The early history of Burma is obscure. The Burmese chronicles begin with the supposed foundation of Tagaung in 850 B.C., but the stories they tell are copies of Indian legends taken from Sanskrit or Pali originals. The earliest extant description of Further India is in the Geography of the Alexandrian scholar, Ptolemy, who flourished in the middle of the second century A.D. He refers to the inhabitants of the Irrawaddy Delta as cannibals. These were not, however, the Burmese, for their mig...

The true story of the US Army legend who organized "Blackburn's Headhunters" against Japan in WWII and went on to initiate Special Forces operations in Vietnam.The fires on Bataan burned on the evening of April 9, 1942—illuminating the white flags of surrender against the dark sky. Outnumbered and outgunned, remnants of the American-Philippine army surrendered to the forces of the Rising Sun. Yet US Army Captain Donald D. Blackburn refused to lay down his arms. With...

A couple's scheme to get rich by killing their father backfires, leaving them in charge of a cripple. In heaven, a baby, dead through neglect, tells his playmates: "Life down there is just one long sleep." A young soldier, saved by a stranger, can never again find her to thank her. A man carries a massive clock. Using a variety of techniques and styles, in this collection of twelve short stories contemporary Vietnamese writers—edited by poet, short story writer, and novelist Linh Dinh—show...

This is a book about passion, obsession and discovery in an amazing land, but also about the voyage of a highly talented composer and writer.A House in Bali remains one of the most remarkable books ever written about the fabled island of Bali. This classic book tells the story of Balinese culture through a history of Balinese music.First published in 1947, it tells the story of the writer and composer Colin McPhee's (1900-64) obsession with a music...

From the acclaimed author of People Who Eat Darkness comes this "deeply felt" account of Indonesia at the crossroads of freedom and terror ( Time, Asia).In the last years of the twentieth century, foreign correspondent Richard Lloyd Parry found himself in the vast island nation of Indonesia, one of the most alluring, mysterious, and violent countries in the world. For thirty-two years, it had been paralyzed by the grip of the dictator and mystic G...

Burma is a country where, as one senior UN official puts it, “just to turn your head can mean imprisonment or death.”Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the world’s foremost inspirational revolutionary leaders. Considered to be Burma’s best hope for freedom, she has waged a war of steadfast nonviolent opposition to the country’s vicious militant regime. Because of her resistance to the brutality of the Burmese government, she has been under house arrest since 1989.She has endured fa...

The Malayan Emergency (1948–60) was the longest war waged by British and Commonwealth forces in the twentieth century. Fought against communist guerrillas in the jungles of Malaya, this undeclared 'war without a name' had a powerful and covert influence on American strategy in Vietnam. Many military historians still consider the Emergency an exemplary, even inspiring, counterinsurgency conflict. Massacre in Malaya draws on recently released files from British arch...

In 1988 Burma (now Myanmar) exploded. People rose up against their government in a massive and nationwide expression of outrage at the regime's ruinous economic policies and repressive politics. The protests were suppressed by violence on a scale even more brutal than the Chinese suppression of the demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square the following year. Outrage is the result of many visits to Burma and its border areas, interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors of the ma...

Lying just north of the equator, Malaysia comprises Peninsular Malaysia and the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. A blend of East and West, of different lifestyles, cuisines, architectural styles, peoples, religions, and attitudes, Malaysia is a fascinating and at times bewildering country. The dynamism of Malaysia's cities contrasts with the tranquility of the country's diverse landscapes. The adventurous visitor can ascend Southeast Asia's tallest building or the regio...

When Japanese planes laid waste to Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, the United States had just one air combat unit on the continent of Asia. That was the 1st American Volunteer Group - sponsored by the White House, equipped and paid by a U.S. loan, but officially part of the Chinese Air Force. On December 20, this band of mercenaries won immortality over the city of Kunming as the "Flying Tigers." This is an expanded version, with new photographs, of the cover story for

Philippe M. F. Peycam completes the first ever English-language study of Vietnam's emerging political press and its resistance to colonialism. Published in the decade that preceded the Communist Party's founding, this journalistic phenomenon established a space for public, political contestation that fundamentally changed Vietnamese attitudes and the outlook of Southeast Asia.Peycam directly links Saigon's colonial urbanization to the creation of new modes of individual and collect...

With dozens of beautiful photographs and extensive text, this Malaysian art book is a testament to the skill and spirituality of Malaysia's traditional woodcarvers.Wood has always played a significant role in the Malay world, including the Malay Peninsula, as a means of shelter, livelihood, comfort and convenience. Among the living arts of Malaysia, woodcarving is one of the oldest, and for centuries woodcarvers enjoyed a prestige that few others did. A master wood...