Agenda EFEO

Newsletter

February 2021

Contents

Agenda

Research News
- Centres
- Researchers
- Lectures
- Editions
- Researchers' publications
- Research Services

Staff and service news
- Staff
- Library

Of particular note
- Videos "Asian Treasures of the EFEO
- EFEO Paris seminar online
- 11th conference-debate of the Centre in HCMV online

News from EURICS
- Seminar

Agenda

Friday, February 12 - Kyoto

As part of the Kyoto lectures, Alessandro Poletto (University of Kyoto) presents: "Early Medieval Monks and their Patrons: the Cases of Butsugon and Shinjaku-bō".

At 6 p.m. (Japan time). The conference will be broadcasted online via Zoom.

The password for logging in will be posted on the Kyoto Center's blog and ISEAS website the day before.

Legend: Yamai no sōshi [The scroll of diseases], 12th century (preserved in Yamato Bunkakan).

Research Actualities

Centres

Pondicherry

Manuscripts on monastery halls of Thrissur, Kerala

On February 1, the team led by Hugo David, S.A.S. Sarma (EFEO, Pondicherry) and C.M. Neelakandhan (SSSU, Kalady) will resume work on the conservation, cataloguing, and digitization of the palm-leaf manuscripts kept in the Vadakke Madham Brahmaswam library in Thrissur (Kerala), part of which is already accessible online.

Legend: Overview of the monastic complex śaṅkarien in Thrissur.

This library, with around a thousand manuscripts in Sanskrit and malayāḷam (philosophical and literary works, scriptural commentaries, chronicles, etc.), brings together the collections of the four Shankarian monasteries in the town of Thrissur, one of the most important Hindu religious centres in Central Kerala.

Legend: Students reciting Vedic texts, Naduvil Madham, Thrissur.

The work, which began in 2018 with the support of Arcadia and the British Library (Endangered Archives Programme, pilot project 1039), will continue with occasional support from the Mellon Foundation (University of Toronto), in close collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at the University of Hamburg.

Legend: Photographer Rinni K. Jayan digitizes a manuscript.

Researchers

Éric Bourdonneau

On Thursday 25 February, the seminar "Object Trail. Études de provenance des collections d'art 'extra-occidental'" (coordinated by Émilie Salaberry and Vincent Lefèvre), organised by the INHA in partnership with the Direction générale des patrimoines of the Service des musées de France, will feature a video-conference presentation by Éric Bourdonneau entitled "La statuaire de Koh Ker (Cambodge). History without end and in pieces".

Paola Calanca

On 6 February, Paola Calanca will participate in the workshop The Iberian East Indies. Frontiers, Actors, Dynamics organised by Eliette Soulier (University of Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle / CRES-LECEMO) and Hélène Vu Thanh (University of Bretagne-Sud-IUF / TEMOS UMR 9016 CNRS). She will present a paper on Encounters in the China Sea (mid 16th - mid 18th centuries).

On 12 February, she will speak at the Geopolitics of Brest 2021 La Chine et le monde [China and the World], in the session "La Chine et la mer" [China and the Sea], organised by the École Navale, the University of Bretagne Occidentale (UBO), the École Nationale Supérieure Mines-Télécom Atlantique (IMT-A) and the École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées de Bretagne (ENSTA-B) and will present a paper tracing the major dates in maritime history in China.

Élisabeth Chabanol

During the month of February, Élisabeth Chabanol will speak in the "Histoire des arts de l'Extrême-Orient" [History of Far Eastern Arts] course at the École du Louvre, whose head is Maël Bellec (curator at the Cernuschi Museum), on the theme "Le Koryŏ et ses deux capitales principales : Kaesong et Kanghwa" [The Koryŏ and its two main capitals: Kaesong and Kanghwa].

Photo: Five-storey stone pagoda of Changchŏng-ri, Kanghwa, 3 December 2020 © MAK. Also known as the pagoda on the monastery's website Pongǔn. This pagoda was moved to this site during the transfer of the monastery site Pongǔn, when Koryŏ moved its capital from Kaesong to Kanghwa Island in 1232 (the time of the Mongol invasions of the Korean peninsula).

Gregory Kourilsky

On 24 February, Gregory Kourilsky will speak on "Buddhist Rituals for the Departed in the Lao Twelve-Month Traditions" as part of the Cultural Studies Series (CSS), Vientiane (Laos).

