THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY NEWS FROM THE SOUTHEAST ASIA, SOUTH & WEST ASIA CENTRES, FACULTY OF ASIAN STUDIES

No. 4, April 2006 CONTENTS Mountain sunsets with cow intestine Arjuna Dibley reports on the first intake of the Faculty’s in-country Indonesian tuition program at Satya Wacana University in , Central ...... 1 Visiting fellow wins prestigious award Dr Mikihiro Moriyama, Professor of Indonesian Studies at Nanzan University, Nagoya, gives an account of his award ceremony ...... 3 A “must-do” course in Bangkok David Hunter reports on the intense experience of studying Thai at Thammasat University. Dylan Hartmann adds a comment and Kim Williamson heads for the Karen hills ...... 4 Annual hothouse of ideas for graduate ANU students Sam Pietsch (second from left), Jess Butcher (third from left), students working on Asia and the Pacific Jennifer Scott, Arjuna Dibley and Rachelle Cole (far right) with other foreign students in Satya Wacana University’s Indonesian tuition program East Timor, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos now represented in Asia-Pacific Week ...... 7 Singing in Sanskrit: voices and hearts A report on the Sanskrit Summer School ...... 8 MOUNTAIN SUNSETS WITH COW INTESTINE Prospects good for new in-country options A recipe for language-learning success in Hindi and Sanskrit Arjuna Dibley reports on the first intake of the Faculty’s in-country Richard Barz and Gordon Hill travel to India .. 8 Indonesian tuition program at Satya Wacana University in Salatiga, Central Unique Hindi language conference Java Richard Barz reports on a unique event ...... 9 A cobra for dinner, arak, horizontal fireworks and dancing in the rain Our top Indonesian language student in to Indonesian reggae. It’s the 1st of January, the start of 2006 and the 2005 perfect preface for an intense four week summer adventure in . Tamie Balaga awarded AIA prize ...... 9 Thai kick-boxing Last January a group of five ANU students traveled to to Intense, fun, good training and great for your become ‘guinea pigs’ in a new intensive language program offered to Thai language skills ...... 10 students of Indonesian. The course is offered as an internal course at ANU and is the equivalent of one semester of language … in four weeks. On paper, the program looks totally ludicrous. I almost can’t believe I voluntarily elected to take part in it over a summer holiday: 80 contact hours, 2 major exams, 4 not so major exams, a 2000 word field work project and speaking Indonesian all the time. But in a head full of fun memories, the memories of study are comparatively minute. The summer program takes place at Satya Wacana Christian University in a small town called Salatiga. Perched in a valley at the base of Mount Merbabu, Salatiga is a leafy green, cool (relative to the rest of Indonesia) safe university town, with awesome sunset views of the mountains. Climate aside, the city itself has a unique population. Salatiga has a large Christian population with a nationally famous university attracting students from every corner of Indonesia – from West Papua, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Kalimantan, Sumatra and all over Java. The language program also attracts students from all over the world. We were sitting in classes with students from Singapore, America, Russia and different parts of Australia. (continued on next page) MOUNTAIN SUNSETS WITH COW INTESTINE (cont. from p1)

As part of the program, it is possible to elect to live with a host family, which many students did. My host family really represented the diversity present within Salatiga. A Jakartan mother and a Salatiga born Javanese Christian convert father, with a fetish for hunting wild boar, collecting army trucks, wearing army paraphernalia, and a deep-seated love for kretek (Indonesian clove cigarettes).

The cone of Mount Merbabu ornaments the evening sky above Salatiga, Central Java. (Photo: A. Dibley)

