Agenda

Centres

Bangkok

The EFEO Center in Bangkok is beginning the project "The Law Codes of the Ancient Kingdom of Lan Na (Northern Thailand): a preliminary survey," following financial support from the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme (EAP). This project, which aims to identify and study the legal codes of the ancient kingdom of Lan Na in seven of Thailand's northern provinces, will be led by Gregory Kourilsky, in collaboration with teams from the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC).

Chiang Mai

Hô Chi Minh-City

Pondicherry

The EFEO Centre in Pondicherry is closed for the annual holiday in May.

R. Sathyanarayanan will be in Siem Reap from April 26 to May 1 to work with Kenji Takahashi of Toyo University. They hope to finalize the introduction to their critical edition and translation of chapter 7 (‘Journey to the Underworld’) of the Śivadharmottara and to examine the bas-relief sculptures in the "gallery of the underworld" in the temple of Angkor Wat.

H.H. Sarma will observe for a few days the Somayāga (major Vedic sacrifice) to be held at Chirakkakode Elangallur Mana, Thrissur, Kerala, from April 28 to May 4, organised by the Peruvanam Gramasabha (Peruvanam Village Association). This eight-day Somayāga is performed by the Nampūtiri brahmins of Kerala according to the tradition of the Baudhāyanaśrautasūtra.

S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma will give a talk entitled "Mādhavīyaśaṅkaravijaya", at an event at the Shrishankaramatha Monastery in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh organised from 1 to 2 May.

S.A.S. Sarma will be in Naples from 12 to 16 of May to take part in the second week of the workshop organised by Florinda De Simini of the “L'Orientale” university in Naples, as part of the ERC Shivadharma project. He will then go on to Heidelberg, where on May 19 he will attend the meeting of the advisory board of the "Hindu Temple Legends of South India" project, run by the Heidelberg Academy in collaboration with the EFEO Center in Pondicherry and funded by the Union of German Academies.

On May 13 S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma will receive the title of Vyakarana-Rakshamani ("jewel of protection for the grammatical tradition") from the Vedabhavan Charitable Trust in Hyderabad.

From 22 to 24 of May, S.A.S. Sarma will be taking part in the MANTRAMS workshop (ERC project), to be held at the University of Tübingen.

Seoul

Until June 6, as part of her EFEO fieldwork allowance, Garance Cachard, a student in the International Master 2 programme Quaternary, Prehistory, Bio-archaeology, affiliated with the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), will be taking part in the activities of the EFEO Centre in Seoul, including the continued setting up of the Heurist base for the Archaeological Mission in Kaesong.

Until July 2025, the Seoul Centre will be welcoming Oriane Durand-Poussin, a student at the École nationale des chartes-PSL, as part of her end-of-studies internship, followed by an Erasmus stay. In particular, she will be helping to manage the Centre's collections of books, periodicals and documents.

Siem Reap

From May 17 to August 31, the EFEO Center in Siem Reap will be welcoming Constance Labrunye, a geomatician, for an internship as part of the Archaeoscape program and the activities of the Archaeology and Development Foundation (ADF).

From May 25 to July 5, the Centre will be welcoming curator-restorers Benoît Lafay and Violaine Pillard to continue, with teams from Angkor Conservation and the National Authority for Preah Vihear, the programme to study and restore the Dancing Shiva of Kok Ker under the direction of Éric Bourdonneau. They will be joined from June 21 to July 6 by curator-restorer Amélie Méthivier, who will be supervising two further sessions of the training component of this programme at Angkor Conservation (with the support of the ALIPH foundation).

Taipei

The EFEO Center in Taipei is hosting Emily Lu, a doctoral student at Florida State University and recipient of an EFEO field grant, for a research visit from May 18 to June 29, 2025. Her research topic is "Toward an East Asian Utopia: Ambition and Illusion in Japanese Military Music, 1868-1945".

Vientiane

Researchers

Olivier de Bernon

On May 16, Olivier de Bernon will be presenting "La 'spermophagie' (asucipanena) et la naissance des héros dans les mythes et les récits bouddhiques de l'Asie du Sud-Est" at the colloquium La fabrique du héros en Asie organised by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, the Société Asiatique and the Collège de France.

Michela Bussotti

Michela Bussotti is presenting a paper on multilingual dictionaries and their role in exchanges between Europe and China at the symposium "La traducción como empresa. Saberes del mundo y redes editoriales en el largo Cinquecento", organised as part of the MONDO500 project and held at the Institut d'Estudis Catalans in Barcelona on May 29 and 30.

