Southeast Asia Collection Blog

Wolters, O. W. Early southeast asia : selected essays / O.W. Wolters ; edited by Craig J. Reynolds. Ithaca, New York : Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University c2008.

This is an important work, though not for reasons one might suspect. It is a collection of scholarly essays on early Southeast Asian history and culture, all of which have been previously published in some form or another, some as far back as the 1960s and ’70s. The thinking behind this volume, as Craig J. Reynolds astutely points out, is to introduce the new generation of aspiring Southeast Asianists to the scholarship of O.W. Wolters. Why? Wolters was without doubt the most prominent Western scholar of early Southeast Asia from the late 1960s until his death in 2000. In important respects, Wolters was the perfect exemplar of a traditional Ivy League scholar, a polyglot (fluent in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Malay) and a legendary bibliophagist, who reputedly knew Cornell University’s cavernous Echols Collection like the back of his hand. He was perhaps best known for his intellectual vigor, boundless imagination, and breadth of knowledge. Unafraid to venture well beyond his original field of study, the ancient Malay world, Wolter’s published extensively on the early history of Cambodia, Siam, and Vietnam as well.

The present volume includes eleven of Wolters’ most influential essays, along with a touching and eloquently written Introduction by historian Craig Reynolds.

Students unfamiliar with Wolters scholarship may also want to read History, culture, and region in Southeast Asian perspectives (1999), a separate collection of essays, and his comprehensive study of the ancient maritime kingdom of Srivijaya, Early Indonesian commerce: a study of the origins of Srīvijaya (1967) and The fall of Śrīvijaya in Malay history (1970).

Heywood, Denise. Cambodian dance : celebration of the gods / Denise Heywood. Bangkok : River ; [London : Distributed by Thames & Hudson], 2008.

Here Denise Heywood, author of Ancient Luang Prabang. Bangkok : River Books, 2006, explores the rich history of classical dance in Cambodia. The book examines the origins of classical dance during the early Angkorean period, which, taken together with Hinduism and classical Indic literature, came to define early Khmer political and religious culture. Heywood then surveys the French colonial period, when classical dance became much more closely associated with court life, itself weakened and corrupted by palace feuds and French meddling. It also looks at the devastating Pol Pot years, when practically all manifestations of Cambodia’s so-called feudal culture, including classical dance, were eradicated, root and branch. The book concludes with a brief glance at the much welcomed revival of classical dance in post-1980 Cambodia. The book is well-conceived, delivered in a simple prose, and punctuated with hundreds of vivid illustrations.

Holt, John. Spirits of the place : Buddhism and Lao religious culture. Honolulu : University of Hawai’i Press, c2009.

Here John Holt, a well-known scholar of Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist history and culture, enters previously uncharted territory with a study of religious culture in Laos. A newcomer to the study of Lao Buddhism (a relative newcomer, that is, since two of his mentors, Stanley Tambiah and Frank Reynolds, are seasoned mainland Southeast Asianists), Holt brings a fresh perspective and genuine enthusiasm to the subject.

The narrative opens with a discussion of the cross-fertilization of Buddhist notions of polity and power and the political culture of Laos from the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Because this process did not occur in isolation but in relation to happenings elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the author briefly explores the nature of Burmese, Thai and Vietnamese relations with the religious polity of Laos, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries. Holt then turns to the profound changes that took place in Lao Buddhism and political culture during the French colonial period. The impact of the Vietnamese and Lao revolutionary movements and the second Indochina war on Lao Buddhism is the subject of the third chapter. The remainder of Holt’s study examines Lao religious culture since the end of the American war.

Di cư và chuyển đổi lối sống. English. [Migration and change in the way of life : an anthropological introduction to the Vietnamese community in Laos] / Nguyen Duy Thieu, editor. Hanoi : Thế Giới Publishers, 2008.

This is a collection of ethnographic essays on the Vietnamese population in Laos. It is the fruit of a joint research project involving the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Vietnam and the Institute for Cultural Research in Laos. The common thread that runs through each of the essays presented here is the exodus (or more precisely, exoduses) of Vietnamese to Laos, the first wave dating from the French colonial period, the motives for migrating, and the challenges Vietnamese have faced in assimilating to Lao culture and society. It is an important topic and, with a few notable exceptions, covered reasonably well. It is not especially well-written. It has a certain unpolished feel, but this may have something to do with the fact that it is a translation.

State of authority : the state in society in Indonesia / Gerry van Klinken and Joshua Barker, editors. Ithaca, N.Y. : Southeast Asia Program Publications, c2009.

