sample manuscript for publication

HisTochText - History of the Tocharian texts of the Pelliot Collection

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 788205)

Conferences, Seminars, Symposia and Missions

Presentation activities

The activities of the HISTOCHTEXT project consist in particular in publishing relevant information on the history of Buddhist and secular manuscripts, mainly in Sanskrit and Tocharian, kept in the Pelliot collection of the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France). This information concerns the language, the manuscript traditions, the written culture,j and the history of Buddhism in the broad sense. The essential part of the work will be accessible under the sections of the site relating to manuscripts. The project also involves exchanges and meetings with colleagues who work on the same sources, in different institutions (libraries, museums, research centers). Meetings in the form of conferences, workshops and seminars will be listed under the "activities" (News) page of the menu. Information on publications will also be accessible through this page. In addition, exhibitions of manuscripts, artistics works and artefacts pertaining to Central Asia and the history of Buddhism will be indicated by the same link.

Title
INVITATION TO BOOK LAUNCH
Date
October 12, 2023
Place
Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, SKW Building, OG5, Room 04.B103
Description
Invitation to book launch : Dictionary and Thesaurus of Tocharian A, (Carling, Gerd – Georges-Jean Pinault (2023), (Harrassowitz Verlag)
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Title
Dictionary and Thesaurus of Tocharian A
Date
Sep 4, 2023
Place
Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2023. LI+564 pages. ISBN 978-3-447-12022-9
Description
This dictionary aims to cover the whole lexicon of Tocharian A, one of the two Tocharian languages, which form a distinct branch in the Indo-European language family. These languages are documented in manuscripts found mostly in Buddhist monasteries located in the oases of the Tarim Basin, in Xinjiang, China, and dated in the second half of the 1st millennium CE. The dictionary contains a thesaurus based on all the identified texts in Tocharian A, published as well as unpublished, which are kept in various collections. It covers much more data than the dictionary published by Pavel Poucha in 1955, which was based on the Tocharian A manuscripts from the so-called Turfan collection (Berlin), edited by Emil Sieg and Wilhelm Siegling in 1921. The book includes a thorough revision of the Dictionary and Thesaurus of Tocharian A. Volume 1 (2009), which covered only the beginning of the lexicon (letters A to J). All forms of words, including variants, occurring in the texts are listed separately with reference to the occurrences and a sample of passages in transcription and translation. The meaning of a number of words has been better defined and corrected against previous glossaries. When possible, the lemmas include the corresponding items attested in Tocharian B. The references given for each lemma aim to retrieve the previous secondary literature. Many lemmas contain philological contributions pertaining to the interpretation of critical passages. Much focus has been laid on phraseology and literary parallels with other Buddhist texts from Central Asia. The sources of loanwords, from Tocharian B, Old and Middle Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Old Turkic, and Chinese, are given as much as they can be traced.
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Title
Emilie Arnaud-Nguyêñ defended her doctoral thesis entitled "Study of Central Asian papers stored at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Pelliot collection): ​ History, manufacturing process(es) and conservation issues​"
Date
October 4, 2023
Place
Paris, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne
Description
The project « HisTochText » (History of the Tocharian texts of the Pelliot collection) comprises macro and microscopic analysis of archaeological papers from the Pelliot Collection stored at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (national library of France). This collection, little looked at, shows many conservation problems (chemical, mechanical and biological). Research was undertaken to trace the history of restorations with the main purpose of understanding the papers’ current state of conservation and set up a restoration protocol. This process proved to be complex and time-consuming. The multitude of archiving locations and the lack of indexing renders their localisation difficult. The help from the Bibliothèque nationale de France’s staff is an indispensable asset. To this day, a lot of information has been updated (restoration campaigns, materials used …). However, many documents have yet to be found, leaving some questions unresolved.
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Title
Progress report of the HisTochText project
Date
December 07,2022
Place
Hôtel à projets. Campus Condorcet. 8, cours des Humanités. 93322 Aubervilliers cedex.
