Ebook Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U
Never doubt with our offer, considering that we will certainly consistently provide what you require. As such as this updated book Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U, you might not discover in the various other place. But right here, it's extremely easy. Just click as well as download, you can have the Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U When convenience will alleviate your life, why should take the difficult one? You could acquire the soft documents of guide Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U here and be member people. Besides this book Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U, you can likewise discover hundreds listings of guides from lots of sources, compilations, publishers, as well as writers in all over the world.
Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U
Ebook Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U
Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U How can you change your mind to be much more open? There numerous resources that could help you to boost your thoughts. It can be from the other encounters as well as tale from some people. Schedule Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U is among the trusted sources to obtain. You can find a lot of books that we share right here in this internet site. And currently, we reveal you one of the best, the Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U
This publication Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U is expected to be one of the very best vendor book that will certainly make you really feel satisfied to buy and also read it for completed. As recognized could usual, every publication will certainly have specific points that will make a person interested so much. Even it comes from the author, type, material, or even the author. Nonetheless, many people likewise take guide Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U based on the motif and also title that make them astonished in. and here, this Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U is quite suggested for you since it has interesting title and motif to read.
Are you truly a follower of this Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U If that's so, why do not you take this publication currently? Be the first individual who like as well as lead this publication Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U, so you could get the reason and also messages from this publication. Never mind to be perplexed where to obtain it. As the various other, we share the connect to go to and download the soft data ebook Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U So, you might not lug the published publication Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U all over.
The presence of the on-line publication or soft documents of the Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U will reduce individuals to obtain guide. It will also conserve even more time to just browse the title or author or publisher to obtain up until your publication Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U is revealed. After that, you could go to the link download to go to that is given by this website. So, this will be a great time to begin appreciating this publication Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U to check out. Consistently good time with publication Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia, By Thant Myint-U, consistently great time with money to invest!
Thant Myint-U's Where China Meets India is a vivid, searching, timely book about the remote region that is suddenly a geopolitical center of the world.
From their very beginnings, China and India have been walled off from each other: by the towering summits of the Himalayas, by a vast and impenetrable jungle, by hostile tribes and remote inland kingdoms stretching a thousand miles from Calcutta across Burma to the upper Yangtze River.
Soon this last great frontier will vanish―the forests cut down, dirt roads replaced by superhighways, insurgencies crushed―leaving China and India exposed to each other as never before. This basic shift in geography―as sudden and profound as the opening of the Suez Canal―will lead to unprecedented connections among the three billion people of Southeast Asia and the Far East.
What will this change mean? Thant Myint-U is in a unique position to know. Over the past few years he has traveled extensively across this vast territory, where high-speed trains and gleaming new shopping malls are now coming within striking distance of the last far-flung rebellions and impoverished mountain communities. And he has explored the new strategic centrality of Burma, where Asia's two rising, giant powers appear to be vying for supremacy.
At once a travelogue, a work of history, and an informed look into the future, Where China Meets India takes us across the fast-changing Asian frontier, giving us a masterful account of the region's long and rich history and its sudden significance for the rest of the world.
