Reconnecting Balinese Manuscripts with Local Voices: WikiSami University Workshops in Bali diff.wikimedia.org/2026/03/28/r...

WaPo image of light pollution in low-orbit space.

Still time to submit comments to the FCC in opposition to Reflect Orbital's request for approval to help put a million orbital data centers into space: aas.org/posts/advoca...
(SpaceX also has filed to do so, but the deadline for public comments has passed.) If you care, speak up!

TOC of JASPA 146.1 (2026).

Issue 146:1 of JASPA (former JAOS) is out online lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/ja...: on quranic reading in Andalus, holy tombs in Cairo, Tamil temple endowments, vratyas in Atharva Veda, military bounties in China, Mori Ōgai’s Dancing Girl, child-slaves in Egypt, Sumerian wordplay, & more!

This talk by Vasudha Narayanan on connections between India and Cambodia in 1st millennium religion and art will be worth tuning in for. www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/en/events-at...

My article on kinship ties, Buddhism, and early medieval states has just been published. Available open access: doi.org/10.1163/9789...

"Under the Spell of the Batur Volcano," a fascinating study by Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin of a Balinese Hindu temple beside Lake Batur in the caldera of a volcano came out days before I drove a scooter up the twisting road from the coast to see it (pics below). OA Book link: brill.com/display/titl...

Cover of JAOS 145.4, with table of contents

Issue 145:4 of the JAOS is out online doi.org/10.7817/jaos... , with articles on: Yahwists in Elephantine, oracular law in Assyria, syntax in Qur'anic interpretation, r vs rr in Khotan, Mongol text of the 1413 Tyr stele, Old Chinese parts of speech, Song dynasty incense trade, and more!

Cover of "Early Āndhradeśa," showing fragment of toraṇa architrave at Phanigiri.

11 in-depth studies on inscriptions from early Āndhradeśa in South India, touching on coins, pottery, grant charters, memorial stones, and religious pluralism (Buddhist, Jainist, and Hindu). Open Access download from Brill: brill.com/edcollbook-o... (this is v. 2, the studies; v. 1, also available).

ASPA1846.org home page

The American Society for Premodern Asia web portal is now live on our new domain name: www.aspa1842.org

Buddha head with nimbus from Berenike

Astonishing finds excavated at Berenike in Egypt include Buddha images & other artifacts from India and some made locally in Indian style, plus a bilingual Sanskrit & Greek dedicatory inscription found near a marble Buddha head in an Isis temple courtyard.
publications.dainst.org/journals/jdi...

Cover of Wacana journal, vol. 26.3 (2025), with illustrated manuscript page showing a battle scene.

Important group of new studies on the "Kawi culture" that grew out of the use of the Old Javanese in the 8th-15th c. as a cosmopolitan vernacular by speakers of various languages, esp. in Java & Bali. Lots of exciting new work in this field. Wacana 26(3), free download: scholarhub.ui.ac.id/wacana/

Cover of The New Yorker with Zohran!

Edel Rodriguez’s “Mayor Mamdani” (November 4, 2025) www.newyorker.com/culture/cove...

東文研セミナー 「Customary Legalism: Rules of Law in Early India, Java, and Bali (A Lecture by Prof. Timothy Lubin)」が開催されました 報告 2025年9月24日に、当研究所訪問研究員であるTimothy Lubin教授（Washington and Lee University）を講師とする東文研セミナー「Customary Legalism: Rules of Law in Early India, Java, and Bali 」を開催した。

Few examples suvive of written statute law from early S&SE Asia, but I propose that one might infer the existence of generally applicable, enforceable laws from immunities granted in charters: "Customary Legalism: Rules of Law in Early India, Java, and Bali" www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/news/news.ph...

screenshot of Academia.edu AI Settings

For what it's worth, in Account Settings > AI Settings you can opt out of AI use of your Academia.edu uploads

Rioting and arson have engulfed Kathmandu in the wake of the govt's aborted attempt to censor or block access to social media. These brave souls sat out to protect Nepal's cultural heritage.

