We continued the photo challenges, in which we covered the following images:
- The Imperial City of Hue is located in the former imperial capital of Vietnam. The construction was started by the Nguyen dynasty in 1804. An example of a mixture of local and Chinese traditions.
- San Agustin Church is a Roman Catholic church, located inside the historic walled city of Intramuros in Manila, the Philippines. The church in the current form was completed in 1607 during the Spanish colonial rule. The church is one of the four churches designated as the UNESCO World Heritage site under the collective name of the Baroque Churches of the Philippines in 1993. Catholic missionary activities in Asia began in the 16th century. Francis Xavier, who arrived in Japan in 1549, was one of the pioneers.
- Bagan is an ancient capital of Myanmar and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, over 4,000 Buddhist temples were built. An example of the influence of Theravada Buddhism in Mainland SEA.
- Stone Inscriptions found in Indonesia. Inscriptions began to appear in SEA around 400 CE. While early inscriptions are written in Sanskrit in an Indian script (originated from Southern Brahmi script), later inscriptions are written in local languages in an Indian script with modification. An example of Indianization of SEA.
- The Laguna copper-plate inscription, found in the Philippines, was made around 900 CE. It is written in Kawi script using a mixture of Sanskrit, Old Javanese and Old Malay. An example of an extensive repercussion of SEA's Indianization.
- A Dong Son bronze kettle drum. Dong Son prehistoric culture, named after a village of the same name in Vietnam, was introduced to Indochina from the north about 300 BCE. Bronze kettle drums are representative of the culture. They were distributed widely in SEA.
I hope the photo challenges have given us a variety of elements in the culture and history of Southeast Asia. After this, we moved on to the discussion based on a chapter from the following book.
- Osborne, Milton. 2016. Southeast Asia: An Introductory History. 12th ed. Allen & Unwin.
Some of the points we discussed include the following questions:
- 1. According to the author, what is an important (although not the only important) feature of the European advance into Southeast Asia, and why? (Cf. the national border between Malaysia and Indonesia)
- 2. What is the difference between the traditional Southeast Asian idea of "frontier zones" and the European idea of "clearly delineated borders", and why it led to a confrontation between the two? (Cf. the national ownership of Angkor Wat)
- 3. Why was Thailand the only country in Southeast Asia that successfully evaded colonial rule? (Cf. the buffer zone between the British and the French).
In the next week, we will continue the discussion based on chapter 5 before move on to the next chapter.