- Sales Rank: #598791 in Books
- Published on: 2012-09-18
- Released on: 2012-09-18
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.24" h x 1.08" w x 5.48" l, .77 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 400 pages
Review
“[A] blend of personal reminiscence, history--enlivened with an eye for the telling anecdote--travelogue and polemic.” ―The Economist
“[Where China Meets India] possesses a heartfelt and welcome optimism, giving voice to a desire for connections that exceeds all notions of foreign policy, geopolitics or business and becomes, instead, about people encountering each other in all their glorious difference.” ―Siddhartha Deb, The Guardian
“Thant Myint-U makes clear in Where China Meets India [that] Burma's days as a neglected backwater are over.” ―Tim Johnston, Financial Times
“This is probably the best book written on Myanmar after 1988. It is a must-read not only for diplomats, political analysts and CEOs of multinationals but also for readers who enjoy racy narrative, fascinating accounts of a bygone era, of Shangri-La, kings and generals, intrigue and heroism, the Tarons, remnants of the only known pigmy race in mainland Asia, and the lives of common people in some of the remotest parts of the region in and around Myanmar.” ―Bhaskar K Mitra, Business Standard
“Thant's knowledge of Burma's history, peoples, cultures, and kingdoms brings focus to his travels through the area. The constant interplay between his experiences and knowledge of the region make this book a gem, with myriad rare insights.” ―Publishers Weekly
“An illumining look at a country torn between two emerging superpowers . . . In a whirlwind tour through Burma's history, politics, culture and geography, Myint-U makes a successful case for its importance in South Asia's future.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Interweaving the history and geography of Burma (Myanmar) with a travel memoir, Thant (The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma) narrates the compelling story of his journey through this rapidly evolving region rich in culture and heritage . . . A highly readable and entertaining foray into the complex history of this ancient land, this book will be of interest to lovers of history and travel writing.” ―Allan Cho, Library Journal
“‘Asia' is already the 21st century's most contested term. For some it represents a block comprising most of the world's population, for others a region rife with historical rivalries. In this engaging narrative, Thant Myint-U shows us how Asia is still under construction, with new ports, canals, railroads and passageways are knitting together a continent. Most interestingly, these new Silk Roads enjoin the world's two most populous nations, China and India, via Burma, a land of incredible diversity and promise, but also despair and risk. If the presumed geopolitical rivalries in Asia are to be averted, it will be by following Thant's road-map.” ―Parag Khanna, author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order and How to Run the World
“Where China Meets India is a rare find, an ambitious, comprehensive work that is at once entertaining and illuminating by a leading scholar on Burma.” ―Andrew Pham, author of The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars
About the Author
Thant Myint-U was educated at Harvard and Cambridge universities and later taught history for several years as a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has also served on United Nations peacekeeping operations in Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia, as well as with the United Nations Secretariat in New York. He is the author of a personal history of Burma, The River of Lost Footsteps.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
WHERE CHINA MEETS INDIA (Irrawaddy Dreaming)
Before there was Rangoon, there was the Shwedagon pagoda. The legend goes something like this. Twenty-five centuries ago, two merchant brothers named Tapussa and Bhallika met the Buddha, by chance, just days after his Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, in northern India. They heard his teachings on how to respond to the generally unsatisfactory nature of human experience. They became amongst his first followers, presenting him with an offering of rice cakes and honey and asking for a token of their encounter. The Buddha gave them eight strands of hair from his head. The Burmese believe that Tapussa and Bhallika were from lower Burma and that on their return home they placed the hairs in a jewelled casket and enshrined the casket deep within what would become the Shwedagon pagoda.
The pagoda sits today in the middle of Rangoon, a sprawling city of five million people, on the only hill for miles around. It is an enormous golden structure nearly 400 feet high, shaped something like an upside-down funnel, with an octagonal base, a rounded dome, and then a long spire. The lower sections are covered in gold leaf, the upper sections in plates of solid gold. Altogether the Shwedagon is said to be enveloped in no less than sixty tons of gold. 'More than in all the vaults of the Bank of England', the Burmese used to say during the days of British rule. At the top the spire is encrusted with thousands of precious stones as well as diamonds totalling 2,000 carats. Archaeologists and historians are uncertain about the true age of the Shwedagon. It is known that the pagoda (in its current form) was built in the fifteenth century, but that it was built on top of far older structures, likely dating back at least to the early centuries AD. A treasure chamber doubtless exists within its innermost recesses.
The Shwedagon can be seen from almost anywhere in the city, reflecting the sun by day and floodlit at night. There is perhaps no other city in the world as dominated, physically and spiritually, by a religious site as Rangoon is by the Shwedagon. Rudyard Kipling, after a visit in 1889, described it as 'a golden mystery' and 'a beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun'. Thirty-three years later, Somerset Maugham, who had stopped briefly in Rangoon, remembered that the Shwedagon 'rose superb, glistening with its gold like a sudden hope in the dark night of the soul'.
