New Mandala

This new book, A Guide to Colonial Sources on Burma: Ethnic & Minority Histories of Burma in the India Office Records, British Library, will be of interest to a good number of New Mandala readers:
Author: Mandy Sadan.
Book Description: Orchid Press, Bangkok, 2008. Hard bound. First Edition. 24.5 x 17.5 cm. 580 pp., 4 maps, indices. [...]

[Read more →]

New Mandala readers looking to take the current pulse of the Thai political scene will find two recent blogs from The Nation’s stable of online content reward a visit.�
The first is Suthichai Yoon’s argument about the “invisible hand” that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej believes has a controlling influence in Thai politics.  Suthichai invites the PM to show his [...]

[Read more →]

Last month I highlighted a new book by American conservation advocate Dr Alan Rabinowitz.  The Myanmar Times has recently run an interesting article on his efforts to create wildlife sanctuaries in Burma.  Anybody with an interest in the environment of mainland Southeast Asia, or thinking about taking the contentious step of working alongside Burma’s generals, will find his work an [...]

[Read more →]

The conflict in the south is now the deadliest in Thailand’s history…The insurgents justify illegal attacks on civilians by saying they’re retaliating against abuses by Thai security forces, and the Thai army responds in kind. It is a deadly and pointless vicious circle.
- Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, in a statement just released by [...]

[Read more →]

Roving New Mandala photographer, Tim Forsyth, spotted this bizarre image on a mobile phone advertisement at Chiang Mai airport. No doubt some will be offended by its crude exploitation of ethnicity (as zoological oddity) in pursuit of profit, but to me there is something eccentrically inclusive about it. Perhaps even less pernicious (as stereotypes go) than some of [...]

[Read more →]

Here is a new publication on the war in Southern Thailand by Ji Ungpakorn and the Peoples Coalition Party.
Since the most recent eruption of violence in Southern Thailand, various governments, whether it be Taksin’s Thai Rak Thai government or the military junta, have all failed to solve the crisis. It is becoming clear that the war [...]

[Read more →]

Ashley South has put together an interesting article on the position of ethnic minorities in any constitutional future for Burma.
He argues:
Regarding the referendum – calls to boycott the process, or vote ‘No’, are understandable. However, the referendum seems to represents a ‘win-win’ situation for the military government: if the constitution is rejected, presumably this will [...]

[Read more →]

Recently, a short article of mine was printed in the Asian Studies Newsletter (the quarterly publication of the Association for Asian Studies).  The article is about New Mandala and much of what I write will not be news to regular readers.  Nonetheless, I thought it was worth putting the article up online for anyone who is interested and particularly for [...]

[Read more →]

There is an exciting opportunity for a scholar from Thailand to visit the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 6-8 weeks in 2008.  As many New Mandala readers know this is the home institution of prominent Thai studies scholar and Director of the Carolina Asia Center, Professor Kevin Hewison.
Full details on the visiting position are available here.

[Read more →]

The recent discussion here on New Mandala about elephant tusks reminded me of the work of Sarinda Singh, a former PhD student at the ANU (and now at the University of Queensland). Her PhD thesis dealt with the complex relationship forests and state power in Laos. One chapter focussed specifically on the symbolism of elephants. [...]

[Read more →]