Conference on “Food, Feeding and Eating In and Out of Asia”

University of Copenhagen, 24-26 June 2015

The Asian Dynamics Initiative (ADI) is pleased to announce the 7th annual international ADI conference on “Food, Feeding and Eating In and Out of Asia”.

The conference will span three days and feature distinguished keynote speakers as well as interdisciplinary panels.

Food, feeding and eating activities are as old as life itself, but recently there has been a heightened interest in such issues within policy-making, international relations, and academic scholarship ranging from the bio-medical, philosophical, historical, and political to the social, cultural, economic, and religious. Food is both global and local: while foods, cuisines, recipes, people, and culinary cosmopolitanisms have been in global circuits of flows and circulations through various periods of history, the smells, sights, sounds, textures, and tastes of local foodscapes may evoke memories of ‘home’ and imaginations of travel alike. Moreover, with increasing numbers of people concentrated in large cities and urban agglomerations, the challenges of feeding people are becoming ever more complex. Against the backdrop of globalisation of Asia and Asian foods, this conference focuses on the wide-ranging aspects of production, consumption, distribution, disposal, and circulation of foods in and out of Asia.

ADI is a cross-faculty and interdisciplinary effort to meet the current challenges and demands for better knowledge of and deeper insights into Asian matters. This conference is the 7th in a series of annual, interdisciplinary conferences initiated by ADI in 2008.

For more information, call for panels, keynote speakers, and registration please visit the conference homepage.

 

Conference on Manuscripts and Archives, Hamburg

The Centre of the Studies of Manuscripts Cultures (University of Hamburg) organizes a conference on Manuscripts and Archives from 19-22 November 2014. Contributions from the field of Southeast Asian manuscript cultures are most welcome and are encouraged. Proposals should be submitted as soon as possible.

The conference will explore the complex topic of the archive in a historical, systematic and comparative dimension and try to contextualise it in the broader context of manuscript cultures by addressing the following questions: How, by whom and for which purpose are archival records produced? Is there any observable difference from literary manuscripts concerning materials, formats, producers (scribes)? Where are they stored, how organised? Are there other objects stored together with the records? Which practices are involved inside the archive, how and by whom are they used? Is there a term or a concept of archive as opposed to library, museum, cabinet (of curiosities) and the like? Is there a relation to historiography? Is there an archival science (archivology)?

The conference takes place at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Warburgstraße 26, Hamburg, Germany.

Participation in the conference is free of charge and vistors are welcome.

For more detailed information and registration please visit the CSMC website: http://www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de/register_archives.html

ASEASUK 2014 Conference

ASEASUK, the Association for Southeast Asian Studies in the UK, announces that its 28th Annual Conference will take place at the University of Brighton, UK from 12th to 14th September 2014.

Themed conference panels are as follows:
•Framing South East Asia: The role of the Museum
•Southeast Asian Performing Arts: Tradition in Modernity
•Malay/Indonesian Manuscript Studies
•Digital/Ritual: Southeast Asia and new global media
•Contemporary architectural and urban practices in Southeast Asia
•Resilience and responsibility in tourism
•Assembling Infrastructure: Development, Counterinsurgency and Political Struggle in Myanmar/Burma
•Political ecology, resilience and environmental justice in a changing Southeast Asia
•Conceptualizing political modernity in Southeast Asia
•Illiberal Pluralism in SE Asia’s Economic Reform Experience
•Contemporary Politics in Cambodia
•Constitutional Politics in Burma/Myanmar
•Gender, Migrations and Racialisation in Southeast Asia
•Rethinking Gender and Development in Southeast Asia: Methodological Entanglements.
•Emerging Scholars Panel
•Open panel

For more detailed information please view the conference homepage.

Brighton pavillion

The Cham Art Heritage of Vietnam: Ecological, Cultural and Art Historical Traditions

International Conference, April 25-26, 2014 in New Delhi

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts proposes to hold an International Conference on Cham Art  Heritage of Vietnam.  The Cham people are the inhabitants of mountainous region of  Central – South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Currently, they numbered over six hundred thousand who are descendants of a mighty kingdom called Champa which flourished in  Central part of Vietnam. They are people of Malayo Polynesian origin. Champa of Vietnam appeared in the epigraphic record as Champaura / Campanagra reminds us a historic city of India.

