Southeast Asia Program At Cornell University BULLETIN 2009-2010 Indonesian, Lombok Pair of male and female buraq SEAP Painted wood, pierced hide, mirrors, and colored cloth Herbert F. Johnson Museum of ArtCornell University Gift of Tom Cooper DIRECTORY 2007.069.001-002 Bulletin 2009-2010 SEAP ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE 180 Uris Hall, Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853 tel: (607) 255-2378 fax: (607) 254-5000 SEAP @cornell.edu listserv: SEAP-L @cornell.edu Thak Chaloemtiarana Director [email protected] Nancy Loncto Associate Director for Administration [email protected] Wendy Treat Administrative Assistant [email protected] KAHIN CENTER In Muslim communities of Lombok, traditional ceremonial processions held on special occa - FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH sions, such as weddings, communal circumcisions or the welcoming of distinguished visitors, ON SOUTHEAST ASIA involved carrying the principal human participants on litters or palanquins outfitted with a decorative seat or mount. Several types of brightly painted and adorned mounts were used, 640 Stewart Avenue including the buraq , the female-headed steed that carried Muhammad to heaven. In wedding Ithaca, New York 14850 processions the bride is carried on the buraq by a group of four dancers, followed by a tel: (607) 255-3619 gamelan orchestra. Every week after Friday prayers during the month of the Prophet’s birth - fax: (607) 277-1836 day, processions through some villages featured young boys riding a pair of male and female Jonathan Perry, Building Coordinator buraq , and a pair of jaran wooden horses, also carried by dancers and followed by a game - [email protected] lan. Room 104 tel: (607) 272-1925 Cover photos by Julie Magura/Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art fax: (607) 277-1904 SEAP OUTREACH SEAP [email protected] Thamora Fishel, Outreach Coordinator [email protected] FEATURE ARTICLES Room 117 4 Thak tel: (607) 275-9452 fax: (607) 275-9452 8 The Pilgrimage to Mecca From Southeast Asia: Oral Histories of Devotion SEAP PUBLICATIONS 12 Karsts, Rivers, and Crocodiles: The Spread of Tai Languages into www.einaudi.cornell.edu/bookstore/seap Southeast Asia 18 Burmese FAQs EDITORIAL OFFICE Kahin Center, Room 215 24 The Art of Not Being Governed: Hill Peoples and Valley Kingdoms tel: (607) 255-4359 fax: (607) 277-1904 SEAP NEWS Deborah Homsher, Managing Editor [email protected] 28 Sharp Prize Fred Conner, Assistant Editor 29 Dissertation Grants and Degrees Awarded [email protected] 30 SEAP Student Committee BUSINESS OFFICE 32 The Echols Collection SEAP [email protected] 32 SEAP Publications 95 Brown Road, Box 1004 241 Langmuir Lab 34 SEAP Outreach Ithaca, New York 14850 36 Faculty Associates in Research tel: (607) 255-8038 fax: (607) 255-7534 37 Faculty in the News Patty Horne, Business Manager 38 SEAP Faculty Directory [email protected] that most of you graphs. To help lead CMIP, Eric Tagliacozzo Southeast Asia, we will invite speakers to give I am certain have heard has agreed to serve as director, and Tom Brown Bag lectures on their research about about the campaign to “re-imagine” Cornell Pepinsky as associate director. the Bay of Bengal that relates to Southeast with curtailed resources. Cornell is not alone Already, the Indonesianists have met at a Asia. We will also establish new networks among the national elite universities to see long retreat and have proposed a four- among scholars of South and Southeast Asia its endowment reduced significantly this pronged plan of action. The first is to organ - to address common interest on the subject of past year. The economic crisis and the possi - ize a conference to examine and to discuss inalienable possessions in law, sovereignty, bility of future hiccups have prompted uni - the state of the field of Indonesian studies, and religious landscapes . Finally, to celebrate versities to take a hard look at their general and to reach out to colleagues at other insti - the opening of the Johnson Museum’s new state of affairs. The bottom line is that uni - tutions. Following this initial conference, wing, Kaja McGowan and Chris Miller will versities walk a precarious line between gen - smaller workshops focused on disciplinary organize a lecture series and exhibitions on erating revenues and maintaining current questions or themes will take place each of textiles and the wayang that will include a lavish expenditures that support a broad a the next three years. Two workshops have performance to be led by a famous Indone - range of academic programs. A new normal already been suggested: Islam and politics; sian dalang puppet master . will prevail even if the economy recovers. corporate social responsibility. It is antici - SEAP outreach will continue its efforts Although it is not my purpose to tell you pated that publications will result from these to support teachers who work with Karen about every proposal that is being consid - workshops. The second proposal is to design and other refugees from Burma, expanding ered, I can tell you that this new normal will a team -taught undergraduate and graduate its workshops to Syracuse, Rochester and attempt to maintain a quality education , but course on Indonesia. This course is already other upstate communities. SEAP will also with fewer staff, smaller faculty, and stream - taking shape as I write. Thirdly, serious be part of a collaborative Rural Schools lined services . It appears that solutions to a attempts will be made to reach out to col - Initiative that will bring after school lan - budget shortfall may include a larger intake of undergraduates, faculty teaching larger lecture courses, and more punitive measures for non-productive members of the profes - FROM soriate. Every unit from colleges, depart - ments, programs, central administration, THE libraries, down to student services has been subjected to reflective reviews and budget DIRECTOR savings proposals . Although there have been many public discussions of proposed reor - LETTER ganizations ranging from closing of units to leagues in the sciences and professional guage and culture classes to rural schools the collapsing of departments into divisions, schools who have research interests in and will target rural teachers and school dis - no decisions have yet been made. We will Indonesia. In line with this suggestion, the tricts for teacher training on Global Food have a better idea about a re-imagined SEAP faculty has also decided to include this Cultures . Two new outreach initiatives are Cornell at the end of spring 2010. project as a major initiative to revitalize tra - also planned for the faculty. The first is the In light of the current financial situation ditional links with upper campus colleagues. establishment of a clearing house for SEAP and following last year’s external review To implement this plan we will invite col - faculty course syllabi. This web -based report submitted by Mary Steedly (Harvard) leagues in the sciences, especially those inter - archive will allow teachers and university and Al McCoy (Wisconsin), the SEAP fac - ested in tropical biodiversity, to share their colleagues to view course syllabi and reading ulty has met several times to discuss a strate - research findings with members of SEAP as lists that may be of use in their own teaching. gic plan for the next four years. This strategic part of our regular Brown Bag lecture series. A second initiative is a media training/strate - plan also coincides with our new four year The fourth initiative is to establish a Cornell- gic planning workshop for the faculty. The National Resource Center proposal that will led research center in Indonesia. Marty workshop will help prepare the faculty for be submitted at the end of March . This new Hatch is spear-heading this initiative by media interviews, and to establish a strategic proposal, being written by Tamara Loos our working with Mary Ellen Lane, director of plan that will improve SEAP’s media pres - incoming director, promises to be more the Council of American Overseas Research ence, a point that was raised in the Steedly- exciting and filled with new energy com - Centers in Washington. McCoy report. pared to past proposals . In addition to the CMIP initiatives, sev - As you can see, a lot of energy is being Following the suggestions of the external eral conferences, workshops and new course generated for the next four years. And even reviewers and anticipating a re-imagined proposals will be part of our NRC proposal. though I will be observing all this activity Cornell, we have settled on several initiatives Randy Barker who has recently returned to from my cozy office at the Kahin Center, I that will frame our activities for the next live in Ithaca has helped organize a mini- am sure that I will be unable to resist partic - four years. We have decided that the theme seminar series that focuses on water ipating in some, if not all, of these exciting that will guide our activities will be “Re- resources and rice cultivation that features programs. You do have my word that this imagining new geographies and networks.” speakers from Plant Breeding (Susan missive will be my absolute last as director. I Top on our list is the revitalization of the McCouch), Linguistics (Abby Cohn), and am determined as ever to retire at the end of Cornell Modern Indonesia Project (CMIP) Agricultural Economics (Randy Barker). the spring semester. But I plan to remain founded by George Kahin to promote Magnus Fiskesjö who studies minority com - active as a member of the graduate school, research and publication of monographs munities in China and Southeast Asia pro - free from regular teaching, free from com - and field reports on social, political and eco - poses to hold a conference that will examine mittee work, and free from administrative nomic aspects of Indonesia . Although major 21st century interconnections and the responsibilities .