River

Books
2012-3
River Books
396 Maharaj Road, Tatien, Bangkok 10200
T: (66 2) 622-1900, 224-6686
F: (66 2) 225-3861
E: order@riverbooksbk.com
www.riverbooksbk.com
London office
3 Denbigh Road, London W11 2SJ
T: 44 20 7229 6765
E: narisachakra1@mac.com
E: sales@newcavendishbooks.co.uk
Distribution:
Europe and RoW excluding HK and Southeast Asia
Antique Collectors Club
T: +44 (0)1394 389977 F: +44 (0) 1394 389999
www.antique-acc.com
North America:
Antique Collectors Club
T: +1 413 529 0861 F: +1 845 297 0068
www.antique-acc.com
Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Brunei:
APD Singapore Pte Ltd
T: +65 6749 3551 F: +65 6749 3552
E: customersvc@apdsing.com
River Books is one of the foremost publishers of books on the
art, architecture, history and early culture of mainland Southeast
Asia, together with an important series of books on textiles.
Thai language books cover aspects of Thai history
and a major bi-lingual English-Thai dictionary has been
published with Oxford University Press.
Working with acknowledged experts in each field,
River Books combines excellent
photography, design and production values.
Significant books published this year include
arly Thailand, The Roots of Thai Art, The Trouser People,
Siamese oins,The House of the Raa and Thai Magic Tattoos.
New e-books will include Thailand#s Political History and
The Trouser People. We are also publishing the much-awaited
novel, A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess.
November will see the publication of ac" uerware ourneys,
which will be the most significant history on
this subject for many decades.
Full details available in this catalogue and on our website:
www.riverbooksbk.com
CONTENTS
New Titles
4 The Roots of Thai Art
6 Siamese Coins From Funan to the Fifth Reign
8 The House of the Raja Splendor and Desolation
in the Deep South of Thailand
10 Thai Magic Tattoos The Art and Influence of Sak Yant
11 Backstage Mandalay
12 A Woman of Angkor
Stories in Stone The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription &
the Enigma of Khmer History
13 The Trouser People Burma in the Shadows of Empire
14 Early Thailand From Prehistory to Sukhothai
15 Angkor History & Temples
16 Lacquerware Journeys The Untold Story
of Burmese Lacquer
18 The Grand Palace and Rattanakosin Island
19 Royal Hue Heritage of the Nguyen Dynasty
of Vietnam
20 The Nagas Hill People of Northern India
21 Restless Ribeiro An Indian Artist in Britain
22 Ancient Vietnam History, Art and Archaeology
23 Thai Taxi Talismans Bangkok from the passenger seat
Forthcoming 2013
26 Banteay Chhmar Uncovering the last great
forest temple of Ancient Cambodia
27 Early Buddhist Art in Northeast Thailand
and Central Laos 7th-12th Centuries
Wat Bo The Shadow of the Ramayana
28 Tai Magic Art of the Supernatural in the
Shan States and Lan Na
29 Through the Labyrinth The Shan Princes in Burma
30 Very Bangkok
31 Thai Furniture
Bencharong Enamelled Porcelain for
Siamese Kings and Courtiers
BACKLIST TITLES
34 Temples of Cambodia The Heart of Angkor
35 Abhaya Burmas fearlessness
36 Tea Horse Road Chinas ancient trade road to Tibet
37 China - Through The Lens of John Thomsom 1868-1872
38 Southeast Asian Historiography Unravelling the
Myths Essays in honour of Barend Jan Terwiel
Sacred Sites of Burma Myth and Folklore
in an Evolving Spiritual realm
39 50 Years of Archaeology in Southeast Asia
Essays in Honour of Ian Glover
Thailands Political History From the 13th Century
to Modern Times
40 Rawfully Good Living Flavours of Southeast Asia
Rirkrit Tiravanija Cook Book
41 Thai Folk Wisdom Contemporary Takes on
Traditional Proverbs
42 Ancient Sukhothai Thailands Cultural Heritage
Past Lives of The Buddha Wat Si Chum
Art, Architecture and Inscriptions
Origins of Thai Art
43 Ayutthaya Venice of the East
Siam and the Vatican
Siam and the League of Nations Modernisation,
Sovereignty and Multilateral Diplomacy, 1920-1940
44 Royal Siamese Maps War and Trade in Nineteenth
Century Thailand
Siam in Trade and War: Royal Maps of the
19th Century
The Ming Gap and Shipwreck Ceramics in Southeast
Asia Towards a Chronology of Thai Trade Ware
45 The Yao The Mien and Mun Yao in China, Vietnam,
Laos and Thailand
Caves of Northern Thailand
Expedition Naga Diaries from the Hills in
Northeast India 1921-1937 and 2002-2006
46 Very Thai Everyday Popular Culture
Mesmerization The Spells that Control Us
Why we are losing our minds to pop-culture
47 Thai Mother-of-Pearl Inlay
Thai Puppets & Khon Masks
Bangkok Found Reflections on the City
48 Buddhist Art An Historical and Cultural Journey
Khmer Ceramics Beauty and Meaning
49 Bayon New perspectives
The Khmer Empire
Tonle Sap
50 Images of The Gods
Buddhist Painting in Cambodia
Preah Bot Buddhist painted scrolls in Cambodia
51 Cambodian Dance Celebration of the Gods
Ruins of Angkor
Ancient Luang Prabang
52 The Moon Princess Memories of the Shan States
Early Landscapes of Myanmar
53 Traditional Textiles of Cambodia
Cultural Threads and Material Heritage
Pictorial Cambodian Textiles
Thai Textiles
Silken Threads Lacquer Thrones Lan Na Court Textiles
54 The Secrets of Southeast Asian Textiles
Myth, Status and the Supernatural
Through The Thread of Time Southeast Asian Textiles
The Shan Culture, Art and Crafts
Mantles of Merit Chin Textiles from Myanmar,
India and Bangladesh
55 Chambers : English-Thai Phrasebook
Oxford-River Books English-Thai Dictionary
Pocket Oxford-River Books English-Thai Dictionary
















TH R T TH RT
416 pages, 280 x 215 mm
Hardback, 540 colour illustrations
with 32 maps and plans
ISBN 978 616 7339 11 5 (English)
ISBN 978 974 9863 68 3 (Thai)
Piriya Krairiksh
Translated by Narisa Chakrabongse
The genius of the Mon and Khmer peoples,
who inhabited what is present day Thailand
from the 4th to the 13th centuries, mani-
fested itself in the absorption of influences
from India and China into a distinctive local
sacred art with quite exceptional aesthetic
qualities. Thailands pre-eminent art historian
Piriya Krairiksh retraces these multiple inter-
actions in the early and medieval period so as
to reveal the roots of the unique cultural
identity we know as Thai.
With more than 540 illustrations and
with most icons dated to within a fifty-year
period, this book establishes itself as an
incomparable visual record. The description
of this splendid range of early pre-Thai
creations is rendered in a powerful new
language of sacred art which expresses the
depths of philosophy and evolving beliefs of
the two major religions, Buddhism and
Brahmanism, that underpin Thai society
and culture today. The surviving works
show that the people who lived in these
ancient sites combined their wealth and
most advanced technology to bring the gods
in palpable form into their midst so as to
ensure their own protection and prosperity
in this world and the next.
6
This is the first ever book in English about Thai coins and the several types of money used by the
various ethnic cultures that existed in this area.
It covers the time period from the earliest types of money, both in the form of coins
and in other forms such as shells and various types of ingots used in what is now Thailand.
It also includes the introduction of the baht currency system, a system based on divisions of eight
(the octuple system), both in the form of pot duang and flat coins and the beginnings of the present
day decimal coinage. It describes the development of Thai money through a continuous economic-
historical review with excerpts from a variety of sources, including the Sukhothai inscriptions, the
royal chronicles of Ayutthaya, the records of individual Dutch, French and Portuguese travellers
and unpublished documents from the Royal Archives.
A unique feature of this publication and the enclosed DVD are high resolution photographs of
over 1,000 specimens of the coins and other forms of money including photographs from the National
Museum and leading private collections, which have circulated in Siam and its tributary states up to the
Fifth Reign.
Another unique feature is an extensive study of the metallic composition of most specimens
conducted either by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) tests and/or Inductively
Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) tests to determine the exact chemical composition
of the coins and other forms of money, as well as weight analyses of the coins.
Extensive study was also made of contemporary and modern counterfeit coins as well as fantasies
including comparison photos of genuine and counterfeit coins.
Included are a selection of Thai documents from Rama IVs reign dealing with the introduction of
new currency, counterfeits and money reforms, His Majestys correspondence in English with Queen
Victoria, and the letter wherein Rama V opened his bank account in Thailand but in Mexican Dollars.
272 pages, 280 x 215 mm
Hardback with slip case
With 2.103 colour illustrations
Over 1,000 more images on DVD
ISBN 978 974 9863 54 1
SIAMESE COINS
From Funan to the Fifth Reign
Ronachai Krisadaolarn
Vasilijs Mihailovs
7
8
160 pages, 310 x 310 mm,
Hb, 100 black and white photographs
ISBN 978 616 7339 17 7
THE HOUSE OF THE RAJA
Splendour and Desolation in the Deep South of Thailand
Xavier Comas
The House of the Raja
Curious to unfurl mythologies and truths attached to restive Thailands Deep
South, the Spanish photographer Xavier Comas spent several months in a region
that was once part of the ancient Malay Sultanate of Patani. This Kingdom
emerged during the 16th and 17th Centuries as a wealthy and cosmopolitan gate-
way between the East and West frequented by Asians, Persians, Arabs and Euro-
peans, under the rule of four Queens who were named after the colours of the
rainbow. Defeated after an epic war with Siam in 1786, Patani lost its sovereignty
and became upon the Anglo-Siam treaty of 1909 an integral part of present-day
Thailand. Nowadays it is a place that is readily identified with the ongoing conflict
between the Thai government and the Muslim separatists.
Inspired by his personal experience living in a dilapidated Palace, that was once
the magnificent residence of the last Malay Raja who paid tribute to Siam, Comas
brings a myth to life and looks with his lens behind the clouded veil of conflict re-
vealing a dimension of timeless spirituality. In an atmosphere pervaded with digni-
fied solitude under a beautiful shroud of shadow and light, Comass series plunge
into a world of hauntings, curses and mystic powers. The author story offers an un-
usual and intimate portrait of geographic, cultural, and ancestral legacy that delves
into memory and revisits the ghost of the past.
