Download or read book Irrigation in the Heartland of Burma written by Michael Aung-Thwin and published by Northern Illinois University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Irrigation in the Heartland of Burma written by Michael Aung-Thwin and published by Northern Illinois University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Maritime Frontier of Burma written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Situated at the periphery of both South and Southeast Asia, the maritime frontier of Burma (Arakan, Lower Burma and Tenasserim) has long been neglected area of study. In spite of its location at the outskirts of powerful Asian polities such as Taungngu Burma, Ayutthaya and Mughal India, it served as an important cultural and commercial crossroads connecting all the regions surrounding the Bay of Bengal. For the first time in Burmese studies, this volume explores the interactive elements of Coastal Burma's civilization by bringing together a unique array of scholars, both historians and art historians, both anglophones and francophones, both South Asianists and Southeast Asianists. The result is a creative and colorful pastiche that pays tribute to Burma's distinctive political, cultural and commercial place in the Indian Ocean world.

Download or read book A World of Water written by P. Boomgaard and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water, in its many guises, has always played a powerful role in shaping Southeast Asian histories, cultures, societies and economies. This volume, the rewritten results of an international workshop, with participants from eight countries, contains thirteen essays, representing a broad range of approaches to the study of Southeast Asia with water as the central theme. As it was exposed to the sea, the region was more accessible to outside political, economic and cultural influences than many landlocked areas. Easy access through sea routes also stimulated trade from an early age. However, the same easy access made Southeast Asia vulnerable to political control by strong outsiders. The sea is, moreover, a source of food, but also of many hazards. At the same time, Southeast Asian societies and cultures are confronted with and permeated by 'water from heaven' in the form of rain, flash floods, irrigation water, water in rivers, brooks and swaps, water-driven power plants, and pumped or piped water, in addition to water as a carrier of sewage and pollution. Finally, the volume deals with the role of water in classification systems, beliefs, myths, illness and healing.

Download or read book The Art of Not Being Governed written by James C. Scott and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author and scholar James C. Scott, the compelling tale of Asian peoples who until recently have stemmed the vast tide of state-making to live at arm’s length from any organized state society For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries) have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them—slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare. This book, essentially an “anarchist history,” is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why people would deliberately and reactively remain stateless. Among the strategies employed by the people of Zomia to remain stateless are physical dispersion in rugged terrain; agricultural practices that enhance mobility; pliable ethnic identities; devotion to prophetic, millenarian leaders; and maintenance of a largely oral culture that allows them to reinvent their histories and genealogies as they move between and around states. In accessible language, James Scott, recognized worldwide as an eminent authority in Southeast Asian, peasant, and agrarian studies, tells the story of the peoples of Zomia and their unlikely odyssey in search of self-determination. He redefines our views on Asian politics, history, demographics, and even our fundamental ideas about what constitutes civilization, and challenges us with a radically different approach to history that presents events from the perspective of stateless peoples and redefines state-making as a form of “internal colonialism.” This new perspective requires a radical reevaluation of the civilizational narratives of the lowland states. Scott’s work on Zomia represents a new way to think of area studies that will be applicable to other runaway, fugitive, and marooned communities, be they Gypsies, Cossacks, tribes fleeing slave raiders, Marsh Arabs, or San-Bushmen.

Download or read book The State and the Tributary Mode of Production written by John F. Haldon and published by Verso. This book was released on 1993 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking critique of both traditional and Marxist notions of feudalism and of the pre-capitalist state, John Haldon considers the configuration of state and social relations in medieval Europe and Mughal India as well as in Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire. He argues that a Marxist reading of the pre-capitalist state can take account of the autonomy of power relations and avoid economic reductionism while still focusing on the forms of tribute which sustained the ruling power. Haldon explores the conflicts to which these gave rise and shows the Ottoman state elite, often held to be a clear example of independence from underlying social relations, to be deeply enmeshed in economic relationships and the extraction of tribute. Haldon argues that feudalism was the specifically European form of a much more widely diffused tributary mode, whose characteristic social relations and structural constraints can be seen at work in the Byzantine, Ottoman and Mughal empires as well. While acknowledging the range of ideological and cultural variation within and between these examples of the tributary mode, Haldon denies the thesis that such “superstructural” variations themselves yielded fundamentally contrasting social relations.

