Cultural realization

If you ask the people from a certain country in Southeast Asia about their movies, they might not be able to answer you if you want to know what films from their neighbours are like.

I only have an opportunities to watch quite a number from Southeast Asian films, especially form Indonesia.

Khun Phra Chuai [good lord], I've just realized that I have no idea about Indonesian films before.

I appreciated Truffaut, Rosellini, Woody Allen, Hitchcock, and the list can go on. But I don't have a clue what are the big names of Southeast Asian filmmakers (well, maybe Apichatpong but that's not an excuse).

Recently I've watched Opera Jawa (2006) by Garin Nugroho, which is a reinterpretation of Ramayana into the modern style. The film is a part of the event arranged partly by the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. I've also met Garin in flesh.

The movie is almost exactly what I wanted to do in my writing! What's good about a reinterpretation of classic texts is that you not only see how this age is like, but also to see how something can prevail through time...

Now I've seen all three movies commissioned by the New Crowned Hope Festival in 2006. Others are: Apichatpong's Syndrome of a Century and Tsai Ming-Liang's I don't want to sleep alone (both watched in London in 2008)

I recommend you to watch this movie. It is based on a classic text that connects Southeast Asia together, and it gives us a voice in this world.

Sita was gorgeous in this movie, I tell you.

What time is it?

Ever imagine what was it like before we live our lives on the 24 hours clock time?

Clark Blaise, Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time (2000) could give us some answers.

In this book he traces how power relation among European countries in the 19th century resulted in the adoption of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Of course, GMT was used in the colonies.

Southeast Asian countries, one by one, followed the GMT from around them late 19th century onwards.


GMT reflected that power centre of the world in the 19th century; London.

We are still adopting GMT today.

See? that's why we have to learn history.

31 planes of existence

An article by Aung Zaw in the Irrawaddy Feb. issue is quite interesting. (the online version is here)

It is about how Naypidaw is seen by Myanmar's junta leader Than Shwe as the monument of his rule.

The project of building the Hluttaw, or Parliament in Naypidaw has an interesting fact: it is planned to be consisted of 31 buildings.

According to Buddhist cosmology, 31 is the number of planes of existence into which we can reborn. Human belongs to the fifth plane, above other beings such as animal and hungry ghosts, but below the devas-the god-like beings who exists in the realms of form and formlessness.
The important thing to remember about the 31 planes of existence is that they are all subject to suffering. By following the Buddha's teachings, however, one can escape the rounds of rebirth and attain a state that is completely beyond suffering, known as Nirvana.

It began to be even more interesting when it continues (my emphasis) :

In his youth, Than Shwe devoted almost as much time to the study of Buddhist scriptures as he did to learning psychological warfare, the military field in which he has excelled throughout his career. According to one army general who worked with him years ago, the young Than Shwe was "half monk and half army officer"

It reminds me of the interconnection between religion and politics in Buddhist countries (esp.in Southeast Asia). The ruler will project himself, and, in history, he was also projected, as Buddha. It is the Brahmic believe which influenced mainland Southeast Asia for centuries.

One of the important questions is how should this concept be adapted in the midst of the modern, 21st century world?