Kyoto Area Studies on Asia

Although ethnic Malays make up the majority of the Malaysian population and are the ruling class of the nation, there are also indigenous peoples, including the Suku Asli. Indigenous peoples are not self-evidently indigenous from the start. They are a political framework whose existence is recognized and shaped by the forces at work among other peoples and groups. This book describes the process by which the Suku Asli have become aware of their indigeneity, objectify and sometimes change their lifestyles, construct identities of "indigeneity," and eventually "become" indigenous people.

Why is Bali the only Hindu island in Muslim Indonesia? Although Indonesia is overwhelmingly Muslim, 90 percent of the population in Bali is Hindu. In the title of Bali and Hinduism in Indonesia, a comprehensive study of Hindu society and culture in Indonesia, Yasuyuki Nagafuchi examines Bali since the colonial era and details the development and institutionalization of Hinduism as an official religion. By analyzing how Hinduism continues to respond to changes in Bali and throughout Indonesia, this book explores the relationship between religion and the state, and traces the history of Parisada Hindu Dharma, Indonesia's most representative Hindu organization. From its founding to its rupture at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the author provides a complete history of Parisada and examines the conflict and contradictions between a religion based on Balinese rituals and ceremonies and Hinduism as a global religion. In doing so, this book identifies the unique characteristics of Hinduism in Indonesia today.

Various contractual deeds were exchanged between people in Burmese dynastic society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These deeds, known as thet-kayits, especially debt deeds, are valuable documents that show the socioeconomic conditions of the time. Through the reading of more than 3,000 local historical documents, the author vividly reflects specific ups and downs of the lives of ordinary people in early modern Burma, including disputes over debts and the flexible civil court system for adjudicating them, and the wisdom of life. Using Burma as a case study, this book is an attempt to empirically demonstrate the possibilities of research on early modern Southeast Asia based on documentary sources unique to the region, which until now have been largely unexplored. A new image of Burma's early modern period emerges here, overturning the conventional view of history that assumes a two-tier society of ' absolute monarchs' versus ' people without rights' .