New Mandala

[This post is an introductory comment to Doug Miles' detailed review of Hjorleifur Jonsson's Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. The full review is available here.]
“Now where did I leave my jolly pith helmet?”
I commend this book for initiating a shift of paradigm in research concerning the Yao of southern China and the [...]

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Ian Baird, executive director of Global Association for People and the Environment and recently chosen for inclusion in the 2008-2009 Princeton Premier Registry, has launched a letter campaign against the Don Sahong Dam in southern Laos. The text of the letter is below. Those interested in signing can contact Ian at ianbaird@shaw.ca.
It’s hard not sympathise with a [...]

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Thanks to a reader, here is another of our occasional updates on the rattus rattus situation in mainland southeast Asia. IRIN News reports that owls are being recruited to the fight against rats in northern Laos. As in other parts  of the region, bamboo flowering is blamed for high rat numbers:
Experts attribute the unusually large [...]

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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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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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(Image from here.)
Over recent months there have been a spate of reports in the business pages about the possible sale of the Sepon mine in Laos to the Chinese state-controlled Minmetals Group.  (I am currently putting together a longer post with some of this history.) The Sepon gold and copper mine is owned by an Australian company, Oz [...]

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Back in the early days of New Mandala I made a post about the “Indochina Intersection” on the highway outside Pitsanulok.  In response to a recent effort to revive interest in that post, John Roberts from the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation has sent through some wonderful pictures of the ASEAN road distance figures given at the “Five [...]

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Samantha Orobator, a 20-year-old British woman, is facing trial for alleged possession of 680 grams (1.5 pounds) of heroin in Laos.  Detained since August 2008 in Phonthong Prison outside Vientiane, she is five months pregnant.  The Lao Penal Code mandates a death sentence by firing squad for some drug-related charges, including possession of more than [...]

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A while ago we drew reader’s attention to the marvellous Southeast Asia Movie Theatre Project.
Sadly, the project has clearly been corrupted by the allure of electoral populism. I am told that they are offering a “free movie theater postcard for the first 50 people who cast their vote on one of the theater signs” displayed [...]

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[Click on each image for a larger version.]
1. The Northern Economic Corridor — Laos’ national Route 3, shown here under construction in late 2006, is the final stretch of what is sometimes called the Singapore-to-London Highway. Funded by loans from the Asian Development Bank and the governments of China and Thailand, Route 3 is part [...]

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