Features on Asian Art, Culture, History & Travel
Features
Golden Lanterns Of Chiang Mai
Celebrating The Age-Old Yee Peng Festival of Northern Thailand
Yee Peng is a northern Thai term signifying the full moon of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. In Chiang Mai, Yee Peng is celebrated as a religious holiday. Throughout the region temples are full as people make merit, whilst monks give special sermons and recite religious texts. Traditionally, scrolls illustrating these texts were hung outside the temples to help explain the monks’ readings, and in some small villages of the north this custom is still followed.
Pondicherry
Where India Meets France
For most people, images of European imperialism in South Asia are inextricably bound up with the poetry of Kipling and the pomp of the British Raj. Yet few people, by contrast, are familiar with the former French Indian Territories, administered from the sleepy colonial enclave of Pondicherry until their return to India in 1954.
Hidden Islands, Secret Beaches Safari
Story by Joe Cummings / CPA Media (14 January, 2022)
Renowned travel writer Joe Cummings really does nurture his inner Robinson Crusoe. Take a trip with him to Thailand’s little known Ko Kam Archipelago.
Soi Phat Sai: Caffeine & Opium
Story by Joe Cummings / CPA Media (9 February, 2022)
Take a stroll down Soi Phat Sai in Bangkok’s Chinatown, once the site of the world’s largest opium den, now home to an array of Chaozhou-style coffeeshops and eateries.
Regal Rowing
Story by Joe Cummings / CPA Media (23 March, 2022)
A brief history of Thailand’s magnificent Royal Barges. From the 17th century delegation sent by King Louis XIV to the complete revival of the fleet in the 20th century under King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The Splendours Of Phimai
A Classical Khmer Gem of Northeast Thailand
Perhaps the best-preserved, and certainly the most famous Khmer temple complex in Thailand may be found at the small town of Phimai, fifty-nine kilometres north-east of Khorat, on a turning off National Highway 2 to Khon Kaen. In classical times the site was directly linked by road to Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire. Indeed, there are clear indications that Phimai was the main religious and administrative centre to the north-west.
Buddhas with Attitude
Story by Ron Emmons / CPA Media (15 October, 2021)
Buddhas with attitude? Surely that’s a contradiction in terms. Though we often hear of politicians with attitude, singers with attitude or athletes with attitude, the notion of a Buddha (or Buddhist) with attitude just doesn’t fit.
Loy Krathong In Laos
Reasserting a Tai Cultural Heritage
Every November at full moon people gather by stretches of open water throughout Thailand to celebrate Loy Krathong. Small but elaborate lotus-shaped creations bearing traditional offerings of flowers, incense, candles and a coin are floated in countless numbers on streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, and even the open sea to reverence and pay homage to Mae Khongkha, the goddess of rivers and waters. Each tiny float also carries with it the dreams and aspirations of the sender.