9
The book, structured in three large chapters and narrated in first person, combines
the visual poetry of photography and a text where fiction and non-fiction overlap,
presenting the ordinary and mundane as extraordinary and fantastic, using the genre
of magical realism.
Xavier Comas (Barcelona, 1970)
Xavier Comas, a fine arts graduate of the University of Barcelona, is a Bangkok-
based Spanish artist. His work has been published and exhibited in Europe and
Asia. The Singapore Art Museum exhibited his installation Pasajero as part of
TransportAsian 2009 and it acquired his Jiutamai series as Museum collection.
Comas photographic and written work have been published by prominent publica-
tions such as the Spanish La Vanguardia Sundays Newspaper edition, the Japanese
art Magazine Quotation, NZZ Newspaper in Switzerland, Courrier International in
France and TIME magazine. He is also contributor to the Asia Literary Review.
His project Tokyo up, down, a random photographic exploration in elevators,
was exhibited at Noorderlicht Photofestival 2011 and by the Museum of Estonian
Architecture in Tallinn, Estonia. The House of the Raja, exhibited in 2010 by
H gallery in Bangkok and recently in Barcelona, will be his first photographic and
literary piece to be published as book.
10
Isabel Azevedo Drouyer
Photography Rene Drouyer
144 pages, 280 x 215 mm
67 colour illustrations
68 b/w illustrations, 25 drawings
ISBN 978 616 7339 21 4
THAI MAGIC TATTOOS
The Art and Influence of Sak Yant
During the last twenty years, tattooing has
experienced a veritable renaissance in modern
societies. For hundreds of years before this,
however, Buddhist monks, using magical incanta-
tions and spells, have been covering peoples
bodies with indelible ink marks in the belief that
they will attract luck, wealth, and blessings. People
believed that these tattoos provide protection
against evil spirits and may render the bearer
invulnerable to stab wounds and even bullets.
Known in Thailand as Sak Yant, these ancient
tattoos are today experiencing a revival in
popularity, both in their own country and beyond.
Fashion or social phenomenon, the demand for
magical tattoos keeps on rising. Hollywood stars
and Singaporean business men alike, flock to Thai
Sak Yant Masters to have these powerful designs
inked onto their bodies.
At the same time, these tattooists are regularly
invited to practice their art abroad, thus increasing
the popularity of Sak Yant worldwide. Why do
these sacred tattoos provoke such passion? Who
are these men who practice Sak Yant, and who
are those who get tattooed? Do these skin-inked
marks really have magical power? These questions
raise the problem of the influence of beliefs,
rituals, tattoos, and other amulets on the mind
and on the health of individuals. Formerly
regarded as a kind of irrational activity, today
scientific studies help to understand how these
beliefs may influence a persons life. Drawing on
contributions and research fields as diverse as
anthropology, religion, history, medicine, and
psychology, Thai Magic Tattoos - The Art and
Influence of Sak Yant attempts to explain how
tattoos can change the life of the bearer.
The book is based on extensive fieldwork
studies, extending over a period of three years
and conducted in Thailand, Myanmar, and
Laos. Filled with their own medium-format
photographs, field notes and in-depth interviews
of Masters and Sak Yant believers, the authors
provide a unique window into the world of sacred
tattoos and in doing so illustrate one of the last
living examples of authentic traditional tattooing.
BACKSTAGE MANDALAY
Daniel Ehrlich
This book provides a glimpse behind the curtain
into the netherworld of the ancient Burmese
performing arts. Backstage Mandalay reveals the
private rituals of classical Burmese performers as
they prepare for all-night festivals in the streets of
Upper Burma.
Myanmar (Burma) exists in a timewarp.
The country is eighty-seven percent practicing
Buddhist, studded with monasteries, pagodas,
dirt-track roads, oxcarts and elegant villages much
as they were when the West intruded little more
than a century ago. The country is still farmed by
water buffalo and its rituals remain true to their
old-Asia form.
This little-visited country is now increasingly
in the news. But tourism remains at very low levels
and many regions of the country are stictly off
limits. This book, in the form of a photo essay
captures an insiders view of a fragile and mystical
aspect of Burmese culture.
The curtain is drawn to reveal the back-stage
of the Burmese theater; a world populated by
animist spirit media (nakadaws), monsters from
the Ramayana Buddhist texts, princesses
(minthami) and princes (mintha). We go behind
the scenes to see the preparations of these
performers as they travel around the towns and
countryside between temporary bamboo stages
constructed for all-night festivals.
With essays from Professor Ward Keeler and U
Ohn Maung, the book is a visual and informative
testament to Burmese performing arts.
12




















































A Woman of
Angkor
A Novel
Burgess has done something
that I believe is unique in
modern writing: set a credible
and seemingly authentic tale in
the courts and temples of ancient
Angkor to stir the imagination and
excite our historical interest.
John le Carr
John
Burgess

































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































A WOMAN OF ANGKOR
John Burgess
264 pages
210 x 142 mm
Paperback
ISBN 978 616 7339 25 2
"Pure and beautiful, she glows like the moon behind
clouds."
The time is the twelfth century, the place, Cambo-
dia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation.
In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a
young woman named Sray. Her neighbors liken
her to the heroine of a Hindu epic. But in fact
her serenity is marred by a dangerous secret. One
rainy season afternoon she is called to a life of
prominence in the royal court. There her faith
and loyalties are tested by attentions from the
great king Suryavarman II. She struggles keep her
devotion is her husband Nol, palace confidante
and master of the silk parasols that were symbols
of the monarch's rank.
This lovingly crafted first novel by former
Washington Post correspondent John Burgess
revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture
that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned
them to the jungle. In telling her tale, Sray takes
the reader to a hilltop monastery, a concubine
pavilion and across the seas to the throne room of
imperial China. She witnesses the construction of
the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers
an explanation for its greatest mystery why it
broke with centuries of tradition to face west
instead of east.
John Burgess is a former Washington Post
foreign correspondent with long experience in
Southeast Asia.
STORIES IN STONE
The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription &
the Enigma of Khmer History
198 pages, 210 x 142 mm
68 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978 616 7339 01 6
The founding of an empire, the settling of frontier
lands, a kings gifting of gold pitchers and black-
eared stallions to a Brahmin priest these and other
remarkable stories come down to us in the Sdok
Kok Thom Inscription, one of the worlds most
important ancient testaments. Recovered at a ruined
temple in Thailand close to the Cambodian border,
the 340-line chronicle unlocks the early history
of the Khmer Empire. Yet temple and text have
remained little known about outside expert circles.
In this highly readable account, formerWashington
Post correspondent John Burgess traces the impact
of the great inscription, which was carved onto a
sandstone monolith around 1052 AD, abandoned
to the wild for centuries, then decoded by
French colonialists. He relates the temples
surprise emergence in 1979 as a haven for
Cambodian refugees and resistance fighters
during the war in their homeland. Today, Sdok
Kok Thom is again at peace, its mission of
preserving history accomplished.
Stories in Stone includes photographs of the
temple, past and present, Refugee Camp 007 and
its refugees and militias; extracts from previously
unpublished letters of French savant tienne
Aymonier; and a revised English translation of the
full inscription by the University of Hawaii linguists
Chhany Sak-Humphry and Philip N. Jenner.
John Burgess
13
264 pages, 210 x 142 mm
Paperback, 30 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978 616 7339 18 4
THE TROUSER PEOPLE
Burma in the Shadows of the Empire
Andrew Marshall
Sir George Scott was an unsung Victorian adven-
turer who hacked, bullied and charmed his way
through uncharted jungle to help establish British
colonial rule in Burma. Born in Scotland in 1851,
Scott was a diehard Imperialist with a fondness
for gargantuan pith helmets and a bluffness of
expression that bordered on the Pythonesque.
George Scott was also a writer and photographer
who spent a lifetime documenting the outlandish
tribes who lived in Burmas wilderness tribes like
the Padaung giraffe women and the headhunting
Wild Wa who quaintly claimed to be descended
from tadpoles. Scott also extended the imperial
goalposts in another way: he introduced football
to Burma where today it is a national obsession.
A century later Burma is a hermit nation
misruled by a brutal military dictatorship. Its
soldiers, like the British colonialists before them
are scathingly nicknamed the trouser people by
the countrys sarong-wearing civilians. Inspired
by Scotts unpublished diaries, Andrew Marshall
retraces the explorers intrepid footsteps from the
mouldering colonial splendour of Rangoon to the
fabled royal capital of Mandalay then up into the
A witty, beautifully turned travelogue about
benighted Burma [that] is enlivened by Andrew
Marshalls eye for the absurd Daily Telegraph
An evocative travel book and an adventure story
Marshall is a gifted writer New York Times
Fully revised and updated edition including an afterword of the
authors eyewitness account of the Saffron Revolution in 2007
and its bloody crackdown by the Burmese military regime.
remote tribal heartland where Scott had his great-
est adventures. Marshall recalls the opulent lives of
the Western-educated chiefs who in Scotts time
ruled hilltop fiefdoms half the size of England and
has his own encounter with the Wild Wa who
today run a huge drug trafficking empire. Driven
by the untold story of an extraordinary Scotsman
The Trouser People is an offbeat and thrilling
journey through Britains lost heritage and a
powerful expos of Burmas modern tragedy.
14
288 pages, 232 x 170 mm
Paperback, 500 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 91 6
EARLY THAILAND
From Prehistory to Sukhothai
Dramatic new archaeological discoveries over the
past ten years demand a new look at Thailands
past. Drawing on their previous work, Prehistoric
Thailand, this substantially updated book covers
the history of the Kingdom from the first human
settlement to the earliest civilisations and gives a
fresh appraisal of the early hunters and gatherers,
and of the origins of the first rice farmers.
