1. Southeast Asia

2. Southeast Asian Highlights Physically fragmented Culturally complex= Languages & Religions Colonial legacy = instability “Balkanization” Tropical & Equatorial Climates (Af & Am) Tectonically active = Earthquakes, volcanoes, Tsunamis Fertile volcanic and alluvial areas Plantation agriculture Forestry > deforestation Aquaculture with near-shore pollution Intense population pressure in large cities

5. Southeast Asia’s Physiography Notice the huge shallow continental shelf in the western half of the South China Sea. During the Pleistocene ice age, sea level would have been low enough to expose the shelf, making it possible for animals, including people, to migrate across it. Notice the deep water in the northeastern portion of the SCS, it could be crossed only in boats, and not by terrestrial animals. Notice the huge arc of the Sunda and Java Trench to the west and south of Indonesia. This is a plate boundary, which makes it a very tectonically active area. The Indonesian islands to the east are also crisscrossed with tectonic boundaries, as are the Philippines. Borneo sits in the middle of the shelf, far removed from the plate boundaries, with the exception of the northeastern margin of Sabah, which had a large earthquake in June of 2015. The next slide shows the separation of Mainland and Insular SE Asia. Notice that all of Malaysia and Singapore are considered insular.

7. R Refer to slide #3. Notice that Wallace’s Line passes between Mindanao, Celebes, and Borneo. Do you see the deep trench that corresponds to the line? This faunal boundary separates the SE Asia and Australian ecozones. When sea level was low enough to expose the floor of the South China Sea, the deep trench at Wallace’s Line would have had water in it, so animals could not cross. Thus, kangaroos are not found in SE Asia!

8. SE Asia’s climates are a result of the summer and winter monsoon. The dry winter winds give the Mainland areas a savanna-like climate, but most of the region is naturally covered in Tropical Rain Forests. Only in the highest areas is there relief from hot, humid weather. The Cwa climates of northern Laos, Vietnam, and a bit of Thailand are a response to leeside locations that block the wet winds.

10. Aquaculture is an important part of the food supply in SE Asia. Notice the spatial correlation between large human populations and dramatic coastal pollution: waters are most polluted off the coasts of Myanmar at the Irrawaddy Delta, Thailand at the Cho Phraya Delta, Vietnam at the Mekong Delta, the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Sumatra, off the north coast of Java, and in much of the coastal areas of the Philippines. Friends don’t let friends eat farm-raised shrimp, shellfish, or fish raised in these waters.

11. Just to remind you, the Google Earth version of SE Asia

12. With a few exceptions, Malaysians, Indonesians, and Filipinos belong in one language group, Austronesian, although the far-removed Indonesian citizens of Iryan Jaya on western New Guinea speak Papuan, a language unrelated to the rest of SE Asia and the South Pacific Regions. Because the Philippines were conquered by the Spanish, most people speak Spanish. In East Timor it’s Portuguese. The linguistic division of Mainland SE Asia reflects the strength and durability of the Burmese, Thai, and Khmer cultural groups.

13. Think in general terms about the religious divides in SE Asia: Mainlanders are mostly Buddhists (Theravada in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia, and Mahayana in Vietnam, with large Catholic minorities in Vietnam where the French were. In remote highland areas, many ethnic minorities are Animists, polytheist groups who have developed in isolation. Most Malaysians, Indonesians and Brunesians are Muslims, with Animism found in the isolated interior of Borneo and most of Iryan Jaya, with distinct pockets of Christianity in Western Indonesian islands, and an ancient Hindu culture on Bali and Lombok. Southwestern Mindanao is Muslim, but most of the rest of the Philippines are Catholic.

14. Buddhism Theravada: Teachings of the Elders from the Buddha’s original lessons (orthodoxy?) Mahayana: The Great Vehicle for a variety of schools of Buddhism

15. Both follow the Noble Eightfold Path 1. 1. Right View 2. 2. Right Resolve 3. 3. Right Speech 4. 4. Right Actions 5. 5. Right Occupation 6. 6. Right Effort 7. 7. Right Mindfulness 8. 8. Right Concentration Suffering comes from desire and attachment. An end to attachment leads to enlightenment, the only permanent condition.

16. Wat Carolina Wat Carolina You can visit a real Thai Buddhist Temple in Brunswick County! Wat Carolina is the largest Buddhist Temple between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. They love to have visitors.

18. Phra Kru, the Abbot

19. Ring the bell for World Peace.

21. Burma (Myanmar)

22. Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Laureate

23. Things to know about Suu Kyi (soo chee) Her father, Aung San, founded the modern Burmese Army and negotiated Burma’s independence from Britain in 1947, then he was assassinated. She has been an outspoken dissident, detained under house arrest for decades by a military junta (a bunch of generals), led by the dictator, Than Shwe. She received numerous humanitarian awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, while held incommunicado The junta had a change of heart, released Suu Kyi, and allowed elections in 2011. She was elected to the Burmese Parliament and may run for President

