“Remembering the Present : Mindfulness in Buddhist Asia” by Julia L. Cassaniti (Les Carnets du CASE)

Julia L. Cassaniti, Remembering the Present : Mindfulness in Buddhist Asia, Cornell University Press, 2018

What is mindfulness, and how does it vary as a concept across different cultures? How does mindfulness find expression in practice in the Buddhist cultures of Southeast Asia? What role does mindfulness play in everyday life? J. L. Cassaniti answers these fundamental questions and more through an engaged ethnographic investigation of what it means to “remember the present” in a region strongly influenced by Buddhist thought.

Focusing on Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, Remembering the Present examines the meanings, practices, and purposes of mindfulness. Using the experiences of people in Buddhist monasteries, hospitals, markets, and homes in the region, Cassaniti shows how an attention to memory informs how people live today and how mindfulness is intimately tied to local constructions of time, affect, power, emotion, and selfhood. By looking at how these people incorporate Theravada Buddhism into their daily lives, Cassaniti provides a signal contribution to the psychological anthropology of religious experience.

Remembering the Present heeds the call made by researchers in the psychological sciences and the Buddhist side of mindfulness studies for better understandings of what mindfulness is and can be. Cassaniti addresses fundamental questions about selfhood, identity, and how a deeper appreciation of the many contexts and complexities intrinsic in sati (mindfulness in the Pali language) can help people lead richer, fuller, and healthier lives. Remembering the Present shows how mindfulness needs to be understood within the cultural and historical influences from which it has emerged.

Ecouter l’entretien avec Julia Cassaniti sur son livre : http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?gcoi=80140107114010

source: OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Sophie Hénon (14 juin 2018). Remembering the Present : Mindfulness in Buddhist Asia. Les carnets du CASE. Consulté le 31 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/m8ie

“Treasures from the the 17th and 18th VOC archive” by Sophie Hénon (Les Carnets du CASE)

Treasures from the the 17th and 18th VOC archive, Sejarah Nusantara, Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia

The paper archives created by the Dutch East India Company (VOC, 1602-1799) and dealing with its commercial operations in Asian waters are preserved in the national archives of Indonesia, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, South Africa and India. In particular, the archives in Jakarta contain thousands of documents originating from Asian persons, including many local rulers from around the Indonesian archipelago. The most voluminous collections spanning 2,000 metres are in the Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia (ANRI). On 9 March 2004, the archives of the VOC were included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

The 2.000 metres of archives in ANRI can be roughly divided into two sections:
1) The archives created in and formerly kept at Batavia Castle, the former headquarters of the VOC in Asia. This is the archive of the Supreme Government (the Governor-General and the ordinary Councillors of Dutch Asia).
2) The archives of local private and public institutions in Batavia.

For this digitalization and public access project, a selection had to be made. The Daily Journals of Batavia Castle which can be found in the archives of the Supreme Government were digitalized and published first. This series reflects the principle concerns of the Supreme Government.  Prominent here were internal Company affairs in matters as diverse as the general management of trade, personnel and financial affairs, shipping and logistics. The Supreme Government also dealt with all political and diplomatic affairs, the administration of justice and correspondence with other VOC factories in Asia as well as the VOC Chambers and their Governing Board, theso-called Gentlemen Seventeen (Heren XVII) or Directors of the VOC  in the Dutch Republic. The Daily Journals were created to maintain an ongoing overview of such activities.

During the course of the eighteenth century, the Resolution Books of the Supreme Government became more and more important and voluminous while the registration of correspondence in the Daily Journals gradually declined. In particular, the handling of all matters to do with the regional establishments of the Company were included in the General Resolution Books. In 1743, such matters were recorded in a separate yearbook, giving birth to a separate series: the General (Foreign) Affairs Books (Net-Generale Besogneboeken).

Another, hitherto unresearched and historically unique series are the Appendices to the General Resolution Books. These total together some 742 volumes numbering some 550,000 folio pages. This series contain a variety of documents which may gradually become accessible via a special database. The first document descriptions for this database were started in 2013 by ANRI’s Content Team (see organisation).

Liste des archives consultables moyennant une inscription sur le site:

  • General Resolutions of Batavia Castle 1613-1810
  • Realia 1610-1808
  • Appendices to General Resolutions 1686-1811
  • The Placards of Batavia Castle 1602-1808
  • Daily Journals of Batavia Castle 1624-1806
  • Marginalia to the Daily Journals 1659-1807
  • Diplomatic Letters 1625-1812
  • Corpus Diplomaticum 1595-1799

Plus d’informations sur : https://sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id/archive/

source: Sophie Hénon (30 octobre 2017). Treasures from the the 17th and 18th VOC archive. Les carnets du CASE. Consulté le 31 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/m8fb

“The Tale of Prince Vessantara at the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford)” by Sophie Hénon (Les Carnets du CASE)

« The Tale of Prince Vessantara », until 09 September 2018, Ashmolean Museum (University of Oxford)

The Buddha is believed to have had many lives before being born as Siddhartha Gautama. Stories of his past lives are known as jatakas (‘birth stories’). They play an important role in teaching Buddhist values.

The Vessantara Jataka is the last and most popular of the jataka tales. Here the Buddha was born as Prince Vessantara of the Sivi Kingdom, a very generous man who gave away everything, including his wife and children, to help others. His actions demonstrate the virtue of generosity, which in Buddhism is one of the ‘perfections’ required to achieve enlightenment.

The tale is often illustrated in Southeast Asian and Sri Lankan art. Buddhists can gain merit by making and commissioning these images. This display, drawn from the Ashmolean’s own collection, highlights a selection of Burmese and Sri Lankan drawings, paintings and woodcarvings of the story dating to the 19th century.

Curator : Dr Farouk Yahya

Voir : https://www.ashmolean.org/event/the-tale-of-prince-vessantara

Source: OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Sophie Hénon (23 avril 2018). The Tale of Prince Vessantara at the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford). Les carnets du CASE. Consulté le 31 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/m8ho

“Myanmar’s Tamils seek to protect their identity” by Swaminathan Natarajan

“People of Indian origin make up of roughly 2% of Myanmar’s 55-million population, but the experiences of Tamil people – who comprise the largest group – have veered from one extreme to the other in the past 200 years. After independence in 1948, the introduction of land reforms, the imposition of the Burmese language and the decision to give preferential treatment to the majority Burmese community pushed Tamils down in the social hierarchy. They are now trying to revive their language and culture by opening new schools.”

Myanmar also used to be home to a seizable Ceylon Tamil population of whom many later returned after independence as refugees to Jaffna and other parts of North and East.

via: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25438275

source: www.bbc.com