- ABOUT IHSSABOUT IHSS
- PEOPLE
- NEWS & EVENTSNEWS & EVENTS
- RESEARCHRESEARCH
- FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTSFELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
- TEACHING & LEARNINGTEACHING & LEARNING
- PUBLICATIONSPUBLICATIONS
JOSEBA ESTEVEZ 周思博
PhD in Social Anthropology, University of Münster, Germany.
Research Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Joseba Estevez is a social anthropologist and Research Assistant Professor at the “Asian Religious Connections (ASIAR)” cluster within the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HKIHSS), The University of Hong Kong. Estevez’s award-winning research, “Conquering Demons, Taming the Forest: The Ritual Roles of the Lanten Yao Priests and Masters”, was recognized with the 2024 Frobenius Research Award—top honour for anthropological scholarship in the German-speaking countries (namely, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland). His work unravels the intricate roles of Daoist ritual experts among the Lanten Yao (Mun) communities, with whom he lived and worked for over a decade in northern Laos’s Luang Namtha Province. Since 2023, he has expanded his fieldwork to illuminate new dimensions of social transformation and cultural resilience.
Estevez’s academic curiosity spans rituals, cosmology, exchange, social morphology, animism, Buddhism, Chinese popular religion, and Daoism. His regional focus is mainland Southeast Asia, especially the borderlands of China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. Beyond the field, he is a pioneer in digital heritage preservation, leading projects like the “Digital Library of the Lanten Textual Heritage” (Endangered Archives Programme, British Library, 2015–2020), “The Lanten Oral Stories” (BEQUAL, EU, Australian Aid, 2017–2020), and the “Lanten Digital Archive”—a rich multimedia collection developed with Creative Seven Arts (EU, HKU, 2018-present).
Today, Dr. Estevez spearheads the international YAO DAO Project, establishing a reference centre for Yao Daoist studies. As Deputy Director of the Global Society and Sustainability Lab (GSSL) and a key member of the Global China Local Cultures initiative, he explores the local impacts of the Laos-China Railway, smart cities, SEZs, and megaprojects, offering fresh insights into the interplay of tradition and modernity in Southeast Asia. His work continues to shape conversations about heritage, community, infrastructure, and sustainable development.
In addition, in cooperation with the University of Hamburg, he participates in the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts” (2019-2025) with the mapping of the Daoist manuscripts exchange networks in the Southeast Asian Massif during the 19th century and the role of German sinology in the development of the Yao Studies during the late Qing dynasty and the Republican Era in China (framework 1850-1949). Together with the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS), Heidelberg University, he is completing the digitization of the Yao Manuscript Collections in Heidelberg (Germany) and Leiden (The Netherlands), funded by the project Chinese Folklore Resources Overseas, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. In cooperation with the National University of Singapore, within the framework “Singapore Smart City and ASEAN Smart City Network” (2023-2025), he is studying the Smart Cities in Nateuy and Namor in North Laos, promoted by the Thai-Japanese AMATA Group, and the Songkhla-Chana Smart City project in South Thailand.
CONTACT
Room 112, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 3917-8112
Fax: (852) 2559-6143
Email: joseba@hku.hk
(co-author with Michael Friedrich) German scholars in China and Japan in the 19th and 20th Centuries and their contribution to the Yao Studies (with selected translations). Berlin: de Gruyter. Forthcoming
(co-editor with Agnieszka Helman-Wazny and Charles Ramble) Manuscript flows in Highland Asia: Social Networks and Material Culture. Berlin: de Gruyter. Forthcoming
(with Helman-Wazny and Charles Ramble) ‘Introduction to Manuscript flows in Highland Asia’, in Agnieszka Helman-Wazny, Joseba Estevez, and Charles Ramble (eds.) Manuscript flows in Highland Asia: Social Networks and Material Culture. Berlin: de Gruyter. Forthcoming
‘Mapping caravan networks and the flow of Daoist manuscripts in the Upper Mekong Region during the 19th and 20th Centuries: The Lanten Yao case’, in Agnieszka Helman-Wazny, Joseba Estevez, and Charles Ramble (eds.) Manuscript flows in Highland Asia: Social Networks and Material Culture. Berlin: de Gruyter. Forthcoming
‘The Manuscripts of the Lanten Yao: Ritual objects in the production and transmission of ritual knowledge’, in Manuscript Cultures. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg, forthcoming.
