Agenda

Representing the EFEO:
- Luca Gabbiani: "City Governance in Late Imperial China – The View from Urban Maps and Mapmaking".
- Dominique Soutif: "Cartography and cadastre: land management in the Khmer empire".

Centres

Bangkok

On 4 December, Gregory Kourilsky will represent the EFEO at the Strategic Steering Committee of the French Network for Cooperation and Cultural Action in Thailand (COS). This collective brainstorming seminar brings together all the French institutional actors involved in implementing France's policy of influence, cooperation and cultural action in Thailand.

Beijing

Chiang Mai

In December, the Centre is hosting:
- Chamawee Kitcharoenying, who is working on cataloguing the collection of Thai-language exhibition catalogues in the EFEO Centre library;
- Scott Hawken, from the University of Adelaide, who has come to develop collaborative projects with Christophe Pottier;
- David Wharton (associate researcher at the EFEO), who is continuing his research with Gregory Kourilsky and Phongsathorn Buakhampanh in northern Thailand.

The Centre is also hosting Katia Juhel, Head of the EFEO Libraries, who is on assignment at the Chiang Mai library from 1 to 5 December. It will also host Camille Fauchier, a circus artist and visual artist, who will be in Chiang Mai from 9 to 15 December to participate in Chiang Mai Design Week, at the invitation of the Creative Economy Agency, in partnership with the French Embassy in Thailand.

On 9 December, the Centre will welcome 80 participants to the annual general meeting of the CMLC (Chiang Mai Library Club), chaired by Punnapa Suksakorn, Director of the Ratchamangkalapisek National Library in Chiang Mai. The CMLC's mission is to foster collaboration between libraries, promote and disseminate academic and professional knowledge, and strengthen links with community activities in the province. Christophe Pottier, Louis Gabaude and Raquel Selosse will speak at the meeting, while library staff (Naphat Sutthichaidet, Sumet Ponjorn and Chamawee Kitcharoenying) will lead themed tours. Phongsathorn Buakhampanh will lead two workshops on writing practices on ôles and stamping techniques.

Hô Chi Minh-City

On 11 December, the Centre will host the thirty-fourth conference-debate in a series that began in 2019. Nicolas Cornet will speak on the theme: "Asian travels on 'matte paper' or the journey of a photographer who has been travelling through Vietnam and Asia for 35 years".

Pondicherry

S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma gives a lecture on Brahmasūtraśaṅkarabhāṣyāt – Kr̥tātyayādhikaraṇavicāraḥ at the Śrī Candraśēkharēndra Sarasvatī Śrauta-Smārta Vidvan Mahāsabhā, Vijayawada (AP), to be held on 2nd and 3rd December. He will then present Paribhāṣēnduśēkhara-granthāt – "Asiddhaṁ bahiraṅgam antaraṅgē" iti paribhāṣāvicāraḥ at the Kanchi Paramacharyas' Jayanti Utsava Sadas, in Kancheepuram (TN), which will be held from 14 to 16 December. Finally, he will discuss Pāṇini's sūtra Ētyēdhatyūṭhsu 6.1.89 at the Śatatama Saṁvatsarīya Śāstra Sadas, Sarvakāriya Saṁskṛta Mahāvidyālayaḥ, Pūrṇavēdapurī (Thrippunithura, Kerala), which is being held from 27 to 29 December.

Shanghai

On 19 December, as an annex to this cycle mainly devoted to the history of Sinology, a second lecture will be held on the theme "Excavating the human sciences with André Leroi-Gourhan". It will be given in English by Nathan Schlanger (professor of archaeology at the École des Chartes) and will be hosted by the Cultural Heritage and Museology Department of Fudan University (information to follow on the Centre's WeChat account and other information channels).

Illustration: Left, André Leroi-Gourhan taking the view in Japan, 1937 (Album Ichiro Yamanaka, GO23). Right, André Leroi-Gourhan reading the soil at Pincevent, 1964 (Photo Ethnologie Préhistorique/FMSH-Mondes).

