Two nineteenth-century Balinese genres in which the erotic predominates are epic kakawin poetry and tutur (religious manuals) on sexual yoga. The article points to the strong intertextual links between these diverse genres. Through their focus on practical sexual matters and on the pursuit of sexual pleasure as integral to spiritual growth, tutur and kakawin also offer insight into notions of gender and sexuality in nineteenth-century Bali.

This essay suggests that one reason for the success of Theravāda Buddhism in early Southeast Asia was its appeal to women. The maternal metaphor, a prominent theme in Buddhist texts, was both familiar and relevant to the lives of all females, regardless of their social standing. Translated into a local environment, the interaction between motherhood and merit-making provided new opportunities for lay women to display their piety and strengthened their links with the monkhood.

When Burma was separated from India in 1937, the production and distribution of opium in the trans-Salween area became an important issue for the British since the Government of Burma would be expected to adhere to the various international agreements to control the opium trade. Initiatives by British officials in London to tighten restrictions were necessary since this region produced over and above the licit requirements of opium for the Shan States, but they were never fully implemented owing to resistance from local authorities and traders and the lack of any alternative cash crop to substitute for opium.

The seizure of the Sta. Catarina took place off the east coast of Singapore in 1603 and was popularised by the Dutch lawyer and humanist Hugo Grotius. Based on Dutch and Portuguese sources, the article revisits the incident to critique Grotius' account and provide a snapshot of Portuguese trade and diplomacy in Asia at the time.

The first monolingual Malay dictionary was compiled by Raja Ali Haji out of concern that the Malay language and culture were in a process of ongoing degeneration. He also included words referring to sex and bodily functions so that Malays would know when and where not to use them. The dictionary is thus a refreshing alternative to somewhat Victorian-inspired dictionaries from the nineteenth century.

Until the fifteenth century, Vietnam was essentially a Buddhist country. The piety of the dynasties constituted their source of legitimacy, and Buddhism provided a means for royal authority to penetrate and incorporate the local political structure. In the face of the development of social unrest, however, Confucian literati started to voice their concern for the maintenance of order and eventually emerged in the fifteenth century as spokesmen for royal authority, definers of public morality and guardians of the court. As a result, institutional Buddhism lost the court patronage it had previously enjoyed, and henceforth its political influence declined steadily.

The focus of the article is on the policy perspectives of the colonial state in Malaya vis-à-vis business, Western and Chinese. It touches on the policy outlook of the periods preceding the inter-war years before exploring various related topics (the question of industrial development, tariff policy, private sector initiatives) with a view to ascertaining the relationship between state and business.

Most of the stories we know about the Vietnamese goddess Liêu Hanh derive from Doàn thi Diêm's story Vân Cát Thân Nũ Truyên. This article analyses the story, arguing that in fact it is a piece of fiction which reflects the author's views, experiences and aspirations for greater freedom for women.

The Sěrat candraning wanita (Book of descriptions of women) is a voluminous Javanese manuscript written in Yogyakarta in the 1930s. This handbook for would-be husbands is basically an instruction manual, informing its (male) readers how to choose a good wife/sexual partner (based on physiognomy) and how sex works (based on ‘the etiquette of sexual intercourse’). It can be regarded as the swansong of pre-modern Javano-Muslim erotology.

As issues of gender and sexuality become an increasingly important focus in cultural studies, the work of the once popular woman writer of the 1950s and 1960s, Thidaa Bunnaak, draws Thai literature into the debate. This paper investigates the sexually explicit nature of Thidaa's fiction and the multiple meanings that erotic references might hold.

This article examines the institutional matrix associated with logging and forest pioneering in a district on Sumatra. It draws together theoretical approaches to develop a framework for analysing the operation of competing forms of institutional power and control. The article argues that the governance of local natural resources and the current epidemic of ‘illegal logging’ can be understood in terms of the particular institutional or socio-political structures found in remote forested areas.

During the turbulent years between the 1930s and the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945, Chinese businessmen in Yogyakarta confronted three major issues: competition against the emerging Indonesian entrepreneurs and Japanese business expatriates; patriotism towards their ancestral land China in fighting against Japanese aggression; and collaboration with the new regime run by their former enemy, the Japanese. During this period newly arrived ‘totok’ Chinese achieved pre-eminence over the well-established ‘peranakan’ community.

Based on surviving local records, this essay argues that after 1943 Japanese policy towards Islam underwent far-reaching changes when the faith, religious elites and religious edifices were incorporated into the Japanese propaganda machinery for the purpose of winning a war in which neither Islam nor Malay-Muslims had any vested interest.

The main argument of this article is that the middlemen paradigm which since the Second World War has come to dominate academic writings and popular perceptions of Chinese business in late colonial Indonesia is generally flawed, and has hindered the development of a more nuanced picture of the nature of Chinese economic activity in pre-war Southeast Asia.

This study offers insights into the popular nôm poetry written by Hô Xuân Hu'o'ng, who brought to life the battles of the sexes, the power of the female body versus male authority, human weakness and desire and a range of issues and experiences potentially detrimental to women's status and aspirations. This study also examines the treatment of Hô Xuân Hu'o'ng's poetry by present-day Vietnamese.

The VOC's Burma trade was based on Indian textiles, particularly the cheaper, coarser varieties which would have been surprisingly affordable to the common man or woman. Burmese profits helped fill the coffers of the Company's factories in Coromandel and Bengal. In the end, however, the VOC's establishment in Burma became the victim of a general change in Dutch fortunes.

The leader-follower relationship among the KMT Yunnanese Chinese in northern Thailand is analyzed through the application of patron-client theories. It is argued that the relationship has been embedded in a particular socio-cultural context, which incorporates both Han Chinese culture and the native ethos of long-distance caravan trade, and that it is characterised by both instrumental and emotional forms.

The article suggests that the development of Chinese capitalism in nineteenth-century Southeast Asia was intimately connected to the participation of Chinese merchants in the financing and operation of opium revenue farming concessions. It examines the development and structure of the opium farming system as it operated in the region.

For a long time, the Central Plain of Thailand has been integrated within the market economy; the resulting tenancy has often been attributed to growing social differentiation. Landowner–tenant relations constitute a focal point that mirrors economic, social and political issues. This paper focuses on these relationships and their evolution during the twentieth century. The overall picture is more balanced than commonly assumed, especially for the last thirty years, during which time real rents are shown to have declined.

In 1958, the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce had to decide whether to remain active in politics, representing not only the commercial interests of the rich but also the views of Chinese society at large, or to function solely as a commercial organisation. The eventual success of the pro-politics faction illustrates the buoyant aspirations of the Chinese merchant elite. The public battle for control over the Chamber shows that Chinese businessmen assessed their options by pragmatically balancing political, economic as well as cultural constraints and opportunities.