The Southeast Asia Library Group and early printing in Burma

Street in Wuntho by Felix Beato, 1889-1891.
(Cambridge University Library Y3029A-014)

This is a post to introduce the Southeast Asia Library Group. A  pan-European group, SEALG hosts an annual meeting, publishes an annual newsletter and maintains a JISC mail list  as well as linking to some incredibly useful Southeast Asian digital collections, cataloguing tools and members' initiatives on its website.

In its latest newsletter San San May (Curator for Burmese, British Library) writes about early printing in Burma (see pages 32-40) and includes a list of books held at the British Library which were printed at Maulmain, Tavoy or Rangoon before 1855.

SEALG's next meeting will be held in Cambridge,  9th-10th September, in collaboration with the 26th ASEASUK conference.  For further information, go to SEALG's home page, and look under the Meetings tag.  Alternatively, contact Jana Igunma (Henry Ginsburg Curator for Tai, Lao and Cambodian) at the British Library.

For a British Library resource guide to their Southeast Asian collections, see: http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/seasia/searesources.html

Burma through the lens of Linnaeus Tripe

Delegates who attended SAALG's Borderlands Conference at the Royal Asiatic Society in January will be delighted to see Andrew Jarvis' article published in Modern Asian Studies (v.45, no.4, July 2011).  Entitled 'The Myriad-Pencil of the Photographer' : seeing, mapping and situating Burma in 1855 (pp. 791-823), it questions how Tripe's photographs should be interpreted today.

Ancient India & Iran Trust: New issue of INDIRAN

A new issue of the Ancient India and Iran Trust's newsletter, INDIRAN, is now available.

This issue includes an account by Bi Bo, visiting scholar from Renmin University of China, Beijing, of her work on Sogdian manuscripts from Khotan, Xinjiang. Ian Proudfoot, Australian National University, describes exciting finds of unique Malay printed books. Deborah Sutton, University of Lancaster, examines the Hindu temple in terms of political and cultural encounter during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The newsletter also includes reports of a joint presentation by Annabel Gallop and Venetia Porter which accompanied their travelling exhibition 'Lasting impressions: the world of Islamic seals', Frantz Grenet's Bailey memorial lecture 'The rediscovery of the court culture of the Qarakhanids', and events held in Cambridge to celebrate 1000 years of Firdawsi's epic poem the Shahnama.

Download a digital version of INDIRAN from: http://www.indiran.org/Indiranapril2011.pdf

Lions and dragons: the new RAS blog

Copyright RAS MS Malay Maxwell 15

Readers are encouraged to take a look at the Royal Asiatic Society's new blog which provides timely information about forthcoming lectures and events at the Society, plus podcasts for those unable to attend them.

Regular posts also feature items from the Society's art collections, library and archives.  I particularly enjoyed the rich illustrations in the guest post Malay Magic and Divination Manuscripts, including the dragon illustrated above.

Another relatively new blog which deserves an RSS feed or bookmark is that of the Ancient India and Iran Trust, launched in October 2010. The Society, an independent charity concerned with the study of early India, Iran & Central Asia, promoting both scholarly research & popular interest in the area, uses its blog to post information about grants and scholarships, conferences, seminars and lectures, library acquisitions and exhibitions.  As with the Royal Asiatic Society's blog, there are quick links to the Society's specialist library and archive resources.

SAALG 85th Conference, Edinburgh, July 1st and 2nd

The upcoming SAALG conference is fast approaching and we are still welcoming participants. Edinburgh University Library will be hosting the conference on Friday 1st July and the theme will be Scottish connections with South Asia. In addition to our Friday programme we are also delighted to offer a behind the scenes tour of the South Asian collections of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Saturday morning, 2nd July.

For full details of the conference please visit our earlier post here or contact:

Helen Porter, SAALG Secretary, Assistant Librarian, Royal Asiatic Society.

Email: hp@royalasiaticsociety.org Tel: 020 7391 9424

The Center for Studies in India and South Asia (CEIAS)

The Center for Studies in India and South Asia (CEIAS) is the largest French laboratory of social science research on the Indian subcontinent. The CEIAS is a joint research unit (UMR 8564) of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales ( EHESS ) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ).

They publish a newsletter three times a year to keep you informed of various activities of the CEIAS- fieldwork, publications, PhD seminars, visiting scholars and new fellows etc.

The URL link is:

http://ceias.ehess.fr/