Description
The members of the team take advantage of a round table to present their work. The project department – The role of the department here is to support the HisTochText team on the administrative, financial and technical aspects of the program. He is also keen to support the proper flow of information. Finally, we discussed the linking of CETOM and BNF catalogues/sites.
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Title
Tocharian and Indo-European Studies
Date
Volume 21, 2022
Place
Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen
Description
This issue of the reference journal of Tocharian studies has 228 pages and contains contributions of two members of the HisTochText team: Véronique Kremmer and Timothée Chamot - Rooke, see references under publication. This journal is co-edited by Georges Jean Pinault, PI of the HisTochText project.
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Title
Prof. Dr. Georges-Jean Pinault will give an exciting lecture on “The Uyghur Buddhists as sponsors and disciples of the Tocharians” 18.11 at 4 p.m.
Date
November 18, 2022
Place
Workshop online - Göttingen University
Description
"The period of the first stage of Uyghur Buddhism (9th-11th centuries CE), was a time of intense contacts of the Uyghurs, who had established their kingdom in Khocho, with the speakers of Tocharian languages, belonging to a distinct branch of the Indo-European language family. The Tocharian Buddhism had been thriving for centuries in the oases of the northern route in the Tarim Basin (in present-day Xinjiang, China) and this brilliant Buddhist culture included the Turfan oasis since around the 3rd-4th centuries CE. Large Buddhist texts in Old Uyghur have been translated from texts which are preserved in Tocharian. The colophons found in these texts testify to the sponsoring of the copy by Uyghur donors, whose names appear in several Tocharian manuscripts. The cult of Maitreya was shared by Buddhist communities of Tocharian and Uyghur speakers also. These texts mentioned above offer a rich material for the study of contrastive linguistics and of techniques of translation from Tocharian into Old Uyghur"
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Title
Vienna Ancient Tarim Studies Workshop
Date
November 1, 2022
Place
Online
Description
Workshop online
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Title
ACTUALITÉS DE LA RECHERCHE EN HISTOIRE DU PAPIER
Date
October 7, 2022
Place
Ecole Normale Supérieure, 45, rue d’Ulm, amphithéâtre Dussane
Description
Study day Organized by AFHEPP, (French Association for the History and Study of Paper and Stationery) and ITEM (Institute of Modern Texts and Manuscripts)
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Title
Writings from Central Asia, 1st millennium - Georges-Jean Pinault
Date
May, 2022
Place
Conference in ILARA- THE INSTITUTE OF RARE LANGUAGES - One of the four Institutes of the Practical School of Advanced Studies – PSL
Description
The scribes of the Indian world possessed, since the inscriptions of Asoka (middle of the 3rd century BC), two systems of syllabic writing, which were based on the same principle (abugida), namely the implicit notation of the vowel /a/ : the kharoṣṭhī (written from right to left, and derived from Aramaic) and the brāhmī (written from left to right). The Buddhist communities have had recourse to these two systems from the last centuries before our era, and the missionaries have conveyed, with the texts of Buddhism and the other elements of the manuscript and literary culture of India, these writings in Central Asia. , from the beginning of our era. The kharoṣṭhī, associated with the notated texts in Northwestern Prakrit (Middle Indian), aka gāndhārī, has not undergone very significant changes, apart from the influence of the brāhmī. Brāhmī, which was very suitable for the notation of Sanskrit, underwent considerable development, and adaptations to local languages, which had different phonologies from the languages of the Indian world: Tocharian (A and B), Saka (Middle Iranian) from Khotan and Tumshuq, Old Turkish (Uighur). This resulted in new local syllabaries, many of which were modeled on the Brāhmī adapted for Tocharian, formerly the B language, spoken in the Kucha region north of the Taklamakan Desert in present-day Xinjiang. In addition, Sogdian, Middle Persian (both of the Middle Iranian stage) and Old Turkish were also noted by writings whose ultimate model is the Aramaic writing, transmitted from the West, along the roads commercial, and on the occasion of the spread of another religion, Manichaeism.
