• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2009

The diversity of Southeast Asian culture and society has been made by two factors: geopolitical environment and colonialism. The geopolitical position of the region between China Seas and Indian Ocean has made it possible that diverse cultures from Northeast Asia especially China and India, Middle East and Europe have flowed into the region. The fact that Southeast Asia was colonized by various European nations has provided additional diversity. The diversity manifests itself most clearly in the culture of Southeast Asia which has various layers: On the bottom lay the indigenous one, and above it Chinese and Indian and Islamic cultures and finally European one.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.7-52
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• 2017

This paper analyzes the scholarly approaches to the problem of "local" vs. "cosmopolitan" in the context of the cultural transfers between South and Southeast Asia. Taking the "localization" paradigm advanced by Oliver Wolters as its pivot, it reviews the "externalist" and "autonomous" positions, and questions the hermeneutical validity of the fuzzy and self-explanatory category of "local." Having discussed the geo-environmental metaphors of "Monsoon Asia" and "Maritime Asia" as alternative paradigms to make justice to the complex dynamics of transregional interaction that shaped South and Southeast Asian societies, it briefly presents two case studies highlighting the tensions between the "local" and "cosmopolitan" approaches to the study of Old Javanese literature and Balinese Hinduism.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.57-90
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• 2023

China launched the Digital Silk Road (DSR) in 2015 as part of the existing Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to expand its influence in digital and technological development across Asia, Europe, and Africa. Southeast Asia is one of the key targets of the Digital Silk Road due to its geographical proximity to China and the rapid growth of the digital sphere. Although the DSR opens several potential opportunities for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states to foster the digitalization process in the region, how each country reacts to projects under the DSR is varied. Secondly, Vietnam is the only ASEAN member state that has not signed any official agreement under the BRI framework, and thirdly, Vietnam opted out of Huawei technology. This paper aims to understand the perspective of Vietnam and how Vietnam has responded to the growing technological presence of China in Southeast Asia until 2021. By using qualitative methods, the author argues that the DSR has allowed Beijing to overcome the limitations of the original strategy, BRI, and strengthen its influence in the field of information and communication technologies, particularly fifth-generation (5G) telecommunications. Furthermore, the paper examines Vietnam's digital development and digital diplomacy and how the Vietnamese government has responded to DSR projects. In light of both the potential threats and economic benefits that the DSR has brought to Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries, in the last section, the policy implications for cooperation are discussed.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.55-94
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• 2010

Even Faxian(法顯)'s Gaosengfaxianchuan (『高僧法顯傳』) and Iching(義淨)'s Nanhaijiguineifachuan (『南海寄歸內法傳』) are regarded as very important and useful documents to study the southeast asian buddhist culture, it is very difficult to grasp the contemporary state of those area because their descriptions are very brief and implicit. Therefore this essay aimed an in-depth reading their documents as original texts of modern understanding of those area, and tried to make a new views to approach the southeast asian buddhist culture by some more historically and concretely. At the early 5th century when Faxian(法顯) arrived, Buddhism was flourished in Sri Lanka. Because already a long time passed since the Saṇgha was schismatized into conservative and progressive at around the dominical year, he mentioned nothing about the conflict or disharmony of two orders. And the faith of Buddha tooth relic, which had been uprisen at 50 years ago from Faxian's visiting, was concretely established as a representative religion of Sri Lanka. According to his record, the carrying ritual of this Buddha tooth was performed very magnificently as similar with recent Korean Youngsan ceremony(靈山齋). In the mean time, it looks there were many sculptures of Buddha image made of precious stone of special product from Sri Lanka. The faith of Buddha-pāda(the Buddha's foot-prints) was also generalized at that time. The most famous monk of his contemporary Sir Lanka was Buddhaghosa, the author of Visuddhi-magga, but it is not sure that Faxian had met him. It can be suspected that the funeral in which Faxian participated could be belonged to him, or the Visuddhi-magga was writing at the peak during Faxian's staying. On the way to return to China, Faxian embarked an indigenous ship around Indonesia. It means there were no chinese trade ship which he can use. So the trade between china and southeast asia was advanced by south asian ships, and the chinese ships were not yet joined at that time so activity. And at least until that time, it looks there were no any remarkable buddhist movement in the southeast asian countries by where he stopped. In contrast, the southeast asian world which be seen by Iching had already experienced a lot of changes. He was impressed by the high quality buddhist culture of those area, and insisted to accept it to china. Further, he analyzed the sects of buddhism which were prevalent around the southeast asia in his contemporary time, and tried to make a good relationship with each native monks for learning from them. It looks the center of those exchanges may be Śrīvijaya of Indonesia. He also mentioned the situation of the late 7th century's Funan(扶南) in Cambodia. At that time, the buddhist Saṇgha was oppressed by newly rising Khmer(眞臘). On the other hand, he described the points of sameness and difference in detail between Indian and southeast asian buddhist culture in the field of ritual as like the practical use of garments, buddha images, and daily recited scriptures. There must be a lot of another aspects which this essay couldn't gather up or catch from these documents. Nevertheless, I hope this essay can help the researchers of this field and will wait for any advices and comments from them.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-153
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• 2015

The Rakhine (Arakanese) from present-day Rakhine State (Arakan) in Western Myanmar and the Marma from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Southeast Bangladesh originated from the same region, share the same culture and practice the same religion. However, the people from CHT have developed a distinctive identity and are individualized by a different name "Marma". This development raises a number of historical questions. This paper explores how the Arakanese descendants became "Marma" in Bangladesh.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.119-140
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• 2020

