Search results for ""silkworm books / trasvin publications lp""

Sitor Situmorang, one of the most celebrated Indonesian literary voices of the twentieth century, claimed that all his work dealt with a single theme—“love and wanderlust,” which are “two aspects of one and the same experience.” His remarkable short stories are celebrations of modern life, dealing with subjects such as seeking, belonging, identity, masculinity, and sensual interaction with the world at large. The characters are both introspective and physical, the settings sparse but evocative, the circumstances ordinary yet unexpected. The publication of this volume of fourteen stories is the culmination of a request Sitor once made of Harry Aveling to render his stories in English. The translation of his complete short stories now shares the exceptional creative prose of Sitor Situmorang with audiences around the world.

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This delightful anthology presents eighteen well-known and much-loved Vietnamese folktales. Originally collected and retold by the prize-winning author Minh Tran Huy, they are here elegantly translated by Harry Aveling. The stories tell of charming princesses, disputing brothers, powerful kings, magical animals, peculiar objects, and kindhearted genies. Their mysterious worlds stir the imagination and evoke the soul of Vietnam—its intense human relationships, its exuberance and gentle melancholy. The book will appeal to readers of all ages and cultures.

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For over two thousand years, jātaka—tales of the Buddha’s previous lives—have been popular as teaching and entertainment. Apart from the classical Indian jātaka, many others in Southeast Asia were assembled in collections known as the “Fifty Jātaka” (Paññāsa Jātaka). They are now acclaimed as the lifeblood of the region’s literature. This book offers the first published English translations of twenty-one stories from the Thailand collection, including some of the best-known Thai stories: Sudhana-Manoharā, the Golden Conch, and Rathasena, among other quests, moral tales, strings of riddles, and story cycles. Here the tales are translated fully and faithfully with notes and accompanying information on the Thailand collection.

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This manual lays out techniques of the Keluarga Pencak Silat Nusantara (KPSN), one of the leading pencak silat organizations in Indonesia. Moving from the fundamental elements—stances and strikes—to exploring complex series of moves for exercise, self-defense, and competition, the manual shows the richness and uniqueness of this still relatively unknown martial art. For each technique covered, concise text accompanies clear, hand-drawn illustrations, making this guide an easy learning tool for beginners or enthusiasts looking to expand their knowledge and practice of pencak silat. The late Master O’ong Maryono was a world champion, international trainer, and recognized martial arts expert. Author of the seminal book Pencak Silat in the Indonesian Archipelago, he was an indomitable advocate for the preservation and development of pencak silat.

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Long before the advent of modern psychology, Buddhism offered ways to understand body and mind through introspection and meditation. These efforts yielded a thorough and detailed classification and analysis of mental and physical phenomena, known as the Abhidhamma. The Web of Buddhist Wisdom is a clear and accessible explanation of important themes of the Abhidhamma, such as consciousness, mental concomitants, physicality, and the experience of Enlightenment. In addition, he addresses the law of kamma, the process of dying and rebirth, the four Noble Truths and the value of the Abhidhamma. This is a rich and accessible guide for anyone who is interested in the workings of the human mind. It offers a clear and simple acquaintance with the world of the Abhidhamma, an old yet very accurate mirror of our existence.

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Khun Chang Khun Phaen is an outstanding classic in the Thai language, an entertaining folk epic set amidst the social panorama of traditional Siam. Masterfully told in the style of an ancient saga, it is a spectacular love story rich in romance, adventure, violence, farce, and magic, and ending in the tragic and enigmatic death of its heroine. The great Thai linguist William Gedney once remarked, “if all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvelous text.” Written in lively prose, this new, abridged edition retains every scene, incident, and significant speech from the full English translation, except for one short section. The authors won the A. L. Becker Southeast Asian Literature in Translation Prize (2010) for the full translation.

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With the acceleration of global migration, literature by migrant writers has emerged as a powerful medium for describing the ways in which global forces are experienced at the personal level. Migrant literature offers a compelling counter-narrative to abstract visions of globalization, grounding large-scale processes in real-life stories of individuals. In Thailand, migrant writers have documented the social and cultural impacts of fifty years of rural-urban migration through hundreds of stories, poems, and novels. Bangkok Bound is the first book to examine this body of literature and to distill the messages conveyed by Thai migrant writers about their experiences. These stories powerfully describe the ways in which migrants who leave their homes bound for Bangkok are quickly bound to Bangkok through the transformative force of modern city life. And they show the ways in which those who remain behind in the village are transformed, too, as they struggle to maintain a rural way of life in a rapidly urbanizing world. Bangkok Bound is a welcome addition to the fields of migration studies and urban studies. It will appeal to students and scholars of Thailand and Thai literature.

