A history-soaked stroll around the city of Malacca

Malacca is one of the avidly sought-after destinations in Malaysia. If you like a holiday where you can walk comfortably from attraction to attraction and soak up centuries' worth of history then Malacca has it all. This historic port city offers a rich seam of cultural heritage - it has been a UNESCO site since 2008.

Under the Melacca sultanates (until the European colonization started with the Portuguese occupation in 1511) the city of Malacca became an important centre for trade due to its strategic position on the Strait of Malacca.The Portuguese dominance over Malacca ended when Malacca fell to the Dutch in 1641. One of popular historical attractions is St. Peter's Church, which was constructed under the Dutch administration.

Passing by St. Peter’s Church in Malacca, you would notice the numerals on the left side of the facade of the church ‘1710’ indicating the date the building was erected. This church is the oldest Catholic church in Malaysia. Its facade and decorative embellishment is a mix of both eastern and western architecture. Its bell was delivered from Goa, India in 1608. Not to miss, the chapel houses a casket-like structure, made of wood and glass. It carries a life-size statue of Jesus lying inside.

  

Other attractions in Malacca

Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple is the oldest Hindu Temple in Malaysia. It was built in 1781 on land given by the Dutch to the Chitty community (a distinctive group of Tamil people from India).

Kampung Kling Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in Malaysia. It was built around 1784 with the influence of Sumatran architecture.

Decorated bircycle rickshaw for Malacca tour









             

                  Fort a Famosa was constructed by the Portuguese in 1511

  Christ Church was constructed by the Dutch in 1753 

Greetings from Malaysia!

Farewell from the G30 Human Sciences

G30 Farewell Video clip 

(click on the above link)

 

Awesome job Viktoriya, my other colleagues and the G30 students, will miss ya all very much!

 

From left to right: Christie, Kento, Yong, Dianam Me, Noriko, Viktoriya, Juhee and Miku

From left to right: Juhee, Miku, Me, Noriko and Diana

Pizza party with my undergraduate students (Osaka University, Japan)

Row 1, left to right: Maho, Marie, Mana, Mei, Manami and Mayuko
Row 2, left to right: Masahiro, Miyu, Me, Yasufumi and Kouki

Farewell party with my postgraduate students @ Osaka, Japan

 From left to right: Kamila, Viktoriya, Marcelo, Karla, Ilya, Jonathan, Me, Maki and Lily

From left to right: Kamila, Viktoriya, Karla, Marcelo,Me, Rodney, Ilya, Hala, Maki, Jonathan and Lily

Conserving What and For Whom?

The use of land is a contentious issue. The debate often involves what should take precedence in determining the use of land with more than 12 per cent of the surface land under protected areas ( According to the World Conservation Monitoring Center). While the trade-off between the claims of indigenous people and the claims for non-human species are unclear, the protection of the natural environment has made displacement and compensation-based resettlement a taken-for-granted strategy in developing countries. Studies show that the practice of conservation through displacement adversely affects people’s welfare, and particularly that of economically marginalized people. 

Nepal has almost 23% of its total surface area for conservation. The large-scale displacements continue to represent the major conservation strategy whereas the indigenous communities face social exclusion which has been historically rooted in the land settlement policies. The backdrop of this socio-economic upheaval involved a displaced indigenous group, the Rana Tharus in the western-most districts of Kanchanpur in Nepal. Rana community experienced a large-scale displacement due to the expansion of the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in 2001. Consequently, the Nepalese government carried out a land-based resettlement scheme on the principle that all displaced families should be given cultivable land, which they previously lost due to the extension of the wildlife reserve.

Shukalphanta Wildlife Reserve

We conducted an empirical study based on an 18-month long anthropological survey of the displaced Rana Tharus community administered between 2004 and 2006. Our research findings indicate that the conservation-led displacement made the Rana Tharus community vulnerable to further impoverishment. First, the history of social exclusion rooted in the land reform and land settlement policies deprived Ranas of proper land rights. Second, the inadequate land-based compensation policy both in terms of the size and the quality of land has compounded only social injustice. We further assessed the welfare impact of this land compensation policy.

On one hand, displaced Ranas suffered from landlessness, inadequate agricultural produce and food insecurity. This led only to further impoverishment. On the other, displacement led to serious household partitions in the wake of impoverishment. This negatively affected the patrilineal kinship relationships which have traditionally been a major source of informal security for Rana households, both economically and socially. Also, the poor harvest in the resettled communities and growing conflicts over the control of limited land deteriorated the traditional patron-client system of permanent agricultural workers and lowered the kinship ties. Overall, the erosion of informal safety nets resulted into a vicious cycle of poverty for the poor Rana Tharus community and made them vulnerable to destitution within a period of three to five years.

This is taken from my ongoing research with my colleague Christie Lam (Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Osaka University).

A day trip to Nara, Japan

Todai-ji Temple

The Great Buddha

For visitors to Japan, Nara contains a very nice slice of the land of the rising sun. Not so famous like Kyoto, Tokyo, Hiroshima or Osaka - Nara is known for its historical importance, the Great Buddha site, and last but not the least the sake (rice wine). It was the first permanent capital of Japan (before Kyoto and Tokyo) and is located near Kyoto and Osaka (takes less than an hour to reach there).

The main attraction of Nara is the todai-ji temple, which houses the great Buddha statue (the Diabutsu) which was created out of iron. All the non-samurai had to give up their swords to help create this huge statue of Buddha, amazing huh! According to the lonely travel guide book, this rivals Mt. Fuji and Kyoto’s golden pavilion as the single most impressive sight of Japan! Also, the Todai-ji temple is the largest wooden building in the world. 

Sake barrels

You will also come across free roaming deer walking all over the city. Sometimes they get aggressive but that is only when they see food. You can feed rice cakes (from local vendors) to them, just be a little careful as they would almost knock you over to get the rice cakes. One good thing, the ones with antlers have them filed.

Touka-e Festival in Nara

We stayed late to watch the elegant summer night illumination events (in Japanese Touka-e festival). Since its beginning in 1999, it has attracted a large number of tourists and converted them into ardent fan of Nara. It is a fascinating sight, more than 20,000 candles illuminate Nara's famous world heritage sites. Each candle is set in a small plastic cup, and lit by hand, one by one.

Finally, sake. If you come to Nara, dont forget to try the sake. The history of Japanese sake started in Nara, and since then Nara has been producing the finest sake in Japan, indeed!