IS BN 978-974-7534-09-2
WL Order Code 22 118
US$18.00
Bangkok 1999, repr. from 1930; 330 pp., 16
pp. illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
Ainsworth, Leopold; A Merchant Venturer Among the Sea Gypsies
This report is a seminal work on the Moken nomads and Lower Burma written
by a businessman studying the area for its economic potential.
The author’s
ability to describe and penetrate into the very heart of the social and economic
life of the Mergui Archipelago’s inhabitants makes this work both entertaining
and very informative.
Ainsworth describes the land, sea bed, and forests of
many of the Moken islands, as well as the trade relations established on the
basis of local products.
His ethnological observations on disappearing funeral
rituals and the love relationships between members of the different populations
are of particular interest. His descriptions of Victoria Point, the lovely city of
Mergui, and other picturesque villages will certainly be appreciated by travelers.
Much of what he describes is still there but it is in great need of conscientious
maintenance and adaptation work.
IS BN 978-974-480-082-4
WL Order Code 22 440
US$33.00
Bangkok 2005, repr. from 1938; 358 pp.,
illus., 40 pp. in col. 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
Bernatzik, Hugo Adolf;
Moken and Semang: 1936–2004 Persistence and
Change
This is a new edition of the first part of the Austrian ethnographer and photographer
Hugo A. Bernatzik’s work The Spirits of the Yellow Leaves. Bernatzik’s
famous book on minorities in Thailand and beyond was originally published
in 1938 and appeared in English translation in 1958.
This first part was titled
Mergui and South Thailand.
Jacques Ivanoff, a CNRS scholar, who has been studying the Moken for
a number of years and written several books on these so‑called “sea‑gypsies”,
introduces the present volume with an analysis of Bernatzik’s work. He also deals
extensively with the situation of the Moken today, sixty years after Bernatzik did
his study.
Ivanoff describes how the Moken survived the Tsunami of December
2004, explaining how their preservation of traditional knowledge and culture
enabled them to understand what happened at sea, before the disaster struck.
The second part of Bernatzik’s work is published separately under its original
title, with an introduction of author and work by Prof. Jørgen Rischel, who
also analyzes Bernatzik’s data on the Mlabri language.
The two most extensively documented ethnic groups in Bernatzik’s work,
the sea‑based Moken and the jungle dwellers Mlabri, are of Malay and Mon-
Khmer affiliation, respectively.
Each group occupies a niche away from the
mainstream societies, and they have done so for a long time, most likely on their
own will.
IS BN 978-974-605-608-3
WL Order Code 21 806
US$22.00
Patani 1995, 137 pp., fully illus. in color,
210 Hard Cover (A French Version is also
available)
Boulbet, Jean;Towards a Sense of the Earth:
The retreat of the dense forest
in Southern Thailand during the last two decades
For more than forty years, the author has surveyed the undergrowth of the
dense forest of South-East Asia thus discovering its rare and common species,
its botanical treasures, and its inhabitants—animal and human.
Jean Boulbet, scientist and story-teller, blends statistical data and poetry so
that the reader may share the adventure of the great dense forest of this region.
This book is testimony and appeal to man to regain a sense of the earth before
it is too late.
IS BN 978-974-7534-89-4
WL Order Code 22 244
US$30.00
Bangkok 2001, 299 pp. 64 pp. color illus.,
150 x 210 mm, pbk.
Cohen, Erik; The Chinese Vegetarian Festival in Phuket: Religion, Ethnicity
and Tourism on a Southern Thai Island
Studies in Contemporary Thailand No. 9
This vegetarian festival is the most popular and complex religious event
in southern Thailand. In this richly illustrated work, Erik Cohen presents a
detailed ethnography of the festival based on extended fieldwork conducted in
the course of the 1990s.
The focus of Cohen’s analysis is the interrelationship
between the dynamics of the festival, Chinese ethnicity in contemporary Thailand
and the development of tourism on the island of Phuket.
The study shows
that, though the festival expanded considerably in recent times and became
increasingly spectacular, its fundamental structure manifests a surprising
degree of continuity, even as its meaning increasingly changes from a devotional
ritual to a public spectacle. Surprisingly, however, the growing popularity
of the festival is due less to foreign tourism on the island, and more to a growing
attraction of the festival for the Thai and foreign Chinese believers and visitors,
in quest of an “authentic” Chinese festival which cannot be seen anymore even
in contemporary China.