Siem Reap

On 11 December, Jacques Gaucher and Lim Kannitha presented a paper entitled "MAFA/ModAThom. Restitutions, Results" at the 41st technical session of CIC-Angkor.

Siem Reap

Hubert Forestier (National Museum of Natural History, MNHN) is on a mission to Taiwan from 1 to 6 December at the invitation of the EFEO's Taipei centre. On 3 December, he will give a lecture entitled ‘Cambodia’s Prehistory as Told by Recent Excavations at Laang Spean Cave’ at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan, organised by the EFEO and the NCKU Institute of Archaeology.

Véronique Degroot (EFEO) is on a mission to Taiwan from 9 to 14 December 2025 at the invitation of the ‘Cognition, Perception, and Knowledge Formation through Non-Textual Approaches’ Project of the Institute of History and Philology (IHP), Academia Sinica & the EFEO's Taipei Centre. From 11 to 13 December, she is on a mission in eastern and southern Taiwan, visiting the Hualien Archaeological Museum, the Changbin Palaeolithic site, the National Museum of Prehistory (NMP) in Taitung and the NMP Archaeology Museum in Tainan.

François Lachaud (EFEO) is conducting research in Taiwan from 10 to 19 December as part of the annual exchange programme between the EFEO and the National Palace Museum (NPM, Gugong).

Researchers

Éric Bourdonneau

On 11 and 12 December, Éric Bourdonneau will participate in the 32nd plenary session and 41st technical session of CIC-Angkor. Together with Amélie Méthivier, conservator-restorer of sculptures, he will present the paper "Restoration of Sculpture Collections: Training Cycle at Angkor Conservation (2023-2025)".

On 18 December, Éric Bourdonneau will continue the series of lectures and seminars he began at the Faculty of Archaeology of the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, entitled "'From the Margins'. The Study of Images and the Writing of the History of Ancient Cambodia" [ពីបរិវេណបន្ទាប់បន្សំ]. ការសិក្សាអំពីប្រតិមានិងការសរសេរប ្រវត្តិសាស្ត្រកម្ពុជាបុរាណ។].

Élisabeh Chabanol

Guillaume Dutournier

Luca Gabbiani

From 2 to 6 December, Luca Gabbiani is on assignment in Hong Kong. He is participating in the international symposium "The Territorial Management and its Mapping Process in East Asia", organised by the Centre for Chinese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the EFEO Centre in Hong Kong. The symposium will be held from 3 to 5 December at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He will present a paper entitled "City governance in late imperial China – the view from urban maps".

From 19 to 23 December, Luca Gabbiani will be on assignment in Beijing. On 20 December, he will participate in a symposium organised by Beijing Normal University and the Jingshi Academy on the theme of Chinese studies and Franco-Chinese collaboration in this field.

Yves Goudineau

On 19 December, Yves Goudineau will be part of the jury for Armelle Ninnin's thesis entitled "Heritage preservation in Southeast Asian cities: urban development and UNESCO certification. The cases of Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang". The defence will take place at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-Belleville.

Benoît Jacquet

On 3 December, Benoît Jacquet will participate in Taji Takahiro's research seminar for students from the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-La Villette at the Department of Architecture, Kyoto University, Katsura Campus.

Fabienne Jagou

Invited as part of the ERC Hum – Johan Van Manen Project coordinated by Berthe Jansen, Fabienne Jagou will give a presentation entitled "A Transnational Network for Repatriating Chinese Soldiers from Tibet through the Himalayas (1912–1913)" at the conference Scholar, Trader, Collector, Spy: Alternative Networks in the Himalayas (1850-1950), at Leiden University on 11 and 12 December.

Hélène Njoto

Martin Nogueira Ramos

From November 27 to December 6, Martin Nogueira Ramos will be in Tokyo to continue his research on interreligious competition during the Meiji era. At the National Diet Library, he will consult Protestant, Orthodox, and Buddhist (‘transsectarian’) journals, and at the Kirishitan Bunko (Catholic collection) at Sophia University (Jōchi Daigaku), he will examine anti-Catholic polemical works written by Protestant pastors. In the latter collection, he will also examine several pamphlets written by Noel Péri while he was a missionary in Matsumoto, in Nagano Prefecture (1890s).

