Java and Mongols in the Medieval European Sources
In 1292, towards the end of his reign, Khubilai Khan sent a fleet of ships from Quanzhou in southern China to invade East Java, then governed…
Author: A. J. West
Java and Mongols in the Medieval European Sources
In 1292, towards the end of his reign, Khubilai Khan sent a fleet of ships from Quanzhou in southern China to invade East Java, then governed…
Java and Mongols in the Medieval European Sources
In 1292, towards the end of his reign, Khubilai Khan sent a fleet of ships from Quanzhou in southern China to invade East Java, then governed…
Odoric on Sago
Last week I wrote a post about sago (Metroxylon sagu), one of the most important tree crops in Indonesia, especially in Borneo, parts of Sumatra, and the…
Odoric on Sago
Last week I wrote a post about sago (Metroxylon sagu), one of the most important tree crops in Indonesia, especially in Borneo, parts of Sumatra, and the…
Chinese Sources on Indonesia – Romanisation!
Perhaps the most important language for working out a narrative history of ancient Indonesia and Malaysia, besides Malay and Javanese, is classical Chinese. It might actually be…
Marco Polo on Sago (Metroxylon sagu)
There is no single authoritative edition or manuscript detailing Marco Polo's travels. The consensus is that the first editions of what became Le Devisement du Monde were…
De’ Conti on the Durian
Yesterday I said that Niccolo de' Conti was perhaps the first European to write about the durian (Durio sp.), a fruit native to the Malay Archipelago and…
Niccolo de’ Conti (and others) on the Lontar Palm
Yesterday I put up a post about Niccolo de' Conti, one of the more interesting Europeans to visit Indonesia before the sixteenth century. His account…
Niccolò de’ Conti on Malays
Niccolò de' Conti was a fifteenth-century Italian traveller who visited parts of what is now Indonesia, including, apparently, Badan, probably meaning 'Banda', the small archipelago …
Spiders!
I like spiders a lot. I think they're brilliant: not only do they look gorgeously primeval, they help to keep the house free from flies and mosquitoes,…
European Primary Sources for Ancient Indonesia
I've recently been delving into the European primary sources on ancient Indonesia, including Pliny the Elder, Marco Polo, Niccolo de' Conti, Antonio Pigafetta, Afonso de Albuquerque…
Plagiarism Accusation Retraction
I received an email from James Scott (‘Seeing Like a State‘, ‘The Art of Not Being Governed‘) yesterday, asking me to back up an allegation of plagiarism…
I’m in a book
I was looking in Blackwell's bookshop the other day – the big famous bookshop on Broad Street in Oxford – and I came across The Indo-European Controversy…
Why I Like Ancient History
It would be fair to say that, of all the things in the world, I am most interested in the human lives that were lived before about…
Some more zany anthropology stuff
I've been trying to carry on the discussion over at Savage Minds on the post I highlighted the other day, but they don't like you commenting on…
Spooky Nonsense on Domestication
I subscribe to an anthropology blog called Savage Minds – you can find it in my sidebar, I've been reading it for years, and I quite like…
‘Are Religion and Science in Conflict?’
Scientific investigation could have revealed that our universe is full of meaning and purpose. It could have told us that we are at the centre of the…
Killing People is Always Wrong (Andrew Chan & Myuran Sukumaran)
Indonesia is about to execute two Australian men, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, for trafficking drugs. They were arrested in 2005 after a tip-off from the Australian police,…
‘Colloquial Malay’
I bought Colloquial Malay, the book I'm using to study Jawi, for £3 at a second-hand bookshop in Oxford. I want to say a few words about it…
Jawi Script
I'm learning classical Malay (that is to say, the language used in Melaka and the Malay world at the time of the Portuguese conquest) and I'm starting with…
Island Southeast Asian Geology & Volcanic Explosions
I've been trying to read as much as I can about the geological history of Southeast Asia for the book I'm working on. It's a fascinating topic: island…
Charlie Hebdo
Let’s say some guy in a bar starts mouthing off against another patron’s mother. He says she’s a fat moose with a ginger beard, and it’s funny…
Assholes Damage Precious Line in the Nazca Region
I find it hard to believe that anybody would consciously wreck a famous and important archaeological site, but it seems that my incredulity is at odds with reality.…