IS BN 978-974-8496-70-2
WL Order Code 21 938
US $18.00
Bangkok 1997, 146 pp., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
Cornish, Andrew;Whose Place Is This? Malay Rubber Producers and Thai
Government Officials in Yala
Studies in Contemporary Thailand No. 5
A detailed case study of ethnic conflict in a development scheme in southern Thailand.
The book describes the interactions between Malay rubber producers
in Yala province and local Thai government officials who sought to establish
and promote a co-operative rubber marketing project.
Using the results of
ethnographic fieldwork carried out near Thailand’s southern border, the author
outlines the historical background to the region’s cultural diversity.
After an
investigation of the operations of the local bureaucracy, the focus shifts to two
Malay communities to show how they participated in the government’s marketing
scheme.
One group enjoyed profits and success, while the other’s efforts
ended in failure, yet the author argues that both display common elements in
the struggle for control of material and cultural resources at the local level.
The
results provide a broader hypothesis about the nature of Malay resistance to
Thai rule, and the place of minorities in modern Thailand.
IS BN 978-974-480-093-0
WL Order Code 22 491
US$117.00
Vol. I, Bangkok 2007, 366 pp., 39 pp. illus.,
210 x 297 mm, pbk
Vol. II, Bangkok 2007, 420 pp. 199 pp. illus.,
in col., 210 x 297 mm, pbk
Dupont, Pierre;The Archaeology of the Mon of Dvaravati, Vol. I: Text &
Vol. II Plates
Pierre Dupont’s L’Archéologie mône de Dvāravatī is a pioneering work on
the architecture of the Mon kingdom of Dvāravatī and the evolution of the
styles in the iconography of the statue of the Buddha.
These are based on his
exhaustive knowledge of Mon documents and personal involvement in excavating
Dvāravatī monuments. His analysis of the evolution of the styles in the
Buddha’s iconography follows its development from India to Southeast Asia,
identifies Indian prototypes for the Mon Buddha and relates it to the spread of
hīnayāna Buddhism.
This book, which established a systematic link between
the different art and architectural styles of the region, contributes immensely
to our knowledge by the methodical manner in which the extremely abundant
iconography of a large variety of stone, stucco and bronze statue types
is ordered.
His analysis is supported by an extensive body of photographs.
According to G. Coedès, this book “is a contribution of the highest order to
Indochinese archaeology.”
This translation maintains the author’s unique style and meticulous
attention to details. Since this book was originally published in 1959, new
discoveries and studies have added to our knowledge of the subjects. Extensive
notes, references and discussions by other scholars on the new studies update
the author’s original thesis.
This translation makes it convenient to follow the
text and assists in recognizing evolving relationships in styles with additional
appendices; annotated architectural plans, figures and plates; an expanded
index; revised maps and a new set of recently taken photographs of statues and
monuments.
IS BN 978-974-8496-65-8
WL Order Code 21 813
US$21.00
Bangkok 1997, 170 pp., illus. with 83 plates,
24 pp. in color, 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
Ivanoff, Jacques; Moken: Sea Gypsies of the Andaman Sea
The book contains accounts of the nomads who live in the Mergui Archipelago
of southern Burma and adjacent Thai territories.
This minority of the northern
branch of the Austronesian peoples have a very distinctive and peculiar culture.
Most of the year they live on their boats but do not fish. During the rainy season
they live on land, grow some plants, but are not avid cultivators and make little
use of their agricultural produce.
They developed a strong cultural identity
but are nevertheless adapting to a changing environment. For outsiders, the
functioning of their society is difficult to understand and still has its mysteries.
The closing of Burma after 1948 prevented further research.
These post‑war
chronicles, supplemented by a host of rare photographs, shed some light on this
unique group deserving of a special place in the pantheon of ethnic minorities.
IS BN 978-974-8434-90-2
WL Order Code 22 075
US$33.00
Bangkok 1999, 180 pp., fully illus., partly in
col. 210 x 290 mm, pbk.
Ivanoff, Jacques;The Moken Boat: Symbolic Technology
This is the first comprehensive study of the boats of the sea-gypsies of the
Andaman Sea from Surin Island in Southern Thailand to Ross Island in Burma.
The traditional Moken boat has been a cause of wonder for scholars, English
administrators, and sea captains.
How could such a remote and “uncivilized”
people have developed such impressive naval technology? The discrepancy
between the level of culture and the high degree of technical skill in boat building
is surprising if we look deep inside the nomadic ideology of the Moken:
their techniques cannot be understood without reference to their cultural and
symbolic contexts.
