Restless Continent

Restless Continent
Author: Michael Wesley
Publisher: ABRAMS
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2016-05-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1468313452

An essential road map to modern Asia’s dynamic transition on the world stage from the foreign policy expert and author of There Goes the Neighbourhood. The world has never seen economic development as rapid or significant as Asia’s during recent decades. Home to three-fifths of the global population, this restless continent will soon produce more than half of the world’s economic output and consume more energy than the rest of the world combined. All but three of the planet’s current and nascent nuclear powers are Asian, and it has the greatest growth in weapons spending of any other region. Yet, surprisingly little has been written about the future of Asia. Restless Continent is the first book to examine the economic, social, political, and strategic trends across the world’s largest continent, providing the necessary framework for thinking about the future of Asia—and the world. A professor of international affairs at Australian National University, Michael Wesley looks at the psychology of Asian countries becoming newly rich and powerful. He explores the geography and politics of conflict, and offers persuasive ideas about how to avert dispute, or even war. Written for general readers and policy specialists alike, Restless Continent is an agenda-shaping book about international affairs in the twenty-first century.

Tattoo Traditions of Asia

Tattoo Traditions of Asia
Author: Lars Krutak
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 520
Release: 2024-10-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0824897951

For millennia, tattoos have documented the history of humanity one painful mark at a time. They form a visual language on the skin, expressing an individual’s desires and fears as well as cultural values, family ties, and spiritual beliefs on the surfaces of the body. The Indigenous peoples of Asia have created some of the world’s oldest and most distinctive tattoos, but their many contributions to body art and practice have been largely overlooked. Tattoo Traditions of Asia is the first single volume dedicated to the anthropological study of an ancient cultural practice and artform that spans many countries and societies, ancestral lands, and contemporary communities across the continent and its islands. This richly illustrated survey combines the author's twenty years of fieldwork, interviewing hundreds of Indigenous tattoo bearers and contemporary tattoo practitioners, with painstaking research conducted in obscure archives throughout the region and elsewhere to break new ground on one of the least-understood mediums of Indigenous Asian expressive culture—a vital tradition to be celebrated, an inspirational story told in skin and ink.

Low's Mission to Southern Siam 1824

Low's Mission to Southern Siam 1824
Author: James Low
Publisher:
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2007
Genre: Thailand
ISBN:

James Low was an officer of the English East India Company's Madras Army, stationed at Penang. Low's mission to Southern Siam in 1824 was supposed to enlist Siamese support for the British invasion of Burma. His mission was a failure, but the report he produced, published here in full for the first time, provides a fascinating picture of the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand, from Phuket to the Malaysian border, now a great tourist region.

Textiles and Identity in Brunei Darussalam

Textiles and Identity in Brunei Darussalam
Author: Siti Norkhalbi Haji Wahsalfelah
Publisher:
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2007
Genre: Group identity
ISBN:

Textiles and Identity in Brunei Darussalam examines the role of traditional textiles played in modern Brunei Darussalam. Hand-woven textiles are an important part of Brunei traditional culture. This book examines the types of textiles and the roles that they have played in different situations, such as serving as signifiers of social status, wealth, and political prominence. The study focuses on how locally woven textiles have been used to express and construct identity, especially Brunei Malay identity and Brunei national identity.

Laos in 1893

Laos in 1893
Author: Charles Lemire
Publisher:
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2008
Genre: Laos
ISBN:

Himalayan Bridge

Himalayan Bridge
Author: Niraj Kumar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2020-11-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000215490

The centrality of the Himalayas as a connecting point or perhaps a sacred core for the Asian continent and its civilisations has captivated every explorer and scholar. The Himalaya is the meeting point of two geotectonic plates, three biogeographical realms, two ancient civilisations, two different language streams and six religions. This book is about the determinant factors which are at work in the Himalayas in the context of what it constitutes in terms of its spatiality, legends and myths, religious beliefs, rituals and traditions. The book suggests that there is no single way for understanding the Himalayas. There are layers of structures, imposition and superimposition of human history, religious traits and beliefs that continue to shape the Asian dynamics. An understanding of the ultimate union of the Himalayas, its confluences and its bridging role is essential for Asian balance. This book is a collaborative effort of an internationally acclaimed linguist, a diplomat-cum-geopolitician and a young Asianist. It provides countless themes that will be intellectually stimulating to scholars and students with varied interests. Please note: This title is co-published with KW Publishers, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.