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Red Journeys is a firsthand account of the emergence and expansion of the red-shirt protests in Bangkok that took place in 2010. It traces the origins of the protest, focusing on the unique voices, stories, and motives of those who participated in the movement. Based upon hundreds of interviews and weeks spent alongside the red shirts in the middle of the protest, Sopranzetti vividly depicts daily life in the heart of the movement: its personalities, routines, rumors, and organization. As the peaceful occupation descended into violence and neared its tragic end, he describes the final moments of the protest when red shirts faced off with the Thai military. Styled engagingly between ethnography and daily blog, Red Journeys offers an unprecedented analysis of the biggest social movement in Thailand to date and highlights the discrepancies between the "official" media portrayal of the protest and the reality on the ground.

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Burma's pro-democracy movement emerged in 1988 when massive demonstrations swept across the country. This book gives an account of the movement, its emergence and growth, and Aung San Suu Kyi's prominent leadership role since its inception. Woven into this history is an outline of how Aung San Suu Kyi herself has become a highly respected pro-democracy icon internationally while being revered nationally as the "female Bodhisattva" who will deliver the Burmese people from the evil of the military regime. Lintner considers her strengths as well as her weaknesses, and traces her life not only in Burma, but also in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Bhutan, and Japan. She was greatly inspired by her father, Aung San, Burma's independence hero who was assassinated when she was an infant, and also by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Lintner analyzes the staying power of Burma's military regime and points out the obstacles to achieving what Aung San Suu Kyi is striving for: a free and democratic Burma.

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Southeast Asia is renowned for birds’ nests and the bird’s nest trade. A bird’s nest is often referred to as “White Gold” or “the Caviar of the East.” In Birds’ Nests: Business and Ethnicity in Southeast Asia, Kasem Jandam explores the history of using birds’ nests and outlines key aspects of the business: consumption and its impact on ecology and the environment, market innovations, and the legal system related to public, private, community, and nonexclusive economic nesting resources. This book also discusses the trade and relationships among ethnic groups and the influence of Hong Kong’s bird’s nest market on the bird’s nest business in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

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This fascinating study explores how face functions as social capital for leaders in Thai society. It examines the anatomy of Thai face, ways to gain, lose, and maintain face, patron-client dynamics, and the sources and paradigms of power. Ethnographic research gives voice to Thai leaders as they describe face behaviors and the flow of power in their society. The author compellingly reveals an indigenous but little-used pathway to virtuous leadership that empowers both leaders and followers, to the benefit of all. Written with academic rigor in a popular style, the book presents insights that are crucial to understanding and building strategic relationships in Thai society.

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Everyday Thai for Beginners is a language textbook with accompanying CD that lays the essential groundwork for mastering authentic spoken Thai. It provides an introduction to the basics of communication using Central Thai vocabulary and idioms. Developed for teaching university students, it can be used in a variety of teaching and learning contexts. Organized into seven units and thirty thematic lessons, the book is designed to be used for a one-year study of Thai, taking a total of thirty weeks and 150 hours to complete. Basic Thai reading and writing ability is assumed from the outset in order to avoid using transliteration systems that hinder the mastery of correct pronunciation and intonation.

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Gijsbert Heeck (1619-1669) was a medicinal specialist with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). His journal is based on the daily notes he made during his third trip to the East. This volume carries the selections from his journal that deal with Siam, accompanied by the original Dutch text. Heeck reveals how Siamese authorities reacted to a violent confrontation between the Dutch and the Portuguese. He gives a detailed description of the Dutch lodge in Ayutthaya, and also bits of information on the relationships of local Dutch men with indigenous women. His record of villages along the Chao Phraya River specializing in the making of coffins, preparing and selling firewood, painting, and producing earthenware, signal the existence of a complex economy in this part of Siam. Compared with the other seventeenth-century descriptions primarily of the landscape, Heeck's journals provide more information on population, scenery, traffic, trade, and religious establishments than all the others combined. He also provides a unique early perspective on local social arrangements and political intrigue, and on interactions between the Dutch and the locals.

