Thoughts Etched in Jade

Delezen, John Edmund

White Lotus Press

This book gives voice to the last protagonists of an almost vanished world. For the first time, former Naga headhunters and families talk extensively about their past, their fears and their hopes. Based on fieldwork and in-depth interviews conducted in Myanmar and on the Indian states of Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, this book gives a unique insight into the world of the Naga tribes and illustrates one of the last living examples of traditional culture. The mountain ranges situated between the far north-eastern part of India and the extreme northeast of Myanmar (Burma) house an incredible people of Tibeto-Burman origin, the Nagas. The number of tribes comprising the Nagas may vary among different scholars, but they are believed to include between 12 and 30 groups, with the major ones being the Angami, Ao, Lotha, Chakhesang, Konyak, Rengma, Sangtam, Yimchungru, Zeliangrong, Nocte, Phom, Khiamniungan, Pochuri,Tangkhul and Sema. These groups inhabit both sides of the Indo-Burmese borders in the Naga Hills, a sub-Himalayan region characterized by thick jungles and rugged mountains, known as 'the last mystery of Asia'. Until the middle of the 20,h century the men of these tribes were recognized as frightening headhunters, but despite their reputation, the Nagas were and are primarily farmers. Thus, it is not surprising that 'fertility' was seen as a 'power' that should be continually increased, secured and channeled towards the community. How deeply has this belief and the quest for fertility marked the culture of these tribes? To answer this question, the authors explore some flagship themes of the social sciences: the mechanisms of wealth distribution, how taboos influence society, what role institutions play, and how a culture can adapt to deep transformations.

The Nagas: Memories of Headhunters, Indo-Burmese Borderland. Volume 1: History, Identity, Architecture and Sculpture

Politics & Social Sciences

Drouyer, Isabel Azevedo & Rene

Social Sciences

Tibetan Medical Thangka of the Four Medical Tantras - Bod Lugs gSo-rig rGyud-bzhi'i Nang Don Bris Tsha Ngo mTsar mThon Ba Don lTan.

Cai Jingfeng

Chinese Porcelain The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection (2 Volume Set). Fully illustrated in color.

Chinese Porcelain The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection (2 Volume Set)

Unknown, Author

This volume is an definitive catalog of an outstanding exhibition of Chinese metal art from the Mengdiexuan Collection, comprising of 113 objects dating from Shang to Ming; many have never before been published. Lavishly illustrated, the book contains scholarly essays examining the history, imagery, techniques and materials of Chinese personal adornment. Most of the items come from the Mengdiexuan Collection owned by Betty Lo and Kenneth Chu. Mengdiexuan Collection Adornment for Eternity Status &amp; Rank in Chinese Ornament. Adornment for Eternity Status and Rank in Chinese Ornament by Julia M. White Emma C. Bunker with contributions by Chen Peifen Trade PB. 4to. Denver Art Museum with The Woods Publishing Company. 1984. 214 pgs. Illustrated with Color / Black and White Plates. First Edition/First Printing.

Adornment for Eternity: Status and Rank in Chinese Ornament

Julia White

Presents the first comprehensive overview of oral literature of the Akha ethnic group of Southeast Asia in English translation. Included in this overview are stories and legends, the epic story of two brothers, the epic poem of creation, proverbs and an Akha lullaby. The Akha people, who live in China, Burma, Laos and Thailand, have a unique oral literature which has been handed down through time. The author started reducing the Akha oral literature to a written system in the 1950s and invested fifty years of research in recording the Akha oral tradition. This book presents an English translation of samples from this literature testifying to a rich storehouse of wisdom, fun and humor accumulated over the centuries by this unique ethnic group.

