REVIEWS Elsewhere, and Will Recall Other Items Similar to Those in This Exhibition

REVIEWS elsewhere, and will recall other items similar to those in this exhibition. For others this catalogue will provide an Forrest McGill, ed. The Kingdom of introduction to Siamese art, and its Siam: The Art of Central Thailand, peculiar forms and expressions. How 1350–1800. San Francisco, Asian Art successfully does it perform this role? Museum - Chong-Moon Lee Center for To begin with, the production is ex- Asian Art and Culture, 2005, pp.200. cellent. There are striking full-page photographs of the architectural remains of This is the catalogue published to Ayutthaya, Buddha images, painting and accompany the exhibition by the same inlay work, and smaller, but still ad- name first held at the Asian Art Museum equate, illustrations of the exhibition in San Francisco and then at the Peabody items. A strength of the book is its com- Essex Museum in Salem, Massachu- prehensive bibliography, which pro- setts, in 2005. The exhibition brought vides interested readers with all the nec- together 89 of the finest examples of the essary leads for further study. There is arts of the Ayutthaya period of Siamese also a useful list of Siamese kings, and history (1351–1767), together with a a good index, but no glossary. few from the Thonburi and early Roughly half the book is devoted to Bangkok periods loaned by museums the items of the exhibition, and half to around the world, especially national the introductory essays. These cover a museums in Thailand. variety of themes. Forrest McGill pro- A catalogue, by its very nature, is vides a cautious introduction to the his- designed to accompany a visual experi- tory and culture of Siam over these four ence. Its introductory essays sketch the and a half centuries - cautious because historical, social and artistic context the historical destruction of Ayutthaya essential to an understanding of the art, makes it almost impossible for the art and its notes on individual items give historian to provide a connected account viewers information about what con- or stylistic flowchart for Siamese art. fronts them. But catalogues are also For what we have left of the art of collectors’ items, to be treasured as aids Ayutthaya are mere fragments preserved to memory, to be dipped back into as a by the accidents of time. The sacking of means of recall for those lucky enough the city in 1767 was so thorough that to have seen the exhibition. almost nothing survived. The ruins of For those not so lucky, a catalogue temples provide stark reminders of what must have an additional purpose. Many was lost, for so much fine art was reli- readers of this review will, like the re- gious. Of palaces nothing remains. The viewer, not have seen the exhibition, but murals and painted banners, sculpture they may well have seen several of and wood carving that adorned the great the items illustrated, in the National royal temples have irretrievably gone. Museum in Bangkok, or in museums

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McGill outlines what we might call include spices, for that would have at- the material religious context, the com- tracted occupation, as it did in the spice ponent elements of Buddhist temples islands. Siamese trade goods were and the place of image, stupa (or chedi), mostly drawn from an extensive hinter- and narrative relief or mural painting. land, which included the inland king- This is essential, but so too is an under- doms of Lan Na and Lan Xang. It was standing of the worldview that this art control of this trade that gave Ayutthaya expresses and communicates - and this the edge in the Tai world, but never is not well covered, in any of the essays. enough to unify it in the face of the threat There is no outline of Buddhist cosmol- from Burma. ogy, no discussion of the legitimation In artistic terms, to the earlier Cam- of power provided by royal donations bodian influence, always strong, were to the Sangha and the construction and added influences from the north (Lan beautification of Buddhist temples, and Na) and west (Sri Lanka, either directly passing reference only to the purpose of or via Burma). What the Europeans making merit. An understanding of Bud- brought were luxury items for the dhism is assumed, but this is surely an amusement of the nobility and, most unwarranted assumption for many importantly, new technology and knowl- Americans who viewed the exhibition, edge, mainly military, but in medicine, and even for readers of the catalogue. too. They affected the construction of The second essay is by Dhiravat na fortifications, not temples. Pombejra on foreign contacts and trade The next four essays focus on archi- with Ayutthaya in the seventeenth and tecture and art. Hiram Woodward pro- eighteenth centuries. This makes the vides an informed discussion of the very important point that Ayutthaya was Buddha images of Ayutthaya. Then a remarkably cosmopolitan city, and key follow Santi Leksukhum’s study of the hub in a trading network that connected evolution of memorial towers and M. Siam with China to the east and both L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati’s interesting the Indian sub-continent and the Mus- account of the treasures discovered in lim world to the west. The addition of the crypt of the main tower of Wat Europeans to this mix further stimulated Rachaburana. Finally there is a fine trade, but only over time. From an ar- study of Ayutthayan painting by Henry tistic point of view, the influence of In- Ginsburg. dia and China was always more impor- There is something a little illogical tant, at least until the nineteenth century. about the order here, which derives, I The importance of Ayutthaya in the surmise, from the failure to provide an network of trade lay not in its strategic account of the growth of Ayutthaya, both location (as in the case of Malacca or as an urban centre, and more importantly Batavia), but in its goods on offer. in terms of the symbolism expressed in Dhiravat makes the point that it was urban relationships (of palaces and lucky for the Siamese that these did not temples and administrative and com-

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mercial areas). Provided with such a The crypt of Wat Rachaburana was context, Santi’s more narrowly architec- rather hurriedly excavated by the Fine tural study of the various forms of prang Arts Department of Thailand in 1957, and chedi would make better sense (al- after looters got away with some twenty ways supposing that this is sufficiently bags of gold objects, so Pattaratorn germane to the focus of the exhibition.) reminds us. But how do we know there Then would follow naturally chapters were twenty bags? How big were the on the Buddha image, the artefacts dis- bags? Was any of this loot recovered? covered in Wat Rachaburana, and Fascinating questions, which Pattaratorn Ayutthayan painting. leaves us wondering about. What Because Ayutthayan art is so over- escaped the thieves still made up an whelmingly religious, and because Bud- extraordinary collection, without which dha images are the focus of worship, our knowledge of Ayutthayan art would some sense must be made for the non- be very much the poorer. Buddhist reader of the plethora of forms What is particularly significant was and postures that confronts anyone vis- that we know precisely when the votive iting the exhibition or reading the book. plaques, small Buddha images, and Woodward does this well, categorizing finely wrought gold objects were depos- images in terms both of the four pos- ited in the crypt (in 1424). This assists tures (iriyapatha) - standing, sitting, enormously in dating not only these walking and reclining - and of hand ges- objects, but in establishing dating crite- ture (mudra). He also devotes attention ria for a whole range of Siamese arts to peculiarly Siamese forms, such as the and crafts. Two points are particularly Buddha in royal attire and the Sihing of note about this collection, both of type of seated Buddha with the right which reinforce our understanding of hand resting on the right knee. Wood- Zthe importance of international rela- ward indicates the significance of fa- tions at this time, both for trade and for mous Buddha images, and notes how religious contacts within the Buddhist very few survived the sack of Ayutthaya. world: one is the evident Chinese influ- Santi’s detailed exposition does have ence (well before the arrival of Europe- the benefit of drawing attention to ans); the other is the number of artefacts architecture (and by extension, art) out- of foreign Buddhist provenance. side the capital, and to the eclecticism Painting, as Ginsburg reminds us, is of Siamese borrowing of architectural particularly subject to damage through forms (the prang from Cambodia, the war, weather, and neglect. What must bell-shaped stupa from Burma via Sri have been wonderful mural paintings in Lanka, the octagonal stupa from Mon the great temples have disappeared Haripunjaya). What the Siamese did was almost completely. The best that remain to elaborate upon these forms, particu- are in Phetchaburi and Bangkok, not in larly in the Baroque decoration of the the ruins of Ayutthaya. Banner paintings later stupas. are almost as poorly represented. Our

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knowledge of Ayutthayan painting derives overwhelmingly from miniature panels flanking the text in folded paper manuscripts - and few enough of these remain. Ginsburg’s contribution strikes just the right note: comprehensive, informative, and expert. Most of the notes on exhibition items are provided by Forrest McGill, with additional notes by other contributors on the walking Buddha, votive plaques, the wonderful statue of Uma (?), and early books on Siam. McGill also provides useful longer notes on categories of artefacts, including images of Maitreya, crowned Buddha images, and manuscript cabinets. These latter are worth special mention for the fineness of their decoration in gold leaf against a black lacquer background. One is decorated with two figures, one European, the other Indian, said to be King Louis XIV of France and the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. All exhibition items are illustrated, thus providing a complete record. Some, such as stone and bronze statues of Hindu gods (Shiva, Vishnu), are shown from different angles, or in detail. Such statues remind us of the continuing Brahmanical influence at the Siamese court, and bring home yet again the remarkable extent to which Siamese artists were in contact with, and prepared to adopt, foreign influences and made of them something uniquely Siamese.

Martin Stuart-Fox

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Ibrahim Syukri, History of the Malay Patani.” He merely wants to arouse the Kingdom of Patani (Sejarah Kerajaan “Patani Malays,” as he calls them, to be Melayu Patani), translated by Conner “conscious of their fate, agree to Bailey and John N. Miksic. Chiang Mai, struggle until the end for democracy.” Silkworm Books, 2005, pp.xx+115, Bt (p. 101). The fact that he chose to write 395. in the Jawi script (Malay with the Arabic letters), testifies to the fact that, Michel Gilquin, The Muslims of Thai- according to David K. Wyatt, a foremost land, translated by Michael Smithies. authority on the subject, Syukri intended Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 2005, to communicate with his Patani or pp.164, ills., Bt 595. Southern Thai audience, without “attempting to mobilize a wider Malay The raging violence in Thailand’s (or Indonesian) opinion, for which he Deep South which began in early 2004 would have employed the Roman script, has taken many people by surprise. The nor did he express himself in Thai or region had been relatively calm and English, both of which languages he away from the media for quite some apparently knew.” time. Many have analyzed the situation Thus, the real objective of Ibrahim in terms of poverty, power abuse, vio- Syukri was not the historical accuracy lations of human rights, and ethnic chau- of his work, but rather a “political ac- vinism, and a minority of academics as- tion” to be stirred by emotional appeals cribe it to “jihadist foreign intervention”. to Patani’s past glory. He did not really The two timely books under review want his audience, the succeeding gen- give us an historical dimension, and a erations of Patanis, to be aware only of socio-anthropological context of the their past, but to “act politically” as a Patani uprising. Both combine to shed result of that awareness. Little wonder some analytical light on the ongoing that the book has never appeared in Thai conflicts in the southern border areas. since its first publication in Kelantan in Ibrahim Syukri provides us with a the late 1940s. political history, nay, a political pam- The language used by Syukri is both phlet, aimed at inspiring “succeeding stirring and sarcastic, bitter and forebod- generations....(to be) aware of the cir- ing, despairing and inspiring, all at the cumstances concerning their kingdom same time. Wyatt, in the foreword to the in ancient times....(and) to learn a little edition under review, describes it as of the life and circumstances of their giving “voice to the pained historical ancestors...and then to inspire them to consciousness of Patani.....[during a study and compile more detailed books time] when a full force of Thailand’s such as this.” (p. 2). policies of national integration began to Syukri does not mean his book to be bear upon the Malays of the Peninsula.” a definitive work on “the history of (p. ix).

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The book is divided into four chap- right of suzerainty of the Malays ters portraying Patani’s ancient history, in the country of Patani, and the the genealogy and the height of pawning of all rights to liberty and Patani’s power, the period of decline independence to the Raja of Siam- and, finally with Syukri’s passionate call Thai. This was the last and most for the “reawakening” of the people of unfortunate year in the history of Patani. It is a story of humiliation and the fall of the Malay Kingdom of defeat retold for the purpose of agita- Patani (p. 81). tion for a political movement at a time when Thailand was under authoritarian Seen in this light, Syukri is right in rule and the Malay states further south assuming that “memories” of historical were being prepared for independence events could serve as a powerful tool of in a form of federation. inspiration for the people under “the While readers should not look for yoke of subjugation.” (p. 79 ) He brings “rational facts and history” in Syukri’s “the pained historical consciousness” to book, as Wyatt warns in the foreword, life. And, since 2002, the violent situa- we should at least appreciate his aspira- tion in the south seems to go from bad tion for a concise record of the rise and to worse and has no end in sight. fall of the Patani kingdom. It is obvious If Syurki gives us a passionate ac- that the author entertains a fervent count of the history of Patani, Michel desire to make use of that “history” to Gilquin’s The Muslims of Thailand, breathe life into a dormant movement translated by Michael Smithies, pro- for Patani independence after the Sec- vides us with a wider perspective of the ond World War, a time of fluidity in state Muslim community in Thailand. Being formation in Southeast Asia. a sociologist with an interest in Muslim Syukri’s chronology of wars and societies and their experiences in socio- defeats on the part of the Patani people economic and political integration, under their “rajas” also gives us a better Gilquin brings a fresh approach to the understanding of the emotional quo- study of the Muslims in Thailand. The tients behind the Patani independence book is an excellent background for the movement. The current uprising and understanding of the current violent ongoing turmoil in the Deep South could conflict in the three border provinces of be seen as a “centennial” of the “ulti- the south. mate fall of the country of Patani” to Gilquin begins his book by analyz- Thai rule of 1902. According to Syukri, ing “the origins of Islam in Thailand.” But his is not a typical historical per- …A.D. 1902 was the year of the spective—he digs deep into the social ultimate fall of the country of transformation of “the Chao Phraya Patani, the loss of the sovereignty basin.” Gilquin’s description of the of its rajas, the destruction of the waves of migrants and foreign cultures,

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i.e., the Chinese, the Portuguese, the matters of legislation. (p.13) Persians, the French and the Greeks, the Indians and Bengalis and the Chams of The “ambiguity” that is mentioned the Khmer empire, gives the readers above continues to plague the relations a glimpse into the process of the “melt- between Bangkok and the Muslim South ing” of various cultures into a rather to this day. But more than in matters of heterogeneous Siam of yore. legislation, the conflicts now center on Islam and the Muslims came to matters of policy espoused in and from Siam’s “melting pot” of cultures from Bangkok. What used to be described as various directions. The Chinese Mus- “tactical” and “distant” has become lims came to the north with the migra- immediate and close. The extension of tion of the Hui, or Chinese Muslims power and control of the “ungodly” (p.15), the Arabs, Indians and Persians authority down to the Muslims in the entered Ayutthaya early in the seven- south has made it impossible to live in teenth century (p. 18), and Patani was isolation and to be shielded from impact converted to Islam as early as 1457 of policy initiatives. Muslims in the (p.11). All came to a kingdom loosely South deem certain policies to be threats strung together by Theravada Bud- to their identity and cultural heritage. dhism, which makes it more interesting This ambiguity also explains the stiff to sociologists and historians. Siam, resistance to the trend of centralization with a tolerant form of Buddhism as the of power and policy formulation per- state religion, gave support and respect petuated by the Thaksin Shinawatra with high tolerance to the foreign Mus- government in the past five years. lim communities within its realm. The Gilquin’s analysis of a Thai Muslim author describes with insight this unique identity is fascinating as well as illumi- symbiotic relationship between the Bud- nating. Islam in Thailand finds itself dhist kings and the Muslims: “in a society which is impregnated with religiosity but which is not coercive There was some ambiguity on both about its observance.” (p. 25). The sides [about the Muslims submit- Theravada Buddhist Thai culture is soft, ting to the “ungodly” authority]. accommodating, open and tolerant, .....For Thais, in their accepted ver- making it secure and comfortable for sion of history, allegiance implied religious minorities of all denomina- ipso facto recognition of the nation, tions. The monarch is regarded as “the religion, and the sacred nature of Supreme Patron of All Religions.” the Siamese monarchy, whereas for (p.43). The king’s solicitude for his the Muslims this submission only Muslim subjects is praised as an “ex- had a tactical dimension and did ample [which] encourages Buddhists to not imply the recognition of an show goodwill to Muslims. It gives a “ungodly” authority, particularly in concrete form to the national principle

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of tolerance. It suggests acceptance of with the Islamic Centre of Thailand and cultural and religious diversity.” (p.109). states wrongly that the present nomina- In this environment, the Muslim iden- tion of the Chularajamontri (a Thai tity is protected and the Muslim com- version of Sheikh ul Islam) is brought munity sustained. before the Parliament. In fact, there is Michel Gilquin tries to explain “Thai no tradition claiming that the king is the Muslim structures and demographic spiritual head of national Islam, like the importance” in detail. Overall the au- monarch of the United Kingdom being thor does a good job in providing infor- the spiritual head of the Church of mation about the spread of the Muslim England. While the position of the king community throughout Thailand. Some as the patron of all religions is stipulated of his facts appear to be misleading, in the constitution, although not in however. The fault lies not with the Article 7, the Parliament has no role in author alone, however, since figures and the nomination of the Sheikh ul Islam statistics on the Muslim demography are or the Chularajamontri. But, all in all, not very well collected and analyzed. the general treatment by the author of For example, Gilquin shows his frustra- the Thai Muslim society is helpful in tion with the “numerical counts,” quot- better understanding the current state ing different numbers from different of Muslim social structures in Thailand. sources. In the end, there is no consen- Part II of the book discusses the sus as to the real number of Muslims in issue of “The Muslims of the Deep Thailand. It ranges from 2.1 to 3 to 7.3 South,” their history and their integra- million people. (p. 38). tion into the Thai state. It gives a clear The description of the power struc- picture of how the central authority tried ture of Thai Muslim society is very to appropriate the remnants of the old informative. It explains how the leader- sultanate of Patani and the pervasive ship of Muslim society has been deter- resistance among its people. The read- mined from the time of Sheikh Ahmad ers could find some useful information of Qum during the Ayutthaya period about the organized resistance under the down to the present time. Still, some leadership of the Pattani United Libera- facts cited should be rechecked for tion Organization (PULO), the Barisan accuracy. For example, the author Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the National claims that “By tradition the king is the Liberation Front of Patani (Barisan spiritual head of national Islam, and Nasional Pembebasan Pattani, BNPP), article 7 of the 1997 constitution gives the Barisan Bersatu Mujahiddin Pattani this legal force by designating the (United Mujahiddin Front of Patani, monarch as the patron of all religions in BBMP), and the Gerakan Mujahiddn the country (sasanu-pathamphok).” Islam Pattani (GMIP). All these organi- (p.43). And the author confuses the zations and their subsidiaries have been National Council for Islamic Affairs claiming responsibility for the current

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violence rampaging in the Deep South. A real contribution to the study of Muslims in Thailand comes in the last part of the book when the author takes up the issue of “Islam and the Thai Nation.” It paints a picture of a matur- ing community struggling to play an active role in the democratization process of the country. It describes a wave of awakening or renewal among the Muslim intellectuals at the national level. It also sheds some light into the efforts on the part of Muslims to find representation in parliament and in the cabinet, the highest decision-making body of the State. The two books under review are particularly to be welcomed by general readers and specialists in Thai Muslim studies during this time of insecurity and instability in the Deep South. While Ibrahim Syukri provides an historical backdrop of a frustrated people of Patani negotiating the pressures of change and transformation to maintain their identity and culture, Michel Gilquin gives us a larger picture of a minority Mus- lim society in a Theravada Buddhist kingdom, also trying to protect its unique religious and cultural heritage in a time of high fluidity in national political and economic transformation. Both books are valuable additions to the growing volume of works on the Mus- lims in Thailand.

Surin Pitsuwan

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Scot Barmé, Woman, Man, Bangkok: mechanized print media and film dur- Love, Sex, and Popular Culture in Thai- ing the early decades of the twentieth land. Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, century marked the beginning of a new 2006, pp. 273. era in Siam’s history” (p.2). The transformation from absolute to Students of Thai history are usually constitutional monarchy in Siam, obsessed by the subjects of the monar- marked by the 1932 coup, has occupied chy and the royal elite. A series of theo- a prominent place in recent Thai histo- retically-informed approaches have riography. Barmé argues that under- been crafted in and around these long- standing how Siam embraced Western- lasting, hegemonic institutions. Scot style modernity and carried on its na- Barmé’s book, first published in 2002 tion-building process, particularly after and now reissued by Silkworm for a the collapse of the absolute monarchy, Southeast Asian edition, can be viewed through the lense of the elite is far from within the monarchy-focused academic adequate. The monarchs and the nobles tradition, even though Barmé clearly turned the wheel of the national history, wishes to distance himself from the but it is at least intellectually incomplete dominant “Great Man” theory of history not “to say [something substantial] (p.3). He takes a look at the breakdown about commoners being the harbingers of the absolute monarchy from the popu- of political and social change and re- lar stance. He definitely does not intend newal” (p. 3). For Barmé, a major way to write about the monarchs and the to perceive what the commoners actu- nobles and their civilizing missions, but ally thought and how they reacted to the their shadow still looms large through- flush of new ideas and technologies in out the book. From the popular perspec- their time is through a careful recon- tive, he seeks to recapture the cultural struction of the early “modern Thai life” life of the critical political transition at displayed in the print media and film the beginning of the twentieth century. records. He discovers that contemporary Barmé’s research materials and sources issues, such as class, gender, lifestyle are extraordinarily rich. He writes a vi- and taste, popular nationalism, the po- brant social history of Bangkok cosmo- sition of women and their rights, com- politanism by reliving and retelling fas- mercial popular/hybrid culture and con- cinating accounts of public debate, sumption, which have been branded by emerging progressive ideas, complaints, many as postmodern phenomena, have satirical protests, and other intellectual much deeper historical roots in urban social commentaries retrieved from the Bangkok (p. 257). The growing middle archives of newspapers, magazines, class and the ever-expanding cosmo- novels, short stories, film booklets, and politanism in Siam’s capital constitute cartoons. He believes that “the devel- key factors in understanding the opment of modern technologies of country’s nation building, economic

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and political upheavals, as well as its Aphonsuwan, and Tamara Loos, among dynamic cultural life. others. Barmé’s lively accounts of There are a number of ways to ap- protofeminism, women’s education, preciate Barmé’s contributions to the sexual intimacy, and love and romance growing body of scholarship on Thai in many ways show continued interest studies. First, this book introduces the in taking a critical look at the intellec- ‘from below’ approach to the Thai his- tual as well as the private life of the toriography. Its analytical focus estab- emerging urban middle class featured in lishes the approach that the city, the na- many works by his colleagues. Finally, tion, and thus, the historical signifi- Barmé’s work provides scholarly con- cance, are formed by the people. It tributions in multiple fields of Thai stud- brings back the agency of commoners ies beyond its historical base. Disci- to the place they deservedly belong - the plines like cultural studies, historical center stage of Thai history. Of course, anthropology, gender studies, media it is always debatable whether the com- studies, political science, and urban moners, the people, or the masses in studies focusing on modern Thailand early twentieth century Bangkok are and beyond will benefit from the breadth proportionately represented in the print and depth of this book. Its historical fo- media and film. How representative cus on Bangkok’s middle class and its were the educated and the members of urban life should well complement Marc the middle class in Bangkok, and to Askew’s Bangkok: Place, Practice and what extent did Bangkok dominate Representation (2002). Although this Siam’s popular culture at that time? Are book is not as deep or as intriguing as the media accounts popular enough to James Francis Warren’s two master- be considered as manifestations of popu- pieces about people’s history in colonial lar culture? Are their media-saturated Singapore (Ah Ku and Karayuki-San of voices sufficiently well captured to be 1993 and Rickshaw Coolie of 1986), it discussed as something equivalent to can easily claim ground-breaking sta- Raymond Williams’ “structure of feel- tus in its own right. ing”, expounded in his Marxism and The book contains some minor draw- Literature (1977)? Second, Barmé’s backs. It is perhaps beyond its scope, work belongs to a growing body of but Buddhism deserves more substan- scholarship challenging the dominant tial attention or even a major chapter. It paradigm in Thai historiography that is one of the major persistent cultural Thongchai Winichakul calls the “royal forces and values determining the so- nationalist history” (prawatsat racha cial life in the country. It would be in- chatniyom). Some leading figures in teresting to trace how the middle class the challenging paradigm include and ordinary people of urban Bangkok Craig Reynolds, Nidhi Aeusrivongse, made sense of their modernizing world Thongchai Winichakul himself, Thanet through their traditional popular Bud-

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dhist Weltanschauung. It is rather sur- grounded gem in the expanding field of prising that Buddhist ideas were not cultural studies in Thailand. extensively featured in the Bangkok media during that time. On the techni- Pattana Kitiarsa cal side, the book lacks a glossary of key Thai terms, maps, and images, which would help the reader better enjoy Bangkok’s recent past. Images or pictures of the early twentieth century Bangkok are definitely lacking; as we all know, a photograph is worth a thousand words. The camera was available long before the period under study. There are also some transliteration errors, as on p. 107, where than phu saksi becomes than phu saksit. The reference to Warren’s book in note 38 (p. 91) is wrong. The correct one is found in the bibliography. Woman, Man, Bangkok is highly recommended for scholars and students of Thai studies and those whose interests are concerned with comparative fields of humanities and social sciences in Southeast Asia and beyond. It is also intellectually stimulating for general readers, as it is written in an entertain- ing and accessible fashion. It is virtually free of technical/theoretical jargon. Its thesis concerning early modern life from the popular perspective and its well-crafted coverage of multiple contemporary issues will certainly be well received by scholars involved in the subaltern/postcolonial and post- modernist debates. This anthropologi- cally oriented reviewer treasures Barmé’s book as an historically-

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Wattana Sugunnasil, ed., Dynamic Di- ‘roots’, ‘transition’, ‘current affairs’, and versity in Southern Thailand. Pattani, ‘wider context’. Prince of Songkhla University, and In her study on Spirit Mediumship in Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 2005, Southern Thailand: The Feminization of pp.x + 333, Bt.795. Nora Ancestral Possession, falling into the category of ‘roots’, Marlane In 2002, representatives of commu- Guelden reports on her field work nities in seven southern provinces, conducted in Pattani, Songkhla and volunteers, and academicians convened Phatthalung provinces, from October in the city of Pattani to present results 2000 to December 2004. Her research of their recent fact-finding. Called the highlights the ritual side of nora, which First Inter-Dialogue Conference on involves few people and is limited to Southern Thailand, the event was co- village life, compared to the public en- hosted by the Pattani Campus, Prince tertainment side. There are an estimated of Songkhla University, and the Depart- one hundred or more traditional nora ment of Anthropology, Harvard Univer- groups. With a focus on gender transi- sity, and financially supported by the tion from male to female prominence in Rockefeller Foundation, and the Toyota the nora performance, four central find- Foundation, as well as the Asia Center ings are presented. Firstly, women and the Department of Anthropology, among nora active participants have both of Harvard University. increased to 70-80 percent, and among The diversity of Southern Thailand is nora troop leaders to 10-30 percent; sec- not the gist of this book. Rather, it con- ondly, flexibility in ancestral beliefs is tains eleven contributions on diverse warranted by a melange of elements of facets in selected areas of Southern Buddhism, Brahmanism, Taoism, Islam, Thailand, supplemented by one on a and animism; thirdly, female nora per- community abroad. It would have been formers are joined by mostly female me- helpful to have had an introduction - at diums; and, lastly, nora rituals are seen best an essay on diversity and related as particularly valuable to women cli- dynamics - as well as subject and geo- ents. A tendency toward empowering graphical indexes. women seems to have gained strength. Southern Thailand being large in size This study of spirit mediumship is and diverse in the extreme, the neces- deemed a fine methodical example of sity of topographical differentiation is gender analysis - as well as a most in- not only obvious but also mentioned in formative research on the authentic, some contributions, as in Duncan ritual nora. McCargo’s paper. The paper on Popular Culture and The collection of papers contains a Traditional Performance: Conflicts and wealth of information that is grouped by Challenges in Contemporary ‘Nang this reviewer into the categories of Talung’ by Paul Dowsey-Magog covers

