talk about mythology...

The Sacred Bride
- a cross-cultural reference
by
Dr. Manoshi Bhattacharya

The concept of the Sacred Bride and the Sacred Marriage began on the plains of the Indus Valley over 4000 years ago and the symbolism, that made Da Vinci Code a best-seller, owes its origin to those ancient nature worshippers. India is unique because its culture and tradition survived despite the numerous invasions, which brought in new ways of thinking. While the ancient nature worshippers in the rest of the world died out, only those in India survived.
Accepting the woman – albeit a supernatural one – as being the source of the ultimate knowledge is not a new concept. The ancient thinking of the Indus Valley Civilization, placed the male and female principles as equals. The male principle, Shiva or D united with the female, Shakti or Ñ to form the Y hexagram or mandala. The hexagram was a symbol of the Sacred Marriage. The earliest evidence of this symbol was found among coins from the excavation of the city of Ujjain in India. The coins have been dated to be 2000 - 3000 years old. These coins came into the possession of Colonel James Tod, the Political Agent to the Western Rajput States of India in the early 1800s. The Indus Valley Harappan seal numbered 297 bears one of the first representations of Shakti with her foot planted on a buffalo's nose grasping a horn with one hand and thrusting a spear into its back with the other.
A similar thought existed in ancient Babylon and Sumeria where the divine lady Belit-ili, or Belili was worshipped. The Canaanites worshipped her as Baalat. A tablet from Ur, dating back to 2000 BC addressed her as Laillake. She was adopted by the Jews during their days of captivity in Babylon. As the home-sick Jews compiled the Old Testament, they incorporated tales that they had imbibed from their land of captivity - Iraq. Adam’s first wife became Lilleth of the Genesis and the Rabbinic literature. She was Laila of the later Islamic version. The world over, nature worshippers celebrated the woman as an essential half of spiritual enlightenment. The act of Hieros Gamos, the union of Amon and Isis, was as hallowed in Egypt as in Greece.
A wave of change swept the world. Lilleth of the Rabbinic literature refused to bow her head before Adam. She was his equal in every way. Uttering the name of God, she disappeared and was condemned as a demon. A lesser woman was created out of Adam’s rib and pulled out of his back. Eve would always stand behind Adam. The Greek and Egyptian cultures died and in India, the position of the Sacred Bride suffered. The civilization that replaced that of the Indus Valley was strongly patriarchal in nature. Early Vedic literature made no mention of Her until the age in which the Shatpat Brahmin was compiled. It was said however, that the creator’s work had not been perfect. His creations would not multiply. Finally, He sought his answer among the practioner’s of the ancient Indian way. He witnessed Shiva and Shakti together in their ‘ardhanareshwar’ form. The body was split longitudinally into two. One half was male, the other female. Neither was complete without the other. Prajapati Brahma, the creator now understood. The Shatpat Brahman goes on to say, "Prajapati created the universe. He populated the earth with living creatures of every kind. Exhausted, he rested. Sri, in her divine beauty, issued from within him. Instantly the gods were jealous. Kill her, was the cry. Prajapati intervened. He let her live." Although, the female principle was acknowledged as necessary and in every respect equal to the male, like Lilleth, she was denied the respect due to her. However, in India the position of the Sacred Bride gradually recovered. Her ancient worshippers survived in small pockets, principally in Bengal. The mystery that lay within Her could not be denied. By the time the Kena Upanishad was written, the position of the Vedic woman had greatly improved. The female principle was acknowledged as the source of divine knowledge. "The Brahman (the one and only supreme being) appeared before the gods of the patriarchs. Agni, the fire god, plucked up his courage. He challenged the Brahman. The Brahman offered him some straw. Agni was unable to burn it. Vayu, the god of wind, was unable to blow it away. The king of the gods arrived. Indra was determined to learn the true nature of the Brahman. He found instead the sacred feminine, Uma or Himavati (Shakti). Humbled, Indra submitted. Uma taught him."
The knowledge that was in the possession of the Sacred Bride was coveted by all but while Shakti survived, Lilleth did not. Neither did Isis nor She who held a buffalo in an upraised hand at Dordogne, France. Their counterpart at the temple of Nagar in Nubia who slaughtered a demon with her sword while her lion mount waited in the background fared no better. Nor did the Celtic Tara.
The ancient architecture of India remained alive and Shakti’s presence dominated the worship of every form of the Brahman (greater or lesser gods). The very act of entering a temple was taking part in the mystic union. Indians worshipped in dimly lit little rooms though their temples were large and the spires reached out to the skies. A long corridor led to sanctum sanctorum, which lay deep within the temple. The womb of the temple would admit but one devotee. Here, all by himself, the devotee would aspire to cross over and unite with the Brahman, both in mind and in body. Entrances to ancient Celtic temples were marked in a similar manner with flowers and roses, symbolizing the entrance to the womb. Few ancient temples survived and though the beautiful carvings were inherited by the modern day churches, their meaning was long forgotten.