A new chronology reveals the dynamic social
changes that came with the Bronze Age, and the
rapid advance to the foundation of early states that
Charles Higham & Rachanee Thosarat
followed. The outstanding art of the Bronze Age,
as seen in painted ceramic vessels a thousand years
earlier than those from Ban Chiang is portrayed,
as is the wealth of Iron Age chiefs who contributed
so much to the foundation of the Kingdoms of
Angkor and Dvaravati. In the far south, we find
early cities founded along the Southern Silk Road,
bringing exotic ideas and goods through seaborne
trade. Most of all, the authors present the rich
cultural heritage of the Thai people.
15
The Khmer civilization centred on Angkor was one of the most
remarkable in Southeast Asia. Between the 8th and the 13th
centuries, a succession of Hindu and Buddhist kings created
magnificent temples in stone adorned with elaborate carvings.
Angkor - History and Temples is a collaboration between renowned
French scholar, Claude Jacques, and photographer Michael
Freeman.
All the key temples both in and outside Angkor are grouped
into easy-to-visit itineraries, and with comprehensive plans, useful
hotel and travel information, Ancient Angkor is both an invaluable
guide and a stand-alone book.
COMPLETELY REVISED EDITION
ISBN 978 616 7339 27 6 (English)
ISBN 978 974 9863 82 4 (French)
ISBN 978 974 9863 83 1 (Japanese)
ISBN 978 974 9863 84 8 (German)
240 pages, 215 x 140 mm,
Paperback, 360 colour illustrations,
47 temple plans, 5 maps
Claude Jacques
Michael Freeman
ANGKOR
History & Temples
16
Than Htun (Dedaye)
380 pages, 280 x 215 mm
Hardback, 280 colour photographs
ISBN 978 616 7339 23 8
LACQUERWARE JOURNEYS
The Untold Story of Burmese Lacquer
This book focuses on unpublished tribal and regional lacquerware from
previously inaccessible and remote areas of Burma. The author and photog-
raphy team spent five years between 2005-2010 researching and traveling to
visit peoples such as the Gadu-Ganan in Sagaing division in order to find
the most beautiful and meticulous lacquerware.
Betel boxes and miniature wooden soon-okes (meal carriers) in plain
black or red colour are found within an area as large as five thousand square
miles east to west between Banmauk and Homalin. Other shapes are almost
impossible to find except for a few pieces transported from other regions in
the last century or in recent decades.
In addition, new research from Lower Burma focuses on and provides
detailed information on the lacquerware masters of this region and their
workshops. Despite the popular and scholarly belief that lacquerware came
17
exclusively from Upper Burma, recent research shows
otherwise. Descendants of laquerware masters are still
living in a small village in this region and production
spanned a period from the 1890s until World War Two.
The lacquerware of Rakhine state on the west coast
of Burma, its masters, their names and localities of the
production sites is also published for the first time.
This beautifully illustrated book goes beyond the
established centres of Burmese lacquerware such as Bagan
and Shan State to document the wide diversity of these
handicrafts throughout the lesser traveled and usually
inaccessible areas of Burma.
18
The magnificent complex of throne halls,
museums and religious architecture, including
the exquisite Emerald Buddha Temple, are often
referred to as the jewel in the crown of Bangkok.
Begun by King Rama I in 1782, they were
constructed to emulate the glories of the former
capital Ayutthaya, sacked by the Burmese some 15
years earlier. Until the beginning of the twentieth
century, the Thai monarchs lived within the
Grand Palace and all important events took place
within its walls. Thus in each of the nine reigns
of the Chakri dynasty, the king has embellished
or built new structures within the compound,
thereby creating a storehouse of Thai architectural
and decorative style over the last two hundred
years. King Rama IX is no exception and his new
throne hall is included in this volume.
As well as describing the exquisite buildings
within the Grand Palace, the book also illustrates
many of the key sites which were built in its
vicinity: Wat Phra Chetuphon, more commonly
known as Wat Pho, the elegant colonial style
Ministry of Defence, the City Pillar Shrine,
Sanam Luang which has been a focal point for
352 pp, 232 x 170 mm
Pb, 500 colour ills and 6 plans
ISBN 978 974 9863 41 1
THE GRAND PALACE AND
RATTANAKOSIN ISLAND
Naengnoi Suksri, Narisa Chakrabongse
& Thanit Limpabandhu
Photography Paisarn Piemmettawat
Thai life for over two centuries, the National
Museum and the National Gallery and the newly-
opened Museum of Siam. Also included are
photographs, old and new, of key Thai royal
ceremonies.
This beautifully photographed guide is the
first to deal exclusively and in depth with the
wealth of buildings to be explored at the Grand
Palace and the surrounding Rattanakosin Island.
19
ROYAL HUE Heritage of the
Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam
250 pages, 232 x 170 mm
Paperback, 300 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 95 4
Hue, the ancient, royal capital of Vietnam, is a city remarkable in its striving for
greatness and beautification. Despite its many dramatic historical events, from
conflicts between ancient Vietnam and the now extinct kingdoms of Champa to
the 19th and 20th French occupation and becoming the victim of
the Tet Offensive in 1968, much of Hues classical architecture
survives. The exquisite royal lifestyle is still visible in the Imperial
Citadel, in the Hue Museum of Royal Fine Arts and in Nguyen
mausoleums in the Valley of the Tombs.
Royal Hue traces the development of this magnificent imperial
capital from its humble beginnings in the 14th century to its
position as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.
The book also documents the 143 years of Nguyen rule when
under 13 emperors Hue was built and rebuilt, each time grander
and more opulent than the last, until in August 1945 the last
emperor Bao Dai handed over his Royal Seal and Sword of
Mandate to representatives of the new President Ho Chi Minh.
With an authoratitive and lively text by Vietnamese-British
historian Dr Vu Hong Lien and evocative photography by Paisarn Piemmettawat,
Royal Hue is the perfect guide for the discerning cultural explorer to this world
heritage city.
Vu Hong Lien
Photography Paisarn Piemmettawat
20
The Nagas of Northeast India are radically different in culture and beliefs from the
Hindu peoples of the plains. Renowned for their fierce resistance to the British and
their former practice of head-taking, the thousands of small Naga villages, perched
on isolated hills, exhibit significant differences, with more than a dozen mutually
unintelligible languages and both unity and diversity in their dress and ornament.
Their vibrant material culture of textiles, basketry, jewellery, weapons and carvings
is fully illustrated, while many documentary field photographs enrich this
fascinating book.
Extended New Edition
With additional chapter: Connecting to the Past
by Marion Wettstein and Alban von Stockhausen
THE NAGAS
Hill Peoples of Northern India
392 pp, 245 x 225 mm
Pb, 700 illustrations 250 in colour
ISBN 0 500 97471 3
Julian Jacobs
21


Restless
Ribeiro
An Indian Artist in Britain
88 pages, 280 x 248 mm,
Pb, 70 colour and 16 B & W illustrations
ISBN 978 616 7339 28 3
RESTLESS RIBEIRO
An Indian Artist in Britain
This lavishly illustrated catalogue for the forthcoming Lance
Ribeiro 2013 exhibition at Asia House is a fitting tribute to
one of the most striking, if under-valued, artists of our time.
By the early 1960s, Bombay-born artist Lancelot Ribeiro
(1933-2010) or Lance, as he was later known, had had six one-
man shows, and his work had toured India, Europe and North
America in Ten Indian Painters. He was one of the founding
members of The Indian Painters Collective, the multicultural
Rainbow Group and Indian Artists UK, and organised
exhibitions and lectured on Indian art and culture for the
Commonwealth Institute. After two major retrospectives in the
1980s, he exhibited in Germany and Switzerland and again in
India in 1998. His last public showing was in Britain just three
months before his death in 2010.
This catalogue demonstrates not only the highly original
nature of Ribeiro's work and how he experimented with new
materials ahead of his time, but how he also worked tirelessly
to promote Indian art, its artists and culture in Britain.
Reproducing over 70 works in full colour, this book also
includes contributions from those who knew Ribeiro well,
such as private photographs, and letters from his family
archive, many of which have come to light for the first time.
Ed. Katriana Hazell
The history of Vietnam is one of spectacular confrontations,
both cultural and ideological, between the world of the Chinese
a world adopted by the ethnic Viet living in the Red river
basin and the Indian world facets of which are seen in the
Cham, whose numerous small kingdoms were strung out all
along the coast from north of Hue to south of Phan Rang.
The first part of this book presents a comprehensive history
of Vietnam from the 6th to 15th centuries, highlighting the
clashes between the two major civilisations which are the
foundation of modern Vietnam.
The second part takes the reader on a tour of over 60
archaeological sites which are a testament to its history, as
well as five major museums. Maps, plans and numerous
photographs help us to experience the history of ancient
Vietnam from its early beginnings through its subsequent
evolution. Thus, the book is invaluable both as a guide and as
the most definitive cultural history of this fascinating country.
French scholar Anne-Valrie Schweyer is an acknowledged
expert in Cham history, having contributed to many books and
journals. Her text is illustrated with magnificent photographs
by Paisarn Piemmettawat and many maps and plans.
Anne-Valrie Schweyer
Photography by Paisarn Piemmettawat
ANCIENT VIETNAM
History, Art and Archaeology
428 pages,
232 x 170 mm
Paperback, 859 colour illustrations 40 plans
ISBN 978 974 9863 75 6 (English)
ISBN 978 616 7339 14 6 (Vietnamese)
ISBN 978 2 88086 396 8 (French)
THAI TAXI TALISMANS
Bangkok from the passenger seat
Dale Alan Konstanz
160 pages, 240 x 220 mm
Paperback 261 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 616 7339 08 5
Forthcoming 2013
Banteay Chhmar Uncovering The Last Great Forest Temple of Ancient Cambodia
Early Buddhist Art in Northeast Thailand and Central Laos 7th-12th Centuries
Wat Bo - The Shadow of the Ramayana
Tai Magic Art of the Supernatural in the Shan States and Lan Na
Through the Labyrinth The Shan Princes in Burma
Very Bangkok Neighbourhoods, Net works, Tribes
Thai Furniture
Bencharong Enamelled Porcelain for Siamese Kings and Courtiers
192 pp, 232 x 170 mm
Pb, 300 colour photographs
ISBN 978 616 7339 20 7
BANTEAY CHHMAR
Uncovering the last great forest temple
of Ancient Cambodia
Peter D. Sharrock
Photography Paisarn Piemmettawat
Banteay Chhmar is the second monument of ancient
Cambodias greatest king, Jayavarman VII. This
temple, built in the late 12th century by of one of
Cambodias most original stone-carving and architec-
tural workshops, lay in ruins for almost a thousand
years under a remote forest halfway between Angkor,
the declining capital of the once mighty Khmers and
Ayutthaya, the burgeoning new hub of the rising
Thai kingdom. At first the remoteness of Banteay
Chhmar made it a distant jewel in the magnificent
monumental landscape of the Khmers, but after the
Khmer Empire declined in the 14th century, the
temples art was left exposed to generations of looters.