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the sacred as well as the profane, stud- 2001-December 2002. He distinguishes ied in Songkhla, Phatthalung, Trang, between how the Thai community has Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surat Thani upheld its ethnic identity, while identi- provinces. Previously an important fying itself as Malaysian, reminiscing village ritual practice, nang talung has about a ‘golden past’, remaining devout become widespread in southern towns to Buddhist institutions in Thailand, as professional entertainment. The au- maintaining kin relationships, express- thentic performance of nang talung still ing positive sentiments, and yet perceiv- serves the original, ritual purpose of ing a corruption of moral values across communicating messages focused on the border—in short, “an ambiguous adverse conditions. Nang talung locale of contradictory meanings”. juxtaposes the nai, the master, and the The Kelantanese Thai villagers’ phrai, the lowly commoner, with a glimpse across the “southern fence” clown, tua talok, representing the genius could perhaps be likened to a reverse of rural people. Inherent is saksit, mean- mirror image of current affairs, an ideal ing sacrosanct, even sacred items and in a magic mirror. It likely exemplifies practices, embedded in ritual knowledge mutual respect among different ethnic and believed to exert magical power and religious groups. over oppressors. As reported, the signifi- Among immigrants of various ethnic cance of clowns and older ritual prac- origins, the Chinese put down their roots tices is connected to the shared south- rather recently. They formed ever more ern identity. nodes of expanding networks. This is Reading this in-depth study is like described by Suleemarn N. Wong- glimpsing behind the screen, gaining suphap in her paper entitled The Social insight into cultural and social facets. It Network Construction of the Baba fosters the understanding of socio-cul- Chinese Businesses in Phuket. As high- tural dynamics, in their complexity and lighted, the identity requires five major diversity. conditions to establish itself and to The adage ‘the grass on the other side expand business, as exemplified by the of the fence is always greener’ comes Ganthawee family’s “cultural capital”. to mind in reading the paper entitled They are: assimilation through the Paradise at Your Doorstep: Interna- network of the women’s families; broth- tional Border Fluidity and Cultural erhood; relatives and bonds; friends, Construction amongst Kelantan’s Thai associates, and connections; as well as Community, the third contribution patronage and networks. placed in the category of “roots”. The The findings are based on a study of author, Irving Chan Johnson, conducted the Ganthawee clan, whose founder fieldwork in Ban Bo On, situated oppo- settled in Phuket in 1897. Examined are site Amphoe Sukhirin of Thailand’s their business patterns, deemed charac- Narathiwat Province, during August teristic of how Chinese tin-mine man-

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ager-owners established themselves and caused by counter-productive irrigation, represented the driving force of the inland fisheries, coastal fisheries and southern capital group in Phuket. The aquaculture, water-borne transportation, evolution up to the year 1984 is one of communities in orchards and forests Baba Chinese male and Yonya female threatened by eviction from areas de- Chinese actors’ own historical experi- marcated as national parks, maritime ence, rather than the experience of commons of littoral communities, cul- Chinese either on the mainland or else- tural heritage, environmental pollution, where. Ultimately, their Chinese-ness is narcotics, and pipeline construction. a product of Thailand’s nationalizing Initiatives for alternative strategies process, which has resulted in creating are geared to build productive commu- the “Phuket Chinese”. Given the signifi- nities, and to foster self-reliance, envi- cance of the Chinese element in the pot- ronmental conservation, ‘green market pourri of ethnic groups not originally networks’, formal education, occupa- intended to form one group, this case tional training, advancement of women, study conveys essential information. sustainable ecosystems, sustainable One of the two contributions focused natural resource management, off-sea- on ‘transition’ relates Voices from the son rice cropping, and preservation of Grassroots: Southerners Tell Stories traditional crafts. about Victims of Development. Based on Thirty-eight of the 44 studies were 44 studies of 55 cases, including 41stud- conducted in the provinces of ies by 42 identified authors, as well as Chumphon, Nakhon Si Thammarat, one each by the Pak Phanang River Narathiwat, Pattani, Satun, Songkhla, Basin Community, by students from Trang and Yala. At least ten authors bear Prince of Songkhla University, and by Malay names. This lends credibility to a Pattani Bay Network, adverse impacts heralding ‘voices from the grassroots’. are reported on natural resources as Considering the significance of diver- a means of livelihood, as well as on sity and its inherent dynamics, these essentials of sustenance, caused voices from the grassroots are deemed by ‘development’ project planning, of core importance. The underlying implementation, or management. action research, exploring and reflect- Cases of natural resources jeopar- ing on conditions and stimulating dized in the course of development re- change for the better by employing fer to forests, agro-forests or forest gar- rapid rural appraisals is, in itself, proof dens, fresh water resources, wetlands, of the ongoing transition from reactive and coastal aquatic resources. Sources adjustment to pro-active assertiveness, of livelihood compromised or threat- from blind protest to alternative pro- ened are community forest conserva- posal. tion, farmland exposed to degradation, Given the vast scope and sheer declining field crop yields, degradation magnitude of development ventures

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gone awry, the reader should have been contributions. The one entitled Consum- offered the whole load of information. ing Modernity in a Border Community That opportunity was missed. by Wattana Sugunnasil introduces Rapporteurs compressed it into a far too Buddhist villagers in an old, fictitious brief summary report. Thai settlement, which seems to be Paths to a Possible South: The located in Phron or Khosit sub-districts Dhamma Walk for Songkhla Lake, a of Tak Bai District and, hence, is not paper authored by Theodore W. Mayer, “remotely” situated. How the villagers relates to action research. By 2003, eight have fared over the past decades is Dhammayatra had been conducted. The related through bits of information lake walk reflects a unique encounter scattered across the paper. As a result, between a highly intellectual, socially there is repetition. Most irritating are critical, activist Buddhist movement and inconsistent statements. the problems surrounding an important Against the background of radical identifying feature of the southern Thai changes since 1971, evident from com- landscape - Songkhla Lake. A small parative official statistics and household group of Buddhist monks, members of data regarding use of appliances and the Sekhiyadhamma, an organization other durable goods, as well as employ- dedicated to the appropriate training in ment, it does not come as a surprise that dhamma, travelled to Tambon Khun drastic changes have continued to oc- Khut in Sathing Phra District of cur. After all, the village is within easy Songkhla Province in 1994. Its presi- reach of Sungai Kolok, one of the busi- dent, Phra Kittisak, felt inspired by the est hubs. In short, the village is not situ- activist role of Muslim leaders at the ated at the periphery of modernity ei- Khun Khut mosque. ther. The printed announcement of the first Apart from inconsistencies, tedious Dhamma Walk described its objectives repetitions, and redundant generaliza- as conserving natural resources, the for- tions, the author’s portrayal of a com- mation of an ecumenical network, co- munity is informative, in many of its ordination anchored in religious centres, facets. The drawing of contradictory and adherence to shared religious prin- inferences can be traced to the author’s ciples, satsanatham. It became evident fusion of well researched and docu- that these hopes were highly unrealis- mented village society dynamics with tic. With a view to grasping the scope ideological prescriptions of harmony. of the conflict, understanding its dynam- ‘Current affairs’ at the regional level ics, and working towards a non-violent and of trans-boundary significance are solution, this meticulous ‘travelogue’ addressed in Phil King’s contribution offers more than just insight. It diag- entitled The Indonesia-Malaysia-Thai- noses social ills and prescribes remedies. land Growth Triangle: How the South ‘Current affairs’ are addressed in four Was Won ... and Then Lost Again. The

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southern provinces of Thailand, north- the Expansion of the Vegetarian Festi- western Malaysia, and the Indonesian val in Hat Yai. The field study, con- provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra ducted in 2001, focuses on Chinese were identified as components of a dis- ethnicity in the context of the local tour- tinct subregional territory. This was ist industry for which Chinese-ness is deemed a boon for Thailand’s southern mobilized as a resource. provinces. Also, the potential role for Vegetarianism, coupled with ‘moder- ethnic Malays was considered an oppor- ate asceticism’ and worship of the Nine tunity, not a constraint, for economic Emperor Gods, are distinguished. Both development. Malay identity was pre- are mediums through which connections sented as a form of “social capital”. are made between southern Thai Chi- The blueprint prepared by the Asian nese and people in Malaysia and Development Bank (ADB) did not Singapore, who participate to experi- seriously address issues of Malay par- ence an exotic yet familiar Chinese-ness ticipation or the complexities driving conditioned by another national context. poverty cycles. The host state’s cultural rather than Based on a document published by racial definition of “Thai-ness” implies Thailand’s National Economic and So- that “nation-ness” is defined by practice cial Development Board {NESDB), the and allows the Chinese to maintain the Seamless Songkhla Penang Medan cor- public veneer of “Thai-ness” while ridor (SSPM) was created. The most creatively combining Chinese practices virulent opposition came from the with the prescribed Thai behaviour. Malay fishing villages most directly af- The author’s vivid description of the fected by the proposed pipeline and gas festival’s dynamics keeps the reader separation plant. In an ironic twist, the engrossed. folksy symbolism that had long been Aspects of the ‘wider context’ of dy- part of the promotional material devel- namic diversity are covered by three oped into a potent force of its own. In sections of varied scopes. The broadest effect, the forms of “social capital” that scope is addressed by Omar Farouk were considered irrelevant to the devel- Bajunid in his paper on Islam, Nation- opment of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thai- alism, and the Thai State. Undoubtedly, land Growth Triangle are fully capable it conveys relevant information, yet the of bringing core dimensions of the paper sheds little light on the theme of project to a halt. the book. Solely of relevance are the Given the recent emergence of a Malay Muslims who have fought for novel trans-boundary culture, also sub- their community space and the sustain- sumed under ‘current affairs’ is the study ing of their native Jawi language. Mus- by Jovan Maud of The Nine Emperor lim parliamentarians in the southern Gods at the Border: Transnational Cul- provinces established an inter-party po- ture, Alternate Modes of Practice, and litical faction called Al-Wahdah in 1986

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to promote and safeguard collective and ‘Upper South’. Muslim politics interests through democratic means. shifted from parliamentary means to an The concluding paragraph reads like unconventional path with no specific a set of research hypotheses, as follows: form or operational procedures. Vio- democracy seems to be the best guar- lence was fuelled by alienation, and by antee for the Malay Muslim communi- a range of grievances. Since1973, a ties’ survival; in the democratic Thai significant “counter-elite” has emerged state, the Muslims will be able to har- to challenge the official elite. ness their potential fully as equal and The South has been a potentially loyal citizens; the compatibility of Is- renegade region with a propensity for lam with Thai nationalism is a time- disorder, begging questions about the tested fact; and Muslims can be ex- origins and nature of banditry. Arguably, pected to assume a commitment to the the border provinces are the “theatre” ideals of Thai nationhood. The reader of much infighting over considerable is left with the impression that the chal- resources among influential groups. lenge to conduct research conducive to These gangs have comprised regional conflict resolution continues. and provincial level government offi- Another feature of relevance with a cials, wealthy and corrupt businessmen, sharp regional focus is the paper by and top local gangsters. Not only does Duncan McCargo on Southern Thai this overview open and, most of all, train Politics: A Preliminary Overview. It perspectives on the South of Thailand does not deal with Thailand’s govern- but it also stimulates the conceptuali- ment policy in regard to the South, but zation of further exploration, beyond the with the dynamics of southern politics. researched track. The author’s summary of points may The paper Southern Thai Women in serve as orientation: southern Thai Development: A Tale of Two Villages by politics are shaped by a distinctive Jawanit Kittitornkool is categorized as history; troubled politics of the south- belonging to the wider context, seem- ern border have overshadowed the ingly with a focus on southern women politics of the region as a whole; the in development. Alas, the tales of border region is the most studied part women from two southern villages are of the South from a political perspec- paid too little attention. A summary of tive; contrasting identities are mani- the few studies cited is supplemented fested in violent conflicts; and the south with information obtained by interview- more generally has a reputation for ing 14 persons, eleven of them in lawlessness and banditry. Sketched in Southern Thailand. The presentation of informative abstracts, politics in the the core matter is signalled under the ‘Lower or Deep South’ are diagnosed, heading of “The Villages and The as distinguished from politics in the Women”, in Ban Khao Bua and Ban South overall, including the ‘Middle’ Tha Hin. Their different topographies

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might have been selection criteria. Moreover, one is a village where community development groups have been promoted by government agencies, whereas in the other a council was formed under the leadership of the ab- bot and monks. Instead of any comparative analysis, profiles of ‘The Leading Women’ are lumped together as if they lived in one and the same village. Consequently, there is neither rationale nor need for any further comment. Worse yet, a half- baked description is offered in that it covers one village exclusively, to the effect that the section entitled “The Analysis of Women’s Participation in Development” remains void of any analytical finding. Ultimately, the drawing of conclusions is unfeasible. In spite of these criticisms, this book is strongly recommended to readers of all walks of life. It contains information that might well fill in lacunae of earlier, completed, or ongoing research. All persons who are concerned about the situation in the south of Thailand and desirous to see the plethora of predica- ments alleviated will gain valuable insight.

Karl E. Weber

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G.J. Younghusband, The Trans-Salwin and ‘dacoits’ continued into the twenti- State of Kiang Tung, ed. David K. Wyatt. eth century. At the height of the war, the Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, pp. xiv British Indian Army in Burma numbered + 80, 4 pull-out maps and plans, paper- some 40,000 troops and 15,000 armed back, Baht 395. police. The Shan State of Chiang Tung pre- First comes one Englishman to sented the British with a problem, not shoot birds or beasts, then come only because of its relative size and two Englishmen to make a map, independence - they had recently mur- and then comes an army to take the dered all the Burmese Commissioners - country. It is better therefore to kill but also because of its geographical the first Englishman. location on the wrong side of the River Salween. This made it difficult for a Pathan saying quoted in G.J. Younghus- modern army to march on it directly band A Soldier’s Memoirs in Peace and from Burma. War (1917, 320). In late 1886 Younghusband was briefed by Colonel Bell VC in Simla, The general in direct command of the the British Indian Army HQ, for a mis- so-called ‘Third Anglo-Burmese War’, sion to collect military intelligence on which started in November 1885, was routes to Chiang Tung through Siam and General Sir Frederick Roberts VC its northern dependencies. General (1832–1914). He was Commander-in- Roberts knew Younghusband personally Chief of the British Army in India and may have suggested him for the 1885–93, and later became Field mission. In an anecdotal chapter in one Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar. He of Younghusband’s later memoirs, he was in Mandalay from November 1886 refers to Roberts’s personal kindness in to February 1887, a period that coin- awarding him the Burma War Medal for cided with the visit to Chiang Tung of his services in Chiang Tung. The offi- 28-year-old Lieutenant George cial and secret report on the mission - Younghusband, of the Queen’s Own of which only two copies exist - is Corps of Guides. By then, what re- reproduced in the present publication, mained of the Kingdom of Burma which also has a valuable introduction (‘Upper Burma and the Shan States’ to and glossary by Professor Wyatt. the British) had been incorporated into What the young lieutenant did in British India. It had taken only a few 1887 by visiting Chiang Tung could weeks to capture Mandalay and secure probably be accomplished today by the surrender and exile of the Burmese any military attaché from Bangkok, king. But the ‘pacification of the coun- driving up to Chiang Tung in a 4 x 4 on tryside’ was to take several more years. a family holiday of about two weeks. ‘Punitive expeditions’ against ‘rebels’ Nor would (s)he need a supporting cast

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of guide, interpreter, driver, mechanic, ‘The following pages give an account cook and someone with a shotgun. The of a journey made during six months resulting intelligence would probably be leave [not true] in the beginning of 1887. just about as irrelevant, or unused. In They do not profess any literary merit the event, Younghusband’s advice to whatever [by and large true] but are ‘hand over’ Chiang Tung to China was merely a faithful [not entirely true] not heeded. In 1890 Chiang Tung peace- record of new countries and new na- fully became part of British Burma, or tions, as seen with the eyes of an ‘submitted’ and ‘accepted the position ORDINARY BRITISH SUBAL- of feudatory’ as Scott has it (Scott 1901: TERN’ [not quite true] 307). In his introduction, ‘Spy and Coun- I am obliged to present the differences terspy in the Shan States’, Wyatt between the texts in summary form, but emphasises the theme of military espio- they can be checked. In short, as we nage and the way in which the Shan kept would expect, the popular text includes Younghusband at arm’s length, but un- some relatively trivial or anecdotal der surveillance and subject to harass- material that is not in KT, and omits ment, theft and threat. Wyatt highlights references to specifically political and the disingenuous way in which strategic information and comment. This Younghusband’s popular published ver- includes reference to disguises and sion of his travels (Eighteen Hundred subterfuge, to maps, weaponry, military Miles on a Burmese Tat, published in strengths, logistics, city defences, roads 1888) - hereafter 1,800 miles.... – a tat passable for guns, artillery ranges, best is a Burmese pony - described his routes for lines of advance and positions journey as the adventures of a young of- for siege and attack. It also includes ficer on unpaid leave from India, out for reference to political analysis and a bit of fun and small game hunting. advice. This review looks at the context of Younghusband has a chapter devoted his journey and the quality and value of to his time in Burma and Siam in each his report. First, I compare the volume of his two later volumes of memoirs. In under review [KT] with 1,800 miles... I A Soldier’s Memoirs...1917, Chapter 7 use only the comparable sections of the (of 21) is entitled ‘A Burmese adven- journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang ture’ and in Forty years a Soldier... 1923, Tung and back to Chiang Rai. In 1,800 Chapter 6 (of 16) ‘An Adventure in miles... the relevant sections (pp. 39–80 Siam’ (Wyatt refers only to the latter). of 162 pages) are of approximately the Each of these is brief and contains little same length as KT, more or less 10,000 new except for the first published words. In brief, KT is only slightly evidence of his role in ‘the Intelligence different from 1,800 miles... but cru- Branch’, and an expanded story of how cially so. The preface to 1,800 miles... he bought some fake European am- reads:

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ethysts in a Shan amethyst mine (in Consul in Chiang Mai, Mr Archer, and 1887!). the American Missionary, Dr Cheek. It is instructive to compare KT with Like McLeod, he received advice from Captain W.C. McLeod’s 1837 report the Chinese (Yunnanese Muslim) (Grabowsky and Turton 2003 [hence- traders. He is generally less recognisant forth McLeod]). Younghusband reprints of his helpers and sources than McLeod. McLeod’s route Chiang Tung-Chiang Younghusband avoided official contact, Rung, but makes no further use of adopted disguises and pretended to be McLeod. In a six month excursion from poorer than he was to avoid theft and India and back, Younghusband spent the obligation to give gifts. He ends his just nine full days in Chiang Tung city report with the words: ‘This informa- and 27 days in the province altogether. tion for the most part is that of the Bazár, McLeod spent fourteen days in Chiang and not official’. This does not neces- Tung city and 43 days in the province sarily downgrade the value of the infor- altogether. In all McLeod spent four mation, but it underlines the limits of times as long in the (comparable) region his access. as a whole, including Chiang Mai and So not only did he spend less time in Chiang Rai, and his report is about four Chiang Tung and write less than times as long. McLeod, but his report is less soundly The McLeod and Younghusband based. He is not as gifted an observer or visits to Chiang Tung, in 1837 and 1887 writer as McLeod, or (Sir) James Scott, respectively, could hardly be more who was soon to follow. Scott gives contrasting. McLeod was four years credit to McLeod and many others, but older, had recently been promoted makes not a single reference to captain, was more widely experienced Younghusband (Scott 1901). and had lived in Burma for over ten KT contains some trivial, prejudiced years. Much more importantly, he had and self-regarding material, which I find an ambassadorial role. He bore letters cumulatively distasteful. He describes and gifts between heads of state. He the Chiang Tung Prince, who is twelve followed protocol. He spoke excellent years old, as a ‘rather idiotic-looking Burmese, and perhaps a little Tai. youth, with a face that may turn into a Younghusband knew almost nothing of very cruel one’. He writes offensively the situation, spoke no relevant lan- about his interpreter David, whom he guages, and, moreover, despised his renames Ananias: ‘a poisonous beast interpreter, whereas McLeod’s inter- and the most unholy coward’ (Forty preter deputised for him and was of great Years), ‘the most fearful and hopeless assistance. Younghusband had the ben- coward God ever created’, ‘that skunk efit of the reports of previous visitors. Ananias’. Then there are the rather People on the ground included (since the dreadful, and often malicious thumbnail Treaty of 1883) the British Vice- sketches of faces of people he met, some

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twenty-two in all in the present volume. published books. He dined out on the He is also self-regarding in a rather un- story of the fake amethysts. About other attractive way. One portrait reproduced deceptions practised on him, we might here and in 1,800 miles... is captioned assume he may have been more discreet. in the former ‘Myself, about 3 months As for the ‘Trans-Salwin State of after leaving civilization’ (he is heavily Kiang Tung’, if that is the direction you bearded and has long hair) and in the view it in, it has remained a contested latter ‘My own sweet self after leaving area, demonstrating well the sound Zimme’. His boastful and exaggerating judgement of Younghusband, though he style is echoed in Forty Years: ‘Sir meant it slightly differently: ‘The George White with his army was now Kiang Tung province in the hands of attacking from the West (though we did the British can never be anything but a not know it at the time [?]), whilst Judh source of weakness to the integrity of Bir [his orderly] and I were attacking the Burmese Kingdom, ... a constant from the South’ (p. 100). Even towards challenge to outsiders.’ (KT p.13). In Judh Bir, a Gurkha, and therefore close 1943 it was ceded to Thailand, to be in the British military hierarchy of mar- returned after the war. In 1953 it was tial races to the epitome of the Pathan largely occupied by insurgents and ‘tribesman’, he manages to be conde- Chinese (KMT) irregular forces. In 1983 scending, in such phrases as ‘a famous there were some nineteen insurgent little fellow’ and ‘a right tight brave little groups in the Shan and Kachin states, man and companion’. Wyatt calls these representing various ethnic and politi- attitudes ‘cavalier’. I suppose this goes cal alliances. The Shan State of Chiang with phrases he uses in later books, such Tung will long remain a focus of fasci- as ‘dash my wig’! nation for historians and politicians Younghusband’s mission was, for alike. him, a minor episode in a long career The editor suggests that ‘There is that included military action in India, much in Younghusband’s report that Egypt, Afghanistan, Burma, Philippines remains good reading.... He rarely lets (with the US army) and South Africa us forget, however, that he was on seri- (against the Boers). Wounded in France ous duty as a military spy.’ (KT p. x, in the First World War, he was rewarded emphases added). I would give a differ- with the sinecure of Keeper of the Jewel ent emphasis and say that it is once House, in the Tower of London, a post again interesting, precisely because of he held with the title Sir George the military angle. It needs to be read as Younghusband KCMG, KCIE, FRGS a symptomatic text and not as a rattling until his death in 1944. He wrote a Short good tale, nor as a mine of useful data. History of the Tower of London, which And, as the editor says, the wider con- has the same anecdotal style and forced text of intelligence interest in Chiang levity as his three (now four) other Tung at the time, by the British Foreign

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Office, and by the Siamese and Chiang Mai governments, requires that we read this report ‘more carefully and skepti- cally than we might otherwise do’. (KT p. xii). Professsor Wyatt and Silkworm Books are to be congratulated on living up to their high standards of editing, annotating and publishing manuscripts and long out-of-print texts of historical interest.