God’s own bride was successful in India. Sri Sukta, a late addition to the original Rig Veda, sang of the glory of the sacred feminine. She was adored by many names - Mahalaxmi, Mahasaraswati and Mahakali in the Khilaratri Sukta and Durga in the Taittirya Aranakyas. In the Epic Age, she was celebrated as Durga who helped Lord Ram overcome King Ravan. Ram’s devotions lived on and her worshipper’s continued to follow the steps laid down by Lord Ram in the invocation of the goddess, an autumnal, rite called Durga Puja, celebrated even today. She traveled through the world once again, staking her claim wherever mankind struggled to abandon her. Her mystery drew many followers. She was both venerated and feared. Juneiti Kannon or Chundi and Juntei Butsubo, the mother of seven crores of Buddhas or the Sapta Koti Buddha Matri took her place in Japan. Mahayan Buddhism with Tara’s (a form of Kali – the aggressive form of Durga) powers spread through Tibet and China. The cosmic union with its Yin Yang balance appealed to Chinese thought and the mandala became a popular symbol. Sara-Kali or the Black Virgin, was worshipped by gypsies and dacoits through the world. Though Kali compared with Lilleth in many ways, her respect for Shiva could keep her in control. When Lilleth and Kali were on a rampage, a great loss of life would follow.
By the beginning of the Middle Ages (AD 395 to the Renaissance) it was apparent that great suffering had been imposed upon the Jews. It was blamed upon the abandonment of God’s feminine half. The concept of Shakti and the Sacred Marriage was imported from India. The Shiv-Shakti mandala, Y, with its magical powers became the Star of David or the Magen David. Though David, king of the Jews, is traditionally placed in the same time period as the heroes of the great Indian epic, Mahabharat, it isn’t until the 4th Century A.D. that the mandala came to became popular. It was adopted as a symbol of the dynasty of the Messiah – the dynasty of David, the first Messiah. Popular among the followers of the mystic Kaabala, all Jewish women have since celebrated the Shabat every Saturday. White candles are lit and the Sacred Bride is welcomed. Regarded as Hebrew lore, the name of Shekina is omitted from the modern Bible. In the ancient Aramaic version, it says, "God shall choose that his Shekina may dwell there, unto the house of his Shekina shall you seek." The Bible merely uses ‘the name’ in place of Shekina. The Gnostic Christians of the 4th century acknowledged Sh’kina as a spirit of glory. The foreign origin resulted in some conservatives referring to the Star of David as the mark of evil.
The 4th Century A.D. saw another revival in India. After years of Buddhist rule a strong Hindu Empire had taken root. The Gupta emperors ordered scholars to commit to writing the classical teachings and epics. The Purans were the result and they elevated the Sacred Bride, Durga, to the highest position, abandoning with enthusiasm the entire male pantheon. The bride was now firmly back on her throne. She now evolved into two forms. Mahishasura Mardini, the slayer of the demon Mahishasura, was the warrior while simple stones, aniconic representations, were said to be the body of Uma or Sati or Parvati, the fertile nurturing form of the goddess who was the devoted wife of Shiva. By the 11th Century AD, the many diverse forms of the sacred feminine were consolidated into one. The cult of the goddess was at its peak. The Purans dictated the image while the Chundi section described the manner of worship. The prescription given was permanent. Mahishasura Mardini remains the most popular form even today. Her right foot rests on her lion’s back and the left on the shoulder of the demon Mahishasura. Her third eye is open and her ten arms bear weapons bestowed upon her by the male pantheon. She has a slender, well developed body, skin the colour of gold like that of the Vedic beauties and almost frizzy black hair, reminiscent of her ancient aboriginal roots. Dressed as a bride, she is resplendent in her red silk sari and ornaments of gold and papyrus. A severed buffalo head lies at her feet and the demon, having emerged from within its carcass, brandishes a sword and shield. The goddess drives her trident into his chest. Shiva, her husband, is present in his iconographic form.
The two thousand year old Y hexagram has since adorned the walls and floors of sacred monuments. The hexagram or the Trinitarian symbol, appeared on the beautiful abbey gate of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, United Kingdom, in A.D. 1377. Islamic rule in India used the mandala in their architecture in the 16th Century. Emperor Humayun’s tomb, in Delhi, heralded the beginning of Mughal architecture in India. It was built by his first wife, Hajji Begum, the virtuous Muslim empress, who was distinguished for having performed the Haj. She made prominent use of the mandala on every face of the tomb. This mandala which has no Biblical or Talmudic authority was first used by the Jewish community of Prague as an official symbol in the 17th Century and by the 19th Century, became a striking emblem of Judaism appearing on synagogues, tomb-stones and the flag of Israel.
The hunt for the knowledge, which could end mankind’s miseries, sparked off the quest for the Holy Grail in the Christian world. The Holy Grail was speculated to be the chalice of Christ, akin to the ‘Celtic horn of plenty,’ by Chretian de Troy in the 12th century A.D. Wolfram Essenbach’s epic, Parzival, declared it to be the stone that fell from heaven - the philosopher’s stone? The mystical teachings of Saint Bernard of Claivaux, reflecting on man’s rise to perfection, influenced the writing of Quest del Saint Graal. This became Malory’s 15th century Le Morte Darthur, which identified the Grail with the mystical union experienced by Sir Galahad. The divine love of Arthurian legends akin to the mystical union of Shiva and Shakti Y hexagram, prevailed and has proved to be a fruitful theme in Christian literature.
Dan Brown’s effort, at establishing the role of Mary Magdalene as Christ’s bride and the possessor of the sacred knowledge, is yet another proof that deep within its heart the Western world still yearns for the return of the Sacred Bride.

