Nusantara - a Sea of Tales

Nusantara - a Sea of Tales

Author: Heidi Shamsuddin

Publisher: Penguin Books

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9789814954594

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A collection of fairy tales, folklore, fables, myths, epics, legends, wonder and magic tales from all around Southeast Asia. Nusantara - A Sea of Tales is the most comprehensive collection of folktales, fairy tales, myths and legends from the Nusantara and Southeast Asian region, and was written to sit alongside the great anthologies of folklore from other parts of the world. Although it is impossible to trace the origins of most of these traditional tales, we do know that these stories were used as a means to discover ourselves and the world around us. Like a living creature, these tales came into existence at some point, and have since evolved and adapted to suit the needs of the community that it finds itself in. The seafaring nature of the people in this region has no doubt contributed to the spread of these tales and explains the fascinating variations across Southeast Asia. These rich and layered tales contain all manner of wonder, marvels and strange curiosities, and have been written to enthral a new audience. The author has delved into the history and the meaning behind these tales but like all good fairy tales and folktales, each reader will extract their own meaning from these stories. The symbols in these stories engage our imagination and challenges us to question, discuss and unravel life's conflicts and mysteries. Herein lies the true power of these stories and the reason why these tales must be preserved and allowed to live and breathe once more.


The Blood Prince of Langkasuka

The Blood Prince of Langkasuka

Author: Tutu Dutta

Publisher: Penguin Random House Sea

Published: 2021-02

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9789814882927

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The monster is not always who you expect it to be... a reimagining of the Raja Bersiong legend; a coming-of-age story of an angst-ridden young man turning into a vampire, while confronted with a chilling murder-mystery. Raja Perita Deria is a carefree and arrogant seventeen-year-old; and his story begins with a seemingly ordinary night out with his close friends. However, a chance encounter with a bewitchingly beautiful woman in an abandoned temple, almost ends his life and changes him irrevocably. After an incident involving the cook and a dish of bayam tainted with blood, he discovers that he needs blood to heal and for sustenance. As heir to the throne of Langkasuka, the prince is also caught in the larger political struggle surrounding the kingdom which is being watched by the two powers of 12th Century Southeast Asia - the Sri Vijaya Empire and the Khmer Empire. Sri Vijaya courts Langkasuka by offering the prince, the hand of a Sri Vijayan princess, while the Khmer Empire seems curiously aloof. To everyone's surprise, Raja Perita is drawn to the princess, and agrees to marry her. However, a spate of violent deaths in the palace of Langkasuka point towards the prince and his close friends and Raja Perita is slowly driven to breaking point. When the most powerful shaman in the kingdom is murdered while attempting to commune with the Rice Spirit, the countryside is in an uproar. Her death sets off a witch hunt for a killer who could be a vampire... Could it be one of the prince's beloved friends, or perhaps Raja Perita himself?


Merchant Kings

Merchant Kings

Author: Stephen R. Bown

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2010-12-07

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1429927356

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Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern world It was an era when monopoly trading companies were the unofficial agents of European expansion, controlling vast numbers of people and huge tracts of land, and taking on governmental and military functions. They managed their territories as business interests, treating their subjects as employees, customers, or competitors. The leaders of these trading enterprises exercised virtually unaccountable, dictatorial political power over millions of people. The merchant kings of the Age of Heroic Commerce were a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life men who, for a couple hundred years, expanded their far-flung commercial enterprises over a sizable portion of the world. They include Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the violent and autocratic pioneer of the Dutch East India Company; Peter Stuyvesant, the one-legged governor of the Dutch West India Company, whose narrow-minded approach lost Manhattan to the British; Robert Clive, who rose from company clerk to become head of the British East India Company and one of the wealthiest men in Britain; Alexandr Baranov of the Russian American Company; Cecil Rhodes, founder of De Beers and Rhodesia; and George Simpson, the "Little Emperor" of the Hudson's Bay Company, who was chauffeured about his vast fur domain in a giant canoe, exhorting his voyageurs to paddle harder so he could set speed records. Merchant Kings looks at the rise and fall of company rule in the centuries before colonialism, when nations belatedly assumed responsibility for their commercial enterprises. A blend of biography, corporate history, and colonial history, this book offers a panoramic, new perspective on the enormous cultural, political, and social legacies, good and bad, of this first period of unfettered globalization.