This study provides all the necessary technical tools and
symbolic knowledge to understand how the sea-gypsies still survive today in
their amazing boat, the kabang.
This book also provides an English-French
glossary of marine terms and techniques, a glossary of Moken marine technology,
and a glossary identifying plants based on an extensive survey of the flora
of the region where the Moken live.
IS BN 978-967-942-403-4
WL Order Code 8 653
US$23.00
Bangi 2002, 142 pp. 150 x 230 mm, pbk.
Madmarn, Hasan; The Pondok & Madrasah in Patani
Patani, a southern border province of Thailand was once the center of Islamic
education and earned the title “cradle of Islam” for the Malai Muslim World.
Patani has preserved a unique religious, cultural character and institution which
could not be found in the region.
This town, with its well-known pondok and
its learned tok guru attracts Muslims from the four southern provinces.
The
pondok being the center of the traditional Islamic education of the Muslims in
Thailand became the focal point of attention by the Thai Government in the
past three decades. During the process of education reform the pondok institution
was first changed into the madrasah before transforming into the Islamic
private schools. The government strives to incorporate the Thai language and
culture into the Islamic religious schools.
The outcome of the government’s
effort shows that the students of the Islamic private schools now master Thai,
Malay and Arabic.
IS BN 978-974-8496-27-6
WL Order Code 21 731
US$21.00
Bangkok 1994, repr. from 1923; 220 pp.,
150 x 210 mm, pbk.
Morgenthaler, Hans; Impressions of the Siamese-Malayan Jungle:
A Tin-
Prospector’s Adventures in Southern Thailand
An important book on the internal turmoil and struggles of a young expatriate
working in Siam.
The book covers the period 1917–1920, when the First World
War is devastating Europe and many questions about the fate of humanity are
raised.
The book is a study in character, both of expatriate behavior and of
Siamese rural people, that may be compared to the now famous A Woman of
Bangkok in its focus on the discovery of Eastern womanhood.
Hans Morgenthaler’s
often witty, soul-searching writing, published in the first Swiss edition,
was so controversial that the British version was censored.
The censored pages,
recovered in the introduction, though innocent today, clearly reflect the flavor of
the time as does the whole work-atmosphere of this geologist exploring Southern
Siam for tin and gold.
The exploration of the vast wealth that tin-mining
promised and also delivered later in the south, was a source of deadly conflicts
in which the young man soon found himself entangled.
While the work of this
geologist clearly drives him to his beloved, lonely jungle rivers, nowhere are
the clashing values of a Westerner, confronted constantly with willing Siamese,
clearer than in his loving words about the village people.
As a character study of
a Westerner trying to cope with Eastern realities, this book is as relevant today
as it was three quarters of a century ago.
IS BN 978-974-7534-73-3
WL Order Code 22 237
US$33.00
Bangkok 2001, 525 pp., 48 pp. illus., 150 x
210 mm, pbk.
Munro-Hay, Stuart ;Nakhon Sri Thammarat: The Archeology, History, and
Legends of a Southern Thai Town
This monograph on Nakhon Sri Thammarat, previously known by its Malay
name of Ligor, is one of the very few books about this neglected part of the
country.
The book chronicles inscriptions dating back to the arrival of the
Europeans in the thirteenth century.
The author collates valuable data, including
most recent research, from the period of the Mon Kingdom of Dvaravati,
relations with the Khmer Empire, the Kingdoms of Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, and
also Bangkok.
The city and its environs, inscriptions, temples, chedis, and
shrines, and the great reliquary of Wat Phra Mahathat Woromaha Vihan are
described, as are other ancient sites, religious images, and antiquities in the
province. Details on the tin trade in southern Thailand, the coinage of the
town, and Dutch traders’ correspondence from the seventeenth century are
also included.
No IS BN
WL Order Code 710
US$95.00
Ascona 1972, 92 pp., 16 pp. illus., 240 x 315
mm
O’Connor, Stanley;Hindu Gods of Peninsular Siam
The sea‑flanked strip of land that is now Peninsular Siam is impacted with the
débris of history. Rich in valuable minerals, and strategically located across
the sea lanes between India and China, it was the seat of several of the earliest
city‑states of Southeast Asia.
Later on it was part of the Malay maritime
empire of Srivijaya, and later still, in the 13th century, it entered the orbit of
Siam.
While historical geographers have amassed a body of texts that show the
vital role of the isthmus in early Asian trade, its art has received relatively
little systematic study.
In this book Professor O’Connor breaks new ground.