http://www.the-south-asian.com/Jan2005/The_Sacred_Bride.htm

http://www.the-south-asian.com/index.htm

Aids and Indian woman

NOTHING POSITIVE
- AIDS & THE INDIAN WOMAN
by
Surabhi Khosla

Powerful ad campaign…" I care for you. Why don’t you care for me? "
The fact that over 19 lakh women in India are living with HIV AIDS is setting off alarm bells in the Indian medical fraternity – especially since more than 90percent of these are married women in monogamous relationships…

-More married women in India are at risk of getting AIDS than sex workers
-India is about to be hit by the worst AIDS epidemic in the world
-Research groups are now calling AIDS in India ‘a woman’s disease’
It is easy to misjudge the challenge of HIV/AIDS. Rarely perceived as a major public health issue in India, AIDS has taken on nightmarish proportions in recent years. The large population, low literacy and even lower levels of awareness has made AIDS one of the most challenging public health problems ever faced by the country.
The rising number of women (over 1.9 million at the last count) afflicted with AIDS is setting off alarm bells in the Indian medical fraternity – especially since more than 90 percent of these are married women and are in a monogamous relationship.
In the light of these statistics, Breakthrough, a human rights organisation has launched a media campaign titled What Kind Of Man Are You? The campaign highlights the rising incidence of married women infected by the AIDS virus by their husbands.