I was also fortunate that my host family also had several kos students (boarders) from all parts of Indonesia staying with them. There is no better way to pick up idiomatic Indonesian than hanging around a group of 20 something males every day. Just a hint, do not repeat anything you hear unless you are really sure of its meaning. It was really amazing being able to go to another country and interact with people. Being able to put into practice what you have studied to create relationships, find out about people, and express your ideas is the best motivation you could ever hope for in learning a language. For me, this was the greatest part of the summer program. Well, that and the food. Every meal in Indonesia was a delectable mixture of spices and ingredients which I would never have imagined trying otherwise: dog meat, sweet avocado drinks, snake, cow intestine, jackfruit curries, chicken heads and ginger tea with lumps of glutinous rice balls were just a few of the more unusual favorites. But don’t worry, every lunch time of the course you are presented with a more conservative, but extremely elaborate three-course lunch. Of 16 lunches, there was not one meal repeated. They included all sorts of Indonesian food and drink, (and often stuff that was somewhere in between) from all over the country. Even on days that we had no classes, we were given “lunch boxes” nasi kotak to be taken with us on our side trips. The school organized random bus trips to all sorts of places, from batik (sweat) shops where women were getting paid Rp 5000 (less than a dollar) a day to make beautiful garments, to ancient temples, to caves, an orphanage, and even a steam train museum. There were also lectures about religion in Indonesia, pencak silat martial arts training, cooking classes and a few token gamelan lessons with a grouchy Javanese teacher who had difficulty understanding why we weren’t perfect after two hours. Outside the course though, our host families also took us along to their own activities. I went to a very elaborate and very golden Javanese wedding, and a government run 80’s rock concert where the well rounded mayor of Salatiga sang, danced and wiggled himself while proclaiming that “Salatiga tofu is number one!” or at least, it’s free from formaldehyde. Going to Indonesia is like stepping into a gushing uncontrollable torrent of sweat, spices, cigarette smoke, human diversity, whitening cream, bus fumes, big trees, and street vendor madness. When I parade around and claim that the summer school “was intense”, I’m not just referring to the 80 hours of classes. Taking part in the summer school is one crazy ride, but it is probably the best that you will ever go on. The mid-2006 intake of in-country Indonesian courses will run from June 26 to July 14. Available: Indonesian 1B, 2A, and 2B. For information on enrolment ANU students should contact Southeast Asia Centre Administrator, Karina Pelling (phone 61253163 or email [email protected]).

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006  VISITING FELLOW WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD

Mikihiro Moriyama receives his award in Japan

Dr Mikihiro Moriyama, Professor of Indonesian Studies at Nanzan University, Nagoya, was one of 24 young Japanese researchers to be awarded the prestigious Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Prize for 2005. From March 2005 until March 2006 Dr Moriyama was a Visiting Fellow in the Southeast Asia Centre at ANU. This is his account of the award ceremony. On 9th March 2006 I attended the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion Science) Prize ceremony at the Japan Academy in Tokyo as one of recipients. It was a great honour for me to receive such a prestigious award. This award was first made in 2004 to ‘raise the level of scientific research in Japan to the world’s highest standard’. Twenty-four recipients were chosen this year and are expected to become ‘future trailblazers of scientific research’. The selection committee is chaired by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Leo Esaki and consists of leading academics including two other Nobel Prize winners. Most of recipients are researchers in the natural sciences and only six are from the humanities and social sciences. The research projects of the latter include ‘Descriptive Linguistics of Modern Tibetan (Lhasa Dialect)’, ‘Game Theoretic Approach to Interpret General Social Phenomena’, and ‘Psychophysical Study on the Mechanism of Information Processing in Human Visual Perception’. I myself was awarded the prize for research on ‘The Formation of Modern Sundanese Literature: A Cultural History’. I suppose the immediate reason for awarding me the prize was the simultaneous publication of two books by me, one in Indonesian and the other in English, on this theme. I found the ceremony magnificent and conducted in a solemn atmosphere unlike any that I have ever attended. This was was largely because of the attendance by a member of the Japanese royal family, Prince Akishino, second son of Emperor Akihito. I was impressed by two speeches in the ceremony. One was made by the Head of the Japan Academy who said boldly that he expected future Nobel Prize winners to be among those recipients of the prize. The other was the words of the chair of the selection committee Dr. Esaki. He said that research successes are underscored by two factors: one is your own ability and efforts and the other is the so-called ‘smile of the goddess of chance’. A reception followed the ceremony. The atmosphere was somewhat casual, but because of the presence of Prince Akishino, not too casual. However, in conversation with the prince I found him to be a warm and kind person. He showed interest in the Sundanese language and Indonesia. He has, in fact, often visited the Southeast Asian countries, especially Thailand, because of his Ph.D. research on Thai and Indonesian fish. I am proud to have received this award and am thankful for all the personal and institutional support I have received for my research, especially from Sundanese and Indonesian people and society. I think it is epoch-making that a Japanese academy has recognized work in the field of Indonesian studies and Southeast Asian studies in general. I hope this award will have a positive influences on the academic profession and will help attract students’ interest in the future. On this occasion I would also like to thank everyone at the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University for the hospitality and friendship given to me during my stay in Canberra. At the end of March I leave ANU, giving a talk at a university in Bandung about Sundanese literature on my way back to Nagoya.

