Features on Asian Art, Culture, History & Travel
Features
Ordaining Pol Pot
Should Pol Pot Be Allowed Into Monkhood
The Venerable Maha Ghosananda, one of Cambodia’s most senior and respected religious figures, recently suggested that both Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge "Brother No. 1", and his most effective and ruthless military commander, Ta Mok, should abandon their struggle and enter the monkhood. "If they agree to be monks, they will give up their ambition, violence and killing," argued Maha Ghosananda in a recent issue of the Khmer-language paper Liberty News.
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan: Mongolia’s "Man Of The Millennium"
It is the ultimate ’rags to riches’ story. It begins with a 10-year-old boy in a small family encampment abandoned by his tribe on the harsh steppe, surviving only on what his mother could gather from the land. Forty years later he was well on the way to establishing the largest empire the world has ever known, stretching from the shores of the Yellow Sea to well beyond the Caspian, from the frozen wastes of the north into the tropical heartland of Asia. The boy was Temujin, better known as Genghis Khan, who has been declared by no lesser authority than the Washington Post to be the "Man of the Millennium".
Faces of Khlong Toey
Story by Joe Cummings / CPA Media (20 June, 2020)
Intrepid shooter Tim Russell documents an endangered Bangkok community.
Bun Nam
Vientiane’s "Bun Nam" Water Festival
No country shares closer cultural and social links with Thailand than Laos. The majority of the inhabitants of both countries – Thai and Lao – belong to the same Tai group of peoples, the predominant religion is Theravada Buddhism, and the languages are, for the most part, mutually comprehensible. It is hardly surprising, then, that the Thai and the Lao share many festivals, both sacred and mundane.
Chiang Mai’s Shan Connection: Thailand’s Colourful Poy Sang Long Festival
Story and Pictures by David Henley and Andrew Forbes / CPA Media (January, 2021)
Probably because of their remoteness from Bangkok and their high demographic presence, the Shans of Mae Hong Son Province are confident, culturally secure, and very sure of their place in the scheme of things. Like the central Thais they are devout Buddhists (albeit with more than a touch of animism included), and their flourishing temples, redolent of Burma and of Shan State, have long excited the curiosity of visitors. The Shan ordination ceremony of Poy Sang Long, held in Mae Hong Son each April, is also a popular attraction. Yet Shan people are not just to be found in Mae Hong Son. In recent years they have also been making their cultural presence felt in Chiang Mai, the capital of the north.
THE MANY FACES OF BUDDHA
Story by Ron Emmons (October 2020)
Massive and minute, gleaming and battered, obese and wasting away - the many faces of Buddha in Thailand reflect the diversity of this ancient religion. Yet for most Thais, Buddhism is more than a religion - it is a way of life.
That Luang
That Luang: Heart Of The Lao Nation
"Near Wieng Chan is a very interesting pagoda called Wat Luang. Religion and war are there combined; the lower part is a perfect fortress riddled with loop holes. The Haw Chinese took possession of it without any opposition, and by means of ropes pulled off the spire in search of treasure." - James McCarthy, Report of a Survey in Siam, 1895.
STUPA PILGRIMAGE, THAI-STYLE
Story by Joe Cummings / CPA Media (25 July, 2020)
Outside Bangkok, a widespread pilgrimage route links a dozen stupas, each associated with a different animal in the 12-year astrological cycle shared by most Tai and Chinese cultures.