Daniel Perret

Daniel Perret is rapporteur and member of the jury for Harry Octavianus Sofian's thesis defence, entitled "Southern Sumatra Exchange from the End of the First Millennium BCE to the First Millennium CE – Study of Non-Ferrous Metals and Glass Beads", Paris Nanterre University, to be held on 18 December.

Christophe Pottier

Christophe Pottier will speak at the MITRA doctoral seminar (Home and the World, Transcultural Pathways in Architectural Research) on Wednesday 10 December at ENSA Paris-Val de Seine. He will give a presentation entitled "Territory as memory: fragments for an urban archaeology of Angkor". This seminar is organised and led by doctoral students from the EVCAU laboratory, under the direction of Gilles-Antoine Langlois.

Christophe Pottier will participate in the thesis defence jury for Pramote Semak's "Ayutthaya: the evolution of the city's relationship with water under the influence of projects (1926-2019)" and Armelle Ninnin's "Heritage preservation in Southeast Asian cities: urban development and heritage preservation initiatives put to the test by UNESCO certification", on 17 and 19 December respectively at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-Belleville.

Catherine Scheer

On 1 December, Catherine Scheer will speak at Alexandra de Mersan's seminar Sociétés de l'Asie du Sud-Est continentale : États et minorités at INALCO.

Charlotte Schmid

Projects

CHAMPA Project

LiDAR surveys are continuing with the participation of five young recruits who were welcomed as interns at the laboratory from March to May 2025. The areas prioritised for exploration in December are located between the ancient city and Vat Phou.

Lucie Hartereau will complete her internship at the EFEO/WHSO geomatics laboratory at the end of December 2025. She will have participated in the development of the topographic map of the archaeological site of Tomo and the updating of the topographic map of Vat Phou, in the description of a detailed topographic survey methodology to guarantee the quality of the data collected (and to ensure training and skills transfer), carrying out flood simulations, and installing a geodetic reference point linked to the national system at Vat Phou.

Following the organisation in November of an information day for the various provincial departments concerned with geospatial data, the LiDAR team at the Vat Phou geomatics laboratory will organise a second in-depth presentation day in December on the use and application of LiDAR data for GIS technicians from the various departments.

DiPiKA Project - Thrissur

P. Rasmi (researcher, DiPiKA project) will present a paper in Malayalam entitled "Puliyūr Puruṣōttaman Nampūtiriyuṭe Āryabhaṭīyabhāṣya Paricāyanam" at the All Kerala Oriental Conference, N. V. P. Unnithiri Endowment Lecture, to be held at Calicut University in December.

Lectures

Alain Arrault & 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 ("Philosophie et Philologie sanskrite") in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies,  Autour de l'énonciation : linguistique et métaphysique (introduction à la philosophie linguistique de Bhartrhari 2)

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

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's 1 Seminar, Japanese Architecture, Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies, Columbia University (NY) / université Dōshisha (Kyoto)

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

François Lachaud
- EPHE seminar ("Bouddhisme et civilisation japonaise") in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, La Guerre et ses fantômes: les pièces à Asura (shuramono) dans le théâtre nō [Le Heike monogatari et ses héritages 1], from 4 November

- EPHE seminar ("Bouddhisme et civilisation japonaise") in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Le prélat et les guerriers : lectures du Gukanshō (Mes Vues sur l'Histoire) [Penser la guerre au moyen âge I]

Martin Nogueira Ramos
- EPHE seminar ("Histoire du fait religieux dans le Japon prémoderne et moderne (XVIe-XIXe s.") in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Sources et histoire du catholicisme japonais moderne (XIXe siècle)

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 December 4, Jade Thau (INHA, InVisu) presents "Travailler sur l’histoire des arts du Vietnam contemporain : les enjeux de la recherche de terrain sur la compréhension de l’objet"

