An important cultural marker in contemporary Cambodian society, Buddhism has a long history rooted in the Indianisation of the peninsula at the beginning of the common era. This Indianisation gave rise to distinct local inflections and original manifestations in each of Southeast Asia’s social and cultural spaces. Beyond this process, and through its spread throughout Asia, Buddhism has evolved over the centuries, fostering different traditions, a plurality of practices and a diversity of representations. In that regard, this Workshop in Cambodian Studies proposes to explore some of the specificities of Buddhism in the Khmer world. Conceived as a laboratory, this workshop will question Cambodian Buddhism as a “longue durée” cultural phenomenon, bringing together specialists from different periods of Cambodian history. From the earliest available sources to the contemporary period, we will look for the institutions, places, and flows— insofar as they persist and change—within the Khmer Buddhist practices.
Thursday 25 June
09:00–09:15: Opening words, Prof. Dr. Vincent Tournier (LMU)
09:15-10:45: Dr. Louise Roche (LMU)—Monastic Institutions and Kingship in Pre-Angkorian Cambodia: New Perspectives.
10:45-11:15: Coffee break
11:15-12:45: Prof. Dr. Ashley Thompson (SOAS-University of London)—Sculpture as Re-source.
12:45-14:30: Lunch break
14:30-16:30: Assist. Prof. Trent Walker (University of Michigan)—Palm-Leaf Manuscripts as Sources for Middle-Period Cambodian Buddhism.
Friday 26 June
10:00-12:00: Dr. Marie Aberdam (EHESS)—For a Social History of Buddhism during the Colonial Period in Cambodia.
12:00-13:30: Lunch break
13:30-15:00: Dr. Stéphanie Benzaquen-Gautier (IIAS)—Buddhism in/and the Khmer Republic: A Match Made in Heaven or a Political Impossibility?
15:00-15:30: Coffee break
15:30-17:30: Dr. Anne-Laure Porée (EHESS)—Revisiting the Khmer Rouge through a critical reading of Ian Harris’s book Buddhism in a Dark Age (2012).
If you would like to attend the workshop, please register by writing to: louise.roche@lmu.de or marie.aberdam@ehess.fr