I. Conferences and Workshops
II. The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Lecture Series
III. The Asian Civilisations Museum-Nalanda Sriwijaya Lecture Series
IV. Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre-Singapore Buddhist Lodge Lecture Series
V. The NSC-ArtScience Museum Lecture Series
VI. The NSC Archaeology Unit Lecture Series
VII. Special Events

Venue: École française d'Extrême-Orient, 22, avenue du Président Wilson 75116 Paris
Date: 18-19 June 2012

Venue:  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
Dates:  28-29 June 2012

A. Rationale:

The northern periphery of China, from the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age up to modern times, has been carefully scrutinized, both by Chinese scholars and foreign researchers. Even traditional Chinese sources, such as the standard histories, devote considerable attention to the peoples, cultures, and states of the northern and northwestern border regions of the Chinese heartland. Since the Chinese state began in the northern portion of its current configuration and received demonstrable, formative inputs from the north and northwest, it is understandable that correspondingly greater attention would be paid to the north than to the south, particularly during the early periods of the development of the Chinese nation. In contrast, the southern rim of China has been relatively poorly studied, despite the fact that the languages, ethnic groups, and cultures of the south are every bit as complex, interesting, and important as those of the north.

In this conference, we propose to remedy this disparity by giving due emphasis to the south as a vital region of social, economic, and cultural interaction between Sinitic and non-Sinitic peoples. First, however, we must recognize that "the south" has not been a fixed entity or a static, well-defined region during the last three millennia of Chinese history.  Rather, it has been defined by a continuously changing, amorphous boundary with the north.  Indeed, there has been a gradual encroachment of the north upon the south.

This has been documented in modern scholarship already more than half a century ago by Harold J. Wiens, China's March Toward the Tropics (1954; also published under at least one other title), and C. P. Fitzgerald, The Southern Expansion of the Chinese People (1972).

A dramatic change occurred around the time of the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316) and the founding of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). This was a time of crisis in the northern heartland, one which was precipitated by climatic distress and consequent geopolitical realignments. The net effect was to catapult large numbers of northerners southward, quickening the pace of expansion and assimilation.

The aim of this conference is to go beyond the bare facts of history in an attempt to understand the dynamics of north-south interaction and exchange. Through examination of art, literature, material culture, trade patterns, and other cultural and economic manifestations, we seek to show that the communication between north and south was by no means unidirectional and that it had profound consequences for diverse aspects of society throughout East Asia, Southeast Asia, and beyond. For example, much of what is referred to as Taoist religion actually consists of elements and practices transmitted from the south. Another salient characteristic of late medieval Chinese culture was tea drinking, but this too was brought from the "barbarian" south. Such conspicuous instances of the northern assimilation of southern culture prompt us to ask precisely what were the mechanisms whereby such aspects of culture were transmitted and what were the processes by means of which they became a part of the national culture.

We wish to emphasize that, although we begin with the premise of an originally northern-based China interacting with and encroaching upon the south, it is not our intention for this to be a China-centered conference. Instead, we would also like to investigate how the south viewed the north and assimilated aspects of northern culture. Only through a balanced approach that gives due recognition both to the north and to the south do we feel that full justice can be done to the theme of our conference.

This conference will bring together scholars who work on various groups living in the southern reaches of China and in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Our focus will not be restricted only to contiguous land masses, but will also take into account the burgeoning ocean trade and migration that have occurred during the last two millennia and more.  Naturally, both insular and continental societies will be taken into consideration.

We do not want to give the impression that our subject area is one of virgin territory. Indeed, much valuable scholarship on the relationship between the north of China and the south has accumulated during the last couple of centuries.  A good indication of the state of our field may be had by perusing the classic work by Wang Gungwu entitled The Nanhai Trade:  Early Chinese Trade in the South China Sea (1954) and the collection of materials in China and Southeast Asia, Routledge Library on Southeast Asia, 6 vols. (London:  Routledge, 2009). Nonetheless, we believe that the time is ripe to take stock of the current level of knowledge and bring to bear new bodies of evidence from diverse disciplines.

Our overall purpose is to better understand the nature of the societies and cultures that lie to the south of the Chinese heartland and to bring the south into the mainstream of historical studies.

B. Keynote lecture:

The keynote lecture for this conference will be given by Professor Wang Gungwu, Chairman of the East Asia Institute and Chairman of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

An international conference co-organised by the International Institute of Asian Studies (Leiden), the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, ISEAS (Singapore), the Asia-Europe Foundation and the Asian Civilisations Museum (Singapore)

Dates: 7-8 December 2012
Venue: Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore

Proposal deadline:  30 May 2012

This conference will focus on cultural and intellectual exchanges in Asia-Europe relations over the period of 1900-1950. The first half of the 20th century saw some of the most intense political and social changes experienced thus far in world history. Shiraishi Takashi’s coinage of the 1910s and 1920s as an “age in motion” in Southeast Asia might be extended as a reference to Asia-Europe relations during the half century. It was an age in which high imperialism began to unravel and where global political power shifted, bringing profound changes in the relations between Asia and Europe. Both European and Asian colonial empires were challenged by new ideas – both national and transnational – and subsequently their subordinate entities transformed into nation-states. By 1950, the colonial empires had essentially disappeared and former Asian possessions, as well as other parts of Asia, began completely new trajectories. The same newness might also be claimed of Europe. The period around 1950 was the end of one age of Asia-Europe interactions and the beginning of another.