On December 20, Astrid Norén-Nilsson (Center for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University) presents "In the field with political elites: Studying up in Cambodia"

Charlotte Schmid & Saarthak Singh
EPHE seminar ("Épigraphie et iconographie du monde indien") in the framework of the Master's degree in Asian Studies, Écrire, inscrire et mettre en scène : la culture matérielle des textes dans le monde indien, since 9 October

- On December 18, Emmanuel Francis-Gonze presents "Les chartes indiennes sur plaques de cuivre"

Publications

Table of contents:

In memoriam

Pierre Pichard (1936-2024), par François Lagirarde & Christophe Pottier

Winarsih Partaningrat Arifin (1924-2024), par Pierre-Yves Manguin

Articles

- Hans Bakker, Tribute to a Famous Singer: A Statue Found at Nandivardhana (Nagardhan)
- Anna A. Ślączka, Conflated Iconographies? The Depictions of Bhṛṅgin in South India and his Association with Jvara
- Hiram Woodward, Revisiting Devarāja
- Arlo Griffiths, Nguyễn Văn Quảng, Salomé Pichon, William A. Southworth & Trần Kỳ Phương, Études du corpus des inscriptions du Campā, XI. La stèle d’installation de Śrī Pūrvāmaravāsinī (C. 260) : une nouvelle inscription sanskrite du Campā trouvée à Hà Trung
- Pierre-Yves Manguin, A Textual Archaeology of the Malay and Javanese Early Modern jong. 1. The Term jong in History
- Tom Hoogervorst, An Unfinished Wordlist from Ternate: Glimpses of Javanese at the Onset of Colonialism
- Henri Chambert-Loir, Malay Libraries Prior to the 19th Century

Notes

- Two Early Brāhmī Inscriptions Found at Karaikadu (Kāraikkāṭu, Tamil Nadu) (Mohandass Ramesh)
- Les ingénieurs français en Chine au début du XXe siècle : observateurs et amateurs de la culture chinoise (Shu Dan)

All EFEO publications are available on the publications website.

Researchers' publications

Special Edition: George Cœdès

- "George Cœdès (1886–1969): A Life in Service of Southeast Asian Studies", par Jean Baffie
- "Voyage à Angkor (1912): George Cœdès’s First Encounter with Angkor", par Thissana Weerakietsoontorn
- "George Cœdès and Śrīvijaya: From Epigraphy to Archeology", par Pierre-Yves Manguin
- "George Cœdès à Batavia (1928)", par Bernard Cros
- "Une correspondance entre George Cœdès et Paul Pelliot sur Xianluo (Siam)", par Michel Lorrillard
- "In the Shadows of George Cœdès: Jean-Yves Claeys and the Mission to Siam (1929)", par Gregory Kourilsky

This same issue contains an obituary for Pierre Pichard, by François Lagirarde: "In Memoriam: Pierre Pichard (1936–2024)", François Lagirarde.

Éric Bourdonneau, "'La souveraineté universelle' des rois khmers", in M. Favereau (dir.), Les Empires anciens, Paris, Perrin, pages 341-352. [reprint of Éric Bourdonneau, "Derrière Angkor, mille ans d’histoire khmère", L’Histoire, Collection n°107, pages 23-34].

Arlo Griffiths, Titi Surti Nastiti & Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan, "The Earliest Documents in Old Javanese", Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia 26 (3), pages 333-343.

Arlo Griffiths, Nguyễn Văn Quảng, Salomé Pichon, William Aelred Southworth & Trần Kỳ Phương, "Études du corpus des inscriptions du Campā, XI. La stèle d’installation de Śrī Pūrvāmaravāsinī (C. 260) : une nouvelle inscription sanskrite du Campā trouvée à Hà Trung", Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 111, Paris, EFEO, pages 135-172.

Gregory Kourilsky, "In the Shadows of George Cœdès: Jean-Yves Claeys and the Mission to Siam (1929)", Journal of the Siam Society 113, Part 2 (December 2025), pages 195-214.