Paola Calanca

Hugo David

From May 5 to 8, Hugo David will take part in the second edition of the International Kumārila Conference, organised by the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. There he will present an advanced version of his translation of the "Chapter on the Statement" (Vākyādhikaraṇa) of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa's Ślokavārttika, an important milestone in the 6th-7th century philosopher's polemic against the grammarians.

Dominic Goodall

On May 4, Dominic Goodall will travel to Naples for a two-week workshop organised by Florinda De Simini of the University “L'Orientale” in Naples, as part of the ERC Shivadharma project. The first week will be devoted to the study of relevant Tamil texts and the second to the study of Sanskrit texts, including the 10th chapter of the Śivadharmottara, devoted to śivait yoga, in a critical edition prepared by Dominic Goodall.

On May 24, Dominic Goodall will travel to Vienna for a three-day workshop to launch the preparation of the 5th and final volume of the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa, the dictionary of Tamil Tantric terminology, at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Arlo Griffiths

Arlo Griffiths will be travelling in Europe from May 7 to 21. On May 19, he will be taking part in Roberta Zollo's thesis defence in Hamburg. The thesis, co-directed by Arlo Griffiths and Professor Jan van der Putten, is entitled "Where the Buffalo Falls" - A philological study of the Porbuhitan corpus of divination texts produced by the Batak people of North Sumatra.

Benoît Jacquet

On May 8, Benoît Jacquet will give a lecture entitled "The carpenter and the architect: what is Japanese architecture?" as part of the Estùdio Deriva workshop led by Shundi Imamizu (University of São Paulo) at the Escola da Cidade University, São Paulo (Brazil).

On May 24, Benoît Jacquet took part in the Collaborative Research Project seminar on "The city and the monument: urbanism and memory seen from the history of visual culture", led by Timon Screech at the Centre for International Research on Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto.

Gregory Kourilsky

On May 20, Gregory Kourilsky will be speaking at the Residence of the French Embassy in Thailand on the subject of "The first French “Orientalists” in the Kingdom of Siam".

François Lachaud

Michel Lorrillard

As part of the Manusastra project, Michel Lorrillard will be giving a 19-hour lecture entitled "Historiography in the Thai-Lao space" at the Royal Faculty of Archaeology in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) from May 5 to 9.

Costantino Moretti

Martin Nogueira Ramos

Saarthak Singh

On May 15, Saarthak Singh will be session chairman at the colloquium La fabrique du héros en Asie organised by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, the Société Asiatique and the Collège de France.

Projects

CHAMPA Project

Bertrand Porte will resume his work in Champassak on May 10, for a period of one month, working on the inventory of collections in preparation for the extension of the storeroom and the refurbishment of the Vat Phou museum as part of the CHAMPA project.

Following their two-month training at the World Monuments Fund's Wat Chaiwatthanaram Conservation Project in Ayutthaya, Thailand, and as part of the conservation work planned at Huay Sa Houa 2 by the CHAMPA project, the Laotian engineer from the Vat Phou division, Bounsouang Senphaseuth, and two Laotian technicians, Vansouk Keophan and Kommalien Sivilay, are making the necessary preparations to set up the conservation/restoration work site at Houay Sa Houa 2. Christophe Pottier and Vissa Chanthaphasouk, the Vat Phou Office, have decided on the organisation of the next activities of this new team. The latter is being assisted this month by Laotian architect Soulisack Kotsay to produce additional documents for the implementation of conservation work at Huay Sa Houa 2.

Vissa Chanthaphasouk will be supervising the detailed photogrammetry of the pinnacle of the library building at Wat Meuang Kang, prior to its conservation by the new team of ancient brick restorers/conservers. She will also continue to survey the rock shelters behind and to the north of the Vat Phou sanctuary.

David Bazin will be taking a DJI Matrix 350 drone pilot training course in Bangkok on May 22 and 23, organised by the IRD as part of the Champassak EFEO team's collaboration with the Natural Forestore research project, which aims to study the biological, ecological and socio-economic mechanisms of forest restoration in South-East Asia and their impact on the carbon cycle (funded by the BNP Paribas Foundation).

ChEDiL Project

Lectures

Alain Arrault and Michela Bussotti
- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Histoire culturelle de la Chine impériale tardive : textes techniques et prescriptions du quotidien

Hugo David
- EPHE seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies,  Implicite, ambiguïté, polysémie. Introduction à la philosophie linguistique de Bhartṛhari

Véronique Degroot
- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Introduction à l'histoire de l'art et à l'archéologie de l'Indonésie occidentale: protohistoire et période hindo-bouddhique

Valérie Gillet & Saarthak Singh
EPHE/EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Histoire de l'Inde précoloniale : enjeux et sources (with Coline Lefrancq et Margherita Trento)

Andrew Hardy
- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Histoire de la colonisation du Vietnam : approches micro-biographiques ?