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Written for both general readers and specialists, this book explores how modern, urban Southeast Asians view and manage their social life. By comparing the ways they live with their religious representations, with intimate and more distant others, and with their rapidly changing environment, the author demonstrates the marked similarities in the perception of individual and society in three civilizations along the inner littoral of Southeast Asia, irrespective of the great religious diversity that appears to characterize the region.

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Comprised mainly of new and original information, this volume will be of value as a resource for both the specialist and non-specialist -- those who appreciate the region, its peoples, and their history; the artistic beauty and symbolism of its ancient weights; and the metrology and relations of the weights to the various kinds of currency formerly in use. In particular, the book will appeal to the historical metrologist, the oriental numismatist, the art historian, the symbolist, the ethnologist, the antiquarian, the dealer, the collector, the oriental museum curator, the specialist librarian, and the scholar of oriental studies. Earth to Heaven describes the physical characteristics of the weights and their relationships, their manufacture, standardization and usage as well as the various motifs, their origins and transference to Burma. It also includes a fascinating discussion of the different animal shapes and their symbolic significance.

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This fresh and unusual collection offers a critical reflection on Southeast Asia as a progressively integrated space of production, exchange, and circulation within and beyond national boundaries. The essays describe the successful or unsuccessful entry of specific individuals or groups into wider markets and networks in their quest for prosperity—in Thailand, by Lua peasant farmers, slum families, the last century’s teak laborers, and ethnic tour hosts; in Indonesia, by communities resisting environmental destruction and the urban poor; and in Vietnam, by human trafficking returnees. The authors examine how these groups are socially and symbolically defined and redefined in the process of integration and the sense-making effort that characterizes many destitute people in urban contexts.

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When a tribunal was formed in 2006 to address the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, many expected the Cambodian model for victim empowerment to open a new path for international judiciary initiatives. However, the local reality of the justice intervention has been more complicated. Rather than joining the success-or-failure debate about the court, this volume pays special attention to how the trials are perceived locally. Inclinations in institutional design, favored or excluded political agendas, mismatched values between experts and locals, and unexpected local meaning-making all flow into the current context in Cambodia. Through critical analysis by authors with on-the-ground experience, this collection—the first to address the tribunal through a sociological framework—provides insight into the tension between the global justice regime and local societal context.

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The diffusion of religious thought in Buddhist Asia has been marked by new modes of expression. Sometimes this has meant textual translation, as highlighted in chapters about Chinese and Japanese Buddhist texts or the analysis of manuscripts in northern Thailand. In other cases it has been cultural translation, such as local adaptations of jataka tales, legal concepts developed out of Theravada Buddhist teachings, or localization of art, inscriptions, and other material culture. Additional chapters study other types of engagement: the encounter of East and West in British geographical and anthropological exploration of Burma, and the place of Brahmanism in early Buddhist thought as expressed through the jatakas. Together these contributions recognize that beyond being isolated by sectarian divisions, disparate Buddhist traditions have flourished through their simultaneity.

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Thai national artist Thawan Duchanee has spent his life creating art that deeply reflects Buddhist philosophy. He is internationally renowned, and his art is masterful both for its intricacy and for its subtle portrayal of Buddhism. The book examines these themes within his art and guides the reader through some of Thawan's most interesting works. Often told in his own words, this book offers insights into Thawan's creative genius, explores his philosophy on the arts, examines his famous signature, and recounts his life story.

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Mediums, Monks, and Amulets is a sophisticated yet accessible study of the state of popular Buddhist beliefs as they are practiced in Thailand today. Using a combination of focused case studies and analysis, Pattana Kitiarsa explores the nature and evolution of popular Buddhism over the past three decades by focusing on those individuals who practice, popularize, and profit from it. The case studies profiled include prominent spirit mediums and magic monks, the lottery fever surrounding the posthumous cult of folk singer Phumphuang Duangchan, the Chatukham-Rammathep amulet craze, and the cult of wealth attributed to preeminent monk Luang Pho Khun. It also explores the history of both popular and official opinion surrounding supernatural Buddhism, and its clashes with the rationalist, modernizing policies of Thailand's monarchy and government. Mediums, Monks, and Amulets contests the viewpoint that supernatural elements within popular Buddhism are a symptom of the decline of the religion. Instead, it argues that this hybridity between traditional Buddhist beliefs and elements from other religions is in fact indicative of the health and wealth of Buddhism as it negotiates large-scale commercialization and global modernity.