Emerging from Portuguese colonialism and Indonesian occupation to become one of the newest states, Timor-Leste is an interesting example of modern nation-building. Geographically, Timor-Leste is located in the area covered by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In such context, Timor-Leste has a strong claim to belonging to Southeast Asia. Timor-Leste nevertheless has not yet been admitted formally as a member despite its application for membership in March 2011. This paper locates Timor-Leste in a broader context of their construction of regional identity and as part of Southeast Asia. Drawing upon the constructivist approach, this paper suggests that the complexity of Timor-Leste's regional affiliation with ASEAN is made more challenging with its quest to assert itself as a nation-in-the-making.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.95-119
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• 2016

From the migrant care-workers arriving in Japan from the Philippines and Indonesia to support the depleted social support system for the large population of the elderly (Ogawa 2012) to the increasing number of retiring Japanese embarking on long-stay tourism in Malaysia (Ono 2015), the Japanese image of Southeast Asia as an exotic destination offering cheap labor in return for official development assistance seems to be fading away. Yet these changes are not necessarily reflected in the way contemporary Japanese, especially those who belong to the global, "spiritual-but not-religious" (Fuller 2001) population, think of and "consume" Southeast Asia in their daily lives. Using three case-studies, spiritual tours, Thai massage, and an NGO founded by a Japanese spiritual therapist, this paper argues that in Japan's large spiritual market, which targets people seeking alternative ways to express their religiosity, the old-fashioned colonial exoticism of Southeast Asian narratives were integrated in a totalizing discourse, in which Japan remains the exceptional outlier (Tanaka 1993), a country still claimed to be "advanced" both spiritually and economically.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.7-34
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• 2017

Various models have been presented to describe early Southeast Asian political formations that draw on both indigenous and imported Indic ideas. The most influential of these are the "Mandala" (Wolters 1968, 1982, 1999), "Galactic" (Tambiah 1976), "Negara" (Geertz 1980), and Anderson's 1972 "The idea of power in Javanese culture." This paper represents an initial attempt to compare the salient features of these models with historical and archaeological data from South Sulawesi where, exceptionally and importantly, societies developed independently of Indic ideas. South Sulawesi is unique in being the only region of maritime Southeast Asia where there are sufficient written and oral sources, often substantiated by archaeological data, to document the social evolution of its society from scattered, economically self-sufficient communities with ranked lineages practicing swidden agriculture to large political units (kingdoms) constructed around indigenous cultural and political concepts with economies based on wet-rice agriculture. This wealth of data provides us with a much more detailed picture of the emergence, development and support structures of early kingdoms than found in the models, which makes South Sulawesi of fundamental importance in understanding the social and economic evolution of pre-Indic influenced Austronesian societies in Maritime Southeast Asia.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.135-178
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• 2010

This study is to seek alternatives for regional governance related to transnational labor migration issues in Southeast Asia. This study examined the present situation and trends of labor migration in the region, reviewed involved transnational issues, and identified the current issues of governance to seek alternatives for regional governance. The increase in cross-border labor migration is no doubt a sign of growth and dynamism of the region and greater integration of their economies. But it also poses complex policy and management issues as well as transnational issues over such as unequal economic profits, illegal migration, human rights, and social security issues. In this reality, regional governance is a very important theme and the efforts to manage their migration inherently involve fundamental conflict and tension between related countries and regions. However, politics and governance of transnational migrant workers in Southeast Asia are still pursued at the national level. To resolve these issues, it is urgently required to secure not only collaboration between the parties concerned but also governance at the regional level. Findings of this study are: First, although labor migration has been a relatively long-time transnational issue, the history of addressing the issue at the regional governance is very short and still inceptive. Second, given its size, labor migration in Southeast Asia requires effective regional governance but no breakthrough was possible due to the conflict of interests between origin and destination countries and the conflict of logic between the labor market and the state. Third, the issue of labor migration is an important element for the formation of economic and socio-cultural communities the ASEAN countries have pursued. Fourth, it is urgently needed to seek alternatives for good and effective regional governance as a key to resolving these issues over migrant workers in Southeast Asia.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.239-267
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• 2012

이 논문은 근대 민족국가 형성과 민족 공용어의 창출의 상관성을 염두에 두고 식민지기 버마에서 버마어가 어떠한 정치적, 사회적 환경 하에서 어떻게 공용어의 지위를 획득해나갔는지에 대해 주로 버마어 산문의 대중화라는 각도에서 분석한 것이다. 베네딕트 앤더슨의 연구가 시사하는 것처럼 근대적 인쇄매체의 출현과 더불어 근대 버마어의 등장 및 대중화는 버마의 근대적 민족 형성에 큰 영향을 미쳤다. 제1차 영국-버마 전쟁 종결 후, 정치, 사회, 경제적 상황 변화와 함께 인쇄산업의 발달과 더불어 버마어는 대중매체에서 공용어로서의 지위를 획득해갔다. 식민시기에 버마 내 여러 지역에 어학원이 설립되었고 버마인이 어학교육 담당자로 고용되었다. 1930년대 초반에 근대 버마어 산문이 많은 저자들에 의해 집필되었으며, 1930년대 후반에 들어서서 독자들 사이에서 널리 읽히는 호황을 누렸다. 일본군 점령 후에는 일본군 당국의 허가 하에 버마어는 제2차 세계대전 중에 공식적 언어로서 인정되었다. 이러한 바탕 위에 근대 버마어는 1947년 헌법에 버마의 공식 언어로 명기되었다. 이러한 과정에 대한 분석을 통해 이 논문에서는 버마어가 식민지기에 표준어로서의 지위를 획득하고 그 버마어로 작성된 근대 버마어 산문의 사용이 버마의 민족 형성과정에서 결정적인 역할을 하였다는 점을 부각시켰다.