Michel Lorrillard

As part of the Champa project, Michel Lorrillard and David Bazin will carry out a mission in the southern districts of Champassak province at the end of February. The objective is to make an initial assessment of the current state of the Laotian portion of the ancient road that linked Vat Phu to Angkor and the temples and other structures that border it.

Lectures

The list of EFEO teacher-researchers' annual lectures is available on the EFEO's website.

Alain Arrault and Michela Bussotti
EHESS seminar, Histoire culturelle de la Chine impériale tardive : textes techniques et prescriptions du quotidien reading the Tiangong kaiwu天工開物 (Works of nature and the creation of things) and the Wulei xianggan zhi物類相感志 (Interactions between different categories of things)

Michela Bussotti
EHESS seminar, Histoire de la culture visuelle en Asie orientale
Programme
- Wednesday 3 February: Caroline Bodolec (CNRS, UMR CCJ) and Estelle Bories (université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle / IESA), "Les peintres-paysans chinois et l’art contemporain : un dialogue politique"
- Wednesday 17 February: Estelle Bauer (Inalco, IFRAE), "Les jeux sur l’espace dans la peinture japonaise à l’époque d’Edo (XVIIe - XIXe s.) : mises en abyme, juxtapositions, fusions"
Registration is compulsory

Paola Calanca
EHESS seminar, L'Asie maritime : les périls de la mer
Programme
- Wednesday 3 February: Johan Grémont, "L'île des Pirates. L'archipel des Gow Tow et la contrebande durant la période coloniale (fin XIXe siècle - 1940)"
This conference will be held by videoconference: link to access it
- Wednesday 17 February: François Gipouloux (CNRS, CCJ), "Pratiques commerciales et gestion du risque dans l'aventure maritime en Asie"
This conference will be held by videoconference: link to access it

Luca Gabbiani
EHESS seminar, Le « Confucianisme » comme « droit commun » de l’Asie Orientale : comment le droit chinois a « confucianisé » la société et la famille en Corée et au Japon

Arlo Griffiths
EPHE seminar as part of the Asian Studies Master's programme, Épigraphie de Java

EPHE seminar as part of the Asian Studies Master's programme, Épigraphie du Campa et du Cambodge

Benoît Jacquet
Post-Master's seminar "Research in Architecture", at HESAM University in the Research Department of ENSA Paris La Villette, L'environnement et la transition énergétique, la revitalisation des bâtiments et des territoires
Master seminar: Architecture(s) et Paysage(s) and Introduction au projet de fin d'étude (PFE)

Fabienne Jagou
Seminar of Master 1 and 2, "Religion et Politique au Tibet", at the École normale supérieure in Lyon

Grégory Kourilsky and François Lagirarde
EPHE seminar as part of the Asian Studies Master's programme, Histoire politique et religieuse du monde tai

François Lachaud
EPHE seminar as part of the Asian Studies Master's programme, Histoires de démons à la fenêtre nocturne

EPHE seminar as part of the Asian Studies Master's programme, Bouddhisme japonais. Vies du saint homme Yuten (1637-1718) : possession et exorcisme dans le Japon de l'époque d'Edo (1603-1867)

Costantino Moretti
EPHE seminar as part of the Asian Studies Master's programme, Introduction à la lecture des manuscrits chinois médiévaux

Seminar within the framework of the EPHE Conferences, Histoire et philologie du bouddhisme chinois médiéval

Hélène Njoto
EHESS seminar, Interactions between Islamicate and Indic Societies
- Thursday 4 February: Richard M. Eaton (University of Arizona), "Understanding 'Conversion' to Islam in Indian History" and Alexandra de Mersan (INALCO, CASE), "De quelle histoire religieuse le sanctuaire de Buddermokan (Arakan/Birmanie) est-il le témoin ?"
Link to access it

Christophe Pottier
EFEO - UFR art and archaeology of the Faculty of Letters of the Sorbonne-Université joint seminar: Archéologie en Extrême-Orient
- Tuesday 2 February: Bérénice Bellina-Pryce (CNRS), "Villes portuaires et arrières pays des premières routes maritimes de la Soie en Thaïlande -
Birmanie péninsulaire (500 av. – 300 de notre ère)"
- Tuesday 16 February: Laurent Nespoulous (INALCO), "La question du/des mégalithisme(s) au Japon"

Catherine Scheer
EHESS Seminar, Dialogues entre recherches classiques et actuelles sur l'Asie du Sud-Est
- Thursday 4 February: Adeline Martinez (post-doctorante EHESS-CCJ), "Valeur heuristique de la notion d'espace social de G. Condominas pour l’analyse des relations hommes/volcan à Java (Indonésie)"
The sessions will be held from 10 to 12:00 a.m. online