To uncover the secrets of this large, beautiful
and still forest-draped complex, Peter Sharrock has
brought together a team of international experts,
including Claude Jacques, Olivier Cunin and Thierry
Zephir, to decipher the reliefs of the master carvers,
identify the esoteric Buddhist deities and open a new
vista on Jayavarmans reign. In keeping with the
tradition of River Books of Bangkok, the guidebook
is illustrated with 200 superb colour photographs by
Paisarn Piemmettawat.
27
300 pages, 232 x 170 mm
Paperback, 300 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 616 7339 19 1
EARLY BUDDHIST ART IN NORTHEAST
THAILAND AND CENTRAL LAOS
7th-12th Centuries
Stephen A. Murphy
180 pages, 280 x 215 mm
Paperback, 220 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 616 7339 30 6
WAT BO
The Shadow of the Ramayana
Vittorio Roveda
The arrival of Buddhism represents a watershed
moment in the origins and development of the
early cultures and civilisations of Southeast Asia.
New forms of sacred art, iconography and
architecture blossomed and the religion acted as a
catalyst for social change. In northeast Thailand
and central Laos, this is best illustrated by a variety
of archaeological, artistic and architectural remains
spanning the 7th-12th centuries CE. The material
ranges from surviving monastic architecture to
votive tablets, inscriptions and Buddha images in
stone, bronze or carved into rock-faces. The most
comprehensive evidence, however, comes in the
form of ornately carved sema, monumental stone
boundary markers, which can be decorated with
scenes from the Life of the Buddha, past lives or
stupa motifs. Settlement patterns, archaeological
sites and the regions river systems also play vital
roles in understanding the movement and nature
of Buddhism in the Khorat Plateau.
Containing lavish illustrations of the earliest
evidence for Buddhism in the region including
both freestanding and relief carvings of Buddha
images, votive tablets, architectural and archaeo-
logical remains and mapping over 100 locations
including moated sites, earthen mounds, rock
shelters and Buddhist boundary markers, this
book sets out to trace the spread and evolution of
Buddhism along the Mun, Chi and Mekong river
systems of the Khorat Plateau, a region that today
encompasses northeast Thailand and lowland areas
of central and southern Laos.
Wat Bo is the most important monastery in Siem Reap, housing
over 100 monks. In addition to teaching arts and crafts, local music,
dance, drama, Pali and English, the temple is home to a botanical
garden of indigenous plants and shrubs. The vihara of Wat Bo was
built at the end of the 19th century and sometime between the end
of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th was painted with
remarkable murals representing the local rendition of the Rama
story, derived from the Indic epic, the Ramayana. These are among
the most important paintings in all Cambodia. The Nimi Jataka and
the Vessantara Jataka are also partially represented.
Susan Conway
248 pp, 232 x 170 mm
Pb, 300 colour photographs
ISBN 978 616 7339 15 3
TAI MAGIC
Art of the Supernatural in the
Shan states and Lan Na
Tai Magic Arts of the Supernatural in the Shan
states and Lan Na is a superbly illustrated book that
introduces manuscripts, textiles and talismans
associated with the supernatural. Within the
context of Tai cosmology and numerology,
Theravada Buddhism and spirit religion, the book
examines how good and bad spirits are represented
in figurative illustrations and how mystical
diagrams and spells are formulated to bring good
luck and protection or cause bad luck. Extensive
field work studies over a period of four years were
conducted in the Shan States and in northern
Thailand. Using her field notes and photographs,
Susan Conway provides a colourful picture of the
people who create magic and explains how mystical
remedies are prescribed and the rituals involved. The
author includes comparative material from museum
collections in the USA, UK and Thailand.
29
224 pp, 232 x 170 mm
Pb, 150 illustrations
ISBN 978 616 7339 16 0
THROUGH THE LABYRINTH
The Shan Princes in Burma
Sanda Simms
Through the Labyrinth The Shan Princes in Burma is
written from a Tai/Shan perspective of the intricate and
often fractious reality that existed in the Shan States up to
the military coup in 1962. It is the first comprehensive
overview of the stresses and strains the princes endured
from early periods of monarchs and wars, under British
rule and Japanese occupation, independence and Burman
military regime. They were relentless times overlaid with
anxieties and uncertainties and Part One covers these
chronological events relating them to the rulers, the
antagonists and the people.
Part Two deals with the 34 Tai/Shan rulers, the saohpas
describing their personal histories, their lives and work.
Much of the accounts vary in length for each of the states
were different in size and importance. It also explains the
complexity of the relationships between the Tai/Shan and
the diverse peoples living on the Shan plateau.
Able to interview those who were directly connected to
the saophas, with many sharing family archives publicly for
the first time, Sanda Simms offers a unique and privileged
insight into the lives of the Shan States ruling princes.
30
Bangkok arrests the visitor with its bewildering juxtaposition of
old and new, hi-tech and impromptu, sacred and profane. While
modernizing at great pace under myriad outside influences, the
Thai capital draws equal vigour from its historic communities,
cultural diversity and contemporary urban tribes. The author of
Very Thai and Time Out Bangkok, Philip Cornwel-Smith takes an
alternative look at the subcultures of his adopted town.
Explore the citys contrasting environments, ethnic patchwork
and intertwined beliefs. Encounter distinct social scenes, whether
hip or hi-so, local or
bohemian. See how
traditional roots infuse
the current Thai flower-
ing in arts and entertain-
ments, fashion and food,
lifestyle and streetlife.
Engage with Bangkoks
contradictory character
according to your mood
or interest. Wryly obser-
vant photography by
the author and by Dow
Wasiksiri selected for
the prestigious 9 Days in
the Kingdom project
enhances this insiders
field guide to a city like
no other.
272 pages, 240 x170 mm
Paperback, 300 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 50 3
VERY BANGKOK
Neighbourhoods, Networks, Tribes
Philip Cornwel-Smith
Photographs by
Philip Cornwel-Smith
& Dow Wasiksiri
31
THAI FURNITURE
Chami Jotisalikorn &
Julathasana Byachrananda
230 pp, 270 x 280 mm
Hb, over 250 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 51 0
Davn I Rooney
encharong
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Sicmcsc Kings cn! Ccuriicrs
250 pp, 230 x 250 mm
Hardback with 400 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 59 6
BENCHARONG
Enamelled Porcelain for Siamese
Kings and Courtiers
Dawn F. Rooney
BACKLIST TITLES
Temples of Cambodia The Heart of Angkor
Abhaya Burmas fearlessness
Tea Horse Road Chinas ancient trade road to Tibet
China - Through The Lens of John Thomsom 1868-1872
Southeast Asian Historiography Unravelling the Myths
Essays in honour of Barend Jan Terwiel
Sacred Sites of Burma Myth and Folklore in an
Evoling Spiritual realm
50 Years of Archaeology in Southeast Asia
Essays in Honour of Ian Glover
Thailands Political History
From the 13th Century to Modern Times
Rawfully Good Living Flavours of Southeast Asia
Rirkrit Tiravanija Cook Book
Thai Folk Wisdom Contemporary Takes on
Traditional Proverbs
`Ancient Sukhothai Thailands Cultural Heritage
Past Lives of The Buddha
Wat Si Chum Art, Architecture and Inscriptions
Origins of Thai Art
Ayutthaya Venice of the East
Siam and the Vatican
Siam and the League of Nations Modernisation,
Sovereignty and Multilateral Diplomacy, 1920-1940
Royal Siamese Maps War and Trade in Nineteenth
Century Thailand
Siam in Trade and War: Royal Maps of the
19th Century
The Ming Gap and Shipwreck Ceramics in Southeast
Asia Towards a Chronology of Thai Trade Ware
The Yao The Mien and Mun Yao in China,
Vietnam, Laos and Thailand
Caves of Northern Thailand
Expedition Naga Diaries from the Hills in Northeast
India 1921-1937 and 2002-2006
Very Thai Everyday Popular Culture
Mesmerization The Spells that Control Us
Why we are losing our minds to pop-culture
Thai Mother-of-Pearl Inlay
Thai Puppets & Khon Masks
Bangkok Found Reflections on the City
Buddhist Art An Historical and Cultural Journey
Khmer Ceramics Beauty and Meaning
Bayon New perspectives
The Khmer Empire
Tonle Sap
Images of The Gods
Buddhist Painting in Cambodia
Preah Bot Buddhist painted scrolls in Cambodia
Cambodian Dance Celebration of the Gods
Ruins of Angkor
Ancient Luang Prabang
The Moon Princess Memories of the Shan States
Early Landscapes of Myanmar
Traditional Textiles of Cambodia
Cultural Threads and Material Heritage
Pictorial Cambodian Textiles
Thai Textiles
Silken Threads Lacquer Thrones Lan Na Court Textiles
The Secrets of Southeast Asian Textiles
Myth, Status and the Supernatural
Through The Thread of Time Southeast Asian Textiles
The Shan Culture, Art and Crafts
Mantles of Merit Chin Textiles from Myanmar,
India and Bangladesh
Chambers English-Thai Phrasebook
Oxford-River Books English-Thai Dictionary
Pocket Oxford-River Books English-Thai Dictionary
34
TEMPLES OF CAMBODIA
The Heart of Angkor
248 pages, 310 x 260 mm
Hardback, 216 colour illustrations, 11 plans
ISBN 978 616 7339 10 8
Photographs by Barry Brukoff
Text by Helen Ibbitson Jessup
The temples of Cambodia are among the most
complex and imposing architectural creations in
the world, offering nothing less than the
embodiment of Khmer culture. Over a period of
five hundred years, from the seventh to the twelfth
centuries, successive rulers sought to build sacred
spaces that bore witness to the presence of the
gods and the legitimacy of the kings. This volume
invites the reader to experience that remarkable
architectural and spiritual achievement through
extraordinary photographs and a text by a leading
Khmer cultural historian.