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006  A MUST-DO COURSE IN THE CENTRE OF BANGKOK David Hunter reports on the intense experience of studying Thai at Thammasat University. Dylan Hartmann adds a comment and Kim Williamson heads for the Karen hills.

Students on a guided tour of Wat Pho. The tour was conducted (in Thai) by one of the monks there who was very knowledgeable about traditional Thai literature and art history. David Hunter is 4th from the left and Dylan is 7th. In the photo are also Ms Sangwan Khongchan (lecturer) and a group of students from Thammasat who are majoring in Thai During January and February of 2006, together with two other Thai language students from ANU, I took part in the intensive, in-country course Modern Thai Prose In-Country at Thammasat University in Bangkok, one of Thailand’s most prestigious universities. The course was probably the highlight of my Thai language major. I hadn’t been to Thailand since the end of first year Thai, and with another three years of Thai studies under my belt a whole new world opened up as soon as I arrived. Living in Bangkok for five weeks was definitely an experience. I had never stayed there before for more than a week at a time. Our reasonably comfortable and cheap apartments were located on the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya River, just a 20 minute walk from the university, in one of the oldest parts of the city. Apart from being surrounded by massage parlours, this area had numerous shopping complexes, cinemas, markets, unlimited choices for food, and was close to most of the major attractions and points of interest in Bangkok. Thammasat University is one of the few universities in Thailand where uniforms aren’t compulsory. But I wore one anyway, and although initially I wasn’t keen on the idea, I have to admit that it looked a lot more respectful. It certainly provided some entertainment for Thai students and the public to see foreigners in school uniform. On our first day at Thammasat’s Liberal Arts Faculty we were introduced to our five lecturers (a different lecturer for each day of the week). We then had a meeting with the Dean of the Faculty, after which we sat a rather difficult placement test to give lecturers an indication our command of Thai. Classes ran for three hours a day, five days a week, with weekends filled with ‘edutainment’ excursions. I now know what the word ‘intensive’ truly means. In just five weeks our Thammasat lecturers covered almost the entire breadth of modern Thai literature. This included reading newspapers, novels, poetry, short stories, and travel articles, not to mention Thai academic writing, royal vocabulary, Thai humour, and analysis of Thai language in advertising, television, and movies. The workload was heavy, with oral presentations written assignments and reports, plus a final essay for assessment. I also caught a weird flu that stayed with me for three weeks, so there was not a lot of free time to just hang out and soak up the culture. Our ANU lecturer Ajarn Chintana Sandilands spent a lot of time and energy making sure we were looked after and organised. At night she took us on some fantastic eating tours of the city to places I would never have known about had I been by myself. We were invited to join a field trip with a group of Thammasat students to Ratchaburi, a province south west of Bangkok. There we visited a floating market, saw a shadow puppet performance of the Rammakian (Ramayana), watched how palm suger is collected and processed, and went on an interesting guided tour of a ceramics factory. Occasionally after class our lecturers would also take us on short trips to places like Chinatown, the teak palace of King Chulalongkorn, the city pillar, and the temple of the reclining Buddha (Wat Pho). In addition, as a group we travelled to

(continued on next page)

