Source: Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae Vol. 41, No. 2 (1987), pp. 324-325
The 30th Permanent International Altaistic Conference
(PIAC)
19–25 June 1987
The PIAC commemorated its 30th birthday at its birthplace at the Indiana University, Bloomington in the USA where the conference started from.
It was for the third time that the PIAC met at Indiana University: 1967, 1982 and 1975.
About 60 participants attended the conference from about 12 countries. The president of the 30th PIAC session was G. Bayerle, chairmen of the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies. After the welcoming statements of A. Rabinowitch, Dean of International Programs, hosts presented the activity carried out in the field of Altaic Studies at the Indiana University: G. Bayerle, Chairman, Presenting the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studis; Y. Bregel, Director, Presenting the Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies; D. Sinor, Director, Presenting the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center; R. Jorgeson, Librarian, Altaic and Inner Asian library resources at Indiana University.
During the next three days lectures were delivered on several interesting topic on the field of Altaic Studies. Without completeness, some of them are listed here: John C. Street, Punctuation and Pauses in the Secret History of the Mongols; H. Okada, The Shrine of Eshe Qatun; M. Tatar, About the Flag of Chinggis Khan; M. R. Weidlich, Aspects of Altaic Life Reflected on Mongol Stamps; T. Mansang, Mongolian Shamanistic Literature; R. Meserve, Some Remarks on the Turkmen Horse; H. B. Paksoy, Two Altaic Games; D. Sinor, Food procurement in Medieval Inner Asia; Zhou, Xiguan, Sogdians and Tokharians in the Tun-huang area during the T’ang; E. Jacobson, Burial Ritual, Status, and Gender in the Early Nomad Period; P. Golden, Origins of the Cuman-Qipchaq Tribe, the Uras(-oba); A. P. Martinez, Monetary Output Changes in Interregional Trade in the Western Appanage; J. Miyawaki, On the Oirat Kinship; I. Vásáry, History and Legend in Berke Khan’s Conversioin to Islam; K. Czeglédy, On the Origin of the Khazars; V. M. Solncev, The Problem of Typology on Morphological Categories in Altaic and East and South-East Asian ‘Sprachbünde’ (Plurality and the zero form problem); A. Róna-Tas, New Data on Volga Bulgarian; Wang, Huan, The Turks’ Relation with Both Sedentarians and Nomads; N. Di Cosmo, A Note on the Tana Route and International Trade in the 14th century; M. K. Musaev, On Turco-Finno-Ugric Language Contacts; D. A. Hitch, Old Turkic and Tocharian Phonology and the Manichean Script; H. P. Vietze, Old Turkic Runes in the Computer; E. R. Tenishev, The Name, of Monetary Units in the Old Turkic Language of Inner Asia; D. DeWeese, Yazavian Legends on the Islamization of Turkistan; D. D. Vasilev, New Runic inscription in the Altai.
The participants of the conference had several opportunities for exchange of opinions: during a trip to Four Winds Inn where a nice lunch was served, in Spring Mill State Park where a picnic dinner was generously hosted by the Mongolia Society, or at a reception at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sinor.
The Indiana University Prize for Altaic Studies, a gold medal, established in 1962, is awarded annually to a scholar in recognition of outstanding contribution to the advancement of Altaic Studies. The prizewinner this year was Prof. P. Aalto.
30 years have passed since the first meeting of the PlAC, a respectable period in the life of a scholarly group. The elderly members can witness now a growing interest for the field of Altaic Studies, the younger generation also finds the PIAC offering a good opportunity to get to know each other and to exchange ideas.