This monograph is part of a larger, “revisionist” trend in the scholarship on post-colonial Indonesia. Whereas in the past, the bulk of Western-language scholarship on Indonesia depicted the State as monolithic, centralized, and separate from society as a whole, recent scholarship has put forth the view that the post-colonial State was both a natural outgrowth of and deeply embedded in the very fabric of Indonesian society. That is to say, state and society are inextricably linked. The case studies presented here champion this view.

Na Tai : ngān wičhai čhāk chumchon chāidǣn Tai sū nayōbāi sāthārana. Nakhō̜n Pathom : Sūn Sưksā læ Phatthanā Santi Withī, Mahāwitthayālai Mahidon, 2551 [2008].

This volume, compiled by scholars from the Research Center for Peace Building at Mahidol University, brings together 16 essays and policy papers on the current social and political situation in Thailand’s three southern-most provinces, Pattani, Yala, and Naratiwat. The leitmotif of the volume is constructive dialog and reconciliation.

Chang Noi. Jungle book : Thailand’s politics, moral panic, and plunder, 1996-2008. Chiang Mai, Thailand : Silkworm Books, 2009.

Chang Noi (a pseudonym, meaning ‘Little Elephant’) is at once one of the most respected and controversial newspaper columnists in Thailand today. Readers revere him for his trenchant insights, uncompromising integrity, and sardonic wit. At the same time, some of Thailand’s wealthiest and most powerful public figures, who are often the target of his most scathing critiques, regard him as a thorn in their side. The present volume includes 64 of Chang Noi’s most widely read editorials over the course of the past decade or so. The editorials cover a wide range of important social and political issues. It is a lucid and rip-roaring commentary on contemporary Thai society.

Nguyen, Nathalie Huynh Chau. Memory is another country : women of the Vietnamese diaspora. Santa Barbara, Calif. : Praeger, c2009.

One of the most well documented events of the American war was the mass exodus of South Vietnamese (as well as political dissidents from the north) following the fall of Saigon in 1975. Drawing largely from oral narratives, the present volume recounts this chapter in Vietnamese history from the perspective of Vietnamese women. Similar in style to Jung Chang’s enthralling accounts of revolutionary China (Wild Swans: three daughters of China, 1991), this book revisits the final days of the American war through the eyes of Vietnamese women. The stories are deeply personal, compelling, and eloquently retold.

Evans, Grant. The last century of Lao royalty : a documentary history. Chiang Mai, Thailand : Silkworm Books, 2009.

This is a very welcome addition to the existing scholarship (which is dreadfully scant) on Lao history. Here Evans attempts to “recover” memories of the Lao royal family. With the communist victory in 1975, the Lao monarchy was tossed into history’s dustbin. Practically all evidence of Lao royalty was expunged from the historical record by the triumphant communist party. The pre-1975 history of Laos was re-written, omitting altogether any reference to Laos’ centuries old monarchial culture and traditions. Evans reconstructs the history of the Lao monarchy. It is revisionist (insofar as it contradicts the existing historiography), yet far from hagiography. This is not an attempt to turn back the clock to the “glory days” of the Lao royalty. The image that emerges from Evans’ account is one of a Lao monarchy in crisis. Lao royals suffered one set back after another: countless indignities at the hands of the Thai, a brief but at times unpleasant engagement with French colonialism, emerging Lao (republican) nationalism, and finally, communist revolution. Evans account of the history of the waning days of the Lao monarchy fills a major gap in the existing historiography.

Tai lands and Thailand : community and state in Southeast Asia / edited by Andrew Walker. Honolulu : Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with University Of Hawai’i Press, c2009.

This edited volume, featuring essays by Andrew Walker, Craig J. Reynolds, and Holly High, among other notable scholars, offers a new approach to the study of “community” in the Tai world. Much has been written on the political and social organization of the Tai (i.e. the Tai-speaking peoples of Thailand, Laos, the Shan States, southern China, and northern Vietnam). The common thread that runs through the bulk of this scholarship is the notion that Tai communities in the past were autonomous, practically world’s unto themselves, and almost exclusively subsistence-oriented. The present volume challenges this widely-held assumption. The author’s argue that the pre-modern Tai community was more fluid, its inhabitants more mobile, and more engaged with happenings well beyond the boundaries of their immediate environs. The book also challenges the notion that their economies were mainly subsistence-oriented, a claim left-wing scholars have consistently made. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the essays presented here challenge the conventional belief that the traditional life ways of the Tai community and communal sense of belonging are fast eroding in the face of rapid social and economic change in Southeast Asia. To be sure, these powerful social and economic forces have wrought substantial change. But the Tai communities, the author’s argue, have retained much of their former identity.