Organized chronologically, the book opens
with the modestly scaled brick structures of the
7th and 8th centuries and goes on to explore the
first monumental temple mountains of the 9th
century, the technical advances enabling the
fulflllment of a unique Khmer architectural vision
in the 10th, and the erection of the ambitious
Baphuon temple mountain, among others, in the
11th, all setting the stage for the apogee of the
Khmer empire in the 12th century, and with it,
the construction of three massive temple com-
plexes: Beng Mealea, Bakan, and the supreme
architectural creation of Cambodia, Angkor Wat.
The glories of the Khmer temples do not lack
for exposure in pictorial and scholarly publications.
Yet no other recent publication offers such
comprehensive coverage of the Angkor temples at
the heart of Cambodia. What distinguishes this
volume are Barry Brukoffs photographs. Having
photographed the temples for nearly half a century,
his work not only records temples that have been
destroyed or vandalized but offer a uniquely
intimate insight into the Cambodian idiom.
The viewer is drawn into the picture plane and
can sense the interior wonders of the monuments.
For the flrst time a two-dimensional expression
succeeds in invoking the third, and the reader can
penetrate to the heart of the temples mystery.
35
ABHAYA
Burmas fearlessness
224 pages, 295 x 230 mm
Paperback, 100 photographs
ISBN 978 616 7339 13 9
James Mackay
In 1962 a military coup lead by General Ne Win
saw Burma, an isolated Buddhist country in
South-East Asia, come under the power of one of
the worlds most brutal regimes. For the past five
decades, thousands of people have been arrested,
tortured and given long prison sentences for
openly expressing their beliefs. Today, more than
2,000 political prisoners including monks, stu-
dents, journalists, lawyers, elected Members of
Parliament and over 300 members of Aung San
Suu Kyis opposition party, The National League
for Democracy, are incarcerated in horrendous
conditions in Burmas notorious prisons. In
Burma and across the world, hundreds of former
political prisoners have come together to raise
awareness of the tragic plight of their colleagues
still detained in jail. Abhaya Burmas Fearlessness
is part of an international appeal for their
liberation.
Photographed standing with their right hand
raised, palm out-turned facing the camera, the
name of a current political prisoner is shown
written on their hand. The sacred Buddhist
gesture of Abhaya, Fear Not, is not only an act
of silent protest, but also one of remembrance and
fearlessness.
The people featured in this book have all
had to learn to face their fears squarely during
the decades they have passed in the struggle for
democracy and human rights in Burma. Their
commitment has been their courage. It is
important that they and what they stand for
should not be forgotten, that their sufferings as
well as their aspirations should be remembered.
James Mackay has contributed greatly towards this
vital remembrance, which is essential if our world
is to become a progressively safer, kinder home for
humanity.
I hope that all who read this book will be
encouraged to do everything they can to gain the
freedom of political prisoners in Burma and to
create a world where there are no political
prisoners. Aung San Suu Kyi.
Hardback,
37
Scottish photographer John Thomson (1837-1921) was one of the most influential
photographers of the 19th century and a pioneer of photojournalism.
Born two years before the invention of daguerreotype and the birth of photography,
Thomson first travelled to Asia in 1862 where he set up a professional photographic
studio. He became fascinated by local culture and the people of Asia and in 1868 he made
his second trip, this time settling in Hong Kong. Between 1868 and 1872, Thomson made
extensive trips to Guangdong, Fujian, Beijing, Chinas north-east and down the Yangtze
river, covering nearly 5,000 miles. This exhibition catalogue is drawn from his time in
these regions.
These were the early days of photography when negatives were made on glass plates that had to be
coated with emulsion before the exposure was made. A huge amount of cumbersome equipment had to
be carried from place to place and with perseverance, great energy and stamina, Thomson managed to
take a wide variety of images and themes, including landscapes, people, architecture, domestic and street
scenes. As a foreigner, his ability to gain access to photograph women is also remarkable. In China,
Thomson excelled as a photographer in quality, depth and breadth, and in artistic sensibility.
John Thomsons photographs appear courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.
[John Thomsons images] offer an inspiring glimpse into a lost world that contin-
ues to intrigue. An important record but also a joy to behold, this book is both
history and high art.
Traveller Magazine (Autumn 2010 issue)
168 pp, 310 x 310 mm,
Hardback
With 157 b/w photographs
ISBN 978 616 7339 00 9
CHINA
Through The Lens of John Thomson 1868-1872
The sacred sites of Burma are amongst the most beautiful and spectac-
ular in all of Asia. However, the fame and sacredness of these holy
places rests almost solely on the myths and legends that surround their
founding and the origins of their relics. These Buddhist tales can arise
and evolve with astounding speed and creativity drawing on a variety
of sources ranging from local folklore to Sri Lankan chronicles. The
author uncovers the evidence for and traces the development of these
intricate myths across a wide spectrum of sacred sites ranging from
Yangon and the Mon State in Lower Burma to Pagan and Mandalay in
Upper Burma as well as considering the areas of Shan influence around
Inle lake.
The book demonstrates how sacred sites can emerge with remarkable
frequency in our own time with only those that possess myths catching
the imagination of the Buddhist faithful having any chance of long
term survival. Sacred Sites of Burma is an essential read for anyone in-
terested in the development of Buddhism in its many aspects, be they
its art, archaeology, history or belief.
SACRED SITES OF BURMA
Myth and Folklore in an Evolving Spiritual Realm
340 pp, 232 x 170 mm
Pb, over 400 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 60 2
Donald M. Stadtner
This collection of twenty-one essays in honour of Professor Barend Jan
Terwiel deals with a wide range of issues spanning various periods of
time, both modern and pre-modern, in countries throughout
Southeast Asia. The contributors have been inspired to challenge and
unravel established paradigms of this diverse regions history and in
doing so propose new insights and interpretations.
Renowned historian Thongchai Winichakul sets the scene by dis-
cussing Thai history in the context of Siams colonial conditions before
B. J. Terwiel himself reviews the controversy surrounding the Ram
Khamhaeng inscription. Other topics covered include the rise of Thai
nationalism, concepts of gender and ethnicity and the role of magic
and religion in contemporary society. The view then widens from
Thailand to look at issues of historiography in Laos, dialogue and
interaction between Europeans and various Southeast Asian nations
using Dutch and Portugese sources, and issues such as the relationship
between myth and nation in Vietnam, Buddhism and political
legitimisation in Burma, and migration and stereotypes in Indonesia.
In effect, this publication sets about debunking the myths and
commonly held perceptions of Southeast Asias vibrant and, at times,
volatile history.
SOUTHEAST ASIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY
UNRAVELLING THE MYTHS
Essays in honour of Barend Jan Terwiel
Edited by Volker Grabowsky
320 pp, 232 x 170 mm
Paperback, 73 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 97 8
38
39
This collection of essays in honour of Dr Ian Glover, one of Southeast
Asias most pioneering and leading archaeologists, offers an up-to-date
account of the main issues in the regions archaeology from the late
Pleistocene to the early historic period, discussing issues such as food
subsistence management, technology transfer and long-distance ex-
change, to social complexity and political and ethical debates that
today form important aspect of Southeast Asian studies.
The contributors tackle topics such as hunter-gatherers and early
agriculture in East Timor, burial traditions in Thailand and Sarawak,
early state velopment in Vietnam and Sulawesi, craft production and
exchange stretching from India to the South China Sea, issues of post-
colonialism in Laos and the creation of world heritage sites throughout
the region.
50 YEARS OF ARCHAEOLOGY
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Essays in Honour of Ian Glover
Edited by Brnice Bellina, Elisabeth A. Bacus,
Thomas Oliver Pryce & Jan Wisseman Christie
320 pp, 232 x 170 mm
Paperback, 129 colour photographs,
21 maps and 12 plans
ISBN 978 616 7339 02 3
328 pp, 232 x 170 mm
Paperback, 36 illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 96 1
This fully revised edition has a greatly widened scope, from the
evolution of the Siamese state in the early Sukhothai period through
the fall of Ayutthaya and the rise and consolidation of the Chakri
dynasty in the late 18th and 19th centuries, to the emergence in the
20th century of the Thai nation state, the large-scale investments in
modern infrastructure and the concomitant economic expansion
that have occurred since the 1950s onwards.
A new final chapter addresses Thailands current political
situation with the role of Thaksin Shinawatra and the divisive
polarisation of Thai society. It traces the emergence of the rival
Yellow and Red shirt groups, the takeover of Suvarnabhumi Interna-
tional Airport by the PAD and the occupation of Rachaprasong by
the UDD and their eventual violent dispersal by the Thai military.
THAILANDS POLITICAL HISTORY
From the Thirteenth Century to Modern Times
B. J. Terwiel New revised edition
Glover's work has stimulated, influenced and inspired a new generation
of scholars...Not so long ago many regarded Southeast Asia as little more
thana geographic appendage. [50 Years] champions the region's significance
in world archaeology. Nam C. Kim, Antiquity
40
284 pp, 245 x 165 mm
Hardback, 342 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 190 4562 12 2
COOK BOOK
Just Smile and Don't Talk
192 pp, 240 x 170 mm
Hardback, 400 illustrations
ISBN 978 616 7339 06 1
Rirkrit Tiravanija
The installations of contemporary artist Rirkrit Tiravanija are often
stages or rooms for sharing meals, cooking, reading or playing
music; structures for living and socializing are a core element in his
work, which has been shown at museums and galleries throughout
the world. In 2004 he was awarded the Hugo Boss Prize by the
Guggenheim Museum, in recognition of his profound contribution
to contemporary art and is a Professor at the School of the Arts at
Columbia University. Cook Book contains 23 recipes, previously
performed in museums and galleries around the world. All were
cooked again in Chiang Mai and photographed by Antoinette
Aurell. An essay by Thomas Kellein of the Chinati Fdtion,
Marfa, and an interview between him and the artist shed light
on Rirkrit's work.
Letting things burn and cook and boil, that's great. (RT)
Owner of the idyllic resort Puri Ganesha in Bali, Diana von Cranach
has long been a well-known local food explorer and creator of incredible
food. A few years ago, she began a journey into the world of raw food
using only locally sourced ingredients. In this book, Diana works with
world-famous chefs at restaurants throughout Southeast Asia to prepare
healthier and lighter vegan food using their own recipes as a basis.
