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Books on Vietnam
We also have rare and out-of-print books on Vietnam, Thailand, Laos,
Cambodia, and Southeast-Asia.
MINORITIES OF THE SINO-VIETNAMESE BORDERLAND
: with Special Reference to Thai Tribesby Abadie, M.
US$ 22.50
Book order code : E 22 184
This overview presents comprehensive ethno-graphic introductions to the tribes found in northern Vietnam and China's Yunnan Province. A brief sketch of historical migration patterns and ethnic affiliations with tribes in Yunnan is provided and a systematic overview given of many tribes of each of four main groups, the Thai, Man (Yao), Meo, and Lolo. Maurice Abadie, a French officer in the Muong Khuong-Pha Long region of the Sino-Vietnamese border (northwest of Lao Kay) just before the First World War, furnishes first-hand information. He discusses each tribe's origins and settlement, physical characteristics, family life and ancestral cults, livelihood and farming methods, customs related to marriage, childbirth, and death, and trade and crafts, with special reference to textiles. The study includes detailed descriptions of every group, supported by 120 unique photos. Abadie also discusses the growing Chinese and Vietnamese influence that would unmistakably modernize these tribes that today mostly preserve only their special costumes as the inalienable characteristic of their original identity.
(Bangkok 2001; First English translation of 1923) ISBN 974-7534-57-6
300 pp., 76 pp. illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
CITIES OF NINETEENTH CENTURY COLONIAL VIETNAM
: Hanoi , Saigon, Hue and the Champa Ruinsby Barrelon, P., B. de Corbigny, Ch. Lemire & G. Cahen
US$ 16.50
Book order code : E 22 059
This compilation volume provides reports by various French writers on the early development of the French colony of Indochina, present-day Vietnam. Pierre Barrelon's (1859) very early account of the colonial history of Cochinchina, the southern part of Vietnam, is supplemented by an 1892 article on the considerable developments that took place in Saigon. Diplomat Broassard de Corbigny (1878) provides descriptions of Hue and of his audience with King Thu-Duc of Annam when the exchange of a treaty with France sealed the fate of Annam, the middle part of present-day Vietnam. Charles Lemire presents an overview of the rich Cham monuments, virtually the only remnants left of an indigenous culture displaced by the Vietnamese. Finally, after France marched into the northern part of Vietnam, then called Tonkin, it took development firmly in hand and established railway lines, roads, and educational and administrative buildings and systems. Gaston Cahen saw these developments in 1905 and reported on them and the ideas behind them. The reports are richly illustrated with engravings and period photos.
(Bangkok 1999; First English trans. from 1860, '78, '93, '94, 1907) ISBN 974-8434-56-7
248 pp., illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
INDOCHINA AND ITS PRIMITIVE PEOPLE
by Baudesson, Henry
US$ 27.50
Book order code : E 21 868
A lively report published by Captain Henry Baudesson in 1932 upon returning from years of work in the interior of Vietnam on various French colonial public works. The author lived for years among the Moïs, which means "savages" in Vietnamese, and comprises several hill tribes. He also spent a considerable period of time with the Cham, the curious remnants of the great Mohammedan Champa state. The book is lavishly illustrated with period photographs of these hill people and their customs in which captain Baudesson took a special interest. Their social life and religious rites are placed in the wider context of studies of primitive peoples in other parts of the world. His descriptions of their art and culture are charac-terized by great respect for those who would soon suffer so much from the growing influence of colonial ventures brought by way of the railway line on which he was himself working.
(Bangkok 1997, repr. from 1932) ISBN 974-8496-69-4
246 pp., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
AMONG THE TRIBES OF SOUTHERN VIETNAM AND LAOS
: 'Wild' Tribes and French Politics on the Siamese Border (1891)by Cupet, Captain P.