It was dusk when I arrived at the Shwedagon. Statues of two giant griffins or chinthés, the winged half-man half-lion creatures of Burmese mythology, guarded the base of the immense staircase that led up to the main platform. The stairs were made of teak, dark and smooth, and as wide as a street, lined on each side with little stalls, each selling flowers or incense or religious icons. The sellers, like most stallholders in Burma, were women, some with their children playing nearby.
A high roof covered the stairs and so it was only at the very top that the Shwedagon suddenly came into view, surrounded by a complex of dozens of smaller pagodas, pavilions, rest-houses, and shrines of different shapes and sizes, all laid out in no particular manner, the result of centuries of gradual augmentation. Many of the pavilions housed statues of the Buddha, big ones and small ones, the pillars of these pavilions covered in gold leaf or in glass mosaics. It was like a little city from a fairy tale.
Buddhism is the religion of an estimated 85 per cent of all people in Burma (the rest are mainly Christians and Muslims) and all Burmese Buddhists are meant to try to visit the Shwedagon at least once in their lifetime. I can't guess the number of people who were there that evening, certainly in the hundreds, probably in the thousands. Nearly all were wearing a sarong-like longyi, patterned and tied differently for men and women, together with a shirt or blouse. Most were probably from Rangoon, people coming after work, but at least some were villagers from far away, their longyis in less fashionable patterns and a little more threadbare. There were Buddhist monks as well, in rust-coloured robes, and nuns in pale pink. Everyone was in their bare feet, as is traditional and required at all sacred sites. The air was scented with jasmine and marigold, and at some shrines people were lighting little rows of flickering candles. I went into one of the larger pavilions where there were already a few other people, including an old lady, her eyes tightly closed and her long grey hair tied up in a bun, kneeling on the floor, their hands clasped together in prayer, facing the large statue of the Buddha in front of them. I first knelt as well and then touched my head and hands to the ground.
For some, Buddhism is primarily a philosophy, a guide to being happy and knowing how best to deal with the vicissitudes of life. A visit to the Shwedagon is an opportunity to be reminded of the Buddha's teachings, perhaps meditate quietly, or simply try to calm your mind after a hectic and stressful day.
For most Burmese, however, the Shwedagon is also a magical place. The faithful believe that somewhere beneath the gilded stupa are not only the hair relics of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, but the relics of past Buddhas as well, from aeons ago: the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Konagamana, and a piece of the robe of Kassapa, and that all these relics impart the Shwedagon with supernatural power.
The Shwedagon is also the haunt of weizzas or wizards, Tantric adepts who have achieved special abilities (like everlasting youth or invisibility). There is a small pagoda, towards the southwest, decorated with the figures of wizards and necromancers from times past, where some believe invisible beings come to meditate. There is also a pavilion dedicated to Izza Gawna, a wizard and alchemist of medieval times, and a 'Shrine of the Sun and Moon', whose two Buddha statues are said to grant the wishes of all who come to pay their respects.
The pagoda has also played its role in Burmese history. To the north is the 'Victory Ground', an open area where people come to pray for success of any kind, religious or secular. Traditionally, kings and generals came here before leaving for war. More recently, it has been the place to begin political protests. One of the first was in 1920, when students camped here at the start of an anti-colonial campaign. There's a column nearby in their memory, with their names written not only in Burmese and English but also in Russian, a sign of the high hopes the anti-colonialists then had for the recent Bolshevik Revolution. And protesters have gathered here ever since. In September 2007, thousands of Buddhist monks led peaceful marches against the ruling military junta. The demonstrations lasted for several days and on each day the monks started here at the 'Victory Ground'. But at least in this case their wishes went unfulfilled as riot police eventually closed in, sealing off the Shwedagon complex, and violently ending the demonstrations.