After providing a general introduction to the art history of the isthmian tract,
he discusses in detail a number of the most important statues of Hindu gods
discovered there, several of which have not been published previously.
By
studying the stylistic development of this art, and comparing it with examples
from India and Cambodia, he reaches new conclusions regarding its chronology
and demonstrates the high level of cultural achievement of the ancient isthmian
kingdoms.
Three isthmian statues of Visnu, because of their analogies with images
excavated in India in a 4th‑century context, now appear to be the earliest surviving
representations of the god in Southeast Asia.
Sculpture in the service of
the Hindu religions flourished on the isthmus from the 6th to the 8th century, and
there is evidence of close artistic exchanges around the Gulf of Siam as well as
with India. From the 9th century on, the bulk of patronage shifted to Mahayana
Buddhism, which is thought to have been the state religion of Srivijaya.
But
statues of Hindu gods remained a feature of isthmian life until the 11th century
and later. Some of them are so closely related to Cola art that the author thinks
they were either imported from South India or else produced by South Indian
sculptors working in the isthmus.
IS BN 978-974-8434-60-5
WL Order Code 22 058
US$21.00
Bangkok 1999, 310 pp., 8 pp. color illus., 2
maps, 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
Ruohomäki, Olli-Pekka ; Fishermen No More? Livelihood and Environment
in Southern Thai Maritime Villages
Studies in Contemporary Thailand No. 8
An ethnographic account of the social and economic transformation of coastal
villages in Phangnga Bay, Southern Thailand.
The Andaman Sea region of
Southern Thailand has been involved in the rapid transformation of the regional
economy for over a decade and the repercussions of this transformation are
very visible in the coastal villages of Phangnga Bay.
Part of this transformation
has meant that fishing is no longer the sole source of income for village
households, but that a host of other activities compete with fishing and provide
better opportunities for individuals who are prepared to engage in new activities.
The changes in the source and patterns of livelihood that are taking place
in Phangnga Bay villages are a graphic, at times almost grotesque, illustration
of the social process throughout the Southern Thai coast.
IS BN 978-974-8434-91-9
WL Order Code 22 108
US$33.00
Bangkok 1999, repr. from 1898; 370 pp., 12
pp. illus., 3 folded maps in color, 150 x 210
mm, pbk.
Smyth, Warington H.;Five Years in Siam (1891–1896). Volume 1:
The
Menam Valley, Lao States, Ratburi, Tenasserim, and Phuket
This book covers the first part of the author’s journey in Thailand and includes
an account of the gunboat incident with France in 1893.
As an official in the
newly created Department of Mines, Smyth traveled to frontier provinces
undergoing the process of cartographic and administrative incorporation into
Siam, the process of Siam’s colonization by Bangkok.
Smyth’s ability to speak
Thai contributed to his unfiltered knowledge of the country, and his work with
its lively descriptions and informed understanding of what he observed remains
a goldmine for scholars and present-day travelers alike.
IS BN 978-974-8496-92-4
WL Order Code 21 935
US$24.00
Bangkok 1997, repr. from 1922; 350 pp., 15
pp. illus., 1 folded map, 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
White, Walter Grainge;The Sea Gypsies of Malaya:
An Account of the
Nomadic Mawken People of the Mergui Archipelago, with a Description of
Their Ways of Living, Customs, Habits, Boats, Occupations
This book is considered a classic amongst the sparse Moken ethnographic literature.
The author was a man with an inquiring mind, full of curiosity, who
wished to go beyond the limits of his missionary tasks and to relate the story of
his personal and research experiences among the sea nomads.
The book reveals
the life of the Moken at the beginning of the century in a very vivid manner.
Published in 1922 it sums up the author’s fieldwork observations dating from
1911.
He writes about the administrative and political structure of Tenasserim
(he was responsible for the population census of the Moken), which was the
first part of Burma to be surrendered to the British after the Anglo-Burmese
war of 1824–1826. His book enables us, on the one hand, to become aware of
the nature, fauna and flora of this region, and on the other, on human intrigues
involving the English, Indians, Karen, Mons, Malays, Burmese and, of course,
the Moken.
The reader becomes aware of contemporary western arrogance and
the developing phenomenon of colonial administration and the ways in which it
exploited indigenous wealth.
The missionaries, administration, cartographers,
geographers and the military were able, long before the ethnologists, to engage
in all kinds of work which attracts the interest of present investigators: reports,
mapping, census, dictionaries—the precious instruments for observers of small,
non-literate societies
038-239-883-4 