US$ 16.50
Book order code : E 22 028
This book reports a chapter of Franco-Siamese politics played out in 1890-91 among the independent tribes inhabiting the crossroads between French Southern Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Since various semi-independent states in present-day Southern Laos and Cambodia were under the sovereignty of and paid tribute to the King of Siam, Siamese military units were once again confronting the dominant colonial power, France, on the borders. The author, Captain P. Cupet, was a member of the famous Pavie Mission and studied the politics as well as the ethnography and anthropology of the tribes for years. Therefore, this report incorporates significant material on such tribes as the Radé, the Djiaraï, the Davak, the Cédang, the Brao, the Bahnar and many smaller tribes. His pictorial material is outstanding and unrivalled as a record of the peoples that, in the 1960s, during the struggle for the forest trails in the next Vietnam war, entered big power politics once again.
(Bangkok 1998, First English trans. from 1893) ISBN 974-8434-45-1
194 pp., illus. 16 pp. color illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
AROUND TONKIN AND SIAM
: A French Colonialist View of Tonkin, Laos and Siam (1892)by D'Orleans, Henri
US$ 16.50
Book order code : E 22 062
Prince Henri d'Orléans's political statement on the future of the French trade and territorial expansion in Indochina. It is partly a travelog of areas visisted: Hanoi, the Red River regions, the Upper Black River to Lai Chau, Luang Prabang and parts of Siam, and partly a political interpretation of the information gathered. The author's interests range far and wide in the domains of commerce and industry of any kind that might turn out to be profitable for France's colonial adventure in the Far East. He is also adept at canvassing political support with the local rulers, among whom the legendary Déo Van Tri is the best known. He also visited and described in passing several so-called hill tribes: Yao, Kha, Sa, Yan, and others. The book is illustrated with period illustrations, many of which are rare. Although variable in quality, these provide some idea of the "primitive" state of these future French subjects.
(Bangkok 1999; repr. from 1892) ISBN 974-8434-18-4
418 pp., 28 pp. illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
WAR AND PEACE IN HANOI AND TONKIN
A Field-Report of the Franco-Chinese War and on Customs and Beliefs of the Vietnamese (1884-1885)by Hocquard, Edouard
US$ 27.50
Book order code : E 22 060
This work is the field report of a French medical doctor serving in the Franco-Chinese war over Tonkin and Annam in the period 1884-1885. The book reports the conditions under which this war was fought in the plains and hills of North Vietnam and describes a number of skirmishes between French and Chinese troops. However, Dr. Édouard Hocquard was much more than an army doctor of the first class, with the rank of major, actively engaged in caring for wounded soldiers; he was also a keen observer of the customs and beliefs of the Vietnamese. His attention is especially focused on social issues and the livelihood of the Vietnamese, but he was also a meticulous observer of natural history. Numerous splendid, and previously unpublished, plates of scenes of peace and war in the Vietnamese countryside and of picturesque towns make for a colorful and worthy addition to Dr. Hocquard's descriptions.
(Bangkok 1999; First English translation from 1889-1891) ISBN 974-8434-41-9
624 pp., illus.,m 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
VIETNAM AND AMERICAN DOCTRINE FOR SMALL WARS
by Johnson, Wray R.
US$ 19.50
Book order code : E 22 188
Vietnam and American Doctrine for Small Wars is the first comprehensive treatment of the evolution of U.S. military doctrine for countering guerillas and other irregular forces in small wars. Since its inception, the United States has been engaged in small wars, or low intensity conflict, and has contested irregular opponents in each. The end of World War II ushered in what has since become known as the "counterinsurgency era," its genesis arguably the containment strategy of the Truman Doctrine of 1947, upon which policy-makers and military planners constructed rudimentary counter-insurgency doctrine for combatting communist guerrillas in Greece. Yet Vietnam was the real test for counter-insurgency doctrine, and the war in Vietnam has remained the touchstone for American involvement in small wars ever since. With the end of the Vietnam War, small wars doctrine has risen or fallen according to the perceived threat to the national security interests of the United States, concurrent with the success or failure of scholars and military professionals in persuading the national security bureaucracy to make qualitative changes in doctrine and force structure. In that light, this study examines the roots of American military doctrine for small wars and its subsequent evolution from "counterinsurgency" in the 1960s to "stability and support operations" in the 1990s, and concludes with an analysis of the legacy of Vietnam and the implications for emergent military doctrine in the post-Cold War era.