Andrew Turton

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Anthony R. Walker, Merit and the Textual analysis revealed numerous millenium: routine and crisis in the references to ideas and institutions that ritual lives of the Lahu people. New were obviously of Buddhist origin, such Delhi, Hindustan Publishing Corpora- as monks, merit, and demerit. Further- tion, 2003, pp. xxxi + 907, maps, pp. il- more, these Lahu ritual texts are lustrations. sprinkled with words and expressions derived from Pali or Sanskrit, but also Anthony Walker spent nearly four occasionally from Dai, Chinese or Bur- decades studying the religious beliefs mese. These characteristics of Lahu and practices of the Lahu. He now ritual texts, together with the signifi- presents us with this massive volume in cance of the village temple and the re- which he records and explains how the current phenomenon of prophets and Lahu people view the super-human messianic movements, led the author to world, and describes and analyzes the investigate as much as feasible the ritual practices through which they Lahu’s Mahayana Buddhist heritage in interact with that invisible world. Yunnan. The author bases his work on his par- Having recorded the rich and varied ticipant observation of ritual life in a ritual life of the Lahu in the village in Lahu Nyi village in Lanna (northern which he carried out his field work be- Thailand) in the late 1960s, as well as fore proceeding to the analysis of the on later field research among the Lahu ritual texts he had collected, Anthony of Yunnan. As a result, he explains the Walker found that there was much less ideas and practices that he found in variation among the ritual texts than “his” Lahu village in northern Thailand among the ritual practices. Explanations in terms of the wider context of the offered by informants about ritual prac- Lahu-speaking peoples. This may inci- tices and their underlying premises were dentally help to demonstrate that the often divergent, sometimes contradic- highland populations of southern China tory or confused, whereas exegetical and northern South-East Asia interact commentary on textual materials tended fairly often, at least on the periphery, to be much more coherent and compre- with lowland civilizations. In addition, hensive, as well as considerably less the author scrutinizes much of the divergent. widely scattered and extremely hetero- In the first part of this hefty volume, geneous publications concerning the entitled “A Lahu village in North Lahu which have been written by West- Thailand and its socio-historical matri- ern travellers and Chinese administra- ces” (p 3–108), Anthony Walker sums tors, as well as by colonial officers, up his study of a Lahu Nyi village near evangelical missionaries and sundry Phrao, Chiang Mai province, carried out other observers. between 1966 and 1970. He briefly describes the layout of the village, the

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economic basis of the inhabitants’ live- Kucong, in 1993). lihood, the daily round of village life, The hard core of the book is entitled the phenotype and dress of the villag- “The diverse strands of Lahu super- ers, their material culture, and some natural ideas and ritual practices” (pp. aspects of their social organization. 111–547). The author investigates “ani- In a section called “Through the mists mism” and “theism” in Lahu ontology. of the past: from hypothetical Qiang to Among the Lahu, there seems to be a proven Lahu”, Walker goes on to at- consensus on the existence in every hu- tempt to make some sense out of the man being of both a material body and rather scanty and frequently obscure some spiritual essence, which are inti- available material that may reveal mately interrelated. something of the prehistory, protohis- Whereas almost all Lisu would agree tory and history of the Lahu people. He that men have nine ha and that women then discusses the controversial etymol- have seven ha (a Lisu term which I ogy of the ethnonym Lahu. There fol- would prefer to render in English as lows a section about the differences “vital spirit” rather than “soul”), the between Lahu groups such as the Lahu author’s Lahu informants were very Na, the Lahu Nyi, the Lahu Shehleh, and vague about the number of awv ha (a the Lahu Shi. The author notes that Lahu term translated as “soul” in this linguistic differences do not always book). Their replies to the author’s ques- coincide with socio-cultural differences. tions ranged from two to thirty-two, He also discusses the relationship be- such presumably mystic numbers as tween the Kucong and the Lahu proper. three, four, twelve and seventeen being Whether the Kucong should be consid- most often mentioned as possibilities or ered to be a division of the Lahu or a certainties, while thirty-two is likely to separate people (in China, they have reflect Yuan (Khon Müang) influence. applied, without success, for official rec- What happens to these awv ha after a ognition as a shaoshu minzu) is a moot person dies is equally vague. In the case point. This leads to a discussion of the of “good deaths” or “natural deaths” – geographical distribution and demo- i.e. deaths which have not occurred graphy of the Lahu, dispersed as they during childbirth or in bizarre circum- are in the mountain areas of southern stances and that have not resulted from Yunnan (411,476, including 30,051 an act of violence such as murder, sui- Kucong, in 1991), the eastern Shan cide or accident - at least one of the awv State of Myanmar (probably more ha departs for the Land of the Dead. than 200,000 nowadays), northern Predictably, the anthropologist’s queries Thailand (60,321 in 1987), northwest- about where the Land of the Dead is ern Laos (about 16,000, including at located and what it is like frequently least 3,000 Kucong, in 1985), and north- elicited replies such as “How can I western Vietnam (about 5,400, mostly know, I’ve never been there! Have

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you?” (p. 126). Therefore the author Much detailed material is also offered tends to keep an open mind about “tra- concerning spirit propitiation and spirit ditional” Lahu ideas on this subject. exorcism. In another chapter, the author Walker then relates what he has examines what he calls rather appropri- learned about “traditional” Lahu beliefs ately “the extremes of an animistic con- concerning the world of the neˇ (spir- tinuum”, namely the garnering of merit its) before going into the question of and the practice of sorcery. Lahu “theism”, certainly a major aspect In the next section, Walker investi- of Lahu metaphysics. The Lahu (or, at gates the circumstances under which least, some of them) appear to be quite Mahayana Buddhism spread among the exceptional among comparable peoples Lahu of southwestern Yunnan in the in eastern and southeastern Asia in that late eighteenth century - to the extent they attribute great importance to G’uiv that the rather scarce and often impre- sha, their original creator and supreme cise historical records permit. He at- deity. The author admits willingly that tempts to evaluate the legacy of this “among almost all the other peoples we episode among what he calls the “post- have mentioned (and the dozens upon Mahayana Buddhist Lahu”. Detailed dozens unmentioned) the high or al- ethnographic materials are mustered to mighty creator deity is regarded as a indicate how this Mahayana Buddhist remote, almost insignificant supernatu- heritage has been incorporated with ral being in comparison with the much animistic and theistic ideas into the more immediate territorial guardians, routine of their ritual lives. Village sickness-bearing spirits, etc.” (p. 160). temples, together with their attendant He contends that the interest of the Lahu officials and the rituals which take place (or at least, some sections of them) has in them, are described. Some attention evolved gradually as a result of is also paid to the annual cycle and to Mahayana Buddhist influence, begin- the life cycle. Particularly interesting is ning in the latter part of the eighteenth the chapter concerning the messianic century. movements that have led to significant A lengthy chapter concerns the prac- changes in the beliefs and rituals of vari- tice of “animism”. After having intro- ous Lahu-speaking peoples. Indeed, a duced the practitioners, maw- pa_ and recurrent phenomenon is the appearance she_ pa_, the author describes various of men - styling themselves as prophets methods of divination practised among or messiahs - who claim unity with the Lahu (they vary somewhat, of G’uiv sha, pretend to possess miracu- course, from group to group). He gives lous healing powers, and proclaim the considerable details about the ceremo- need for profound changes (including nies in which awv ha are recalled when- the end of Han or Dai hegemony in their ever someone falls sick as a result of area). one or more awv ha wandering off. The third part of the book (pp. 551–733) is concerned with the spread

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of Baptist and other forms of Christian- are quite distinct socially and culturally ity among the Lahu. The author strives from the Ta’ang/Palaung and they speak to identify the reasons why Christian a different Austroasiatic language. missionaries have been much more Living in southwestern Yunnan, they successful in spreading their religious come into contact more or less fre- convictions among the Lahu than among quently with the Lahu. On the Chinese most other highlanders in that part of side, the Ta’ang and the Bulang consti- the world. He estimates that about 10 tute two separate entities among the per cent of the Lahu have embraced fifty-five shaoshu minzu (national Chistianity, the percentage being much minorities) that are officially recog- higher, perhaps 30 per cent, in Thailand nized. than elsewhere. However, it would seem One of the most welcome features of that some of the converts drift away this book is its rich illustrative material. from Christianity almost as easily as A large number of high quality photo- they have adhered to it. graphs, technically excellent and highly The author incorrectly equates the informative, are presented on 72 plates. Palaung with the Bulang. Thus he states Some of them are quite attractive and that “the Austroasiatic (and Buddhist) exceptionally striking. Palaung (Bulang in Pinyin romaniza- This work is an important contribution) recognize Sagya in this role” tion to the study of the ritual life of the (p.159). Elsewhere, one reads about Lahu. It cannot possibly be overlooked “the Bulang (Palaung) of the Yunnan- by any future researcher in this special Kengtung area” (p.144, note 69) and field or in related fields. The author has “the Bulang (Palaung) Mountains in gathered and published a huge amount Xishuanbanna’s Menghai County” (p. of ethnographic details about routine 381)... In fact, “Palaung” is not at all a and crisis in Lahu ritual life, which will variant of “Bulang”. It is a Burmese be invaluable for comparative purposes. exonym for the Ta’ang (De’ang) people Generally speaking, detailed ethno- who live in the western and northwest- graphic work of this kind is indispens- ern parts of the Shan State of Burma able to make well-informed compari- and in adjacent districts of the Dehong sons and to validate theoretical construc- Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Zhou in west- tions. ern Yunnan. The Ta’ang are very seldom in contact with the Lahu, except to a William Lang Dessaint very limited extent in an area north of Lashio, where there are significant numbers of persons of both “ethnic groups” (or “nationalities”, as they say in Myanmar or “national minorities”, as they are termed in China). The Bulang

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Norman G. Owen, editor, The Emer- approach to their subject. They wrote at gence of Modern Southeast Asia. a time of ‘the seeming triumph of secu- Singapore, Singapore University Press, lar nationalism and the ongoing war in 2005, pp.xxiii + 541. Vietnam’. Although the revised 1987 edition of In Search took account of the The publication of The Emergence of many great changes that had taken place Modern Southeast Asia (henceforth between 1971 and the mid-1980s, it was Emergence) is, as this review will go on still clearly recognisable as the revised to elaborate, very much to be welcomed. version of an earlier text. Both editions At the same time, and particularly for of In Search were graced by an outstand- those whose engagement in the South- ing and extended ‘Bibliography’, which east Asia region spans several decades, in the 1987 edition ran to no fewer than the book’s evolution deserves some ini- sixty-nine pages. With brief but helpful tial comment. Six of the eight authors annotations, this was an extremely of the present book – David P. Chan- valuable scholarly tool in itself. The dler, Norman G. Owen, William R. Roff, absence of a similar bibliography, and David Joel Steinberg, Robert H. Taylor, of a glossary of terms that was also part Alexander Woodside and David K. of In Search, is one of the immediate Wyatt – were associated with the differences apparent to a reader of Emer- book’s predecessor, In Search of South- gence. Presumably removed as a cost- east Asia (henceforth In Search) either cutting measure, the loss of both is a in its initial, 1971 publication form, or matter of real regret. with its revised successor, published in That the book has been conceived as 1987. The newcomers to the book, at a teaching tool is immediately apparent least so far as the text is concerned, are from the section headed ‘How to Use Norman G. Owen and Jean Gelman This Book’, which notes the authors’ Taylor: Owen as editor and contributor, assumption – surely correct – that few and Taylor as a replacement for John of those who read Emergence will do R.W. Smail, to whom the new volume so from cover to cover. Rather, the au- is dedicated and whose particular inter- thors suggest, the book has been con- est was Indonesia. structed in a fashion that allows readers In its initial form, In Search was a either to focus on ‘general thematic’ remarkably successful collaborative chapters or to follow the histories of effort which drew on the country-spe- particular countries within the Southeast cific talents of its multiple authors, while Asian region. each member of the group played a part These are sensible observations, par- in the chapters dealing with general is- ticularly for those who are new to the sues. As is made clear in the ‘Preface’ discipline of Southeast Asian history. to Emergence, the period when In But they are observations that raise the Search was written shaped the authors’ question as to just who will benefit from

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reading this book. It is no distraction to note the two issues that are the par- from my enthusiastic endorsement of ticular preoccupation of this chapter. this book’s value to suggest that its ideal The final chapters dealing with the reader is someone who has already very recent history of each Southeast developed a basic knowledge and un- Asian country bring the story of the derstanding of the region’s history. For region almost up-to-date and are percep- this is, indeed, a book that provides a tive accounts of the essential features of sophisticated account of an area of the society and politics within each of those world that poses a challenge to those countries. These chapters provide a who seek to write about it. As the au- fitting end to the country-specific chap- thors observe in their ‘Preface’, this is a ters throughout the book as a whole. In challenge that ‘is compounded by its each case these final chapters end with myriad peoples, each with its own past, a thought-provoking question or obser- sense of cultural and social identity, and vation - none of which have been in- shaping geographic reality’. validated by the passage of time since Without doubt the authors of Emer- the manuscript was completed. To note gence rise to these challenges, whether just two of these final country-specific in relation to the histories of the indi- points, I am struck by the accuracy of vidual countries or in the chapters de- the chapter on Laos ending with the voted to thematic analysis. In doing so question as to whether that country can they demonstrate the detailed know- be kept ‘from becoming an informal ledge and understanding of their sub- annex of southern China’, and by the jects that are a reflection of the many observation that, in the Philippines there decades they have spent in studying and remains an unresolved issue in the writing about the region. Yet, to return ‘struggle for the right to rule and repre- to an earlier remark, the depth of their sent’ that country. knowledge and understanding can, I Overall, the book is a triumph of col- think, be intimidating to a newcomer. laborative effort and one that we can Chapter 17, ‘Channels of Change’, confidently expect to stand the test of provides an example of the point I am time, even as the study of Southeast making. I think it is admirable in its Asian history continues to develop with analysis and coverage, and there is noth- a greater depth of scholarship and an ing that I would wish to criticize about expansion of the topics that come un- it. I simply think that the readers who der study. It is not too much to state that will benefit most from reading it are the text is essentially seamless, so that those who have already gained a basic even those acquainted with the writings knowledge of the history of a number of the individual authors will not feel of Southeast Asian countries, as well as that they are reading a collection of es- more general knowledge of issues as- says. Read against the fact that the first sociated with urbanism and education, important general history of Southeast

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Asia – that of the late Professor D.G. Hall – was published only fifty years ago, this book is a testimony to how far the discipline and writing about it have progressed.

Milton Osborne

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Craig J. Reynolds, Seditious Histories: Asian state, including the Asiatic mode, Contesting Thai and Southeast Asian theatre state, and mandala; and a sort of Pasts. Seattle and London, University anti-review about the absence of gen- of Washington Press, 2006, pp. xix + der in Thai historical writing. 367. The rest of the articles all have a distinctive approach: they are about docu- Craig Reynolds is one of the most ments. Reynolds selects a key text or distinctive historians working on Thai- clutch of texts, puts them in their his- land, largely because he is fundamen- torical context, and then squeezes out tally a historian of ideas – a relatively their significance and legacy by walk- rare variant of the genus on the world ing round them and examining them scale, and almost unsighted in Thailand from all angles. until his appearance on the scene. The documents stretch across the Through his writing, teaching and in- Bangkok era. They start with a Buddhist spiration he has helped to make this area chronicle (Sangkitiyavamsa) of the First a relatively major part of Thai histori- Reign, and range through to the sound- cal writing in recent years. bites of public intellectuals confronting Much of his output has been in ar- globalization over the last decade. ticles, several of which have acquired Along the way, Reynolds walks around classic status. This book assembles Chaophraya Thiphakorawong’s twelve pieces, previously scattered in Kitchanukit, the Traiphum, manuscripts journals, proceedings, or edited collec- which Kulap “borrowed” from the pal- tions over three decades. Two appear ace library, Nirat Nongkhai, the cultural here for the first time. Four are signifi- mandates of the Phibun era, historical cantly expanded and reworked from texts on feudalism in the 1960s and earlier published incarnations. The 1970s, the output of the official culture others are reprinted with minor polish- industry, and the whole genre of manu- ing, including new titles to keep up als on everything from healing through with the times. The stolidly academic warfare to business success. Reynolds’ title “The Case of K. S. R. Kulap: two book-length pieces were similar, A Challenge to Royal Historical Writ- more exhaustive studies of documents, ing in Late Nineteenth Century Thai- namely Prince Wachirayan’s autobiog- land” (from JSS 1973) is transformed raphy, and Jit Phoumisak’s Real Face into the rather harrypotterish, “Mr. of Sakdina Today. This is quite a range Kulap and Purloined Documents.” of texts and subjects. Three of the pieces are review ar- Although the articles span the ticles. These include a contribution to Bangkok era from the First Reign to the the debate on what defines Southeast present, Reynolds does not present them Asia as an idea in history; a roundup of to us in chronological order. Indeed, models of the premodern southeastern chronology is something which has be-

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come steadily less and less important in dominated the production of ideas. his work. The first piece, written in the Reynolds’ second category of “cul- 1970s, takes a lot of space anchoring tural studies” is more in the mainstream. Phra Phonnarat’s chronicle firmly in its The main focus of these articles is the historical context. The latest piece, writ- adjustment of the Siamese elite to the ten in the 2000s, ignores time almost West over the course of the nineteenth altogether and considers manuals rang- century. Reynolds shows how the elite ing from the treatises on warfare in the changed to accommodate new ideas Ayutthaya period to the how-to books coming from the powerful West, but ul- that crowd present-day bookstands as a timately he stresses how much the elite single genre with no consideration managed to retain in the process. The whether there is any “development” science of the Traiphum was discarded over time. In his history of ideas, the so that its philosophical support of ideas increasingly surmount the history. social hierarchy could be retained. Instead of using chronology, Polygamy was elegantly defended by Reynolds divides the articles into two Chaophraya Thiphakorawong, using batches. The first batch contains the arguments designed to appeal to “seditious histories” that give the book a western moral sensibility. its title. These articles focus on docu- The theme of the last two articles is ments which were written to disrupt. K. how “Thainess” has been manufactured S. R. Kulap not only challenged the and manipulated over the past century. palace’s exclusive right to own the The first is an expanded version of the chronicles and other key texts of Thai introduction to National Identity and Its history, but also challenged their exclu- Defenders. The second is rather lazily sive right to change them. Thim titled “Epilogue”, which forces the Sukkhayang used the poetic form of the reader to wade a long way in before nirat for the highly unusual (and, at the discovering this is a discussion of time, dangerous) role of political criti- Thainess and globalization. cism. Jit Phoumisak used the royal Reynolds argues that “Thainess” was chronicles to up-end mainstream history manufactured as an idea based on cul- and drag Thailand into Marxist dis- ture and heritage rather than ethnicity, course. Reynolds pictures all three of because the ethnic mix was always prob- these intellectuals as pioneers who lematic. It has always been bound up helped to change the public culture, and with concerns for national security, and suffered jail as a result. In selecting these has tended to be more of a state weapon subjects of study, Reynolds was con- than a popular feeling. In the era of glo- sciously disrupting the mainstream of balization, Thainess has been recruited Thai historical writing in the 1970s and to every possible agenda. On the one 1980s, which seemed bent on glorify- hand, cultural expansionists gaze north- ing those who held power and thereby wards at various Tai-language groups

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beyond the borders. On the other, cultural defenders squeal about the threat to Thainess from globalization. In the background of this collection of articles is the post-modern revolution in social science over the past generation. Reynolds totally avoids the jargon of postmodern writing, and Foucault gets only one passing mention, not worth even recording for the index. But all through these articles, Reynolds is conscious that the writing of history itself is part of the history of ideas. It is not surprising that his work is popular with the new generation of historians who have grown up academically with the postmodern view. But there is a cost. Some of the later pieces seem to plait the contending discourses and counterpointed ironies so densely that any overall conclusion is difficult to see. This is a superb collection which anyone with an interest in Thai culture and history will enjoy.

Chris Baker

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Ronald Bruce St John, Revolution, Re- namese empire was shared by both the form and Regionalism in Southeast conservative right and revolutionary left Asia: Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. of Vietnamese politics. It was not shared London, Routledge, 2006, pp. xvi + 282. by Lao or Cambodians. In post-colonial Indochina, it was the Indochina was a French invention, a vision of the left - of Indochina held to- product of colonial logic that wilfully gether through ‘special’ relationships disregarded historical political and cul- between ruling Marxist-Leninist parties tural realities. In particular it ignored the - that dominated during what the Lao most significant cultural divide in call the ‘thirty-year struggle’ from 1945 Southeast Asia, which runs down the to 1975 to throw off the last remnants Annamite Cordillera between Confu- of colonialism (French to 1954 in the cian Vietnam and Theravada Buddhist First Indochina War) and imperialism Laos and Cambodia. But it also ignored (American to 1975 in the Second patterns of historical interaction. Indochina War). But then came the Not until the Nguyen dynasty in the phenomenon of the Khmer Rouge, and nineteenth century did Vietnam evince a Third Indochina War was required to much interest in extending its political bring Cambodia back into the sort of influence west into Laos and Cambo- relationship Vietnam wanted – to the dia. Prior to that, the direction of both annoyance of China. Vietnamese migration and its projection After 1979 Vietnamese political in- of political power were from north to fluence first waxed, then waned, in south, at the expense of the Cham, rather Cambodia, while it diminished more than of the Lao kingdoms to the west. slowly in Laos. Changing relations have Only in the last phase of Vietnamese largely been in response to external expansion were Cambodian interests circumstances, though internal policy directly challenged. A Vietnamese differences have also contributed. Since attempt in the 1830s to extend political the later 1990s, when all three countries control to the west encountered the joined the Association of Southeast equally expansionist ambitions of Siam. Asian Nations (ASEAN), intra-ASEAN After years of inconclusive conflict, relations and developing regionalism Vietnam and Siam agreed to exercise within the Greater Mekong Sub-region joint hegemony over Cambodia. (GMS) - not least the inclusion of China Paradoxically, while claiming to have - have further reduced the significance preserved Cambodian and Lao indepen- of any exclusively ‘Indochinese’ re- dence, French colonial power held only gional grouping. Siam at bay. For the Vietnamese the way St John tells the story of the post- was left open for renewed migration and colonial, post-imperial unravelling of the possibility of greater political influ- Indochina since 1975, not as narrative ence. The vision of an expanded Viet- history, but as a chronological survey

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of developments in the political very different political culture of Viet- economy of all three countries. In order nam. This is a pity, because a compari- to do this, he begins by telling us what son would shed light on the different the French vision of Indochina was all prospects for development for Vietnam about, and saying something about the on the one hand, and Laos and Cambo- Vietnamese conception of ‘special re- dia on the other. lationships’ linking the three countries. A strength of the book is the atten- But the latter is covered too sketchily in tion it gives to regional relationships, the opening background chapter, and the notably between the three ‘Indochinese’ leap from French Indochina to 1975 states, but also more widely as they leaves out too much. We would like to engage with ASEAN in the 1990s. know something about the intervening Diverging foreign policies are also well years, particularly with respect to Cam- covered. So too is the history of regional bodian-Vietnamese relations. Indeed the integration, which goes back to the whole Khmer Rouge period from 1975 mid-1950s, when the Economic to the end of 1978 gets very cursory Commission for Asia and the Far East treatment. In contrast to Vietnam and (ECAFE) produced two reports, and Laos, no section is devoted just to continued with the formation of the Cambodia in chapter two on the ‘rush Mekong Committee in 1957. Integration to socialism’; though thereafter cover- was placed on hold during the Second age is approximately equal for all three Indochina War and the aftermath of the states. Third, but gathered strength after the St John assumes some knowledge not UN-imposed political settlement in just of broad historical developments, Cambodia, in the form of the GMS, but also of who the principal dramatis promoted by the Asian Development personae were. Names are introduced Bank, and ASEAN membership. with few biographical references. De- St John is an indefatigable author, an spite this, however, the story of post- independent scholar who in his own 1975 ‘Indochina’ is well told, through a words writes “with a three-fold geo- wealth of political detail and economic graphical focus on North Africa and the data. What are not covered are those Middle East, Andean America, and cultural and social dimensions that have Southeast Asia.” Given this wide range contributed to internal policy differences of interests, one might expect this book since the early 1990s, as regimes in all to be a somewhat cursory study. But St three ruling parties seek to shore up their John has combed the literature and legitimacy in a post-communist world. combined it with his own knowledge of For example, there is little on religion. the region to produce a broad and St John does have interesting things to compelling synthesis. A great amount of say about political culture in Laos and information is packed into the pages of Cambodia, but is strangely silent on the Revolution, Reform and Regionalism,

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so much that at times one loses the argument in the mass of detail and the relentless parade of economic data. This is not a book for the casual reader or the faint-hearted, but for those with a genuine interest in the region it is a useful and informed addition to the literature. It will be of value not just to students, but also to all those working in the region in the fields of aid, commerce and diplomacy.

Martin Stuart-Fox

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Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy and Joël introduction and comprehensive conclu- Meissonnier, Yaa Baa: Production, sion. In Part 1, “Yaa Baa, An Illicit Drug Traffic and Consumption of Metham- from the Golden Triangle,” geographer phetamine in Mainland Southeast Asia. Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy provides an Singapore, Singapore University Press, historical and geopolitical background 2004, pp.xxii + 210. of methamphetamines and their production throughout Asia. Part 2, “The Cir- cuits of Yaa Baa,” by sociologist Joël Yaa Baa, by Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy Meissonnier, describes the contempo- and Joël Meissonnier, is a well-re- rary conditions in mainland Southeast searched and informative addition to the Asia, specifically Thailand, that aid in fields of ethnography and geopolitics. sustaining the yaa baa market from its Yaa baa, or “crazy drug” as it is com- origins to its present status. Part 3, “So- monly known in Southeast Asia, is an ciological Context of the Explosion in illicit amphetamine-type stimulant Methamphetamine Use in Thailand,” (ATS) or methamphetamine. While il- also by Joël Meissonnier, is a chrono- legal drug use has been present in South- logical outline of the conditions encoun- east Asia for generations, this new syn- tered by consecutive generations of Thai thetic and cheap alternative to “harder” youth and adolescents at the end of the drugs has taken a firm footing in the twentieth century. This section also con- region as people seek out alternative tains an analysis of the present condi- means of coping with the stresses of life tion of the school and the family in Thai- and modern society. The study, a trans- land in order to examine some of the lation of a 2002 French publication, sets reasoning behind the attraction to yaa out to investigate methamphetamine baa and other illicit drugs among Thai production, distribution and consump- youth. Each chapter of the book’s three tion in mainland Southeast Asia. The sections delivers well-structured and research is useful in accounting for the assessed historical and current data recent rise in illicit synthetic “designer” based on research and observations in drug production and consumption the regions discussed. The information throughout Asia due to past and present is provided to lay the framework for the socio-economic and political circum- geographical, geopolitical and socio- stances. The complete range of meth- economic conditions and patterns that amphetamine production, trafficking support the development, production, and consumption is explored using a distribution and consumption of yaa baa geopolitical approach, as this method- and other ATS in mainland Southeast ology highlights production and traf- Asia. This allows for a detailed account ficking patterns with which the study is and investigation of the diversity of in- concerned (p.xix). dividuals and institutions involved in the The book is divided into three parts proliferation of illicit drugs, as well as with ten chapters, including a detailed the people who buy and use them.

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Chapter 1 provides a scientific exami- angle, highlighting methods and paths nation and summary of methamphet- of transportation traditionally and fre- amines, including addiction, psycho- quently used in northern and southern logical and physiological effects, and Thailand, southwestern Laos, western methods of treatment for addiction. Cambodia and southeast Burma. Note- Chapter 2 is a general outline of ATS, worthy is an examination in the rise in specifically methamphetamines, from illicit drug abuse in the region seen in its initial chemical synthesis in Germany direct relation to poorer socio-economic in 1887 (p.7) to present-day production. conditions, especially the 1997 Asian Chapter 3 focuses on the emergence financial crisis, which rocked the region. and development of the “Golden Tri- Beginning Part 2, Chapter 5 is a de- angle” region formed between Burma, scription of the modes and methods of Laos and Thailand, beginning with the movement of yaa baa from its produc- initial cultivation of the opium poppy tion in Burmese towns along the Thai in China. Emphasis is placed on the border, through its cross-country jour- Western military presence in the region, ney, to its final destination in Thailand. Communism and its effects, and the The circulation of methamphetamine Indochinese War, which are believed to pills as they pass through the various have facilitated opium cultivation, trans- middlemen and intermediary drug run- portation and consumption in the ners and dealers to the eventual con- Indochinese highlands. Also described sumer is explained through an in-depth is the evolution of illicit drug produc- analysis of activities and events. This tion in Burma, including the country’s section analyzes the various players that recent social and political history and have a role in yaa baa’s distribution its ever-present internal military con- networks. The complex distribution pat- flicts. terns of the drug and its users through- In Chapter 4, the final section of out various regions in Thailand are Part 1, an analysis of how the Golden mapped, highlighting areas of high us- Triangle emerged as a major production age density as well as possible explana- site, and mainland Southeast Asia as a tions for the elevated level of consump- major consumption region, for synthetic tion among various ethnic, social and illicit drugs is discussed. The situation economic groups in each region. in Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos and Chapter 6 analyzes the popularity of Thailand is looked at with reference to yaa baa among manual laborers and drug patterns emerging during the low income groups. The “uniqueness” 1990s, a period viewed as the “boom of yaa baa consumers is noted, as they time” for methamphetamine production include members from all levels and and consumption in Asia. Also investi- groups of the Thai social strata, which gated are the routes of methamphet- in turn creates a problem when trying amine trafficking in the Golden Tri- to identify or pinpoint the target con-

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sumer group. While in the past, drug by consumers as a means of escape and abuse in Thailand was linked and cat- coping with poverty and adverse home egorized by a consumer’s socio-eco- or work conditions, corporal and nomic status, such as opium and heroin mental fatigue, or numbing physical with low income rural or urban slum and psychological pain. dwellers, and cocaine with high society Chapter 7 is a discussion of yaa baa’s or upper class individuals, yaa baa has alarmingly high rate of consumption and transcended the standard division of acceptance among young people in users based on socio-economic catego- Thailand, now viewed as the target con- rization, creating one large encompass- sumer group of the drug. An important ing group with members from each level theory regarding the exponential in- of society. In order to identify the so- crease in the number of methamphet- cial profile of methamphetamine con- amine consumers among Thai youth in sumers, two corresponding methods are the last decade is presented. The authors utilized. First, consumption habits of infer that “in Thailand the propensity to members of the lower class in Thailand imitate others’ behaviour is particularly who are commonly believed to be the strong. Every young yaa baa user be- initial users of methamphetamines on a longs to a group of friends who also widespread basis are examined. Second, consume the drug” (p.83). This explains user trends among Thai youth and ado- the sociability and wide acceptance of lescents who more recently became the drug among Thai youth. As any keen major methamphetamine users are observer of Thailand would note, Thais discussed, with several points being are rarely ever alone by choice; peer or raised regarding the rise in popularity group interactions and relationships are of yaa baa in Thai society. Noteworthy what binds Thai society together. Just is the rapid transition of Thailand from as in the West, where drinking, eating, an agricultural-based society to a mod- etc. are viewed as inherently social ac- ern and globalized industrial one over a tivities, so too is drug consumption in relatively short period of time beginning some degree in Thailand. Because in the 1970s. This rapid industrializa- drinking alcohol or taking drugs alone tion and urban migration forced changes is viewed as a sign of despair or even in the work habits of laborers and addiction, Thai society does not con- raised employer expectations of output done alcohol or drug consumption by and productivity. Another reason for oneself. In this sense, yaa baa acts as a the increase in yaa baa is ascribed to crucial link among group members. The the change in behavior among heroin act of consuming drugs, as it is shared users who switched to yaa baa mainly among group members, enhances and due to its low cost and relative ease of reinforces the group’s social bonds and availability. Here yaa baa is described collective identity.