There may be wizards and the occasional protestors, but there are still very few foreign tourists. I saw one that evening, looking relaxed, in khakis and T-shirt, sitting cross-legged with his camera on the marble floor, watching the Burmese go by. I may be biased, but I would rank the Shwedagon as easily an equal of any of the other great sites I have seen, including the pyramids in Mexico, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, or the Taj Mahal. Ralph Fitch was the first Englishman ever to come to Burma, in 1584 as the captain of 'the talle shippe Tyger' (the ship mentioned, some say, by Shakespeare in Macbeth), and he said of the Shwedagon: 'It is, as I suppose, the fairest place that doe bee in all the Worlde.' From the beginning of 1962 through the 1980s, it was difficult to travel to Burma and tourism was discouraged. That has changed and it is today easy to visit. But in the place of old government restrictions there are now boycott campaigns from overseas, campaigns that have called on would-be tourists to stay away from Burma, so as not to contribute to the coffers of the ruling generals. The boycotts have been terrible for the country's nascent tourism industry, but have had the benefit of keeping back the hordes that will almost certainly one day come.
It was dark by the time I climbed back down the stairs and walked to the busy roundabout in front, to hail a taxi and drive to the 365 Café.
Edward was a Burmese businessman in his late fifties, a strongly built man with thinning salt and pepper hair, who had worked for several years in Singapore, as an engineer, before returning to Rangoon, his home town. He had a Burmese name as well, but like many of his class and generation had received an English name at school. The Burmese name he used for any official purpose and was the way he introduced himself to any new acquaintances. But to old friends (he was an old friend of my family's), he had remained 'Edward'.
He was waiting for me when I arrived, dressed in a dark Hawaiian shirt and a Burmese longyi. He had a broad, almost Polynesian, face, and looked tanned and healthy. We spoke in a mix of Burmese and English. 'Business is bad,' he said. 'Sometimes I think I made a big mistake coming back. I should have stayed in Singapore or gone to America when I had the opportunity. My brother's there, you know, in San Diego. He offered to find me a job, ages ago. My mistake.'
Edward had suggested the 365 Café. It was downtown, on the ground floor of the Thamada or 'President' hotel. It was decorated in a bright international style, with comfortable faux-leather chairs, and had a menu that offered a mix of sandwiches and Asian dishes. Big glass windows covered an entire wall, and through them you could see a small car park, with a couple of old Japanese cars and a big truck filled with crates of orangeade bottles. Beyond the parking lot was the street, and then a tall hedge, and finally a red-brick church, looking exactly like a church in a small English town.
'We have nothing like a proper business environment,' h...
Most helpful customer reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
A Fascinating Glimpse into an Unknown Country
By Tiger CK
Burma may be almost completely cut off from the West as a result of sanctions imposed against its military government but while the United States and its allies have been ignoring this relatively small, impoverished country it has been undergoing great change in recent years due to its geographical position between China and India, both of which are intent on expanding their influence. This is the main theme of Where China meets India, a new book by Thant Myint-U, the grandson of former UN secretary general U Thant. Thant's concerns are vastly different than those that preoccupy most American media covering Burma. He doesn't devote too much attention to the repressive policies of the government or Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and darling of the Western press. Instead he tries to give us a real portrait of the country, its people and the changes that are occurring there.
The book combines travel writing, history and current events. The author spent the majority of his time in the regions of Burma that border China and India. His analysis of the situation in Lashio, the northeastern province of Burma bordering on China's Yunnan province is fascinating for what it tells us both about changes in Lashio and Chinese ambitions in the region. He finds that the Chinese are slowly but surely bringing globalization into the region by building roads, extending electricity grids and penetrating the area's porous borders. Thant also looks at Indian interests in Burma but generally seems to believe that India has been less successful at expanding economically there than China. He believes that Burma seems destined to fall under the Chinese sphere of influence because the United States and its allies are not sufficiently interested in the country.