Crusade Against AIDS
As part of the crusade against AIDS, popular television stars Mandira Bedi and Samir Soni have joined hands with Breakthrough and both feature in a music video, Maati. sung by Shubha Mudgal, Maati talks about a pregnant woman who discovers she is HIV positive because of her husband’s promiscuity.
Apart from this, Breakthrough has been organizing various workshops to provide sex education to the general public. It also has an SMS facility through which people’s queries are answered, informing them about the treatment and care for the infected.
The organisation has also launched an intensive multimedia campaign to focus public attention on the growing problem of HIV AIDS. The message is being conveyed through music videos, eye catching advertisements in newspapers, radio and television that are being directed by renowned adman Prasun Joshi. The different visuals have the same theme - a woman asking her husband to protect her by using a condom.
The campaign aims to empower women in an exceedingly patriarchal society, enabling them to discuss sexuality freely with their husbands and encouraging the use of condoms among men.

Negotiating Safe Sex
According to Mallika Dutt, founder and executive director Breakthrough, "It’s a challenge for any woman to negotiate safe sex with her husband. Many times the request for a condom may be interpreted as an accusation of promiscuity against the husband. Our campaign helps married women to understand the need for safe sex and how to voice their opinion."
Both Sameer Soni and Mandira Bedi feel that the responsibility and the guilt that a man feels on infecting his innocent wife, is brought out beautifully in the video, directed by Arjun Bali.. "The fact that television and music are so popular with the masses will help spread the message much faster in a populated country like India, than workshops and prevention measures targeting small groups of people," says Soni.
Until recently HIV education programmes targeted only the high-risk population such as truck drivers, drug users and sex workers but the reality is that an increasing number of married women are at risk. They are ignorant about the dangers they face and hence are easy targets of infection.
Most Indian women are completely uninformed about sex and sexual health practices at the time of marriage. Under great pressure to produce children (particularly sons), the use of condoms and other contraceptives does not arise. The low economic and social status of women renders them unable to have much of a say in sex and thus, they cannot suggest the use of a condom which in turn can lead to their becoming infected with the HIV virus.
Cultural practices and outdated beliefs still plague the Indian society and there is rampant discrimination against women. A woman is labelled "immoral and loose" if detected with the deadly virus. Subjected to ill treatment and isolation of the worst kind, these women are faced with no family support, loss of job opportunities and an extremely low economic status.
Worse, there is lack of access to treatment and medical facilities for these women.
Besides they can also be subject to increased violence. Voiceless, disgraced and ostracized, these women sometimes end up being branded as untouchables or worse being killed by their own family members

Preventive Measures
In India sex is rarely discussed openly. However it is important to educate and inform the people. According to many health experts, the future course of AIDS in Asia will be set by India's example. Sex education in schools to promote the magnitude of safe sex is essential. Yet over 42 percent of boys and 69 percent of girls of 15 years and older do not go to school. To educate them mass media drives and sex education workshops for the general public are essential.
Allopathic medicines like AZT used in combination with other drugs form the main treatment for AIDS related diseases. Also early diagnosis and effective treatment can help in prolonging life expectancy.
Research is currently underway for a cure and to develop effective and cheaper female condoms that will put the power of protection against HIV in the woman’s hands. But until then the only way to contain the spread of the disease is cooperation by the male partner.
Says Mallika Dutt, "India needs to follow the example of Brazil in aggressively pursuing AIDS prevention and treatment as the country is on the edge of a pandemic that might make India resemble one of those African nations where one in three people is afflicted with the deadly HIV AIDS virus.

http://www.the-south-asian.com/June2005/AIDS-Women-in-India.htm

"southeast asia group"

HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

The history of Southeast Asia has been characterized as interaction between regional players and foreign powers. Though 11 countries currently make up the region, the history of each country is intertwined with all the others. For instance, the Malay empires of Srivijaya and Malacca covered both modern day Indonesia, Malaysian and Singapore while the Burmese, Thai and the Khmer people governed much of Indochina. At the same time, opportunities and threats from the east and the west shaped the direction of Southeast Asia. The history of the countries within the region only started to develop independently of each other after European colonialization was at full steam between the 17th and the 20th century.
Evidences suggest that the earliest non-aboriginal Southeast Asians, came from southern China and were Austronesian speakers. Contemporary research by anthropologists, linguists (Blust, Reid, Ross, Pawley) and archaeologists (Bellwood) suggest that the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago migrated from southern China to islands of the Philippines around 2,500 BCE and later spread to modern day Malaysia and Indonesia.
The earliest population of Southeast Asia was animist before Hinduism and later Buddhism were exported from the Indian subcontinent. Islam later dominated much of the archipelago around the 13th century while Christianity came along when European colonization started around the 16th century.
During the classical age, the existence of Southeast Asia had been known to the Greeks. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy in his Geographia named the Malay Peninsula as Aurea Chersonesus (Golden Peninsula) while Java was called Labadius. Labadius was probably a corruption of Sanskrit Yavadvipa which refers to the same island. An ancient Hindu text may have earlier referred to Southeast Asia as Suvarnabhumi which means land of gold.
The region has been an important source of spices and this was one of the reasons European explorers were attracted to the Far East. During the colonization period, states of the region became important assets to the British, the Dutch and the French. British Malaya for instance was the world's largest producer of tin and rubber while the Dutch East Indies was the source of Dutch's wealth.
During the 1990s, Southeast Asia emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world. Its successes have made some to call Southeast Asia as an economic miracle and "Four Asian Tigers". Though Asian Financial Crisis struck in the late 1990s and left many crippled, the economy of the region has started to pick up again at a more sustainable rate as demand from the United States and People's Republic of China soar.

Paleolithic

Landforms of Southeast Asia, from the relief globe at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
Before the latest ice period, much of the archipelago was not under water. Sometime around the Pleistocene period, the Sunda Shelf was flooded as thawing occurred and thus revealing current geographical features. The area's first known human-like inhabitant some 500,000 years ago was "Java Man" (first classified as Pithecanthropus erectus, then subsequently named a part of the species Homo erectus). Recently discovered was a species of human, dubbed "Flores Man" (Homo floresiensis), a miniature hominid that grew only three feet tall. Flores Man seems to have shared some islands with Java Man until only 10,000 years ago, when they became extinct.
The oldest human settlement in Malaysia has been discovered in Niah Caves. The human remains found there have been dated back to 40,000 BCE. Another remain dated back to 9,000 BCE dubbed the "Perak Man" and tools as old as 75,000 years have been discovered in Lenggong, Malaysia.

Mesolithic and early agricultural societies

Agriculture was a natural development based on necessity. Before agriculture, hunting and gathering sufficed to provide food. The chicken and pig were domesticated here, millenia ago. So much food was available that people could gain status by giving food away in feasts and festivals, where all could eat their fill. These big men (Malay: orang kaya) would work for years, accumulating the food (wealth) needed for the festivals provided by the orang kaya. These individual acts of generosity or kindness are remembered by the people in their oral histories, which serves to provide credit in more dire times. These customs ranged throughout Southeast Asia, stretching, for example, to the island of Papua. The agricultural technology was exploited after population pressures increased to the point that systematic intensive farming was required for mere survival, say of yams (in Papua) or rice (in Indonesia). Rice paddies are well-suited for the monsoons of Southeast Asia. The rice paddies of Southeast Asia have existed for millennia, with evidence for their existence coeval with the rise of agriculture in other parts of the globe.
Yam cultivation in Papua, for example, consists of placing the tubers in prepared ground, heaping vegetation on them, waiting for them to propagate, and harvesting them. This work sequence is still performed by the women in the traditional societies of Southeast Asia; the men might perform the heavier duties of preparing the ground, or of fencing the area to prevent predation by pigs.
The earliest known community in Thailand - dated 3,000 BCE - was located in Ban Chiang.
In Burma around 1,500 BCE, the Mon started to move in while the Tai people later came from southern China to reside in the mainland in the first millennium CE.