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Part 3, Chapter 8, provides an histori- Chapter 10, the final chapter, concep- cal overview of circumstances faced by tualizes a sociological model based on succeeding generations of Thai youth Max Weber’s “ideal type” theory. This during the last quarter of the twentieth model enables the authors to create an century. This is undertaken to identify amalgamated profile of yaa baa con- the socio-historical origins of yaa baa sumers based on certain “characteristic consumption among Thai youth and traits” (p.143). This model distinguishes young adults. The authors surmise that methamphetamine consumers based on the political, social, economic and cul- their motives and economic interests. tural conditions of Thailand in the late Additionally, this model acts as a basis 1990s have been very favorable to the for increasing the geographical range of methamphetamine boom (p. 115). This the study. From this original abstract is believed to have given rise to the cur- model, associated hypotheses are cre- rent “fun-seeking” and hedonistic atti- ated for ATS consumption in neighbor- tude popular among Thai youth and ing Burma, Cambodia and Laos. This young adults. Environmental and social model demonstrates the intricacy of conditions thus went well with and pro- social patterns that promote and support vided further support for the prolifera- yaa baa production and consumption in tion of yaa baa within Thai society. Yaa mainland Southeast Asia. The chapter baa abuse is seen almost as a playful concludes with a brief discussion of a game, where consumption equals fun, recently introduced synthetic ATS in enjoyment and excitement experienced Thailand, ecstasy, an expensive psycho- in a group or among peers with the in- tropic drug usually imported from dividual desire to have a good time. Europe. This relatively new entrant into Chapter 9 focuses on the current the Thai illicit drug market has produced state of three major social establish- a new social class among ATS consum- ments in Thailand: the school, Sangha ers. The switch to or preference for (monkhood) and family. This is done to ecstasy over yaa baa among recreational display how each has unintentionally drug consumers in Thailand has created aided in increasing the number of Thai an “ecstasy elite” of high-end, high pro- youth and young adults who consume file, upper-class consumers. or experiment with yaa baa. The assess- The authors conclude that the yaa baa ment explains how the mechanisms of explosion in Thailand is intrinsically these institutions effectively render connected to the country’s own socio- many young people vulnerable and historical conditions. It is asserted that powerless against the potential of being the popularity and rapid growth of yaa enticed into illegal drug abuse in baa consumption in Thailand, particu- Thailand. larly among youth and young adults, is due to a combination of (local) factors

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not present in Western societies. These has changed considerably, yet the au- local factors have made yaa baa a thors fail to discuss any of the events or “normal” drug believed to lack physi- circumstances that have evolved since cal or social consequences, thus remov- his personal crusade began, only briefly ing the possibility for temptation or mentioning this early in the book. attraction that a drug of such widespread In Chapter 6, a discussion of yaa baa abuse and popularity would generally consumption and distribution in Bang- be subjected to in the West (p.164). kok’s Klong Toey notorious market The authors makes clear how and and slum district paints a false and very why yaa baa has taken such a strong outdated picture of the current situation foothold in Thailand and surrounding in the area. The authors’ claim that yaa countries. In spite of this, there are a few baa is out of control and widely abused shortcomings which, if addressed, in the area is based mostly on second- would greatly add to the book’s overall ary sources obtained from governmen- presentation and clarity. For example, tal or state-run agencies that fail to the book’s title is very deceiving, as the address the problem in terms of the ac- research is focused mainly on Thailand tual situation. The availability and abuse rather than mainland Southeast Asia as of yaa baa in Klong Toey has changed a whole. Although discussion is pro- considerably from the open-market at- vided on surrounding countries, no mosphere of a couple years ago and is definitive explanations or conclusions now greatly frowned upon and discour- are made in any great detail in compari- aged among residents and shopkeepers son with the information on Thailand. in the district. The statistics provided More specifically, Chapter 5 opens here, as well as in the previous chapter, with a discussion of middleman distribu- are quite dated and should have been tors of yaa baa, but does not expand revised for the current publication of the on the subject and fails to refer to book. A suggestion for future editions Bonacich’s 1973 discussion of middle- would be to revise and update several man minorities, which is pivotal to any of the facts and figures regarding dialogue on the subject. In addition, the addiction and consumption. The state authors claim of yaa baa being avail- of affairs since Mr Thaksin’s crusade able “in seemingly every nook and against drugs, which began before the cranny of ordinary life in Thailand,” book was translated, should have been (p.61) is not correct for the present day included, at least in the conclusion. situation or even when the book was translated to English in 2004. For in- Yale Needel stance, since the last Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, began his “war on drugs”, (p. 25) the position and popularity of yaa baa in Thailand

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B.P. Groslier, Angkor and Cambodia in debate. Secondly, the author, in this the Sixteenth Century, translated by book, and with the assistance of Charles Michael Smithies. Bangkok, Orchid Boxer, the noted historian of Iberian Press, 2006, pp.x+ 186. maritime expansion, presented for the first time a coherent account of what The republication in translation of might legitimately be called the ‘Iberian Bernard-Philippe Groslier’s 1958 book, Period’ in Cambodian history. And fi- Angkor et le Cambodge au XVIe siècle nally, though far from exhaustively d’après les sources portugaises et since the book is full of rewarding ‘ espagnols, is a notably welcome event. asides’, Groslier used this publication The original Presses Universitaires de to advance his theories on the nature of France version of this work has long the Angkorian hydraulic system, which, been out of print and was, in any case, in his eyes, needed to be understood in originally restricted to a relatively terms both of its practical agricultural limited print run. That the book should and religious symbolic character. now be available in a clear English The first and last of the areas just translation means that this important noted involve issues that are still not work is now accessible to a much wider fully resolved. While it is probably audience. Both Orchid Press and the correct to say that so far as the royal translator, Michael Smithies, are to be succession is concerned, scholars have warmly congratulated in bringing this moved towards a greater degree of project to completion, and for making agreement than was the case when the book available in such high quality Groslier published in 1958, there are still binding. some matters over which there is dis- At the time of its publication the book pute among specialists. Moreover, and was seen as contributing to our while it is still common to find 1431 CE knowledge of Cambodian history in cited as the date at which the court left three main areas. First, Groslier, then the Angkor, there is no absolute certainty Conservateur of the Angkor temples and about this date. For there is the real more broadly an archeological scholar, possibility that the move to Phnom Penh took up the much-disputed issue of the could have taken place at any time royal succession following the death of between the 1431 date and, perhaps, as the great Angkorian king, Jayavarman late as 1450. VII, in the thirteenth century CE. Events As for Groslier’s theories concerning following this event, in the period Angkor’s hydraulic system, in which, leading up to the removal of the Cam- simplifying greatly, he proposed that the bodian court from Angkor and the tem- whole of that system combined practi- porary establishment of that court in cal and religious considerations, these Phnom Penh in the fifteenth century, have come under sustained attack in have long been a subject of historical recent decades. In particular, his sugges-

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tion that the great Angkorian barays, or the subject of politically correct oppro- reservoirs, played a major part in en- brium. However that may be, the ac- abling the city of Angkor to feed a popu- count of the fruitless efforts of the mis- lation possibly as large as one million, sionaries and the ultimately failed at- was forcefully rejected by more recent tempts by men such as Diego Veloso and scholarship, notably by Philip Stott, W. Blas Ruiz to play a role in the gover- van Liere and Robert Acker. (Their nance of Cambodia remains fascinating arguments are helpfully summarised in nonetheless. What is more, so far as the Chapter 8 of Charles Higham’s 2001 role of the adventurers is concerned, it publication, The Civilization of Angkor.) casts an important light on the weakness Nevertheless, the issue of just how the of the Cambodian court in the late city of Angkor supported its large popu- sixteenth century and on its readiness lation continues to be open to further in that period of weakness to turn to discussion. In this regard the research Western foreigners for assistance. being undertaken by the Greater Angkor Mention has already been made of the Project (GAP), primarily based at the valuable role played by Michael Smith- University of Sydney but also involv- ies in translating Groslier’s work. The ing APSARA, the Cambodian author- further point should be made that not ity responsible for the administration of only has he done so in a felicitous man- the Angkor temples, and the Ecole ner, he has in addition overseen the time- Française d’Extrême-Orient, is highly consuming transcription of Portuguese relevant. The work already undertaken and Spanish names that were not always by the GAP, while not simply endors- consistently cited in the original. So far ing Groslier’s proposals concerning the as technical matters are concerned I will hydraulic system and the role it played only refer to one very minor typographi- in sustaining a large population, increas- cal error, which occurs on page 105, ingly points to the existence of large- where the date for Doudart de Lagrée’s scale canals as playing a vital part in visit to Angkor is noted as having taken enabling the cultivation of very large place in June 1867. The visit was, in fact, quantities of rice. in June 1866. In contrast to the issues discussed I beg the Journal’s editor and read- above, it is unlikely that the book’s dis- ers’ indulgence to allow this reviewer a cussion of the role of Portuguese and brief personal observation in ending this Spanish missionaries and freebooting review. I first met Bernard-Philippe adventurers in Cambodia in the six- Groslier in 1960 and came to know him teenth century will be surpassed by any better in 1966, when I was carrying out later scholarly endeavour. The story that research in Cambodia on the nineteenth Groslier has to tell is, of course, a record century. He was both a man of great of imperial greed and rapine mixed with charm and a scholar of the highest re- evangelising zeal, all of which are now pute. He was also someone who was

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ready to assist students, such as I was, through his deep understanding of the entire span of Cambodian history. A member of the fourth generation of his family to work in what was once ‘French Indochina’, and the son of George Groslier, the long-time Director of the Phnom Penh museum, the final years of his life were tragic, personally and in scholarly terms. He was forced to leave Siem Reap during the Cambodian civil war that erupted in 1970. Removed to Phnom Penh, he suffered serious injuries when he confronted a burglar in his apartment, wounds from which he never fully recovered. It is fitting that this important work has now been translated and so made accessible to a wider audience. It is a fitting, additional memorial to his life and achievements.

Milton Osborne

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Sappho Marchal, Khmer Costumes and causes that erased additional informa- Ornaments of the Devatas of Angkor tion. While apsaras are not unique to Wat (1927). Bangkok, Orchid Press, Angkor Wat, these particular examples 2005, pp.xx + 99, 41 plates, $16. are the focus of Marchal’s work which, being almost life-size, facilitate depic- Sappho Marchal’s book was first pub- tion of details on the reliefs with a high lished in French in 1927. Her father, degree of accuracy. Henri Marchal, was a conservator at Marchal has ordered her drawings Angkor and so, says Victor Goloubew according to a particular plan. The first in his foreword, she “grew up in the plates (1-XVI) demonstrate the simplest shadow of the temples”. Indeed the hairstyles, where long tresses are dealt devatas, or apsaras as they are more with by simply looping, knotting or commonly known, may well have been binding. The next group introduces or- her surrogate companions despite being namentation commencing with plate sculpted in bas-relief. While many can XV11 (figs E, G, I), which shows the be examined at close quarters, others are hair supported by a “diadem”, while on less accessible. One can imagine the plate XV111 no tresses appear, only author, hatted to ward off the intense headpieces termed “bonnet[s]” by heat, with binoculars or even a camera Marchal. It is not clear visually whether at hand to record the data she sought. there is any difference between the bon- The book has the translator’s note, net and the diadem, though English does followed by Goloubew’s foreword and distinguish between them, the former Marchal’s concise notes on the apsaras’ having ties beneath the chin, and the costumes, jewellery, flowers and coif- latter being a “lightly jewelled circlet”. fures. An inventory of the numbers of On some Khmer statues sculpted in the apsaras at different architectural loca- round, a diadem with ties at the back of tions at Angkor Wat is followed by a the head does appear. The most elabo- table showing the distribution of coif- rate of the apsaras’ head adornments, fure types in these locations. Forty-one with their characteristic triad of tall plates of drawings follow, accompanied triangular cone shapes and a variety of by brief comments on the salient distin- additional ornamentation, feature on guishing features selected for illustra- plates XXX1V to XL. The final plate, tion, particularly the spectacular hair- XL1, shows headpieces with a single styles and their ornamentation. central pointed cone, which the author She numbers the apsaras at 1,737, argues is in effect the prototype of the excluding those on the towers of Angkor mkot that has since became the form of Wat, which if included would bring the the crown in Siam and Cambodia for total to 1,860. But there were more royalty and dance dramas such as the which, over the course of time, suffered Reamker. damage due to natural and unnatural

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The author speculates about the way product made from samrong fruit mixed other, more complex, hairstyles may with wax. Men used it to twist mous- have been devised. About one style taches into buffalo horn shapes, for in- (plate VI figs. B, C) she says it must use stance. These traditional preparations, “pierced patterned cloth” through which the ingredients of which are endemic to the hair is pulled. It can, however, more Cambodia, may well have been avail- easily be explained with reference to able in Angkorean times. hair styles contemporary today, where Marchal also surmises that some par- fine plaits in multiple narrow bands ly- ticular ornamental additions were prob- ing close to the head are currently ably flower stalks of coconut palm and favoured by so-called ‘rap artists’. In areca nut plants, the ends of which were other styles Marchal uses the word cuille directly inserted into the hairstyle. translated as “cut” (plate 1X sketch I; Present-day custom indicates that white plate XV1 fig. G). This is difficult to jasmine flowers threaded onto stalks and interpret as sketched and most probably found everywhere as ornamentation is more appropriately glossed as could well have been similarly con- “parted”. This look would then corre- structed and used. spond to the fashion called “French This wealth of details, though con- plaiting” so popular in the 1980s-1990s, cerned principally with hairstyles, has where loosely parted locks of hair are unexpected benefits for those interested intertwined. Indeed, chronologically, in Khmer costume of the time. Marchal the Angkor styles may be regarded as has sketched the apsaras’ costumes in prototypes of these styles. some cases. The Khmer term for this Marchal speculates as to how the hair style of hip wrapper is sampot. She at- itself was dressed so as to allow those tempts to explain the construction of the locks to maintain their upright sweep if, patterned waist to ankle hip wrappers, actually, the forms thus depicted were “sarong”, with flowing or arching not simply the sculptor’s interpretations. sidepieces (Figs. 1–3). Her conclusion Was it a frame secured to the head over is “merely a hypothesis”, but on close which the dark tresses were draped? Was examination, it fails the test on two perhaps some sort of pomade applied? grounds, one conceptual and one tech- Twentieth century Khmer custom may nological. The main objection concerns yield some clues. Informants report that the fact that the length of cloth is cut to hair is dressed with oils from coconut fit the form with one end scalloped. or papaya to which ash was added if “... Cloth used as hip wrappers then or now you wanted to have stiff hair that would would never have been cut and tailored not fall down”.1 There is also a hair in this part of Asia or in the Hindu tra-

1 Muan I. (ed.), Seams of Change. Clothing and the Care of the Self in 19th and 20th Century Cambodia, pp. 252–3. Phnom Penh, Reyum Publishing, 2003.

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dition from which Khmer hip wrapper have inspired designers to try to source styles were derived. And scissors would traditional patterns for adapting Khmer- be needed to cut the scalloped edges of style fashion to French taste. In which the cloth and the slot for a belt arrange- case, Marchal’s drawings would have ment as indicated. Scissors were not one been a unique source. of the tools of the time. Whatever the purpose, scholars of But the appearance of a few apsara Khmer cultural history have tremendous figures (plate X1V fig. F: XV111 figs. reason to be grateful for what she did. A,b,E) wearing simple wrapped gar- As noted above, she has detailed deco- ments which would now be termed rative features which have been more shorts or culottes, with a voluminous or less bypassed in the study of classi- bow at the back and with the ends cal Khmer sculpted art. Little details, flowing to the side, provides much more such as the culotte forms worn by some useful evidence as to how the presti- apsaras, have rarely been noted by oth- gious hip wrapper ensembles were con- ers, but now their visualisation has structed. If these shorts were worn afforded confirmation of the apsaras’ underneath the wrap-around length of elaborate hip wrapper forms as being cloth — the sarong — then the mode of constructed of two layers of cloth as construction of this ensemble becomes suggested elsewhere.2 quite clear. The strength of this slim volume is in Finally, jewellery in the form of the wealth of illustrations serving as upper arm bands, bangles, “gorgets” or reference detail for scholars both Cam- neckpieces, belts and chunky earrings bodian and beyond. Sketches may complete the look of the day, in Ang- transcend language, so the benefit of korean times, at least for these compan- translating the accompanying text from ions of the deities in their virtual heaven. the original French into English is not Lotuses complement these man-made in the translation per se. Instead, firstly, adornments in the patterns on the head- it re-introduces this 1927 publication pieces and in the hands of the apsaras. into the mainstream and, secondly, it What was Mlle Marchal’s purpose in allows non-French speakers access to recording these decorative details, if the questions raised by Marchal, despite indeed she had one other than a love of being presumably secondary to her design and the opportunity to record artistic purpose. It could have a further these unique examples? We do not very positive outcome. It may stimulate know. Goloubew suggests that the some munificent benefactor to fund French love of all things Khmer result- scholars to delve into those French ing from the 1906 visit of the royal archives which shelter other documen- Khmer dance troupe to France could tary treasures and translate them to make

2 Green, G., Traditional Textiles of Cambodia. Bangkok, River Books, 2003, p. 32.

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them accessible to a wider, non-French- speaking readership. First on this reviewer’s list would be the records of the Commission des Moeurs et Coutumes, compiled in the few decades prior to their deposition in 1950 as microfilm at the Asiatic Society in Paris. These record cultural practices as related by Khmer achars (ceremonial officiants), monks and villagers which, in subjects similar but different, could reveal much more to illuminate Khmer cultural studies.

Gillian Green

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Vittorio Roveda, Images of the Gods: prehensive overview of the visual nar- Khmer mythology in Thailand, Cambo- ratives found not only in Cambodia, but dia, and Laos. Bangkok, River Books, also in Thailand and Laos, once part of 2005, pp.544, Bt.2,495. the Khmer empire.”All the images used to illustrate this and other portions of Images of the Gods fills 548 pages the text are, wherever possible, in their and is illustrated with over 2,400 color original context, in situ on the temples photographs, with 856 digital photo- for which they were created or nearby graphs indexed in a database on an ac- on temple grounds, with very few ex- companying CD-ROM. An ambitious amples depicted from museum collec- undertaking, it explores Khmer Bud- tions. A conscious decision was made dhist and Hindu mythology and visual to exclude reliefs that were no longer narrative through relief sculpture. Paint- in their original context. The last sec- ings, free standing sculpture and cult tion is “an attempt to verify the impact images are not within the scope of the of Khmer visual narrative on the indig- study, though a few modern narrative enous culture of Thailand.” sculptural compositions are included. In The first section, Making Images of his introduction, Roveda states that the Gods, explores the reasons for the “Khmer sculptural reliefs are the major creation of images of the gods and the artifacts that survive to document this processes involved, largely from the nation’s history and culture from the 8th perspective of the Hindu and Buddhist to the 14th centuries,” that sculptural traditions of South Asia. This is fol- reliefs are important beyond their aes- lowed by a discussion of a brief history thetic value as works of art, that they of the development of the Hindu and contain important information not only Buddhist religions, especially as is rel- about Khmer culture and religion, but evant to Khmer belief and practice. The also that the development of narrative major deities and their principle sym- reliefs can aid in confirming the chro- bols are clearly and concisely intro- nological development of art and archi- duced, illustrated sparsely with images tecture. He then briefly introduces many from Khmer temple reliefs. There are points crucial to the understanding of then subsections further discussing re- both religious art and its context: what ligious syncretism, local beliefs and is the meaning of mythology; how do animism, the Devaraja, the cult of an- reliefs function in their environmental cestors, and historic personages who context; and what visual parameters of were deified. South Asian literary Khmer mythology will be covered. The sources are then presented, with the book is divided into three parts, begin- great epics, the Mahabharata, Hari- ning with a study of the making of im- vamsa, Ramayana and the Puranas, ages of deities and their planned place- introduced in a direct and concise man- ment, followed by an “attempt at a com- ner, again providing material essential

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to placing Khmer temple reliefs in and well thought out timelines. The first proper context. presents the relative development of vi- The next section, Images in Khmer sual narrative by architectural position, Art, covers the technical and physical illustrated with key monuments, on one aspects of images in Khmer art and ar- page. The other, a three-page foldout, chitecture, beginning with the funda- presents the reigns of Khmer kings rela- mental division of relief types into deco- tive to the artistic styles and key monu- rative or purely ornamental, heraldic or ments of Khmer architecture in both figures posed in a static or proclaiming/ Cambodia and Thailand. announcing attitude and not engaged in Sections 4, 5, and 6 present the ac- a narrative action, and narrative reliefs tual religious subjects depicted on which depict an event or action that Khmer temple reliefs. Section 4 and its progresses in time and leads to or from subsections cover myths relating to both another event. The location to which Vaishnava and Shivaite Hindu practice. each of these relief types is usually The first subsection includes reliefs associated is discussed and artistic ele- about the deity Vishnu and his avatars. ments such as composition and the es- The second subsection discusses tablishment of pictorial space are intro- myths about Krishna, the third the duced. A brief synopsis of the relation- Mahabharata, and the fourth the ships between heraldic and narrative Ramayana, the Legend of Rama. The reliefs and architectural elements upon fifth subsection explores myths about which they are placed follows, illustrat- Shiva. The sixth subsection covers the ing the interrelated development of these lesser Hindu and Vedic gods. Section 5 types of reliefs and the stylistic devel- covers the portrayal of mythical animals opment of pediments, lintels, and pilas- and demi-gods such as ganas and ters. This is followed by a subsection yakshas, and local legends in reliefs. on the history of scholarship concern- Section 6 presents Buddhist reliefs, with ing the function of the reliefs and their the first subsection discussing the life symbolism in terms of royal power. The of the Buddha, the second portrayals of structural symbolism of Khmer temples the Jataka stories, the third Mahayana is introduced to further help the reader and Vajrayana images, while the sixth understand the reliefs in their original subsection explores heraldic images of context. This section ends with a brief the Buddha. Section 7 presents reliefs discussion of portraiture, use of land- depicting historical and secular subjects, scape scenes, and the iconoclasm and Section 8 tapestry or decorative reliefs, destruction of Buddhist reliefs during and Section 9 reviews reliefs where the the thirteenth century after the death of identity or source of the subject mater Jayavarman VII. is unknown. Section 3, Chronology of Khmer All of the above sections and subsec- Images and Styles, consists of two clear tions are clearly and logically in the

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same format and thus a discussion of bonus that a significant amount of ad- section 4.4 on the Ramayana also ap- ditional material that could not be in- plies to all. The Ramayana is introduced cluded in the book has been made avail- as it appears in the Khmer context, as able. While some readers might find well as how its presentation in Khmer problems with some of the author’s in- art differs from that of South Asia. The terpretations of specific reliefs, the study seven kandas, or sections of the of Khmer visual narratives is still a rela- Ramayana, are then briefly outlined, tively new field and there are many sub- presenting the themes that appear in jects about which scholars are not yet temple reliefs. The specific events por- in full agreement and which are open to trayed in Khmer visual art are then discussion. What is most important is listed, with brief comments on how fre- that this book makes available on the quently they appear and whether they same page many reliefs that have never are more common in certain periods or been published, are published in books regions. Each scene from the Ramayana which are out of print, or are not easily that appears in Khmer art is then intro- accessible. duced, with Roveda’s personal observa- Section 10: the Diffusion of Images, tions, as well as those of other scholars. has two subsections, one covering the The discussion of each scene is illus- diffusion of images in Cambodia and the trated on the opposite or following pages other in Thailand and Laos. While the with color photographs, often drawn proceeding sections of the book present from different monuments and periods Khmer reliefs by subject, this section of Khmer history. Where appropriate, is more properly a guide to Khmer examples from Thailand and Laos are temples. It moves away from the also included. A CD symbol accompa- book’s stated core subject of Khmer nied by image numbers at the bottom of mythology as presented in reliefs, to the page indicates that additional images very broadly introducing individual are available in the image database on temples, with their brief histories, de- the CD-ROM that accompanies the text. scriptions of their layouts and free- The story or deity is discussed with ac- standing sculptural programs, as well as companying photographs, which pro- very brief descriptions of the location vide a clear idea of the iconographic and and identification of reliefs. stylistic variations that occur on Khmer The text concludes with Visual temples in an easily accessible location, Narratives: A Summary, which raises not at the end of the chapter, a photo specific questions about the narratives section, or the end of the book. Rather and suggests possible theories concern- than looking at the images on the ing the significance of deities holding a CD-ROM as being inconvenient to look staff or dander, the reason for the pau- at while reading or while actually visit- city of Shivaite narrative reliefs, the ing temples, it should be viewed as a presence of Buddhist reliefs prior to the