At the political level, Thant shows how both Chinese and Indian policy have recently worked to strengthen the government and make political change unlikely. India used to be a much stronger supporter of Burmese democracy while China hoped to see the communists assume power. Now both Beijing and Delhi have abandoned their former allies and seem willing to work with the regime if it will bring economic benefits. Thant predicts a new "Great Game" between the two rising powers where each will seek to gain the upper hand in developing Burma's resources and securing access to its markets.
There are some limitations in this book. Thant does not speak Mandarin so when he travels into Yunnan province in China he doesn't turn up quite as many new and interesting details as he does during his travels in his ancestral country. Nevertheless, this book deserves to be read by people with a serious interest in Asian politics. It exposes a little know facet of Asian politics that may one day have a much greater global impact than most in the West expect.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
For the armchair traveler
By Arnold
Thant Myint-U made is name as one of the more popular historians of Burma with his book The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma. That book was well written and Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia follows along in that path.
The best part of the book is that it combines a history of Burma with travelogues from Northeast India and Southwest China. As Thant Myint-U observes, these regions are both important for Burma yet often get left out of the conventional accounts of Burma. He argues that Burma's future is tied to its geography and that Burma's place in between the rising giants of India and China will dictate its economic development.
This book is a great read for armchair travelers or readers just getting interested in Burma. However, if offers less to Burma watchers or readers intimately familiar with the country. Anybody who reads Irrawaddy or Democratic Voice of Burma regularly will be familiar with the portion on Burma. The sections on India and China might present new material, but are somewhat shallow in comparison. Especially in China, Thant Myint-U doesn't seem to have any particular expertise or familiarity. In fact, I think in retrospect those sections would have benefitted from co-authors more familiar with those regions.
A cautionary note is in order. This book was published in September 2011, only 3 months ago. However, events in Burma have moved quickly. Burma's new government has made several decisions that upset China, while at the same time Hillary Clinton visited in December. While it's probably too far to say that this entire book is obsolete, the conclusions and forecasts probably are. That's certainly not Thant Myint-U's fault, but readers should be aware.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Whither Burma?
By Keith Lorenz
A very valuable book that projects the future of Burma as the country emerges
from its shell. After more than sixty years of sleep Burma awakes to find itself ripe prey for the two huge powers flanking it: China and India. As China drives a wedge through Burma to connect itself to the Indian Ocean, India considers how to get its piece of the Burmese pie and how to blunt China's growing proximity.
The Burmese generals have stepped slightly into the shadows for appearance sakes. In the dim they can better manipulate the huge profits to be reaped from the competing resource hungry transnationals and foreign state enterprises.
The author weaves a convincing blend of history, travel and analysis to arrive at his thesis that Burma will become the perfect victim of the geopolitical storm raging about it. No country so critically located as Burma can resist the
development tsunami represented by the 2.6 billion combined population of China and India, not to mention the European and North American demand for a few crumbs.
The author is qualified to tell the story. The grandson of UN Secretary General
U Thant, educated at Harvard and Cambridge, seasoned by international work in the Balkans and Cambodia, well connected by blood to the Burmese intelligentsia, he is the perfect observer to predict where his country is heading. He attempts to be optimistic. After all, anything is better than the cruel, paranoid, xenophobic past half century of Burma's history. However it is a double edged sword. As the vultures season the flavor of this succulent morsel to suit their rising appetite one may soon bid farewell to the storied lotus, and prepare to confront the modern robot, as typified by dams, pipelines, petrochemical plants, super highways, free trade zones and skyscrapers.
Such is progress!
Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U PDF
Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U EPub
Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U Doc
Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U iBooks
Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U rtf
Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U Mobipocket
Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, by Thant Myint-U Kindle
No comments:
Post a Comment