New Mandala

Khwamsamphan chao muang nua lang kap thahan yipun samai songkhram lok khrang thi 2 (Relations Between Residents of the Lower North of Thailand and the Japanese Army During World War 2)  (2007) by Jiriporn Stapanawatana (ISBN: 9789749939550). The author studied history at Monash University. The present work reflects research in 2006 and 2007 at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok. Although [...]

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A scientific team, consisting of members of the Gibbon Conservation Alliance based at Zurich University and the Kunming Institute of Zoology, as well as staff members of the Nangunhe National Nature Reserve, carried out a survey in all Chinese forests reported to support white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) during the last 20 years.
The species was last [...]

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In my last post I discussed the decline of Chiang Khong’s Wat Luang port and the Wat Luang Boat Operators’ Association. How can we understand such change in the context of the subregional development of river trade? First, the large long-distance Lao cargo boats that cross the river to load at Chiang Khong do [...]

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In The Legend of the Golden Boat, Andrew Walker spends a whole chapter talking about the significance of a small local port in Chiang Khong district of Chiang Rai (Thailand) in relation to its local authority in the Lao long-distance river trading regime. Standing at the Wat Luang port, Walker revealed the active role of [...]

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Over the last three years, northern Laos has been seized by a rubber fever unknown in the agricultural history of the country. Rubber, initially introduced by Lao farmers from China through a well-knit trans-border network of kin and friends, has been promoted by the Lao government as a miraculous antidote that will rescue thousand of [...]

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According to a report in The Nation, a new Khon Kaen University study has focussed on the cultural impact of “Thai-Westerner marriages“.  Briefly, it found that:
…foreign son-in-laws had caused the community-oriented Northeasterners to become the more individualistic and give less attention to social interaction
The report continues by noting (my emphasis) that:
The wives still ate somtam, [...]

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Nich Farrelly has raised some interesting questions about the potential economic benefits of preserving Southeast Asian forests in the context of international carbon trading. A similar market-based approach can be seen in relation to Rewarding Upland People for Environmental Services, a “program for developing mechanisms for rewarding the upland poor in Asia for the environmental [...]

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Last Friday, in return for a very tasty Vietnamese lunch, I made a presentation to one of Canberra’s international consulting firms. This is one of the firms that is contracted by AusAID (and others) to implement international development projects. My presentation was about local perspectives on “projects” based on work I have been doing in [...]

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For some time community forestry was one of the darlings of NGO and academic activists in Thailand. Lately it seems to have receded from the agenda somewhat as their attentions have been diverted by Thaksin and his populist policies. There is some irony in this shift.

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Jinghong (Kathy) Zhang is a PhD student here in RMAP. She is planning to undertake research on the production, marketing and consumption of Puer Tea in Yunnan Province. She has written a fascinating introductory article about her research site, Yiwu, a small tea-growing township in Sipsongpanna. Her article has generated considerable interest among the on-line “Pu-Erh Tea [...]

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