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006  A MUST-DO COURSE IN THE CENTRE OF BANGKOK (cont. from p4) many different provinces including Phetchabun where we took part in a wedding. We also went to the ancient capital of Sukhothai as well as to Phitsanulok and Nakorn Pathom, and we cruised the canals of Samutsongkhram in long tailed boats. For me the highlight was joining the audience for the taping of one of my favourite Thai television shows called ‘Thi Sip’ (At Ten), a talk show and variety program. It was interesting to see how they put the show together, shooting out of sequence and filming segments for future shows. I also got the opportunity to meet and have a good conversation in Thai with the well-known, and Australian educated, host of the show. Although exhausting, Modern Thai Prose In- The Damnern Saduak floating markets in Ratchaburi. (Photo: David Hunter) Country was a great experience and my command of Thai improved noticeably. The standard of teaching from the Thammasat lecturers was high, but they were also very understanding and helpful. As this was the first time the course has been run, we were the guinea pigs, but with a little fine tuning it will be a ‘must do’ as part of the Thai major at ANU, especially for students who can’t do the full Year in Thailand program. Dylan Hartmann confirms that the workload was heavy (but manageable, just!) The workload for the course was heavy. Being a summer course it was compacted into five weeks instead of a whole semester. The majority of the time spent there we felt that we were overloaded with homework and small assignments. But it was thanks to this workload that my Thai language skills improved dramatically. If I hadn’t spent every spare moment doing the language work it would have been difficult to see much personal progress. The field trips and excursions, while culturally valuable, did eat into our study time and meant extra work for us at home. Three of our lecturers had never taught Thai to foreigners before and it was these three who we felt helped us the most. I have a great respect for Thammasat University students now that I have experienced the average workload they carry. Kim Williamson is staying on in Thailand to complete another ANU course, Practical Assignment in Southeast Asia. Kim reports ... Modern Thai Prose: In-Country was an exhausting course with an intense schedule, but it was an incredible experience to study at one of Thailand’s best universities. It was also an extraordinary time to be in Bangkok. Thammasat has Kim Williamson husking rice at a Karen traditionally been a powerful centre of political action. Protests against the Thai hilltribe village in Thailand Prime Minister and his party had just begun as we arrived.

(continued on next page)

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006  A MUST-DO COURSE IN THE CENTRE OF BANGKOK (cont. from p5)

We had an opportunity to join the cheering masses of yellow and pink-clothed students at the annual football match between Thailand two top universities, the traditional rivals Thammasat and Chulalongkorn. Although it is a sports event it is also the biggest political event of the year for students. In parades before the match students made passionate critiques of society and government, including the morality and legitimacy of ruling politicians and the legal system. We were interested to see a float criticising the Thai free trade agreements, with effigies of Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin, George W. Bush, and a kangaroo (Prime Minister Howard’s face is not well recognised in Thailand ...)

Yellow and pink clad students at a football match. (Photo: Kim Williamson)

With incense smoke and chanting still in the air, the overwhelming traffic and smell of Bangkok, the vibrant nightlife, wet markets, gargantuan shopping malls, and political fever still in our memories, we finished off our last assignments to return to Australian university life. But not me. I am continuing my ANU studies with an Asian Studies subject, Practical Assignment in Southeast Asia. This course can be carried out in any appropriate organisation in the country of the student’s language major. I am spending six weeks teaching English in a Karen hilltribe village in the mountains, 100 km southwest of Chiang Mai city. I am living and teaching at the local school, and am the first foreigner (and native English speaker) ever to teach there.

Students parade with effigies. (Photo: Kim Williamson)

My Thai has improved a lot, with no one in the village speaking English other than the English teacher. I have been learning the Karen language too. Best of all I have been living life with my students including treks in the jungle, swimming and catching fish in the lake, and eating jungle food including porcupine stew and ant eggs. It has been an amazing experience, especially to see my students go from being unable to answer a question in English, to shouting out conversations across the oval.

Flags are paraded around the oval. (Photo: Kim Williamson)

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006  ANNUAL HOTHOUSE OF IDEAS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS WORKING ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

East Timor, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos now represented in Asia-Pacific Week A boisterous garden party brought the ANU’s third annual Asia-Pacific Week to an end on the warm summer evening of February 2. With a total of more than 200 participants from 60 universities throughout Australia and the world, the event provided an exciting, intense and very eclectic glimpse of the newest and best in graduate research work on the Asia Pacific region. There were two significant innovations in the regional programs relating to Southeast Asia. Dr John Bowden (Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies) convened a new program on East Timor and Dr John Funston expanded the former Thai country program to encompass Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. George Quinn, Indonesia program. (Photo: Darren Boyd/Coombs Photography)

