Take a Look at These Images and Ask Yourself. . .
The Google Ngram Viewer shows how many times certain terms appear in digitized printed texts.The image below shows what we see when we input the terms “Srivijiya” and “Sri Vijaya”…
Srivijaya 2.0 (14): If Coedès was This Bad when it Came to Srivijaya. . .
George Cœdès (1886-1969) was a French scholar of the Southeast Asian past who published prolifically, and through his writings, has exerted an enormous influence on the writing of premodern Southeast…
Engaging With Vietnam 12 is Coming!!
The 12th Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue conference is set to begin in just over a month.All of the pieces are starting to come together, and we’re looking forward…
Srivijaya 2.0 (13): The Ryukyu Letter to Siam that Proves Sanfoqi = Kambuja
On 8 October 1431, the king of Chuzan 中山, one of the principalities that made up the Kingdom of Ryukyu on the island of Okinawa, sent a letter to the…
The Female Deity Worshipped by the Kings of Angkor
Did you know that Angkorian kings used to regularly travel to the lower Mekong region to worship a female deity?No, you didn’t know that. I know you didn’t.But don’t feel…
Premodern Southeast Asian Imperialism, Decolonizing Historical Knowledge, and the Liberal Bias in Western Historical Scholarship
In researching about “Srivijaya” recently, I have been reading about Southeast Asian history in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and I’ve come to realize something that I had not thought…
Srivijaya 2.0 (12): The Lost Multinational History of the Saigon – Vũng Tàu Coast?
Over the past few months, I have been demonstrating that information in Chinese sources that has been used for the past century to write about the history of an imagined…
Deconstructing Srivijaya is Easy!
How can it be possible to deconstruct/debunk 100 years of scholarship in a couple weeks/months?In 2021, it's actually pretty easy, and this video explains why that is the case.For more,…
Srivijaya 2.0 (11): The Okinawan Evidence for Sanfoqi = Angkor
In these posts I have been demonstrating that a Chinese name (Sanfoqi) that scholars think refers to a kingdom on the island of Sumatra (Srivijaya) actually referred to “Kambuja,” that…
Life and Nats in Old Burma
After a hiatus (too busy with work!), I'm back to making videos. Here is the latest installment of the Southeast Asian History Course.For the previous videos, please visit the course…