24. Burma’s military junta leader, 1992-2011 General Than Shwe, The Great Father NPR 2007

25. Under Shwe’s leadership, the junta Cut Burma off from the rest of the world for decades Created jungle gulags and rural slave camps Forbade free speech and all dissent Killed 100s of protesting Buddhist monks in 2007 Held Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for decades Violently suppressed the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group in internal exile, and the Karen, a Buddhist/Animist/Christian minority Refused international aid after Typhoon Nargis, causing the death by disease and starvation of thousands Pillaged the resource wealth of Burma Moved the capital inland to Nay-Pyi-Daw, spent billions to reproduce Yangon on a greenfield site

26. Ban-Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General (L), and General Shwe (R), 2009

27. Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon 33 stories, said to be over 1,000 years old, rebuilt after an 1871 earthquake

28. Myanmar’s new forward capital, Nay-Pyi-Daw, “seat of kings,” a 2009 copy of Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda

29. The Rohingya and the Karen two persecuted Burmese minorities The Rohingya practice Sunni Islam and are more closely related to the Bengalis of eastern Bangladesh and India ~800,000 in Burma but perhaps 100,000 have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh because of persecution under Shwe’s junta The Karen are a Sino-Tibetan speaking people, whose territorial extent is in eastern Burma with some in Thailand They are considered militants by the Burmese and Thai governments against whom they’ve fought since the 1940s Many are Theravada Buddhists who combine ancient animist beliefs and many are Christians, dating to the British occupation

31. Myanmar in the 20 th century

34. The Saffron Revolution, 2007 Buddhist monks, students, & women non-violently protested oppression of the junta through the spring and summer The military cracked down in September after protests escalated when the price of fuel (all state-owned) was artificially raised by the junta. More expensive fuel=more expensive food. 15,000 monks marched and Suu Kyi appeared briefly Monks and other protesters were arrested and people were killed The military began to raid monasteries, killing many monks YouTube 5 minutes YouTube 5 minutes YouTube

37. This Shan woman has added a brass neck ring to her collection with each important life event. The collection does not stretch her neck, but presses her shoulders down, causing all sorts of painful ligament problems. (What people do for the sake of beauty and status.) Myanmar’s Shan state is in the notorious “Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. Until the Taliban began to cultivate poppies in Afghanistan, most of the world’s opium came from the “GT.”

38. Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon. A show place in a country where rural people are oppressed and hungry. Reminds me of Pyongyang.

39. Burma’s Cyclone Nargis Photographed by James Delano May 2008

46. Thailand (Siam)

47. Bangkok, Rush Hour

48. Bangkok, at the mouth of the Chao Phraya on the Gulf of Thailand.

49. Tut tuts

50. Plenty to eat in Thailand, the Louisiana of Asia

52. Stilt houses in Bangkok, fishing, boating, water supply, laundry, sewer.

53. Bangkok has a booming sex trade. Words fail me.

54. DISPATCH FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA Sex-slave trade flourishes in Thailand “I am but one brick in that long wall of female exploitation and misery.”

55. Cambodia (Kampuchea) Formerly part of French Indo-China

56. Angkor Wat A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Cambodia The ancient center of the Khmer Kingdom, established at the north end of the Tonle Sap in Siem Reap Province, shown below. It was originally a Hindu Temple complex that transformed to a Buddhist center in the 12 th century. The largest religious monument in the world, it is Cambodia’s main tourist destination, although there are many other temple sites from various eras. Tonle Sap, a low lying lake that doubles in size with the monsoon flooding of the Mekong/Tonle Sap system. Mekong

57. Angkor Wat, Cambodia

59. This Angkor bas-relief of the Churning Sea of Milk (remember, Hindus like milk), depicts the Hindu god Vishnu at the center.

60. Angkor Wat, Cambodia

63. The Killing Fields: Genocide in Cambodia

64. Pol Pot

65. Who? Saloth Sar, Cambodian child of privilege, educated in Paris, France, where he joined the French Communist Party, then he flunked out. He returned to Cambodia and organized a Communist Party in 1963. He was protected by Vietnamese communists for two years at a remote outpost on the Vietnam/Cambodian border. He traveled to China and was inspired by Mao’s Cultural Revolution of 1967. In the Cambodian forests, he nurtured his hatreds of the South Vietnamese, the Americans, the French, etc., then emerged with a following known as the Khmer Rouge to rebuild colonialized Kampuchean society as an agrarian communist state. By 1970 he had adopted the nom de guerre: Pol Pot for Political Potency By 1979 25% of Cambodians were dead.

66. Political Potency Pol Pot declared "Year Zero" and began a radical program to create an idealized agrarian communist society. He crushed social institutions such as banks and religions and emptied cities of their inhabitants. Intellectuals and anyone else seen as standing in the way of the new social order were mercilessly killed, while many of those who escaped execution died from overwork and starvation. The Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records and photographs of the people they tortured and slaughtered, which are the basis of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

67. Phnom Penh High School was transformed into the Khmer Rouge headquarters, S-21, in 1975. Thousands were tortured and executed in former classrooms. Now the Tuol Sleng Genocide MuseumS-21 Now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

69. Some of the Khmer Rouge’s victims

70. Cambodia (Kampuchea) Frontline World Frontline World

71. The Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos, a Buddhist culture with a communist government. Formerly part of French Indo- China. Laos is pronounced “lo oww,” like louse without the s.