Akha Oral Literature

Literature & Fiction

Paul W Lewis

Mythology & Folk Tales

The first comprehensive book of its kind in English, focused exclusively on pottery; its technology, production and artistic development in Thailand in prehistory. Over twenty-five hundred years of pottery making spanning the periods from about 2200 B.C. to 400 A.D. are examined; uncovering a rich repertoire of pottery working techniques, forms and decorative schemes. The book examines pottery production in the Northeast, Central and Southeast Seaboard regions of Thailand, noting differences and similarities in production by site, region and chronology. This work also explores the topic of modern fakes and forgeries of prehistoric pottery, a common problem faced by museums with unprovenanced collections, which underscores the persistent need for continued scientific archaeology. Other topics include the use of electron micro probe to determine the constituent mineral composition of clay fabrics. Lavishly illustrated with over two hundred and fifty color plates, maps and charts, the book is designed to appeal to a broad readership, interested in art, culture and prehistory. This volume greatly expands, but does not repeat, the author's previous work Ban Chiang: The Art and Prehistory of Northeast Thailand.

Prehistoric Thai Ceramics: Ban Chiang in Regional Cultural Perspective

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Armand J. Labbé

Crafts & Hobbies

This is the account of the life of Nakhonkham Boupanouvong, a Lao man who survived incarceration from 1975 to 1991 in the communist run reeducation camps located in the province of Huaphan. During that time he suffered through hard labor, torture and near starvation along with many other high-ranking Royal Lao government and army officials, many of whom did not live to tell their own experience. Prior to his imprisonment Nakhonkham endured three decades of civil war in Laos. He left the capital city of Vientiane and his life as a student behind in 1945 to join the Nationalistic Lao Issara movement where he worked as a soldier, propagandist and writer through the 1950's. Nakhonkham later witnessed the Lao Issara's transformation in eastern Laos into a full-fledged communist revolution. Not convinced by the communist rhetoric, he left to join the Neutralist faction formed in the early 1960's. With the Neutralist's demise not long after its formation, Nakhonkham found it necessary to join the Royal Lao Government where he worked as an editor for several publications and eventually became a high-ranking police officer in Vientiane. Having come full circle, by 1975 Nakhonkham found himself on the losing side of the civil war and lived in Laos as a political prisoner until emigrating to the United States in 1992.

Sixteen Years in the Land of Death: Revolution and Reeducation in Laos

Nakhonkham Bouphanouvong

Biographies & Memoirs

This volume covers Dr Adolf Bastian’s journey from the border of present-day Thailand to present-day Saigon. Bastian was a renowned ethnographer, who founded both Berlin’s Museum für Völkerkunde (Ethnological Museum) and the Berlin Anthropological Society, and his work contains valuable observations and interpretations by one of the pioneers of ethnography. During his travels through Isan and parts of Cambodia then under Siamese rule, as well as while in Saigon, the author observes, describes and records almost every aspect of the spiritual life of various groups of people he meets. Bastian compares the situation in these regions and among different ethnic groups, frequently using Siamese terms to do so. This thorough and indefatigable German scholar is one of the early visitors to the temple of Angkor Wat, which he calls “Nakhon Vat”, witnessing its structures before they started to get looted. He describes other edifices built by Cambodia’s many ethnic groups, monastery slaves, and the Siamese administration of Cambodian territory. Bastian takes a special interest in the Cham people, presenting valuable information not found elsewhere. Life is described here in its manifold expressions and interactions, analyzed by a profound mind that had studied law at the University of Heidelberg and natural science as well as medicine in Berlin, Jena, and Würzburg.

A Journey in Cambodia and Cochin China 1864

Travel

Adolf Bastian

Asia

The groups included in this volume are: the Palaung, Wa, Rawang, Lisu, Akha, Karen, Shan and Hmong. The study examines textile traditions that have disappeared as well as the textiles that are being woven today by these groups. The book provides background on the history and cultures of these peoples and an extensive survey of their textiles based on numerous field studies by the author as well as on examination of museum collections and the existing literature. In addition to dozens of black and white photographs and maps, there are color plates with over 200 photographs.

Textiles of the Highland Peoples of Burma, Vol. 2: The Northern Mon-Khmer, Rawang, Upland Burmish, Lolo, Karen, Tai, and Hmong-Mien-Speaking Groups

Michael C. Howard

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