The Cultural heritage of Champa appears to be very ancient one that can be traced from the dvapara era with the establishment of  mukhalinga of Shambhu (Shiva) in Kauthara by king Vicitrasagara or Vicitra. This name Sagara recalls the King of Ayudhya mentioned in the Ramayana. Epigraphic records mention the beginning of the rule in the kingdom of  Champa.  It is  god  Sambhu who sent Uroja to occupy the throne of Champura.

Historically, the Kingdom of Champa began in the end of 2nd Century A.D., then known as kingdom “Lin-yi” in the Chinese sources. In the course of time, they gradually adopted aspects of Indian civilization in the selective manner. The Cham script is of Indian origin and their art forms betray Indian influences while maintaining their autonomous status. Their various principalities such as Panduranga, Vijay, Kauthara, Amaravati etc. are all derived from Indian proto types.

The Cham followed Hinduism based on veneration of Indian trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and the Shakti or wives of the latter two. But Siva was the root of the State of Champa.  He was usually worshipped in the shape of lingam, covered with a sheath or Kosha, often of gold, depicting the faces of the god.  Besides, god  Ganesha, Skanda, Nandi, Garuda were highly venerated as they are depicted in art. With the foundation of Mahayana monastery of Lakshmindralokesvara at Dong-Duong  (Quang-Nam province) by Indravarman II in the year 875 A.D,,  Buddhism began to exercise its influence on Champa.  Thus, both Hinduism and Buddhism flourished side by side. The kingdom Champa seized to exist as an independent kingdom in fifteenth century A.D.

During historical periods, Cham produced significant Hindu and Buddhist temples besides sculptures of both Hindu and Buddhist deities. About 300 bricks temples still survive ranging from seventh to fifteenth century in the central and southern parts of Vietnam. These temples are distinguished by the reliefs of terracotta and stone sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist gods and goddesses. A large number of them, now preserved in Danang Museum, reveal Gupta and post-Gupta art styles submerged by indigenous art idioms.

The Cham people cultivated Sanskrit language. Their mother tongue is a Cham language of Austronesian family.  A large number of the inscriptions have been found in both Sanskrit and Cham language. The people of Champa were also fond of music. A number of musical instruments are depicted on the reliefs of the temples. Even today, at every religious and social ceremony, they use various musical instruments which are heavily influenced by the Indian, Khmers, and musical instruments of neighbouring areas.

The Cham civilization has been focus of studies and conferences in the field of history, language, religion, culture, art and architecture. However, its inner connections and its external relations have so far not been studied in depth. The International Conference on Cham Art Heritage of Vietnam: Ecological Cultural and Art Historical Traditions” has been planned  to explore cultural interface which distinguishes Cham civilization.  The proposed panels of the Conference are:

I.  Polynesian, Indian and Indigenous context of Cham art.

II. Interface of Art and Ecology in Cham Art.

III. Connections of Cham art with Indian and South East Asian Art Styles.

IV. Cham Architecture and Its connection with India and South East Asia.

V. Chams Musical Instruments in the wider context of Indian and South East Asian Traditions.

VI. Any Research on Champa based on epigraphy and recent field work

Contact:

International Conference

“The Cham Art Heritage of Vietnam:

Ecological, Cultural and Art Historical Traditions”

25-26 April, 2014,  at IGNCA, Janpath, New Delhi, India

e-mail: bachchan_kumar@yahoo.com

Cham temple in Vietnam

Irrawaddy Literary Festival 2014

14 – 16 February 2014, Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma)
Under patronage of Aung San Suu Kyi

Burmese literature has a long tradition and goes back well over a thousand years. The oldest extant specimen is a stone inscription dated 1113 A.D., but it is believed that many older inscriptions have been lost or were destroyed during wars. Many of these inscriptions contain eloquent prayers and poems composed by royal ladies. Imaginative literature was written down on palm leaf manuscripts with a stylus, or in folded paper manuscripts in steatite pencil, often under the auspices of Buddhist monarchs. Historical ballads, verse romances, odes, metrical versions of Buddhist Jatakas, and poetic letters constitute this literature. These books flourished until printing became prevalent in the 19th century.