"Map of the Dominions of the House of Gorkha" by B. Hamilton (1819)

Provincialising Dharma: Studies on Legal Issues in the Himalaya, a collection of essays exploring the Himalayan regional dimensions of dharma, historically & today, is out: www.asiainstitutetorino.it/cis/CIS_10.pdf including my piece, "Sacred Law as a Device of State-Building in Gorkhali Nepal."

JAOS 145.3 is out: doi.org/10.7817/jaos..., articles on: autobiog of becoming, Ming women's anger, an old term for foreigners in China, cuneiform word lists, neo-Babylonian chronicles, the epic of Aqhat, Tabari's poetic license, bustling Buddhist monasteries, the aims of Sanskrit doxography, & more!

"‘Yala Toilet Frog’ named for departing Tea Board chairman." “I’m deeply gratified...” says Pethiyagoda. "If [those I've annoyed find] a frog in the toilet, I'm sure their actions will speak louder than words. Or they can simply drop the matter.”

archives1.dailynews.lk/2018/03/21/l...

That scam is seems designed to push people toward pirate copies. Since I don't *have* to use textbooks in my (non-Sanskrit) classes, I avoid them -- and any ludicrously costly books.

Issue 145:2 of the JAOS is out online: doi.org/10.7817/jaos... with articles on: Regal code-switching in the Deccan, r-clusters in Gandhari, omens in Song shu, 3 Qing compendia on cats, the Semitic perfect tense, Joseph in Egypt, counting lines in Erra, basmala as cosmic design, and gendering sex!

Violence in the Library Abstract There are mounting campaigns to repatriate cultural heritage objects that were wrongfully seized under colonial rule. Studying the history of these objects before their encounters with coloni...

Superb new OA article by Jarrah Sastrawan sorts through the complex issues of provenance, "ownership," and violence as they bear on #cultural #heritage claims & repatriation, by exploring the precolonial history of the "Lombok Treasure" & "Lombok Collection" of manuscripts. doi.org/10.1163/2213...

The Babylonian Map of the World with Irving Finkel | Curator’s Corner S9 Ep5 YouTube video by The British Museum

A delightful bit on the world's oldest map of the world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUxF...

Dumb toothbrushes are still an option, even in the 21st century.

You should not regret it! I've read the dissertation and found it informative & enjoyable, w an artfully done translation. It opens up a fascinating but little-known world to your readers. Maybe as a career move, it did not work out as planned ... but you wrote an excellent book! Never a bad thing.

Detail of "Map of the Dominions of the House of Gorkha," by Buchanan Hamilton (1819)

Posted a forthcoming study of how the Gorkha kings deployed Hindu sacred law (dharma) in 18th- & early 19th-c. Nepal to integrate ethnic groups as castes within a multiethnic kingdom — in the shadow of late Mughal/early Company-raj India.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Harvard University Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders who make a difference globally.

To everyone (justifiably) applauding @harvard.edu 's response to the fed. administration's demands: that letter is only part of the story. Harvard's new website went public in coordination with Harvard Pres. #AlanGarber 's letter. It's completely revamped--and it's brilliant. www.harvard.edu. (1/8)

Pranaya Rana on Nepal’s royalist resurgence: State of Southasia #21 In early March this year, a massive gathering of some 10,000 royalist supporters gathered to greet Nepal's former king, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, as he returne

After the decades of agony that uprooted the monarchy at last, violent agitation to restore it cannot be merely "the people’s discontent with Nepal's political establishment." The yearning for a king is the yearning for the old order by those who benefited from it. www.himalmag.com/podcast/nepa...

Over 250-years-old Mughal document throws light on tax waiver for pilgrims at Allahabad Discover a 250-year-old firman from Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II granting religious autonomy to Ganga pilgrims.

Fascinating Mughal order reveals a history of 18th century India the right-wing doesn’t want you to know!

At the 235th Meeting yesterday, we voted to continue our work under a new name: the American Society for Premodern Asia. We invite all scholars who work on languages, literatures, history, and material culture of West, Central, South, and East Asia, and North Africa join us! #ancient #medieval #asia