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Here, for the first time since the Yonok Chronicle was written more than a century ago, is a complete history of the northern Thai culture and kingdom of Lan Na. History of Lan Na chronicles the era of the city-states before the rule of Phaya Mangrai, the rise, flourishing, and decline of the Lan Na kingdom, the period of Burmese rule, the submission to Siamese authority, the impact of Western imperialism, and finally Lan Na’s integration with the rest of the country. Sarassawadee Ongsakul has constructed a complete chronology of Lan Na’s social, economic, and political development. The Thai language publication has already been recognized as an important contribution to the study of Lan Na history and, now in English, it will take its place as an essential work on Thai studies in the international arena.

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What is a Buddhist response to political oppression and economic exploitation? Does Buddhism encourage passivity and victimization? Can violent perpetrators be brought to justice without anger and retributive punishment? What does Buddhism say -- or imply -- about collective karma and social justice?Rethinking Karma addresses these questions, and many more, through the lens of the Buddhist teachings on karma. Acknowledging that a skewed understanding of karma serves to perpetuate structural and cultural violence, specifically in the Buddhist societies of South and Southeast Asia, the book critically reexamines the teachings on karma as well as important related teachings on equanimity (upekkha), generosity (dana), and "merit" (punna).The eleven authors featured in this volume are thinker-activists who have been deeply involved in issues of social justice at a grassroots level and speak from their own experience in trying to solve them. For them, these issues are seminal ones requiring deeper contemplation and greater sharing, not only within the Buddhist community at large but among all those who seek to bridge the gaps between our idealization of human harmony, our tendencies toward violent confrontation, and the need for greater social justice.

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This volume presents the most comprehensive collection of research on Hmong culture and life in Asia yet to be published. It compliments the abundant material on the Hmong diaspora by focusing instead on the Hmong in their Asian homeland. The contributors are scholars from a number of different backgrounds with a deep knowledge of Hmong society and culture, including several Hmong. The first group of essays addresses the fabric of Hmong culture by considering issues of history, language, and identity among the Hmong/Miao from Laos to China. The second part introduces the challenges faced by the Hmong in contemporary Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.

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This book analyzes the systematic construction of the image of the Other (that is, non-Muslims) by two radical Islamic Groups, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia. The author documents discourse patterns in the groups' publications and speeches stereotyping non-Muslims as hostile towards Islam and imagining Islam's imminent victory after an inevitable clash with all other civilizations. Although these groups do not engage in physical violence, the author categorizes their efforts to stereotype non-Muslims as "symbolic violence" and counterproductive because of the religious and ethnic pluralism of Indonesian society.

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During the past four decades an impressive corpus of manuscripts and epigraphical material in Thailand, Laos, and adjacent Tai-speaking areas has been surveyed, documented, and digitized. Scholarly interest in this material has not been restricted to philological and historical studies of the texts contained in manuscripts and inscriptions but has extended to its material aspects, which encompass manuscripts written on palm-leaf, various forms of paper, cloth, bamboo, and other organic material, and inscriptions on stone, metal, and wood. In Manuscript Cultures and Epigraphy of the Tai World, Volker Grabowsky seeks to explore the production, use, and transmission of manuscripts both as containers of traditional knowledge and as objects used in daily life, rituals, and ceremonies. Particular emphasis is given to the relationship between manuscripts and inscriptions, as both have influenced each other to no small degree. Through a comprehensive look at the Tai-language literature’s chronological and synchronic development, readers will learn the social importance of these literary productions.

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Written by a multinational team of experts who deploy their disciplinary strengths in history, sociology, social anthropology, political science, and philology to analyze a wide range of sources, including royal chronicles, missionary dictionaries, colonial archival documents, audio- and videotapes, and face-to-face interviews, Armies and Societies in Southeast Asia adds to the small but growing body of publications on warfare in Southeast Asia and colonial armies. Military-society relations are examined in a wide range of ways: traditional strategies of augmenting populations, mutinies, and mutiny attempts, imperial anxieties, Japanese military legacies, the transoceanic experiences of Southeast Asian and European soldiers, postwar demobilizations and postconflict biographies, and the transformation of communist guerrillas into guardians of the state and their development of capitalist enterprises. This volume will be of interest to Southeast Asianists and military historians alike as it not only covers traditional territorial grounds, thematic terrains, and temporal landscapes but also extends to individuals and further includes the national, regional, and transnational lives of military institutions.