Download or read book New Perspectives on the History and Historiography of Southeast Asia written by Michael Arthur Aung-Thwin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-05-13 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using a unique "old–new" treatment, this book presents new perspectives on several important topics in Southeast Asian history and historiography. Based on original, primary research, it reinterprets and revises several long-held conventional views in the field, covering the period from the "classical" age to the twentieth century. Chapters share the approach to Southeast Asian history and historiography: namely, giving "agency" to Southeast Asia in all research, analysis, writing, and interpretation. The book honours John K. Whitmore, a senior historian in the field of Southeast Asian history today, by demonstrating the scope and breadth of the scholar’s influence on two generations of historians trained in the West. In addition to providing new information and insights on the field of Southeast Asia, this book stimulates new debate on conventional ideas, evidence, and approaches to its teaching, research, and understanding. It addresses, and in many cases, revises specific, critically important topics in Southeast Asian history on which much conventional knowledge of Southeast Asia has long been based. It is of interest to scholars of Southeast Asian Studies, as well as Asian History.

Download or read book Culture and Power in Traditional Siamese Government written by Neil A. Englehart and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A broad reevaluation of Siam's political culture as it existed prior to King Chulalongkorn's administrative reforms in the nineteenth century. Englehart offers evidence to show that traditional Siamese government functioned more effectively and rationally than most scholars have acknowledged.

Download or read book Myanmar Burma since the 1988 Uprising written by Andrew Selth and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2022-01-24 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updated by popular demand, this is the fourth edition of this important bibliography. It lists a wide selection of works on or about Myanmar published in English and in hard copy since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, which marked the beginning of a new era in Myanmar’s modern history. There are now 2,727 titles listed. They have been written, edited, translated or compiled by over 2,000 people, from many different backgrounds. These works have been organized into thirty-five subject chapters containing ninety-five discrete sections. There are also four appendices, including a comprehensive reading guide for those unfamiliar with Myanmar or who may be seeking guidance on particular topics. This book is an invaluable aid to officials, scholars, journalists, armchair travellers and others with an interest in this fascinating but deeply troubled country.

Download or read book Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities written by Steven Collins and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-05-13 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an answer to the question: what is nirvana? Part I distinguishes between systematic and narrative thought in the Pali texts of Theravada Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia, arguing that nirvana produces closure in both, and setting nirvana in the wider category of Buddhist Felicities. Part II explores other Buddhist utopias (both eu-topias, 'good places', and ou-topias, 'no-places'), and relates Buddhist utopianism to studies of European and American utopian writing. The book ends with a close reading of the Vessantara Jataka, which highlights the conflict between the ascetic quest for closure and ultimate felicity, and the ongoing demands of ordinary life and society. Steven Collins discusses these issues in relation to textuality, world history and ideology in premodern civilizations, aiming to contribute to an alternate vision of Buddhist history, which can hold both the inside and the outside of texts together.

