At a period when sea navigation depended more on the skill and courage of sailors than on technology, men were nonetheless able to build maritime regional empires that stretched from Indochina to the Indonesian Archipelago.
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About the Author
Paul Munoz has harboured a passion for history and ethnography since he was a youngster. He has spent many years travelling the world exploring the culture. Customs, and history of numerous civilizations.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Filling the Void,
By
This review is from: Early Kingdoms of The Indonesi (Paperback)
The history of certain regions and certain countries in the world are very well known in the West. Others, however, seem to be terra incognita. The kingdoms of the Indonesian archipelago, like the Majapahit Kingdom, is a case in point and this book helps to fill the void. To be sure, like many scholarly works, there are dull passages, but this is not a novel.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timely and Insightful,
By Cassus Belli "débat" (Asia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Early Kingdoms of The Indonesi (Paperback)
So much of Western concepts have been imposed on the rest of the world today, such as sovereign nation-states, that books that try to discuss earlier cultures often suffer from misunderstood titles. Perhaps a better title could be 'Pre-Western Civilisations of Southeast Asia'. Other than specialists, Indonesian Archipelago and Malay Peninsular are locations most are probably not familiar with. Geographically, the book covers more than Southeast Asia, the focus is on, in modern times, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and (some) Philippines.
Munoz is French, but this is a bold attempt at getting to the heart of Southeast Asian history from the perspective of an Asian. Drawing on an impressive range of economic and cultural historiography, the author tries to narrate the early history (from AD 1st till 16th century) of this region in its proper context, before Eurocentric views were imposed onto this region. An earlier critic compared this book with `The Indianized States of Souhteast Asia' by George Coedes, and I think the review may be missing the point. This book is not targeted at specialists or anthropologists but to the general reader. I suspect most readers will not care much of the specific inaccuracies. More importantly, from a cultural perspective Munoz has attempted, on some level, to explain the importance of environmental management, heritage management and conservation of the region. Timely, because in recent years archaeologists have made significant finds in the region, such as H. Florienses in 2003 (Indonesia), dwarfism in 2006 (Palau Islands Micronesia). The section on Austronesian migration does not touch on these developments but it is still exciting to think that so much is being discovered so late in the evolution of mankind. Insightful, because many of the issues raised are still pertinent in this region today - economic, religious and political. For instance, moderate Muslims has practised Islam in Malaysia for centuries and although Indonesia and Malaysia are Islamic countries today, it was not always so. This book provides some reasons why. Finally, though not in the style of Jared Diamond's `Guns, Germs and Steel', it is still a good narrative. I find it useful as a companion to James Hobson's `The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation'.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Text book style work that is still readable.,
By Paul Lawrence "'EJL'" (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Early Kingdoms of The Indonesi (Paperback)
For what is surely a niche subject area this work appears to tackle the difficult remit of being a serious reference work and something an ambitious layman may also like to read. And I have to say that it manages to walk this tight rope well. Paul Michel Munoz was a name known to me from his contribution to a book on Borobodur that I already owned and I found his style to be clear, concise and readable despite the somewhat heavy going induced by his subject matter. And that subject matter is to trace the known history of the area that today makes up the nations of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. And to tell that story he also has to cover parts of modern day Vietnam, Thailand and Burma due to the interconnected nature of the polities concerned, not to mention he also touches every so slightly on areas even farther afield such as China and India and this is due to the huge cultural and economic influences both these behemoths had on the area.
For all the intertwining history and the paucity of information in regards to certain matters the entire work hangs together rather well and the author is to be congratulated for being able to weave the chronological ordering of things sufficiently well to make the whole thing comprehensible. This is aided by a number of maps of the areas being discusses as well as some line drawings of artefacts and temple designs etc. A handy glossary and appendices also help the reader get to grips with the subject. Not being a scholar of the area I can't attest to the utter accuracy of every word herein but I can say that it certainly gave me a vastly greater understanding of the history of the area and a thirst for more knowledge about it in the future. The author strikes me as the sort of historian who isn't afraid to say something - rather than pound the reader with a myriad of possibilities in an effort to cover all bases. However he is also happy to point out areas of contention and cites differing points of view on occasion. All up I would say however that this is not a basic primer aimed at the tourist (even if I scored my copy at Denpasar airport!) as it is too meaty, too detailed for such casual consumption. This is more the book for a history buff who has cut their teeth on more `mainstream' history first and so perhaps has some affinity for this almost text-book style work. But a very good book if this is the sort of thing you are after.
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