As part of the "Kyoto lectures", Huang Xinzhe (Ritsumeikan University) will give a lecture on "Embodied 'Invented Tradition': The Bodily Experience of Qigong in Contemporary China and Japan".

The event is organised by the EFEO, ISEAS and the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University.

At 6pm (Japan) or 11 am (France), on site and online on the Zoom platform. Login details are posted on the Kyoto Center's blog.

EFEO Paris seminar

Pierre-Emmanuel Roux speaks on "Les mobilités transgressives en Asie orientale (17e-19e siècles)".

This seminar is part of Sequence 5, entitled "Migrations et circulations", part of the common core curriculum of the Master in Asian Studies.

From 9am to 11am. On-site, in the EFEO's Grand Salon.

Illustration: Panoramic map of the ten-thousand lis on which the two sides of the [SinoKorean] border extend to the west and north (Sŏbuk p'ia yanggye malli illan chi to), mid-18th century.

On April 4, Gregory Kourilsky and Phongsathorn Buakhampan will be taking part in the workshop "Epigraphic and archaeological research in the Fang river basin" (in Thai) organized by the EFEO Centre in Bangkok at the Sirindhorn Anthropology Center (SAC), where the epigraphic corpus and archaeological remains, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, recently unearthed in the Fang River basin (Chiang Mai province, Thailand) will be presented.

This workshop, in which experts in epigraphy from the SAC and the EFEO will participate, will help to prepare a forthcoming publication and a public event (lecture and exhibition) to be held at the end of this year at the EFEO Centre in Chiang Mai.

Illustration: Unpublished inscription found at Rang Pa Bong temple, Mae Ai district, Chiang Mai province (© Phongsathorn Buakhampan).

Renovation and safety work on the wooden building, built by François Bizot in 1976, started on March 10 and is expected to last four months.

All the Centre's facilities, including the library, will remain fully accessible to the public at normal times.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused during this period.

The GIS Asie co-finances with the EFEO a series of lectures and debates organized by the Saigon Social Sciences Hub (SSSH) for early-career social scientists specializing in Vietnamese studies, hosted by the EFEO's office in Ho Chi Minh City.

Upcoming events:

- April 25: "Navigating Multi-Cited, Method, Disciplinary, Longitudinal Research: 140 Years of Commoditisation in Two Highlands, Northern Bordeland Districts" by Patrick Slack.

Contact : Olivier Tessier

Illustration: Nulli Gate, Outer Wall, Kaesong Fortress, 2013 (© Mission archéologique à Kaesong).

On Friday April 18, as part of the Rencontres du Pavillon, the French Embassy in the Republic of Korea is hosting a colloquium organized by the EFEO Centre in Seoul entitled Portes, passages et mobilités en Asie orientale, in the presence of the Director of the EFEO, Nicolas Fiévé.

Four papers will be given:

- Élisabeth Chabanol, EFEO (Korea), "Les fortifications et leurs portes dans la péninsule coréenne à l'époque du Koryŏ".

- Andrew Hardy, EFEO (Vietnam), "L'économie politique des mobilités à travers la Muraille de Quang Ngai (Vietnam) au XIXe siècle".

- Fabienne Jagou, EFEO (Tibet), "De l'Himalaya à la Chine intérieure: L'évacuation des troupes chinoises du Tibet en 1912".

- Pierre-Emmanuel Roux, Paris Cité, EFEO delegation (Korea), "La fabrique du 'royaume ermite' ou le mythe catholique de l'impénétrable Corée (XVIe-XIXe siècles)".

From March 31 to April 3, as part of the "Souvenirs from Seoul III" programme at the EFEO Centre in Seoul, Élisabeth Chabanol and Francis Macouin, Chief Curator Emeritus of the Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet, are continuing their study of the Korean collections held in the reserves and on display in the halls of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, with Salima Hellal, Chief Curator in charge of the museum's objets d'art.

Illustration: Small bowl with white slip decoration inlaid under a greenish-brown glaze (E 554-26) (© Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon).

Élisabeth Chabanol is in Taipei from 27 April to 1 May to give two lectures: the first at the IHP (Academia Sinica) on the subject of "Koryŏ (918-1392) and its two main capitals: Kaesong (918-1232, 1270-1392) and Kanghwa (1232-1270)", on 28 April; the second on the subject of "An Archaeological Perspective on the Urban Development of the City of Kaesong", at the Department of Anthropology of the National Taiwan University.

Illustration: Five-storey stone pagoda of Changchŏng-ri, Kanghwa, 3 December 2020 (© Mission archéologique à Kaesong).

On April 25, Daniel Perret will be giving a lecture at the History Department of Malaya University on the results of excavations at the Kota Cina site (North Sumatra).

Illustration: Kota Cina, excavations in 2016.

Christine Hawixbrock (EFEO archaeologist) will be completing the archaeological excavations on the Vat Song O site at the beginning of April. A proposal for the enhancement and protection of the site will be drawn up as part of the CHAMPA project's tourism development.