The East Timor program was attended by 15 delegates. Discussions ranged over East Timor’s law and government, history and heritage, health, the economy, agriculture, language and education. Dr Funston reports that 20 students attended his new multi-national program with nine student presentations on Thailand, five on Myanmar, three on Cambodia, two on Laos and one that covered both Thailand and Myanmar. Papers ranged over history, security issues, health, religion, the environment and the economies of the four countries. Twenty-five students were admitted to the Vietnam program convened by Dr Thai Duy Bao and Dr Rob Hurle. Seminar presentations ranged over history, religion, economics, linguistics, education, socio-political studies and anthropology. A highlight was the Vietnamese film night with an audience of 150 enjoying a screening of the feature “Girls with Long Legs”. Dr George Quinn convened the Indonesia program attended by 21 students from Australia and overseas. Dr Quinn reserved a number of places in the program for Honours candidates from Australia’s small and regional universities where Asian studies students often feel isolated. There were students from Notre Dame University Fremantle, the University of the Sunshine Coast and La Trobe University. Seminars and student presentations ranged over Indonesian politics, security in Southeast Asia, Australia – Indonesia relations, the Indonesian economy, management, tourism, local arts, the sociology of HIV infection and issues in the methodology of research. Student feedback was enthusiastic. This comment from a participant in the Indonesia program echoes the responses to all four of the Southeast Asia programs. Bao Duy Thai, Vietnamese program. (Photo: Darren Boyd/ “The Indonesian Studies Graduate Summer School is the best forum I ever attended during Coombs Photography) my study program here in Australia. I met with many students particularly non-Indonesians who have interests and challenges as well in Indonesia studies. It was a personal privilege to intensely discuss my project with a number of experts. It was really superb.” For more information on Asia-Pacific Week visit the web page: rspas.anu.edu.au/asiapacificweek/

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006  SINGING IN SANSKRIT: VOICES AND HEARTS

Graduating students giving a final public recitation in spoken Sanskrit. On the right is McComas Taylor. (Photo: Karina Pelling)

The first ANU Spoken Sanskrit Summer School finished with a bang on Sunday 19 February. The 14 graduating students demonstrated their newly acquired facility in the world’s oldest spoken language to an enthusiastic audience. The class and guests were addressed by Mr N.G. Vasanth Kumar, First Secretary of the Indian High Commission, and Professor Ann Kumar, Dean, Faculty of Asian Studies. The course was taught by the foremost instructor of spoken Sanskrit in the West, Pandit Dr Sadananda Das of the University of Leipzig. Dr Das has taught spoken Sanskrit in Germany, Italy and Switzerland, but this is his first course in Australia. In two weeks, the students, most of whom had some prior knowledge of the textual language, learned to converse, chant and sing in Sanskrit. The students departed with a mixture of pleasure and pain, but all intent on a follow-up ten-day intensive retreat on spoken Sanskrit to be held at the ANU property, Kioloa, next summer. [Courtesy News and Events page, Faculty of Asian Studies] Sanskrit Summer School participant. (Photo: Chris Fitzgerald)

PROSPECTS GOOD FOR NEW IN-COUNTRY OPTIONS IN HINDI AND SANSKRIT

In January this year, Dr Richard Barz and Mr Gordon Hill travelled to India to visit a cross-section of Indian universities and affiliated colleges in order to seek out institutions that could best support the Faculty’s well regardedYear in Asia program - delivered as the Year in India (Hindi) and Year in India (Sanskrit). In a demanding 18 day journey, utilising most forms of public transport available in northern India, Dr Barz (Convener of the Faculty’s Hindi and Urdu/Persian programs) and Mr Hill (Faculty Executive Officer) visited institutions in New Delhi, Dehradun, Musoori, Aligarh, Agra and Jaipur. Dr Barz and Mr Hill spent several days at AMU, meeting and interviewing key staff including the Vice-Chancellor, Mr Naseem Ahmad, and reviewing academic programs, university facilities, student accommodation, and city and regional infrastructure. It is anticipated that agreements will be made and arrangements will be in place permitting a new cohort of Year in India students to undertake their programs in selected Indian institutions by mid-2007. [Courtesy News and Events page, Faculty of Asian Studies]

