Ecole Francaise de l'Extreme Orient

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History

The Indochina Years

The École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), the French School of Asian Studies, was created in 1900 on the joint initiative of the Oriental Studies section in the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres and the colonial government in what was then French Indochina. The former envisaged scholars working on site in Asia – along the pattern established already in Athens, Rome, and Cairo – while the latter required an institution that would be responsible for the inventory and preservation of the cultural heritage of Indochina.

In 1902 the headquarters of the School was set up in Hanoi, with its main scholarly missions defined as the archaeological exploration, collection of manuscripts, preservation of monuments, inventorying of ethnic groups, linguistic studies, and the study of the history of all Asian civilizations from India to Japan. To support this vast scholarly project a library and museum – since become the Vietnamese National Historical Museum – were built at the headquarters. Other museums followed: at Danang, Saigon, Hue, Phnom Penh, Battambang, and elsewhere. In 1907 the EFEO was assigned responsibility for the conservation of the Angkor archaeological site. This early phase of the work of the EFEO is still renowned for the great scholars of Asia who were associated with it: Paul Pelliot, Henri Maspero, and Paul Demiéville in Chinese studies; Louis Finot and George Cœdès in Indochinese epigraphy; Henri Parmentier in archaeology, Paul Mus, in the history of religion, and many others.

Spread of the School

After 1945 a new period opened for the EFEO. Despite the war, and thanks to a real desire for scholarly cooperation with the newly independent states in the area, its members continued their work in continental Southeast Asia: ethnology, Buddhist studies, studies of language, literature, and above all archaeology, with huge reconstruction sites among the monuments of Angkor using the newly developed method of anastylosis. In 1957 the School was obliged to leave Hanoi, and finally, in 1975, Phnom Penh. During this troubled period the EFEO dedicated itself to widening its range of activities and developing new scholarly collaborations. In India, a permanent center was opened in Pondicherry in 1955 to carry out studies in Shivaite literature and the history of the art of the southern part of the subcontinent; later a branch of this center was opened in Pune. During the late 1950’s a center was established in Jakarta for archaeologists and specialists in religious epigraphy. In Japan in 1968 the Hobogirin Institute in Kyoto brought together specialists in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, and, a few years later, a center was established in Chiang Mai for the study of the Buddhism of Southeast Asia. Distinguished scholars from this period include, among others, Jean Filliozat in Indian studies, Rolf A. Stein in Chinese and Tibetan studies, Bernard Philippe Groslier in the archaeology of Angkor, Charles Archaimbault in Laotian ethnology, and Maurice Durand in Vietnamese studies.

The EFEO at the Turn of the 21st Century

The end of warfare and a relatively calm political situation in Southeast Asia enabled the EFEO, generally at the request of the new nation-states, to re-establish itself in the Indochinese peninsula. First came, in 1990, the return to the EFEO by Cambodia of the center’s grounds in Siem Reap and the resumption of work at the great archaeological sites at Angkor. Later, work began again in Laos, and then at Hanoi, where the EFEO now has a new center, complete with a library, and carries on a publication program (epigraphic and other collections) and research into history and anthropology. This return to its birthplace has not, however, resulted in any slowing down of the EFEO’s spread throughout other parts of Asia. Its geographic coverage now includes branches at Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong (within the Chinese University of Hong Kong), Taipei (at the Academia Sinica), Tokyo (Toyo Bunko), Seoul (Korea University) and, most recently, in 1997, in Beijing (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Bangkok (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre) and in 2002 in Yangon (Regional Centre for History and Tradition).

The thematic scope of EFEO research also continues to widen, with extensions into contemporary studies of subjects like the global network of Indian merchants, the problems of integration of ethnic minorities, the recent demographic history of the high plateaus, new religious movements in China, Thailand, and Indonesia, and evolving strategies of heritage conservation. The EFEO entered the 21st century resolutely engaging new technologies and innovative research methods, and pursuing its missions in a dynamic framework of international academic cooperation, in Europe and Asia in particular.