In Myanmar, a trait that tends to cut across both ethnic and religious lines is superstition. This weekend in Dalah (a fishing town a short river ferry ride away from downtown Yangon), the 2,300-year-old Danok Pagoda collapsed, killing at least 6 people, and injuring many more. Some are still missing, buried beneath the rubble.
State media did [...]
Superstition and the Danok Paya collapse
June 1st, 2009 by Dylan Grey, Guest Contributor · 3 Comments
Tags: Aung San Suu Kyi · Burma · Militaries · Than Shwe
Bangkok Crimes online
June 1st, 2009 by Nicholas Farrelly · 5 Comments
Readers looking for consistent coverage of “Thailand’s Underworld” will appreciate the new Bangkok Crimes blog. Run by Khlong Cowboy, it “aims to document the many different crimes occurring in Thailand and to try and understand them within the context of Thailand’s unique socio-cultural and political framework.”
It is off to a promising start, and will offer [...]
Tags: Asian Studies · Online Issues · Thailand
Burmese Hajj mission
June 1st, 2009 by Nicholas Farrelly · 7 Comments
Off on a tangent, today I stumbled on an official Saudi Arabian note about the “Hajj mission of Myanmar Federation led by Ali Habib Mohammed.” Anyone who has ever strolled around the average Burmese town will know that Muslims make up a fair proportion of the country’s urban population. Precisely how large that population has [...]
Tags: Asian Studies · Burma