From Bali in Indonesia, Langkawi in Malaysia, Nha Trang in
Vietnam, Siem Reap in Cambodia, Luang Prabang in Laos, Chiang Mai
and Loei Provinces in Thailand and the cities of Bangkok, Singapore and
Yangon, Rawfully Good reinvents over 99 well-known regional recipes
with excitingly different and invigorating living flavours.
RAWFULLY GOOD
Living Flavours of Southeast Asia
Diana von Cranach
40
41 41
This dual language book features 50 proverbs and sayings
from Thailand, each interpreted with an abundance of
vibrant pizzazz reflecting modern Thai culture, using
sensational visuals from some of Thailand's leading
contemporary artists such as Manit Sriwanichpoom,
Pinaree Sanpitak and Jakkai Siributr.
S.E.A. Write award winner, Jane Vejjajiva's explanation of
the proverbs is accompanied by the delightful tale of school-
girl Lum Nam and her aunt and uncle. Their life in modern
Bangkok link ancient Thai Folk Wisdom with the vibrant
modern city.
THAI FOLK WISDOM
Contemporary Takes on
Traditional Proverbs
Tulaya Pornpiriyakulchai & Jane Vejjajiva
120 pp, 240 x 220 mm
Pb, 100 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 78 7
42
This authoritative guide covers the history and art of the 13th and 14th
century Sukhothai, often considered the classic period of Thai art.
Situated in the fertile Yom River basin of north-central Thailand the
guide covers the cities of Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet.
As well as surveying over 80 temples in the three sites and highlighting
masterpieces from related museums, the author discusses the art and
architecture of the period, with a special section on ceramics.
Dawn F Rooney has lived and worked in Thailand for 30 years and is
an expert in Southeast Asian Art. She has a PhD in ceramics.
248 pp, 240 x 170 mm, paperback,
395 colour ills, 14 plans and maps
ISBN 978 974 9863 42 8
ANCIENT SUKHOTHAI
Thailands Cultural Heritage
Dawn F. Rooney
Wat Si Chum is unique among Sukhothai temples. Inside, lining the
ceiling of a dark and narrow staircase leading to the open roof, are 86
inscribed stone reliefs depicting jatakas, the former lives of Gotama
Buddha. Their unique character and arrangement have puzzled
generations of scholars. In this original volume, a team of experts
presents the latest evidence and new solutions.
296 pp, 230 x 250 mm
Hb, with 390 colour llustrations
and 30 plans and maps
ISBN 978 974 9863 45 9
PAST LIVES OF THE BUDDHA
Wat Si Chum Art, Architecture and Inscriptions
This superb study invites us to look at Wat Si Chum in a whole new
light. Rather than a rather squat, blocky building, we can now imagine it
as one-fifth of a fantastic tower. Rather than wondering why the Jataka
slabs were "hidden away", we can view them as intrinsic to a very
ambitious project of religious construction. This revised view of the
building raises new questions about Sukhothai's history.
Chris Baker, Bangkok Post, Sept. 2009
Peter Skilling, M. L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati, Pierre Pichard,
Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, & Santi Pakdeekham
ORIGINS OF THAI ART
Betty Gosling
This richly illustrated, very readable book presents a survey of early
Thai art from prehistory to the thirteenth century within the context
of recent art historical and related research. The myriad pieces of the
complex cross-cultural jigsaw are fitted together to create a coherent
picture of the evolution of Thai art.
The late Betty Gosling was the author of three previous books on
Southeast Asian art as well as many articles in scholarly journals.
196 pp, 225 x 245 mm, hardback,
over 300 colour illustrations
ISBN 974 8225 99 2
43
AYUTTHAYA
Venice of the East
Derick Garnier
200 pp, 253 x 182 mm
Hb, 99 colour llustrations
ISBN 974 8225 60 7
SIAM AND THE
VATICAN
146 pp, 253 x 182 mm
Hb, 91 colour illustrations
ISBN 974 8225 68 2
The fight against human trafficking, public health, or combating
the international drug trade are some of the most pressing problems
Thailand and the world face today. However, these topics were
already high on the international political agenda over 80 years
ago during colonial times, when the League of Nations, the United
Nations predecessor, was created.
This first in-depth study of Thai foreign relations in well over
a decade traces how these and other policy areas brought Siam in
contact with the League of Nations, after the kingdom had signed
the Treaty of Versailles to become an original member of this first
global body. Using never before consulted primary sources in Thai-
land and Europe, the study tells the story of a unique relationship
between the only independent country in Southeast Asia and the
League during the inter-war years of 1920-1940.
SIAM AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Modernisation, Sovereignty and Multilateral
Diplomacy, 1920-1940
Stefan Hell
Foreword by Tej Bunnag,
former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Stefen Hells book is full of wonderful and little known details. ...Readers
may be more interested, however, in Collective Security ... It is here that
Stefan Hell is at his best in demonstrating a firm grasp and clear under-
standing of Thai foreign policy and diplomatic conduct of the time.
Tej Bunnag, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand
284 pp, 232 x 170 mm,
Paperback, 22 b/w photographs
ISBN 978 974 9863 89 3
Between 1351 and 1767 AD, Ayutthaya, capital
of Siam was one of the most important trading
centres in Southeast Asia, renowned throughout
the world for its wealth and beauty.
Derick Garnier traces the history of the city and
the Chao Phraya river which was so essential to its
trade, in a text which is scholarly and entertaining.
Formal relations between Siam and the Vatican
date from 1669 when Pope Clement IX sent a
papal brief to King Narai. Informal relations
began earlier with the arrival of the Portuguese
and their priests. King Narai responded with
two missions to Rome but only the second
arrived in late 1688. The events behind these
missions are related by historian Michael
Smithies, assisted by the former Apostolic
Nuncio of Bangkok, Mgr. Bressan.
Michael Smithies and
Mgr. Bressan
44 44
88 pp, 280 x 245 mm, Pb, 120
colour ills ISBN 974 9863 26 7
208 pp, 300 x 245 mm,
Hardback, 378 colour illustrations
ISBN 974 8225 92 5
ROYAL SIAMESE MAPS
War and Trade in Nineteenth Century Thailand
SIAM IN TRADE AND WAR
Royal Maps of the 19th Century
In 2005, five of the antique maps went on show at the Jim Thompson
House, Center for Arts. Together with 80 other related items such as
swords, paintings, sculptures, porcelain, and other maps, the exhibi-
tion Siam in Trade and War Royal Maps of the Nineteenth Century
gives a fascinating picture of Siamese history and geopolitics during
the first three reigns of the Chakri dynasty.
Essays by the late Henry Ginsburg, Dawn Rooney and Narisa
Chakrabongse provide the historical background to the period.
In 1996, seventeen enormous and beautiful, hand-drawn cotton
maps were discovered in the Grand Palace, Bangkok. They record
cartographically Siamese warfare and trade in the early Bangkok
Period (1782-1851). Focusing on Siam and her neighbours, the
collection includes a four-metre coastal map extending from
peninsular Malaysia through China to Korea.
Santanee Phasuk gained her doctorate in cartography from the
School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Philip
Stott was professor of Geography at SOAS.
Santanee Phasuk & Philip Stott
208 pp, 240 x 170 mm,
Hardback, 295 colour llustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 77 0
Shipwrecks throughout Southeast Asia and the precious cargoes they
contain represent invaluable information for the study of interna-
tional trade networks. In this book the late Dr. Roxanna M. Brown
analyses over 120 wrecks to trace the developments and fluctuations
of the hitherto little-studied international ceramic trade between
China and Southeast Asia, in particular the 14th-15th centuries, a
period known as the Ming Gap when export of Chinese ceramics
was banned by the Ming Dynasty. As a result for over a century
Southeast Asian ceramics became the dominant trade ware through-
out the region.
Roxanna Maude Brown
THE MING GAP AND SHIPWRECK
CERAMICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Towards a Chronology of Thai Trade Ware
45 45
EXPEDITION NAGA
Diaries from the Hills in Northeast
India1921-1937 2002-2006
Peter van Ham & Jamie Saul
296 pp, 250 x 300 mm
Hb, 697 ills, 5 plans and maps
ISBN 978 974 9863 70 1
Expedition Naga is an exciting multi-sensory trip into
one of the worlds most remote and least accessible
regions in Northeast India near the Burmese border.
Many areas had not seen foreigners for over 80 years
when Peter van Ham and Jamie Saul obtained
permission for their fieldwork. With nearly 600
stunning contemporary and historic photographs,
along with 140 minute film on the enclosed DVD.
THE YAO The Mien and Mun Yao in
China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand
278 pp, 225 x 245 mm, Pb,
750 colour ills, ISBN 974 8225 52 6
The Yao, a non-Han minority moved many centuries ago
from the Yang Tse basin to southern China, Northern
Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Their strong Taoist beliefs,
seen in their magnificent paintings, helped them survive
as a society with strong traditions, despite having no
country of their own. Distinctive dress and silver jewellery
also help to define their various sub-groups.
Jess G. Pourret
More caves occur in the eight northern provinces
of Thailand Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Lam-
phun, Lampang, Chiang Rai, Phayao, Nan and
Phrae than in any other region. In Pang Ma Pha
district in Mae Hong Son province alone 176
caves are recorded and many remain to be ex-
plored But although the 100 selected for this book
are only 5% or so of the caves in Northern Thai-
land, they include many of the most spectacular:
wild caves, temple caves and archaeological sites.
The book covers all aspects of caves including
their geology, environment, archaeology, temples
and folklore.
Pindar Sidisunthorn,
Simon Gardner &
Dean Smart
392 pp, 240 x 170 mm
Hb, over 900 colour ills 106
caves described
and illustrated
ISBN 974 9863 13 5
..an extremely well-researched, carefully constructed
publication that is a credit to both the authors and
the publisher .. An unusual, and truly impressive work.
Descent Journal of Speleology, Dec. 2006
CAVES OF NORTHERN THAILAND
46
This pioneering insight into contemporary Thai folk culture delves
beyond the traditional Thai icons to reveal the casual, everyday
expressions of Thainess that so delight and puzzle. From floral
truck bolts and taxi altars to buffalo cart furniture and drinks in a
bag the same exquisite care, craft and improvisation resounds
through home and street, bar and wardrobe.
Philip Cornwel-Smith is a freelance editor of the Time Out
Bangkok guidebook, following eight years as the founding editor
of Bangkok Metro magazine. John Goss is an American artist who
works with traditional and electronic media.