Vincent Tournier
EPHE seminar as part of the Asian Studies Master's programme, Asian Buddhisms: Transmissions, Communities, Thought / Buddhisms of Asia: Transmissions, Communities, Thought
Programme
- Wednesday 3 February: J. Törzsök,"Tantric Śaivism and Buddhism"
- Wednesday 10 February: M. Sernesi, "Buddhist esoteric traditions and their trans-Himalayan diffusion"

Editions

Orders are processed normally, but due to the current situation the delivery time is extended by a few days.

Mythologie japonaises, Japanese Mythologies, François Macé et Alain Rocher (éd.), Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, vol. 29 (2020), Kyoto, EFEO, 2021, 344 pages.

Publications website

Researchers' publications

Sous tutelle. Biens sans maître et successions vacantes dans une perspective comparative, XIIIe-XXe siècles / Under Guardianship. Properties without Owners and Vacant Successions in a Comparative Perspective, 13th-20th Centuries, Alessandro Buono et Luca Gabbiani (dir.), L’Atelier du Centre de recherches historiques, vol. 22 (2020) :

- Alessandro Buono and Luca Gabbiani, "Introduction", in L’Atelier du Centre de recherches historiques, vol. 22 (2020).

- Sun Jiahong and Luca Gabbiani, "Dangerous Women or Women in Danger? Women and Properties of Extinct Households in Late Imperial China", in L’Atelier du Centre de recherches historiques, vol. 22 (2020).

Michel Lorrillard, "Religion et pouvoir royal au Lān Xāng (XIVe – XVIe siècles)", Péninsule 80 (2020-1), p. 65-91.

Legend: Stele of Wat Ban Don Sing, Luang Prabang, 1555 (upper part).

Fig. 8 stèle du Vat Ban Don Sing, Luang Prabang, 1555 (partie supérieure)

Michel Lorrillard, "Towards a new approach to the spread of Buddhism in the Lān Xāng Kingdom : The first Lao inscriptions", in Noel H.Tan (éd.), Advancing Southeast Asian Archaeology 2019 (Selected Papers from the Third SEAMEO SPAFA International Conference on Southeast Asian Archaeology), SEAMEO SPAFA, Bangkok, 2020, p. 200-214.

Bertrand Porte, "La chouette du musée", in Grégory Mikaelian, Siyonn Sophearith, Ashley Thompson (éds.), LIBER AMICORUM Mélanges réunis en hommage à / in honor of Ang Chouléan, Paris / Phnom Penh, Péninsule / Association des Amis de Yosothor, 2020, p. 197-209.

Legend: Pagoda owl, Ang Chouléan, 2017, Roluos (Siem Reap).

Christophe Marquet, "Furansu no wakosho korekushon. Kakusho de no chōsa to hakken" フランスの和古書コレクション — 各所での調査と発見 (Les collections de livres japonais anciens en France : leur histoire et leur redécouverte), in Shomotsu-shi kenkyū no nichifutsu kōryū 書物史研究の日仏交流 / Recherches croisées sur l’histoire du livre en France et au Japon, Tōkyō, Jusonbō, 2021, p. 3-28.

Book published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Société franco-japonaise des bibliothécaires et documentalistes (Nichifutsu toshokan jôhô gakkai) and bringing together eleven contributions on the history of Japanese book collections in France, Franco-Japanese projects to digitise collections, and books and printing in France since the Ancien Régime.

Research Services

Research allocations for the second half of 2021

Despite the current context of the pandemic, the EFEO wishes to maintain its support to young researchers, and launched a call for applications for EFEO field allocations for the second semester of 2021. The EFEO will obviously comply with the recommendations issued by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and those of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. Thus, student projects will only obtain effective funding from the EFEO as and when the conditions allowing them to be carried out are met in accordance with the instructions and recommendations in use.

The deadline for submitting an application to an EFEO Field Scholarships for Master and PhD students to spend a study period in Asia in one of the EFEO's centres is March 22, 2021 included for a stay that will take place between July 1 and December 31, 2021.

Application procedures

EFEO post-doctoral 2021

- Iris Iran Farkondeh, for a "Diachronic study of the manuscript culture of Kashmir: Sanskrit manuscripts in writing śāradā".

- Julie Gary, for a research project on "Aesthetics of Music in Medieval China: Genealogy of an Aesthetics of Silence".