Gregory Kourilsky, Compte rendu de Ashley Thompson, Early Theravādin Cambodia. Perspectives from Art and Archaeology, Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 111 (2025), pages 312-323.

T. Rajarethinam, "Kachalaiyarś Kanchipuranam a Talapuranam", in Maṇarkeṇi. Talapurāṇam, numéro spécial, Volume 2, Issue 11 – itaz 76, Villuppuram, novembre 2025, pages 7-21.

R. Sathyanarayanan, "Gajāraṇyamāhātmyamum (Tiruvānaikkāppurāṇam) camaskiruta māhātmyaṅkaḷum – or āyvu", in Maṇarkeṇi. Talapurāṇam, numéro spécial, Volume 2, Issue 11 – itaz 76, Villuppuram, novembre 2025, pages 22‑28.

Gabriel Facal et Catherine Scheer, "Special Section Introduction: Engaged Research in Contemporary Southeast Asia: Scholar-Activist Reflections on a Fraught Practice", TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 2025, 13(2), pages 133-136.

Saarthak Singh, "The stylus and the sūtra: Design, measure, and architectural practice in central India", in Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 84.1, 2025, pages 17-38.

Research Services

Recipients of allocation on mission

- Violette Dolin is based at the Hanoi centre for a study on "Les Écoles d'enfants de troupe 'indigènes' dans l'Empire colonial français : l'Indochine, exception impériale ?"

- Sett Paing Myo is based at the Chiang Mai centre for a study on "Perspectives traditionnelles, transitionnelles et contemporaines de la masculinité et la situation du genre au Myanmar"

- Victor Wright is based at the Beijing centre for a study on "Restaurer le lac Poyang, interventions écologiques et devenir d’une société lacustre"

- Shuting Zhao is based at the Beijing centre for a study on the "Récits privés, mémoires partagées : Ethnographie des photos et des vidéos de famille en Chine de la période post-maoïste à l’ère pré-numérique (1980-2010)"

Direction

On 3 and 4 December, Director of Studies Valérie Gillet travelled to the Chinese University of Hong Kong to sign the renewal of the framework agreement between the EFEO and the Institute of Chinese Studies, where the EFEO centre is based, and to attend the opening of the symposium "The Territorial Management and its Mapping Process in East Asia", organised by Paola Calanca.

On Friday 4 December, the Director of the EFEO, Nicolas Fiévé, Marie-Lise Tsagouria, Director of the University Library of Languages and Civilisations (BULAC), and Olivier de Bernon, Director of Studies at the EFEO, will welcome His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, on the occasion of his visit to the EFEO collection of Cambodian periodicals held at the BULAC.

Since 1990, the EFEO has collected all periodicals published in Cambodia. This collection, unique in the world, does not exist in Cambodia, the Library of Congress, or anywhere else.

Thanks to the tireless work of Olivier de Bernon, who has supervised the collection for years, the collection has been enriched by the donation to the EFEO of Michael Vickery's collection of Cambodian periodicals from 1980 to 1990, the donation of Gérard Brissé's collection of periodicals from 1964 to 1972, and several donations made by Olivier de Bernon himself. The EFEO's collection of Cambodian periodicals now represents 250 linear metres of primary source documentation on the history of modern Cambodia.

Nicolas Fiévé will be in Siem Reap from 10 to 16 December for the 32nd plenary session and 41st technical session of CIC-Angkor. Accompanied by Katia Juhel, Director of the EFEO Libraries, he will present the paper "CollEx IndexAngkor Project and the Long-Term Activities of EFEO" at the plenary session on 12 December.

Library

Katia Juhel, Director of Libraries, is on assignment until December 16: at the Chiang Mai Library from Monday 1 to Friday 5 December, then at the Siem Reap Library during the week of 8 December. She will present the CollEx IndexAngkor project at the CIC Angkor.

Photo Library

Of particular note

Réseau des Écoles françaises à l'Étranger

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