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The research presented in this volume analyzes the impact of ethnic change and religious traditions on local, national, and regional identities. Case studies include the Bru population in Laos/Vietnam, hill tribe populations without citizenship in northern Thailand, the Lua also in northern Thailand, the Pakistani community in Penang, the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Leke religious movement in Thailand/Myanmar, political Islam in Indonesia, Sufi Muslims in Thailand, pluralism in Penang, the Preah Vihear dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, and hero cult worship in Lan Na. Historians and social anthropologists variously tackle these issues of identity and integration within the kaleidoscope of ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures that make up Southeast Asia.

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Sazigyo are fine, tablet-woven Burmese tapes used to bind the palm-leaf manuscripts of an earlier era. Tiny images and extended texts were deftly woven into the long, colorful bindings. These Buddhist “textile texts” were commissioned by donors to make merit in the hope of attaining a better rebirth and ultimately nirvana. This beautiful book elucidates the religious and social context of sazigyo and describes in detail the weaves, texts, designs, and images. It contains stunning, full-scale reproductions and enlargements of many hundreds of sazigyo segments found in collections throughout the world and presents translated excerpts from 150 sazigyo texts. The book is a celebration of a craft now vanishing and a tribute to the skill and flair of Burmese women weavers. It will appeal to weavers and textile designers and to all admirers of exquisite craftsmanship.

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This book traces the evolution of the rural, Lao-speaking people of northeastern Thailand, now over a third of the nation’s population, from a traditional peasantry into “cosmopolitan” villagers who are actively shaping Thai politics. The electoral successes of the Thai Rak Thai/Pheu Thai Party in the early twenty-first century and the strong support given to the Red-Shirt movement appear to have finally given the cosmopolitan villagers of northeastern Thailand a continuing voice in the nation’s political process.

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Few subjects elicit greater moral outrage than human trafficking. Media reports of dehumanizing practices such as slavery, abduction, child prostitution, and torture, along with shocking statistics, form the basis of public knowledge. With sensitivity and candor, this book addresses the reality of human trafficking in Thailand, dissecting studies, presenting facts, and dismissing stereotypes. It focuses on the areas of fishing, agriculture, domestic work, sex work, and the trafficking of children, weaving individual narratives and official studies into the wider history of Thailand’s changing economy and labor situation.

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This biography of the Ninth Panchen Lama, the second highest spiritual authority in Tibetan Buddhism, offers new insights into the tumultuous history of the relations between China and Tibet at the start of the twentieth century. It demonstrates how the Panchen Lama's flight from his monastery on the night of December 22, 1923, remains an essential characterizing event of Tibet's modern history. His flight from his country set the stage for Chinese Republican, and later Communist, control over the selection of his successors, with repercussions even today for Sino-Tibetan relations. This is the first publication in an innovative new series of research work on Asia, a collaboration between the École Française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) and Silkworm Books to translate French publications for an English-language readership.

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The cultural heritage of Siam is exceptionally rich and distinctive. As everywhere, this heritage is under threat—from the pace of change, from the demands of tourism, from mismanagement, and from neglect. This book is the first to examine the value of Siam’s heritage and the need to protect it. These nineteen essays are written by pioneers of conservation over the last generation and by the activists of today.

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Siam's folk epic of love, war, and tragedy Khun Chang Khun Phaen is one of the most famous works of old Thai literature. The plot is a love story, set against a background of war, and ending in high tragedy. This folk epic was first developed in oral form for popular performance with lashings of romance, adventure, violence, farce, and magic. It was later adopted by the Siamese court and written down, with two kings contributing. This first-ever translation is based on Prince Damrong’s standard edition of 1917-18, with over a hundred passages recovered from earlier versions. This English translation is written in lively prose, completely annotated, with over four hundred original line drawings and an afterword explaining the work’s historical background, social context, and poetic style. The main volume presents the entire poem in translation. The companion volume contains alternative chapters and extensions, Prince Damrong’s prefaces, and reference lists of Thai terms. The volumes are available separately or as a slipcased set. According to the leading Thai linguist William Gedney, "If all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvelous text."

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This book tells the story of the conflict from 1636 to 1645 between Cambodia and the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which has the dubious distinction of being history’s first conflict between a mainland Southeast Asian state and a European power. It affords a glimpse into the largely unknown period in Cambodian history between the fall of Angkor in the mid-fifteenth century and the arrival of the French in the late-nineteenth century.