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Myanmar written by Adam Simpson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 651 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades of mismanagement and direct military rule, Myanmar’s contested transition to a more democratic government has rapidly shifted the outlook in this significant Southeast Asian nation. Since 2011, the removal of Western sanctions and new foreign investments have resulted in high rates of economic growth and an expanding middle class, albeit from a very low base. In a result unthinkable a few years earlier, former political prisoner and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), formed a national government in early 2016. However, despite significant political and economic reforms since the liberalisation process commenced, the transition to civilian rule remains constrained by the military’s 2008 Constitution, which guarantees that it operates unfettered by civilian oversight. As a result, although some ethnic conflicts have abated, others continue to fester and new conflicts have erupted. With a daunting task ahead the NLD government has made some progress in removing the vestiges of repressive military-era laws but many remain untouched and some of the practices of the new government provide unwelcome reminders of its authoritarian history. This timely Handbook describes the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of this crucial period of transition in Myanmar. It presents explanations for contradictory trends, including those that defy some of the early narratives about the comprehensive transformation of Myanmar. The Handbook also considers the impact of major environmental, strategic, and demographic trends which help underscore that Myanmar’s development will be an ongoing task. In addition to introductory and concluding chapters by the editors, the body of the Handbook is divided into seven core sections: • Fundamentals • Spaces • Cultures • Living • Governance • International • Challenges Written by an international team of scholars, with a mix of world-leading established academics and talented emerging researchers, the Handbook provides a rigorous scholarly overview of Myanmar’s politics, economics, and society. As Myanmar opens to Western businesses and government agencies, this is an invaluable reference book that will provide a foundation for further research and offer the first port of call for scholars, students, and policy makers working on Myanmar and Asia.

Download or read book Peasant Irrigation Social Organization and Agrarian Change written by John Wesley Duewel and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 898 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Mists of R ma a written by Michael A. Aung-Thwin and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars have long accepted the belief that a Theravada Buddhist Mon kingdom, Rāmaññadesa, flourished in coastal Lower Burma until it was conquered in 1057 by King Aniruddha of Pagan—which then became, in essence, the new custodian and repository of Mon culture in the Upper Burmese interior. This scenario, which Aung-Thwin calls the "Mon Paradigm," has circumscribed much of the scholarship on early Burma and significantly shaped the history of Southeast Asia for more than a century. Now, in a masterful reassessment of Burmese history, Michael Aung-Thwin reexamines the original contemporary accounts and sources without finding any evidence of an early Theravada Mon polity or a conquest by Aniruddha. The paradigm, he finds, cannot be sustained. How, when, and why did the Mon Paradigm emerge? Aung-Thwin meticulously traces the paradigm's creation to the merging of two temporally, causally, and contextually unrelated Mon and Burmese narratives, which were later synthesized in English by colonial officials and scholars. Thus there was no single originating source, only a late and mistaken conflation of sources. The conceptual, methodological, and empirical ramifications of these findings are significant. The prevalent view that state-formation began in the maritime regions of Southeast Asia with trade and commerce rather than in the interior with agriculture must now be reassessed. In addition, a more rigorous look at the actual scope and impact of a romanticized Mon culture in the region is required. Other issues important to the field of early Burma and Southeast Asian studies, including the process of "Indianization," the characterization of "classical" states, and the advent and spread of Theravada Buddhism, are also directly affected by Aung-Thwin’s work. Finally, it provides a geo-political, cultural, and economic alternative to what has become an ethnic interpretation of Burma’s history. An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched, a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher.

Download or read book The Sociology of Southeast Asia written by Victor T. King and published by NIAS Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the main problems faced by teachers and students who have a scholarly interest in Southeast Asia is the lack of general, user-friendly texts in the social sciences. The absence of an introduction to the sociology of Southeast Asia is especially unfortunate. This volume attempts to meet these needs. This is, then, the first sole-authored introductory sociology text on Southeast Asia that focuses on change and development in the region, provides an overview of the important sociological and political economy writings, and considers the key concepts and themes in the field since 1945. Some multiauthored works do exist but these either are outdated or focus on specialized topics. Aimed primarily at undergraduates up to the final year, it will also be a useful reference work for post-graduates and researchers who lack such a general work.

Download or read book A History of Early Southeast Asia written by Kenneth R. Hall and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2010-12-28 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive history provides a fresh interpretation of Southeast Asia from 100 to 1500, when major social and economic developments foundational to modern societies took place on the mainland (Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) and the island world (Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines). Incorporating the latest archeological evidence and international scholarship, Kenneth R. Hall enlarges upon prior histories of early Southeast Asia that did not venture beyond 1400, extending the study of the region to the Portuguese seizure of Melaka in 1511. Written for a wide audience of non-specialists, the book will be essential reading for all those interested in Asian and world history.

