As I have said a million times by now, there is a placename in Chinese historical sources, Sanfoqi 三佛齊, that in the early twentieth century,
Off and on over the past few years, I have been researching about a place called “Sanfoqi” 三佛齊. This is a name that appears in
This year, Phan Lê Hà and I, with the support of a wonderful team of associate series editors, editorial board members and a series editorial
I always enjoy looking around me and trying to get a sense of what is happening in my profession. I’m an historian of Southeast Asian
One point that I keep bringing up, but I don’t find it getting recognized, is the fact that the capabilities that we now have when
If there is one topic in Vietnamese history that I think people today have the hardest time understanding it is the topic of “Confucianism.” Why
In the spring of 1994, during my first year of graduate school, I took a seminar on Chinese Intellectual History. In that seminar, in addition
I recently read a chapter by the late historian John K. Whitmore entitled “Building a Buddhist Monarchy in Đai Viêt: Temples and Texts under Lý
A few years ago, I was invited to write a paper on the concept of “Tianxia” (Thiên Hạ) in nineteenth-century Vietnam, and that paper has
I have been writing about the established narrative in English-language scholarship on premodern Vietnam which sees the Lý and Trần dynasty periods as a time
If you read the extant scholarship on premodern Vietnam, you will discover that historians have presented a story about the past which argues that there
In the extant English-language scholarship on Vietnam, most scholars argue that there was little presence of Confucianism during the period of the Lý Dynasty (1009-1225)
I find that when it comes to talking about the religions/teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in Vietnamese history, many people have a difficult time
As I mentioned in the previous post, in English-language scholarship on premodern Vietnamese history, the Lý Dynasty (1009-1225) is usually described as not being Confucian.
In the English-language scholarship on Vietnamese history, the Lý Dynasty (1009-1225), the first major Vietnamese dynasty, is usually presented as not being influenced by Confucian
I do not know how many times I have heard or read that the Văn Miếu (Temple of Literature) in Hanoi was “built” in 1070
An article that I wrote a year or two ago has just been published. It is called “Sinology in Vietnam.” There are people who would
I’ve recently published a working paper entitled “Revisiting the Chinese Sources on Early Southeast Asia.” I started looking at the Chinese sources for early Southeast
The 14th Engaging With Vietnam Conference will be held in Hue (1-6 August 2023). The overall theme of the conference is “Living with Heritage, (Re)Creating
There is a thirteenth-century Chinese text called the Treatise on the Various Barbarian Lands (Zhu fan zhi 諸蕃志) that has information about a place on
The 13th Engaging With Vietnam conference will be held next week, with the main academic part of the conference running from 26 – 28 October.
Last weekend I participated in a weekly online forum in Vietnam called “Midnight Talks.” The topic this past week was on “The Lost History of
The scholarship on early Southeast Asian history that relies on Chinese sources is a complete mess. From the very beginning, scholars got a lot of
Chinese historical sources have long been used to try to gain an understanding of early Southeast Asian history. However, when scholars have made use of
I have recently been writing a lot about a place that I refer to as “Jāba,” a kingdom that I argue was based in the
By now I think that I have clearly established the fact that there was a kingdom located in the area of what is now Songkhla
In 1810, two Vietnamese officials presented to Emperor Gia Long a map of the routes to, and within parts of, Siam with an accompanying text
In many recent posts, I have been writing about a place that I call “Jāba.” This was the center of a major trans-peninsular trade empire,
In the eleventh century, a place in Southeast Asia called “Srivishaya” was attacked by a kingdom from southern India known as the Chola kingdom. We
In early 1292, Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of the Yuan Dynasty in China, gave orders to three of his officials to lead troops to
Yes, you read that correctly. Marco Polo visited Thailand. Ok, I know that there was no place called “Thailand” in the late thirteenth century when
Ok, I think I have finally found “Malayu”!!! The term, “Malayu,” and the related terms of Malaya and Malāyur appear in several historical sources before
Having shared the translations of some of the information in Arabic texts about Southeast Asia in the last post, let’s take a look at what
In recent posts, I have been talking about information in Arabic texts. There are a group of texts in Arabic that provide information about Southeast
As stated in the previous post, there were two “Javas” in the past in Southeast Asia. These two Javas are referred to in Arabic, Chinese
One issue that has confused historians for over a century is the fact that there is more than one place that was referred to as
There was a Chinese Buddhist monk by the name of Yijing 義淨 (635–713) who traveled to India in the second half of the seventh century
The belief that there was historically a dynamic and important maritime kingdom on the island of Sumatra called “Srivijaya” has created an incalculable number of
A colleague and friend pointed out to me that I should look at information in a work known as The Crystal Sands: The Chronicles of
A while ago I made a video where I said something like “no place called Srivijaya ever existed”. . . I kind of knew at
At long last, the first part of a 2-part article on “Srivijaya” has just been published. In this article, I argue that information in Chinese
I have recently come up with a new picture of premodern Southeast Asian history by revisiting Chinese, Siamese and Cambodian sources. In particular, I have
For the past 20+ years, I’ve watched Vietnam change dramatically. Now as I visit the country after a three-year absence because of the COVID pandemic,
For the past month, we have been in Vietnam preparing for the 13th Engaging With Vietnam conference (23-31 October 2022). Like our previous EWV conferences
As I stated in the previous post (The “One Country – One King” Problem in Premodern Southeast Asian History), when historians have looked at the
There is a major problem that plagues the scholarship on premodern Southeast Asian history, and I call it the “one king – one country” problem.
I can see everything clearly now. It all falls into place. It all makes sense. . . Over the past couple of years, I have
I am well aware that many people are going to respond with immediate disbelief to the idea of the article that I am about to
I have recently written a long 2-part article that demonstrates that there was never a kingdom called “Srivijaya.” The first part will be published in
In a few days the first part of a 2-part article which I have written on “Srivijaya” will be published. In fact, this article deconstructs