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reign of Jayavarman VII, and the rela- (Moore, Stott, and Sukasvasti, 1996) on tionship of patronage and the develop- page 496 (a reference to Ancient Capi- ment of narratives through the arrival tals of Thailand), are missing from the of succeeding waves of fresh Hindu in- bibliography and, hopefully, this will be fluence from South Asia. This conclud- corrected in future editions. As already ing section is followed by the ground noted, the fields of Khmer art historical plans of some of the most important sites and religious studies are evolving and in Cambodia, as well as the temple com- as epigraphical and textual sources are plexes of Phimai and Phanom Rung in limited, some intriguing areas such as Thailand. A short glossary and bibliog- the synchronism between Shiva and the raphy conclude the book. Buddha, as well as the meaning behind Attached to the rear cover of the book, certain reliefs, have a far more complex as mentioned, is a CD-ROM with an scholarly dialogue surrounding them 856-image database that is optimized for than can be addressed in the scope of a both PC and MAC operating systems. broad survey such as this. As a result, As tested on a PC, the format of the da- there will be disagreements over some tabase permits searches on single or of the theories presented or privileged, multiple fields and groups of images can as well as some of the identifications, a be formed across different fields using fact that should not detract from the a clear, logical command interface. value of this work. Controls are in a column to the left. A window with thumbnail images selected John Listopad is in the middle and the main window displays the image selected for study. At the bottom of the main window is the image information displayed in fields that are also used for searching the database, including: title, location, additional information, reference number, page reference, personage, and architectural object. Searches and image displays are quick. The book is well conceived and is a valuable addition to any library on Southeast Asian art, as well as Hindu and Buddhist studies. There are a few problems which appear to have occurred in poof reading and editing, the most serious of which are that some of the references noted in the text, such as

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John Marston and Elizabeth Guthrie, on a fluid bedrock of “religion,” that is History, Buddhism and New Religious the strength of the present volume. Most Movements in Cambodia. Chiang Mai, chapters in this book stem from articles Silkworm Books, 2006, pp.270, Bt.650. originally presented in 1998 to an As- sociation for Asian Studies panel on After some two decades of isolation Cambodian religion. As in the neighbor- (or virtual isolation), Cambodia opened ing Therav¡da countries, religion in its doors to independent field research Cambodia cannot be categorized as a in the early 1990s on the heels of the separate sphere of human activity, much United Nations-brokered peace settle- less as a basis for effecting a western ment. Yet even before the 1970–75 civil separation of religion (“church”) and war, only the anthropologists May state. In spite of decades of western Ebihara and Gabrielle Martel engaged secular-scientific official vocabularies, in any extensive fieldwork in Cambo- whether capitalist- or socialist-spon- dia, while philologist François Bizot, sored, religion in Cambodia since the who was detained and miraculously re- social upheavals of the 1970s and 1980s leased by the Khmer Rouge in 1972–73, has revived as a multi-dimensional way began collecting heterodoxical Buddhist of life rather than as a religion in that manuscripts in remote Khmer wats. western sense. In his introduction, edi- With the recent opening of Khmer soci- tor John Marston affirms that religion ety, a number of younger scholars, in in the social space of post-socialist large part American students of (or en- Cambodia is anything but a static couraged by) cultural anthropologists phenomenon removed from everyday Charles Keyes and Jane and Lucien reality, but is rather a “matrix of social Hanks and historian David Chandler, change itself” that is “in a perpetual turned to Khmer studies. History, Bud- process of reforming and recreating dhism, and New Religious Movements itself”(p.1). in Cambodia, a well edited volume ini- The convulsions of the 1970s and tially published by the University of 1980s, a by-product of warring foreign Hawai´i Press in 2004, has brought ideologies, led to a settlement sponsored together findings by a number of these by the international community based humanities-oriented researchers. on principles of liberal democracy. As A spate of political science studies tenuous as this template has proven also emerged on Cambodia that focused to be, it has produced a free-market on the United Nations-sponsored peace- economy (whose downside has included keeping process. These international the plundering of Cambodia’s natural relations-type studies distinguished and public resources, the introduction themselves by being more or less oblivi- of the drug and sex trades, a flagrant ous of the local historical-cultural, so- widening of the gap between rich and cial, and political realities, which rest poor, and a consumer culture concen-

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trated but not confined to Phnom Penh), level. greater freedom of expression, the ap- A strong thread woven through most pearance of a multi-party system, and of the essays is the phenomenon of a the return of a marginalized monarchy. spontaneous upsurge in the 1990s of This veneer of western-type democracy cultic and other supernatural and sym- also provided cover for the re-emer- bolic religious acts. This surge clearly gence of less perceptible (to the out- spoke to psychic needs for healing and sider) religious forces in the 1990s docu- reconciliation — personal, communal, mented in this book. and “national” — in part as a way of After being subjected as a special finding meaning from the catastrophic target for destruction by the Khmer events. Bertrand Didier discusses the Rouge, Buddhism spontaneously sprang revival of mystic pa¯ram™ (sacred power back to life at the grassroots level in the or energy) practices and their close 1980s, albeit under the tight control of relationship not only to Therava¯da the Vietnamese-backed regime. Major Buddhism but also kingship. Unlike in restrictions on the practice of Buddhism Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, and Sri were lifted in 1989 with the departure Lanka, the gru¯ pa¯ram™, or mediums, of Vietnamese troops, triggering the who risk losing their power if they are U.N. peace process between resistance not moral exemplars observing the Five factions based in Thailand and the Precepts, frequently occupy ritual space Vietnamese-installed Peoples’ Republic in Buddhist temple premises. For the of Kampuchea. Villagers began in mediums, who “reveal the creative earnest to rebuild their wats and ordain vitality that animates Cambodian soci- their sons. A month after Prince ety,” the pa¯ram™, tellingly, “have come Norodom Sihanouk returned to Cambo- to make order among the living and the dia in November 1991 at the invitation dead and to repair a collective trauma. of the regime (now renamed the interim ...These pa¯ram™ identities link political, State of Cambodia), he restored the two social, and cosmological orders so that Buddhist orders, the Mahanika¯ya and they can address the contemporary situ- Thammayutika¯ya. Yet as this book at- ations and expectations of Cambodian tests, Therava¯da Buddhism as part of society” (pp.168,166). The 1990s also Cambodia’s cultural-religious matrix witnessed the re-emergence of religious did not revert to a pre-1970s status quo asceticism within or on the margins of ante, except at the official level where, Therav¡da Buddhism. The female as- for example, the 1960s administrative cetics, ya¯y or tu¯n j™, seeking nibba¯na as structures and curricula for monk edu- described by Elizabeth Guthrie, are as a cation were re-instated. Far more reveal- rule more disciplined and morally ex- ing, for its human response to the con- emplary than the new generation of flagrations of the previous decades, has monks, few of whom harbor personal been the religious revival at the societal salvation as their goal. Marston’s article

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on ta¯pas (ascetics frequently claiming families lined the roads on their knees, supernatural powers) cult movements palms clasped, next to buckets of suggests a linkage between individual lustral water (blessed by P¡li chants), and national identity, or “the practice of with lotus flowers, candles, and incense individuals exercising symbolic agency ready to be sprinkled or washed by to rebuild the nation”(p.188). He moni- Ghosananda and the monks to “extin- tored five prophetically linked building guish the fire of war” (p.197). It deserves projects in the country, completion of to be noted parenthetically that while the which would augur an era of peace and monks led the processions, the driving prosperity. In a newer turn, the peace force of the Dhamma- ya¯tra¯s, both in and reconciliation walks, or Dhamma- terms of numbers and disciplined com- ya¯tra¯s, organized in the 1990s by the mitment, were the lay devotee nuns (tu¯n spiritual leader of Cambodian Bud- j™). dhism, Ven. Maha Ghosananda, are The unique features of the interpreted by Kathryn Poethig prima- Dhammaya¯tra¯ notwithstanding, it re- rily as a modern, or postmodern, mains difficult to determine in an em- transnational expression of Buddhism pirical sense the extent to which the with some indigenous roots. Translated above experiences, with their millennial as a “walk for righteousness,” this “re- undertones, were characteristic of parative” public ritual nonetheless Buddhism in pre-1970s Cambodia. The struck a deep, cathartic chord among the paucity of social research for earlier villagers touched by these annual pil- periods renders informed comparisons grimages. They were initially organized less than adequate. Millenarian ideas and always funded to a large extent by and movements in general, though, have expatriate peace organizations which been shown to flower in times of exis- discretely remained behind the scenes. tential crises, when the social order is But the Dhammaya¯tra¯s’ link to global subjected to stress or radical change. issues embraced by “socially engaged The historical chapters in this volume, Buddhists” (peace through non-vio- covering the so-called Middle Period lence, banning of landmines, environ- (between the fall of Angkor and the mental concerns) belied how the walk onset of modernity) and the colonial was ritually experienced and interpreted period, when, respectively, the Cambo- by many of the villagers. In the pro- dian polity was under the threat of phetic terms of the Buddhamna¯y, they extinction and the stress of adapting to saw the appearance of the light-skinned westernization, suggest that magico- Khmer “holy man from the west” com- cosmological thinking, the breeding ing back to save his people after the bru- space for millennial movements, has tal reign of the damil (dark-skinned been a constant of Khmer conscious- infidels). Hours before daybreak and ness. Relying largely on iconographic well into the morning, thousands of evidence, cultural historian Ashley

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Thompson postulates an association of logical Buddhist universe in favor of a the stupa with the Maitreya (“Buddha- rational worldview through, in part, to-come”) cult, where the promise of the scriptural literalism. One cannot help Buddha’s return is seen not in terms of wonder to what extent this process of ushering in a new world but restoring disenchantment, where the cultural na- the old through the consecration of a tionalism which they illuminate later political renaissance by the cakkavattin spilled over into political nationalism, king. She makes a persuasive case for a pattern starkly similar to what un- Khmer cosmological order based on folded in Europe in the nineteenth and Maitreya as an attempt to re-establish the first half of the twentieth centuries, sociopolitical order amidst the turbu- played a role in unraveling the Cambo- lences of the Middle Period. In a related dian socio-political order. The main article on the iconography of the Leper value of this volume is in how it brings King (purportedly Jayavarman VII), to light spontaneous initiatives in the so- Thompson associates the body of the cial complexity of 1990s Cambodia to statue, whose subject suffers for want re-knit that order at the level of the of healing, with the body of the Khmer psyche. kingdom, where the idea of the king as The editors anticipated lacunae in a body stands metonymically for his this book by choosing not to deal with kingdom, paralleling ways that the body non-Khmer religious practices (viz., the of the Buddha is seen as integrating and indigenous peoples, Vietnamese, ordering the physical world. She defines Muslim Chams, and Chinese, who in the “spectral structure of power” in all comprise less than ten percent of the Cambodia as consisting of the king’s population) and by not delving into a natural (and infected) body/the body concerted effort since the mid-1990s to politic/the body of the dhamma, where evangelize the Cambodian population. the king as a sovereign standing in for Outcomes of the latter project, led by the whole of society becomes through American Protestant evangelical- the principle of substitution a vehicle for pentecostals, many of them using healing power. Khmer-American converts, were in Both Anne Hansen and Penny any case too early to assess in this Edwards, using primary documentary admirable and in many ways path- sources, deal with the colonial period, breaking collection of essays on the revealing in nuanced ways how underbelly of Cambodia’s still discor- Buddhism and the Khmer language dant political system. were appropriated by a few modernizing Khmer intellectuals to construct a Peter Gyallay-Pap new Khmer identity embodied in the “nation”. Central to this project was the demystification of the Khmer cosmo-

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Harris, Ian, Cambodian Buddhism: His- mation of time and place and forms of tory and Practice. Hawaii, University practice, attempting a degree of com- of Hawaii Press, 2005 and Chiang Mai, pleteness, it will be an invaluable re- Silkworm Books, 2006, pp.368, Bt 650. source to students and scholars ap- proaching the issue of Cambodian Ian Harris’ Cambodian Buddhism: religion. History and Practice represents a sub- The most notable specific strengths stantial contribution to scholarly litera- of the book are perhaps that: 1) Harris’ ture on Cambodia and a significant step knowledge of Sanskrit and solid ground- toward putting Cambodia on the larger ing in the historical schools of Bud- map of Buddhist studies. If one looks dhism and Brahmanism enable him to for a precedent for this volume, as a provide a nicely nuanced assessment of detailed overview of specifically Cam- previous scholarship on the pre-Angkor bodian Buddhism, one must go back as and Angkor periods, often based on the far as Adhémard Leclère’s 1899 volume, evidence of inscriptions. 2) He has Le Bouddhisme au Cambodge, and it is thoroughly assimilated the work of the first book in English to attempt to François Bizot on esoteric traditions of treat Cambodian Buddhism in this de- Cambodian Buddhism, a topic some- gree of thoroughness. We are not likely times daunting to English-speaking to have another one anytime soon. scholars. Beyond his useful summary of Harris draws on an impressive range Bizot’s work, Harris succeeds in illus- of sources, which he brings together trating the influence of esoteric practices with intelligence and ingenuity. The throughout different periods. 3) His field book’s extensive bibliography is itself research on Buddhism and politics in the a helpful tool. The book glistens with last 25 years has uncovered much im- interesting, illuminating details, many portant, fascinating information. gleaned from sources having little to do Any work as detailed as this is with Buddhism per se. He uses a bound to have a few factual errors and straightforward chronological narrative scholars devoted to different aspects of that follows standard periodization from Cambodian Buddhism may come up the Angkor period to the present, depart- with their own lists. The section I was ing from the historical record to insert least comfortable with was that on spirit chapters on the “Territorial and Social practices. The disparate secondary Lineaments” of Cambodian Theravada sources that Harris draws on here have Buddhism – basically, the kinds of led him to some mistaken conclusions: things documented in ethnographies – that boramei “spirits” are always female and “Literary and Cult Traditions” – a and that arak mediums are also always way of combining discussion of the tex- female. Many key Khmer terms are tual tradition with the esoteric Buddhism mistranslated, for example rup as described by Bizot. As a guide to infor- “priest,” beisach as “retinue,” and ktom

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as “shrine”. But these are relatively mi- of Cambodian religious traditions” nor details that do not too greatly de- (p.80) or that “Theravada Buddhism tract from the overall weight of the book. subsisted in a relatively steady state with The fact that Harris does not have a no major shocks or shifts to the estab- consistent transliteration system for lished religious order for several hun- Khmer has been criticized in a previous dred years” (p. 227), a perspective that review of the book, and one risks being certainly has precedent in the literature pedantic in dwelling on it. But it be- but in the end is more a statement of comes more than an issue of translitera- what we do not yet know than a mean- tion when, as occurs several times, one ingful assessment of Cambodian history. finds the same word transliterated more Harris gives no hint of being aware of than one way (bray and priey, for ex- the post-colonial argument that colonial ample). In the most embarrassing cases, intervention was justified by a discourse there is some question as to whether of a changeless past. Needless to say, it Harris realizes that the two spellings is precisely at the moment of colonial- represent the same word and the same ism that, in Harris’ account, change be- concept. A Khmer word list at the back gins to occur in Cambodian Buddhism. of the book, which gives a key to how One cannot accuse Harris of taking a transliterated words are written in pro-colonialist position, but he also does Khmer script, should in theory have not particularly challenge or rethink the pointed to the problem and helped to assumptions of colonialist discourse or solve it – but turns out to be only a par- delve too deeply into the power dynam- tial list. This is something which should ics of Buddhism under colonialism. not be too difficult to resolve if, as one Since he sees a division between a hopes, there are future editions of the timeless past and the changes beginning book. with colonial intervention, it is not too With the possible exception of the surprising that in the modern period he discussion on esoteric Buddhism that emphasizes the difference between threads through the volume, the plea- “non-reformed” and “reformed” Bud- sures of the book are more in the rich- dhism, a dichotomy which perhaps ness of its details than what it reveals makes sense in pre-Pol Pot twentieth about the broader contours of Cambo- century Cambodia, but is more strained dian Buddhism – although any criticism as he applies it to Cambodian Buddhism of its overview must be prefaced by the in the wake of socialism, where the acknowledgement that the mere fact of terms re-emerge but begin to signify bringing together masses of information different things. To say that Maha helps us to raise questions which we Ghosananda, the expatriate Khmer otherwise might not have been able to monk who organized peace marches in do. I am uncomfortable with the book’s the 1990s, is in the same “reformed” reference to “the essential conservatism category as the prewar patriarch Chuon

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Noth, obscures more than it reveals. Similarly, it seems naive not to distinguish between the “non-reformed” Buddhism of remote rural areas and the self-styled “non-reformed” magical Buddhism of monks close to high-rank- ing politicians. Harris’ analysis does not go so far as to capture the irony that, after the years under socialism, the Buddhism that called itself “reformed” was often the most conservative, whereas some of the Buddhism which called itself “non-reformed” was more daring in its adjustment to new political and economic realities.

John Marston

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Colin Poole, Tonle Sap: The Heart of Battambang, Core Areas of the Bio- Cambodia’s Natural Heritage, photo- sphere Reserve, the Tonle Sap River and graphs by Eleanor Briggs. Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and the Cambodian River Books, 2005, pp. 172. Mekong—enhance the reader’s expec- tation that he will traverse this bounty The Tonle Sap easily ranks as one of and learn of the interrelationship be- the wonders of the natural world. Dur- tween the people and their lake. ing the rainy season, the Mekong Delta, He soon discovers, however, that the unable to absorb overwhelming vol- title is a bit misleading. While the Tonle umes of monsoon run-off, blocks the Sap forms the core of the book, the Mekong’s downstream flow, forcing the author wanders the length of Cambodia river to reverse its direction. The swol- and even up the Mekong to China in a len waters pulse up the Tonle Sap River text that meanders through a consider- and into the lake itself, swelling it to five ation of the sad state of the forests times its dry season dimensions. With and wildlife in the regions along the the end of the rainy season, a tamer Mekong. The reader encounters dis- Mekong again flows freely to the South heartening tales of the demise or im- China Sea, draining the lake and return- pending extinction of tigers, crocodiles, ing it to its original contours. waterbirds—nearly everything except For eons, this phenomenon has been the fish. The text also embraces a cur- vital to Cambodia’s prosperity. As in sory consideration of the lifestyles of the ancient times, the lake holds the people who harvest these beasts for sus- world’s largest concentration of fresh- tenance and sale. water fish. It also nourishes the second The author brings considerable cre- of the country’s two staple foods: rice. dentials to his task – Director of the Asia During the Angkorian period, the reced- Program for the Wildlife Conservation ing waters exposed moist, fertile soil, Society (WCS) – and has worked and which was planted in the rice consumed traveled in Cambodia for eight years. by Angkor’s population. Nineteenth His travels have imbued him with an century travelers like Henri Mouhot understandable pessimism about the commented upon its fecundity and the future of the country’s natural heritage wealth of flora and fauna of Cambodia under the onslaught of burgeoning in general. population, lack of economic alterna- Its ecology and the people who have tives, absence of vision or political will, depended upon its bounty comprise a and lack of control (or unwillingness to fascinating story. This book’s title, back- intervene) over its resources by Cam- cover blurb, and table of contents with bodian authorities. evocative sub-headings—Mountains While laudable for its wealth of de- and Forest, the Ancient Environment, tail and while its heart is in the right Living on the Lake, the Fishing Lots of place, the book suffers from a frustrat-

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ing lack of organization. Because the waterlife at Angkor. It then digresses to author fails to provide a roadmap, the a section on the tigers of Mondulkiri on reader wanders all over the map (liter- the Vietnamese border; one of many ally and figuratively) of environmental boxed stories which disrupt the flow. A abuse in the past 30 years of Cambo- few pages later, it devotes an entire dian history (whose abuses of humans, chapter to Angkor and its historical note even today, far outweigh those imposed in the region. The book might better on the landscape). have started here and followed a chro- The book’s principle problem is that nological progression, illuminating the the author fails to integrate the various tragedy of disappearing species by dis- elements. As a result, the reader is left cussing early in the book what was there with a bag of bits without a structure, in the past. an interpretation, or a greater compre- These types of digressions are re- hension of the culture that depends upon peated elsewhere. On page 64, the au- the Tonle Sap’s—or Cambodia’s, for thor provides a somewhat lyrical setting that matter—largesse, nor the mindset evoking the magic of the Tonle Sap, and that is hastening its environmental de- the reader begins to gain an apprecia- struction. Worse yet, the text soon de- tion of the lake’s wonder. But soon the volves into a laundry list of abuses more author tugs the reader in a new direc- appropriate to a United Nations ‘State tion. On page 74, he considers the his- of Wildlife in Cambodia’, a dry litany tory and fate of the freshwater croco- of environmental destruction. Instead of dile. It then moves to a consideration of evoking the magic and wonder of the introduced pests like golden apple snails Tonle Sap, thereby making us want to and African catfish, and then continues save it, the reader is banged on the head with a two-page discussion of herbal with numbing detail of disappearing pests like mimosa pigra, water hyacinth, nature. It is all valid, but we have read and on to a new port project and the it elsewhere about most of the world’s problem of immigrants. There, the chap- wild areas. A few anecdotes would have ter ends. The reader turns the page to particularized it for Cambodia, and find another boxed story, only one page driven home the point in more poignant long, devoted to...crocodiles. manner, integrating the reader into what The book is also riven with asides and is happening and how it affects individu- non-sequiturs. For example, in the als, rather than standing back and sur- middle of a discussion of the wildlife veying from a great distance. black market trade, there appears a para- What the book needs is a foundation graph on artifact looting which is not stone. It begins with a consideration of germane to the text. These asides appear Phnom Kulen, then, a short while later, to have been dropped on the page mentions in passing Angkor’s stone re- haphazardly without consideration of liefs depicting a plethora of wildlife and their importance or relevance, and with-

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out integrating the diverse elements into been considerably lightened with greater a whole. The tragedy is that they mar care in its presentation. one’s appreciation of the author’s scholarship. Steve Van Beek Throughout, one seeks an analysis of root causes beyond grinding poverty and official corruption. At the very least, one expects a summation and perhaps a prognosis and prescription. Instead, the final chapter is devoted to the Mekong dolphins and the dangers they face. One turns the page and abruptly finds oneself in the book’s footnote section. Thus, there are no concluding thoughts, no analysis of how to remedy a dire situation, and not a single mention of the Tonle Sap the book title led the reader to assume would be the subject, since the dolphins inhabit the Mekong near the Lao border. In the end, the reader emerges unclear about what makes the Tonle Sap unique. With no blueprint of how the situation might be rectified, the book becomes a tract rather than a treatise, seemingly reflecting WCS hand-wringing impo- tence—evident in every page—in finding solutions to halting the depredation. The reader can only conclude that the situation is hopeless and beyond remedy, yet the photos superbly capture the lake’s teeming human and natural life. Readers seeking a comprehensive exploration of how the stories of natural resources and people are interwoven are in for some hard work. Perseverance has its rewards, but the task would have

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L. E. Bagshawe (tr.), The Kinwun Min- Tin in 1953–1954 (another edition, used gyi’s London Diary. Bangkok, Orchid by the present reviewer, was published Press, 2006, pp.412. in 1908 and edited by U Ba Gun). Bagshawe’s is not the first translation. This book involves two men well An earlier translation of sorts was made known for their contributions to our in 1974 by the Burmese nationalist his- knowledge of Burma. The first, U torian Maung Htin Aung in the Journal Gaung, otherwise known as the Kinwun of the Burma Research Society, but Htin Mingyi (actually a title, not a personal Aung’s version amounts to a summary name), a scholar-official of pre-conquest rather than a formal translation. Burma (and collaborator with the Bagshawe, who completed his own colonial regime afterwards), travelled to translation before he read the former, has the West twice (London and Paris) in made use of the very useful introduc- the early 1870s, made meticulous notes tory matter provided by Htin Aung in of his travels, and introduced the Bur- his 1974 publication. In addition to mese court to Europe. The second, L. Gaung’s diaries, Bagshawe has col- Euan Bagshawe, is a former colonial lected a number of articles on the em- officer (Indian Civil Service from 1941 bassy, printed in various newspapers in until independence) and later employee the British Isles, that help to shed more in the Rangoon office of Imperial light on the events discussed. Chemical Industries until nationaliza- tion in 1964 (see the foreword to The Gaung’s travels had a major impact Maniyadanabon of Shin Sandalinka). on the Burmese court and on Burmese After a subsequent thesis written on intellectual trends. Until then, the Bur- colonial education in Burma at the mese had only vague notions about the School of Oriental and African Studies world outside of Asia (and even large (London), Bagshawe embarked on a parts within it). Newspaper accounts, series of useful translations of some drawings, information gathered from of the most significant texts of the European visitors, and so on, certainly Konbaung period (Shin Sandalinka’s provided some data, but it was really Mani-yadana-bon and U Po Hlaing’s only with the circulation of Gaung’s Raza-dhamma-thingaha-kyan) and reports of his travels that this informa- colonial-era, retroactive compilations of tion could be brought together within a data on it (U Tin’s Myanma-Min Ok- new conceptual framework. This was chok-poun-sadan). especially so with distances travelled, The translation offered in the present giving the court a much more realistic volume is that of U Gaung’s diaries of idea of the dimensions of the globe and his journey to London and back in Burma’s place (and size) on it. Never- 1872–1873, as published in two vol- theless, it is easy to overestimate the umes under the editorship of Pe Maung impact of Gaung’s records, as they would suggest, from the numerous

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sentences pregnant with intimations of attempting to make sense of things surprise at the scale and organization of whose internal mechanisms he did not Western industry, that this was some- understand (the mechanical Turk, for thing completely new to the Burmese example, on p. 392). It is also a very mind. It was not. Burmese had become lengthy text. For these reasons it is com- knowledgeable about such things dur- mendable that Bagshawe undertook this ing visits to government installations in project rather than focus on many of the Calcutta (and earlier through texts on shorter texts available from the Western science) over the previous four precolonial period (although these too decades, and indeed the Burmese them- are important for their own reasons). selves had already begun to experiment The result is a very rewarding text, a with Western machinery. What the pleasure to read and informative with reader might miss in what appears to be every page. As with Bagshawe’s other evidence of Burma’s backwardness in translations, the original editor’s intro- the face of Western superiority is that ductions have been retained and trans- this text is really about a quite apposite lated. development—for the first time, Bur- The only real drawbacks to the book, mese (aside from a few youths taken and these are minor in view of the away by missionaries to Europe for re- translator’s greater contribution, are that ligious training) had left Asia on their (1) his footnotes are extremely informal own initiative to build connections with and (2) more research could have been the West and to gain more information conducted regarding proper names. This regarding it. It was a major moment in reviewer suspects that comments made Burma’s opening up to the outside in the footnotes may be the original, world. unadulterated jottings one takes down Bagshawe provides a very thorough on paper in the process of translation. historical introduction, although focused Footnote 108, “Literally ‘iron head on British-Burmese relations (however, fillet’—don’t know what it means” one would have expected much more on should not have remained in this form Gaung himself, such as personal con- in the published work. Although minor, tacts with the British on the frontier sentences of this kind pepper the foot- where he was posted and his personal notes throughout and it gives the reader connections to Mindon), in pp. ix-xlvi. less confidence in the translation, as if The translation itself represents a the whole remains a work in progress. significant amount of labour on On a similar note, the identification of Bagshawe’s part. The original text is not Western proper names, the people U always easy to translate into English, Gaung met, the companies he encoun- especially since Gaung was describing tered, and the places he visited are too many technical subjects for which Bur- frequently given with a parenthetical mese terms did not yet exist and question mark. Again, the reader hesi-

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tates to place much confidence in the identification in question. Yet these questions could have been resolved with a little more effort at the identifications. Perhaps this problem can be rectified in later editions of the work. A problem perhaps attributable to the publisher and not to Bagshawe is the index, which misses key topics in the text and sometimes organizes them in confusing ways (one can only find automata under ‘Crystal Palace,’ not independently, as it should have been). The present volume is an enormous boon to scholars working on precolonial Burma, although it may be especially useful to a growing number of scholars, not trained in the Burmese language, who seek to do comparative work on Burma and other South-East Asian societies. The present translation, just as was the case with Bagshawe’s earlier translations, thus provides a bridge into the understudied, yet critical, Konbaung period. The present reviewer highly recommends the volume for scholars and students alike.