Benoît Jacquet
- Master 2 seminar, Suivi du projet de fin d’études PFE "Paysages : architectures, villes et territoires en transition, École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-La Villette

- Master 1 seminar, Les enseignements de l'espace au Japon, ENSA Paris-La Villette – ENSA Paris-Val de Seine

On May 6, Milena Metalkova (University of Portsmouth) will speak on "The machiya space in Kyoto and its reinterpretation in contemporary Japanese houses"

On 13 May, Corinne Tiry-Ono (ENSA Paris-Val de Seine) will speak on the theme of "Tokyo in the future: architects' imaginations and constructed realities"

Fabienne Jagou
- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Nationalisme tibétain et mongol à partir du début du XXe siècle

François Lachaud
- EPHE seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Vies de Ryōkan : bouddhisme, poésie et érémitisme dans le Japon d'Edo

Martin Nogueira Ramos
- EPHE seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Sources et histoire du christianisme japonais (XVIe-XVIIe siècles)

- EPHE seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Histoire religieuse et intellectuelle du Japon (1600-1900) : Atelier de lecture de textes

Christophe Pottier
- Master's seminar at Sorbonne University, Actualités et pratiques de l'archéologie en Extrême-Orient

Catherine Scheer
- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Faire de la recherche sur le terrain : contraintes, contournements, engagements en Asie du Sud-Est

On May 15, Marie Aberdam will present "Faire du terrain en historien: les archives comme terrain au Cambodge"

On May 22, Antoine Laugrand will present "Du cochon, des femmes, et du gin (nom de Dieu!)

- EHESS seminar in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Anthropologie comparée de l'Asie du Sud-Est. Marges et pouvoirs locaux : ethnographies et histoire régionale

On May 15, Seb Rumsby will present "Hmong Christian elites as political and development brokers’ in Vietnam's highlands"

On May 22, Catherine Scheer will present "Les âmes du riz sous pression: réflexions de paysans bunong face à l'expansion d'une agriculture commerciale sur les hautes terres du Cambodge"

Publications

All EFEO publications are available on the publications website.

Researchers' publications

Geethu S. Nath, "Observation of movement of the Earth - pros and cons in the context of Indian astronomy", 'Pratyabhijna' UGC Care listed Journal, Research Journal of Department of Sanskrit Sahitya, Vol.IX, Issue.II, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit,  Kalady, July 2024-December 2024.

M.S. Sreeja, "Kristubhāgavatam - oru paṭhanaṃ"; Dr. K.G. Paulōsinṯe kāḻcappāṭilūṭe, dans Neelakandhan, C.M., Vijayan, D., & Babu, A. K. (eds.), Walk with an Author (Granthakāranōṭoppaṃ Sañcāraṃ), Pattambi, Shai Books, 2025 (en malayalam).

Research Services

Recipients of allocation on mission

- Clémence Aïtout is based at the Beijing centre for a study on "Un imaginaire géographique : étude du mouvement littéraire de l'ouest chinois de 1980 à 2000"

- Garance Cachard is based at the Seoul centre for a study on "Les Hominines anciens en Asie de l’Est - Caractérisation morphométrique et comparaison avec fossiles actuels"

- Vissa Chanthaphasouk is based at the Ventiane centre for a study on "Le Vat Phou au Laos : de l'archéologie d'un temple à l'architecture d'un site"

- Phan Thi Kim Tam is based at the Hanoi centre for a study on "Collective action in common-pool resources management in Vietnam’s northern mountainous areas"

Library

The Paris library will be closed on Friday 30 May (Feast of the Ascension).

Photo Library

From May 19 to 24, the photo library will be welcoming twelve students from the Institut national du Patrimoine (INP) and the École du Louvre as part of the ‘collections work camp’. This work camp is aimed at future restorers, curators and managers. It is supervised by Pierre-Emmanuel Nyeborg, a specialist in the treatment of photographs, and was prepared by Amélie Méthivier from the INP's restorers' department. The collections studied are those of Charles Archaimbault and Jean Le Pichon: they will be the subject of an inventory, a selection in the event of duplication, a sanitary assessment with conservation/restoration recommendations, dusting and packaging.

Of particular note

Réseau des Écoles françaises à l'Étranger

News from PSL Université Paris

News from EURICS