72. Vientiane (in French) aka Viang Chang (in Laotian), Laos on the Mekong River, Mainland SE Asia’s life line.

73. That Luang marsh at Vientiane, part of the Mekong flood plane.

74. On the Mekong, Laos

75. Laos

76. Viang Chang, Laos Cock fighting, French-style buildings, a market.

77. Laotians are Buddhists, with a Communist government.

78. Our abandoned allies, the Laotian H’mong The H’mong were trained and backed by the U.S. CIA during the Vietnam War. The U.S. promised to take them with us when the war ended. We didn’t and 50-75,000 were abandoned. Their leader was General Vang Pao (1929-2011) 1951, 1970s, 2008General Vang Pao The H’mong were still fighting “North Vietnam” in the Laotian forests 33 years after Saigon fell in 1975. Many H’mong refugees fled to Thailand and some finally made it to the U.S. H’mong Hip Hop

79. H’mong Children

80. Typical communist poster, Viang Chang The Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos

81. Vietnam, formerly Annam, and part of French Indo- China, 1887-1960, and North Viet Nam and South Viet Nam, 1960-1975.

82. This map breaks all the cartographic rules, except that it shows location and attributes quite well.

83. Tunnel Rats Tunnel Rats (Billy Bang)

84. “And Lyndon Johnson told the nation Have no fear of escalation. I am trying everyone to please. Though it isn’t really war, we’re sending 50,000 more to help save Viet Nam from the Vietnamese!” Tom Paxton, 1963

85. U.S. advisors arrive in South Viet Nam, 1966.

86. Vietnam war deaths from 1954 to 1975 estimated at 1.5 to 3.6 million, including 58, 220 Americans. Hamburger Hill.

88. Marble Mountain, overlooks US Air Base at Da Nang

89. What’s left of the US Base at Da Nang

90. Many Vietnamese are Buddhist, notice the prayer wheel.

91. Buddhist Shrine inside Marble Mountain

92. Hue, the ancient Annam capital halfway between Hanoi and Saigon

93. The Battle for Hue

97. The Hanoi Hilton. American POWs, including Senator John McCain, were held here.

99. Ho Chi Minh born Ngyuen Sinh Cung 1890-1969 Leader of Democratic Republic of Vietnam (N. Viet Nam), 1945-69. Why so much Ho on the Time cover? An undefeated enemy. A new experience for the U.S.

100. Ho Chi Minh’s (Enlightened One) Odyssey Raised in Vietnam, his father was a Confucian scholar 1912 came to U.S., worked in Harlem & Boston as a baker, influenced by Marcus Garvey 1913 lived in London baking 1919-23 lived in France, embraced communism & was a founding member of the Parti Communiste Francais; worked for independence of Vietnam 1923 in Moscow, then to China with Mao After wanderings in the U.S., Russia, China, Thailand, and other places, he returned to Vietnam to lead the Independence movement in 1941 Led the defeat of the French in 1954 at Dien-bien-phu Led the Viet Cong through the U.S. war in Vietnam U.S. was defeated in April 29, 1975 when Saigon fell to his Vietcong

101. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a web. Elephants and bicycles were used to transport supplies to the Viet Cong in South Viet Nam.

102. Elephants and Viet Cong on the Ho Chi Minh Trail: “All for the Battle Front.”

103. Evacuation of the U.S. Embassy, Saigon, 4/29/75

104. Hall of Reunification, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)

106. Terraced rice paddies, Vietnam

107. The Mekong and it’s associated channels and the sea provide food.

108. The Mekong Delta is more than 100 miles wide. Ho Chi Minh City lies on its eastern side.

109. Rice paddies and aquaculture to the southwest of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

110. Thousands of South Vietnamese refugees fled the Viet Cong’s persecution and internment camps after the war on over-crowded boats to all parts of Asia. Many made it to the U.S. where large communities still live in coastal Louisiana and Texas, tropical maritime locations like Vietnam. For a time along the levees of the Mississippi River, they built terraces and grew food as they had in Vietnam.

112. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Although Vietnam is reopening to world markets, their government still persecutes dissent in 2011!

113. The Vietnam War with Marvin Gaye Any war with Edwin Starr (WAR: what is it good for? Absolutely NOTHIN’ (say it over and over again) Vietnam War Memorial

114. On a personal note, the Vietnam War changed my life in many ways, almost all negative. It was the first war shown on television, every night, so much carnage and suffering. It rode the country’s emotions in tandem with the Civil Rights movement, protests, bombings, killing, and the assassinations of Medgar Evers, President Kennedy, Dr. King, and Bobby Kennedy. It was also the last war to have the draft. Two of my friends were drafted from high school and killed in their teens. In Detroit half of the senior class in one high school was drafted and most of them died. My generation still lives it and sobs over it, as my parents’ generation did over WWII (which was supposed to be the war to end all wars), and their parents did over the Great war, WWI, an acknowledged global suicide attempt. Certainly every war effects its generation. Your generation has a whole different set of wars to grieve over and support, or not, and an enemy that is difficult to comprehend. OK, I’ll shut up.