scholarly journals The Rite of the Elephant Duel in Thai-Burmese Military History

MANUSYA ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-65
Author(s):  
Sunait Chutintaranond
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Military History ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
Crown Prince ◽  
Single Combat ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

The tradition of a single combat on elephant back first emerged in Thai history in the 13th century during the Sukhothai period. Before that time, there was. no evidence that this tradition was practiced by mainland Southeast Asian rulers. The origin of the elephant duel is still unknown but there is historical interpretation that the Thais and other mainland Southeast Asian warriors had adopted this practice from Sri Lanka. The fight on elephant back is a kind of military ritual observed by pre-modem monarchs of mainland Southeast Asia. With the arrival of modern weapons, particularly fire-arms such as muskets and cannons, the tradition was brought to its end. This is due to the fact that the fighter riding on the back of a huge creature had become a clear target of the opposition gunners. Many of them had been murdered before the engagement. The tradition was terminated in late 16th century. The fight between King Naresuan of Ayudhya and the Crown prince of Pegu had marked the end of this fatal ritual after being practiced without interruption for over three centuries.

scholarly journals WATERS TOWARDS RICE TRADE FLOW IN 14TH CENTURY OF JAVA

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Riza Afita Surya ◽  
Rif'atul Fikriya
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Trade Flow ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Rice Cultivation ◽  
Water Impact ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia ◽  
Rice Trade

Waters as rain, rivers, and seas are one the most common feature found upon Southeast Asian region. It has been establishing this region significantly distinctive along with others. Water is such profound thing everywhere, but it helds most importantly in Southeast Asia Maritime region, with its long shorelines in relation to it landmass, and with the enormous expanses of surrounding Island of Southeast Asia and abutting the shores of Mainland Southeast Asia. Waters in form such rain, rivers, and seas undoubtly giving a certain pattern of social and economical circumstance towards society. Java was known as the biggest rice producer until 19th century, especially manufactured among Javanese kingdoms. Rice had been the trademark of exchange in Java that was contributed across the land overtime. Here, wet rice cultivation has been a typical technique engaged in Java and remains until presents. This article discusses the water impact towards rice trade in Java during 14th century.

scholarly journals Areal Typology of Mainland Southeast Asia: What We Learn from the Wals Maps

MANUSYA ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Comrie
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The World ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Asian Languages ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia ◽  
Dividing Line

Mainland Southeast Asia has long been recognized as a classic example of a linguistic area, but earlier characterizations of this language area have typically been intuitive, for instance providing seemingly impressive lists of features known to be shared by Mainland Southeast Asian languages but without considering a list of features on which these languages differ, without explicitly considering the extent to which the features in question are common or rare across the world as a whole. By using the maps in the World Atlas of Language Structures, it is possible to build up a more structured assessment of the extent to which Mainland Southeast Asia constitutes a linguistic area. Many maps show a clear delimitation between Mainland Southeast Asia and the rest of Eurasia, although the precise boundary varies from map to map, as does the presence and location of intermediate zones. The dividing line between Mainland Southeast Asia and Insular Southeast Asia is much less clear-cut, thus providing some evidence for a more general Southeast Asian linguistic area.

scholarly journals What Awaits Myanmar’s Uplands Farmers? Lessons Learned from Mainland Southeast Asia

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Jepsen ◽  
Matilda Palm ◽  
Thilde Bruun
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

Mainland Southeast Asia (MSA) has seen sweeping upland land use changes in the past decades, with transition from primarily subsistence shifting cultivation to annual commodity cropping. This transition holds implications for local upland communities and ecosystems. Due to its particular political regime, Myanmar is at the tail of this development. However, with Myanmar’s official strategy of agricultural commercialization and intensification, recent liberalization of the national economy, and influx of multinational agricultural companies, the effects on upland land transitions could come fast. We analyze the current state of upland land use in Myanmar in a socio-economic and political context, identify the dynamics in three indicator commodity crops (maize, cassava, and rubber), and discuss the state driven economic, tenurial and policy reforms that have occurred in upland areas of mainland Southeast Asian countries in past decades. We draw on these insights to contextualize our study and hypothesize about possible transition pathways for Myanmar. The transition to annual commodity cropping is generally driven by a range of socio-economic and technical factors. We find that land use dynamics for the three indicator crops are associated with market demand and thus the opening of national Southeast-Asian economies, research and development of locally suitable high yielding varieties (HYVs), and subsidies for the promotion of seeds and inputs. In contrast, promotion of HYVs in marginal areas and without adequate agricultural extension services may results in agricultural contraction and yield dis-intensification. The environmental impacts of the transition depend on the transition pathway, e.g., through large-scale plantation projects or smallholder initiatives. The agricultural development in upland MSA follows a clear diffusion pattern with transition occurring first in Thailand, spreading to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. While these countries point to prospects for Myanmar, we hypothesize that changes will come slow due to Myanmar’s sparse rural infrastructure, with uncertainty about tenure, in particular in areas still troubled by armed conflicts, and unwillingness of international investors to approach Myanmar given the recent setbacks to the democratization process.

