EFEO experts work on the restoration of antiques at the Da Nang Cham Culture Museum. -- Photo courtesy the French Embassy

HA NOI (VNS) — A series of events will be held in Ha Noi to mark the century-long research in Viet Nam of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient (French School of the Far East – EFEO).

The activities will be organised from December 3 to 6, with the support of the French Embassy.

An exhibition entitled Objective Viet Nam through Photographs of the EFEO will open at the National Museum of History and the French cultural centre L'Espace. It will review EFEO's activities and research about the Viet Nam's civilisation and history.

Another exhibition that focuses on EFEO's documents and field trips in Viet Nam will be held at the University of Social Sciences of Ha Noi (USSH).

International conferences and associated events will bring together distinguished scholars and researchers, both French and Vietnamese. Speakers will include Nguyen Van Khanh, the USSH rector, and Prof Phan Huy Le, president of the Association of Historians in Viet Nam.

Director of EFEO Yves Goudineau and Prof Leon Vandermeerch, the last EFEO member to leave Ha Noi in 1959 and principal architect of EFEO's reopening in Ha Noi in 1993, will also attend the events. Vandermeerch was also the then director of EFEO.

The conferences will focus on the diversity of EFEO's activities since its establishment in Sai Gon in 1900, and its work for the preservation of Vietnamese artistic and archaeological heritage.

The Vietnamese audience will have a chance to enjoy the documentary film Angkor, the Baphuon Adventure that will be screened at L'Espace, and a discussion that will follow with Didier Fassio, the documentary's director.

On the occasion, a bilingual publication on the history of EFEO in Viet Nam will be released.

EFEO mainly focused on history, archaeology and philology, as well as the study of modern Asian societies.

Operating in 12 countries, including India and Japan, the institute is seen as a reference for interdisciplinary research on Asian societies and civilisations. — VNS