Hero and Deity is an eloquent and fascinating journey into the world of the worshippers and the cult of Tran Hung Dao. The legendary fourteenth-century hero and savior of Vietnam has evolved as a key symbol of the nation as well as an efficacious deity in its spiritual pantheon. Today he is a ubiquitous, multivalent symbol of the contradictions of contemporary Vietnamese society.

Intertwined with this rich ethnography is a work of self-interrogation and engagement with the author's complex and changing ?home, ? and with the diverse women and men ? intellectuals, Communist...

Capturing the vanishing memory of ancient rituals, recited texts, and places imbued with echoes of the past, The Enduring SacredLandscape of the Naga recounts the lived texture of human experience in the Mekong River valley. The book reconstructs the history of those areas fused with legends and lore of the tutelary spirits of the region known as the ngu (serpent), ngeuak (salt-water crocodile), and naga (supernatural beings with both snake and human attributes).

While naga iconography adorns Buddhist temples throughout Southeast Asia, particularly in Laos and northeastern Thailand,...

Books on mural painting in Thailand have tended to focus on works commissioned by royalty or other elites from the centers of power. This volume is the first to examine a vibrant sub-school of painting from the rural heartland of the Northeastern Region, also known as Isan. It is a multifaceted and empathetic study of these lovely and lively paintings, and will appeal to anyone interested in the Mekong Region as well as to scholars of art history, Buddhism, and anthropology in Southeast Asia.