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This volume brings together Siburapha’s most highly acclaimed novel, Behind the Painting, with three short stories highlighting the plight of the underclass: “Those Kind of People,” “Lend Us a Hand,” and “The Awakening.” Behind the Painting is the story of a Thai student studying in Japan who becomes infatuated with an older Thai woman. The novel reflects postwar Thai society in the vanity of the aristocracy and the pragmatism of the new elite; in the social more of concealing one’s true feelings; and in the restricted existence of unmarried women and the resulting pressure to marry, whatever the circumstance. Paralleling these Thai cultural themes are the universal themes of the fear of aging and the vagaries of love. Siburapha (Kulap Saipradit, 1905-1974) has enjoyed a checkered reputation in the Thai literary world. A popular and accomplished writer of romantic novels in the late 1920s, his later work tackled themes of social injustice and inequality. Imprisoned from 1952 to 1957, Siburapha subsequently sought asylum in China, where he remained for the rest of his life.

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Over a long and productive career, Charles “Biff” Keyes carried out research, taught, and forged links between scholars and institutions in the United States, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. His work has focused on religious practice, ethnicity and national cultures, transformation of rural society, and political culture. An enduring theme in his writing has been the role of Buddhism in everyday life in mainland Southeast Asia. His new memoir illustrates the significance of the Buddhist emphasis on impermanence (anicca) and demonstrates how this principle has shaped his own life. A graduate of Cornell University, Keyes conducted his first fieldwork in a village in northeast Thailand, followed by research in Mae Sariang on the Thai-Myanmar border. In addition to his long career at the University of Washington, he taught at Chiang Mai University and Maha Sarakham University. Keyes made teaching a priority, training graduate students from Thailand and Vietnam. A leading figure in both anthropology and Southeast Asian studies, he served as the president of the Association of Asian Studies and encouraged international scholarship.

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The United Wa State Army (UWSA) is a nonstate armed group that administers an autonomous zone in the difficult-to-reach Wa Hills of eastern Myanmar. As China expands its geopolitical interests across Asia through the Belt and Road Initiative, the Wa have come to play a pivotal role in Beijing’s efforts to extend its influence in Myanmar. In a book relevant to current debates about geopolitics in Asia, the illicit drug trade, Myanmar’s decades-long civil wars, and ongoing efforts to negotiate a settlement, Bertil Lintner, the only foreign journalist to visit the Wa areas when they were controlled by the Communist Party of Burma, traces the history of the Wa Hills and the struggles of its people, providing a rare look at the UWSA.

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Cambodia’s long-time opposition leader and former finance minister Sam Rainsy is committed to establishing democracy in his homeland. He is in exile in France to avoid a twelve-year prison sentence on politically motivated charges and is banned from contesting the July 2013 elections. In this autobiography he recounts his early years in Cambodia, his family’s expulsion, his relationship with Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge regime, and the Vietnamese occupation, and Hun Sen’s rise to power and his continuous control since 1985. Sam Rainsy also discusses the current economic, social, and political conditions in the country and presents proposals that will provide a long-term roadmap for a new Cambodia. David Whitehouse is a British journalist in Paris.

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Siam's folk epic of love, war, and tragedyThe Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen is one of the most famous works of old Thai literature. The plot is a love story, set against a background of war, and ending in high tragedy. This folk epic was first developed in oral form for popular performance with lashings of romance, adventure, violence, farce, and magic. It was later adopted by the Siamese court and written down, with two kings contributing. This first-ever translation is based on Prince Damrong’s standard edition of 1917-18, with over a hundred passages recovered from earlier versions.The English translation is written in lively prose, completely annotated, with over four hundred original line drawings and an afterword explaining the work’s historical background, social context, and poetic style. The main volume presents the entire poem in translation. The companion volume contains alternative chapters and extensions, Prince Damrong’s prefaces, and reference lists of Thai terms. The volumes are available separately or as a slipcased set.According to the leading Thai linguist William Gedney, "If all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvelous text."