Illustration: Excavation site at Vat Song O, March 2025 (© CHAMPA project).

Nicolas Nauleau (archaeologist and EFEO doctoral student) has completed the archaeological digs at Phon That and Nong Khouen Thaven in the ancient city. From March 31 to April 6, he will be continuing his post-excavation work and carrying out Georadar surveys on the Nong Vienne site, in collaboration with the LIDAR team. This research will enable us to assess the potential for developing these sites as part of the CHAMPA project.

Illustration: Delimitation of a test pit - Phon That excavations, 2025 (© CHAMPA project).

Benoît Jacquet, "Suketchi to iu geijutsu – The art of sketching", in Arnaud De Meyer, ed., Days in Japan: sketch by sketch, Luxembourg, Vidale-Gloesener, 2025, pages 2-3.

Illustration: Luxembourg Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo 2025, in Days in Japan: sketch by sketch, Luxembourg, Vidale-Gloesener, 2025, pages 79-80 (Sketch © Arnaud De Meyer).

Benoît Jacquet, interview in, "L’autre Kyoto", Le Monde, Le goût de M, Friday 21 March 2025, pages 38-49.

Illustration: Kyōto International Convention Centre, in Benoît Jacquet and Jérémie Souteyrat, L'architecture du futur au Japon, Poitiers, Le Lézard Noir, 2019, pages 212-213 (Photo © Jérémie Souteyrat).

On April 3, six documents, including two excavation diaries from the Angkor conservation, will leave for the Angkor Royal Bronzes: Art of the Divine exhibition, which will be held at the Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet from April 30 to September 8, 2025.

The EFEO library in Paris is open at its usual times from Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.

Please make your book reservation requests via the catalogue and your archive consultation requests via the request form on the website page, bottom left.

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.

Nine archival photographs from the Mlu Prei and Western Mebon sites (Cambodia) will be on display at the exhibition Angkor Royal Bronzes: Art of the Divine, to be held at the Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet from April 30 to September 8, 2025.

At the end of April, on the 1st floor of the EFEO, the photo library will be mounting a photographic exhibition on the god Vishnu.

Illustration: Bust of Vishnu lying down after being cleared in December 1936, Western Mebon, Cambodia (EFEO_CAM13761).

Angkor Royal Bronzes: Art of the Divine is an exhibition presented at the Musée Guimet from 30 April to 8 September 2025.

World-famous for its stone monuments, Khmer art also produced a large body of bronze statuary, the knowledge of which has made spectacular advances thanks to recent research, particularly as part of the LANGAU research programme run by the EFEO (dir. Brice Vincent).

Cambodia's national treasure, the reclining Vishnu statue from the Western Mebon (an 11th-century sanctuary to the west of Angkor), which was found by EFEO researchers and their teams in 1936, will be exhibited for the first time with its long-separated fragments (it originally measured more than five metres in length), after having benefited in 2024 from a campaign of scientific analysis and restoration in France, with the patronage of ALIPH.

It will be accompanied by more than 200 works, including 126 exceptional loans from the National Museum of Cambodia, whose presence will provide a chronological overview of bronze art in Cambodia, from protohistory to the present day, taking visitors on a journey through the major sites of Khmer heritage.

Curated by Pierre Baptiste (Musée Guimet), David Bourgarit (Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France), Brice Vincent (EFEO) and Thierry Zéphir (Musée Guimet).

The recruitment campaign for delegates to the EFEO for the year 2025-2026 is now open. Applications must be submitted no later than 6p.m. (Paris time) on 28 April 2025.

The call for applications for a postdoctoral contract at the EFEO for the academic year 2025-2026 has been launched. Applications must be submitted no later than 17 April 2025 at 6 p.m. (Paris time).

The mid-March/mid-May newsletter dedicated to digital humanities and open science for the EFE network is now online.

It brings together information about initiatives specific to the French Schools Abroad in this field, as well as scientific events, online resources, calls for projects, publications and training courses likely to be of interest to our community.

This newsletter is distributed via the hn-efe@listes.huma-num.fr mailing list, to which you can subscribe or unsubscribe at any time.

You can also submit information relating to digital humanities and open science via this list: it will be included in the next newsletter or distributed immediately, depending on the urgency of the matter.

As part of the support provided to international cooperation actions, the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) offers each year five doctoral contracts in partnership between a doctoral school and one of the five French schools abroad (EFE): École française d'Athènes, École française de Rome, Institut français d'Archéologie orientale du Caire, École française d'Extrême-Orient and Casa de Velázquez (École des hautes études hispaniques et ibériques).

Applications should be sent directly to the EFE concerned, in the form of a pdf document including
- A thesis proposal of no more than five pages;
- the CV of the candidate proposed to undertake the research;
- a letter of introduction from the prospective thesis director(s);
- the opinion of the Director of the Doctoral School.

The application documents can be sent until 4 May 2025, 11 pm 59 (Paris time), according to the procedures of each EFE.

For more information.