(Bangkok 2000) ISBN 974-7534-50-9
352 pp., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
THE CHAMPA KINGDOM
: The History of an Extinct Vietnamese Cultureby Maspero, Georges
US$ 24.50
Book order code : E 22 285
This is the first English translation of Georges Maspero's seminal history of Champa, a kingdom located on the coast of Vietnam. Written at the beginning of the last century, the book went through several editions and revisions based on expert comment. The text presented here in its first English translation is the second revised edition of 1928. Mostly based on Chinese and Viet sources, the book traces the history of Champa from its origins to its final decline. The Cham people, a fierce, often ruthless warrior population living on the South China Sea coasts were subjected both to the Chinese court and, at various periods, to the Viet people advancing south. The Cham often made the coasts unsafe for traders-Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Portuguese alike-and hence fomented innumerable military campaigns against them. The Viet coming from the north pushed them further into the northern and eventually the southern parts of present-day Vietnam. In the end, the Cham fled partly to Cambodia and partly into the peninsula's inhospitable hills where they live today as a pitiful remnant of a once great nation.
(Bangkok 2002; First English translation of the 2nd edition, 1928) ISBN 974-7534-99-1
236 pp., 36 pp. illus., 210 x 290 mm, pbk.
PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE IN AND AROUND SAIGON (1872-1873)
by Morice, A.
US$ 17.50
Book order code : E 21 948
A report on Dr. Morice's posting in the then newly- acquired colony of France, Cochinchina. Since the author took a special interest in snakes and insects, attention is paid to the less well known species of the area. Dr. Morice also elaborates on the local people and their customs, including the Chinese merchants active in Saigon and on the diseases most commonly occuring in various postings. A number of local customs and festivities are described through the tinted spectacles of a colonialist Frenchman. Dr. Morice also traveled the smaller towns of the Delta extensively, and contributes to our knowledge of the terrain before the French commenced their culturally damaging, large-scale intervention.
(Bangkok 1997; First English translation from 1875) ISBN 974-8496-96-1
124 pp., illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
THE SINO-VIETNAMESE BORDER DEMARCATION, 1885-1887
by Neis, Dr. P.
US$ 22.50
Book order code : E 22 025
The book reports on the work of the French and Chinese delegation which together formed the Border Demarcation Commission set up after the Franco-Chinese war (by the Treaty of Tien-Tsin, 9 June 1885) to determine and mark the borders between China and Tonkin, France's newest possession in the Far East. Besides reporting on the work of demarcation, Dr. Neis reports briefly on the people and regions he passed through. He also provides a sketch of relations between local Chinese traders, lower-ranking mandarins on both sides of the border, and the Annamites and hill tribes of the border regions.
(Bangkok 1998; First English translation from 1887) ISBN 974-8434-44-3
224 pp., illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
GLUTINOUOS-RICE-EATING TRADITION IN VIETNAM AND ELSAWHERE
by Nguyen Xuan Hien
US$ 19.75
Book order code : E 22 223
This study presents, on a multi-disciplinary basis and from ethnological and cultural perspectives, the fabulous role of glutinous rice in day-to-day life and in ceremonial festivities and religious manifestations. The author sums up his four decades of research and cross-checks with documents and eyewitnesses both in the distant past and at the present time, and with polls, surveys and interviews performed recently. All these are supported by sayings, proverbs, lullabies, folksongs and folktales from North to South Vietnam and, to some extensive extent, in various neighboring countries where local people share with the Vietnamese their traditional ways of preparing multiple specialties, gruels, soups, porridges, cakes in endless kinds of shapes and colors but the key ingredient remains glutinous rice. The Vietnamese b?nh gi?y is closely linked to the Japanese mochi, the Chinese nian gao; the budbud in Mindanao (the Philippines) and lets us remember the Indonesian lemper, the Vietnamese b?nh t?t, the Thai khao tom khon; the way to drink ruou c?n in Central Highlands (Vietnam) does not differ in the manner of the pangasi feast in Palawan (the Philippines). Diversity fades before unity. The factual item that unifies Southeastern Asians with one another is, among others, glutinous rice. The modernization and globalization in the new millennium can not challenge the throne of this sacred rice because only through offerings with this rice, can the prayers communicate with Gods and Buddhas and, their faith, their prayers are demonstrated.
