Séminaire
Interactions between Islamicate and Indic Societies in South and South-East Asia: Comparative Perspectives
séance du jeudi 5 décembre 2019, 15h – 18h
Stephen Headley (former CNRS researcher), “Rural Rituals in Java: Permanent Transformations”
The religious landscape is variable in Java because a person is not unitary, but a microcosm of different macrocosm. The constituent pieces of micro-macro cosmological analogies of existence will need to be explained, often through diagrams, in order for us to understand the underlying components of these rituals. Each ritual repeats the similar micro-macro dimensions, but the person is articulated in terms of variable cosmological features—at least until the nineteenth century, when Islam becomes the region’s dominant religion.
Pegah Shahbaz (Robert H. N. HO Foundation Research Fellow), “Representations of the Buddha in Persian Literary Culture: The case of Belawhar wa Buyūzasf”
As part of my current research project funded by Robert H. N. Ho Foundation about the representations of the Buddha in Persian literary culture, this presentation will seek to shed light over the presence and influence of Buddhism in the Persianate world until the 14th century. In order to better understand the religious interactions among diverse religious cultures along the Silk Road and to appreciate their diversified and cosmopolite aspects, I will first discuss the interactions among Buddhist and monotheist religions that were present in the region such as Islam, Judaism and Christianity from historical point of view. Secondly, given that our access to Buddhist archeological material in the Iranian Plateau is limited, and the study of the remaining textual material seems pertinent, I will introduce the translations and adaptations of biographical texts about the Buddha in Persian language. The life of Gautama Siddharta or Buddha is one of the most renowned narratives of human history that has found its way into many literatures including Middle Persian (Pahlavi) and New Persian (Dari), among which the Belawhar wa Buyūzasf particularly received considerable attention and was served as a model for didactic literature. I will explain how the life story of the Buddha was perceived either as history or fiction, and how it was reinterpreted according to Persian cultural and/or religious norms.
Lieu et horaire : de 15h à 18h, EHESS, salle A07-37 (7e étage), 54 bd. Raspail, 75006, Paris
Organisateurs : Fabrizio Speziale (EHESS, CEIAS, fabrizio.speziale@ehess.fr) - Hélène Njoto (CASE, nf.helene@gmail.com)
Pour plus d’informations, voir : https://enseignements-2019.ehess.fr/2019/ue/2861/
