New Mandala

Most people who arrive at New Mandala are looking for something meaty about the countries of mainland Southeast Asia.
A quick glance at the search engine terms that consistently bring readers to rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala gives a strong indication of reader interests.  Some of the phrases that rank particularly highly are the predictable ones: “sufficiency economy”, “burma cyclone”, [...]

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My sense is that on New Mandala we could, in this our fourth year, do a better job of identifying and explicitly dealing with a wider range of social and political issues in mainland Southeast Asia.  It’s not that we do a bad job; it’s just that sometimes we don’t step back from the immediate [...]

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I know that many New Mandala readers have been waiting for the re-appearance of Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn in the news.
He still doesn’t seem to have been out in public but I did notice that the Bangkok Post announced the graduation of his youngest daughter, Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Fine and Applied [...]

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I have recently learned that the Study Abroad in Laos (SAIL) program organised by the Center for Laos Studies has a blog to complement their exciting activities on the ground in mainland Southeast Asia.  More details on the program and its participants are available here.  They even have a short video presentation that gives some [...]

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Earlier in June, Bangkok Pundit caused quite a stir when he tantalisingly offered up the faintest sketch of a rumour and the intriguing idea that the clue was 15 June.
15 June?  15 June?  We scratched our collective heads at New Mandala HQ and failed to come up with anything that resembled a breakthrough.  Royal promotions, [...]

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I am delighted to announce the publication of Tai Lands and Thailand: Community and State in Southeast Asia. It has been published by National University of Singapore Press,  NIAS Press, and University of Hawaii Press. The book is the result of research collaboration that has been going here at the Australian National University over the past six or so years. It features [...]

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The average New Mandala reader and commentator shares an ongoing interest in Thai politics and society.
As we gallop towards the 3rd birthday of this blog I was wondering whether there are Thailand-related issues or questions that you want to see on the analytical agenda.  Please consider this something of an open invitation to introduce evidence [...]

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Regular readers will recall that in recent weeks I have pointed out some of the interesting parts of Burma and Thailand that are visible on satellite images.  Today I have been scouting around for other places of interest and decided that a short tour of the towns of Ruili and Muse would be appropriate.
From high [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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