256 pages, 240 x 170 mm
Hardback, 492 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 67 1 (English)
ISBN 978 974 9863 36 7 (German)
Japanese edition in preparation
In Mesmerization, Gee Thomson deconstructs contemporary
culture in a new and exciting way. From faith to fashion,
psycho-babble to cyber-sex, the book examines the viral nature
of memes. Dominant across all media, these ubiquitous spells
and social prescriptions drive and shape global behaviour wear
the right trainers, be blonde, be thin, the Great Satan, eco-warrior,
climate change. These influences are fundamental in deciding
what gets seen, what gets said, what gets made, impacting on
how we lead our lives, the look of our homes, cities and our
environments.
Designed by acclaimed design company Why Not, the book
uses a unique combination of graphic spells and formulas to
decode the spells that control our age. Media guru Gee Thomson
founded the ground-breaking Shots magazine in the 1990s and is
now part of the Contagious group.
VERY THAI Everyday Popular Culture
Philip Cornwel-Smith
Photographs by John Goss
MESMERIZATION The Spells that Control Us
Why we are losing our minds to pop-culture
Gee Thomson
240 pages, 260 x 205 mm
With 67 ills and 140 photographs
ISBN 978 974 9863 56 5
ISBN 978 0 500 97679 1 T&H
Required reading for visitors, residents and anyone anywhere
interested in what makes Thailand tick. Asian Wall Street Journal
A thrilling, trail-blazing book of cultural history that will help you see
and understand Thailand afresh... Very Thai explicates the everyday
mysteries and expressions of Thai culture. A work of astounding breath
and erudition. Very Thai has few, if any, English-language equals.
Bangkok Post
47
BANGKOK FOUND
Reflections on the City
316 pp, 210 x 142 mm, Pb
79 b/w illustrations and 2 maps
ISBN 978 974 9863 92 3
Evocative and incisive, Bangkok Found looks deep within
traditional culture to discover how Bangkok is like no other
contemporary city. Its the book you read after youve seen the
temples and enjoyed the nightlife and then start to wonder
where the mysterious appeal of Bangkok really lies.
With wit and a wealth of anecdotes from Kerrs thirty years
experience in Thailand, Bangkok Found, sequel to his award-
winning Lost Japan, takes you on a journey to the essential and
the quirky, the factual and the mythical.
In this series of meditations on the city, old culture meets
global fusion in the crossroads that is Bangkok.
Alex Kerr
THAI MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAY
Julathusana Byachrananda
For over 500 years Thai mother-of-pearl inlay has developed a
distinctive and beautiful style. Used for a wide variety of decorative
purposes doors and windows for temples, palace thrones and
precious objects such as monks' alm bowls or boxes the book
illustrates the best examples of mother-of-pearl inlay from the
Ayutthaya period onwards, combining history with superlative
photography.
184 pages, 210 x 240 mm,
Hardback, over 300 colour illus.
ISBN 974 8225 63 1
THAI PUPPETS & KHON MASKS
164 pages, 210 x 240 mm
Hardback, over 250 colour llustrations
ISBN 974 8225 23 2
N. Chandavij & P. Pramualratana
Elaborately gilded masks worn by dancers performing in the
popular Ramayana dance drama are an enduring symbol of Thai
culture. Since their introduction in the late eighteenth century,
many hundreds of thousands of masks have been produced by
skilled craftsmen. Less well-known as an art form, the history of
Thai puppetry dates back to 17th century Ayutthaya when large,
metre-high puppets were used to relate popular folk tales. Today
practitioners of this art form are becoming scarce, as are the finely
crafted puppets themselves.
The joy of the book is that Alex Kerr arrived in Bangkok as a seeker,
and now takes us along for a replay of the ride. At the end he admits
Bangkok is too elusive to truly be found. But he has written probably
the best single guide for a visitor to Bangkok, who wants to be
provoked into looking at the city as it is, not as it is often portrayed.
Chris Baker, Bangkok Post, 28 June 2010
48
400 pp, 310 x 240 mm, Hb
680 colour ills, 22 maps and 78 plans
ISBN 978 974 9863 87 9
Gilles Bguin
BUDDHIST ART
An Historical and Cultural Journey
Buddhism and its art represent the one truly unifying factor
of the entire Asian continent and is a fundamental part of our
shared world heritage. Trying to draw a unique portrait of this
art in a single work is a formidable task due to the great plu-
rality in traditions spanning different countries and regions
over various epochs, with the variability in the conservation
of Buddhist monuments providing additional challenges.
Expert in Buddhist art, Gilles Bguin takes the reader on
an historical and cultural journey across the vastness of Asia
from India, Sri Lanka and Gandhara to Thailand, Cambodia
and Burma in Southeast Asia, then up to the Himalayan king-
doms of Nepal and Tibet before arriving at China, Korean
and Japan.
48
KHMER CERAMICS
Beauty and Meaning
Dawn F. Rooney, Krisda Pinsri &
Pariwat Thammapreechakorn
Photography by Robert McLeod
262 pp, 300 x 245 mm,
Hardback, 300 colour llustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 88 6
This magnificent book explores the meaning of Khmer
ceramics both in terms of their function and their aesthetics,
drawing on the 160 superlative pieces in the Yothin
Tharahirunchot collection.
Renowned ceramics expert Dawn F. Rooney provides an
authoritative discussion of each piece. while the two Thai
scholars, Krisda Pinsri and Pariwat Thammapreechakorn
discuss hitherto understudied areas of Khmer ceramics.
Renowned photographer, Robert McLeod, provides wonder-
fully evocative images.
TONLE SAP
Cambodias Natural Heritage
49 49
BAYON
New Perspectives
Edited by Joyce Clark
Contributors: Ang Choulean,
Olivier Cunin, Claude Jacques,
TS Maxwell, Vittorio Roveda,
Anne-Valrie Schweyer,
Peter D Sharrock, Michael
Vickery and Hiram Woodward
Nine researchers probe the mysteries of this extraordinary monument
and its giant face towers built by King Jayavarman VII in the early
13th century. Bayon: New perspectives brings together for the first
time leading scholars whose insights challenge, not always in consen-
sus, many of the earlier interpretations of the Bayon's art, architecture
and inscriptions.
Claude Jacques gives a close-up of Jayavarman's life and family. T.S.
Maxwell looks at the Bayon 'short inscriptions' and the unique
Buddhist-Hindu-ancestral religion of Jayavarman. Olivier Cunin uses
new technology to chart the temple's architectural design changes.
Peter Sharrock finds signs of Tantric Buddhism and suggest the
Buddha Vajrasattva for the face towers. Anne-Valrie Schweyer uses the
inscriptions of the neighbouring Chams to throw new light on the
king's psychology and life, charted by Vittorio Roveda in the detailed
political reliefs of the Bayon's outer gallery. Ang Choulean provides
present-day local folklore associated with the monument. Hiram
Woodward provides a masterly preface.
416 pp, 240 x 170 mm, Hb,
242 photographs, 87 diagrams and 3 maps
ISBN 978 974 9863 47 3
Claude Jacques, longtime Cambodian scholar, explores Khmer
temples beyond Angkor, journeying from the sites of the early
pre-Angkorean Funan to those built by King Jayavarman VII in
the late 12th century.
Superbly photographed by Philippe Lafond, the virtual
tour of exquisite Khmer architecture ranges from the cliff-top
Preah Vihear overlooking the Cambodian plain, to the mysteri-
ous site of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay and the temple-in-the
forest of Beng Mealea.
THE KHMER EMPIRE
Cities and Sanctuaries from
the 5th to the 13th Century
Claude Jacques & Philippe Lafond
280 pp, 300 x 245 mm, Hb, 400 colour
ills and 42 maps and plans
ISBN 974 9863 30 5
The Tonle Sap, also known as Cambodias Great Lake is remark-
able in increasing, in the rainy season, from 2,500 to about
13,000 square kilometres in area. Colin Poole examines all aspects
of this fascinating and beautiful lake its environment, fauna,
history, culture and future with memorable photographs by
Eleanor Briggs.
Colin Poole & Eleanor Briggs
172 pp, 230 x 250 mm
Hb, over 200 colour ills
ISBN 974 9863 15 1
50
IMAGES OF THE GODS
Vittorio Roveda
The myths and legends of the Khmers displayed in low reliefs in all
the major temples in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos are examined
in depth and richly illustrated in this authoritative volume by
author Vittorio Roveda. Stories of the gods and human actors in
the great epics of the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas are
brought to life in greater detail than ever before. A new emphasis is
given to Buddhist visual narratives of the life of the Buddha and
the Jatakas. In addition, unusual animal and humanoid creatures
on the cusp between myth and fantasy, are illustrated.
544 pp, 240 x 170 mm,
Hardback, 2,000 colour illustrations
ISBN 974 9863 03 8
DVD with 860 additional images
This lavishly-illustrated book documents the rich Buddhist
cultural heritage of Cambodia. After a discussion of Buddhist art in
general, the authors highlight the most important mural paintings,
as well as the architecture of the temples in which they are housed,
painting techniques and narrative systems.The authors describe
over 100 viharas with mural paintings throughout Cambodia,
illustrated in 630 colour photographs many of which have never
been published before.
This book is a beautiful and important record of Cambodian
Buddhist painting, both traditional and modern.
BUDDHIST PAINTING IN CAMBODIA
328 pp, 279 x 213 mm
Hardback, 630 colour llustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 52 7
Vittorio Roveda and Sothorn Yem
Graduallly fading in disuse and ignored by art histrians and museums, the
beautifully painted Buddhist scrolls known in Cambodia as preah bot have
been produced since the end of the 19th century as a manifestation of the
faith of pious Cambodian lay people, and are an important element of the
country's rich Buddhist cultural heritage. A large variety of cloths are
illustrated, showing events from the life of the Buddha and his previous lives
narrated in the Jataka tales, with particular emphasis on the Vessantara Jataka,
detailing both its Pali version and previously unknown Khmer versions.
This important book is the first to document preah bot at a time when the
production of such cloths for religious use is declining and being replaced by
commercial production for tourists or art collectors.