This conference aims to explore the intellectual and cultural flows between Asia and Europe which occurred during, and in part were formative of, the political and social changes over the first half of the 20th century. This will not solely be (but will certainly include) an exploration of colonialism and its discontents. Rather it will be an exploration of the intellectual and cultural currents of this age and an investigation into how the two ends of Eurasia interacted in these spheres through (new) cosmopolitanism and other novel ideologies which affected both European and Asian societies. While cultural and intellectual exchanges between Asia and Europe can be traced back to the earliest days of Asia-Europe interactions, it is in the first half of the 20th century that these interactions saw development of (and between) more cosmopolitan subjects in both areas. It was a period of greater travel by both Asians and Europeans, and new collocations of ideas and cultural influences. This gathering aims to retrace those instances of cultural and intellectual encounters and exchanges. It will also examine how European intellectuals and cultural elements affected intra-Asian interactions during this period.

The aspects to be explored include but are not limited to the forms, venues, mediums, and actors of such encounters, which took place among others in the spheres of politics, culture, education, arts and religion. The conference will address questions such as: In what particular contexts did intercultural encounters and exchanges take place? What were the effects? How did each encounter transform the other side of the equation? How do we go about reconstructing colonial encounters and cosmopolitanism while avoiding the pitfalls of colonial nostalgia? Are there new ways to conceive of these encounters (other than the usual East-West, colonizer-colonized divides), or new paradigms in studying and discussing them (outside those so richly fostered by postcolonial studies)? Is it possible at all to do away with the colonial episteme?

Expressions of interest are invited from those who would like to present a paper at this conference. Young scholars from Asia and Europe are especially encouraged to apply. Applicants should provide a proposed title, an abstract of 300-400 words and a short biographical sketch of the proposer. Proposals should be received by 20 May 2012 and successful applicants will be advised by 15 June 2012. The organisers will require submission of full papers of about 8000 words by 1 November 2012 so that these can be circulated and read by other participants prior to the event. All participants will be provided with three nights accommodation in Singapore. Requests for assistance with airfare, especially from Asian countries, will be sympathetically considered. Selected papers from the conference will be published in a joint IIAS-NSC (ISEAS) volume.

The conference committee consists of Philippe Peycam (IIAS), Tansen Sen (ISEAS), Geoffrey Wade (ISEAS), Sabina Santarossa (ASEF), Elizabeth Chandra (IIAS-ISEAS), Tracy Ng (ACM).

Abstracts and inquiries should be directed to nscconferences@iseas.edu.sg.

Speaker: Alexey Kirichenko
Assistant Professor, Moscow State University, Russia

 

Date: Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Time: 3.30 pm – 5.00 pm
Venue: ISEAS Seminar Room II

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Alexey Kirichenko is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University, Russia and a former Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, and at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He received his doctorate in history from Moscow State University in 2003 with a thesis studying Burmese royal chronicles. Since 1997, he has been engaged in field and archival work in Burma focused on monastic Buddhism, palm-leaf manuscripts, and the surveying of local religious infrastructure. He has published more than 30 papers on various aspects of Burmese and Southeast Asian history (mostly in Russian). His latest publication is "The Making of the Culprit: Atula Hsayadaw Shin Yasa and the Politics of Monastic Reform in Eighteenth-Century Burma," The Journal of Burma Studies 15.2 (2011).

ABOUT THE LECTURE

This presentation will explore how Burma and Lanka re-engaged with other in the late eighteenth century and analyze the factors behind this. More precisely, it will focus on the period between the 1780s and the 1810s—that is on the reign of king Badon-min in Burma (1782-1819) and the two final rulers at Kandy (Śrī Rājādhi Rājasiṃha (1782-1798) and Śrī Vikrama Rājasiṃha (1798-1815). Existing scholarship on Sinhalese-Burmese connections of that time focuses on several missions from coastal Lanka to Burma which took place between 1800 and 1811 for the purpose of obtaining monastic ordination. These travels which led to the establishment of the Amarapura Nikāya in Lanka were undertaken by novices from low-country areas who were excluded from the Kandyan system of higher ordination that restricted upasampadā to the members of the dominant Goyigama caste. Thus, the travels of novices belonging to Salāgama, Karāve, and Durāve castes and the sponsorship given to them by the low-country patrons is explained as an attempt to reduce the disparity between the growing material wealth of Salāgamas, Karāves, and Durāves under British rule and their low social status in the Kandyan setting. Reading surviving documents from Burma (such as testimonies given by arriving travelers, correspondence between the court and court monastic advisors, royal orders, etc.) allows one to see a greater complexity of exchanges between Burma and Lanka, involving a broader mix of actors (i.e. not only the novices from the Colombo area going to Burma) and a wider array of agendas. These documents show that the revival of Sinhalese interest in Burma was likely caused by the growing Burmese presence in the Bay of Bengal and by Burmese attempts to revive the links with Lanka. Thus, the discussion will place the interactions in question in the larger context of Burmese political and religious expansion to the coastal areas and Lower Burma. Tracing the routes taken by travelling religious practitioners (both Buddhist and non-Buddhist) and analyzing other actors involved in these travels (such as enterprising local headmen, merchants, etc.) and their possible motivations, an attempt will be made to contribute to an ongoing discussion of historical interactions in the Bay of Bengal and on the Coromandel Coast.

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Date: Thursday, 31 May 2012
Time: 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm
Venue: ISEAS Seminar Room II

ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM

The Southeast Asian Underwater Archaeology symposium introduces the status and challenges of conducting underwater archaeology—as presented through the country case studies of Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines—and looks into the feasibility of managing future underwater cultural heritage in Southeast Asia by way of in-situ preservation and submerged storage. As the speakers were participants of the recently investigated Clarence (1850) shipwreck in Port Phillip Bay, Australia (conducted in April to May 2012), which involved the application of these very techniques, they will be speaking on the extent to which this methodology might be useful when applied to the Southeast Asian context.

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