The title of this book is deceptively simple. It is not just about the symbolism of the stupa, but it encompasses much, much more. It is a detailed and scholarly description of Buddhist iconography and its Vedantic antecedents. As such it covers much of the cosmological and philosophical underpinnings of Brahmin and Buddhist myths, ritual, art and sculpture. I think it is compulsory reading for anyone intending to visit Buddhist places of pilgrimage, for it gives meaning not just to the structure of the stupa, but to most, if not all, the various symbols and art forms found in such places. Through this book one comes to appreciate, how dense the stupa and the various symbols associated with it are, in meaning and significance. Unfortunately the book as published by Motilal Banarsidass in the hardcover edition, has poor quality paper and the typeface is that used by the good old Remington mechanical typewriters of yesteryear. The excellence of the work will however keep any Buddhologist riveted! Even if your interests are not as deep as what this book caters for, it is still something you can dip in and out of, and still be richer for!

Syria is an exotic word, but in our poorly informed world it's associated with our worst assessment of the Middle East. Wrong! Carol Miller demystifies a fascinating country, rich in culture and history, and probably the single most definitive force in shaping the development of the West. Syria was at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and the Mesopotamian worlds, then later of emerging Islam and declining Byzantium, and no less important, the clash of Christians and Muslims during the Crusades, a battle many are still fighting, at least in their heads. This book will dissipate the ignorance, inspire admiration, and no less important, fill the reader with admiration for Miller's research and writing style. A worthy gift.

This is THE most comprehensive Tagalog grammar available so far. Any serious student, whether beginning or advanced, of Tagalog will highly benefit from this masterpiece. The things I like about this book are: an in-depth explanation of Tagalog pronunciation (with IPA) which discusses the phonemes and its allophones (some surprised me!), great organization of its chapters, explicitly explained grammatical features, comments on regional usage, comparisons, charts, and much more. It's indexed too, so it's not so hard to find what aspect of Tagalog grammar you want to look up. One slight drawback is that it uses some linguistic "jargon" -- this shouldn't be a big obstacle, it's pretty understandable without it. In short, this makes for a great investment. Sa palagay ko, ito nga ang "bibliya" ng wikang Tagalog. :)

A U.S. CITIZEN READS PRAMOEDYA

(Thoughts of Tales from Djakarta by M. C. Reitz)

In the U. S. a new genre of popular TV show has emerged, "survivor shows." Typically the producers round-up "average citizens" and arrange for a controlled experience of survival and competition. Of course no one dies, no one loses their mind or their identity, safety precautions are taken, medical teams are ready, no one must remain in this contrived condition against their will. The motivation is large amounts of money and instant fame. The characters become the subject of talk at work, in the car, on the phone, at the dinner table and other instants of casual conversation. Everyone has their favorite character and every one hypothesizes about the "human being" beneath the "caricatures."

At first thought, Tales From Djakarta by Pramoedya Ananta Toer puts to shame any suggestion that these survivor shows have any merit except to an overfed population whose energies are devoted to wealth and power rather than the basic need for food and shelter. The people of Ananta Toer's book are human beings who have endured a lifetime of degrading and hostile events. They are born into these events and die within these events. Ananta Toer's people adapt to small niches and yet their universal identity as human beings is never in question. Whether they experience fleeting moments of joy amidst poverty of spirit, kindness amidst destructive forces, love amidst hate, intimacy amidst lust or necessity amidst condemnation, their dignity and their worth as "human" is never in question.

On second thought, Ananta Toer's book reveals a universal truth for all of human kind throughout history. Beneath the caricatures caused by events lies a fully human being worthy of our respect and love. We can only look at ourselves and say, "What events produced this caricature called me and where is my humanity?"

Tank Sergeant is a very readable account of what it was like to be a tanker in Vietnam. If you are familiar with tank operations in previous wars, you'll be surprised by their use in Vietnam. Good coverage of AFV use as well. Highly recommended.

An excellent history of a complex refugee situation. Maintains a balanced analysis on a topic which often produces polarized viewpoints. Useful lessons that can be applied to current refugee situations.

Jim, a very respected member of the faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School, has provided us with a very well documented study of how the U.S. missed the Tet Offensive in Viet-Name. Among his findings: we knew fully two months in advance at the tactical collection level, with several additional collection successes and some modest analysis successes in the weeks preceding the offensive. We were distracted by Khe Sanh, the commanders did not want to hear it, "intelligence to please" was the standard within the Military Assistance Command Viet-Nam intelligence bureaucracy, and when we finally did grasp, one day before the attack, its true strategic nature, we failed to disseminate the warnings to the tactical commanders with sufficient effectiveness.

This is a very good book to help you practice the critical Thai language skill of READING. You need a lot of practice in this because the words are all run together in Thai sentences, and so you need a lot of practice in "chunking" the words out of the long sequence of letters, and you also need practice in word recognition and pronunciation. (Those tone rules need a lot of practice!) I wouldn't pay too much credit to the idea that Thai is written with a phonetic alphabet. Of course, it IS, but there are lots of irregular words, and the big difficulty is this: if you can read a word, you can generally pronounce it. But the reverse does not work: knowing how to say a word does NOT tell you how to spell it, not when there are three S letters, and multiple choices for th, t, p, ph, etc., not to mention umpteen ways to write a final t. (A final t can be an s or a th or t or d or.....) Frankly, if you're learning Thai you will probably wind up with all the books from Paiboon Publishing. They are very useful! Highest recommendation!

I recently picked up this book in Bangkok and found I could put it to immediate use. Such an example would be the use of serial verbs where in English we would need a number of conjunctions. This enabled me to break out of stilted, one sentence at a time, conversation with my Thai friends.

This is not a dry academic treatise but a ready-to-use guide that is clearly explained in lay terms.

The author also wrote the Teach Yourself Thai book which I found very helpful when first visiting Thailand.

I strongly recommend this book, particularly for those people like myself wanting to "break out" of beginner's Thai. It is an invaluable reference that will need to be supplemented with a text book and good tape set, if you do not already have those.

Chris Goscha's unique skills in the Thai, Khmer and Vietnamese languages have allowed him to dig deeply into the efforts of Vietnamese revolutionaries to exploit their neighbors. Readers of this fascinating history of Vietnamese networks in Thailand will also want to study Goscha's earlier work "Falling Out of Touch" which documents the troubled history of the Vietnamese communists and their Cambodian offspring. Goscha provides insights unavailable elsewhere.