Conquering Demons, Taming the Forest: The ritual roles of the Lanten Priests and Masters. PhD. Diss., social anthropology. University of Münster, 2023. Frobenius Prize 2024 to the best anthropological research in the German-speaking countries, namely Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Forthcoming.
“On the Lanten Methods to Fetch the Hon or Living Force of the Original Rice”, in David Holm (ed.) Vernacular Character Manuscripts and Scripts from East and Southeast Asia. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2024.
(with Palmer, David A.) “Ritual, war, opium: Infrastructural sedimentations in the ethnography of the Mun (Lanten Yao) of Laos”, in Proceedings of the BRINFAITH Workshop on The Sacred Dimensions of the BRI’s Infrastructural Commons. Special Issue in Modern Asia Studies (MAS), 2024.
老撾藍靛瑤文庫:探討文本收集、編目、分類和評估的方法與相關問題∗郭慧雯、周思博 (Joseba Estevez),安蔚, 孫嘉玥, 宗樹人(David A. Palmer). 華人宗教研究 第十九期 2022 年 1 月 頁 1~56 The Lanten Yao Library in Laos: Exploring the Methods and Related Issues of the Text Collection, Cataloguing, Classification and Evaluation, by Guo Huiwen, Zhou Sibo (Joseba Estévez), An Wei, Sun Jiayue, Zong Shuren (David A. Palmer), special Issue, Chinese Religious Studies, 2022.
藍靛瑤手抄本:儀式知識傳承中的法器, 周思博 (Joseba Estevez). 華人宗教研究 第十九期 2022 年 1 月 頁 1~56 (The Manuscripts of the Lanten Yao: Ritual objects in the production and transmission of ritual knowledge), special Issue, Chinese Religious Studies, 2022.
(with Yangnouvong, Khantamaly, eds.) The Lanten Stories [13 volumes]. Vientiane: Phankam Jampa, 2020.
“On Becoming a Ritual Expert among the Lanten (Yao Mun) of Laos”, in Jos Platenkamp and Almut Schneider (eds.) Integrating Strangers in Society: Perspectives from Elsewhere. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
“Learning Shamanistic Healing among the Lanten (Yao Mun) of Laos”, in Global Modernities and the (Re-)Emergence of Ghosts, special issue in Voices From Around the World. Köln: Global South Studies Center Cologne, Universität Köln, 2016.
“Healing Rituals and Sorcery among the Lanten (Yao Mun) of Laos”, in Laila Prager, Michael Prager, and Guido Sprenger (eds) Parts and Wholes: Essays on Social Morphology, Cosmology, and Exchange in Honour of J.D.M. Platenkamp. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2016.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL DOCUMENTARIES
(co-produced with Peter Livermore) “The Lanten”, a 29-minute-long anthropological film about the Lanten/Mun society of Laos and Yao Dao projects, directed by Peter Livermore, funded by the European Union. This film, introduced by Leo Faber, EU ambassador to Laos, opened the European Film and Food Festival in Vientiane in 2019.
(co-produced with Peter Livermore) “The Lanten”, a 25-minute-long anthropological film, directed by Peter Livermore. Forthcoming.
(co-produced with Peter Livermore) The Yao Dao Project: A Pathway for Cultural Heritage Research, Preservation, and Promotion, a 20-minute-long documentary, directed by Peter Livermore, about the various projects implemented in Laos by the Yao Dao Project. Produced as part of the Yao Dao Impact Case for the HKU RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) 2026. Forthcoming
(co-produced with Peter Livermore) “The Lanten”, a 10-minute-long anthropological, directed by Peter Livermore, accompanying the exhibition on the Lanten society curated by Joseba Estevez at the Ethnological Museum of Luang Namtha, Laos. Forthcoming