How the Man in Green Saved Pahang, and Possibly the World

How the Man in Green Saved Pahang, and Possibly the World

Author: Joshua Kam

Publisher: Epigram Books

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 9814901059

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Winner of the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize When a renegade prophet vanishes in a cloud of pigeons in Kuala Lumpur, chorister and first witness Gabriel finds himself press-ganged into a wild road trip down the Malaysian coast. Meanwhile, in a sleepy town by the sea, Lydia traces the links between her late grandaunt’s eccentric lover and her involvement in the Communist Emergency. As Lydia and Gabriel enter a shadowy mythology of serpents, Sufi saints and plainclothes gods, they must grapple with the theologies and histories they once trusted, in a country more perilously punk than they’d ever conceived of. Reader Reviews: "A dizzying tale of saints, heists, maybe-queens." —The Straits Times "Quite the debut, accomplished, deft, unabashed and exuberant." —Asian Review of Books "Author Joshua Kam’s debut book brings Asian mythology to the forefront." —The Sun Daily Malaysian author blurs myths and truths as you escape on a wild road trip ... This whimsical, rollercoaster ride of a book also carries a tale of old and new Malaysia colliding, with various figures from local history, politics and folklore coming together in an epic quest for the soul of the nation. —newsday24.com "In essence, (the novel) acts as a love letter to Malaysian folklore and history, showcasing an impressive degree of representation and imagination that never feels shoehorned into the narrative." —Bakchormeeboy "What a trip! This 21st-century adventure quest with an Islamic saint also brings us on a madcap tour through a multitude of Malaysian mythologies— Malay epics, Taoist pantheons, WW2/Emergency/Merdeka heroics, and more. Even more vitally, it gives us hope amidst the dire news of our era— political corruption, environmental devastation and bigotry—reassuring us that the human/divine spirit still flourishes in the late-capitalist tropics, and is ultimately destined to triumph over evil. An absolute delight, and truly, deliciously Malaysian.” —Ng Yi-Sheng, award-winning author of Lion City “Borgesian, even Manichean in spirit, with almost reverent borrowings from Nusantara mythologies to Abrahamic religiosity, this novel is a wild ride from start to finish, riffing on Malayan history, politics and folklore in a surprisingly redemptive arc, while remaining deeply interrogative about what it means to keep true to goodness in the ever-changing face of evil.” —Cyril Wong, two-time Singapore Literature Prize-winning author of This Side of Heaven


I'm Coming with You! (Hentai Manga)

I'm Coming with You! (Hentai Manga)

Author: Tadataka Kawasaki

Publisher:

Published: 2014-09-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781624591518

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This is a collection of short stories by Tadataka Kawasaki. Surrounded by lots of fun naked girls... and just thought your life couldn't get any better... or does it?


Krakatoa

Krakatoa

Author: Simon Winchester

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2004-06-03

Total Pages: 509

ISBN-13: 0141926236

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'Bracingly apocalyptic stuff: atmospheric, chock-full of information and with a constantly escalating sense of pace and tension' Sunday Telegraph Simon Winchester's brilliant chronicle of the destruction of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa in 1883 charts the birth of our modern world. He tells the story of the unrecognized genius who beat Darwin to the discovery of evolution; of Samuel Morse, his code and how rubber allowed the world to talk; of Alfred Wegener, the crack-pot German explorer and father of geology. In breathtaking detail he describes how one island and its inhabitants were blasted out of existence and how colonial society was turned upside-down in a cataclysm whose echoes are still felt to this day.


Made in Nusantara

Made in Nusantara

Author: Adil Johan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-03-17

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1000353796

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Made in Nusantara serves as a comprehensive introduction to the history, sociology, ethnography, and musicology of historical and contemporary popular music in maritime Southeast Asia. Each essay covers major figures, styles, and social contexts of genres of a popular nature in the Nusantara region including Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, and the Philippines. Through a critical investigation of specific genres and their spaces of performance, production, and consumption, the volume is organised into four thematic areas: 1) issues in Nusantara popular music; 2) history; 3) artists and genres; and 4) national vs. local industries. Written by scholars working in the region, Made in Nusantara brings local perspectives to the history and analysis of popular music and critically considers conceptualisations developed in the West, rendering it an intriguing read for students and scholars of popular and global music.


The Routledge Companion to Girls' Studies

The Routledge Companion to Girls' Studies

Author: Sharon Mazzarella

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-04-30

Total Pages: 522

ISBN-13: 1040000932

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The Routledge Companion to Girls’ Studies is the definitive guide to the international, interdisciplinary, and intersectional field of Girls’ Studies, bringing together leading and emerging scholars across a range of academic disciplines to address timely topics on global girls and girlhoods. Spread across four thematic sections, the essays in this collection offer a glimpse into the evolution of the field, directly challenge and move beyond the field’s early shortcomings, provide compelling examples of current research, and suggest new directions for future Girls’ Studies scholars. Chapters explore the connections between girlhoods and such topics as sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, education, activism, social-class, ability, gender identity, media representation, and more. The Routledge Companion to Girls’ Studies is of value to scholars and students of gender studies, media studies, sociology, education, health, literature, sexuality studies, communication, child and youth studies, and more.


Pencak Silat for Future Generations

Pencak Silat for Future Generations

Author: O'ong Maryono

Publisher: Silkworm Books

Published: 2015-10-10

Total Pages: 974

ISBN-13: 1943932190

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This manual lays out techniques of the Keluarga Pencak Silat Nusantara (KPSN), one of the leading pencak silat organizations in Indonesia. Moving from the fundamental elements—stances and strikes—to exploring complex series of moves for exercise, self-defense, and competition, the manual shows the richness and uniqueness of this still relatively unknown martial art. The concise text and attractive illustrations provide an easy learning tool for beginners or enthusiasts looking to expand their knowledge of pencak silat.