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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 1d

Ringing bells, chanting voices, beating drums – there is a multitude of sounds accompanying the procession of an Indian prince in this drawing. Let’s bring on the music! (Artwork 050.001)

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 5d

New blogpost paying tribute to our member, Raymond Head, the creator of the Society's catalogue or art collections who sadly passed away last month: royalasiaticsociety.org/remembering-...

Remembering Raymond Head (1948–2025)

Friends of the Society may be aware that our member, Raymond Head, sadly passed away last month at the age of 77. Raymond first joined the Society in 1977 and was associated with the Society mainly th...

royalasiaticsociety.org

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 6d

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 6d

🌟 What can your #zodiac sign tell you? Phrommachat is a type of Thai divination manual traditionally used for fortune-telling and match-making, and contains information about each of the 12 zodiac animals... (RAS Thai MS 10B)

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 8d

Upcoming lecture on 9 October by Prof Tirthankar Roy on the debate over state building in Bengal and the wider institutional reforms in late-18th century India. Details: tinyurl.com/ras-251009

Prof Tirthankar Roy – Building a state in late-18th century India: Revisiting the Permanent Settlement debate

Date: 9 October 2025 (Thursday)

tinyurl.com

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 12d

Latest blogpost on an interesting item in our Archives - a dinner menu for the 1889 International Congress of Orientalists. Check out how iconic dishes around the globe are celebrated in different ancient and modern Asian languages! royalasiaticsociety.org/language-and...

Language and Culinary Culture – Dinner Menu for International Congress of Orientalists

Some time ago, a researcher visited us to consult the papers of the International Congress of Orientalists held in our collections. Although these papers are classified as part of our institutional ar...

royalasiaticsociety.org

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 13d

An overview of what's on in October at the RAS - a series of exciting public lectures and book launch events coming up and we hope to see you there!

Details: royalasiaticsociety.org/lectures-eve...

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 13d

Happening this evening!

Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 27d

Upcoming lecture on Thursday, 25 Sept on the #Zoroastrian communities in India and Iran and Britain's role in their relationships in the early 20th century. Come and join us! Details: tinyurl.com/ras-20250925

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 20d

Did you know #PinkFloyd’s song ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ has a connection with Chinese poetry? The line 'One inch of love is one inch of shadow' was inspired by a poem by Li Shangyin, translated into English by Welsh scholar Angus Charles Graham. (Archives ACG)

Photo of Angus C. Graham. Label on the reverse reads ‘to see the world in a grain of sand…’

Graham’s draft translation of Li Shangyin’s untitled poem, showing amendments to the last stanza

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 22d

The April edition of our Journal is now available online! Seven articles are free for anyone to read via Open Access. From Indian nationalism to the Islamic tradition of renunciant piety, we hope there will be something that inspires you!

royalasiaticsociety.org/april-editio...

April Edition of JRAS Now Available Online

I am pleased to say that the April edition of the 2025 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society has now been made available online on Cambridge Core. Fellows of our Society enjoy free access to all curren...

royalasiaticsociety.org

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 27d

Upcoming lecture on Thursday, 25 Sept on the #Zoroastrian communities in India and Iran and Britain's role in their relationships in the early 20th century. Come and join us! Details: tinyurl.com/ras-20250925

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · 29d

A colossal statue located in the Satpura Range in central India - possibly of Lord Rishabhadeva, a spiritual figure in Jainism. This 84-foot statue stands in its iconic meditative posture among the temples in Bawangaja, an important Jain pilgrimage site. (Artwork 028.001)

Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Sep 5

New blog post on a Chinese magazine published in China in the 1830s and their interesting contents, including this stunning celestial map of northern constellations - follow the link to read the full post!
royalasiaticsociety.org/early-19th-c...

Early-19th-Century Chinese Magazine and Gulistan of Sa’di in Hong Kong

I feel like the blog has become a space for me to share my spontaneous discoveries in the Library (which I very much enjoy!). Having grown up in Hong Kong, I have a natural predilection for East Asian...

royalasiaticsociety.org

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Sep 4

Join us on 18 Sept for a lecture on Dvāravatī studies, where speaker Nicolas Revire will trace how scholarship has framed our understanding of this ancient Buddhist civilisation in present-day Thailand. Details: tinyurl.com/ras-250918

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Sep 2

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Sep 2

#ManuscriptoftheMonth for this month features a set of 92 rules for writing the Chinese characters correctly, proposed by Sir John Francis Davis in his 1824 essay. The number of rules may seem daunting, but thankfully they are illustrated with examples! (RAS Chinese 9)

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 28

We are thrilled to announce a series of public lectures on Japanese studies over 2025-26, co-hosted with the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. Details of the opening lecture on 9 September: tinyurl.com/ras0909

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 26

And here's a selection of drawings from our collections to help illustrate the socio-economic change mentioned in the podcast...enjoy!

Seller of attar of roses, sandalwood and sweet scents (Artwork 015.070)

Baboo, a steward who transacts money business (Artwork 015.073)

Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 26

Our Fellow Dr Jagjeet Lally, Associate Professor at UCL History Department (@uclhistory.bsky.social), recently appeared in the BBC’s ‘You’re Dead to Me’ podcast series, in an episode entitled ‘India Between Empires: The Long 18th Century’: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

You're Dead to Me - India between empires: the long 18th century - BBC Sounds

Join Greg and his guests to learn about India’s dynamic 18th century.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 22

🎉Our 2025-26 Lecture Series is starting next month! Read more about our upcoming lecture on Dvāravatī, an ancient civilisation in present-day Thailand, and the associated items in our collections in this new blog post: royalasiaticsociety.org/upcoming-lec...

Upcoming Lecture on Dvāravatī and Associated Collections

As the new academic year is fast approaching, the Society is programming an exciting line-up of lectures for the 2025-26 Lecture Series, which will kickstart in September. We are delighted to announce...

royalasiaticsociety.org

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 21

British archaeologist Reginald Campbell Thompson was born #onthisday in 1876. He is known for excavating ancient sites in Iraq, notably in the city of Nineveh, where he discovered the remains of the Temple of Nabu.

Portrait of Reginald Campbell Thompson, by Walter Stoneman, July 1934, NPG x169176 © National Portrait Gallery, London

Glass slides showing excavation at Nineveh, 1927–1932

Extract of a notebook of Reginald Campbell Thompson, documenting his trip to Egypt, 1902

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 15

Recent discovery of two copies of the Imperially Commissioned Illustrations of Tilling and Weaving in our collection. The book was first printed in 1696 in China, and has been widely cherished ever since. Read more in the full post!

royalasiaticsociety.org/an-ode-to-or...

An Ode to Ordinary People – Imperially Commissioned Illustrations of Tilling and Weaving

Every now and then I enjoy opening a random box on the shelf and get my teeth into something that is yet to be processed. Last week, as I was cataloguing some prints and drawings (more information in ...

royalasiaticsociety.org

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 12

🐘It’s #WorldElephantDay today, an occasion celebrated since 2012 to raise awareness about protecting the species. But the idea of saving elephants seems to have a parallel in mythology...as seen in this remarkable painting made in Kathmandu in around 1823. (Artwork 022.066)

Vishnu flying on Garuda to rescue the royal elephant that has become entangled with a water creature

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 8

Do world religions have more in common than difference? Chinese goddess Pusa depicted as Isis, the Egyptian goddess, sitting on a lotus flower above a stormy sea. By French engraver Bernard Picart. (Artwork 097)

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Royal Asiatic Society @royalasiaticsoc.bsky.social · Aug 5

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