SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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A book titled ”Kammu – om ett folk i Laos” was published by the Society for Lund University History (Lunds universitetshistoriska Sällskap) as its yearbook 2006. Edited by Håkan Lundström and Jan-Olof Svantesson, it features several essays by Kristina Lindell and her colleagues involved in the Kammu project during 25 years. More information in an article in LUM 10/2005 (in Swedish only)

Kristina Lindell in memoriam:

Kristina Lindell, 1928-2005

Kristina Lindell, renowned scholar of Asian folklore, linguistics and culture at Lund University, internationally well known in particular for her long-term research on and engagement for the culture of the Kammu people of Southeast Asia, passed away on February 8, 2005, in Lund, Sweden. A memorial service will be held in nearby Limhamn, on Thursday 24 February. The cause was cancer, which she had previously battled and proudly survived. She is survived by her brother Ebbe Lindell, retired professor of psychology and pedagogy.
Kristina Lindell was born in Lund in 1928, and Lund university was for many years the home base for her wide-ranging research in Asia, which earned her an honorary doctorate, the prestigious Rausing prize. Kristina Lindell contributed decisively and long-term to the establishment and development of Asian studies at Lund University, including its department for Asian languages and its center for East and Southeast Asian Studies, from the 1970s and onwards. She also earned a Thai order for her efforts in promoting the teaching of Thai at Lund. She was a superb teacher, not least in languages, an outstanding academic leader and administrator, and an accomplished Sinologist, linguist and Asian folklorist with broad interest and knowledge in many adjacent fields. She was also a warm, colorful and distinctive person whose house was always open to visitors, a producer of wonderful children's books, and an inspiration in scholarly perseverance, curiosity, and dedication for her many students in a host of different fields.
For the ongoing research concerning the culture of the Kammu people in Laos and other parts of northern Southeast Asia, led for many years by Kristina Lindell and in recent years centered at the Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University, see the Project website: http://www.ling.lu.se/research/profileareas/KammuResearch/
This site contains a wide-ranging bibliography regarding Kammu heritage, including folklore, music, religion and divination, language and the overall experience of an indigenous people, as well as a text on ”How to Enter a Kammu Village and Work with Kammu People” by Damrong Tayanin and Kristina Lindell. The text is characteristic not only for the tell-tale
emphasis on collaboration – Damrong Tayanin, an accomplished, equally multilingual scholar of Kammu origin, has collaborated with Kristina since the 1970s – (see his Kammu webpage, http://www.ling.lu.se/persons/Damrong/kammu.html ), but also for how it suggests Kristina's related, indeed inseparable emphasis on cultural aspects of manners in Asian societies, which always informed both her interaction with interlocutors and colleagues and her scholarly writings, including on topics such as Chinese concepts of female beauty.
Full obituaries are forthcoming both in Sweden and internationally.

Magnus Fiskesjö, Visitor, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA, and

Anna Källén, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University;
Anna Karlström, Dept of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University;
Gisela Tayanin, Krister Kam, Danny Kam, and Damrong Tayanin, Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund
University;
Jan-Öjvind Swahn, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Ethnology, Lund University;
Håkan Lundström, Dean, Malmo Academies of Performing Arts, Lund University;
Jan-Olof.Svantesson, Professor, Dept. of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University;
Arthur Holmer, Dept. of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University;
Li Daoyong, Central Institute for Nationalities, Beijing, China;
Chatarina Lentz and Mattias Lentz, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Stockholm;
Elisabet Lind, Associated Senior Researcher, Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm;
Marina Svensson, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University;
Douglas Bratthall, Professor emeritus, WHO Collaborating Centre, Malmö university