Nalanda centre to open in Singapore

dulp

Friday Aug 7, 2009

EVEN before the Nalanda International University is set up in India, a satellite centre has opened in Singapore. The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies will be launched next week, said its director Tansen Sen yesterday.

It aims to study ways in which Asian societies have interacted over time. It will hold conferences on topics like Buddhism across Asia and a China-South Asia forum.

Dr Sen said the focus is not only on India and China, two countries which have attracted global attention. There is also the 'Sriwijaya idea' of South-east Asia as a place of mediation and linkages among the great civilisations, he said. Sriwijaya was a Malay kingdom on the island of Sumatra.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo will officially open the centre on Tuesday.

Both men are on the Nalanda Mentor Group, set up in 2007 to revive the Nalanda International University in India's Bihar state.

The site in the ancient city of Nalanda is a reincarnation of the world's first residential university which existed 2,500 years ago.

The new university is likely to open two years after an agreement is inked by member countries of the East Asia Summit, said Dr Sen. But the signing ceremony earlier this year was delayed as the summit in Thailand had to be postponed due to riots.

The agreement will decide on how the university is run, and the role of the member countries in funding and governing it.

For now, the Singapore centre and Thailand's Chulalongkorn University will act as satellite centres. The Singapore centre was set up with funds mainly from Singapore Buddhist Lodge which gave $1.3 million. Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Lee Foundation are also patrons.

dulp

From:
http://www.iseas.edu.sg/nsc/pres ... _centre_to_open.htm

dulp

新加坡東南亞研究所那蘭陀室利佛逝國中心落成啟用
 

據《newkerala》報道，2009年8月11日，由新加坡居士林、新加坡外交部以及新加坡李氏基金會出資建立的新加坡東南亞研究所「那蘭陀—室利佛逝國」中心正式落成啟用。諾貝爾經濟學獎得主阿馬蒂亞·森（Amartya Sen）和新加坡外交部長楊榮文主持啟用典禮。

據悉，阿馬蒂亞·森和楊榮文兩位皆為2007年為復興那蘭陀大學而建立的那蘭陀顧問團的成員。

該中心負責人表示該中心的主要目的是挖掘古代亞洲社會各方面文化交流的「蛛絲馬跡」，以作借古鑒今之用。研究區域主要集中在印度、中國、東南亞國家以及曾位於蘇門答臘島的古代馬來王國——室利佛逝國。

據悉，新加坡將於2011年復原2500年前的古那蘭陀研究所，建立那蘭陀國際大學。

dulp

The centre named ''Nalanda-Sriwijaya'' at the Institute of South Asian Studies would open next Tuesday, almost two years ahead of the revival of Nalanda International University, a reincarnation of the institution that existed about 2,500 years ago in the ancient city of Nalanda.

The centre is being funded by the Singapore Buddhist Lodge, the Foreign Ministry and the Lee Foundation in Singapore, according to a report in the Straits Times today.

The centre aims to study ways in which Asian societies have interacted over time, its director Dr Tansen Sen said.

He explained that the focus would be on India, China and Southeast Asia, as well as the ancient Malay kingdom of ''Sriwijaya,'' which was based on the Sumatra Island.

Noble laureate Amartya Sen and Singapore Foreign Minister Mr George Yeo would officiate the opening of the centre. The two are also members of the Nalanda Mentor Group, which was set up in 2007 to revive the Nalanda University.

walkman2k

好消息。