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006  UNIQUE HINDI LANGUAGE CONFERENCE IN SYDNEY

Dr Richard Barz represented the ANU Hindi language tuition and other events. “It was outstanding in every way and program at a unique conference held in Sydney last February was very useful and informative for me,” Dr Barz reports. 4 and 5. Sponsored by the government of India (Ministry “I was especially pleased to have the opportunity meet of External Affairs) the conference brought together some colleagues involved in teaching Hindi in other countries 100 delegates, speakers and students from Fiji, Malaysia, and to establish links with teachers offering Hindi to Singapore and Australia to discuss the place of the Hindi primary and high school students in Australia.” language in Australia and in the Asia-Pacific region. The Dr Barz records his gratitude to the Government of India conference was conducted in Hindi. which sponsored the conference and met his travel and Dr Barz presented two papers in Hindi. The first, titledHindi accommodation expenses. Instruction at The Australian National University, discussed the teaching of Hindi at ANU in terms of its history, student profiles, pedagogical techniques and academic objectives. The second paper discussed the teaching of Hindi through video conferencing, with examples drawn from the ANU Hindi courses. Dr Barz delivers Hindi tuition to students at the University of Sydney at all undergraduate levels through video conferencing. There was lively discussion of the ideas in the paper, particularly from delegates from Fiji who also use video conferencing in their teaching of Hindi. The conference was enlivened with a poetry recital, a play Students undertaking the Applied Hindi course in India which is offered by ANU in the summer session

TAMIE BALAGA: OUR TOP INDONESIAN LANGUAGE STUDENT IN 2005

Tamie Balaga is the newest recipient of the annual Australia– the Year in Indonesia program. The AIA prize was Indonesia Association Prize for the best student in the accepted on her behalf by her sister Sonja (also a Year in Faculty’s third year Indonesian tuition program. Tamie is Indonesia graduate) in a gathering at the Canberra home currently a student at Gadjah Mada University undertaking of Association President Bill Rhemrev last March 29. Conferring the prize, Mr Rhemrev noted that Tamie had performed outstandingly in all domains of her third year study program. Of the sixteen courses she has completed in her degree program so far, she has gained High Distinction (80%+) in ten of them. In 2005 Tamie was the top performer in third year Indonesian, gaining a result of 82% (High Distinction) in the first semester, and 82% (High Distinction) in the second semester. In addition to turning in an outstanding performance in Indonesian, Tamie also completed an informal course in Sundanese Sonja Balaga accepts the AIA prize on behalf of her sister Tamie. On the conducted by Dr Mikihiro Moriyama, visiting fellow from left is Australia-Indonesia Association president Bill Rhemrev Nanzan University in Japan.

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006  THAI KICK-BOXING Intense, fun, good training and great for your Thai language skills

ANU student of Thai language practices her high kicks

The ANU was fortunate to have Samnang Yuanjit (known as Dip), a former Thai kick boxing professional and now trainer, provide instruction for a group of ANU students twice a week for several months this year. Student of Thai, Shamus O’Carrigan, reports. Dip’s classes covered some of the basic Muay Thai (Thai kick-boxing) moves. At the beginning of each class Dip directed fitness training and warm up activities, especially stretching which is integral to Muay Thai. He gave us expert guidance on the various positions and methods of stretching unique to Muay Thai. Another fundamental aspect of Muay Thai, which Dip instructed on, was the correct use of the Muay Thai wrist bandages. There is a special technique to correctly wrapping the bandages on the hands. If done incorrectly the bandages become loose and ineffective. The learning of positions and moves required sparring with other students. There was alternation between sparring with pads and practicing moves. Initially this was difficult as it is necessary to develop good coordination. Only after acquiring coordination was it possible to focus on technique and get more THE BHINNEKA TEAM: power into kicks and punches. Dip was very patient and keen for all students to Editor: George Quinn, Head, master basic moves before progressing. Southeast Asia Centre and South & West Asia Centre Dip spoke partly in Thai, which was great for me and other students learning Designer: Karina Pelling Thai. Of course he also used English for the non-Thai language students. The CONTACT DETAILS: class was an excellent adjunct to Thai studies and was also great for improving overall fitness and toning up. T: +61 2 612 53163 E: [email protected] Dip and his Muay Thai class will be sadly missed. I found his instruction to W: http://asianstudies.anu.edu. be intense, fun and good training. My advice to anyone learning Thai or just au/wiki/index.php/South_and_ looking for a new sport is that if the opportunity presents itself, learn Muay West_Asia_Centre Thai. I definitely recommend it. W: http://asianstudies.anu.edu. au/wiki/index.php/Southeast_ Asia_Centre

Bhinneka No. 4, April 2006 10