PREAH BOT Buddhist painted scrolls in Cambodia
Vittorio Roveda & Sothon Yem
152 pages, 240 x 170 mm
Pb, 172 colour llustrations
ISBN 978 974 9863 99 2
51
RUINS OF ANGKOR
Cambodia in 1909
Piere Dieulefils with texts by
Louis Finot & Lunet de la Jonquire
152 pp, 210 x 275 mm, Hb
Over 200 duotone llustrations
ISBN 974 8225 80 1
Over a century ago, when the French,
through the l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-
Orient, managed Angkor and its
environs, the temples were magnificently
photographed by Piere Dieulefils and
expertly documented by Louis Finot. This
important record allows us to compare
past and present.
CAMBODIAN DANCE
Celebration of the Gods
Denise Heywood
144 pp, 250 x 230 mm,
Hardback. 300 ills, 208 in colour
ISBN 978 974 9863 40 4
This isnt simply a book for everyone interested inSouth Asian
dance, though it is certainly that. This is a book for everyone in-
terested in dance.
Bill Harpe, Dancing Times, September 2009
In Cambodia, dance is central to the countrys
identity. Religious in origin, its traditions date
back more than a thousand years to the great
Khmer empire. Dancers performed in temples at
Angkor echoing the celestial dancers carved on the
temple walls.
The history of Cambodian dance, the relation-
ship with Siam, the role of the French in bringing
the dancers to the west, and the stories of dancers
who survived the dark period in Cambodian
history to revive classical dance today are related
in this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book.
214 pp, 240 x 170 mm, Pb
315 colour and 63 b/w ills
ISBN 978 974 9863 66 4 (Eng)
ISBN 978 974 9863 65 7 (Fr)
ANCIENT LUANG PRABANG
Denise Heywood
High in the mountains of northern Laos, cut through by
the Mekong river, is Luang Prabang, a town of Buddhist
temples and barefoot monks. Luang Prabang is a treasure
trove of sacred art dating from the 17th century. 36 impor-
tant Buddhist temples, elaborately carved and exquisitely
frescoed and gilded are described and illustrated.
In addition, the author discusses the architectural con-
tributions of the French colonisers. Today, the combination
of traditional Lao architecture and elegant colonial build-
ings have made Luang Prabang one of the most beautiful
and best preserved towns in Southeast Asia, well deserving
of its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
52
The cornucopia of newly published discoveries. . . makes this essential
reading for those interested in the early history of Myanmar and mainland
Southeast Asia. Donald Stadtner, JSS, Vol. 97, 2009
EARLY LANDSCAPES OF MYANMAR
272 pp, 240 x 170 mm
Paperback, over 400 colour and
60 b/w ills, 44 maps and plans
ISBN 974 9863 31 3
The authoritative text, describing the emergence of the Buddhist
landscapes of Myanmar, is framed by the artefacts, sites and ecology
of Upper and Lower Myanmar, with coverage of the Paleolithic,
Neolithic, Bronze-iron chiefdoms that preceded Hindu-Buddhist
walled polities of the first millennium AD. Views and descriptions
of sites, many not published in English before, include Letpanchibaw,
Htaukmagon, Moegyobyin, Badigon, Ta- gaung, Halin, Sriksetra,
Thaton and Dawei.
Elizabeth H. Moore
310 pp, 240 x 170 mm
Pb, 162 b/w ills
ISBN 978 974 9863 37 4
THE MOON PRINCESS
Memories of the Shan States
Sanda Simms
Sao Nang Mya Sanda has, at the wonderful age of 80, graced us with a
remarkable memoir that rides on historys elephantine back out of Burmas
northern hills and across the world... Its reach extends far from the Shan
mountains to touch on matters of great historical and social importance
and matters of the swelling heart as well.
Paul Dorsey, The Nation, March 2, 2008
Narrated by the eldest daughter of Sao Shwe Thaike, The Moon Princess
is both an autobiography and a memoir of her father who, in 1948,
became first President of the Union of Burma. Growing up in the Shan
States, she records the changes that occurred during British colonial
rule, war and Japanese occupation, the return of the British administra-
tion, Burmas independence and the military takeover in 1962.
53
PICTORIAL CAMBODIAN TEXTILES
Gillian Green
166 pp, 230 x 250 mm
Pb, 278 colour ills
ISBN 978 974 9863 39 8
Gill Green is to be congratulated on this
important contribution to our understanding
of Cambodian textiles . ..her findings richly
illustrated in the high-quality plates. . . the
book provides an extremely satisfying aesthetic
experience.
Milton Osborne, The Asian Arts
Society of Australia, Vol. 18, no. 1
The pictorial representations of Cambodian silk
hangings, pidan, are unique in mainland Southeast
Asia. Many of the few surviving antique textiles
visualise Buddhist themes a response in silk to similar
images in other media also used in community religious
practice. This book illuminates many facets of these
spectacular cloths, assembling for the first time a
comprehensive collection of pictorial pidan from
private and public collections.
The unique character of the 19th century Lan Na
culture of Northern Thailand is seen in its sump-
tuous textiles and court dress reflecting a diverse
cultural heritage. In addition, Susan Conway situ-
ates this textile history within the context of the
complex marital and political alliances of the time.
282 pp, 280 x 215 mm,
Hb, over 300 colour ills
ISBN 974 8225 65 8
SILKEN THREADS LACQUER
THRONES Lan Na Court Textiles
Susan Conway
Thailands rich textile heritage ranges from simple
cotton blankets and ceremonial banners to
luxurious silks with gold and silver thread. Over
the centuries weavers from neighbouring countries
have further enhanced the variety and quality of
textiles and weaving patterns.
192 pp, 270 x 207 mm
Pb, 160 colour ills
ISBN 974 8225 79 8
THAI TEXTILES
Susan Conway
TRADITIONAL TEXTILES OF CAMBODIA
Cultural Threads and Material Heritage
320 pp, 279 x 213 mm, Hb, over
400 colour ills, ISBN 974 8225 39 9
Gillian Green
The silks and costumes of Cambodia are among the most beautiful
and complex in Southeast Asia. Gillian Green's comprehensive text
provides an historical framework from the Angkorian period
onwards. From every day dress and dance costumes, to temple
hangings and monks robes, all aspects of Cambodian textiles are
elucidated and illustrated in full colour.
54
216 pp, 275 x 217 mm,
Pb with over 300 colour ills
ISBN 978 974 9863 38 1
This highly-illustrated book presents the insights of
12 cholars into the textiles of Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Authors
include Mattiebelle Gittenger, John Guy, Susan
Conway and Gillian Green. Topics cover such
diverse subjects as Shan and Thai court dress,
Khmer textiles and Cham weaving.
182 pp, 275 x 217 mm
Pb, 220 colour ills
ISBN 974 8225 76 3
THE SECRETS OF SOUTHEAST
ASIAN TEXTILES
Myth, Status and the Supernatural
The James H W Thompson
Foundation Symposium Papers
Edited by Jane Puranananda
THROUGH THE THREAD OF
TIME Southeast Asian Textiles
Fifteen scholars including Diana K Myers, Gillian
Green and John Guy discuss the mythology and
beliefs surrounding Southeast Asian textiles.
......beautifully produced and written... worth
buying for the illustrations alone... The book also
makes a valuable and fascinating scholarly contribu-
tion to a little studied part of the Tai world.
Martin Stuart-Fox, JSS, 2007 Vol. 95
The culture of the Shan and their rulers is
explored in this fascinating volume with rare,
previously unpublished photographs of life in the
courts and in the hill regions of Shan dominion.
212 pp, 280 x 215 mm
Hb, Over 300 colour ills.
ISBN 974 9863 06 2
Susan Conway
David & Barbara
Fraser
...the authors have exceeded expectations. Their
photographs of textiles, textile production, people,
and environment are both beautiful and informative.
Rebecca Hall, Journal of the American Oriental
Society, Vol. 126.4 2006
THE SHAN
Culture, Art and Crafts
288 pp, 280 x 215 mm
Hb, 650 colour ills
ISBN 974 9863 01 1
The rich textile
heritage of the Chin
emphasizes blankets
and intricate tunics
of homespun cotton,
flax, hemp and silk, dyed with indigo and lac, and
woven on a back-tension loom. Winner of the Millia
Davenport Publication Award 2006, for the best
book on costume and the R. L. Shep Book Award
2007, as the best book on ethnic textiles.
MANTLES OF MERIT
Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India
and Bangladesh
55
This brand new English-Thai phrasebook from Chambers is ideal for anyone
wishing to try out their foreign language skills while travelling abroad. The
information is practical and clearly presented, helping you to overcome the
language barrier and mix with the locals.
Each section features a list of useful words and a selection of common
phrases: some of these you will read or hear, while others will help you to express
yourself. The simple phonetic transcription system, specifically designed for
English speakers, ensures that you will always make yourself understood.
The book also includes a mini dictionary of around 2,500 words, so that
more adventurous users can build on the basic structures and engage in more
complex conversations.
Concise information on local culture and customs is provided, along with
practical tips to save you time. After all, youre on holiday-time to relax and
enjoy yourself! There is also a food and drink glossary to help you make sense of
menus, and ensure that you dont miss out on any of the national or regional
specialties.
192 pages,
102 x 145 mm
Paperback
ISBN 978 974 9863 94 7
CHAMBERS : ENGLISH-THAI PHRASEBOOK
1,084 pp, 255 x 180 mm
Hardback
ISBN 978 974 9863 79 4
Available from
the App Store
OXFORD RIVER BOOKS
ENGLISH-THAI DICTIONARY
The result of over 12 years preparation, this is the most comprehensive
English-Thai dictionary in the world. Based on the unparelled experience
of Oxford University Press in dictionary making, the Translation Centre
at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok has produced a dictionary which
captures the idiomatic, colloquial, spoken and written character of Eng-
lish. Incorporating over 230,000 words and phrases, with many helpful in
text boxes, a selection of useful phrases and a list of irregular verbs, it is a
dynamic passport to the English language for native Thai speakers.
At the same time, advanced Thai learners can develop their Thai lan-
guage skills. The dictionary includes a section on the characteristics of the
Thai language and a list of government organisations.
This edition which translates the best-selling Pocket Oxford
dictionary into Thai will provide the best coverage of modern
English-Thai available in a smaller sized dictionary. Its accessible,
jargon-free style makes it the first choice for everyday reference
needs. 65,000 entries and translations and 75,000 definitions are
given, with helpful labelling of informal and slang terms designed to
improve your command of the language.
POCKET OXFORD-RIVER BOOKS
ENGLISH-THAI DICTIONARY
560 pp,
195 x 130 mm
Paperback
ISBN 978 974 9863 61 9
River
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