Download or read book Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era written by Anthony Reid and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction : A time and a place / Anthony Reid -- Cultural state formation in eastern Indonesia / Leonard Y. Andaya -- Nguyen Hoang and the beginning of Vietnam's southward expansion / Keith W. Taylor -- The Malay Sultanate of Melaka / Luis Filipe Ferreira Reis Thomaz -- Cash cropping and upstream-downstream tensions : the case of Jambi in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries / Barbara Watson Andaya -- Restraints on the development of merchant capitalism in Southeast Asia before c. 1800 / Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells -- Islamization and Christianization in Southeast Asia : the critical phase, 1550-1650 / Anthony Reid -- Religious patterns and economic change in Siam in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries / Yoneo Ishii -- The vanishing jong : insular Southeast Asian fleets in trade and war (fifteenth to seventeenth centuries) / Pierre-Yves Manguin -- Was the seventeenth century a watershed in Burmese history? / Victor Lieberman -- Ayutthaya at the end of the seventeenth century : was there a shift to isolation? / Dhiravat na Pombejra.

Download or read book Wider Bagan Ancient and Living Buddhist Traditions written by Elizabeth Moore and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wider Bagan: Ancient and Living Buddhist Traditions is the first book to define the area outside the renowned Buddhist capital where vestiges of Bagan era cultural traditions can be found. From nearly six hundred attributes inventoried in Wider Bagan, thematic and geographical analysis of the Wider Bagan data reveals a related but different trajectory from that of the capital. The Sasanā of the court was honoured, and though its economy profited many places across Wider Bagan, local resilience was foremost. While the capital and Wider Bagan existed in relation to each other, their aims and narratives differed. Much has been written about Bagan, but little attention on the ground has been devoted to areas beyond the capital. These places have stories to tell—ones of the past and of the present—that are narrated in this book. "Wider Bagan is the most important recent publication on Myanmar’s past. Tracing Bagan’s ideational and material legacies, it recovers how this kingdom’s successors related to their heritages. Meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated, studded with clear maps, tables and outlines—Wider Bagan reveals these legacies’ custodians—inhabiting territories stretching as far as Yunnan and Bengal. Multiple topics are examined also in light of local scholarship, often ignored due to linguistic limitations. The resulting evocations of times and places make Wider Bagan an enduring guide to people’s lives—also in the larger scheme of things—like the community tracing its founding to the Buddha Gotama’s grandfather. No one interested in Myanmar’s complex past and fractious present can ignore the author’s conclusions."—Lilian Handlin, Member of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences CAMLab. "In her detailed survey of hundreds of sites in the Ayeyarwady River basin, Moore and her collaborators have revealed a long-suspected, but hitherto undocumented, rural cultural landscape with origins well before and persisting long after the political heyday of metropolitan Bagan in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. During their investigations, the authors had numerous encounters with local scholar-archaeologists who identified frequently overlooked physical attributes that define the local cultural landscape. In mapping these attributes, the authors reconstructed a narrative of local resilience that speaks to a long local history of diversity and adaptability over an extensive region, where other scholars—working mainly from historical chronicles—had observed only a rigid hegemony emanating from the political centre at Bagan. Moore’s innovative methodology breaks new ground for the study of early urban formations, not only in Myanmar but throughout mainland Southeast Asia. This research contributes to a building body of evidence that suggests a fresh paradigm to replace the long-standing concentric circle model most often used to explain state formation throughout the region. In this new paradigm, the contradiction between urban and rural settlements is dismantled as the stories of the smaller villages and towns re-enact the iterative process between places, communities of users, and social memory of Wider Bagan, demonstrating, in the process, an ecology of resilient settlement that has endured through generations of political, social and economic upheaval."—Richard A. Engelhardt, UNESCO Chair Professor of Cultural Heritage Management and Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific