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mainsinvestments · 2 years

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Sarawak peppercorns

#SARAWAK PEPPERCORNS FREE#

Siew’s unsmoked peppercorn version, his Lightly Salted Malaysian Peppercorns. Grind our Smoked Malaysian Peppercorns on meats, potatoes, eggs and anywhere you want to bring the BBQ inside.Īlso be sure to check out Mr. Siew’s pepper is infused with a big, beautiful, sweet and smoky aroma that will trick your inner Homer Simpson into thinking BACON! (Even though there is no actual bacon involved.) He slowly smokes the peppercorns with local mango redwood. Sarawak Black Pepper From the island of Borneo in Malaysia, these medium-sized peppercorns have a woodsy and resinous character, with notes of bright tropical. As a result, his peppercorns retain heat (these are hotter than our Tellicherry), beautiful aroma and a pleasing dry and crackly texture.įor his Redwood Smoked Peppercorns, Mr. Email ThisBlogThisShare to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest. Note: This is my last FOC food column written for Chinese readers in New Zealand for Mandarin Pages. Also available in Royale Peppercorn Blend, or French Peppercorn Blend. Our European Peppercorn blend of black Tellicherry and white Sarawak peppercorns is ideal with chicken, veal, tofu, pork and other delicate proteins. Siew dries his pepper berries in pressure cookers at intense temperatures. (Matcha) The Benefits of Drinking Matcha. It is no surprise, then, that pepper today is essential in cuisines across the globe. He has come up with new ways to achieve exceptional flavor and texture. Traditionally, fresh pepper berries are dried in the sun for several days until they turn black and hard. Siew from Sarawak, Malaysia who is doing revolutionary things with peppercorns. And that’s saying something for a spice that’s been around for thousands of years. Recently, I came across a small farmer named Mr. Black Pepper is the most famous agriculture product in Sarawak, with Adjustable Grinder seem stylish and portable, very easy to operate and clean. The white pepper comes from peppercorns harvested when fully ripe (red in colour).

#SARAWAK PEPPERCORNS FREE#

I’m happy to say that I’ve struck pepper gold again. Sarawak Sarawak white pepper from malaysia, 75 g - Order on the website Peugeot - Free return and secured payment. Over the years, I’ve been searching the globe to add worthy pepper companions. I realize that there’s a good chance you know Reluctant Trading for our signature Tellicherry peppercorns from Kerala, India. Sarawak Peppercorns Local Business in Miri, Sarawak 5 5 out of 5 stars. White peppercorns contain less essential oil than black peppercorns, as this is in the skin, so they have less aroma and a sweetish pungency to them. High quality, naturally cleaned Sarawak white peppercorns. There is almost no limit to the number of ways it can be used, simply think of it as a very sophisticated and interesting pepper!īlended and packed in Australia from imported ingredients.Do you love bbq food? Do you love spicy food? Do you love bacon? Are you nodding like a bobble-head? If yes, then our Malaysian Smoked Black Whole Peppercorns are for you. Sarawak White Peppercorns are known for their superior flavor, aroma, size and color. One of Herbie’s favourites is to crush a tablespoonful of melange of pepper in a pestle and mortar, rub it onto white or red meats with a little salt and then pan-fry, grill or barbecue the meat. The melange of pepper blend adds a wonderful full-bodied flavour to soups and casseroles, whether a teaspoonful or two is tossed in during cooking, or tied up in a muslin bag for later removal. Schinus pink peppercorns (from Reunion) for their sweetness and delightful appearance.Indonesian cubebs (tailed) pepper for their savoury juniper-like flavour Pure white pepper hailing from Sarawak, one of the most well known producer of high quality pepper in the world.Chinese Sichuan pepper (fagara or prickly ash) for its tangy zing.Green, firm late-picked Indian peppercorns for their fresh taste.Black and white Sarawak peppercorns for the traditional aroma and heat of pepper.This fragrant, lightly-spiced, tasty blend is made up of six different types of pepper. Herbie has made his own melange of pepper blend, inspired by the produce he saw. As the key distributor of Authentic Sarawak Peppercorn, we offer a comprehensive list of pepper selection from peppercorns to pepper powder. During Herbie’s visit to the south of France in the spring of 2001, he was particularly interested to find an unusual blend of peppercorns being sold in the markets in Cavaillon (just north of Marseilles).

#Sarawak peppercorns

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southeastasianists · 4 years

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In late July, sitting in my sister-in-law’s home in St. Louis, Missouri, I waited in the “lobby” area of Cloud Theatre for Zoom Parah to begin. Itself a creation born of the pandemic, Cloud Theatre is an online platform which strives to offer a seamless digital theatre experience to global audiences. Their “lobby” is a simple but smart artificial space: a live chat box, available to attendees as they login for a show, is positioned next to the image of a theatre stage, framed by red curtains. The waiting room attempts to replicate the experience of audience members mingling and chatting before a performance begins. Joining others in this virtual space, I was excited to see another Malaysian, also based in the United States, mention that they were from Petaling Jaya—my hometown. I excitedly typed back, “I’m from PJ, too!” The spark of recognition flashing across the chat box was akin to overhearing a conversation between strangers, and interjecting to share a mutual connection. Months into social distancing protocols, the Cloud Theatre lobby reminded me that there was something inherently sociable about joining hundreds of people from around the world to watch this production together—albeit, online.

“We had people who’d never seen theatre before experience it for the first time using Zoom.” Malaysian theatre director, actor and writer Jo Kukathas stressed this point repeatedly when discussing Zoom Parah, the online adaptation of the critically acclaimed play, Parah. This digital theatre performance, and the new viewing experiences it made possible, is just one of many examples of innovative work being produced by Southeast Asian directors, producers, and actors since the pandemic. In the early days and weeks of Covid-19, theatre makers from this region—like so many others around the world—watched in despair as stages went dark and theatres shut their doors. Despite the dire conditions, they rallied—with little to no funding and even less governmental support—to reimagine theatre in the time of COVID. They created innovative forms of theatre designed for Zoom, streamed recordings of award-winning plays that had not previously been available online, and held numerous talk-back sessions to reflect on the creative process. The digital turn in Southeast Asian theatre has provided unprecedented access to experimental and critically acclaimed work from the region. These productions have connected audiences and diasporic communities around the world, focusing often on urgent questions of race, identity, and belonging. These developments offer models not only for the professional theatre world, but also for teachers and students of the performing arts who are navigating online education.

In their articles for Offstage and The Business Times, Akanksha Raja and Helmi Yusof discuss half a dozen new Singaporean and Southeast Asian theatre projects which have embraced the digital turn. These include: Murder at Mandai Camp and The Future Stage from Sight Lines Entertainment; Long Distance Affair from Juggerknot Theatre and PopUP Theatrics; Fat Kids Are Harder to Kidnap from How Drama; and Who’s There? from The Transit Ensemble and New Ohio Theatre. While these are just a few of the productions that have emerged since the pandemic began, they are impressive in scale, quantity, and range of forms. These performances have taken advantage of every feature offered by Zoom, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms. They’ve incorporated chat boxes, polls, and even collaborative detective work on the part of the audience. In addition to Zoom Parah (by Instant Café Theatre), I’ve had the opportunity to watch Who’s There?, as well as a recording of WILD RICE theatre’s celebrated play, Merdeka, written by Singaporean playwrights Alfian Sa’at and Neo Hai Bin. Of these three, Zoom Parah and Who’s There? illuminate the technological and socio-political interventions of Southeast Asian digital theatre, as well as the ways in which COVID-19 has redefined performance and spectatorship.

In addition to the virtual lobby and chat function, Zoom Parah employed live English translation in a separate text box, making the production accessible to those not fluent in Malay. Who’s There? like Zoom Parah, also made the most of the chat function, along with approximately a dozen polls which punctuated the performance. Each poll gauged audience reactions to the complex issues the play addressed and reflected the responses back to the viewers. This feature required audience members to pause, reflect on a particular scene and its context, and assess the perspectives through which they were viewing the performance. In effect, the polls created a dynamic feedback loop between the cast, crew, and viewers, offering an alternative to the in-person audience response that is so crucial to live performances. Augmenting their efforts to keep audience members plugged in, the play experimented with layering lighting, sound, and mixed media to produce different visual and sound effects within the Zoom frame.

Alongside their adaptation of online technologies, both plays are also noteworthy for their socio-political interventions. Parah, the critically acclaimed play on which Zoom Parah is based, was written in 2011 by award-winning Singaporean writer and resident playwright at WILD RICE theatre, Alfian Sa’at. It follow a group of 11th grade students of different races (Malay, Chinese, and Indian) as they navigate reading the controversial Malaysian novel, Interlok, which sparked national debates surrounding racial stereotypes. The classmates, who share a deep friendship, challenge each other’s views of the novel by reflecting on their lived experiences. Zoom Parah retained the original plot and script, bringing the play’s pressing questions into a national landscape marked by pandemic lockdowns and political upheaval, and shadowed by new iterations of Malay supremacy. At a volatile time for the country, Zoom Parah questions what it means to be Malaysian, making visible the forms of belonging and exclusion that continue to shape national identities.

Who’s There? was also invested in broaching difficult discussions of contemporary issues. A transnational collaboration between artists from the US, Singapore, and Malaysia, the play was part of the New Ohio Theatre’s summer festival, which moved online due to the pandemic. Who’s There? aimed to tackle some of the most contentious racial topics of 2020: the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests; the use of black and brownface in Malaysia; and the relationship between DNA testing and cultural identity. The production was structured as a series of linked vignettes, featuring different sets of characters wrestling with interconnected racial and national contexts.

Both Parah and Who’s There speak to the arts’ inherent capacity to not merely experiment with form and aesthetics in the digital realm, but to also engage the complexity of history, politics, and contemporary culture. As Kukathas recently reflected, “The act of making theatre to me is always about trying to connect to the society that I live in; that could be local, that could be global . . . people want to hear stories, and to connect through stories.” By taking on the dual challenge of experimenting with digital technologies and responding to what’s happening in the public square, Southeast Asian digital theatre joins work such as the Public Theatre’s all-Black production of Much Ado About Nothing to offer new frames through which to view race, rights, and identity—even and especially in the midst of a global pandemic.

Kukathas’ comments on the inherently social motivations of her work were shared during a Facebook Live discussion entitled “Who’s Afraid of Digital Theater?”. The conversation aired on 20 August, hosted by WILD RICE theatre and moderated by Alfian. Focusing on “the possibilities and pitfalls of digital theatre,” the discussion featured reflections from artists who have helped launch this new era of Southeast Asian theatre. The panelists included Kukathas, Kwin Bhichitkul from Thailand (director, In Own Space) and Sim Yan Ying “YY” from Singapore (co-director and actor, Who’s There?). Approximately 100 people tuned in for the discussion, and the recording has accrued over 8,000 views on Facebook. During the conversation, the theatre makers shared rationales for their creative choices, as well as strategies for navigating the challenges of developing online performances. Their insights offer potential pathways for other theatre professionals, as well as teachers and students of theatre who are continuing to work online.

Bhichitkul, Kukathas, and Sim’s approaches to digital theatre diverged significantly from one another. They each played with different technologies and were guided by distinct motivations. Bhichitkul was focussed on the isolation created by the pandemic and, responding to this fragmentation, he asked 15 artists to create short, 2-minute video performances. Bhichitkul explained that this project also had an improvisational twist: “Every artist need[ed] to be inspired by the message of the [artist’s] video before them. They couldn’t think beforehand, they needed to wait until the day [they received the video]” before creating their own. The creative process was thus limited to just a 24-hour window for each artist. The entire project spanned 15 days, with Bhichitkul stitching the videos together on the final day.

On the other hand, Kukathas felt strongly that her foray into digital theatre required a deep connection to a live, staged performance. Therefore, she chose Parah—a play she directed for six re-stagings between 2011-2013—as the production she would adapt to Zoom. Kukathas explained, “If I was going to start experimenting with doing digital theatre . . . it needed to be a play that I was very familiar with, and a play that the actors were very familiar with. I wanted the actors to really inhabit their bodies, so that the energy of the actor’s body was very present even through the screen . . . I [needed] actors who have a kinetic memory in their body of that performance being 360 degrees.” Unlike Kukathas, Sim was “interested in doing something as far away from live theatre as possible” and did not want to be “beholden” to its conventions. She views digital theatre as “a new art form in itself; not an extension of live theatre, not a replacement, but something that straddles the line between theatre and film.”

The directors’ reflections on their respective productions illustrate the range of forms, techniques, and points of view with which theatre makers are experimenting. They also suggest that digital theatre has the potential to accommodate a surprisingly wide variety of directorial visions and investments.

And while their approaches might vary, these theatre makers all agreed about the benefits and opportunities of digital theatre. They returned repeatedly to the advantages of greater accessibility and transnational reach without the costs of international travel. Kukathas and Sim cited accessibility and the pay-what-you-can model as being particular priorities for them. Kukathas was especially proud of the fact that “we could reach the play to people who would ordinarily not be able to go to the theatre. And we made our tickets really cheap: our cheapest ticket was RM5 (US $1). We did that deliberately so that people who don’t usually even go to the theatre would get a chance to watch it. So we had people who’d never seen theatre before experience it for the first time using Zoom.”

The directors also view the digital turn as one which opens up new avenues for creativity and collaboration. Sim recalls, “We still spent 3-4 hours per rehearsal, 4 times a week, on this space together. We developed a closeness and a relationship with each other even though we never met live. And we still shared a lot of cross-cultural exchanges.” Kukathas views the shift to online technologies and platforms as one which prompts us to ask big questions about theatre and to re-evaluate the rules of spectatorship. Filming theatre at home, sharing it online, and watching it at home creates, according to Kukathas, a merging of “strangeness and ordinariness” that shrinks the spaces between public and private. The ensuing disorientation poses, for Kukathas, a number of pivotal questions: “What is theatre? What are the impulses that drive us to make a piece of theatre? What is it to watch theatre? How free are you now when you’re watching? . . . I think this could be a good chance to question why we have certain rules [in theatre] and whether those rules are really necessary.”

While we are used to hearing laments about the digital as the enemy of “the real,” the digital turn in Southeast Asian theatre suggests an opening and an expansion; a chance to reimagine the performing arts, develop new forms of collaboration, and reach wider and more diverse audiences. As Akanksha Raja notes in Offstage, “performance-makers have been recognising that the way they choose to embrace technology can not only enhance but possibly birth new forms of theatre.”

However, it’s crucial not to romanticise the very real challenges of alternative forms and platforms. Alfian noted that, “In a traditional theatre, you are a captive audience . . . you’re not allowed to be distracted, not allowed to look at your phone. On the one hand, we’re seeing there’s the freedom to not be so disciplined when watching a show. But at the same time, is the freedom necessarily a good thing? You’re actually quite distracted and you’re not giving your 100 percent [attention] to the work.”

Sim and Kukathas agreed to an extent, but pointed out alternative advantages: group chats and texts in a “watch party” format build a sense of connection among audience members and provide real-time audience reactions and feedback. Kukathas recalled how attendees used the chat box (along with text messages and DMs) to alert Kukathas and her producer to a sound issue that they were not aware of. Kukathas laughingly reflected, “I really appreciated how invested people were. They were like, ‘Fix this right now!’ and then we had to rush to try to fix it. It made me feel how alive we were—the audience was shouting at us!”

The digital turn in Southeast Asian theatre is bringing a wide range of productions to global audiences. The literary and cultural traditions of this region are incredibly rich and have always been shaped by complex histories of migration, exchange, and adaptation. Digital theatre is borne of new practices of migration, exchange, and adaptation—and of necessity. While there have been controversial debates in countries like Singapore and Malaysia about the value of the arts during this pandemic, the creatives featured here are turning to the digital in order to keep art alive and to keep their companies and projects afloat. They are extending an invitation to audiences and to collaborators to embrace play and experimentation, to find opportunities in the challenges of online theatre, and to recognise that art is essential, now more than ever.

#Southeast Asia #Theatre #Culture #Technology

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wigginshairwigs · 4 years

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How to Add Luster To Hair Wigs?

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mideastsoccer · 4 years

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China could signal increased engagement with Iran but doesn’t

By James M. Dorsey

Here are two potential indicators of Chinese interest in moving ahead with a proposed US$400 billion economic and military cooperation agreement with Iran: a Chinese push for Iranian membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and renewed interest in a China-Pakistan-Iran-Turkey energy pipeline. China has moved on neither.

While converting Iran’s SCO observer status into membership would primarily signal Chinese interest in substantially increasing its engagement with the Islamic republic, moving ahead with the pipeline could be a geopolitical game changer.

China’s refusal to signal interest in putting flesh on the skeleton of its partnership with Iran following the leaking of a purported, wide-ranging agreement between the two countries suggests that the People’s Republic neither wants to increase tension with the United States by blatantly violating harsh US sanctions against the Islamic republic nor does it wish to upset its balancing of relations with Tehran’s regional rival, Saudi Arabia.

The pipeline that would cater to the energy, economic and security needs of all participants may be on the backburner for now, but geo-politicking in the Middle East and South Asia is likely to spur a renewed Pakistani, Iranian and Turkish push for the project.

Driving a potential push are shifting sands that raise the spectre of geopolitical realignment. They include a rift between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia over the lack of Gulf support for Islamabad in its conflict with India over Kashmir; calls for India to align itself with the Saudi-United Arab Emirates-led alliance against Turkey, Qatar, and Iran; and ambitions of Turkey, embroiled in multiple conflicts in the Mediterranean, to position itself as an energy transit hub.

The pipeline was first touted in 2015 in anticipation of the lifting/and or easing of US and United Nations sanctions against Iran as a result of an international agreement that curbed the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.

Funded by China, construction that was slated to incorporate an already partially built link between Iran and Pakistan, was to be carried out by a subsidiary of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation.

The United States’ withdrawal in 2018 from the nuclear agreement and reimposition of sanctions put the pipeline project on ice with neither Pakistan nor China wanting to be in violation of US law.

But Pakistan and Iran, in a first step aimed at reviving the project, agreed last year that the Islamic republic that completed its section of the link between the two countries would withdraw from arbitration procedures that would have likely forced Pakistan to pay a penalty for not living up to its part of the deal. Under the agreement, Pakistan has to complete its leg of the pipeline by 2024.

Chinese scholars Fei-fei Guo, Cheng-feng Huang, and Xiao-ling Wua concluded in a detailed study that “China urgently needs to open up new energy channels to reduce the reliance on the Malacca Strait,” a chokepoint in Southeast Asia that China fears could become a stranglehold in a confrontation with the United States.

The scholars went on to note that “the energy corridor is in line with the energy strategic objectives of China, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey,” but cautioned that regional conflicts, including in Pakistan’s Balochistan province as well as in south-eastern Turkey and in Iran posed threats.

A Chinese Communist party newspaper, in a rare comment on possible greater engagement with Iran, suggested in July in an oped written by Middle East scholar Fan Hongda that there could be a point in the downward spiral of US-Chinese relations at which China would no longer regard the potential cost of violating US sanctions as too high.

A “factor that cannot be ignored regarding the improvement of Sino-Iranian relations is that China is less and less constrained by US factors when considering its diplomacy with Iran,” Mr. Fan said.

China is not there yet but the Middle East and South Asia’s shifting sands are lending urgency to the project from Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran’s perspective.

Pakistan initially signalled last December its interest in aligning itself with Turkey, Qatar and Iran by agreeing to participate in an Islamic summit in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur convened to challenge Saudi leadership of the Muslim world.

Bowing to Saudi pressure, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan withdrew from the summit at the last minute.

Eight months later, Pakistan was again challenging Saudi leadership.

Complaining about lack of support of the Saudi-dominated Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that groups 57 Muslim-majority nations for Pakistan in its conflict with India over Kashmir, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureishi suggested that his country would seek to rally support beyond the realm of the kingdom.

The spat, coupled with Turkish support for Kashmir, much to the chagrin of India, has opened the door to South Asian nations potentially lining up on different sides of the Middle East’s fault lines at a time that China and India are at loggerheads.

The potential line-up and Chinese-Indian tensions are likely to be insufficient for Beijing to divert for now from its Saudi-Iranian balancing act.

Ultimately, that keeps the China-Pakistan-Iran-Turkey corridor on ice but does not take it off the table.

However, greater South Asian alignment with rivalling Middle Eastern states constitutes one more incentive for China to step up its subtle efforts to persuade Middle Eastern states, particularly Saudi Arabia and Iran, to dial down regional tensions and seek arrangements to manage their differences in a way that prevents them from spinning out of control.

The stakes for China are high given that it is investing up to US$62 billion in Pakistan, the People’s Republic’s single largest country investment related to its Belt and Road Initiative that seeks to tie Eurasia to Beijing through transport, energy, and telecommunications infrastructure.

Nonetheless, Daniel S. Markey, author of a recent book on China’s Western Horizon, cautions that “we should not underestimate the extent to which…China remains relatively conflict-averse and conservative, reluctant to throw itself into potentially costly situations…”

At the rate at which Middle Eastern and South Asian sands are shifting, that could prove to be increasingly difficult.

A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He is also a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture in Germany.

#china #pakistan #iran #turkey #saudi arabia #qatar #malaysia #islam #india

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stumbld · 5 years

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Ethnic Culture Versus Islam

*This is an interesting article which addresses a major problem in most Muslim communities. Although it has been written specifically for Malay Muslims, just replace the word Malay in this article, with say, Bengali or Indian or Pakistani and you will get an article fit for any culture. The author is a Malay who wrote this letter to members in his immediate community. - ITMR Webmaster*

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http://www.themodernreligion.com/ugly/culture.html

Islam is a religion. But, to many Malays, Islam is a culture. It is a practice handed down by their fathers, and their father's father before that. It is something they do out of habit rather than out of the education they have received. That is why the converts or the "Born Again Muslims", if I may be permitted to use this phrase, make better Muslims.

Converts learn the religion from scratch and throw away their old beliefs on becoming Muslims. The Born Again Muslims re-learn the religion and are able to differentiate between Islam and the Malay Adat, and are brave enough to reject what is unIslamic though they run the risk of being branded fanatics.

The majority of Malay Muslims confuse between what is religion and what is culture. They take both as one and the same and, on many an occasion, practice religion as if it was part of the Malay culture, or adopt some of the old cultures thinking they are doing an Islamic thing.

Sometimes even the culture over-rides religion and they rush out to implement a cultural practice as if it would be unIslamic in not doing so. Culture takes precedence over everything else and, if they miss one or two obligations in Islam, like praying or fasting, it does not matter as long as that so called "adat" has been safely implemented.

For example, they would spend hours dressing up a bride for a wedding ceremony. Never mind that the bride has to miss her Maghrib prayers because of this. Allowing her to do her Maghrib prayers would mean the preparations would be interrupted or delayed, not to mention her hair, which had been carefully set at great expense of time and money, would get all messed up.

The house would need to be cleaned and everything would need to be nicely set up in preparation for Eid/Hari Raya. This would mean they would have to miss the last day of fasting or else there would be no energy left for the great task ahead of them. Impressing the guests who would be visiting for Eid/Hari Raya is more important that fasting.

Is it not a Malay proverb which says, "Biar mati anak, jangan mati adat"? In other words, culture is so important that they would sacrifice their child as long as the culture is protected. They would not sacrifice for Islam.

How did this come about? Islam is very specific and explicit. Islam is the ultimate and everything else comes later. How could, therefore, culture stand between the Muslim and his religion? Even more important, how could the Malay get so confused that he could not differentiate between religion and culture and allow himself to practice Islam his way; religion as a culture.

Malays were Hindus long before they became Muslims. In fact, a good part of Indonesia, where the Malaysian Malays originally came from, is still Hindu. Even in those parts of Indonesia which have become predominantly Muslim, you can still see the remains of the Hindu religion and many of their dances and so on still retain this culture to a certain extent.

The Malay Sultans of early Melaka had Sanskrit names, proof of the Hindu influence. They became Muslims not through the influence of the Arabs, but through the influence of the Indian merchants who came to Melaka to trade.That is why our brand of Islam is the same as in India and we find some differences when comparing our practices to that of the Middle Eastern Muslims.

The nation at that time owed their loyalty to the Sultans. When the Sultans converted to Islam the nation followed suit without any questions asked. They became Muslims due to the tradition of loyalty to the Sultans rather than because they were committed to the religion.

Here alone was reason enough for the weak following of the religious principles. The people were just doing what the Sultan asked. The old cultures and traditions were retained and practiced side-by-side with Islam. The early Malay Muslims were one confused lot of people and, to some extent, this confusion still remains.

In fact, you can still see aspects of Hindu culture in our so-called "Islamic" practices. Take the lighting of lanterns on the last seven nights before the end of Ramadan. This is modelled after the Hindu religious celebration of Deepavali, the festival of the lights.

What about the wedding ceremony mentioned earlier? Very much a Hindu practice where the bride and bridegroom sit on a stage so the world can see them see and to receive the blessings of the crowd who sprinkle scented water and flowers on them.

Many acts the Malays do in the name of religion is not Islamic at all.

In fact, some are even contrary to religious beliefs; bida'ah or shirik; and compromise the principles of the Islamic faith. These practices are not only sinful but makes a mockery of the One God fundamental because that forbidden practice acknowledges the existence of other forces equally powerful.

For instance, take the practice of consulting bomohs. Most Malays believe in the powers of the bomoh and many actually go to see them for assistance.Bomohs are nothing but witch doctors. In the Western terminology "witches" are servants of the devil as they draw upon the powers of the forces of evil. The Malays swear by the power of the bomoh rather than do their Hajat prayer to get their wishes fulfilled. Bomohs use the Koran, spirits of dead people, bones of humans, and so on, to "pray" for help.

It must be remembered that though the bomoh uses the Koran it is not used for reciting the verses but as talismans or "tangkals". The Koran is not taken in its spirit or substance but in its physical form, as an object of magic.

Sometimes the verses are recited but only for "fixing things". The "client" may want the bomoh to help them get a job promotion, a contract they have tendered for, the love of a woman or man, and other worldly desires. In extreme cases the bomoh calls upon the "powers" of the Koran to harm an enemy or as a prevention, called "sekatan", from an enemy who is suspected of using another bomoh to give this client bad luck or make him sick.

Islam, or the powers of Islam, is treated as something magical or mystical, and who better to call upon the magic of the Koran or the verses of the Koran than the black magic man, the bomoh. Of course, every bomoh would claim he is doing things the Islamic way and that there is no shirik in what he is doing. This gives the Malay the feeling of security, that he is not offending God in his actions or creating an associate to God.

Many religious people, those well learned in Islam dare not speak out.

They realise that this is a very sensitive area to venture into. In fact, some of these religious people even contribute to the belief by themselves offering mystical services. The Malays believe that these religious people have a closeness to God due to their "ulama" status and how better to reach God than through these people.

One reason why the Malays are so gullible may be because Islam was an "imported" religion. Malays choose to be Muslims only when it suits them and revert to their old cultures and traditions freely.

Consider the concept of water and oil; they do not mix. Oil stays on top and does not contaminate the water below it. What we do not realise is, oil chokes life in the water by blocking the flow of oxygen.

In the same way, the belief in other forces other than Allah "kills" the fundamentals of Islam. Without this fundamental belief, their Islam is just as "dead" as the life in the water below the oil. It is time the religious authorities and the ulamas speak out. Re-education is required.

You are either a Malay or a Muslim and, if to be a proper or good Muslim means we have to be less of a Malay, than let it be so.

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topfygad · 5 years

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8 Reasons to Visit Malaysia

(Post written by Pete Saville)

Spanning across the southern tip of the South East Asian peninsular and 800 kilometres east across the ocean to the magnificent island of Borneo, where it has two states on the northern stretch of the island called Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysia is blessed with landscapes ranging from mountains, ancient rain forests, rolling green hills to stunning beaches and coral-gardened islands with some of the best diving and snorkelling sites in the world.

Although around 50% ethnic ‘Malays’ make up the majority of the population, there are also huge minorities of Chinese (30%), Indian (10%) and other smaller pockets of Portuguese in Melacca, and indigenous people – the ‘Orang Asli’, making Malaysia truly a multicultural nation. This has also inevitably created an astonishing mix of religions and faiths: Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism and Sikhism, as well as Animist/Shamanistic beliefs living together in relative harmony. When walking around Kuala Lumpur, you will likely see Hindu Temples alongside Taoist and Buddhist temples, as well as Churches and Mosques.

Malaysian food is as varied and colourful as Malaysia’s geography and multiculturalism. It’s quite possible to have a noodle soup for breakfast, an Indian for lunch and a Chinese for dinner. This variation is a real treat. Yes; It may sound a little cliché, but Malaysia really does have something to offer everyone; from young and adventurous nature lovers to beach-bums, from culture-vultures to food enthusiasts, and everyone else in between.

And the icing on the cake: Malaysia’s infrastructure and economy is way ahead of other nations in the region, making getting around almost always easy and comfortable. Practically everyone speaks at least some English in Malaysia and there is very little ‘hassle-factor’ or annoying touts to speak of. Here are 8 reasons why your next trip to Asia should be Malaysia.

1. Beaches

Beaches in South-East Asia are arguably the best in the world. People so often overlook Malaysia for the more famous beaches in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. This makes the less well-known beaches of Malaysia more tranquil with much less of a young backpacker crowd and no full-moon parties, those that have really spoilt once-serene beaches in places like Thailand.

Lie just off the coast of northern mainland Malaysia, close to the Thai border, the Perhentian Islands have by far my favourite beaches for relaxation. Between the two islands, Perhentian Kecil is more for the low-key backpacker crowd, and Perhentian Besar, slightly larger, quieter and more serene, has more high-end accommodation options, great for couples, honeymooners and families who want a slice of paradise and to get away from it all for a while.

The Beautiful Water of the Perhentian Islands

Snorkelling in Sipadan Island

Both islands are part of a Marine Conservation Area, and as such, the only way of getting around is on foot – which is relatively easy and fun due to the gentle topography. The area has some beautiful jungle paths linking between beaches – or ‘water taxis’ which can take you from one secluded beach to the next (or between islands) for a few dollars. Activities on these islands are very much limited to snorkelling or scuba diving, but fortunately there are lots of options for both. The water visibility here is always around 20 metres – crystal clear – and is home (and famous for) to large populations of turtles as well as tropical fish and reef sharks. The best site for diving is arguably the Pinnacle, also known as “Tokong Laut”- a coral-reef capstone spiralling out to the surface of the water. For snorkelling, Teluk Pauh is a great site for its sheer variation in tropical fish and turtles. It’s impossible to pick a favourite as any beach on Besar Island is fantastic.

You can spend a week or two here ‘beach-hopping’ from one beach to another by jungle paths or water taxis and will be amazed when you come across those majestic sea turtles and fearsome looking but generally harmless Reef Sharks. Or just relax and work on that tan, enjoying the white, pristine, quiet beaches with their crystal clear water.

2. Food

With so many different cultures calling Malaysia home, you are in for an absolute treat when it comes to food. Virtually every town and city on the mainland and on Borneo has Chinese, Southern Indian and traditional Malay cuisine. In particular, the Malay national dish is widely considered to be Nasi Lemak – coconut rice with a sambal sauce (basically a spicier version of salsa sauce) and

anchovies. This delicious dish can be found everywhere and is the quintessential street food in Malaysia. Another very popular Malay dish you can find both on the street and in restaurants is spicy fried noodles (Mee Goreng) with seafood such as my personal favourite – tiger prawns, in a coconut rich yellowed curry sauce. As for Indian – Southern Indian cuisine dominates here. You can expect to find delicious Masala or Paper Dosai, which is basically thin crepes filled with vegetable or meat fillings, often served with Raita (a thin yogurt) and side dishes such as Dal (lentils). And Malay-Chinese? Expect the usual authentic Chinese dishes such as Pork rib soup (Bak Kut Teh), as well as something unique to Malaysia, O-Chian. It’s nothing but Oyster Omelette, fried until crispy and with a side dish of chili sauce. Simple perhaps, but absolutely delicious and is outright my favourite.

3. Culture

Although Kuala Lumpur has its own ‘Little India’ and ‘Little China’ districts that are interesting in their own right, Georgetown – a UNESCO World Heritage City is hands down the best place to see Malaysia’s multiculturalism. Nestled in the north-west just off the Malaysian mainland, on the island of Penang, connected by one of the largest bridges in the world, Georgetown is filled in its colourful glory, with Hindu and Taoist Temples alongside numerous mosques and the odd Catholic Church. It’s just a joy to spend a few days in this place sampling the cuisine, visiting the wonderfully preserved temples from these numerous religions, and learning about the city’s colonial past.

Majestic View of Masjid Selat mosque, Malacca

Georgetown, Penang

Another UNESCO World heritage to visit for a dose of culture is Malacca. This place offers a glimpse into an extraordinary empire founded centuries ago and later colonised by the Portuguese, Dutch and British. Here you can find a rich tapestry of multicultural influences displayed through its heritage architecture, diverse lifestyles and unsurpassed charm. Elsewhere in Malaysia, you can expect to find some pretty spectacular treats. Located at the entrance to the stairs of Batu Caves is the 43 metres high giant gold statue of the Hindu God Murugan. Within the caves are other statues dedicated to Hindu gods such as Hanuman and Lord Rama.

4. Festivals

Major holidays in Malaysia coincide with some of the biggest cultural/religious festivals. Ramadan is the biggest Muslim holiday. It includes fasting – at which times many restaurants maintain a low-profile to respect this Muslims ritual, regardless of whether they are Muslim or not. However this doesn’t affect tourists much; just expect things to go a bit slower than usual with regards to service and transport. But when these fasts are broken, some really unique foods are on offer throughout Malaysia in Muslim communities. Nasi Kerabu, a multi-coloured dyed rice, Apam balik, a pancake-style snack stuffed with sugar, peanuts and sprinkle of corn, or Ayam percik which is chicken lathered in spicy chili, garlic and ginger sauce mixed with coconut milk are just a few delicious foods offered to break fast after Ramadan.

Chinese New Year is also a major holiday/festival, and you can expect to see a lot of terrific celebrations as tourist during this time, many involving huge amounts of fireworks, dragon dancing carnivals, and Chinese lanterns floating majestically through the night sky.

Finally for the religious-oriented festivals, Hindu Diwali is another enjoyable one for tourists: Meaning “festival of lights”, you can expect Hindus to fill their homes and businesses at night with thousands of candles, and like Chinese New Year, plenty of fireworks and religious ceremonies are performed at sites such as Batu Caves, and of course, Little India in Kuala Lumpur.

But besides these religious and cultural festivals, Malaysia boasts some well-established ‘contemporary ones’. Every August in Sarawak, on Borneo, is the ‘Rainforest World Music Festival’. Spanning over 3-days, the festival is just outside the city of Kuching in a forested area. It has music performers from all around the world – from Jamaica to France to home-grown Malaysian talent – as well as cultural attractions such as tribal arts that you can try yourself in ‘mini-courses’ included in the price of the ticket.

5. Adventure

For adventurous types, Malaysian Borneo in particular is a real treat. In Sabah province, you can attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Kinabalu. At around 4000 metres, it is no easy feat, but no mountain climbing skills in particular are required, just a good level of fitness, hiking and some scrambling. And of course, a lot of willpower! The views from the summit can be spectacular if you are lucky enough not to have your view obscured by mist! You can see all the way to the Philippines when the sky is clear.

In Sarawak on the opposite side of Borneo Island are ample opportunities for trekking to indigenous hill-tribes. Belaga is the best place to organise such treks. Our Longhouse Safari Tour features a fascinating cultural experience with visits to an Iban longhouse village plus a chance to meet the once feared “headhunter”.

And finally, Gunung Mulu National Park, located almost slap-bang in the middle of Malaysian Borneo and near the border with tiny-nation of Brunei, is home to the largest known cave systems in the world that are still being mapped by scientists. Within Mulu National Park lies the biggest underground cave chamber of the world; Sarawak Chamber. The longest cave of Southeast Asia, the Clearwater Cave, can also be found in this park, with a documented length of well over 75 kilometres. There are numerous caves within Mulu National Park, but only a few are accessible by visitors. The most visited of these caves is the enormous Gua Payau or Deer Cave; as it is easily accessible from the entrance of the park. And if you somehow get tired of caving, you can always attempt the walk on the 480 metre Mulu Canopy Skywalk, the biggest forest canopy walkway in the world. Gunung Mulu is truly an adventure traveller’s dream.

6. Snorkelling and Diving

Although one of the best places in Malaysia for underwater adventures has already been mentioned in this post – The Perhentian Islands – there is in fact a place a little harder and more expensive to get too, but more than worth the effort: The Sipadan Islands. Widely considered to be one of the best diving sites in the world – regularly appearing in ‘Top 3’ lists – it is hands down THE best diving site in Malaysia.

Located on the southernmost point of Sabah on Malaysian Borneo – right near the border with Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan) – it takes a couple of Air Asia flights to get here from Kuala Lumpur. Sipadan is a heavily protected Marine Park, and as such no one is allowed to stay on the island overnight, so your best options are to stay in Semporna or Mabul and organise your snorkelling or diving from the plethora of diving companies that operate here.

You can only enter Sipadan from 08:00-15:00hrs so all excursions with tour operators have to be between this time periods.

However, once on the island, a wade (or swim) of a mere 20 metres will get you to the absolutely spectacular 2000 metre drop-off, where the reef wall drops down a tectonic fault line into a magical world of multi-coloured coral gardens, turtles, hammerhead and leopard sharks, as well as tropical fish such as massive schools of Jackfish and Barracuda.

But perhaps the icing on the cake here is that Sipadan has one of the finest water visibilities in the world: You can expect to have a visibility range of 30 metres (unless it has been stormy, in which case it still reaches an admirable 10-15 metres at worst!) in waters that are seemingly like planes of glass as they are so clear.

7. Wildlife

Both peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo have some spectacular sites for all manner of fauna and flora, with a number of National Parks fairly well-protected by international standards. Kuala Tahan National Park is the stand-out attraction on peninsular/mainland Malaysia. It’s the largest park on the mainland, and is infamous for its rainforest, birds and insects. Entry is virtually free, and once inside the park, there are roped walkways that are easy for even young children and elderly to traverse and enjoy the wildlife sightseeing. Guides are unnecessary as all walking trails are well signposted, well-maintained and easy to navigate. However, those looking for more hardcore sightseeing can always opt to do the organised 100km hikes to the indigenous tribal. A guide is highly recommended or in many cases compulsory for this type of hikes. In either case, expect to see all manner of rare birds, stick insects, praying-mantis, scorpions and – if you opt for a Night Safari with a guide- you can see the spectacular glow in the dark fungus! This is really special and comes highly recommended.

For those who love adventure and wildlife lover, our Ultimate Borneo Adventure boasts an action-packed itinerary featuring Sukau, Danum Valley and Kota Kinabalu.

Proboscis Monkeys, Borneo

Baby Orrang-Utan in Kinabalu Nation Park

For somewhere with even rarer species, Kinabalu Nation Park in Sabah, Borneo is the place to head too. The rare Proboscis Monkey, with its distinctive curved, wobbly nose, as well as Orang-utan in an open Reserve are the two creatures that top the list of people’s must-see animals here. Chances are very high you’ll see both, as well as a myriad number of multi-coloured kingfishers, crocodiles on Kinabalu River and gigantic monitor lizards among other weird and wonderful critters. If you’re an active family looking to inject fun, education and adventure on a non-so-typical vacation, be sure to check out our 12-day private Malaysia Family Tour that features Selingan Turtle Island, Borneo and some R&R on the beach in Kota Kinabalu.

8. Natural Beauty

One place that simply could not be omitted from this post is the Cameron Highlands on Peninsular Malaysia. Despite the sometimes dreary British-style weather, the Cameron Highlands have a lot to offer in natural beauty. The highlands are generally green and rolling, and this lead to the British setting up massive tea plantations that last to this day. Green tea leaves cover the gentle slopes for mile after mile, and are an absolute joy to walk around and explore.

Cameron Highlands is also home to what is known colloquially as the ‘Mossy Forest’. Millions of years old makes it one of the oldest forests in the world with some of the Earth’s oldest trees. It is also a cloud forest, constantly covered in mist, giving the whole area a ‘Lord of the Ring’s’ atmosphere! Cameron Highlands is featured on our Malaysia Highlights tour covering Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Cameron Highlands and Penang.

Picking Tea Leaves in Cameron Highlands

Green Tea Hills of Cameron Highlands

But perhaps the highlight of a trip here isn’t just to see those beautiful rolling hills or hiking through cloud forests, Cameron Highlands is home to the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia Flower, which can reach over 100cm in diameter. These flowers, truly a wonder of the natural world, look entirely alien as if they belong on another planet. The one hour long jeep ride to get here from the main town is well-worth it, especially when you can take refreshing swims in the beautiful waterfall in the forest.

So Malaysia…, what is there not to like? With so many things to do and see, there’s definitely something for everyone here!

Recommended tours of Malaysia, backed by Rough Guides – a leading travel publisher :

For additional tours of Malaysia, be sure to check out our Malaysia & Singapore page.

source http://cheaprtravels.com/8-reasons-to-visit-malaysia/

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southeastasianists · 5 years

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The Javanese state that flourished throughout the 14th and 15th centuries is often called the ‘Majapahit Empire’. But was it really an empire, and what does the word ‘empire’ mean in premodern Southeast Asia? This article surveys the evidence that can help us answer these questions. This evidence includes a handful of government inscriptions from east Java, Bali and Sumatra, two Javanese chronicles called the Deśavarṇana and the Pararaton, the official records of the Ming court, and the account of a Portuguese apothecary who visited Java in the early 16th century.

The Shadow of Singhasari (1255–92)

Before Majapahit was established as its new capital in 1293, the kingdom of Java had already begun to exercise its authority on other islands. Majapahit’s predecessor court, Singhasari, had begun to extend its influence beyond Java during the reign of Rājasa (1222–47). According to the Mūla Malurung inscription issued in 1255: ‘His Majesty [Rājasa] served as a single parasol for the world, the whole island of Java as well as the other islands’, the parasol being a common symbol of sovereignty in Southeast Asia and the Indian ocean world.

This rather nebulous assertion of authority was made concrete by a mighty Singhasari king called Kṛtanagara (1268–92). Two chronicle sources pay close attention to Kṛtanagara’s career: the 14th-century Deśavarṇana and the 16th-century Pararaton. Both of them depict Kṛtanagara as a militant ruler whose successful wars against Sumatra (1275) and Bali (1284) brought these regions under his personal dominion. Kṛtanagara was said to be an adept of Tantric practices, many of them aimed at boosting his supernatural powers. The Deśavarṇana describes his military victory over the Sumatran kingdom of Malayu as being ‘a result of his divine manifestation’ (41.5d).

Kṛtanagara’s success in subjugating various kings outside Java is illustrated by the Padang Roco inscription in central Sumatra (issued in 1286), which refers to him as the ‘great king of kings’ (mahārājādhirāja). He was apparently the overlord of the Sumatran king Maulivarmadeva, who in this inscription is merely a ‘great king’ (mahārāja). Historians today suspect that Kṛtanagara’s disruption of the power balances in the archipelago earned him the enmity of Kublai Khan, the Yuan Emperor in China.

These sources show that the Javanese king Kṛtanagara had been recognised as the overlord of certain kings on other islands in the late 13th century. The legacy of Kṛtanagara’s expansionist policies would be taken up by his Majapahit successors in the 14th century.

Majapahit’s Modest Beginnings (1293–1309)

Majapahit became the capital of Java in 1293, after a convoluted power struggle between several Javanese factions, an army from the neighbouring island of Madura, and even an expedition sent from China by the Khan. The eventual victor was a new king called Vijaya, who cut a rather less impressive figure than his predecessor Kṛtanagara.

The Kudadu inscription (issued in 1294) claims that Vijaya is simply ‘the lord of the whole island of Java’ (1b). The Sukhāmṛta inscription, issued two years later, again describes Vijaya as ‘the lord of all Java’, but more importantly, it describes Kṛtanagara as having once been ‘the king of the kings of Java, extending as far as the kings of the other islands’ (6b.2). The difference is clear. Kṛtanagara was the conqueror who defeated and ruled over foreign kings, while Vijaya controlled only Java.

The Balawi inscription (issued in 1305) describes Vijaya as ‘the sole ruler of the whole of the circle of Java’ and ‘the one whose throne is ornamented by the hair of the kings of the outer islands’ (1b.5). In this inscription, Vijaya compares his four wives (Kṛtanagara’s daughters) to four islands: ‘in their character they are just like Bali, Malayu, Madura, and Tanjung Pura’ (2a.2). We know from the usage in the later Deśavarṇana that Malayu is being used here as shorthand for the island of Sumatra, and Tanjung Pura for Borneo. The Balawi inscription also reiterates the fact that it was Kṛtanagara, not Vijaya, who ‘had his lotus feet kissed’ by kings of the other islands, ‘especially by the king of Bali’ (2a.4).

The shadow of Singhasari loomed large over the first Majapahit king. We see from these inscriptions that Vijaya’s own claim to sovereignty over the other islands was vague, and that he preferred to look back to the imposing precedent set by Kṛtanagara’s overseas campaigns.

We also know that Vijaya’s claim to rule ‘all of Java’ was an exaggeration. The later historical sources (Pararaton, Rangga Lawe and Sorāndaka) narrate how Vijaya spent most of his reign trying to deal with uprisings by his former comrades who had become dissatisfied with his leadership. Shortly after 1300, the king was forced to give up half of his Javanese territory to a Madura-based ruler called Vīrarāja, an erstwhile ally who had helped to put him on the throne in the first place. Vijaya died in 1309, with much of his own kingdom in open rebellion against him, having no real capacity to continue Kṛtanagara’s imperialist agenda in the archipelago.

Consolidating the Heartland (1309–28)

Vijaya’s successor Jayanagara spent the years between 1309 and 1323 dealing with the challenges to Majapahit authority in Java itself. Little is known about Java’s relationship with other islands during this time. The next important piece of evidence for our inquiry is the Tuhañaru inscription (issued in 1323), which describes ‘the whole span of the island of Java, with its dependencies the islands of Madura, Tanjung Pura etcetera, which produces the effort and sacrifice of all people, who constantly pay homage to and worship the King’ (4a.3). This inscription articulates the relationship between Java and other islands as one of ‘dependency’ involving obedience and homage to the Majapahit king. But it is still worryingly vague on which islands were included among these dependencies. Who exactly fell into the category of ‘et cetera’?

The chronicles show that Jayanagara’s reign was mostly preoccupied with domesticating eastern Java under Majapahit rule, a task he had largely completed by his early death in 1328. As the young king slowly consolidated Majapahit’s grip on the Javanese heartland, he became confident enough to start calling himself a ‘king of kings’ of Sumatra, Borneo, Madura and Bali, just as Kṛtanagara had done and Vijaya had not. What did Jayanagara’s claims of overlordship mean in practice? As yet, we have no evidence of specific military or diplomatic actions taken by the Majapahit court to enforce its theoretical sovereignty over the other islands.

One Oath To Rule Them All (1331–57)

Things changed drastically when a queen called Gitārja and her prime minister Gajah Mada took control of Majapahit in 1329. According to the Pararaton (p. 28), Gajah Mada swore an oath in 1331 to ‘defeat the outer islands: Gurun, Seran, Tañjung Pura, Haru, Pahang, Ḍompo, Bali, Suṇḍa, Palembang, Tumasik’. This is the famous Palapa Oath that Indonesian schoolchildren learn about. It is often paraphrased in Indonesian as a promise to ‘unite the archipelago’ (menyatukan tanah air), but that is not an accurate translation, because the Old Javanese text simply means ‘the other islands are defeated’ (kālah nūṣāntara). The places mentioned in the oath are very far-flung: Pahang is on the Malaysian peninsula, while Ḍompo is on the island of Sumbawa.

The Pararaton was compiled sometime in early 16th century, so it is not a contemporary source for Gajah Mada’s oath. We can’t know whether he really said such a thing. But the list of military targets in the oath matches closely the list of tributaries claimed by Majapahit in the Deśavarṇana. An interesting detail given in the Pararaton is that when Gajah Mada made this oath, the other ministers laughed in his face. Even if this is just a creative embellishment, it illustrates how extravagant the project must have sounded to his contemporaries.

We know that Gajah Mada’s words were followed up with action. The Deśavarṇana (49.4a) states that Java attacked Bali in 1343 and deposed its monarch. North Sumatran inscriptions and chronicles suggest that the same thing happened at Pasai shortly before 1345. Javanese foreign policy during the 1330s and 1340s seems to have consisted of something like this:

1) demand obedience and tribute from kings on other islands,

2) launch a military strike on those who refused the demand,

3) replace them with rulers who would be more loyal,

4) withdraw the military force until the next time it was needed.

From what we can tell from the chronicles, Gajah Mada’s military campaigns were more successful and wide-ranging than those of Kṛtanagara. Majapahit’s overseas power had finally eclipsed that of Singhasari.

In Praise of the Majapahit Emperor (1365)

The definitive claim of Majapahit dominance over the archipelago is found in the Deśavarṇana. This text is a blend of chronicle, royalist propaganda, and personal memoir, written by a Buddhist cleric in 1365. The poem dedicates Cantos 12–16 to listing the overseas dependencies claimed by Java at the time. The Majapahit court is compared to the sun and moon, while the subordinate courts in Java and ‘all the peripheral countries on the other islands’ are like planets; they ‘seek shelter in and humbly approach’ the king (12.6).

Cantos 13–14 name these peripheral countries and group them into four: the Sumatran countries that ‘are dependent on’ Malayu, the Borneo countries dependent on Tanjung Pura, the Malay peninsula countries dependent on Pahang, and the miscellaneous countries to the east. The places mentioned go as far north as Langkasuka (modern-day Pattani), as far west as Lamuri (Aceh), and as far east as Wwanin (generally thought to be somewhere on the coast of West Papua). An extremely extensive area.

All these regions described as ‘being protected’ (15.1a), ‘paying homage’ (15.3a), ‘bringing gifts that appear every month’ (15.3b), ‘being guarded’ (16.5a), and ‘obedient to all the commands’ (16.5b) of the Javanese king. Majapahit’s method of enforcing this obedience is explained: ‘any that transgressed his commands was attacked and wiped out completely by groups of naval officers, who are variously decorated’ (16.5c–d).

When the other countries did comply with Majapahit’s demand for tribute, Javanese scholars and officers were sent specially to collect the tribute from these places (15.3). There is a statement that religious scholars were sent in order to ‘establish the doctrine’ of Śiva and Buddha in the outer islands, ‘so that there would not be deviation’ (16.1). Does this suggest a sort of religious domination too?

The Deśavarṇana is a dependable eyewitness account of the times, but its main purpose is to flatter the Majapahit king. How seriously can we take its enormous list of countries that were supposedly ‘obedient to all the commands’ of Java?

Ādityavarman’s Autonomy (1347–75)

There are some holes in the Deśavarṇana’s story of Majapahit supremacy. Enter Ādityavarman, a Javanese prince with possible Malay lineage who served as senior minister at Majapahit in the 1330s and early 1340s, apparently outranking Gajah Mada himself during this period. According to an inscription written on a statue of Manjuśrī dated 1343, Ādityavarman was a Buddhist and was a descendant of Kṛtanagara.

After years of service to Majapahit, Ādityavarman did something odd in 1347. He suddenly appeared in central Sumatra declaring himself the ‘great king of kings’, precisely the title Kṛtanagara had used as overlord of that region in 1286. Ādityavarman continued to issue inscriptions in Sumatra on his own authority up until 1375, apparently not acknowledging any loyalty to Java. During this time, he claimed descent from the old Sumatran Mauli dynasty, whom Kṛtanagara had subjugated back in 1275. One of Ādityavarman’s major inscriptions, the Amoghapaśa inscription (1347), is written on the back of a statue dedicated by Kṛtanagara in 1286. And just like Kṛtanagara, Ādityavarman was also interested in Tantric rituals to concentrate his mystical power.

The Deśavarṇana completely ignores Ādityavarman’s claims of autonomy. Instead it reports that his kingdom paid tribute to Majapahit, just like all the other countries in Sumatra. This discrepancy shows that the Deśavarṇana is prone to exaggerating the extent of Java’s hegemony, just as we saw in the inscriptions of Vijaya and Jayanagara in the early 14th century. It means that we can’t take its list of tributaries at face value, but neither can we reject the text’s claims completely.

The Massacre of the Sundanese (1357)

The massacre of the Sundanese, often referred to as the Bubat War, shows another side to Java’s strategy of domination. It is important to note before we start this section that the Majapahit sources almost always list Sunda as one of the ‘other islands’ and not a part of the island of Java. This confirms our impression that when Majapahit documents say ‘Java’, they mean only ‘where the Javanese speakers live’, i.e. central and east Java, whereas ‘Sunda’ means ‘where the Sundanese speakers live’, i.e. west Java.

According to the Pararaton (pp. 28–9), the Sundanese royal family was invited to Majapahit in 1357. They had come to attend a wedding between a Sundanese princess and the Javanese king Hayam Wuruk. Instead they were ambushed and killed by their Javanese hosts. The pretext for this massacre was a miscommunication: the Sundanese had come on the impression that Hayam Wuruk would take the Sundanese princess as his primary wife and acknowledge the equal status of the Sundanese dynasty to that of Majapahit, while the Javanese assumed the princess was being offered as tribute and would have concubine status.

The decision to kill the Sundanese was taken by Gajah Mada and the king’s uncle Kudāmṛta. Gajah Mada evidently viewed the destruction of the Sundanese royal family as fulfilling his promise to ‘defeat Sunda’. After the massacre, he declared that the Palapa Oath was a mission accomplished.

This story is found in the later Javanese sources Pararaton, Kidung Sunda, and Tatwa Sunda, and is also mentioned briefly in the Sundanese history Carita Parahyangan. Strangely, it is absent from all the 14th-century primary sources, such the Deśavarṇana and the inscriptions. Nevertheless, it is an integral part of the story of Gajah Mada’s oath to defeat the kingdoms of the archipelago. The incident shows that Majapahit supremacy was not easily accepted by other kingdoms, but remained an ongoing source of conflict throughout the 14th century.

The Character of Javanese Hegemony

How did Majapahit actually assert its dominance in the mid 14th century? It is plausible that Java could make long-distance naval strikes against other islands in the archipelago, as described in the Deśavarṇana. It is also likely that those countries sent tribute to Majapahit as a formal acknowledgement of superiority. But Java did not annex those countries, which are always called ‘other islands’ separate to Java. Madura was the only significant island ‘not included among the overseas palaces’, but rather, it was administratively ‘united with the land of Java’ (Deśavarṇana 15.2).

Bali was another somewhat special case. According to later Balinese tradition, Javanese nobles were sent to administer the island after the Majapahit invasion of 1343. The Batur inscription, issued in north Bali in 1384, records that a dispute between one of these nobles and a local community of blacksmiths was referred to the Majapahit court for adjudication.

The Javanese also had the final say in matters pertaining to southern Sumatra. In 1397 the Ming court in China was having difficulties with the Sumatran country they called San-fo-qi, and asked the Javanese to settle the matter because ‘San-fo-qi is subject to Java’ (Ming Shi-lu, 18 September 1397). This is further evidence for the Majapahit court being acknowledged as the highest political authority in this central part of the Indonesian archipelago.

The Majapahit rulers preferred to install obedient local rulers in distant islands, rather than administering them directly. They were sometimes asked to intervene in some domestic problem, suggesting the Majapahit court was seen as having overall responsibility for settling disputes in the region. When these local rulers asserted their autonomy, such as at Pasai and in Bali in the 1340s, or at Palembang in the 1390s, the Javanese deposed them and put in someone they liked better. But this was not always possible. Ādityavarman in central Sumatra seems to have been able to avoid any punishment for defying Majapahit, and it was only after his death in 1375 that the Javanese attempted to reimpose their authority in his kingdom.

Memories of Majapahit

The Malay regions preserved traditions about Majapahit domination for a long time. Between 1513 and 1515, the Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires recorded oral histories about the foundation of Melaka, the leading Malay kingdom at the turn of the 16th century. Pires’ notes were compiled in a document called the Suma Oriental, which has proved an invaluable source for the history of Southeast Asia in this period.

Pires’ sources claimed that around 1400, a Majapahit king called ‘Batara Tamarill’ had as his vassals the kings of Palembang and of Singapore. The son of the Palembang king married into the Majapahit royal family, but ‘when he realised how nobly he was married and how great was his power in the neighbouring islands which were under his brother-in-law’s jurisdiction, he rose against the vassalage and obedience’ (Pires, p. 231). The king of Majapahit sent a punishing expedition that took control of the island of Bangka and then drove his disobedient vassal out of Palembang and forced him to flee to Singapore, after which he ended up founding the Melaka kingdom. This event shows that as late as 1397, Majapahit was still effectively able to enforce its claims over its overseas dependencies.

But the evidence for Javanese hegemony peters out in the 15th century. The Javanese kings continued to refer to themselves as ‘king of kings’ in inscriptions dated 1447, 1473 and 1486, but they no longer talked about the other islands specifically. No further military adventures are mentioned in the chronicles. In the latter half of the 15th century, Javanese shipping slowly passed out of Majapahit’s control and into the hands of the autonomous Muslim-ruled towns on the north coast of Java.

Pires was told that Java ‘used to rule as far as the Moluccas and over a great part of the west, and … almost all of Sumatra, until about a hundred years ago [i.e. until the 1410s], when its power began to diminish’ (p. 174). This account is broadly consistent with what we know from the other sources about Majapahit’s claims of hegemony in the period 1330–1400 and its apparent weakening in the 15th century.

What’s in an Empire?

After all this, can we say that Majapahit was really an empire? The answer depends on what we mean by the word. If being an empire means the direct administration of provinces, permanent military occupation, and the imposition of political and cultural norms over a wide area, then Majapahit was probably not an empire. Javanese rule over the other islands was too intermittent and too indirect to qualify by those criteria.

But if being an empire means the projection of military power at will, formal acknowledgement of overlordship by vassals and third parties, and the regular delivery of tribute to the centre, then Java’s relationship to the archipelago can well be considered an imperial one, especially during the late Singhasari (1268–92) and middle Majapahit (1330–1400) periods. At other times, such as early Majapahit period (1293–1330) and the late Majapahit period (after 1400), the Javanese dream of an overseas empire is much less credible.

#Southeast Asia #Majapahit #History #Resources

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readingbank-blog · 5 years

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Serpents are Masters at Overcoming Handicaps

...TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Revelation 2:7

...TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Revelation 2:17

TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Revelation 3:21

SERPENTS ARE WISE BECAUSE THEY OVERCOME THEIR HANDICAPS

A handicap is something that severely limits you!

A handicap is something that makes you different from others!

A handicap is a disadvantage that makes success more difficult!

A handicap is a physical or social disability that makes your participation in the ministry more difficult!

When you are as wise as a serpent, you will be able to master all your handicaps and turn them around for your good. Snakes are the most severely handicapped animals on earth because they do not have limbs. Snakes have poor eyesight, and so have heat censors that can pick up vibrations.

Snakes have no moveable eyelids. Snakes also have no external ear openings.

They are deaf and yet they are able to sense things. Snakes can pick up vibrations from the ground.

In spite of these handicaps, snakes have become the most successful predators on earth. They live and flourish where no other wild animal can live. They have worked around their handicap of not having legs and are able to go anywhere. They can climb trees, swim, they can even fly. Snakes can move equally well on the ground, under the ground, in thick undergrowth, on trees and in water. What a wonderful success story this is! In spite of not having legs, arms or ears, snakes have been able to do what other wild animals cannot do.

Most ministers of the gospel are handicapped in one-way or the other. Remember that a handicap is a limitation that makes it more difficult to be successful. Most ministers of the gospel are limited in one area or another. Every minister of the gospel is limited by his colour, his continent, his money and his lack of resources. These handicaps or limitations present themselves to everyone. Your duty is to be as wise as a serpent and overcome your handicap. You must actually use your limitations to your advantage. The wisdom of the serpent is to refuse to succumb to the handicap you face. The wisdom of the serpent is to turn your handicap into your advantage. Serpents use the fact that they do not have legs to hide effectively. That is why a snake can live near you and you will never know. Serpents have developed special techniques for legless movement. The feared black mamba can move as fast as a hundred metre sprinter. Imagine that! The handicap of the serpent has been turned into its greatest advantage.

If you are wise as a serpent, you will not sit and moan about your lack of resources or any other handicap you have. If you are wise as a serpent, you will not allow your problems and limitations to drown your calling. You will rise up with the wisdom of a serpent and use the very handicap to your advantage.

Handicaps You Can Overcome

1. Youthfulness can be a handicap.

All through my ministry, I have been despised because I was younger than most other ministers. I used to resent being so young. I tried to grow a beard so that I would look older. I bought glasses that I would wear to make me look like an older bespectacled man. But one day, I realised that being young was actually an advantage. I began to notice how older people fell asleep helplessly during church services. I found out that there are many jobs that could only be done by young people. I found out that Old Testament priests were supposed to minister from the age of twenty-five to fifty. I became empowered when I found that young people had a great place in the work of God. That is why Paul said, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). Today, I am excited about being young, having young church members and preaching with a youthful style. I consider it an advantage and not a handicap.

2. Having your headquarters in Africa can be a handicap.

Africa is generally poor, disorganized and despised. Anything that is based in Africa will be affected by the poverty and the disorganisation that is prevalent there. When I began to have crusades, I felt that if my ministry were not based in Africa, I would have greater financial support to conduct crusades. I truly felt limited because I did not know any rich Americans who could give money to have a crusade. However, I began to look for the advantages with what I had. I realised that being based in Africa made me understand the terrain much better than Americans did. Being based in Africa, I was able to conduct a crusade at a fraction of the price that it would cost Americans to conduct the same crusade. A famous American evangelist saw a photograph of one of my massive crusades in Africa and said it would cost him nothing less than half a million dollars to have that crusade. I smiled to myself because it did not cost me that much. My advantage was that I was based in Africa and I knew how to get things done much more cheaply.

3. Your colour can be a handicap.

Being half African and half European has its amazing challenges. When I am in Europe and America, everyone sees me as a black man. When I am in Africa, everyone sees me as a white man. In effect, I do not belong to any of these places. I used to feel sorry for myself because of my brown colour. ‘I don’t belong anywhere’, I thought to myself. As I began to travel around the world, I found out that I actually fitted into more countries than I thought. In South Africa, I pass for a ‘coloured person’. At different places I have been asked whether I am Somalian, Ethiopian, Malaysian, Indian, Indonesian, Pakistani, Columbian, Brazilian, Latino, etc. As my international ministry grew, I found out that my limitation was actually an advantage.

4. Your marriage can be a handicap.

Everybody has a different kind of marriage. Some people have A1 (excellent, ideal) marriages. Others have P5 (prison, suffering, bondage) marriages. Perhaps you married someone who is not an ideal partner. Perhaps you have an unpleasant, quarrelling, malicious, and contentious wife. Perhaps you feel sad that you backed the wrong horse and are yoked to an unfortunate circumstance.

Joseph was in prison, which is a ‘type’ of bad marriage. He used this handicap to rise into prominence and leadership. Your difficult marriage is giving you certain important qualities. Every difficult marriage releases two key spiritual treasures into your life – humility and wisdom. People who do not have difficult marriages do not have the same level of humility as those with difficult marriages. Those who have A1 marriages often develop a subtle pride about their ideal and harmonious lives. You will hear them saying things like, “Why don’t you pull yourself together and be a good husband so that you can have a good marriage.” They will suggest six principles that they have followed for years, explaining that these principles always lead to good marriages. A1 marriage partners often suffer from pride, whilst P1 marriage partners are blessed with the humility and humiliation of their circumstances.

The other key quality that is released through your difficult marriage is the key of wisdom. You need superior wisdom to outmanoeuvre a cantankerous or accusative woman and continue to dwell peacefully with her. Solomon advised dwelling in the desert or finding your way to a rooftop. It takes supernatural wisdom and strategy to dwell with an unfaithful man who beats his wife and comes home with HIV viruses to download into her.

After many years of a P5 marriage, you will become a wiser and more humble spouse who appreciates and understands other people’s problems. A person with an A1 marriage will not have this advantage and can even become insensitive to people’s problems.

So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.

But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.

The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.

The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made to prosper.

Genesis 39:20-23 (NASB)

5. Your past can be a handicap to you.

You must overcome the handicap of the sins of your past and the sins of your youth.

Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses, For they have been from of old.

Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to Your lovingkindness remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.

Psalm 25:6-7 (NASB)

Choose you this day what you prefer! Your past can become a handicap to you, or, you can manoeuvre like a serpent and turn your past life into an advantage. Your past escapades with men has become a handicap when your husband angrily mentions the footballers and boxers who have been your boyfriends. But you can turn your handicap into your advantage if you deploy the sexual skills you learnt on the ‘field’ in your marriage. Your husband could be mesmerized by your agility and acrobatics which you learnt out there. Consider your unfortunate past as a season of training for your current marriage circumstance.

6. Being a woman can be a handicap.

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour UNTO THE WIFE, AS UNTO THE WEAKER VESSEL, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

1 Peter 3:7

A woman is a weaker vessel. If two ships are going on a long journey, the weaker vessel will suffer more from the storms and the bad weather. The weaker vessel is likely to collapse and suffer more than the stronger ship. Women are exposed to many specific fears and temptations. Women are often mistreated and mishandled by men. But a woman can turn around her disadvantage and use it to her advantage. Women who have learnt how to do this enjoy many benefits by acting weak and vulnerable, thereby drawing the sympathy and assistance of people. Today, women have turned many laws to favour them by presenting themselves as victims of evil. This is ironic because they are equally as evil as men.

Five Principles For Overcoming Handicaps

1. Overcome your handicaps by assuming the stance and posture of an overcomer. Always remember that you will be rewarded for what you overcome.

2. Overcome your handicaps by knowing that everyone has handicaps.

It is one of satan’s deceptions to make you think you are the only one with challenges and problems.

MANY ARE THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.

Psalm 34:19

Yea, and ALL THAT WILL LIVE GODLY IN CHRIST JESUS SHALL SUFFER persecution.

2 Timothy 3:12

3. Overcome handicaps by thinking of a way to turn a handicap into an advantage.

Think of how you can turn your particular problem into an advantage for the ministry.

4. Overcome handicaps by receiving supernatural strength for your particular handicap.

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT for thee: for MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10

There is always sufficient grace for every problem. Every problem has a solution. Every engineering problem has an engineering solution. Every problem has special grace provided for it.

5. Overcome your handicap by embracing your God-given weaknesses. This was the secret of Apostle Paul.

Therefore I TAKE PLEASURE IN INFIRMITIES, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

2 Corinthians 12:10

You must overcome your handicaps by learning to take pleasure in your weaknesses. See the sometimes awkward benefits of your handicaps. Snakes can hide anywhere and move through tiny spaces. Animals with legs cannot do these things.

Accepting your weakness delivers you from wasting your energy to develop strengths you will never have.

If you are an antelope, there is no point in trying to develop the strength of your arms and legs to fight with lions. You will never have enough strength to fight a lion. If you are an antelope, there is no point in developing your teeth to be as sharp as a lion’s or a crocodile’s. Your weakness as an antelope is your lack of strength. But you have something else that can work for you. And that is speed and agility! Antelopes have developed their speed and agility so much that they are hardly caught by lions. The population of antelopes has increased whilst the population of lions has decreased to critically low levels.

by Dag Heward-Mills

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todaynewsstories · 6 years

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Home of Malaysian cricket under closure threat

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s top cricket stadium, which has hosted some of the game’s greats, may have to be abandoned after a property developer decided to turf out the sport’s local governing body, an official said Monday (Oct 22).

The Kinrara Oval, which was built in 2003 and has hosted one-day internationals featuring India, Australia and the West Indies, and Under-19 World Cup games, sits on a plot of prime land west of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

But the Malaysian Cricket Association’s lease has expired and they have been told to leave by the end of the month to make way for a new development, according to the group’s secretary Mohammed Iqbal Ali Kassim Ali.

“It will be a sad day if we lose the Kinrara Oval,” he said of the ground on which the legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar scored a sparkling unbeaten 141 against the West Indies in an ODI in September 2006.

“It is a world class, iconic pitch. We want the ground to remain the home of Malaysian cricket.”

The association has mounted a campaign to try to save the oval, and the International Cricket Council (ICC) at the weekend threw its weight behind the effort.

“Cricket in Malaysia is flourishing with the number of players in all age groups growing … and we are hopeful a sustainable solution can be found,” David Richardson, the ICC chief executive said in a statement.

“The ICC will continue to support Malaysia Cricket and hopes the Kinrara Oval will remain an international cricket venue.”

The Pakistan women’s team are currently playing Australia’s women in a one-day international series at the stadium.

It is not clear what the property company that owns the land plans to build on the site, which is surrounded by residential developments.

The cricket association met with the sports minister last week to press their case and Iqbal said he has also written to Prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

“We have been engaging with the developer for a long, long time,” he said. “We had hoped it could be resolved behind close doors.”

While cricket is growing fast in Malaysia, it remains less popular than other sports, such as badminton and football.

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lizziexazz · 7 years

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Why Watson’s “Blackface” Raya Ad Did Not Surprise Me.

So ICYMI, Watson’s released #LagendaCun, their annual festive spot for Raya 2017. Let me try to break down everything that was wrong with that ad, and why although it disgusted me, it did not surprise me in the least.

I come from a background of performing arts, and am currently in advertising. So, films and commercials - the two main influences that dictate ‘beauty standards’ we women are forced to adhere to. Therefore, I will address the atrocities of this ad both from a creative/filmmaking perspective, and from a marketing perspective.

For those who had missed out on Watson’s ‘alternative-apology’, they tried to explain that the inspiration to this concept was a classic film called Dayang Senandong, which features a dark skinned princess whose curse was then lifted when she gave birth to the King’s son.

Ok, so let’s talk about THAT for starters, shall we? HOW is this an inspiring story? Women with dark skin are deemed ugly and cursed, and only when she serves merely a reproductive purpose is she worthy to be “uncursed”? This was a terrible idea back then, and even more so today. Except we can claim ignorance back in the 1950s, we cannot claim it NOW, when people have very vocally spoken against discrimination over their skin color (or any other physical attributes, such as our weight, our race, our hair, our style, etc.)

So how come not one person- from the creative team that conceptualized this commercial, to the clients themselves who are the brand owners, to the production company that filmed this, to the actors that agreed to this gig- not say anything? (Did y’all not learn anything from Kendal Jenner’s tone-deaf Pepsi ad?)

Easy – no one said anything because shaming people, especially women, for their skin, their bodies, their everything, is normalized in Malaysian culture. Somehow, we think it is completely our business to comment and discriminate people on how they look.

My sister was always compared to me, because I am lighter-skinned. “Oh, kakak dia putih ye, adik dia hitam.” Apa, kau ingat ni Bawang Putih Bawang Merah? It hurt my sister, and it angered me. I always loved her beautiful, olive tan, but for a long time, her own skin made her feel ugly because of what people said. And the worst part was it was usually said by our relatives or friends of our parents. People you KNOW. People who should be there to uplift you, not bring you down.

A cousin of mine married an Indian man. She now has three beautiful children who are blessed to have a mix of cultures in their upbringing. But when my cousin was going to get married to her now husband, many commented “Kenapa kahwin India, nanti anak gelap”.

First of all, honey have you heard of Black Beauty? (No, not the horse.) And black or brown skin is no less beautiful than light skin. It’s MELANIN. We all have it. Stop forcing down your own Hitler-esque prejudice down people’s throats. Second of all, you completely missed the point of her choosing to get married to someone for who they are, and not the color of their skin. Here was an important eye-opening lesson that you could’ve learnt from. But your 3 brain cells just couldn’t, huh?

Malays also have this nonchalant way of fat-shaming. In fact, the Watson ad also fat-shames. My weight tends to yo-yo. I’m still finding it a challenge to always feel good about my body, 24/7. Somedays I will feel hideous. And it certainly doesn’t help when these Melayus go “Oh, sihat badan? Gemuk nampak” or “Kurusnya, bila nak gemuk?”

Dude, I give myself enough insecurity about my own body that you don’t need to add on to it, thanks very much. Also, I’m healthy. My weight is not giving my body any problems so don’t even try to disguise it as if you were concerned for my well-being. Nah, dude, you’s just bein’ a dick.

Back to the Watson’s ad. The whole premise is of this royal who heard a beautiful singing voice in his dreams and asks his right-hand man to call all the beautiful women for him to determine who’s the lucky nightingale who will be his wife.

Urgh, even though the story is set in zaman dulu-dulu, the team that wrote it are people of TODAY. Why do you feel the only purpose for women is to be beautiful and pop out your children? Who gave you the right to define what is beautiful? And why can’t we be valued and celebrated for our worth, our work, and not our appearances? Also what on EARTH does this have to do with Raya, kau cakap ngan aku sekarang?

The commercial is also FOURTEEN minutes long. Whyyyy? Even the late Yasmin Ahmad’s Petronas festive ads kept it at the standard 3-5 minutes. And her ads never even showcased the product, yet it still sold an idea. There is a reason commercials are supposed to be short. If you want to make a short film, go make a short film. But you are doing a commercial, you need to sell your idea within the first minute, or you would lose your audience. See, there’s no obligation for your audience to complete watching your long-winded ad. So don’t waste their time, and get to the damned point.

Not to mention the acting was cringe-worthy. That goes to show that just because it’s star-studded, doesn’t mean there’s actually any talent in that pool. (Sorry, not sorry.)

And finally, why I’m not surprised at Watson’s ‘alternative-apology’. They stood by their idea and claimed they believe in unity, that beauty is skin deep, and that they’re sorry some people felt offended. This statement, although probably written by the PR agency, was signed off by the clients themselves. A brand that sells skin-whitening products thinks that beauty is skin deep? Give me a break. Who do you think you’re fooling here?

So there are many, many things wrong about this ad. It’s tasteless, it’s irrelevant to Raya, it’s terribly executed from writing to production to performance, but worst of all, it reflects that the real ugliness is in how we Malaysians value (or rather, don’t value) each other.

We need to do better. Brands and advertisers need to do better. Filmmakers need to do better. We need to get rid of our ass-backward way of thinking and listen to our audience. It’s not just about offending someone in a one-off commercial. It’s about ending this normalization of shaming people for their looks.

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thekursuns · 7 years

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How small is the world?

Every picture has a story. So what’s that of this above? I will tell you later on this blog…

I’m back again. I guess you will say “Enough man! We’re bored of hearing your struggle with your own mind for writing a piece of nonsense!”. Or maybe it’s just my bad suspicion. But that’s a big matter for me. To write or not to write; that’s the question! Finally I beat all the hitches, my old netbook which is full of lags, my own laziness to begin writing, my annoying hand phone that doesn’t let me move the pictures easily… By the way, we also decided to write a book that’s going to tell our story from my own and lovely wife’s perspectives. Just wait and see… Don’t forget to follow us until the time comes.

Actually I was thinking to title this blog as “Waiting!” as a novel of a great Chinese author impressed me a lot. Please let me tell some about that.

“Sweatheart, will you wait for me? I will come back to you soon. We are still, still one family, aren’t we? Don’t leave me..” said Lin Kong…

I heard tell of a new author, during a class of mine which is about Asian societies, but through literature. I had no idea who he was and what he had written. As it was my task for one of the classes on Chinese literature, I read only a short story of his. To be honest, I felt disgusted as he gives too many details. Though all those details are the life itself and all of us may witness such incidents, it was still (partly) disgusting to read. Sorry, I forgot to tell the name. It was a book that contains some short stories of a well-known Chinese author (who has moved to USA to make a clean break in his life and decided to use only English as his new adopted language to write), named as “Ocean of Words”. My and Ha Jin’s was a short-dated friendship and I’ve never heard of him again till I encountered his other works in a crazy book fair as its name also suggests: “Big Bad Wolf”. Yes, it was really like a Big Bad Wolf with hundreds of bookworms rambling inside him.

She offered me the book “En(She)Klopedia”. But of course I don’t need a book to understand her!

As I have a bookish wife, we visited this fair (whereby all the books were on sale with at least 50% discounts) two times, first of which was for my wife and the second absolutely for me. During that second visit, while I was bogging down inside the books in every moment and not many things appealed me among those huge book stands, my lovely wife exhumed me from that confusion and showed me a book, which has only a pigtail on its cover. She asked me “do you know this author?”. I said no, without even looking at it carefully (sorry my wife, sometimes I can be uninterested :) However, later I checked that again and realized that it was him, Ha Jin. Later on we found some more books of his and at the end of the tiring journey, being aware of the fact that we can only afford to buy one of them, we chose that “pigtail” which is tied with a red ribbon.

Few days later I opened its first page and you will not believe that I finished it in less than five days. I said you will not believe as I’m not a good reader at all! But its flowing story simply mesmerized me. (Well, I should remember that one of the reasons was my wife got cross at me and kept silent for almost two days! Thanks babe for letting me read the book in such a short while :) The setting was a military hospital (in many of his works Ha Jin tells military stories), the story was about a young doctor (at least young at the beginning), his prearranged marriage with a countrywoman and second love story, and of course his “waiting”. He feels he’s fallen in love for the first time in his life and decides to divorce his wife, who has been taking care of his old mother and father, and later on his own daughter, all the time he’s been away for work. He comes back to his town every summer, but cannot succeed in his action for the divorce. He waits, so his lover does. Until he finally muddles through all obstacles…

Waiting…

For about eighteen years…

For the whole story, please find and buy that book. You will never regret!

Waiting…

It sounds familiar to me. I know that feeling. Ok, I’ll not wade into my long distance story now, as I did that many times in my previous blog writings. Please have a look at them if not yet you have. Just a few words… We know what is “waiting”. We waited a couple of years for each other, for seeing alive, for touching “halal”. Then we waited to make things right. And we waited for our little prince or princess, though we are still waiting. We waited to move from our lovely home, just because of people’s blindness, fanaticism, bigotry… We are waiting to go back. We will wait for new adventures. Does “waiting” have an end? I think it doesn’t. We will still wait even after we completely move from this earthly earth.

Lunch at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and my dear teh tarik!

Well… Not only are we waiting in this world. Many others also do. They wait for their dreams. They wait for their lovers. Mothers wait for their sons. Guns wait for a hunt. So does darkness, for a light… Yes, I’m finally getting back to the main point, my title, “how small is the world?”. Heroes of “waiting” find fellows everywhere in the world. Also we’ve done. We had a couple of familiars few years ago. Yes, they are Emel and Farhan, whom you see in the picture above. Last year, when we visited them for their first wedding held in Tosya town of Kastamonu just ahead of a doomsday hitting my country, Farhan’s father, Uncle Murtza insistently invited us for the next party in Malaysia. I still remember his words… “Come to Malaysia. Please, welcome to Malaysia!”. The moment, I couldn’t deem it likely as it would be too hard for us to buy tickets to Malaysia, find enough time in January and join their second wedding ceremony there. I just graciously answered him as “InshaAllah. If Allah gives this opportunity to us…” Yes! HE did. He gave us the chance to see these warm-hearted people again. Uncle Murtza, his lovely wife, my fellow Farhan and sister Emel, Farhan’s super brothers (one of them is a virtual pilot!) and other members of his family… I can’t find words for their hospitality, amidst all the “wedding hoo-hah”. They hired a room for us for one week, took us travel in Kuala Lumpur, even bought our tickets to Singapore and bid a farewell with really nice gifts…

I also shared this photo on Instagram and wrote a caption saying “Dünya küçük…”, which means “the world is small”. The world is really small. I know we will meet them again in the future. They are still waiting for each other. May Allah let them fulfill this longing for an eternal life. And I also know we will meet for other beloveds of ours, in a good time and place…

That looks too short to tell everything about a good fellowship, but I can’t fit all inside this blog. I would like to tell more about them in the next pieces of my mind and fingers..

A nice conversation once again with the family of Medic Mesir :)

So, we were in a part of this small world. Just one day we set aside some time for our backpacker journey, leaving Farhan and Emel for the arrangements of their wedding, which was going to be held the following day. In the morning, we met some other nice people in a luxury (sorry, they took us there :) hotel, for a breakfast. They were Mr. Ahmad Rodzi and his wife Ummi Medic Mesir :) It’s not her name but she is well-known with this ekename. They manage a non-governmental organization that helps Malaysian students to study medicine in Egypt and countries nearby. I met them for the first time in my own country, to help them arrange applications of students, to universities in Ankara. We had that breakfast and left the hotel together with Mr. Rodzi. He took us to the nearest station of commuter line where we headed for our first destination, “Batu Caves”, which is a huge Hindu temple on a hill. Once we arrived, we encountered an endless staircase beside a gigantic sculpture painted in gold. We climbed till the peak under the rainfall, watched covetous monkeys and innocent chickens, took some selfies before leaving the place and asked a strange man to take our photo (whom I think cannot speak any languages available on earth!) from behind to show our hoodies combining the words of “Together-Since-20-14”. We ordered a grab car, whose driver was a Hindu, and headed to a new place in the hope of finding an Uighur restaurant as we had been craving masterpieces of this unique, peerless cuisine. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it as Google Maps cheated us but also didn’t say no to some biryani and other Indian tastes (teh tarik too, of course). Well… I feel this story is getting too long. To avoid irking you, I will leave the other part of this story, for another blog.

“But how about the picture you put at the beginning. Won’t you tell what its story is?”. I think I will blow the gaff in the next blog. Hopefully soon… But just a clue for you: that picture clearly depicts “innocence” of my real “trouble-maker” wife :)

See you next time! Arrivederci! Or sampai jumpa! :D

#husbandtalks #longdistance #waiting #malaysia #singapore #turkey #friendship #love #family #interracialmarriage

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stumbld · 5 years

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Ethnic Culture Versus Islam

Copied from

http://www.themodernreligion.com/ugly/culture.html

Many acts the Malays do in the name of religion is not Islamic at all.

Many religious people, those well learned in Islam dare not speak out.

One reason why the Malays are so gullible may be because Islam was an "imported" religion. Malays choose to be Muslims only when it suits them and revert to their old cultures and traditions freely.

You are either a Malay or a Muslim and, if to be a proper or good Muslim means we have to be less of a Malay, than let it be so.

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topfygad · 5 years

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8 Reasons to Visit Malaysia

(Post written by Pete Saville)

1. Beaches

The Beautiful Water of the Perhentian Islands

Snorkelling in Sipadan Island

2. Food

3. Culture

Majestic View of Masjid Selat mosque, Malacca

Georgetown, Penang

4. Festivals

5. Adventure

6. Snorkelling and Diving

You can only enter Sipadan from 08:00-15:00hrs so all excursions with tour operators have to be between this time periods.

7. Wildlife

For those who love adventure and wildlife lover, our Ultimate Borneo Adventure boasts an action-packed itinerary featuring Sukau, Danum Valley and Kota Kinabalu.

Proboscis Monkeys, Borneo

Baby Orrang-Utan in Kinabalu Nation Park

8. Natural Beauty

Picking Tea Leaves in Cameron Highlands

Green Tea Hills of Cameron Highlands

So Malaysia…, what is there not to like? With so many things to do and see, there’s definitely something for everyone here!

Recommended tours of Malaysia, backed by Rough Guides – a leading travel publisher :

For additional tours of Malaysia, be sure to check out our Malaysia & Singapore page.

from Cheapr Travels https://ift.tt/2JZUZFO via https://ift.tt/2NIqXKN

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touristguidebuzz · 8 years

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Global Airline Safety Standards For Satellite Tracking Will Kick in Next Year

New safety standards that include using satellites to track planes will take effect next year. Pictured is a ship that was part of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Associated Press

Skift Take: At the rate it currently takes airlines to receive and replace aircraft it will take decades for some of these newer standards to be fully implemented which means planes like Malaysia Airlines flight 370 could still vanish without a trace.

— Dan Peltier

Nearly three years after a Malaysian airliner vanished, it’s still possible, if unlikely, for a plane to disappear. But that’s changing with new satellites that will soon allow flights to be tracked in real time over oceans.

New international safety standards also begin to kick-in beginning next year, although the deadline for airlines to meet most of the standards is still four years away. Even then, it could be decades before the changes permeate the entire global airline fleet because some of the requirements apply only to newly manufactured planes.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished from radar on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board. An exhaustive search of a remote corner of the southern Indian Ocean has failed to turn up the aircraft’s remains, and search efforts were called off this week.

“If the exact same thing happened today, I think we’d have the same result,” said William Waldock, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, and former accident investigator.

“There has been change, but we haven’t put anything physical into practice yet,” he said.

But Atholl Buchan, director of flight operations at the International Air Transport Association, which represents most international carriers, said a repeat of MH370 is “highly unlikely” since many airlines have already increased their efforts to keep tabs on planes over open ocean where they are beyond the reach of land-based radar.

“In a few years, new systems and technology, if adopted universally by (air traffic control providers), will allow for global surveillance coverage,” he said.

Among the changes in the works:

—The International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency, approved a series of new global safety standards last year in response to MH370, including a requirement that airline pilots flying over ocean out of the range of radar report their position by radio every 15 minutes. Previously, they were required to report every 30 minutes. The new requirement kicks in next year, but many airlines have already switched.

—Another new standard requires new planes beginning in 2021 to be able to transmit automatic, minute-by-minute reports on their location if they’re in distress. At normal flight speeds, minute-by-minute reports would provide authorities with a search area of a little over 100 square miles. If reports are less frequent, the search area grows much larger.

However, the requirement doesn’t apply to existing planes. Since airliners often have a lifespan of 20 years or more, it could take decades before all airliners meet the new requirement.

—Satellite flight tracking services may solve much of the problem sooner. This week, Aireon, a satellite joint venture, launched the first 10 satellites in what is planned to be a 66-satellite constellation that can track airliners equipped with the latest satellite surveillance technology, known as ADS-B.

Aireon expects to have all its satellites launched by the first quarter of next year, providing 100 percent coverage of the globe. It will receive signals every one to eight seconds from all equipped planes, regardless of whether the airline subscribes to the service. Not all planes have ADS-B, but Aireon vice president of aviation services, Cyriel Kronenburg, estimated that 90 percent of planes on long-haul routes over the ocean are already equipped.

However, the technology works only if ADS-B is turned on. In the case of MH370, the plane’s surveillance technology was inexplicably shut off.

—Aircraft “black box” flight data recorders must be equipped with locator beacons that last at least 90 days beginning next year under another standard. The beacon on MH370’s black box was required to last only 30 days.

But the beacons are only helpful if searchers already know where to look. Because currents and water temperatures can weaken the signals, searchers usually have to be pretty close to pick them up.

—ICAO approved a requirement that new aircraft designs certified after Jan. 1, 2021, have some means for retrieving a plane’s flight data recorder, or the information contained in it, before the recorder sinks to the ocean floor. One possibility is a deployable recorder that automatically ejects from a plane upon impact and floats to the surface. But the cost of retrofitting new planes could be prohibitive, and there is a risk that recorder could deploy accidentally.

An alternative is to have planes automatically relay the data via satellite to ground stations, eliminating the need to search for the box. But there are many unanswered questions about security and custody of the information.

This article was written by Joan Lowy from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

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forextraderpost · 4 years

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US Dollar Fundamental Forecast: USD/SGD, USD/IDR, USD/PHP, USD/MYR

US Dollar, Singapore Dollar, Indonesian Rupiah, Philippine Peso, Malaysian Ringgit – Talking Points

US Dollar gained against SGD, IDR, PHP amid Nasdaq 100 declines

Market mood may sour further, risking emerging market capital flight

Are US-China tensions heating up again? Bank of Malaysia is ahead

US Dollar ASEAN Weekly Recap

The haven-oriented US Dollar cautiously gained against its ASEAN counterparts this past week as signs of volatility resurfaced in financial markets. The Singapore Dollar, Philippine Peso and Indonesian Rupiah weakened as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell the most since over the course of 5 days since March. A dismal US ISM services report may have spooked investors, resulting in capital flight.

The Singapore Dollar was even unable to find support on less-than-dismal local retail sales data, highlighting the focus for USD/SGD on external risk. A notable standout last week was the Malaysian Ringgit which slightly outperformed the US Dollar, see chart below. Most of its gains occurred after local markets reopened after the National Day holiday on Monday. USD/MYR then proceeded to trade largely sideways.

Discover your trading personality to help find optimal forms of analyzing financial markets

Last Week’s US Dollar Performance

*ASEAN-Based US Dollar Index averages USD/SGD, USD/IDR, USD/MYR and USD/PHP

External Event Risk – Volatility, US-China Economic and Security Review Commission

The rise in the VIX ‘fear gauge’ could place the US Dollar on the offense in a historically volatile month for equities. US markets are offline Monday for the Labor Day holiday, creating an environment ripe for volatility due to thinner-than-usual liquidity conditions. If last week’s risk aversion compounds further, we could see the Greenback regain some lost ground against its ASEAN counterparts.

The US economic calendar docket is relatively quiet this week. Investors may focus on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Wednesday. It will hold an annual hearing on developments this year. Lately, US-China tensions seem to be rising heading into the November Presidential Election, particularly around technology. Further unease between the two powerhouses could boost USD.

What risks could be in store for financial markets if US-China tensions heat up? Join me at 00:00 GMT on September 10 for an overview!

ASEAN, South Asia Event Risk – Bank of Malaysia, Philippine Trade Data, India Industrial Production

A top-tier event risk within the ASEAN region will be the Bank of Malaysia rate decision on Thursday. Economists anticipate that the overnight policy rate may remain unchanged at 1.75%. Traders may focus on the central bank’s latest assessment on economic conditions. The second-quarter GDP plunge was worse-than-expected. With that in mind, the Ringgit could weaken if policymakers paint a bleak picture for growth.

Before the Bank of Malaysia, USD/PHP will be eyeing Philippine trade data. Exports are anticipated to shrink 9.9% y/y in July, softer than the -13.3% prior outcome. On Friday, USD/INR will be awaiting the latest readings on Indian industrial production. With these in mind, the risk of emerging market capital flight ahead could maintain the focus for these currencies on external threats.

On September 4th, the 20-day rolling correlation coefficient between my ASEAN-based US Dollar index and my Wall Street index was -0.82 versus -0.80 from one week ago. Values closer to -1 indicate an increasingly inverse relationship, though it is important to recognize that correlation does not imply causation.

ASEAN-Based USD Index Versus Wall Street Index – Daily Chart

Chart Created Using TradingView

*ASEAN-Based US Dollar Index averages USD/SGD, USD/IDR, USD/MYR and USD/PHP

*Wall Street Index averages S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 futures

— Written by Daniel Dubrovsky, Currency Analyst for DailyFX.com

To contact Daniel, use the comments section below or @ddubrovskyFX on Twitter

The post US Dollar Fundamental Forecast: USD/SGD, USD/IDR, USD/PHP, USD/MYR appeared first on Forex Trader Post.

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