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Title
Athanaric Huard defended his doctoral thesis entitled "Research on the texts of meditation in Tocharian", directed by Mr. Georges-Jean Pinault,
Date
January 21, 2022
Place
Maison des sciences de l'homme, 54 Boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris, (salle 1, niveau -1 EPHE, 60 places)
Description
This work is an edition and a commented translation of a corpus of texts in Tocharian B relating to Buddhist meditation. It is based on the identification of several texts: an adaptation in verse of the *Dvedhāvitarka-sūtra of the Madhyama-āgama, an extract from Saṅgharakṣa's Yogācārabhūmi of meditation on death, and a corpus of fragments related to the Yogalehrbuch, an important text for the history of Buddhist meditation. The Tocharian texts are a local development of this tradition and provide important elements for its interpretation. On the other hand, the understanding of the context and the identification of parallels make it possible to progress in the understanding of many Tocharian words whose meaning had not been elucidated.
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Title
The Second International Codicological Conference
Date
November 15, 2021
Place
St. Petersburg, Russia
Description
Oriental Manuscripts: Scriptoria, Monastic Libraries and Book Workshops in the East in the Middle Ages
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Title
Pre-conference discussions
Date
Novembre 12, 2021
Place
Hôtel à projets - Campus Condorcet, 8 - cours des Humanités. Code postal: 93322 Aubervilliers cedex.
Description
For conference November 15, 2021 - St. Petersburg, Russia - The Second International Codicological Conference - Oriental Manuscripts: Scriptoria, Monastic Libraries and Book Workshops in the East in the Middle Ages
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Title
Late but Twice Literate. Writing and Reading in Hittite Anatolia 1650-1200 BC Pluralism
Date
January 28, 2021
Place
Online and on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz8m23C0ZOg
Description
The lecture by Theo van den Hout (University of Chicago), on the theme “Late but Twice Literate. Writing and Reading in Hittite Anatolia 1650-1200 BC Pluralism »
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Title
Interdisciplinary study days Hidden writings / Revealed writings The correspondence of Marie-Antoinette in X-rays
Date
January 21-22, 2021
Place
Online
Description
The REX research project (Research on the extraction and exploitation of underlying lines in ancient manuscripts: application to the letters of Marie-Antoinette) aims as much to reveal the content of the original text of the redacted passages as to establish a critical grid of techniques for separating inks from the end of the 18th century-beginning of the 19th century without undermining the integrity of the original. This is a project led by researchers from the Center for Research on Conservation (CRC) in collaboration with the National Archives and the Dynamics of Heritage and Cultures laboratory (DYPAC) and funded by the Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine.
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Title
Nouvelle approche des sources chinoises (principalement le Tongdian) sur l'Asie Centrale à l'Ouest des Paimirs
Date
January 22, 2021
Place
Collège de France, salle 2, site Marcelin Berthelot.
Description
Mrs CHING Chao-jung, associate lecturer at the Collège de France, will give a series of lectures as part of the seminar of Mr Frantz GRENET, professor, which focuses on the theme "New approach to Chinese sources (mainly the Tongdian) on Central Asia west of the Paimirs".
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Title
The Revelry of Signs: Ancient Maya Language, Writing, and Graphic Pluralism
Date
January 14, 2021.
Place
Online and on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjXVZiA7xsQ
Description
Stephen Houston's conference (Brown University), as part of Ilara (Rare Language Institute, EPHE / MESRI)
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Title
Tocharian in Progress
Date
December 8-9-10, 2020
Place
On line
Description
'Tocharian in Progress' is an online conference uniting scholars working on the extinct Tocharian languages from Northwest China. A wide range of methodological approaches is represented, and topics include text edition, palaeography and writing, grammatical analysis, etymology and historical grammar. All attendants are welcome!