(Bangkok 2001) ISBN 974-7534-23-1
290 pp., 16 pp. color illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
THE FRENCH PRESENCE IN INDOCHINA AND CAMBODIA
: Rule and Response (1859-1905)by Osborne, Milton
US$ 22.50
Book order code : E 21 953
Milton Osborne's pioneering study of the first five decades of French colonial presence in southern Vietnam (Cochinchina) and Cambodia has been described as "indispensable" in relation to Cambodia's history and "fascinating" for its account of the rise of a French-backed Vietnamese elite in Cochinchina. Drawing on previously neglected archival sources in Paris, Phnom Penh and Saigon, the book shows that the effects of French policies were sharply different in these two regions. In southern Vietnam, France's policy of direct rule created a new and important class of collaborators, men who were ready to work with the French and who gained materially from the colonial presence. In Cambodia by contrast, France preserved the king's symbolic importance, despite stripping him of real power, a fact that was to be of great importance later in the twentieth century. Dealing with a broad range of issues, including administration, law and education, and providing vivid pen portraits of individuals of great interest, on both sides of the colonial divide, the book is important for the period it treats and as an introduction to the later troubled history of the Indochinese region.
(Bangkok 1997; repr. from 1968) ISBN 974-8434-00-1
397 pp., 8 pp. in color, 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
CHAM SCULPTURE
: in the Tourane Museum (Da Nang, Vietnam) - Religious Ceremonies and Superstitions of Champaby Parmentier, Henri, Paul Mus & Entienne Aymonier
US$ 22.50
Book order code : E 22 240
The first report in this book offers an overview of Cham art with sixty-five photographs and an introductory text by the eminent French archaeologist Henri Parmentier. Originally published in 1922, this book remains one of the best introductions to the treasures preserved in the Tourane Museum in Danang. It features splendid photographs of Cham art discovered in the main areas of this long lost culture-Mi Son, Dong Duong, Khuong My, and Tra Kieu. The development of Cham art is sketched against the background of Annamese migration pushing the Cham people and their kingdom ever further south. Descriptive features with examples of discovered pieces are given for Champa art during the original, cubic, derived, and decadent periods. The second part consists of two research reports. The first one by Paul Mus summarizes what is known about the religious practices of the Cham people during various periods based on artifacts and translated inscriptions. The author also reviews the available evidence from contemporary Cham culture. The religious inheritance of Champa is related to Vedic, Indian, Chinese, and Annamese forms of worship, and the significance of the Champa king as intermediary between the gods and the soil on which his people lived is also discussed. The second report by ?tienne Aymonier contains an overview, dated 1884-85, of the religious practices, ceremonies related to veneration of divinities, marriage, birth, priesthood, death, agriculture, collection of eagle wood, and other customs of both groups of Chams, Muslims and non-Muslims, in Vietnam, and Chams in Cambodia.
(Bangkok 2001; First English translations of 1922, 1934, 1891) ISBN 974-7534-70-3
152 pp., 56 pp. illus., 210 x 290 mm, pbk.
HILL TRIBES OF VIETNAM VOL. 1
: Introdution and Overviewby Schliesinger, Joachim
US$ 27.50
Book order code : E 21 975
This volume describes the diversity of lifestyles and cultures of the mountain peoples. Untouched by commercial development and modern attitudes for decades, most of the tribesmen sustain their traditions. Their natural surroundings are occupied by spirits and genies. Village and house construction, agricultural activities, weddings, child births, sickness, death and many more everyday situations are influenced by spiritual beliefs. This first volume introduces the ethnography and the classification of the hill tribe groups in Vietnam and presents a general overview of the habitation, social structure, government policy, education, health care, swidden farming, opium cultivation, religion and traditional customs. The complexity of their way of living is clarified with 254 illustrations.