Buddha-Relics in the Lives of Southern Asian Polities

Numen ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 317-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
Literary Memory ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

AbstractDrawing on literary and inscriptional evidence from Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia, this essay examines the place of Buddha-relics — potent traces of a Buddha — in the life cycle of southern Asian political formations. In the formation of new polities and/or new dynasties, relics were drawn into the physical landscape and literary memory of the state, in order to provide protection and to claim desirable lineage and authority. At times of heightened military and political activity, when kingdoms were at risk, the protection and deployment of relics, and their ritual engagement, formed part of the state's central technologies. During periods of victory and restoration, relic festivals and the enhancement of a landscape embedded with relics, were used to display, affirm, and protect the royal court.

scholarly journals Out of India, thrice: diversification of Asian forest scorpions reveals three colonizations of Southeast Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie F. Loria ◽  
Lorenzo Prendini
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Divergence Time ◽  
Time Estimation ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Southern India ◽  
Divergence Time Estimation ◽  
Northern India

AbstractThe ‘Out of India’ hypothesis is often invoked to explain patterns of distribution among Southeast Asian taxa. According to this hypothesis, Southeast Asian taxa originated in Gondwana, diverged from their Gondwanan relatives when the Indian subcontinent rifted from Gondwana in the Late Jurassic, and colonized Southeast Asia when it collided with Eurasia in the early Cenozoic. A growing body of evidence suggests these events were far more complex than previously understood, however. The first quantitative reconstruction of the biogeography of Asian forest scorpions (Scorpionidae Latreille, 1802: Heterometrinae Simon, 1879) is presented here. Divergence time estimation, ancestral range estimation, and diversification analyses are used to determine the origins, dispersal and diversification patterns of these scorpions, providing a timeline for their biogeographical history that can be summarized into four major events. (1) Heterometrinae diverged from other Scorpionidae on the African continent after the Indian subcontinent became separated in the Cretaceous. (2) Environmental stresses during the Cretaceous–Tertiary (KT) mass extinction caused range contraction, restricting one clade of Heterometrinae to refugia in southern India (the Western Ghats) and Sri Lanka (the Central Highlands). (3) Heterometrinae dispersed to Southeast Asia three times during India’s collision with Eurasia, the first dispersal event occurring as the Indian subcontinent brushed up against the western side of Sumatra, and the other two events occurring as India moved closer to Eurasia. (4) Indian Heterometrinae, confined to southern India and Sri Lanka during the KT mass extinction, recolonized the Deccan Plateau and northern India, diversifying into new, more arid habitats after environmental conditions stabilized. These hypotheses, which are congruent with the geological literature and biogeographical analyses of other taxa from South and Southeast Asia, contribute to an improved understanding of the dispersal and diversification patterns of taxa in this biodiverse and geologically complex region.

scholarly journals The art of not being legible: Invented writing systems as technologies of resistance in mainland Southeast Asia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piers Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
State Power ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
The Many ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

James C Scott argued that the traditional non-literacy of highland minorities in mainland Southeast Asia may belong to a wider pattern of state evasion whereby lowland practices, including literacy, are strategically rejected. This position ignores the moral and material value attributed to literacy in upland folklore, as well as the many radical messianic movements that purported to bring writing back to the highlands. I review nine such cases of recuperated literacy among Southeast Asian minorities, all of which were created in circumstances of violent conflict with lowland states. Leaders of these movements recognised literacy as an important vehicle of state power but their appropriation of writing was limited to very specific purposes and domains. In short, the new literacy practices did not mirror its ordinary bureaucratic uses in lowland states. Instead, writing became a symbolic instrument for building state-like institutions of resistance.

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