New Mandala

A new collection edited by Michael Montesano and Patrick Jory will be of considerable interest to the many New Mandala readers who maintain interests in Thailand’s southern provinces.  It is published by National University of Singapore Press.

According to the blurb:

Thai South and Malay North examines the history of ethnic, religious, social, economic, and political pluralism in the unique zone where Mainland and Maritime Southeast Asia meet. Sections focused on politics, religion, Chinese populations, and historiographic traditions provide background information and a range of perspectives on the longstanding conflicts afflicting southern Thailand. The book represents the most comprehensive work to date on a part of Southeast Asia whose historical, linguistic, and political complexity has long defied scholarly synthesis. Unique in the depth and breadth of its coverage of the history of northern Malaysia and southern Thailand, it will be a major resource for scholars, journalists and policy-makers – essential reading for anyone seeking to understand southern Thailand’s complex past and troubled present.

The table of contents gives a helpful overview of the chapters:

Introduction
Michael J. Montesano and Patrick Jory

Part I Plural Historiographical Traditions

1. A Plural Peninsula
Anthony Reid

2. Historical Perceptions of Local Identity in the Upper Peninsula
Chuleeporn Virunha

3. Of a Lesser Brilliance: Patani Historiography in Contention
Davisakd Puaksom

Part II The Peninsula in the Age of Nation-States

4. Origins of Malay Muslim “Separatism” in Southern Thailand
Thanet Aphornsuvan

5. Elections and Political Integration in the Lower South of Thailand
James Ockey

6. National Identity, the “Sam-Sams” of Satun, and the Thai Malay Muslims
Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian

7. The Long March to Peace of the Malayan Communist Party in Southern Thailand
Karl Hack

Part III Peninsular Chinese as Agents, Creoles, and Mediators

8. Penang’s Big Five Families and Southern Siam During the Nineteenth Century
Wong Yee Tuan

9. Chinese-Malay-Thai Interactions and the Making of Kelantan Peranakan Ethnicity
Teo Kok Seong

10. Capital, State, and Society in the History of Chinese-Sponsored Education in Trang
Michael J. Montesano

Part IV Religious Pluralism and Competing Ethno-Nationalisms

11. Pilgrimage and the Making of Ethnic Identities in the Plural Peninsula
Alexander Horstmann

12. Luang Pho Thuat and the Integration of Patani
Patrick Jory

13. Kelantanese Thai Theravadin Religiosity
Irving Chan Johnson

Afterword: Southern Thai and Malay Cultural Brotherhood
Suthiwong Phongphaibun