The article was first published online by East-West Center on October 19, 2016.
Asad-ul Iqbal Latif is Associate Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
The article was first published by Khmer Times on October 19, 2016.
Dr Ian Storey is Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
The article was first published by New Historian Info on October 18, 2016.
Dr Malcolm Cook is Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
The article was first published online by Malaysiakini on October 18, 2016.
Dr Hew Wai Weng is Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
The news coverage was first broadcast by CNN on October 14, 2016.
Headline of the news coverage is “Thailand: Who’s in charge now that King Bhumibol is gone?”
The news coverage was first broadcast by Bloomberg News on October 14, 2016.
Dr Michael J. Montesano is Visiting Senior Fellow and Co-coordinator of the Thailand Studies Programme at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
The article was first published by The Straits Times on October 14, 2016.
Dr Michael J. Montesano and Dr Terence Chong are Visiting Senior Fellow and Senior Fellow respectively at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. Both are Co-coordinators of the Thailand Studies Programme.
This 2-day conference explored Asian societies as interconnected formations through trajectories/networks of circulation of people, ideas, and objects in the longue durée.
Imagining Asia(s): Networks, Actors, Sites
Mr Tan Chin Tiong, ISEAS Director, delivering the opening remarks. Click here to view the speech. (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
DAY 1
Monday, 11 October 2016 – The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre and Nalanda University (India) jointly organized the conference “Imagining Asia(s): Networks, Actors, Sites” at ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute on 10–11 October 2016.
Fourteen scholars from nine countries convened at ISEAS to explore Asian societies as interconnected formations through trajectories/networks of circulation of people, ideas, and objects in the longue durée. Moving beyond the divides of old Area Studies scholarship and the arbitrary borders set by late colonial empires and the rise of post-colonial nation states, this conference mapped critically the configuration of contact zones in which mobile bodies, minds, and cultures interact to foster new images, identities, and imaginations of Asia.
Nalanda University Vice-Chancellor, Dr Gopa Sabharwal also giving her welcoming address. Click here to view the speech. (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
The Keynote Speaker – Associate Professor Farish A Noor. Click here to view the keynote address. (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
After the opening remarks by ISEAS Director, Mr Tan Chin Tiong and Nalanda University Vice-Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal, Prof. Farish Noor (NTU) delivered the keynote speech “Locating Asia, Arresting Asia: Grappling with ‘The Epistemology that Kills’”. The keynote successfully set the stage of the event, as it problematized today’s political boundaries drawn in the 19th century and appropriated by post-colonial states, and unpacked the issues of naming, identity, modernity, and postmodern global capitalism in the context of framing and imagining Asia(s).
Speakers for Panel I (Session 1): Conceptualizing the Region: Past & Present (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
Panel I grouped three papers exploring past and present conceptualizations of the region, namely the idea of Asia set forth at the Asian Relations Conference of 1947 in Delhi, the geo-environmental metaphors of Monsoon Asia and Maritime Asia as alternative histories and geographies for the study of intra-Asian religious networks, and the idea of Asia in British Romantic poetics.
Associate Professor from Delhi University, Anjana Sharma, sharing her topic on British Romantic Poetics and the Idea of Asia with the audience (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
Dr Mai Lin Tjoa-Bonatz, Visiting Fellow, Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, presenting her paper on Early Maritime Trade Networks: Transfer of Artefacts and Technology in the Indo-Pacific (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
Dr Helene Njoto, Visiting Fellow, Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, presenting her paper on Sultans and Foreign Master Builders: Javanese Participation in an Early Pan-Asian Trend for Masonry Architecture (Late 16th–Early 19th c.) (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
Panel II was devoted to trans-local phenomena in the domain of material culture and architecture across Asia. The three panelists focused on early maritime trade networks across the Indo-Pacific area, Javanese participation in early pan-Asian trends for masonry architecture from the 16th to the early 19th century, and the transmission of architectural knowledge between South India and Sri Lanka.
DAY 2
Speakers for Panel III – Networks of Knowledge Across the Indian Ocean (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
Tuesday, 12 October 2016 – The second day opened with a panel on knowledge production and transfer across the Indian Ocean, including a paper on Theosophical and Indic knowledge networks in India and Indonesia from 1900s to 1990s, and a paper on François Valentijn and the Dutch networks of knowledge transfer in the Bay of Bengal.
Speakers for Panel IV – Histories and Geographies of Pilgrimage (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
Panel IV focused on the histories, geographies, and politics of pilgrimage. The first panelist revisited the geographies, transmissions, and reconstitutions of Buddha relics in South and Southeast Asia, while the second panelist explored the reception of Hajj among South Asian Muslims in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Dr Federica Broilo, Adjunct Professor, University of Urbino, giving her perspective on Interconnectedness and Mobility in the Middle Ages/Nowadays: From Baghdad to Chang’an and from Istanbul to Tokyo (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
Mr Vu Duc Liem, PhD candidate, Hamburg University & Hanoi National University of Education offering his insights on Connecting Networks and Orienting Space: Relocating Nguyen Cochinchina between East and Southeast Asia in the 16th – 18th Centuries (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
The last panel was devoted to trans-local dynamics and intra-Asian connections across space and time. The first paper described the construction of Sanskritic Buddhism across medieval Asia as a ‘principled Asian transnationalism’. The second paper unveiled the interconnectedness and mobility of Islamic architecture from West to East Asia in the middle ages and nowadays. The final paper problematized the construct of Nguyen Cochinchina and relocated it between East and Southeast Asia in the 16th –18th centuries.
Dr Andrea Acri, Visiting Associate Professor, Nalanda University & Associate Fellow, Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, ISEAS, chairing the final roundtable (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
The conference was closed by a short roundtable, in which the conveners discussed the issues of (trans)locality, mobility, and imagination in Asian contexts.
Close to 70 participants attended the 2-day conference.
Participants at the conference (Source: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute)
“The Death of a King”, a Commentary by Terence Chong
It is difficult to understate the momentousness of King Bhumibol’s passing. Although his death had long been anticipated in light of his absence from public life, the finality of the situation will mark a watershed for many Thais. Since his ascent to the throne in 1946, King Bhumibol has seen over a dozen coups, approximately the same number of constitutions, and numerous governments. To say that the king has been a figure of stability in the face of decades of political unpredictability is putting it lightly. For many Thais the king was a symbol of all that was pure and good about the country. The monarchy was an institution that existed above the squalor of petty politics and politicking, a moral beacon to turn to when politicians of different stripes descended into indulgences of different types.