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Title
Scientific Day of January 25, 2020: «Nouvelles perspectives sur les langues anciennes»
Date
January 25 2020
Place
Maison de la Recherche de l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, 4 Rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris 5ème, salle ATHENA
Description
The Scientific Day of the Paris Linguistics Society (Saturday January 25, 2020) has the theme "New perspectives on ancient languages". It proposes to bring together linguists of various specialties around the following questions: how are the studies of ancient languages evolving? What are the advances in terms of data? How can new technologies (databases, data mining, artificial intelligence) advance the study of ancient languages? What are the new theoretical approaches? This day covers a wide range of languages: Latin, ancient Greek, Elamite, Tocharian, Hittite, ancient Germanic languages, Lydian.
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Title
First Day of Vedic and Pāṇinean Studies
Date
June 12, 2019
Place
INHA, 6 rue des Petits Champs,75002
Description
This day bears the same title and is part of the legacy of Louis Renou's famous series of studies on Vedic poetry and the grammatical literature of ancient India, the series "Vedic and pāṇinian studies", the first volume of which inaugurated, in 1955, the collection of “Publications of the Institute of Indian Civilization” of the College de France.
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Title
Conference
Date
June 5-6, 2019
Place
11 Place Marcelin-Berthelot,75005 Paris
Description
HISTORY AND CULTURES OF PRE-ISLAMIC CENTRAL ASIA Academic year 2018-2019 Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 June 2019 Room 2
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Title
Session of Academy of Sciences and Literature
Date
April 11-12, 2019
Place
Mainz (Mayence, Allemagne)
Description
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Title
Visits to Mme Anne-Grethe Rischel (Copenhague) and Mme Agnieszka Helman-Wazny (Hamburg University)
Date
April 8-12, 2019
Place
Bibliothèque nationale de France, département des manuscrits Paris
Description
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Title
Dynamics, Stability & Tradition: The Role of the Religions of Iranian Speakers in Central and Eastern Asia
Date
March 14 - 15, 2019
Place
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Description
Iranian speakers—especially Sogdians, Bactrians, and Khotanese—had their homeland in Central Asia. Especially the former two are known as the traders on the Silk Roads and dominated the trade route up to China. They had contact with various religions, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Christianity (especially the Church of the East, so-called Nestorianism), Buddhism and Islam through their trade activities.
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Title
UMR 7528/FRE 2018 SÉMINAIRE MONDES INDIENS
Date
March 20, 2019
Place
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Centre Censier
Description
The two Tocharian languages (A and B) are known from manuscripts discovered in oases, and mainly in the ruins of Buddhist monasteries, spread over a branch of the "Silk Road", north of the desert of Taklamakan, in Xinjiang, western China. Almost all of the manuscripts, on paper and in pustaka format, are of Buddhist content; there is also a significant number of documents in various formats, on paper and on wood, economic and administrative content, and inscriptions. The written testimonies of the "Tocharians" can be located between the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 11th century AD. The approximately 10,000 manuscript fragments and documents are kept in several libraries; Only 25% have been scientifically edited. The Buddhist texts already edited and translated, despite their materially fragmentary character, allow us to draw the main features of Tocharian Buddhism: attachment to the Sarvāstivādin school, mainly; texts translated from Sanskrit, but most often adapted more or less freely from the original; predominance relative narrative and dramatic texts on doctrinal and philosophical literature. The Tocharian literati were imbued with Indo-Buddhist culture and took up processes of Sanskrit poetics. The flowering of Tocharian Buddhism is contemporary with the development of Buddhist painting in this region. The “Tocharians” served as conduits of Buddhism during the first phase of Buddhism in Uyghur (Old Turkish) in the Turfan region, east of Xinjiang.
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Title
Conference
Date
March 5, 2019
Place
Wien Wiener Sprachgesellschaft, Universität Wien Autriche Autrice
Description
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erc european commission-project manuscript tocharian