With apologies for cross-posting, I would like to announce that the 3rd Winter School in Buddhist Textual Scholarship, jointly organised by the EFEO, the EPHE (Paris) and LMU Munich, will take place in early March at the EFEO Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This year, thanks to the critical support of the Khyentse Foundation, the programme will be expanded and cover 8 days of tuition, against 6 days in previous years. Tuition is free of charge, and the program will cover the costs of the overnight stay (9 nights) and lunch for 20 participants. Students with limited means or institutional support may further be eligible to one of the two travel grants. 

This may be of interest to MA and early-stage PhD students in Buddhist Studies, whether working on South Asia, the Tibetan cultural sphere, East Asia, or Mainland Southeast Asia. My colleagues and I would be grateful if you could pass on this announcement to interested students. 

You may find below further details about the programme and the application procedure. 

For further queries, please contact winterschool@efeo.net.

With best wishes, 

Vincent T. 

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3RD WINTER SCHOOL IN BUDDHIST TEXTUAL SCHOLARSHIP

Chiang Mai, 2–9 March 2026

EFEO, EPHE-PSL, LMU Munich, sponsored by the Khyentse Foundation

The Winter School in Buddhist Textual Scholarship is an intensive teaching program organized jointly by academics of the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) and the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE–PSL, Paris). It is offered to international postgraduate students carrying out research in the domain of Buddhist Studies, and will provide a solid grounding into philology, codicology, and epigraphy. Its focus will be on primary sources transmitted across the Buddhist world, with close consideration of their material dimension, their contexts of production, and their socio-religious functions. The course will introduce students to fieldwork and will allow them to hone their broader methodological approach as well as the skills specific to their area of research. The Winter School has a transregional dimension, with lecturers specializing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, China and Tibet.

The Winter School is organized by Gregory Kourilsky (EFEO), Costantino Moretti (EFEO), Marta Sernesi (EPHE & LMU) and VincentTournier (LMU).

The third edition of the Winter School will be held from March 2 to 9, 2026 at the EFEO center in Chiang Mai (Thailand). Tuition, lodging and lunch are free of charge.

Students interested in participating in the 3rd Winter School are invited to consult the details of the program on the LMU Indology and Tibetology website and to complete the online application form, available at the following link: 

https://forms.efeo.fr/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=853573&lang=en

The deadline for applications is 5 December 2025 (11:59 PM, Paris time). Admissions will be announced on 16 December 2025.