Early Metal Phases in Southeast Asia

It was around 2,500 BCE that the Austronesian people started to populate the archipelago and introduced primitive ironworks technology that they had mastered to the region.
By around the 5th century BCE, people of the Dong Son culture, who lived in what is now Vietnam, had mastered basic metal working. Their works are the earliest known metal object to be found by archeologists in Southeast Asia.

Ancient kingdoms

The earliest record of a local law influenced by Islamic teaching and written in Jawi. It is found in Terengganu.
Southeast Asia has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The communities in the region evolved to form complex cultures with varying degrees of influence from India and China.
The ancient kingdoms can be grouped into two distinct categories. The first is agrarian kingdoms. Agrarian kingdoms had agriculture as the main economic activity. Most agrarian states were located in mainland Southeast Asia. Examples are the Ayutthaya Kingdom, based on the Chao Phraya River delta and the Khmer Empire on the Tonle Sap. The second type is maritime states. Maritime states were dependent on sea trade. Malacca and Srivijaya were maritime states.
A succession of trading systems dominated the trade between China and India. First goods were shipped through Funan to the Isthmus of Kra, portaged across the narrow , and then transhipped for India and points west. Around the sixth century CE merchants began sailing to Srivijaya where goods were transhipped directly. The limits of technology and contrary winds during parts of the year made it difficult for the ships of the time to proceed directly from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea. The third system involved direct trade between the Indian and Chinese coasts.
Very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the second century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century, Buddhism and Hinduism were the main religions in Southeast Asia.
Several kingdoms developed on the mainland, initially in modern-day Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The first dominant power to arise in the archipelago was Srivijaya in Sumatra. From the fifth century CE, the capital, Palembang, became a major seaport and functioned as an entrepot on the Spice Route between India and China. Srivijaya was also a notable centre of Vajrayana Buddhist learning and influence. Srivijaya's wealth and influence faded when changes in nautical technology in the tenth century CE enabled Chinese and Indian merchants to ship cargo directly between their countries and also enabled the Chola state in southern India to carry out a series of destructive attacks on Srivijaya's possessions, ending Palembang's entrepot function.
In the Philippines, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription dating from 900 CE relates a granted debt from a Maharlika caste nobleman named Namwaran who lived in the Manila area. This document shows strong Srivijayan influence, and mentions a leader of Medan, Sumatra.
Java was dominated by a kaleidoscope of competing agrarian kingdoms including the Sailendras, Mataram and finally Majapahit.
Muslim traders started to visit Southeast Asia in the Twelfth Century CE. Pasai was the first Muslim state. Srivijaya finally collapsed after internal strife. The Sultanate of Malacca, founded by a Srivijayan prince, rose to prominence under Chinese patronage and assumed Srivijaya’s role. Islam spread throughout the archipelago in the 13th and 14th century at the expense of Hinduism with Malacca functioning (after its rulers converted) as the center of Islam in the region.

European colonization

Europeans first came to Southeast Asia in the sixteenth century. It was the lure of trade that brought Europeans to Southeast Asia while missionaries also tagged along the ships as they hoped to spread Christianity into the region.
Portugal was the first European power to establish a bridgehead into the lucrative Southeast Asia trade route with the conquest of the Sultanate of Malacca in 1511. The Netherlands and Spain followed and soon superseded Portugal as the main European powers in the region. The Dutch took over Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641 while Spain began to colonize the Philippines (named after Phillip II of Spain) from 1560s. Acting through the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch established the city of Batavia (now Jakarta) as a base for trading and expansion into the other parts of Java and the surrounding territory.
Britain, in the form of the British East India Company, came relatively late onto the scene. Starting with Penang, the British began to expand their Southeast Asian empire. They also temporarily possessed Dutch territories during the Napoleonic Wars, In 1819 Stamford Raffles established Singapore was as the key trading post for Britain in their rivalry with the Dutch. However, their rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. From the 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to a significantly higher gear.
This phenomenon, denoted New Imperialism, saw the conquest of nearly all Southeast Asian territories by the colonial powers. The Dutch East India Company and British East India Company were dissolved by their respective governments, who took over the direct administration of the colonies. Only Thailand was spared the experience of foreign rule, although, Thailand itself was also greatly affected by the power politics of the Western powers.
By 1913, the British occupied Burma, Malaya and the Borneo territories, the French controlled Indochina, the Dutch ruled the Netherlands East Indies, the United States took the Philippines from Spain while Portugal managed to hold on to Portuguese Timor.
Colonial rule had a profound effect on Southeast Asia. While the colonial powers profited much from the region's vast resources and large market, colonial rule did develop the region to a varying extent. Commercial agriculture, mining and an export based economy developed rapidly during this period. Increased labor demand resulted in mass immigration, especially from British India and China, which brought about massive demographic change. The institutions for a modern nation state like a state bureaucracy, courts of law, print media and to a smaller extent, modern education, sowed the seeds of the fledgling nationalist movements in the colonial territories.

Decolonization

In the inter-war years, these nationalist movements grew and often clashed with the colonial authorities when they demanded self-determination.
With the rejuvenated nationalist movements in wait, the Europeans returned to a very different Southeast Asia after World War II. Indonesia declared independence in 17 August 1945 and subsequently fought a bitter war against the returning Dutch; the Philippines were granted independence in 1946; Burma secured their independence from Britain in 1948, and the French were driven from Indochina in 1954 after a bitterly fought war against the Vietnamese nationalists. The newly-established United Nations provided a forum both for nationalist demands and for the newly demanded independent nations.
During the Cold War, countering the threat of communism was a major theme in the decolonization process. After suppressing the communist insurrection during the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960, Britain granted independence to Malaya and later, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak in 1957 and 1963 respectively within the framework of the Federation of Malaysia. In one of the most bloody single incidents of violence in Cold War Southeast Asia, General Suharto seized power in Indonesia in 1965 and initiated a massacre of approximately 500,000 alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Recent evidence from the US National Security Archive published by George Washington University suggests this massacre was carried out with the support of the United States embassy in Jakarta, which supplied lists of names of suspected PKI members to Suharto. [1]
The United States intervention against communist forces in Indochina during a conflict commonly referred to in the United States as the Vietnam War meant that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia had to go through a prolonged and protracted war in their route to independence.
In 1975, Portuguese rule ended in East Timor. However, independence was short-lived as Indonesia annexed the territory soon after. Finally, Britain ended its protectorate of the Sultanate of Brunei in 1984, marking the end of European rule in Southeast Asia.

Contemporary Southeast Asia

Modern Southeast Asia has been characterized by high economic growth by most countries and closer regional integration. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have traditionally experienced high growth and are commonly recognized as the more developed countries of the region. As of late, Vietnam too had been experiencing an economic boom. However, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the newly independent East Timor are still lagging economically.
On August 8, 1967, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was founded by Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Since Cambodian admission into the union in 1999, East Timor is the only Southeast Asian country that is not part of ASEAN, although plans are under way for eventual membership. The association aims to enhance cooperation among Southeast Asian community. ASEAN Free Trade Area has been established to encourage greater trade among ASEAN members. ASEAN has also been a front runner in greater integration of Asia-Pacific region through East Asia Summits.

have a break...

