Religious Studies in Cambodia:
Understand the Old and Trace the New
Conference
Siem Reap,
9th - 10th June 2012
Call for
paper
We are pleased to announce that
following previous successful conferences on Epigraphy & Databases (2010)
and Archaeometallurgy (2011), the Siem Reap Conference on Special Topics in
Khmer Studies organised jointly by the APSARA, école française d’Extrême-Orient,
Center for Khmer Studies and University of Sydney, will be dedicated, in 2012,
to the History of Religions.
The epigraphical, architectural and
iconographical material available to understand premodern Cambodia’s society and
history all attest to the centrality of religion. Despite this importance,
however, very few studies have been dedicated exclusively to the topic of
religion.
Indeed, the complexity held by this
topic has many sources. The process once referred to as Indianization involved
the transmission of the already composite system of Indian religions
(śaivism, Vaiṣṇavism and Buddhism) into a barely known local
system of beliefs. Recent discoveries from Buddhist studies –whether on
discrepancies among texts and religious practices or on unveiled tantric texts
and the wider recognition of tantric Buddhist aesthetic forms– add further
layers to this complexity.
The aim of this conference is to take
an interdisciplinary approach to the study of religion in order to render the
richness of pre-modern Southeast Asian religions, and in particular, Khmer
religion. By comparing pre-modern Southeast Asian civilisations, what can be
understood of the common or characteristic choices of Indian religious features
they each made? Consequently, what can be concluded about the local systems of
beliefs followed at the time? How do contemporary religious systems reflect the
strata of the Indian borrowings and reveal their own essence throughout their
own evolutions?
The conference will bring together
international specialists, colleagues and students from all the disciplines, who
share a common interest in Cambodian and Southeast Asian religions, from
prehistory to the modern period.
We invite submissions for topics on all aspects of religions in Cambodia, including History, Archaeology, Art
History, Religious Studies, Anthropology, etc. Comparative
papers on
pre-modern Southeast Asian religions are also encouraged. By the collation of
recent scholarship in multiple fields and the presentation of the lastest
theoretical works in Religious Studies, this conference will improve our
understanding of Southeast Asian religions.
Colleagues who wish to participate in
the Conference, to be held
in Siem Reap on the 9th and 10th of June 2012, should submit the title of their paper and an
abstract (around 150 words) by the 15th of February
2012.
The organising committee
Julia Estève, Damian Evans, Khoun
Khun-Neay, Im Sokrithy, Dominique Soutif and Michael Sullivan.
For any questions regarding the
Conference, please contact:
Julia Estève
école française
d’Extrême-Orient; Phum Beng
Don Pa, Khum Sla Kram, Siem Reap; PO Box 93300, Siem Reap;
Damian Evans
The University of Sydney; Robert Christie
Research Centre, 195 Phum Treng, Khum Sla Kram, Siem Reap;
Khoun Khun-Neay
APSARA Authority, Siem Reap; Deputy
Director General.
IM Sokrithy
APSARA Authority, Siem Reap & Faculty
of Archaeology, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh.
Dominique SOUTIF
école française
d’Extrême-Orient; Phum Beng
Don Pa, Khum Sla Kram, Siem Reap; PO Box 93300, Siem Reap;
Michael Sullivan
Center for Khmer Studies; Wat Damnak,
Siem Reap; PO Box 9380, Siem Reap;