The introduction of printing into southern Burma in the early 19th century led to a change in Burmese literature. From 1875 onward, under British rule, the owners of printing presses began to publish popular works such as plays, complete with songs and stage directions. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first Burmese novels were published. The emergence of literary magazines in the 1910s stimulated the popularity of short stories and serialized novels. Nationalist and anticolonial themes were common in literature from the 1920s to the 1940s. Following Burmese independence in 1948, many writers tried to use literature to help create an egalitarian, democratic society. However, following the 1962 military coup, the Myanmar government pressured writers to adapt the themes and style of Socialist Realism, and freedom of expression continued to erode through the turn of the 21st century.

In 2013, the first Irrawaddy Literary Festival was being held in Burma. It has ignited international press and public interest and support. The Irrawaddy Literary Festival this year announces the participation of a wide range of highly esteemed Burmese and international authors, journalists and broadcasters, as well as literary agents and publishers.

The festival homepage provides more details of participating authors as well as a programme and media coverage.

Folio from a Burmese Kammavaca manuscript, 19th century

10th United Nations Day of Vesak 2014

Bai Dinh Temple, Vietnam, 7-11 May 2014

Every year since the resolution passed by the United Nation’s General Assembly on 15 December 1999 – the thrice-sacred day of Vesak (celebrating the birth, enlightenment and passing away of the Buddha Gotama) is celebrated internationally. The International Council for the Day of Vesak has been granted Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council since 2013 – to honor commitments, the 10th United Nations Day of Vesak celebrations will take upon: “Buddhism and the UN Millennium Development Goals”, as the general theme of the 2014 UNDV Conference.

The organisers now call for papers for the 2014 United Nations Day of Vesak (UNDV). Celebrations and an Academic Conference will be hosted by the National Vietnam Buddhist Sangha and will be held in Bai Dinh Temple, Vietnam, from 7-11 May 2014. Additional support for the conference is coming from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University in Thailand, and the International Association of Buddhist Universities.

The conference and celebrations are expected to draw a gathering of 10,000 people – including 1,500 Buddhist leaders, Buddhist scholars and Buddhist practitioners from all of the Buddhist traditions around the world, and 8,500 from Vietnam.

The academic conference will be held on the second day of events (9 May 2014), and will be again organized through the International Association of Buddhist Universities (IABU) in collaboration with National Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.

Papers are now being invited for the UNDV Conference’s main theme on “Buddhist Perspective towards achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.” The interdisciplinary study is encouraged and the organisers welcome abstracts or proposals from scholars in all fields related to the main and sub-themes of the conference, which include the following:

1. Buddhist Response to Sustainable Development and Social Change

2. Buddhist Response to Global Warming and Environmental Protection

3. Buddhist Contributions to Healthy Living

4. Peace-building and Post-Conflict Recovery

5. Buddhist Education and University Level Curriculum

Acceptable articles, determined by the academic peer-review committee, will be published together along with those highlighted for presentation. The conference volume will be available prior to the beginning of the presentations.

For more detailed information on participation and presentation of a paper, please contact the Editorial Committee Manager at icdv2014conference@gmail.com .

International Conference of the Asian Association for Lexicography

The 8th International Conference of the Asian Association for Lexicography will be held in Kuta on the island of Bali, on 20-22 August 2013.

The conference is organized by the Faculty of Humanities, Airlangga University, and the proceedings will be printed and published by Airlangga University Press.

The conference will look at the features and roles of lexicography and dictionaries in the information age.

The participants will include lexicographers, linguists, translators, lecturers, teachers, as well as students who are interested in lexicography and dictionaries.

More detailed information can be found on the conference homepage http://www.asialex2013.org/index.html .