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Miksic (2019/1/29), What more can archaeology tell us about Singapore’s past?

John N. Miksic. 29 January 2019. ‘What More Can Archaeology Tell Us About Singapore’s Past?’ Lecture in the series ‘1819 and Before: Singapore’s Pasts’, commemorating Singapore’s bicentennial anniversary. ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. [official info]

John Miksic National Library Singapore
John Miksic speaking at the National Library, Singapore. November 2018.

Abstract
This month marks the 35th anniversary of Singapore’s first archaeological excavation and the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the British under Sir T.S. Raffles. Since then, over half a million artefacts have been recovered from Singapore. These cover two periods: the Temasek era (14th to 16th century) and the Singapore era (1819-present). The artefacts from these excavations have succeeded in proving that Singapore had a sophisticated multicultural society and complex economy before 1350. Continue reading “Miksic (2019/1/29), What more can archaeology tell us about Singapore’s past?”

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Tanaka (2018), Mañjuvajramukhyākhyāna

Tanaka, Kimiaki (田中公明). 2018. Mañjuvajramukhyākhyāna: Introduction, Romanized Sanskrit Text and Related Articles (Bonbun monju kongō kuden kenkyū 梵文「文殊金剛口伝」研究). Tokyo: Watanabeshuppan 渡辺出版, 2018.

Mañjuvajramukhyākhyāna

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Acri (2018), Nusantara in the Sanskritic Buddhist Cosmopolis

Andrea Acri. 2018. ‘The place of Nusantara in the Sanskritic Buddhist Cosmopolis’. TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia 6 (2), pp. 139-166. doi:10.1017/trn.2018.5 [academia]


From the Abstract
This article synthesizes and links together evidence published thus far in secondary literature in order to highlight the contribution of Nusantara to the genesis and circulation of various forms of Sanskritic Buddhism across Asia from the fifth to the fourteenth century. It places particular emphasis on its expansion via maritime routes. Continue reading “Acri (2018), Nusantara in the Sanskritic Buddhist Cosmopolis”

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A Pracalita Nepalese Unicode font (2018)

The Unicode codeblock for the pracalita Nepalese script (“Newa”) now has at least one font in alpha: Noto Sans Newa (git), under the Noto Sans family. At the present time there is little support for the encoding outside web browsers. A working example was tweeted this month by Supriya Manandhar (@patansoup).

Screenshot of Noto Sans Newa repertoire (credit: @patansoup)

Remarks on the font have been posted from within Nepal (by Ananda K. Maharjan), which point out just a few of the issues needing to be fixed. There is a lot to be desired about this font and the encoding in general, but at least we now have something to work with.
Test: 𑐣𑐾𑐰𑐵𑐬

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Walker (2018), Unfolding Buddhism: Cambodian chanted leporellos

Trent Thomas Walker. 2018. ‘Unfolding Buddhism: Communal Scripts, Localized Translations, and the Work of the Dying in Cambodian Chanted Leporellos.’ PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley. 2+xix+1628 pp. [PDF view] [dissertation website] [author’s website]

Unhissavijaya MS Or 13703
Uṇhissavijaya (*Uṣṇīṣavijayā) MS Brit Lib Or 13703 (Walker 2018:187 fig.4.4.1.1)
Continue reading “Walker (2018), Unfolding Buddhism: Cambodian chanted leporellos”

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Tomabechi (2017) & Tanaka (2017) on the Āmnāyamañjarī

वैशाखपूर्णिमायां सुखितं भवन्तु॥

Tomabechi, Toru (苫米地 等流). 2017. ‘Abhayākaragupta作Āmnāyamañjarī 所引文献―新出梵文資料・第１〜４章より (Quotations in Abhayākaragupta’s Āmnāyamañjarī Chapters 1-4 (Extracted from a Newly Available Sanskrit-Tibetan Bilingual Manuscript))’. 『綜合仏教研究所年報』 (Annual of The Institute for Comprehensive Studies of Buddhism, Taisho University) 39, 99–136. [repo] [PDF]

Update (2018/5/11): On the MS and its facsimile edition, see also—

Tanaka, Kimiaki (田中 公明). 2017. ‘アームナーヤ・マンジャリーの新資料 (New Material on the Āmnāyamañjarī)’. 『東洋文化研究所紀要』 (The memoirs of Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia) 172, 37–48. [repo] [PDF]

NB: Quotations from the following Sanskrit texts are extracted from the publication earlier noticed here: Continue reading “Tomabechi (2017) & Tanaka (2017) on the Āmnāyamañjarī”