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This book concerns the French intervention in Siam, 1685-1688, particularly the cataclysmic last year, during which Phetracha, the usurper and future king, held the ailing King Narai prisoner until his death. Marcel Le Blanc was one of fourteen Jesuits who arrived in Siam at the request of King Narai to promote the study of mathematics and astrology, but he became inextricably involved in events surrounding Phetracha's coup d'etat. He was in Bangkok during the siege and the arrival of the King's favorite, Madame Phalkon, who was subsequently arrested and killed. He describes his departure from the country with the French troops, his capture by the Dutch at the Cape, and his imprisonment in Middleburg. This new English edition of the book, first published in 1692, has been translated, introduced, and annotated by Michael Smithies, well-known scholar of the period

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Thailand is often called the “Land of Smiles”, a nickname which sounds at once pleasant and mysterious. It is said that the Thais have a smile for every emotion, and with so many nuances of smiling, the smile often hides more than it reveals. Inside Thai Society looks behind smiles and appearances in order to discover those regularities and expectations that pervade everyday life. It identifies the basic ideas that give meaning and order to existence and that make life in Thai society eminently reasonable.

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Asian activists, organizers, critics, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs have become passionately involved in protecting Asia’s heritage. In this book, twelve principal authors from eleven of the region’s countries present their experience of what has been done in the past and their ideas on what should be done in the future. Chapters cover Siam’s temples, Korean religious murals, Beijing’s neighborhoods, Lao textiles, Javanese ruins, Cambodian dance, old Bangkok and George Town, Philippine creative arts, Calcutta’s architecture, China’s salt industry, and the Burmese cat. This book records the start of a conversation that promises to transform the protection of Asia’s heritage.

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As the Rohingya crisis exploded, observers of Myanmar were shocked to see Aung San Suu Kyi, champion for the causes of liberal democracy and human rights, stand by as atrocities tore apart the western reaches of her country. The Daughter is an in-depth exploration of this icon-turned-leader and of the people, ideas, and experiences that have shaped her political identity. What emerges is not a shift in ideology but a consistent picture of the contrasts and multidimensionality that have defined her—prisoner and leader, principled resistor and pragmatic politician, the Lady and Mother Suu. Translated and updated from the original German, The Daughter is essential reading for professionals, journalists, and other observers seeking to understand Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in Myanmar.

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Part fact, part fiction, part myth, and part legend, this book brings to life the kingdom of Ayutthaya from its roots in the kingdom of Sukhothai to its eventual destruction by the Burmese in 1767. It is the turbulent story of both the kings and their kingdom, from its birth to its downfall. Robert Smith retells this history by reimagining and dramatizing the exploits of Ayutthaya’s rulers, building his account around a framework of documentary evidence and hints in the historical record. Intrigues and deception wind through the tale as do ingenuity, honor, and the will to greatness that made Ayutthaya a major regional power for centuries. This account of the development of a nation—and the stories behind it—shows how the old kingdom of Ayutthaya was a crucial precursor to the foundation of modern-day Thailand.

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Trams, Buses, and Rails recounts the unique and little-known 130-year history of Bangkok’s transportation system, from the first horse-powered tramway in 1888 to the mass transit urban railway of the twenty-first century. Using government archives and annual reports, the author deftly pieces together long-buried records and statistics to reconstruct the transportation policies of each successive metropolitan and national administration. He highlights the politicization and regulation of Bangkok’s transport systems over the decades, and uncovers a series of setbacks, reversals, duplications, revisions, and cancellations that help to explain Bangkok’s continuing transportation woes. A series of maps and tables elucidate the development of transportation routes and the rise and fall of the city’s trams, railways, and bus lines.

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This selection of essays demonstrates that, in the study of Buddhism, a concern with detailed accuracy in philological and textual specifics can be combined with wider philosophical and sociological issues. The essays are divided into three parts: (1) Pali Literature, (2) The Theory and Practice of Not-Self, and (3) Buddhism and Society. The last part builds on but goes beyond the work of Dumont and Max Weber in considering “world-renunciation” as a phenomenon of society and culture.

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This is the first complete English translation in over a century of the ten great jātaka tales covering the Bodhisatta’s final adventures in the human realm before his ultimate life and enlightenment as the Buddha. Introductory comments to each story provide background and analysis. A general introduction explores themes and the stories’ role in Buddhist art and practice. Color images show the stories’ centrality in the Buddhist visual landscape of Southeast Asia.These definitive new translations reestablish the stories as ancient literary treasures of South Asia. Readers will be delighted by their magic and intrigue, philosophical insight, and deep roots in the religious and cultural world of the Buddha.

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