Michael W. Charney

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Justin Watkins, ed., Studies in Burmese new approach particularly appropriate Linguistics. Canberra, Pacific Linguis- for Burmese, where the meaning is so tics, Australian National University, dependant on the context. More classi- 2005. cal are contributions concerning old Burmese, but they are enlightening for For many reasons this book is wel- the history of the language. The last part come. One is that the Burmese language, concerns lexicography, with a clear pa- its amazing specificity, its richness and per pointing out the specific difficulties variety of styles, and its long life as a of Burmese in that field. References are written language, deserved such a re- grouped in a general list at the end. markable set of contributions. Another In the introductory part, the transcrip- reason is its dedication to John Okell. tion of consonants and vowels appears He has constantly promoted this lan- as simple as it could be, systematically guage in various forms and through all using IPA international symbols. For sorts of activities. For instance, when tones, specifically Burmese, John Okell mixing with a Burmese itinerant theat- had already used (1969) an economic rical troop, he heard the literary lan- — and very Burmese — method: one guage of plays throughout whole nights tone unmarked, two others each marked on end, and during the day noted the by an accent. But here, Okell’s accent players’ colloquial speech. He became for the creaky tone indicates high tone, expert in esoteric poetry, in laborious his accent for high tone indicates low translations from Pali (nissaya), and in tone and an additional mark under the dialectal Burmese, thanks to his field- vowel indicates the creaky tone. Is this work in ‘restricted’ areas, etc. progress? The transliteration is certainly Useful indications are given at the such. It is used in the Library of Con- very beginning concerning the general gress as well as internationally and im- structure of the book. The list of abbre- proves the system of Epigraphia viations and conventions includes the birmanica since it allows a better ren- transcription and transliteration of Bur- dering of the Burmese writing: for in- mese. Then come subtle analyses of the stance, simple and double ‘ñ’ are now contributions in James A. Matisoff’s distinguished. Constant use of both sys- preface, and the genesis of the work is tems throughout the book facilitates explained in Justin Watkins’ foreword. one’s reading. A note at the end of Jus- The contributions are arranged logi- tin Watkins’ foreword invites ‘readers cally. First come those concerning pho- to regard the terms Burmese and nology, then syntax and verb semantics, Myanmar as equivalent and inter- linked together by (the last paper on changeable’, so the title of the book is syntax) ‘The verb “give” as a causati- justified. viser in colloquial Burmese’; then fol- Turning to the different contributions, low discourse and stylistic register, a D. Green’s ‘Word, foot and syllable

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structure in Burmese’ applies to Bur- D. Bradley’s ‘Reflexives in Literary mese the theory of optimality, a con- and Spoken Burmese’ shows reflexives straint-based theory. The author de- as a category of terms amazingly recur- scribes carefully the segments of the rent in written and spoken Burmese. language, from syllable to phrase; his They are studied from the twelfth cen- approach allows him to detect con- tury up to the present. On the way, one straints specific to Burmese. His distinc- learns that the literary reflexive mi mi tion between major and minor syllables is a reduplication of ‘person’ in Tibeto- is equally fruitful. Describing compet- Burmese, and is reminded that pause has ing constraints, he points out how the a grammatical role in Burmese. Even if canonic form of Burmese syllables is one hesitates to admit that reflexive shown in loanwords. However, the ‘body’ and the syntactic particle -ko Burmese writing of ‘chocolate’ is sur- have the same etymon, one can appre- prising (p. 24). Usually the last syllable ciate how comparative Tibeto-Burmese was written -lak and not -lek. It may be studies and historical background ben- a case of orthographic evolution, show- efit from such an investigation. ing the constant evolution of languages, V. B. Kassevitch’s ‘Syntactic and especially Burmese. morphological markers in Burmese: are Andrew Simpson and Justin Watkins’ they really optional?’ insists on the vari- paper, ‘Focus in Burmese: an investi- ous possibilities of marking syntax and gation and experimental study of infor- morphology without using markers. mation structure and prosody’ is a sys- Possibilities are word order, word-class tematic and well-documented study. In- specification, and context. Despite a formation was provided by talks with constant avoidance of redundancy – ‘a Burmese speakers and recordings, and typological feature of Burmese’ for completed by the remarks and com- Kassevitch – the choice, between mark- ments of experienced Birmanophones. ers or other possibilities, is far from be- Experiments were conducted with na- ing free. Let me quote a personal ex- tive speakers and the help of acoustic periment: deletion of an agent marker analyses. The investigation ‘Concerning after a personal name, which functioned the area of Eastern Asia’ might be less as a substitute of the pronoun ‘he’, new than is stated in the introduction to changed the meaning of that name to this contribution: René Gsell, a Thai ‘I’, an unpredictable change in a ‘mark- specialist and phonetician, was perfectly drop language’. aware of the importance of prosody (in- In ‘The verb “give” as a causativiser tensity, duration, intonation and pause) in Burmese’, Kenji Okano illustrates a in languages of Southeast Asia. Such an new trend in Burmese language: the investigation in Burmese is promising multiplication of versatile verbs. They and calls for a larger exploitation of are functioning now either as pre- or prosody versus structure. post-head verbs. Formerly ‘give’ fol-

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lowed the head-verb and carries still Alice Vittrant’s ‘Burmese as a modal- more meanings in this position. Con- ity-prominent language’ is near to cerning the possible Mon origin of the Lehman’s theoretical position. She in- use of ‘give’ as auxiliary, the author has sists on the pervasiveness of modality. doubts, for historical reasons. Her demonstration is based on a pre- In her contribution, Uta Gärtner gives cisely delimited corpus of sentences, a complex answer to the title: ‘Is the collected and controlled ‘in the field’ Myanmar language really tenseless?’. and placed in their situational context. The Burmese language is said to be The prominence of modality would, ‘tenseless’, according to a concept of perhaps, appear more clearly if the pos- tense based on Indo-European lan- sibility of aspectual signification were guages; ‘however, Myanmar turns out considered. to be ambiguous with respect to tense (as well as in other respects)’. Her analy- Paulette Hopple’s ‘Topicalisation in sis, illustrated by numerous examples, Burmese expository discourse’ is the shows a subtle use of numerous verbal first paper among three concerning particles and grammaticalised lexical ‘Discourse and stylistic register’. In fact items, following or preceding the verb. most of the papers in the book indicate This environment might indicate aspect, which style their examples belong to and modality and even tense. The indication in which kind of discourse they appear; is clear only if the verbal syntagma is but here, the influence of discursive and embedded in a context. The great num- stylistic register on grammar is the tar- ber of examples is very useful. They get of the contribution. Hopple concen- enlighten the complexity of the subject: trates her study on one linguistic sub- in several of them, where the statement ject: topicalisation, on one text only, the refers to past tense, the final marker is - National Day text, expository discourse, may, the marker of supposition most and one style: modern written Burmese. often referring to the future. Burmese is one of those topic-prominent There is a clarification of this Tibeto-Burmese languages, where the complexity in F.K.L. Chit Hlaing topic to comment relation has more im- (Lehman)’s paper: in ‘Towards a formal portance than the subject to predicate cognitive theory of grammatical aspect relation (Kassevitch already signalled and its treatment in Burmese’, he dem- that the presence of a grammatical sub- onstrates the imbrication of time, aspect ject is not necessary in Burmese). In fact, and modality, basing his theory on implications are numerous in Burmese. analyses of Burmese examples. It be- Let us quote P. Hopple’s realistic ‘cul- comes clear that an event already past, tural’ remark: ‘the unstated knowledge or a previous state, therefore both implied by the writer...can leave second carrying the factual modality, might be language readers of Burmese per- enunciated as a supposition, by the plexed’. Less fruitful is the choice of a speaker, in a cognitive perspective. single text, of the ‘expository’ genre,

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where the style is more official than rep- errors and deplores the introduction of resentative of modern written Burmese. spoken vocabulary in literary texts and San San Hnin Tun also, in ‘Discourse of sophisticated literary terms in the particles in Burmese’, writes about the spoken language. Numerous examples situation-dependant nature of particles; help to understand his criticisms. she, also, focuses on only two particles: Rudolf A. Yanson in his ‘Tense in two only. She chose them because the Burmese: a diachronic account’ re-ex- speaker’s or the writer’s feelings show amines the problem of tense in Burmese. through them, their use is sometimes For him, in the modern language the characteristic of a speaker, and the semantic content of the final markers addressee himself is cognizant of their does not justify their assimilation to presence. But their emotive function tense markers. As for old Burmese, the appears only when they are used in con- numerous inscriptions show that the nection with certain other particles. This verb was obviously tenseless. Concern- subtle analysis is based on various ex- ing classical Burmese, the author dem- amples, belonging to written and spo- onstrates how innumerable translations ken styles, but also on the knowledge a from Pali provoked an evolution of an- Burmese linguist has of her native cient Burmese verbal markers, which tongue. eventually modified their grammatical U Saw Tun’s ‘Writing Modern Bur- category and led to the introduction of mese: an examination of the status of a few Pali grammatical elements (such colloquial Burmese’ has the same ad- as the optative suffix). vantage. The contribution begins with Ohno Torru’s contribution, ‘The a clear history of the matter, at least from structure of Pagan-period Burmese’ 1965 onwards. In fact the gap between gives the reader an impressive amount written and spoken Burmese alarmed of information. It is perfectly organized Burmese writers long before. But in and easy to consult, sources are listed 1965 began the organized modern at- at the beginning, and an index of the tempt for solving the problem, argu- grammatical forms follows the text. The ments for and against the renewal of main source is the collection of rubbings written Burmese spread, and the gov- of inscriptions published between 1972 ernment entered the controversy in or- and 1983. The numerous examples der to extend its control in the linguistic quoted have been deciphered by the field. In spite of consultations with spe- author. As Burmese writing was not yet cialists of the Burmese language, the settled in Pagan, the same word was authorities were not always expert, and written in different forms. The list of fashion dictated many things, including vowels, the words where they appear errors: unsuitable literary markers were and the study of phonology show an substituted for proper ones used in both important evolution of the Burmese vo- styles. U Saw Tun evidences these calic system: modern ui was uiv, eiv, i,

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modern e was i. In fact it is still i in the choice between written and spoken Arakanese and in Marma, dialects of language another one. One of her final Burmese. As for the consonants, the remarks is to accept the fact that ‘such author assumes that aspirated and a work...is never finished’. unaspirated stops were contrasting, but All these contributions have painted exemplifies the contrast between voiced a vivid portrait of Burmese language, and voiceless consonants only with loan a mysterious entity with a long history words. In modern Burmese it is still dif- and a strong personality. ficult to find contrasting voiced and voiceless consonants. As one might ex- Denise Bernot pect, contrast between aspirated and unaspirated consonants is seen also in two categories of verbs: causatives and non-causatives. Interrogation marks (for a ‘yes or no’ question), hi for ‘to be’ and negative sentences ending with the verb of Pagan Burmese were still used in the Marma dialect this reviewer collected in 1951. Annemarie Esche, in ‘The experience of writing the first German-Myanmar Dictionary’ speaks of her ‘arduous en- terprise’ as somebody who could not help undertaking it and who loved to do it. She begins with a detailed presentation of her sources, Myanmar Dictio- nary, Myanmar-English Dictionary, and many others, evaluating their respective advantages, and includes standardized orthography, short examples, indication of the pronunciation, and botanical names of plants. As for the lexicographi- cal problems, equivalency of terms comes first; it is already difficult when the translation is between two European languages, but it is worse to try to find equivalents between two different cultures: the translation might become an explanation. Orthographic reforms in Myanmar were another problem, and

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Judith L. Richell, Disease and Demog- lims, and Hindus in Burma covering the raphy in Colonial Burma. Copenhagen, decades between 1911 and 1931. Scat- NIAS Press, 2006, pp.xiv + 327, tables, tered throughout the text are very clear maps, glossary, bibliography, appendi- tables and graphs and some very useful ces, index. maps. The book can generally be divided As Ian Brown explains in his fore- into two broad sections. The first sec- word to the book, Judith Richell died in tion, consisting of Chapters One and 1999 at the age of fifty-six while en- Two (pp. 1–84), is heavily quantitative, rolled in the doctoral programme in His- with the discussion focused on the prob- tory at the School of Oriental and Afri- lems of locating reliable statistics, cal- can Studies (London). Although close culating more reliable figures, and iden- to completion, school regulations pre- tifying the boundaries (time and space) vented the posthumous submission of of Richell’s case study. The lack of a her thesis, leaving publication as the substantial general body of work on only available route to circulating this demography in Burma (previous work valuable study. As a result, the author on Burmese demographic history has was absent in the final editing process been limited to the works of A. R. and thus we do not know exactly what Vyatkin and R. M. Sundrum) presented changes would have been made or in- Richell with both a challenge and an deed how the final volume would have opportunity, both of which she fully looked. A review must thus examine the undertook. On the one hand, the lack of book within this context. As the reader substantial secondary literature forced will find, Richell’s voyage into Burmese Richell to undertake the onerous task of demography and public health is inno- sifting through censuses and related re- vative and much needed. ports for detailed statistics and, on the In addition to an introduction and other, the paucity of literature allowed conclusion, Richell’s book is divided her a free hand in shaping a demo- into six chapters covering (1) “Number- graphic study on her own terms. For ing the People,” (2) “Birth Rates and Richell, a number of factors weighed Death Rates in Colonial Burma,” (3) heavily in favour of a more circumspect “Infant Mortality,” (4) “The Family and analysis of Burmese population statis- Childhood in Colonial Burma,” (5) tics. Difficulties in discerning between “Adult Morbidity and Mortality and the indigenous and immigrant Muslims Development of Public Health in were avoided, by excluding Arakan Burma,” and (6) “The Determinants of from the study. The necessity for reli- Mortality: Nutrition and Malaria in able government data also favoured Colonial Burma.” The appendices also Lower Burma and several districts just include compilations from the census to the north, due to the consistency and data on the numbers of Chinese, Mus- longer duration of colonial record-keep-

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ing. Thus, much of Upper Burma, in- diseases (cholera, plague, smallpox, and cluding all the hill (and thus ethnic) ar- malaria) and nutrition levels. In this con- eas, as well as most of Tenasserim, were text, Richell also provides information also excluded. Ultimately, Richell’s case on the emergence of the colonial public study focuses on areas of the Irrawaddy health department. Richell makes an im- Delta that coincidentally share certain portant contribution in her argument that features: (1) predominant sedentary the much feared epidemic diseases of agriculture, (2) “Burmese” culture, and cholera, smallpox, and the plague were (3) Theravada Buddhism as the prevail- the cause of only ten percent of adult ing religious orientation (p. 6). Richell mortality (p. 169). Richell turns to other similarly had to reject several sources causes of adult mortality, such as diar- of information that would have other- rhoea and dysentery, which actually saw wise seemed useful. The annual reports a steady and significant decline in the from 1862–1865, for example, were late colonial period, while deaths from subject to severe underestimation, both respiratory disease saw a roughly com- by local headman and colonial admin- parable inverse trend. The major factors istrators alike, while the 1872 and 1881 in adult mortality, Richell finds, were censuses, both covering years prior to actually two problems for which the the annexation of Upper Burma, neces- colonial reaction was either very slow sarily only referred to Lower Burma. or almost non-existent. First, chronic The second section of the book, and widespread malnutrition among the which include Chapters Three to Six, Burmese population made them vulner- while rich in statistics, becomes much able to all sorts of health problems, es- more qualitative in its analysis than in pecially beri-beri. Second, under the the first section and this discussion is guise of “fevers”, malaria laid low many focused on public health (as it impacts Burmese to an astounding degree, made demography). In Chapters Three and worse by commercial factors and civil Four, Richell carefully considers how engineering projects. Curiously, how- child-bearing women’s nutrition and ever, the classic study of this problem breast milk feeding, infant food supple- in Sri Lanka (Rhoads Murphey, “The ments, and various infant diseases Ruin of Ancient Ceylon”, Journal of (smallpox, malaria, venereal diseases) Asian Studies 16.2, 1957), which also affected infant mortality rates, as well made allusions to this problem for the as Burmese attitudes toward child-bear- classical and early modern era Burma, ing and child-rearing. Richell also docu- has escaped this discussion and the bib- ments the British public health response, liography. In any event, “fevers”, of which was deficient in part because of which fifty percent of deaths were due hesitance to appoint female doctors (p. to malaria, Richell concludes, consti- 125). Chapters Five and Six focus on tuted the single greatest threat to the adult mortality, including the impact of indigenous population in terms of deaths caused by disease (p. 258).

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There are minor drawbacks. Even without being able to draw up statistics comparable to the Irrawaddy Valley districts, more attention probably should have been paid to Arakan, Tenasserim, and the hill areas, if only in terms of qualitative data and if only to include the bulk of non-Burman ethnic groups in a study that seeks to examine health and demography in colonial Burma. The study also does not make use of Bur- mese-language material, which may have otherwise enriched the discussion of problems in gathering health data or yielded light on how Burmese viewed the shaping of public health around (and for) them. Even so, the present volume represents a very important contribution to the field and one that should stand the test of time. The book presently under review is a solid, comprehensive examination of public health in colonial Burma that must be read by any researcher working on this period and place. The breakdown of chapters into clearly outlined sub-topics of public health makes it an especially effective case study for comparative studies of the state of health in Asia generally. This book is highly recommended as well for undergraduate and postgraduate courses focused on the more human side of Southeast Asian History.

Michael W. Charney

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Emma Larkin, Secret Histories: Find- country. Throughout the chapters, ing George Orwell in a Burmese Larkin introduces the reader to ghosts, Teashop. London, John Murray, 2005, Burmese Orwell fans, teashop intellec- pp.vii + 232. tuals, an unwitting bicycle trip into a military compound, and everywhere Emma Larkin is a journalist with an stories of personal tragedy. To these two M.A. in Asian History at the School of narrative strands is added a third, a sum- Oriental and African Studies. In the mary of Burmese historical events present volume, Larkin explores the placed at different points in the book to state of contemporary Burma and lo- make the reader aware of the broader cates its past by following a trail pinned significance of what Larkin sees or to major points in the experiences of hears. The book is not, and was not George Orwell during his stay in Burma intended to be, an academic study, in the 1920s as a colonial policeman. but relatively light reading. Even so, Orwell’s numerous books, including Larkin’s impressions of contemporary Animal Farm, Burmese Days, and Nine- Burma, seen through the framework teen Eighty-Four painted a bleak pic- provided by Orwell’s life, provide a ture, in the age of totalitarianism in potent reminder to readers sitting com- which they were written, of the control fortably in the West of just how badly of man by man and the suppression of off the contemporary Burmese are. As the individual and the human spirit. Sev- such, Larkin’s book is not so much a enty years on, Larkin finds, Orwell’s new contribution as it is an updated con- writings are just as relevant to the Burma tribution to an extensive field of travel of today, a “much more terrifying land- literature regarding contemporary scape ... a real-life Nineteen Eighty-Four Burma, all of its parts seeking to relay where Orwell’s nightmare visions are the same basic account of Burma. being played out with a gruelling cer- Larkin’s book is more intelligent than tainty” (p. 4). Moreover, Burma re- most and the emphasis on Orwell (for, mained relevant to Orwell’s perspec- by the end of the book, one clearly sees tives until his last days for, as Larkin that this is really more a story of Burma explains, Orwell had left at his death- than of Orwell), helps to make the bed plans to write another book, one volume as a whole engaging reading. which would revisit his memories of There is, of course, a problem with Burma. In the present volume, Larkin depending too much on the information in one sense completes a journey Orwell in the book. Many people in this book died too soon to make. exist in a realm of anonymity and thus Between the Prologue and Epilogue are unavailable for verification, prob- are five chapters devoted to (1) ably due to the need to avoid retaliation Mandalay, (2) The Delta, (3) Rangoon, by the state. Some vague statements in (4) Moulmein, and (5) Katha, all points the book may mislead readers unfamil- following Orwell’s experiences in the iar with Burma’s past: “Not long after

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Burma became independent from Brit- referred to (p. 32) appears to be the late ain in 1948, a military dictator sealed Professor Than Tun. Even if not, Than off the country from the outside world, Tun’s experience can suggest a word launched ‘The Burmese Way to Social- of caution of reading too much into the ism’ and turned Burma into one of the “erasure” of identity plot. Than Tun’s poorest countries in Asia” (p. 2) is rather experience, for example, as bad as it sweeping, even if one does accept that was, was not like that in Nineteen 1962 happened not long after 1948 Eighty-Four, as suggested by the un- (fourteen years), and the suggestion that named writer quoted by Larkin in refer- emancipating local businesses and trade ence to the equally unnamed historian. from Western control amounted to iso- In Than Tun’s case, government censor- lation from the outside world misunder- ship did not amount to a permanent stands both the Ne Win years and the erasure of his identity, but on and off role of the Soviet Union and Czecho- harassment that continually relaxed slovakia (and other Communist bloc after tempers had subsided. Certainly, states) during the period. More striking this was a grave, difficult time for Than is Larkin’s observation that “it is not Tun. Nevertheless, comparing these easy to get English-language books in kinds of experiences to the Orwellian Burma” (pp. 7–8). This is a major mis- nightmare does not do the latter justice, representation, as one quick jot down nor does it give accuracy to the experi- to Pansodan or 37th Lan, or hundreds of ences of such men (and women) as the shops in Rangoon, Mandalay, and else- former. This is not to rob critics of the where, would quickly reveal. Larkin’s regime of the legitimacy of their goals, discussion of the changing of place but rather to suggest that such inaccu- names in Burma also fails to discuss the racies do not do anyone any good in at- full dimensions of the issue. Myanmar, tempting to understand Burma accu- for example, is not a “new” name as rately. Larkin suggests (p. 11), but rather a form Such problematic observations aside, of the original name (Myanma) that was the volume remains an interesting per- grossly corrupted by Europeans spective on the state of the country. It is (Burma). There is also good reason why a well-written book, stylistically, and is Mandalay was unchanged: it was one certainly accessible to the general read- of the examples of indigenous names ership. The general readers will find that that the British failed to change beyond the numerous stories in the volume will recognition, hence it was retained, and heighten the attraction of travel to this should have been stressed as it sup- Burma, to see for themselves what ports the government’s claim, dismissed Burma is really like. by Larkin, that this was simply a move to delete “colonial tags”. Michael W. Charney Although unnamed, the very re- spected and prolific Burmese historian

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Susan Conway, The Shan: Culture, Art served by dress and the display of artis- and Crafts. Bangkok, River Books, tic finery. 2006, pp. 212, 300 photographs and The importance of dress in defining colour illustrations. social status is not much appreciated in the present age of dark suits and discreet This is a beautiful book. It is beauti- cocktail dresses. Nor are fine arts items fully produced, and beautifully written. of public display by presidents, prime It is worth buying for the illustrations ministers or company CEOs in their alone: not just for the colour photo- dealings with each other. But both were graphs of Shan arts and crafts, architec- well understood by the Burmese in pro- ture and textiles, but also for the won- mulgating their sumptuary regulations derful collection of historical black-and- defining exactly what each tributary white photographs that the author has ruler had the right to wear and display. assembled. But the book also makes a Conway shows us how dress mattered valuable and fascinating scholarly con- for the Shan, as both a badge of identity tribution to a little studied and poorly and a statement of political association. understood part of the Tai world. To flaunt Burmese sumptuary laws, for Susan Conway is that rare combina- example, would be to claim autonomy tion of both artist and scholar. She is a — or at least the protection of a more curator of exhibitions (most recently on powerful suzerain, such as China. Lan Na, Shan and Siamese Nineteenth Conway begins by setting the scene, Century Court Dress at the Jim Thomp- something that is not easy to do for such son Centre in Bangkok), and exhibits her a geographically and ethnically diverse own art work. And she is a Research area as the Shan states of Burma. Her Associate at the School of Oriental and way in through maps and landscape African Studies in London who has pub- works nicely. Where she encounters dif- lished widely in scholarly journals. Her ficulty, as anyone would, is in the defi- previous book, Silken Threads Lacquer nition of ethnic groups. Here several Thrones, was about the court textiles of criteria intersect: geography, altitude, Lan Na. So this volume on the Shan is a linguistic affiliations, and culture. This logical progression. is the same difficulty encountered in try- As in Silken Threads Lacquer ing to categorize the ethnic diversity of Thrones and her catalogue for her Laos. No single criterion will work, but Bangkok exhibition, in this volume on to apply a combination only multiplies the Shan Conway brings together poli- diversity. tics, social status, and culture (from ar- Conway lists four groups in the Shan chitecture to textiles and dress to crafts region: Tai, Wa, Kachin and Karen, such as lacquerware and silver) in or- which in the glossary are defined purely der to show how one reinforces the in terms of overlapping geographical other, how the politics of status were location, but later mentions a fifth, the

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Palaung. This does not get us very far. good on), the basis of Tai political cul- None but the Tai figure much in the text, ture really does deserve elaboration. which is understandable: this is a book Conway does, however, cover a lot about the Shan. But difficulties arise of ground — from the organization of with the Tai, four groups of which for Shan society to the role of women, the Conway constitute the Shan (a term social importance of Buddhist monas- none of them use). All overlap, and none teries, spirit worship and astrology, are limited to the Shan states. The larg- villages and palaces, and back to women est group, the Tai-Yai (also known as again. A separate chapter is devoted to Tai-Ngio), are also found in Lan Na, but the history of the Shan states. But as for Conway comprise the Shan proper. Conway lists 43 such states (five com- But she also uses the term to include the prising the northern states and 38 the Tai-Khoen (also found in Lan Na) and southern ones), her task is well nigh the Tai-Neua and Tai-Lue, both of whom impossible in a few pages. Sensibly, she spill across from the Sipsong Pan Na. deals with the Shan as a group, differ- To these overlapping geographical entiating only a few major states, and relationships can be added historical examines their relations with Burma, the ones resting on claims to priority. upper part of which was ruled in the Conway refers to George Young to sort fourteenth century by Shan kings, with this out, but Georges Condominas Lan Na and Siam, and with the Sipsong would have been more useful. Politi- Pan Na and China. With colonialism cally Conway rightly focuses on the comes a clearer narrative, and some muong/meuang, an institution finely wonderful photographs. tuned to variations in the balance of The strength of The Shan lies in the power and status, but most confusing in next four chapters on male and female its multiple shifting relationships. These dress, court life, and arts and crafts. Here drove the British nuts, but if they had Conway is in her element, making full learned to read the language of court use of archival sources, travel memoirs dress, they might have been less con- and historical photographs from the late fused. nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Muong structure and relationships as The photographs of Burmese court dress expressions of Tai political culture are are extraordinary. Both for men and impossible to understand outside the women, this resembles nothing so much context of the Theravada Buddhist as samurai armour and looks quite un- worldview. Here Conway should cer- comfortable compared to the dress men tainly have said more. ‘Karma’ does not and women wore even on more formal even warrant an entry in the index occasions back in their home states. (though ‘merit’ does). And since it is The rigidity of Burmese sumptuary court dress as indicative of political sta- laws and extreme consciousness of status that she is interested in (and very tus led to some innovative use of pat-

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terns and materials by Shan princes, thus mentioned. One wonders what was the adding to the amazing variety of male basis of choice? Perhaps only the avail- dress. Rank was of supreme importance, ability of photographs whose prov- indicated by multiple collars, chains and enance could be identified. Beautiful umbrellas held over princes in proces- examples of Shan fabrics (both indig- sion. Beside such symbols the later Brit- enous and imported), skirts and embroi- ish honours system of sashes and med- dery are illustrated, most from private als was but a pale reflection! collections. Male dress in particular had political In a fascinating chapter on princes implications. The prince of Muong Sing, and palaces, Conway shows how the for example, whose territory then cov- architecture of palaces, their furnishings ered both banks of the Mekong, some- of elaborate thrones and decorated times wore Tai-Lue dress to indicate his shrines, their gilded couches and artis- identification with the Sipsong Pan Na, tic treasures, all proclaimed the status and sometimes a Chinese dragon robe of the ruler. Drawing on the descriptions as a tributary of China. In the end, the of early explorers and officials, Conway more substantial part of his realm was reveals the life of the palace. Servants, included in French Laos. who lived outside the palace compound, Female dress was more variable, re- were summoned by drum. Food was flecting the cross influence of ethnic brought from kitchens in containers. But elites, or marriages arranged to cement what did they use as toilets? There is no political relationships. The wives of a mention of garderobes of the kind found Shan prince might be Wa or Karen or in medieval European castles. Palaung, as well as Shan. Each would There is a drawing by Louis De- wear ethnic dress on appropriate occa- laporte, the artist of the French Mekong sions, to reflect both ethnicity and po- Expedition, which Conway reproduces, litical relationships. showing the prince of Muong You re- The greater versatility in female dress ceiving the French explorers. Around sometimes reflected fashion, incorporat- him are placed his finest possessions, ing new silks from China, or styles of which attest to his status. These include embroidery using silver or gold thread, lacquer ware, repoussé silver work, ce- or machine-made lace from Europe. ramics and inlaid wood carving. For Conway also explains how female dress these Shan craftsmen were famous. reflected religious belief. Thus Buddhist Conway devotes a chapter to Shan arts women always wore skirts with waist and crafts, giving prominence especially bands, so as to differentiate waist from to weaving, embroidery and appliqué, easily polluted hem, which was not a but also revealing the finer points of consideration for animist Karen, metalworking and the preparation of Kachin, or Wa. palm leaf manuscripts. Conway describes different female The final chapter is on trade. The dress styles by state, though only ten are Shan were great long-distance traders.

