiḻ Pōti 33 (Septembre 2023), pages 16-25.

Research Services

EFEO Field Scholarships

The call for applications for the EFEO Field Scholarships for the first semester of 2023 has been launched. The deadline for submitting applications for the field grant allowing Master II and doctoral students to study in Asia in one of the EFEO centres is October 13 until 6:00 p.m. (Paris time) for a stay to be planned between January 1 and June 30, 2023.

For more information

Recipients of allocation currently on mission

- Laura Agnel is in Japan, for a study entitled "Sugae Masumi (1754-1829), un lettré ethnographe sur les chemins du Tōhoku : Littérature pieuse, notes journalières illustrées et voyages dans le Japon du nord au XVIIIe siècle"

- Vissa Chanthaphasouk, travels to Cambodia to learn more about Khmer architecture

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

- Guilhem Cousin-Thorez is in Ho Chi Minh city, for a study entitled "L'Église Bouddhiste Unifiée du Vietnam (1964-1975) : encadrement et mobilisation d'une communauté religieuse en période de guerre civile"

- Julia Goujon is in Phnom Penh, for a study 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)"

- Hongyue Liu-Deguillaume is in China, for a study entitled "Paysage de la ville de Yangzhou. Analyse typo-morphologique d'un paysage urbain de la Chine pré-moderne"

- Raphaël Louvet is in Taipei, for a study 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)"

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

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

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

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

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

Post-doctoral contracts for the year 2023

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

Recipients of the Fondation Pierre Ledoux Jeunesse Internationale

Each year, the Fondation Pierre Ledoux – Jeunesse Internationale offers a mobility grant to some of the EFEO's fieldwork grant winners, enabling them to spend time in Asia.

This Foundation, created under the aegis of the Fondation de France in 1997 on the initiative of Pierre Ledoux, then Honorary Chairman of Banque BNP, and his wife, aims to contribute to the training of young people by enabling them to travel and broaden their human and professional horizons.

The winners for the second semester of 2023 are :

- Abdelhakim Belhacel was awarded a grant for his study visit to India for the project "Omani domination in East Africa: networks, powers, hybridisations, 1804 - 1884"

- Laura Boyer was awarded a grant for her study visit to Taipei for the project ""Sauver les animaux. Une histoire du fangsheng ("libérer la vie") en Chine, 16e-20e siècles, entre faire-croire prosélyte et savoir-faire institutionnel"

- Thomas Claré was awarded a grant for a trip to Ho Chi Minh City to study "La contrebande de l’opium au Việt Nam en situation coloniale : réseaux, flux et territoires de l’illicite (1861-1946)"

- Florine Garrel received assistance to consult archives in Taipei as part of the finalisation of a research dissertation on "La République de Chine et l'UNESCO de 1946 à 1971"

- Adélaïde Martin was awarded a grant for a stay in Phnom Penh to study the transnational career paths of Cambodia's political and administrative elites since the 1980s.Contribution to a relational sociology of the upper echelons of the Cambodian state

- Maële Sire has been awarded a grant for a research trip to Laos to study the participation of local people in tourism on the Bolaven Plateau (southern Laos)

In Memoriam

Gérard Diffloth (1939-2023)

It was with great sadness that we learned of the death on August 14 of our former colleague Gérard Diffloth, who was a member of the École française d'Extrême-Orient from 2000 to 2004, and then an associate researcher at the EFEO from 2004 to 2020.

Born in Châteauroux on February 13, 1939, Gérard Diffloth had been living in Cambodia, in Siem Reap, since the last years of 1990, but had been hospitalized in Surin, Thailand, where he died.

Gérard Diffloth was undoubtedly the greatest specialist in the languages of the Môn-Khmer group, where his work is universally respected. Gérard Diffloth originally trained as a mathematician, but he also graduated from the École Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille (ESJ Lille).

Before joining the EFEO, Gérard Diffloth had a long career in the United States, as Assistant Professor in the Department of Ethno-musicology at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, from 1968 to 1972; Professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago, Michigan, from 1973 to 1986; and Professor of Linguistics at Cornell University, New York, from 1988 to 1996.

In Cambodia, Gérard Diffloth maintained close relations with the Linguistics Department of the Royal Academy, and all the Cambodian and French colleagues who had the chance to meet him benefited from his exceptional and generous erudition.

To his children Natalie and Antoine, and to his assistant of over twenty years, Mrs Wongjaroen Somruan (Som), who was also his luminous companion, we offer our most sincere condolences.

