授業関係のお知らせ

In this week's meeting, we reviewed four climate regions found in Southeast Asia. They are (in the order of their location from the equator to farther away):

1. Tropical humid climate. Wet year-round. Singapore.
2. Tropical monsoon climate. Wet and dry with a short dry season. Phuket.
3. Tropical savanna climate. Wet and dry with a long dry season. Bangkok.

Tropical climates are hot year-round as they are close to the equator. Tropical monsoon and savanna climates have wet and dry seasons due to the seasonal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).

4. Humid subtropical climate. Hot and muggy summers and mild winter. Hanoi (also Tokyo).

Tropical wet and dry climates and humid subtropical climates in the northern hemisphere have a wet summer and a dry winter. Note that the pattern is reversed in the southern hemisphere. Tropical monsoon climate (Jakarta) and tropical savanna climate (Dili) have a wet "winter (in the northern hemisphere)" and a dry "summer (in the northern hemisphere)".

A useful summary may be found on this webpage.

Following the review of the climate regions in Southeast Asia, the time-space matrix framework of the history of Southeast Asia was introduced to the class. With this diagram in our mind, we started the photo challenge. Today we covered the first four photos, which are:

1. Angkor Wat. Originally built as a Hindu temple (now converted to a Theravada Buddhist temple) in the 12th century, Cambodia. An example of the Indianization of SEA. The temple is often featured in popular films, for example, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
2. A railway bridge on the River Kawai, Thailand. The bridge was built by British, Dutch, American prisoners of war and many forced laborers from Southeast Asia as part of the Japanese Burma Railway construction during 1942-43. Featured in the film, the Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), based on the novel of the same by Pierre Boulle, who also wrote Planet of the Apes. More realistic and personal experience of the bridge construction is told in the film, the Railway Man (2013).
3. Sir Stamford Raffles' statue standing at the Raffles' Landing site, Singapore. Raffles, who as a British colonial officer landed in Singapore in 1819, has long been regarded as the founder of modern Singapore, but now faces a serious challenge, as a symbol of British colonization.
4. Borobudur. A Mahayana Buddhist monument built in the 9th century on the island of Java, Indonesia. An example of the Indianization of SEA. Raffles is the first European to make its presence known to the West.