The enlightened professor

Ok let's begin with a story about a professor and his class.
Professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.
He asked the students 'What would happen to the weight of this glass of water if I held it up for a few minutes?'
'Nothing' the students answered.
'Ok what would happen if I held it up for an hour?' the professor asked.
'Your arms would ache' answered one student.
'Now what would happen if I held it for a day?' the professor continued.
'Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress and paralysis and have to go to hospital for sure!' ventured another student, and everybody laughed.
'Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?' asked the professor.
'No'
'Then what caused the arm ache and the muscle stress?'
'Put the glass down!' said one of the students.
'Exactly!' said the professor. 'Life's problems are something like this.
Hold it for a few minutes in your head and they seem Ok. Think of them for a long time and they began to ache. Hold it even longer and they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything.
It's important to think of the challenges in your life, but even more important to PUT THEM DOWN at the end of every day before you got to sleep. That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh and strong and can handle any issue, any challenges that comes your way.
So remember to PUT YOUR GLASS DOWN today.

http://www.stress-relief-and-management.com/stress_management_technique.html

guyss...

I just watched the news.. in 24 oras.. and I was so shocked to heard that a small siopao business in China (my group) is selling siopaos with "karton".. as one of the ingredients.. oh yes.. as in.. "karton" na box.. hard paper.. lol.. the siopao itself.. is consist of atleast.. 6% of "karton" and 40% of meat.. I suppose the rest of the percentage are mantao.. They were nabulabog.. when I guess.. some people were inspecting.. concerning the progress of the business industry in China.. when they were able to know the "disgusting".."disgraceful".. siopao.. It was even said in the news.. that bakers or makers of these siopaos.. can't even afford to eat or taste.. it..

asking..where do they get this 'kartons'??.. They said.. before they make these siopaos.. they collect.. boxes from stores.. and soak it in water..to soften.. and season with sodium glutamate..

hala!!! pasaway!!!

a short info bout siopao..

Siopao also called baozi in China or simply Pau (bun) in Hong Kong is simply known as steamed buns in English. It is also called Salapao in Thailand. It is a popular food item in the Philippines. It does not require utensils to eat it and can be consumed on the go. Unlike Mantou, Siopao will contain a meat and gravy type filling that is slightly sweet and can be pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, chopped scallions, water chestnuts, seasoned egg yolk (if available/desired, balut is sometimes used). In addition, a combination of any of these ingredients can be used. There is a common myth that siopao is filled with cat meat. Outside of the Philippines, many Filipino restaurants offer variants of Siopao with local ingredients ranging from Spam and canned pineapple in Hawaii, to haute cuisine concoctions involving Pate d'Foie Gras and truffles.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siopao)

indians in the philippines

indians in the philippines

South Asians in the Philippines are Philippine citizens of Indian descent and South Asian citizens living in Philippines. The term Bumbay, loosely applied to all South Asians in the country (including those of Pakistani descent), regardless of ethnicity or religion, was borrowed from the Malay term Bombay. It is considered derogatory.

Subsets
The largest Indian community would be the Sindhi, who number around 21,000. They are followed by the Punjabi,numbering about 10,000 and Tamils.

Religion
Main article: Hinduism in the Philippines
The Philippines is the seventh largest Hindu country in the world. Most South Asians in the Philippines practice Hinduism, while some practice Sikhism and Islam. Marathis are mainly Roman Catholic.

History
Indian presence in the Philippines has been ongoing since prehistoric times, predating even the coming of the Europeans by at least two centuries. Sepoy troops arrived with the British between 1762 and 1764 during the various Anglo-Spanish wars. When the British withdrew, many of the Sepoys mutinied and refused to leave. Virtually all had taken Filipina brides (or soon did so). They settled in what is now Cainta, Rizal, just east of Metro Manila. The region in and around Cainta still has many Sepoy descendants. The most recent immigrants are mostly businessmen and settle within Metro Manila.