Staff and service news

Director

The Director of the EFEO, Nicolas Fiévé, visited Japan in August, where he worked at the EFEO Center in Kyōto. The visit was used to meet the heads of the School's partner institutions: at Kyōto University, Professor Inaba Minoru, Director of the Humanities Research Institute (Kyōto daigaku Jinbun kagaku kenkyūjo); at the Oriental Library (Tōyō bunko), Professor Takata Tokio, Executive Director, and Dr. Makino Motonori, Head of Exhibitions at the Museum. Makino Motonori, head of exhibitions at the Museum, with whom he toured all the storerooms and collections, accompanied by François Lachaud, head of the EFEO office at Tōyō bunko. At the end of his visit, he went to the Tōkyō National Museum, where he met Ms. Harada Ayumi, Director of the Department of Conservation Programming and a specialist in the art of Southeast Asia, with whom he visited the collections of the Oriental Arts pavilion (Tōyōkan).

Photo: The Director of the EFEO and Ms. Harada Ayumi, Director of the Department of Conservation Programming at the Tōkyō National Museum, in the Khmer Art Room of the Oriental Arts Pavilion (August 23, 2023, © N. Fiévé).

Staff

From September 1 on the EFEO will be recruiting Jeff Delatour as a logistics operator. He will be responsible for welcoming the public to the EFEO headquarters in Paris, setting up rooms and assisting with the management and operation of the building.

On September 1 the EFEO will welcome Luo Mujun, professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, School of Humanities. Luo will be in Paris for 12 months thanks to funding from the Chinese Scholar Council (CSC). She will be working on a project entitled "Collation and Research of Dunhuang Chinese Manuscripts of the Apocryphal Scripture - The Scripture of Bayang".

Library

On 7 September, the library will be presenting some of its valuable documents to participants at the EASL (European Association of Sinological Librarians) convention.

Conditions of access of the library

The library is opened Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Consult the catalogues and digital tools :
- Catalogue of books and periodicals
- Catalogue of Archives and Manuscripts
- Digital heritage library

Check the EFEO's Facebook page and Twitter account regularly for any updates on the terms and conditions of the public reception service.

Contact

Find the library catalogue

Photo Library

Restoration of the Angkor Wat causeway, Angkor (Cambodia). Photo B-Ph. Groslier, September 1965 (EFEO_GROB04305).

Bernard-Philippe Groslier collection

214 new slides from the Bernard-Philippe Groslier collection, taken in Cambodia in the 1970s, are about to go online.

Photo: Restoration of the Angkor Wat causeway, Angkor (Cambodia). Photo B-Ph. Groslier, September 1965 (EFEO_GROB04305).

Follow the EFEO virtual photo library on Instagram

Of particular note

Video: Experimental reduction test on Phnom Dek iron ore

This video shows the various stages of the Phnom Dek iron ore reduction trial, which took place at the EFEO Centre in Siem Reap in December 2022, as part of the ANR IrAngkor research project.

Conducted by a team of scientists comprising Sylvain Bauvais, Emmanuelle Delqué-Količ, Stéphanie Leroy and Enrique Vega, the experiment involved alternately firing layers of iron ore and charcoal for 10 hours in the reproduction of an Angkorian low furnace in an attempt to reduce the ore and extract the iron.

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Senior lecturer position open to competition

One position is open for competition: Senior Lecturer in "Histoire de l’art et/ou archéologie de l’Asie du Sud et/ou du Sud-Est (pays concernés : Inde, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Birmanie, Thaïlande, Vietnam, Laos, Indonésie et/ou Malaisie)" [Art History and/or Archaeology of South and/or South-East Asia (countries concerned: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia and/or Malaysia)].

Deadline for receipt of applications: 8 September 2023.

Date of the auditions for the post: 16 or 17 October 2023.

Date of taking up the post: 1 January 2024.

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Ramayana in Old/Middle Javanese, from Bali, early 19th c. British Library, Add MS 12278.

Doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships - Cambodia

The Center for Khmer Studies (CKS) provides research fellowships to French scholars in all disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities who seek to pursue further research focusing on Cambodia alone or on Cambodia within a regional context.

Scholars can conduct research in other countries in mainland Southeast Asia (including Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and southern China) provided that some portion of their research is undertaken in Cambodia.

French research fellowships are administered in partnership with the Paris-based Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), and funded by the Scaler Foundation and individual donors. Applicants must be French citizens or EU citizens holding a degree from a French university.

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