- Pascale-Marie Milan, for a "Linguistic and anthropological study of kinship among the Na of China. Renewing the approach to understanding indigenous conceptions".

- Pijika Pumketkao-Lecourt, for a research project concerning "The patrimonialisation of the ordinary city in Thailand: the figure of the smuggler in the constitution of the heritage field and the production of new urban archives".

- David Wharton, for a study on the "Historical development of the ancient secular Laotian script".

Staff and service news

Library

How to access the EFEO library and the loan-return service

The EFEO library is open on appointment from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It offers a document loan and return service every Wednesday.

Make an appointment for a reading space.

Make an appointment for the Wednesday loan-return service.

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

Address and Contacts

Inventory of Thai yuan and Thai lü manuscripts via Calames

The EFEO Paris library is pursuing online publication via Calames, of the inventories describing its collections of manuscripts.

From now on, you can explore the inventory of Thai yuan and Thai lü Manuscripts, recently updated.

This collection from the North of Thaïland includes 3 objects, and 259 manuscripts dated from end of 19th century to 20th century.

The corpus consists of texts from canonical buddhist literature, and other local texts, mainly dealing with Paññāsa Jātaka, history of sacred places, travel in the world of deads, and also manuals (regarding meditation, rituals, superstition, medicine, pharmacopoeia).

The EFEO library's restoration workshop

A student trainee in bookbinding and restoration is working on a selection of books from the "Travel" category of the EFEO's collections on the theme of Japan.

First step of this project after the selection of documents: dusting by scrubbing, with a sock gum (gum arabic powder in a cloth) which allows the fragile paper to be preserved.

Bibliographic records of the books: 東海道五十三次 / [安藤廣重画]

Find the library catalogue

Photo Library

The EFEO's photographic holdings remain accessible on the photo library website.

Explore the photographs in the Françoise L'Hernault collection, a specialist in South Indian art history and religious iconography.

Françoise L'Hernault (1937 - 1999) spent two years at the University of Annamalai (Tamil Nadu) before joining the EFEO in 1971. Alone or accompanied by photographers with professional equipment, she methodically traveled the Tamil country and gathered an exceptionally rich and rare photographic documentation: sculptures that have disappeared, monuments that have now been transformed by abusive renovations.

Legend: Ramanathapuram Palace, Ramalinga Vilasam (courtroom), narrative paintings, Room 3, intrados, Muthu Vijaya Raghunatha Setupati paying homage to Vishnu (EFEO_LHEF00296).

Website of the photo library

Follow the EFEO virtual photo library on Instagram

Of particular note

Videos "Asian Treasures of the EFEO"

With a view to celebrating its 120th anniversary, the École française d'Extrême-Orient is launching a series of video vignettes, entitled "EFEO's Asian Treasures", designed to make the rich holdings of its library and archives better known: prints, published works, manuscripts, maps, plans, photographs, images, etc.

The new video entitled "Mémoires de palme et de papier, le fonds des manuscrits khmers" is online. Lucie Labbé and Olivier de Bernon present manuscripts on latanier leaves and on paper, mostly copies of pagoda manuscripts made at the beginning of the 20th century. Part of this collection was built up by the abbot Joseph Guesdon, who was interested in Khmer language and literature. The EFEO collection is particularly rich in royal chronicles, legal treatises and, to a lesser extent, Buddhist texts. These documents are now extremely valuable because the "originals" have disappeared. The Khmer Rouge regime and the current lack of interest in Cambodia in this type of document have led to the destruction, since the war, of some 98% of the traditional manuscript heritage.

11th conference-debate organised by the EFEO Centre in Ho Chi Minh City now online

Watch the recording of the 11th conference-debate organized by the EFEO Center in Ho Chi Minh City on October 8, 2020. Mr. Nguyễn Nhã presented "Aperçu de la presse, des éditions et publications en sciences sociales au Sud du Vietnam : 1954 – 1975" [Overview of the press, editions, and publications in the social sciences in South Vietnam: 1954 - 1975] (Toàn cảnh về ngành xuất bản trong lĩnh vực khoa học xã hội ở miền Nam Việt Nam 1954 - 1975).

EFEO Paris seminar online

Watch the recording of Christophe Marquet's talk entitled "Interroger les images populaires japonaises : Leroi-Gourhan versus Yanagi" [Questioning Japanese popular images: Leroi-Gourhan versus Yanagi], given at the EFEO Paris seminar on January 11, 2021.