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Conway discusses trade routes and the items traded with China to the north and Burma to the south. But Shan traders also made their way down the Mekong, through the Lao territories as far as Cambodia. Many village traders were women, who played a far more significant economic role (as did women all across the Tai world) than women in China. In the end it was trade that under- mined Shan arts and crafts, especially weaving, by introducing cheap mass- produced materials. Tourism has cheap- ened the quality of the Shan arts once crafted for princes. And the Burmese military has put an end to Shan court life. Conway records a world that is sadly lost, and she does it remarkably well.

Martin Stuart-Fox

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Anthony Grant and Paul Sidwell, eds, to homorganic glide+glottal stop se- Chamic and Beyond: Studies in quences (or laryngealised homorganic Mainland Austronesian Languages. glides), while Written Cham final coro- Canberra, Pacific Linguistics, Australian nal, velar and glottal stops are usually National University, pp.xvii+271, articulated as such. The experimental A$63.00. work is reported in detail. The 3-D graphic representations of the effects on With his twin specialisms in Chamic fundamental frequency of final conso- and Mon-Khmer, no human on earth is nants are particularly well-conceived, better situated than Paul Sidwell to team though a range of other phonetic corre- up with Anthony Grant, the author of lates of final consonants are also ex- nearly half the material in this volume, plored, with supporting statistical analy- to edit a collection of articles represent- sis. Especially valuable is the comple- ing the cutting edge of research into mentary perceptual test, which suggests the problematic Chamic branch of that the register contrast is perceived Austronesian. Chamic resists the rela- from a complex of acoustic cues. tively more straightforward classifica- ‘The Effects of Intimate Multidirec- tory paradigms of other branches of tional Linguistic Contact in Chamic’ is Austronesian because of its typological the first of two chapters contributed to proximity to Mon-Khmer and other the volume by Anthony Grant, one of mainland South-East Asian language its editors. This is a substantial article families. The mechanisms, processes, of some 70 pages which examines the stages and details of this typological socio-historical reasons for the relatively shift are, put simply, complex. much greater divergence of Chamic Mark Brunelle’s ‘A phonetic study of from its Proto-Malayo-Chamic roots Eastern Cham register’ aims to address than Malayic languages. Grant provides the question of the Mon-Khmerisation a considered and digestible account of of Eastern Cham in a phonetic context, a highly complex set of linguistic influ- by examining the phonetic detail of the ences on Chamic languages brought Mon-Khmer-style registral contrast in about through contact with various lan- Eastern Chamic, uncontroversially de- guages at various times, and relates pho- rived from a loss of initial consonant nological changes in Chamic in specific contrasts, possibly as a result of contact terms to events during two millennia of with Mon-Khmer languages. Chamic speakers’ social history. This Brunelle investigates whether or not article builds in particular on the work the Eastern Cham registers have evolved of Graham Thurgood’s (1999) article further into lexical tone as a conse- From ancient Cham to modern dialects: quence of coda-consonant weakening two thousand years of change. and subsequent deletion. He finds first Grant’s second article, ‘Norm-refer- that Written Cham labial and palatal enced Lexicostatistics and the case of coda consonants typically debuccalise Chamic’ assesses the merits of various

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lexicostatistical methods, contrasting (looking in particular at Kwara’ae, Hlai, ‘horizontal’ with ‘vertical’ varieties. He Rotuman and Tsat), Norquest provides discusses the shortcomings of Isidore a readable and accessible summary of Dyen’s (1965) ‘horizontal’ pair-refer- the facts, illustrated with abundant ex- enced study A lexicostatistical classifi- amples, and then applies the OT frame- cation of the Austronesian languages, work. in which all forms are compared to all Pittayawat Pittayaporn’s article others, for determining higher-level ‘Moken as a Mainland Southeast Asian interrelationships between branches of Language’ looks at the variety of Moken Malayo-Polynesian. Grant endorses spoken at Rawai on Ko Phuket, Thai- instead ‘vertical’ norm-referenced land. Pittayawat’s main argument is that lexicostatistics, a methodology which Mon-Khmerisation is too blunt a theory compares many forms to one historical to account for the ‘mainland’ features norm (which must have been recon- observed in Moken phonology, and as- structed independently of the languages signs these features instead one of three under examination). Applying his categories: the influence of loanwords, chosen method to Chamic, using the internal restructuring or conservative ‘default’ Austronesian word list drawn Proto-Austronesian word structure. He up by Robert Blust (1981), Grant finds justifies his argument in terms of a that Acehnese is as similar to more language-contact model (based on conservative Chamic languages as Thomason and Kaufman, 1988 and Malay is. The findings are discussed at Ross, 2003) which characterises Moken length and the statistical data are pre- speech communities as internally close- sented in full in tabular form. knit, but yet multilingual and maintain- Peter Norquest’s ‘Word Structure in ing open relationships with the speech Chamic: Prosodic Alignment versus communities nearby. On the one hand Segmental Faithfulness’ is an optimality the internal tightness of the community theoretic account of the stages in shift assures the continued use of Moken as from light disyllables to heavy mono- the primary language, but with inevi- syllables, changes wrought on Proto- table interference from imperfect Malayo-Chamic word structure under learning of mainland South-East Asian the influence of Mon-Khmer, as de- contact languages. scribed in Graham Thurgood’s (1999) Paul Sidwell’s article ‘Acehnese and monograph From ancient Cham to mod- the Aceh-Chamic Language Family’ ern dialects : two thousand years of lan- examines the position of Acehnese rela- guage contact and change. For each tive to Malayic and Chamic generally. stage in the process – first from Proto- In several areas, Sidwell raises as many Malayo-Polynesian to Proto-Malayo- questions as he seeks to answer. For in- Chamic, thence to Proto-Chamic and on stance, he finds a phylogenetic model into diverse Chamic daughter languages with a process of separation and branch-

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ing an implausible explanation for the Chamic languages. On the other hand, relationship between Malayic and in particular in the work of Pittayaporn Chamic. He posits the presence of an and Sidwell, the book challenges our un- unattested and extinct ‘substratu- mised’ derstanding, providing a very valuable branch Mon-Khmer in Chamic. Sidwell’ safeguard against the fossilisation of un- s conclusion, after detailed justifiably ‘received knowledge’, while discussion of Thurgood’s (1999) treat- so many facts, both present-day and his- ment of Acehnese and extensive torical, remain unknown, or at least un- discussion of the complex historical- clear or in doubt. The significance of linguistic context, is a reconfiguration Thurgood’s (1999) monograph, along- of the higher branches of the Malayo- side other major contributions to the Chamic tree, with an Acehnese-Chamic field, remain paramount throughout the subfamily yielding Acehnese and Proto- volume, but the work contained in this Chamic, in preference to Thurgood’s book collectively represents a major (1999) classification of Acehnese as next step in Chamic scholarship. ‘Chamic’. This in itself calls for much re-examination of the data. Justin Watkins Graham Thurgood seems to be looking over the shoulder of the reader throughout much of this volume, but he References: makes an actual appearance, along with Ela Thurgood, in the last article of the Blust, Robert A. (1981). ‘Variation in volume: ‘The Tones from Proto-Chamic the retention rate in Austronesian to Tsat [Hainan Cham]: Insights from languages.’ Paper presented at the Zheng (1997) and from Summer 2004 Fifth International Conference on fieldwork.’ The Thurgoods chart the Austronesian Languages, Denpasar, development of suprasegmental phe- Bali. nomena in Tsat from Proto-Chamic. The Dyen, Isidore (1965). A lexicostatistical present-day five-tone system is de- classification of the Austronesian scribed in terms of its diachronic ori- languages. Baltimore, MD: Interna- gins, identifying laryngealised allotones tional Journal of American Linguis- of four of the phonological tones con- tics, Memoir 19. ditioned by glottal finals. The creaky Ross, Malcolm (2003) ‘Diagnosing phonation of the glottal allotones is prehistoric language contact.’ In clearly demonstrated by well-illustrated R. Hickey (ed.), Motivations for instrumental analysis. language change. Cambridge: One of the strengths of this book is Cambridge University Press, pp. that it contains, on the one hand, work 174–198. which builds on, clarifies and adds detail to our existing understanding of

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Thomason, Sarah and Terrence Kaufman (1988). Language Con- tact, Creolization, and Genetic Lin- guistics. Berkeley, LA; Oxford, UK: University of California Press. Thurgood, Graham (1999). From ancient Cham to modern dialects: Two thousand years of language contact and change. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 28. Hono- lulu: University of Hawai’i Press. Zheng Yiqing (1997). Huihuiyu yanjiu. [A study of Tsat]. Shanghai yuan- dong chubanshe [Shanghai Far East Publishing House].

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Anthony Reid, ed., Verandah of Vio- of the ‘Aceh Problem’ was on the brink lence: The Background to the Aceh of being solved. The chapters, the edi- Problem. Singapore, Singapore Univer- tor reminds us, were undergoing final sity Press, in association with Seattle, editing at exactly the time that the University of Washington Press, 2006, Memorandum of Understanding was pp. xxx + 397. being signed in Helsinki. Several of the authors have added a few hurried para- The initial versions of the fifteen graphs to take account of the peace ne- chapters of this book were originally gotiations, but the reader gets the im- discussed at a conference in Singapore pression that these are just ‘add-ons’ that in May 2004 when, as the editor points are difficult to integrate with the pre- out in his preface, ‘the prospects for a 2005 discussion. This reviewer, I should negotiated consensual solution to the add, sympathizes very much with their long-standing problem of Aceh ap- predicament because he too shared their peared particularly dark’ (xiii). Aceh’s earlier pessimism and was surprised by prospects looked even worse when, at the eventual outcome. the end of that year, the province was The early chapters trace develop- hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami ments in Aceh up to the Indonesian revo- (which took the life of one of the con- lution against Dutch colonial rule. The tributors, the Acehnese historian, M. Isa authors of these chapters have their own Sulaiman, to whom the book is dedi- concerns, but together they provide a cated). Yet, most extraordinarily, a little coherent overview of a long period. over half a year later representatives of Edwards Mckinnon surveys archaeo- the Indonesian government and the Free logical evidence indicating early Indian Aceh Movement (GAM) met in and Chinese trading contacts during the Helsinki and signed an agreement that first millennium and he notes Muslim brought an end to the fighting of the tombstones from the early twelfth cen- previous three decades. tury. It was only in the early sixteenth The authors of the chapters in the first century, as Peter Riddell explains, that half of the book, which are concerned an Islamic Sultanate began to emerge with pre-colonial and colonial history, and develop, in the seventeenth century, were not forced by developments dur- into a major regional power extending ing 2005 to re-consider their perspec- into the Malay peninsula during the tives, but the authors of the later chap- reign of Sultan Iskandar Muda. Aceh’s ters now face the challenge of trying to Islamic identity was strengthened, al- accommodate the successful outcome of though customary law (adat) continued the peace talks into their generally to coexist with Islamic law. During the gloomy pre-tsunami prognoses. On the last six decades of the seventeenth cen- basis of most of these chapters, readers tury the Islamic state of Aceh was ruled could not have predicted that at least part by a succession of women until the Sher-

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iff of Mecca issued a fatwa outlawing dence from Indonesia, but they had that practice in 1699. Anthony Reid out- common roots in Jakarta’s treatment of lines the expansion of Aceh’s trade, es- Aceh in the 1950s. Initially an Indone- pecially with the Ottoman empire, and sian nationalist, Hasan worked for the then with Europeans. But by the nine- DI and advocated federalism, but the teenth century Aceh was seeking wider DI’s defeat led him eventually to launch international contacts as the Dutch threat GAM in 1976. As Isa points out, ‘the loomed larger, culminating with the war nationalist movement started by Hasan launched in 1873 which eventually sub- di Tiro did not emerge suddenly in 1976 jugated Aceh. Lee Kam Hing notes that or the 1980s, but developed gradually’ Aceh’s external links were more with (139). The continuity between DI and the British Straits Settlements than with GAM, despite their different objectives, Batavia and asks why it was not able to is also a theme of Edward Aspinall’s survive as an independent entity like chapter. Although he agrees that New Siam, which was balanced between the Order military brutality was a major fac- French and the British. He finds the an- tor driving GAM’s demand for indepen- swer in the 1824 Treaty, which left the dence, he points out that such brutality Indonesian archipelago within the Dutch was also common in the 1950s. Al- sphere while the Malay peninsula was though military outrages did not turn DI left to the British. Anthony Reid then into a separatist organization, they pro- takes the story through the Dutch inva- duced ‘the first signs of the process sion of Aceh and eventually to which decades later gave rise to full- Indonesia’s war of independence. Fi- blown ethnic separatism’ (151). nally Teuku Ibrahim Alfian provides a William Nesson even more strongly link with the contemporary chapters in rejects the view that GAM was prima- his discussion of the concept of Holy rily a reaction to brutal repression dur- War in Acehnese history. ing the New Order. He suggests that The second half of the book is con- GAM’s struggle for independence was cerned with the ‘Aceh Problem’, par- ‘a product of longer-standing historical ticularly the resistance to Jakarta that sentiments that stretch back to the fight began under the leadership of the Darul against the Dutch and of even deeper, Islam (DI) in the 1950s and continued centuries-old feelings that the Acehnese under GAM from 1976 to 2005. Isa have about their unique place in the Sulaiman’s chapter traces the evolution world’ (185). GAM is strong in the north of Acehnese resistance to Jakarta from and east of Aceh not because of social Darul Islam (DI) to GAM by focusing disruption caused by New Order exploi- on the life of Hasan di Tiro. DI and tation of oil and natural gas in those ar- GAM were separate movements, one eas but because ‘the north and the east aiming to achieve an Islamic Indonesian were historically the heart (not the en- nation while the other sought indepen- tire body) of Acehnese resistance from

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Dutch times through the PUSA[All- after the introduction of the military Aceh Union of Ulamas]-led social revo- emergency in 2003. In a Postscript writ- lution and DI’ (186). This argument, ten after the tsunami but before the however, does not make it easy to ex- peace agreement, she expected that ‘the plain GAM’s post-tsunami acceptance capacity of civilian institutions to gov- of a peace agreement without indepen- ern in Aceh will continue to be con- dence. Damien Kingsbury and Lesley strained by the interests and priorities McCulloch’s study of military business of the Indonesian military’ and that ‘the in Aceh faces a similar question. Like TNI [military] is unlikely to leave any many scholars, they explain that the time soon’ (311). military is dependent on extra-budget- The remaining three authors are more ary funding obtained from its own busi- detached in their approach. Kirsten ness enterprises and various forms of Schulze carefully examines the military extortion. Thus, ‘the economic interests and political strategies of both GAM and of the military explain, at least in part, the Indonesian government. On the the government’s reluctance to pursue government’s side she notes that ‘be- a political solution to the problems in tween 1977 and 2004 there was not one Aceh’ (211) and ‘To facilitate such profi- successful attempt at addressing the pri- teering and enrichment, the military now mary causes of the conflict - economic have a vested interest in maintaining a and social inequalities, the feelings of level of conflict that justifies their pres- exploitation, and the loss of dignity and ence’ (212). These were reasonable of the space for political, cultural and judgements before 2005, but we now social expression ...’ (264). On the GAM need to ask why the military accepted side, she mentions ‘increasing the peace agreement. Why is the mili- criminalization of some of its rank and tary not actively undermining the agree- file as well as the ethnically and politi- ment as it did in the cases of the earlier cally motivated targeting of civilians.’ cease-fire agreements in 2001 and (265). Aleksius Jemadu warns that ‘it is 2003? These questions could not, of too simplistic to depict the Aceh prob- course, have been anticipated by the lem as a conflict between a sovereign writers when they first wrote their chap- state and a separatist movement.’ (275). ters but, as the peace agreement be- To understand government policies it is comes increasingly embedded, further necessary to examine rivalries between explanation is needed. Michelle Miller political and economic interests in shares the pessimism of these authors. Indonesia’s new democracy. He there- Her chapter analyses ‘special au- fore discusses the shaping of Aceh tonomy’, especially the special au- policy during the Habibie, Wahid and tonomy law adopted in 2001. This law Megawati presidencies. Writing as the never generated much enthusiasm in informal talks were just beginning in Aceh and virtually lost any meaning Helsinki, he asks ‘How much of the

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current tendency towards peaceful conflict resolution is based on the pragma- tism of some Indonesian political leaders and businessmen whose main interest is the lucrative business of Aceh’s post-tsunami reconstruction projects?’ (288). (Being somewhat pragmatically inclined myself, I would add ‘If it works, why not?). Like Jemadu, Rodd McGibbon also dismisses the tendency ‘to pit Aceh against Jakarta in a simple vertical conflict between centre and region’ and argues that one of the keys to the conflict is ‘the failure of successive local elites, and their Jakarta-based pa- trons, to establish leadership claims over local politics’ (315–6). His chapter provides a masterly detailed survey of the rise and fall of local elites from the colonial period to the present and, unlike most of the contributors, ends on a guardedly optimistic note. This book covers a lot of ground and provides a comprehensive overview of Aceh’s history and recent politics. It also includes many insights and information on the events of recent years. The peace agreement, reached in the totally unexpected circumstances caused by the tsunami, have brought into question some of the judgements on the recent period, but the authors can hardly blamed for that. Maybe they will be spurred to bring out an updated edition.

Harold Crouch

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Elizabeth Morrell, Securing A Place: zontal mobility, tourism impact, demand Small-scale Artisans in Modern Indo- for handicrafts, and tendency toward nesia. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University modernity. Press, Cornell Southeast Asia Program This review is structured to attract a Publications, 2005, pp.220. large readership, also rationalized by referring to the author’s emphasis on This book is of greater relevance than how small-scale artisans secure a place its title suggests. Findings of fieldwork in their homeland’s dual economy. in South Sulawesi are pertinent to small- To get to know the Bugis artisans, it scale enterprises throughout Southeast is suggested to read, first, chapter 4, Asia. It is concluded that regional art about “The Sound of Life”. It was ‘re- and craft production articulate transfor- corded’ in two locales, one filled with mations and paradoxes. Although such the voices of independent, self-sufficient production can ensure continuity of women weavers, and another where the local material culture and strengthen rhythmic clicking of non-mechanized roles for artisan producers, economic looms operated by employee weavers continuity and strength will be more dif- was resounding. The author introduces ficult to achieve. 13 weavers of different socio-economic The author’s lengthy professional status, some of whom weave out of eco- preoccupation with two of Sulawesi’s nomic necessity, or to generate supple- major population groups, the Bugis and mentary income, or for lack of formal the Sa’dan Valley Torajan, entailed employment matching professional fieldwork from 1994 until 2004. Hence, qualification, or else for the pleasure of both research ventures are longitudinal creating elaborate designs. studies. There is a stark contrast between The author is commended for her self-employed backstrap weavers and admirably executed ethnography, which weavers employed by enterprises oper- appears well balanced between strong ating a non-mechanized loom known as empathy and critical assessment. The ATBM, short for Alat Tenun Bulan studies have in common the geographi- Mesin. Labour divisions and production cal location on Sulawesi’s southwestern methods are determined and controlled peninsula, and the distinctions, within by entrepreneurs. Four entrepreneurs are each population, between self-em- introduced, including one woman, ployed, home-based artisans and small- which reflects the dominance of male scale entrepreneurs operating with em- owners. With minimal working capital, ployee artisans. Most other aspects are they use synthetic fibres to avoid high in stark contrast, including historical initial costs, and to maximize income cultural traits, present-day religious af- through bulk production. filiation, residual impact of deep-rooted Most weaving and associated activ- social organization, gender roles, hori- ity is generated in the surroundings of

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Sengkang, officially promoted as the a pattern known as seribu semacam, “City of Silk”. Two streams of silk “from one come a thousand”, one basic weaving have emerged, which can be motif offers opportunities for innovation classified as “independent-traditional” through modest experiments and and “entrepreneurial-modern”. gradual changes. Despite the success of Almost exclusively, women operat- these artisans in creating a place in the ing the “independent-traditional” stream market and earning enough to support avoid competition by producing either themselves, independent weaving complex brocaded textiles or simpler activity is still widely dismissed as sarongs in brilliantly colored patterns. insignificant to regional and national They are backstrap weavers using silk economic development. to produce the sarung Bugis of heavy Whereas the silk industry has been filaments and strong texture. Their publicized by regional and government “phonic quality” gives wearers the developers to project a corporate image enjoyment of the sound made by silk of progress arising from highly re- cloth as they walk. spected traditions, the textile industry is The “entrepreneurial-modern” stream dependent upon low wages and on struc- is dominated by operators of workshops tures of employment that restrict devel- in which weaving and associated tasks opment of the individual capabilities and are separate activities performed by resourcefulness which characterize different employees, mostly producing small-scale household weavers. In the synthetic textiles. Thread preparation, political economy of development, the dyeing, painting, and tying are largely status accorded to silk textiles is greater done by women, in a system of dis- than the status accorded to the maker, persed labour, where no single worker and the artifact takes precedence over acquires the skills to complete the pro- the artisan. cess from concept to finished textile. An historical overview is given un- Drastic changes are reported in chap- der the heading of “Identity, Silk, and ter 5, “Commerce, Autonomy, and Cre- Status” (chapter 2). Discussed are pat- ativity”. The officially planned revital- terns encapsulated in quadrate domains; ization of the silk industry in Wajo, an interfacing between center and periph- historical kingdom and now a district, ery; the question of concord or compe- was envisaged as a small, specialized tition; the sarung Bugis as signifiers of handloom manufacture of high-quality commerce; the influence of Islam; the fabrics. As of 1995, Wajo plans were interplay of silk, Islam, and power; and appropriated by officials interested in the importance of textiles as political economic growth and by entrepreneurs. emblems. Independent backstrap weavers, however, retain a niche that holds potential Upland Toraja population groups are for extension. In the method of altering different in fundamental aspects. Again,

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the reviewer recommends to make created for use by Torajans to express oneself familiar, first, with “The modernity, while he artificially ages the Artisans” (chapter 8). The author objects produced for the tourist con- herself emphasizes that “the objects sumer to express tradition. created by Torajan artisans are well Women engaged in carving represent known, yet the artisans themselves the lowest socio-economic level of remain anonymous”. Torajan artisans who, as a group, are The author distinguishes the catego- among the poorest. Most carve small ries of fine artists and souvenir makers, wooden and bamboo objects for the sou- producers of antiques made to order, venir industry. Need for income has ceremonial sculptors, women engaged locked many women into production of in carving, entrepreneurs dealing in the low-cost, high-turnover sector, re- products created by artisans, and stricting the development of wider woodcarvers as artists. skills. Examples of fine artists and souvenir The exemplary entrepreneur dealing makers are the members of one particu- in products created by artisans values lar family of full-time, creative and in- creative autonomy, and subcontracts novative artisans, who observe market work so that carvers produce a number trends yet do not use an assembly-line of objects in a limited range. They re- production process. tain control of their own production. A The category of producers of antiques young, successful woodcarver is repre- made to order is personified by a sculp- sentative of artists who create landscape tor who sees himself as an interpreter panels depicting images of Torajan daily of Torajan tradition responding to mar- life. ket demand. His portfolio comprises Supporting artisans, redefinition of reproductions of sculptures such as artifacts, influence of the external mar- antique ancestral figures, known as ket, the innovators, and tradition and tau-tau, many sold as antiques, which transition are addressed under the head- conform to measurements of cargo ing of “Innovation and Transition” containers that demand more precision (chapter 9). Most supporting artisans than do the customary funerary have been forced into the souvenir in- carriages. dustry by lack of alternatives. However, The exact opposite is a ceremonial the exponential expansion of labor and sculptor who produces mainly funerary production in the limited tourist art mar- figures used by Torajans in their rituals. ket restricts incomes. He rejects primitivism and creates The influence of the external market modern tau-tau memorial figures. In one has bordered on the bizarre. Most fine of the many paradoxes found in ethno- art works commissioned by foreign graphic art, this sculptor polishes with dealers adhere to notions of tradition commercial varnish the ritual objects which are defined largely by Western

