Features on Asian Art, Culture, History & Travel

X Close

Features

A STROLL THROUGH CHIANG MAI’S OLD CITY

A STROLL THROUGH CHIANG MAI’S OLD CITY

Story by Ron Emmons (February 2021)

Join author and photographer, Ron Emmons on a leisurely walk through the fascinating streets of northern Thailand’s ancient capital, Chiang Mai.

Read More

EXPLORING THE TEMPLE OF DAWN

EXPLORING THE TEMPLE OF DAWN

Story by Ron Emmons (December 2020)

When General Taksin moored his boat beside Wat Makok on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River at dawn one day in October 1767, he could hardly have imagined how deeply his action would influence the future of his country, Siam.

Read More

KONG RITHDEE & BANG RAK

KONG RITHDEE & BANG RAK

Story by Joe Cummings / CPAMedia (11 May, 2021)

A stroll through Bang Rak history with film critic Kong Rithdee

Read More

Samui Mood

Samui Mood

The Samui Mood

Once upon a time, there was an enchanting island which lazed away the days in the Gulf of Siam. Its mountain flanks bristled with coconut palms and its waters teemed with fish, providing a natural livelihood for the people of the island. One day, an adventurous backpacker arrived on a fisherman’s boat and promptly became enchanted. Some time later, his friends showed up, and the same thing happened. Years passed, and, things being what they are, word got around. These days this enchantment is known as the Samui mood.

Read More

Ta Mok

Ta Mok

From Ta Mok To Colonel Kurtz

Recent reports from Cambodia claim that Ta Mok, the much-feared Khmer Rouge Chief-of-Staff who is also known as "the Butcher", has surrounded himself with a special bodyguard of thirty hand-picked fighters. Strangely, all are from non-Khmer ethnic minorities, and all are female. Are we witnessing a Khmer Rouge re-run of Apocalypse Now? Or are the explanations more mundane?

Read More

Akha Ways

Akha Ways

Thailand’s Akha: The Old Ways Are Still The Best

Postcards, posters and tourist brochures give us a very romantic picture of the Akha hill tribals. We see women dressed in their best embroidered jackets, loaded with beads, silver ornaments and fancy head-dresses. They are busy with their needlework, or posing with a baby strapped to the back, who peers from beneath a colourful cap, festooned with coins, cowries and chicken feather tassels. Or maybe they’re moseying around the village area, tiny figures in a landscape of bamboo houses, dirt paths, forests and hills. The portrait implies a carefree life, grounded in exotic traditions, relaxed and close to nature. But our instincts tell us the presentation is incomplete. There must be more to the idyll.

Read More

Beauty Secrets Of The Padaung

Beauty Secrets Of The Padaung

A Unique Cultural Tradition in Mae Hong Son

Both Western and Asian accounts of the "Long Neck" Padaung women tend – understandably – to stress the "neck-lengthening" effects of the massed brass coils. And why should they not, when even the Padaung themselves, from their creation myth to everyday speech, stress the aesthetic beauty of long necks?

Read More

Pu Sae - Ya Sae

Pu Sae - Ya Sae

Guardian Spirits Of Doi Suthep

Every late May or June, near the beginning of the Rainy Season, two little-known but archaic rituals are held in the environs of Chiang Mai. These are the related Pu Sae and Ya Sae ceremonies, which are believed to pre-date the introduction of Buddhism to Northern Thailand. The traditions which they encompass similarly pre-date Thai and even Mon settlement in the area, and are associated with the Lawa, the earliest-known inhabitants of Chiang Mai.

Read More

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12