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concepts of Torajan authenticity. A and other textiles in brightly colored major influence is the body of printed commercial cotton yarn, woven on material. The photocopy machine has backstrap looms. During periods when become a standard tool for artisans, demand is strong and production steady, needed to copy photographs of objects even the poorest artisans are able to at- in museum catalogues and books tain their individual levels of self-suffi- brought by visitors intent on ordering ciency. reproductions of artifacts. Photocopies An overview of cultural roots and impose notions of historical veracity traits is heralded with what reads like a governed by consumer desire for the Torajan artisan’s exclamation “We Have primitive and exotic. No New Art ...” (chapter 6). The author Tradition and transition run in paral- stresses ancestral connections, traces lel. Externally, international attention social networks, describes modes of has been a catalyst for the assertion of articulating ideals and the interfacing Torajan identity in transition. Internally, of Christianity and the material culture the rationale for elaborate ceremonies, of animism, refers to “Toraja Hand- and for the building of tongkonan made”, and characterizes changing aes- houses, ancestral physical foci for the thetics. In the author’s words, “while kinship groups, and rice barns, remains urban artisans’ creations are removed within the institutions and structures of from the souvenir objects made by Torajan society, and tourism provides a peasant artisans, this small group has means of generating income to fund paradoxically introduced primitivism such traditional activities. through non-traditional techniques The author identifies and describes requiring higher levels of technology. “An Emerging Art Industry” (chapter 7). They have capitalized on the Western It has produced traditional objects for appreciation of primitivism, which they local consumption; re-integrated syncre- utilize to establish themselves within the tism in the form of such items as screen- modern world.” printed textile banners; and developed A peculiar feature of the presentation commercial fine art objects as well as of the two studies is the inverted over- replicated antique objects, souvenirs, lapping of the contents of the opening popular arts, decoration objects, and section, entitled “Artisan in Society” popular music; as well as fostered cul- (chapter 1), and the concluding section, tural assimilation solely through finely entitled “Negotiating Change” (chapter detailed sculptural human figures. 10). At the outset, the author presents a Modern artisan activities are per- single, elaborate introduction, coupled formed by bead workers, weavers, and with a summary of select findings, in- woodcarvers. The majority are indepen- stead of raising questions or expressing dent workers who carry out all stages assumptions. of production. Weavers produce sarongs Some such salient findings appear to be of significance overall. Thus, the sur-

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vival strategy is propelled by “resource- merely a stop-gap activity which does fulness, tenacity, and resilience”. The not offer the relief from unemployment apparent contradiction of invoking tra- that planners have hoped to achieve”. dition to achieve progress is overridden In general terms, she stresses the point by local concepts of modernization as that “assuming the premise that eco- an evolutionary mechanism. Above all, nomic development should provide “the motivation to express ethnic iden- improved access to a range of services, tity is so compelling that it shapes mod- including education, nutrition, and ern creativity.” health, then it is clear that artisans have In drawing comparisons, the author largely been excluded from the devel- stresses the following points: distribu- opment process”. tion of familiar crafted objects results The author also deplores the official in standardization; cultural uniqueness disregard of the dynamics of contem- is collective and articulated through porary culture owing to official priori- imagery which is distinctively Bugis or tizing of the “exotic” and “primitive”, Torajan; Bugis identity is upheld in that which has restricted the evolution of “tradition provides the foundation, modern fine arts. rather than the medium of moderniza- Among the author’s numerous, highly tion”; Toraja identity is based on “tradi- useful references is one to Thailand’s tion that acts as a medium of modern- modern handloom silk industry. Her ization through visual practices of ani- longitudinal study of how small-scale mist belief, reinforced by tourist con- artisans have fared seems to convey a cepts of exotic primitivism”. lesson for Thailand’s current One To sum up, the author’s introductory, Tambon One Product project. albeit not explicit, research proposition is confirmed in the concluding section. Karl E. Weber The question as to how small-scale artisans fared in “securing a place”, or “which place” rather, is answered through the author’s words that “most artisans return profits to the family rather than the business, and they pri- oritize self-sufficiency over entrepreneurial ideals”. The author’s critical appraisal of implementation as well as management of related governmental plans is encapsulated in two among several such evaluative inferences. She concludes that “for most artisans, production is

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Vu Trong Phung, The Industry of Mar- wit and a heightened sense of scepti- rying Europeans (Ky˜ nghê⁄ lâ´y Tây), cism, Vietnam at that time provided a translated, with introduction, by Thúy setting saturated with endless potential. Tranviet. Ithaca, NY, Cornell Southeast The interaction between different cul- Asia Program, Cornell University, 2006. tures is an intricate process. While some may view it as an enriching journey of This book is a translation of the 1930s discovery, a source of excitement and reportage written by a famous Vietnam- anticipation of change and new discov- ese writer, Vu˜ Tro. ng Phu.ng. Western eries, for others it becomes a barbaric readers have only recently been able to act of destruction, which pollutes and enjoy Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng’s wit and sharp annihilates indigenous values. In early observations. The Light of the Capital: twentieth century Vietnam these oppos- Three Modern Vietnamese Classics, ing attitudes to modernization were published in 1996, includes Greg epitomized by a generational divide. For Lockhart’s translation of a short piece the older generation of traditional schol- by Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng entitled Cóm thâ`y ars, the radical challenges to the pre- cóm cô (translated as ‘Household Ser- existing cultural paradigms were pain- vants’). More recently, since 2004, ful and irreconcilable; not only were the thanks to the efforts of Peter Zinoman new values ushered in by a conquering and Nguyen Nguyet Cam, foreign read- colonial civilization, in an aggressive ers have been able to absorb themselves manner, with military power propped up in the adventurous exploits of Red by a mighty political and administrative Haired Xuân, the protagonist of the apparatus, but also, most importantly, novel Sô´ Ð ó (Dumb Luck). Alongside these changes defied the core of their these now takes its place Thúy philosophy of life. The younger genera- Tranviet’s translation of Ky˜ nghê. lây tion, already born into the new regime, Tây (The Industry of Marrying Europe- on the other hand, found it easier to ad- ans). just to the changes and embrace them. By the time the Vietnamese writer Vu˜ Although Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng opted, more Tro. ng Phu.ng was born, in 1912, the often than not, for satirical renditions of French had firmly established their the clash between tradition and moder- colonial presence in Indochina. The nity in Vietnam, his humorous dialogue, penetration of Western culture and amusing characterizations and use of thinking facilitated through the French parody conceal a sombre social critique mission civilisatrice resulted in an in- and expose the complex nature of the evitable clash of cultures and fostered human character. fundamental changes in the political, Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng was a prolific writer social and cultural consciousness of the who managed to cram a remarkable Vietnamese population. For a writer literary career into his short life. He with keen observation skills, razor-sharp lived most of his life in the heart of

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Hanoi in the area known as the 36 Guild banned author marginalized by a politi- Streets, a buzzing commercial part of cal regime to a stalwart of bookshops the city. This lively neighbourhood firmly installed in the school syllabus. placed him at the epicentre of social The Industry of Marrying Europeans transformation: a colourful panoptic of (Ky˜ nghê. lâ´y Tây) was first published people from all walks of life — traders, in 1934. In this work, Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng craftsmen, prostitutes, beggars, petty presents his readers with an unconven- criminals, servants, rickshaw pullers, tional genre which blends reality and street peddlers, gamblers, opium ad- fiction. This ‘documentary narrative’ or dicts, domestic servants and their mas- ‘fictional reportage’ is a genre he loved ters — provided the writer with suffi- and perfected. His ability to fictionalise cient examples of how the people of the truth, to reconstruct, invent, and Vietnam adapted to the changing social imagine dialogues, earned him the title order. of ‘a king of reportage’ (ông vua phóng For most of the twentieth century, su.). As Thúy Tranviet reminds us, ‘he with the exception of a few years dur- was known for writing a reportage that ing the 1950s, the work of Vu˜ Tro. ng reads like a novel and a novel that reads Phu.ng remained marginalized and even like a reportage’ (p.11). The Industry of banned in Vietnam. The Vietnamese Marrying Europeans is the outcome of communist authorities suppressed the the author’s interviews with Legion- author’s significance by eliminating him naires and their Vietnamese ‘wives’ in from official histories of Vietnamese a village of Thi Cau north of Hanoi. The literature. They objected to his lack of work offers a fascinating glimpse into a revolutionary zeal, to his rejection of cross-cultural society, a hybrid society communism (he refused to join the ‘where imported cheese and butter have Party) and to his refusal to use his crossed the oceans to conquer people talent to promote the revolutionary re- from different social status’. Vu˜ Tro.ng construction of Vietnam on its road to Phu.ng admitted that he became curious socialism. Censorship of his work meant about the nature of relationships be- that he remained unknown to the tween the European Legionnaire sol- younger generation of Vietnamese. It diers and Vietnamese women upon hear- was only after 1986, when the political ing a Vietnamese woman in a courtroom climate was liberalized and censorship state that her occupation was ‘marrying softened following the introduction of Europeans’. In the foreward to the trans- , , renovation (dôi mo´i), that he was reha- lation of Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng’s novel, Sô´ Ðó bilitated and the younger generation had (Dumb Luck), Zinoman points out the opportunity to acquaint itself with Phung’s well-known reservations about his work. Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng would have ‘the new woman’ and his fondness for enjoyed the paradox inherent in his traditional Confucian morality and posthumous transformation from a female virtues. This sentiment is mani-

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fested in his intentional use of the word French into proper French and then ky˜ nghê. (industry) in the title; the term translates the French into English. immediately satirises such unions and As Thúy Tranviet points out, the leaves no space for any misunderstand- translator not only needs to understand ing of the motivations behind such the literal meanings of the words, but liaisons, which have nothing to do with must also take into account the cultural love, romance and commitment and aspects of the language, as well as the have everything to do with mutually mood of the author, in order to capture beneficial business transactions. ‘the tone’ of the work. This translation The Industry of Marrying Europeans certainly succeeded in this respect. is a fascinating work and it is a credit to Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng’s work still awaits the translator that her version presents serious scholarly evaluation both inside a masterful rendition of the Vietnamese and outside Vietnam. The introductory original. The complex and layered Viet- essay included in this volume places Vu˜ namese original presents many chal- Tro.ng Phu.ng in a wider historical and lenges, as translating from Vietnamese social context and provides a useful has its own specific problems, for ex- analysis of The Industry of Marrying ample, the complicated system of terms Foreigners. of personal reference dependent on gen- Remembering Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng, the , , der, marital status, age, social position Vietnamese poet Luu Tro. ng Lu once and level of familiarity. Furthermore, the said that ‘Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng’s work ex- original text is imbued with satirical poses and condemns all that is ugly, language, puns, double meanings and corrupt, and grotesque about humankind cultural connotations, which require during our era’. Times have changed but careful unwrapping. Yet by far the human beings remain prone to the se- most demanding challenge lies in the duction of the glitter of superficiality. original’s use of a mixture of languages. Contemporary Vietnamese society, at a Apart from the Vietnamese, the origi- time of globalization and consumerism, nal contains passages in French and in finds itself in the midst of a clash of a hybrid ‘pidgin’ French. In order to cultures; the collapse of traditional val- convey the speech of the lower classes, ues, the uncritical adoration of Western who lacked a proper knowledge of consumer goods, the blind worship of French, Phung⁄ employs a Vietnamized money and lack of respect for genuine transliteration of French called Tây bô`i. morality – all spawn confusion over val- Neither the women nor their Legion- ues and generate tension. In this con- naire ‘husbands’ are native speakers of text, Vu˜ Tro.ng Phu.ng’s work seems sur- French and they communicate in this prisingly topical. distorted ‘mishmash’ language – a veri- Anyone interested in Vietnamese table trial for the translator. The trans- literature, modern history and colonial- lator first transliterates this pidgin ism or fascinated by the French Foreign

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Legion will enjoy this excellent translation. Most of all, it will be enjoyed by all who are intrigued by the nature of human behaviour.

Dana Healey

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Karen Fjelstad and Nguyen Thi Hien, History, Pantheon, and Practices” by editors, Possessed by the Spirits: Ngo Duc Thanh. It explores the devel- Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnam- opment and practices of Len Dong ese Communities. Ithaca, NY, Cornell rituals which are closely connected to Southeast Asia Program, Cornell Uni- the worship of the Mother Goddess versity, 2006, pp. 186. religion in pre- and post-Renovation Vietnam. The author also provides Since the 1980s, Vietnamese popular thorough background knowledge of the rituals and religions have been revital- worship of mother goddesses in Viet- ized, including Len Dong spirit posses- namese society, including the origins of sion rituals and the worship of female the Mother Goddess religion, its pan- goddesses. The connection between theon and main practices. The author economic development and the revival also tries to establish why the Mother of popular religions in contemporary Goddess religion is considered an Vietnam has become an intriguing ques- indigenous religion of the Kinh people tion among those who are interested in and how it is incorporated with Taoism, Vietnamese studies. The volume Pos- Buddhism and the beliefs of other in- sessed by the Spirits: Mediumship in digenous ethnic groups in Vietnam. Contemporay Vietnamese Communities Pham Quynh Phuong’s article “Tran gives readers a vivid picture of various Hung Dao and the Mother Goddess aspects of contemporary Vietnamese Religion” introduces the worship of spiritual life in the midst of the rapid Saint Tran (Tran Hung Dao), a general changes of lifestyles and values due to who served the Tran Dynasty, who freed the economic reform, known as Doi Moi the country from the Mongol and (Renovation), in the late 1980s. What Chinese occupation. He is unarguably makes this volume different from other regarded as a national hero and thus previous works on Vietnamese popular venerated as a saint who can expel evil religions and rituals, such as Thien spirits. The author points out that the Do’s Vietnamese Supernaturalism: worship of Saint Tran in the pantheon Views from the Southern Region, and of the Mother Goddess religion and the Philip Taylor’s Goddess on the Rise: fact that female mediums are possessed Pilgrimage and Popular Religion in by Saint Tran is an interesting phenom- Vietnam, is its focus on the study of Len enon in Vietnamese society, because Dong spirit possession rituals and female mediums have been seen as mediumship in contemporary Vietnam- sexual wantons and immoral. The incor- ese communities, both in urban and poration of the cult of Saint Tran into country areas, as well as in the home- the Mother Goddess religion shows the land and abroad. attempt to avoid political authority in the The volume starts with the article Socialist era, when the practices of Len “The Mother Goddess Religion: Its Dong were illegal. This is because the

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incorporation of Saint Tran gives legiti- help her practice as a medium; whereas macy and higher status to the Mother a fourth generation specialist of votive Goddess religion. paper offerings became a medium to The author also suggests that the support his business. A concern about popularity of the belief in supernatural materialism in Len Dong performances power in Vietnam is linked to the rapid and the tension between materialism and growth in the business and economic religion are also found in Vietnamese sector. More people in urban areas have communities in Silicon Valley, in the become involved in spirit possession United States of America, where the rituals because of their exposure to ‘the mediums are criticized for ‘buying and uncertainty of the market economy’. selling spirits’ [buon than ban thanh], Likewise, Nguyen Thi Hien’s article, as shown in Karen Fjelstad’s study, “A Bit of Spirit Favor is Equal to a Load “We Have Len Dong Too: Transitional of Mundane Gifts: Votive Paper Offer- Aspects of Spirit Possession”. ings of Len Dong Rituals in Post-Reno- A great contribution to this volume vation Vietnam” observes that the prac- is the cross-boundary study of Vietnam- tices of Len Dong and the use of votive ese popular beliefs. Two articles by paper offerings of Len Dong rituals in Karen Fjelstad and Lisa Maiffret high- Post-Renovation continues to grow de- light the important role of Len Dong spite the government’s restrictions. This rituals and mediumship in the Vietnam- is because: ese communities of Silicon Valley. There is a sense of nostalgia in the per- While the increase in ritual prac- formances of Len Dong among overseas tices may be in response to the Vietnamese: stressful and difficult living conditions for many Vietnamese, as The earliest arrivals to Silicon well as their religiosity, some Valley found emotional solace in people have found a way out of possession ceremonies that evoked poverty by building lucrative memories of Vietnam and a home businesses that capitalize on the they had recently left. For later growing demand for votive paper arrivals, spirit possession ceremo- offerings. (p. 127) nies are important symbols of a culture and tradition they value and Nguyen Thi Hien not only gives a want to keep alive. (p. 100) clear explanation as to why votive paper offerings have been an important Other articles in this volume also part of the Len Dong rituals, but also present different aspects of the study raises an interesting question about re- of Len Dong. For example, Barley ligion and business by giving a compari- Norton’s article discusses how the idea son of two case studies: a female expe- of gender and the construction of gen- rienced medium turned to business to der are reflected in chau van bands,

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performing for the Len Dong rituals, and through views concerning mediums. “Spirit Performance and the Ritual Construction of Personal Identity in Modern Vietnam” by Kirsten W. Endres provides interesting stories of mediums. The article, “Children of the Spirits, Followers of a Master: Spirit Mediums in Post-Renovation Vietnam”, co- authored by Viveca Larsson and Kirsten W. Endres, explores the relationship between masters, mediums and followers in a temple community. Laurel Kendall’s study, “Do the Four Palaces Inhabit an East Asia Land- scape?” ends this volume by summariz- ing what is discussed in previous chapters. The author also attempts to put the Mother Goddess religion and Len Dong possession rituals in the larger context of East Asia, where Confucian influence prevails. Ethnographical reports and anecdotes from fieldwork are also a strong point of this collection, because they provide readers with good first-hand information on practices. In sum, the scholarship of this book is admirable because it helps fill a gap in the studies of the religious practices in Post-Renovation Vietnam. It is also an invaluable addition to the understanding of contemporary Vietnamese communities, both inside and outside Vietnam.

Montira Rato

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Sadia N. Pekkanen and Kellee S. Tsai, opmental state adopts state-centered or eds, Japan and China in the World Po- state-dominated economic policies with litical Economy. London, Routledge, various protection measures and incen- 2005, pp.245. tives, and actively promotes infant industries and exports. In contrast, the This book analyses the experiences liberalizer in this book is thought to pur- in recent economic reform in Japan and sue the freeing-up of the domestic China in a comparative framework. The economy by adopting market-oriented focus is given to structural reform since policies in response to increasing pres- the bursting of the asset bubble in sure from globalization. The word “late” Japan, and to reform and opening up used above means that the country since the late-1970s in China. While the started implementing market-oriented literature about these two reform poli- domestic policies at a later historical cies considered separately is abundant, juncture than others and is likely to face it is quite rare for them to be taken up at greater international pressure to carry the same time in a comparative way. In out liberalizing policies that may this sense, this book can be viewed as a destroy or significantly modify the old pioneering achievement. economic system. Therefore, compared Over the past 15 years or so, Japan to the developmental state, the late and China, which sharply contrast with liberalizer will more often encounter each other in stages of economic devel- strong resistance from vested interest opment and political systems, have groups or from losers created by its faced the common trend of so-called policies. Battles between pro- and globalization and have struggled to anti-liberalization forces characterize adjust their economic systems to in- the policy process in the era of liberal- creasing pressure for world economic ization. integration. The basic idea of this book There are two viewpoints emphasized is that under such circumstances the throughout this book. One is how the once popular concept of the develop- role of a state has shifted from the de- mental state, which was conceptualized velopmental state to the liberalizing by making post-war Japan and “newly state, and the other is on the latest industrializing economies” (NIEs) a situation in the battle between pro- and model, is not relevant any more when anti-liberalization forces in each coun- considering the role of the state for try. Although China deviates from the economic development. Instead, this developmental state model in many re- book commends the concept of the late spects, the description of how China liberalizer as appropriate to describe the deviates from such a model helps the role of the state in the contemporary reader to understand the characteristics world political and economic situation. of Chinese policy-making institutions It is widely understood that the devel- and policy. This book’s approach makes

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the comparative policy analysis of two The four sections which follow distinctively different countries interest- analyze areas of specific development, ing and its contents rich. with trade and investment sections Five key areas, i.e. development, explicitly dealing with international trade, investment, finance and technol- pressure to liberalize and domestic ogy, are considered separately by spe- responses to it. As the form or strength cialists for each country. Two articles in of resistance against liberalization is not the development section give a general necessarily the same and sometimes overview of economic development af- quite different according to area, the ter the war in Japan and China, respec- structure of this book seems appropri- tively. By helping the reader to under- ate to clarify the factors which have stand difficulties encountered by policy contributed to the acceleration of liber- makers in the transition from develop- alization and the factors which have mental state to liberalizer, this section obstructed it. With findings in each area serves as a good guide for the follow- being integrated by the editors to draw ing sections. The author of the Japanese overall lessons and implications, read- part of the development section, T. J. ers are able to obtain both the overall Pempel, writes: picture and area-specific details about the processes of recent liberalization in ...instruments and characteristics the two countries. critical to success at one point in Looking back at the post-war eco- time might themselves become nomic development of Japan and China, impediments to continued growth economic relations between the two once initial development goals had were negligible, even though both coun- been achieved. It is this difficulty tries were geographically close, and of adaptation that continues to each traced a distinctly different devel- hamper the political and economic opment path up until the end of the reorientation of Japan to a world 1970s. It is since the early 1990s, when in which economic liberalization the two governments further strength- has become the predominant ened market liberalization efforts, that paradigm. (p. 42) economic relations between the two have deepened significantly. At that This is exactly the point which the time, Japan experienced an unprec- proponents of structural reform in Ja- edented sharp appreciation of the yen pan have repeatedly emphasized during against the dollar, accompanied by a the long stagnation after the bursting of large-scale shift in production overseas, the economic bubble. This type of his- which in turn led to increased efforts in torical dynamism in the policy-making structural reform by the government. At process also exists in China and is the same time, the Chinese government described in the Chinese part. accelerated reform and the opening-up

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process under a new slogan, the “social- authors and editors of this book seem to ist market economy”. As economic contribute to cautious reservations about conditions were strongly complemen- the future: firstly, the Japanese govern- tary to each other, the acceleration of ment still seems to retain the attitude of liberalization policies in the two coun- a developmental state, and has not em- tries led to a significant deepening of braced wholeheartedly all the liberaliza- the economic relationship between tion measures in the past; and secondly, them. In this, the two governments in China, because of growing internal vigorously acted as liberalizers from the difficulties, such as an increasing early 1990s, resulting in new economic inequality in income distribution as a opportunities for both countries in a result of economic liberalization and mutually beneficial way. rapid growth, there exists a not negli- At present, the economic integration gible risk with respect to the acceptabil- of East Asia is proceeding spontane- ity of a policy of liberalization in the ously and both countries are trying to future. take a leading role in this integration Globalization is likely to continue and process. Ideas for more formal integra- pressure to make economies more tion, such as the “East Asian Commu- consistent with so-called global stan- nity”, are surfacing. In such a situation, dards will increase. But, as this book the future directions of both countries emphasizes, there still exists many will be of great concern for many forms of resistance to further liberaliza- people, because they will have a signifi- tion. The case of the liberalization of the cant influence on the process and the postal services in Japan exemplifies this way in which East Asian economic in- point. In Japan, prime minister Koizumi tegration will be formulated. Will the struggled hard to overcome resistance two countries which dominate East to his agenda of structural reform, even Asian economies by their size continue within the ruling Liberal Democratic to advance in the direction of liberal- Party (LDP). In the case of the ization? Or is it more likely for them to privatization of the postal services, when encounter a backlash against liberaliza- strong resistance within the LDP led to tion? This book seems to reserve an- the rejection of draft privatization law swers to these questions and cautions in the Diet, Koizumi purged opponents against the simplistic idea that the poli- in the LPD, dismissed the lower house cies of the two countries will advance of the Diet and called a general elec- straightforwardly in the direction of tion. He won the election and the postal liberalization. In addition to the uncer- services privatization law was enacted. tainty stemming from the dynamism of This occurred in 2005, four years after the process of policy formation on he began his campaign for this reform. which this book lays great emphasis, the If Prime Minister Koizumi had been de- following viewpoints or findings by the feated in that election, the privati-zation

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of the postal services would have been postponed indefinitely. Dra- mas of this kind have happened in the past and will be repeated in the future. The situation in China will be more or less the same, in that there have been battles between pro- and anti-market- oriented policy groups within the Com- munist Party, which will also be repeated. Therefore, to talk about future policy formation requires careful investigation of the balance of power between related groups even within the ruling parties and the government. The authors and editors of this book are quite aware of this point. This book certainly helps readers deepen their understanding about policy formation in the two countries, and also provides a useful framework for considering development policy in general.

Shunichiro Ushijima

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Bressan, Luigi, and Michael Smithies, van Oenen, Johan, Thai Ceramic Art: Thai-Vatican Relations in the The Three Religions. Singapore, Twentieth Century. Bangkok, Sun Tree Publishing, 2006. Apostolic Nunciature, 2006. Pompe, Sebastian, The Indonesian Su- Cunin, Olivier, The Face Towers of preme Court: A Study of Institu- Banteay Chmar. Tokyo, Goto tional Collapse. Ithaca NY, Cornell Shoin Publishing, 2005. University Press, 2005. Dijk, Wil O., Seventeenth century Thiounn, Okna Veang, tr. Olivier de Burma and the Dutch East India Bernon, Voyage du Roi Sisowath Company 1634–1680. Singapore, en France. Paris, Mercure de Singapore University Press, 2006. France, 2006. Douaire-Marsaudon, F., B. Sellato, and Vatthana Polsena, Post-War Laos: The C. Zheng, Dynamiques identitaires Politics of Culture, History and en Asie et dans le Pacifique, 2 vols. Identity. Singapore, Institute of Aix, University of Provence, 2006. South-East Asian Studies, 2006. Hasan, Noorhaidi, Laskar Jihad. Islam, Vatthana Polsena and Ruth Banomyong, Militancy, and the Quest for Iden- Laos, from Buffer State to Cross- tity in Post-New Order Indonesia. roads? Chiang Mai, Mekong Press, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University 2006. Press, 2006. Loos, Tamara, Subject Siam: Family, Law and Colonial Modernity in Thailand. Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 2006. Marcinkowski, M. Ismail, From Isfahan to Ayutthaya: Contacts between Iran and Siam in the 17th century. Singapore, Pustaka Nasional, 2005. McCargo, Duncan, ed., Rethinking Thailand’s Southern Violence. Singapore, National University of Singapore Press, 2006.

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