(Bangkok 1997) ISBN 974-8434-10-9
166 pp., 80 pp. illus. in color, 4 maps, 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
HILL TRIBES OF VIETNAM VOL. 2
: Profiles of Existing Hill Tribe Groupsby Schliesinger, Joachim
US$ 27.50
Book order code : E 22 002
The book deals with the tribal customs and habits of all 50 mountain peoples living in Vietnam. This volume describes the history, costumes and crafts, design of houses and villages, agricultural activities and the economy, society and religious practices of each individual group. The variety of their traditions is shown in 229 illustrations.
(Bangkok 1998) ISBN 974-8434-11-7
216 pp., 72 pp. color illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
SAIGON 1975
: Three Days and Three Monthsby Terzani, Tiziano
US$ 20.00
Book order code : E 21 950
This book reminds us of the fall of Saigon and the defeat of the Americans in South Vietnam. Many people today visit Vietnam and in the back of their minds they connect that country with a long, painful war that happened there many years ago. But how did that war end? Here is a unique eye-witness account of that dramatic, epochal event written by a journalist who was present. Terzani had been in Indochina as a war correspondent for over four years when, on April 27th, 1975, he slipped back into Saigon. The city, surrounded by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces, was in panic and thousands of people were trying to escape. Foreigners, including most journalists were soon evacuated by American planes, ships and helicopters that landed on rooftops just before the communists moved in. Terzani decided to stay and he reported on the next ninety-four days: the last-ditch negotiation attempts, the panicked US evacuation, the precipitous conquest of Saigon, the anxious waiting for a bloodbath that never came, and the first signs of transformation and reconstruction. Terzani, whose reports of the takeover at Doc Lap Palace on April 30th, 1975, were the first news bulletins out of the new Vietnam, brings an informed passion to this exclusive story. He provides dramatic revelations about the last few days of the American presence: how the Americans blocked negotiations to gain time for their own evacuation, the story behind the abortive baby-lift, the unmasking of agents on both sides. He offers an incisive picture of Saigon waiting, the Americans escaping, of communist troops marching triumphantly into the city center shouting "Giai Phong! Giai Phong! Liberation! Liberation!"
(Bangkok 1997: repr. from 1976) ISBN 974-8496-93-7
305 pp., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
AGRICULTURE AND ETHNOBOTANY OF THE MEKONG BASIN
: The Mekong Exploration Commission Report
(1866-68) Vol. 4by Thorel, Dr. Clovis
US$ 17.50
Book order code : E 22 186
Agriculture and Ethnobotany of the Mekong Basin is the fourth volume of The Mekong Exploration Commission Report (1866-1868). It presents an in-depth overview of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, dye and textile plants, and medicinal plants, and discusses the main trade crops of the countries of the wider Mekong Valley, including Yunnan, Vietnam, Laos, northeast Thailand, and Cambodia. The main impediments to greater productivity of these sectors are discussed in the framework of the beginning of French colonial expansion in the area. This overview contains a host of scientific facts that cannot be found easily anywhere else on uses of plants and agricultural methods practiced on various types of land. The book has been enhanced with a number of period scientific drawings of botanical taxa of interest to present-day readers.
(Bangkok 2001: First English translation of 1873) ISBN 974-7534-43-6
294 pp., 62 pp. illus. 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
THREE YEARS IN VIETNAM (1907-1910)
: Medicine, Chams and Tribesmen in Nhatrang and Surroundingsby Vassal, Gabrielle M.
US$ 16.50
Book order code : E 22 061
This doctor's wife's diaries cover a great number of aspects of the life of Vietnamese, Cham and hill tribe people around Nhatrang as well as that of the life of a French medical doctor and his wife in colonial Vietnam. Gabrielle Vassal, a British national, had a good eye for the position of women and for daily household life and used her keen sense of observation and inquiry to analyze what she saw. The Vassals engage in the usual touristic and health excursions to the Langbian plateau with its agricultural station, but also in big game hunting, at that time still acceptable. The book provides a good overview of local ceremonies, superstitions andbeliefs, and of the medical issues confronting the administration. This book's descriptions are greatly enhanced by more than one hundred extremely rare period photographs of all aspects of the life of these peoples and of some of the old Cham monuments in Nhatrang.
(Bangkok 1999; repr. from 1910) ISBN 974-8434-53-2
284 pp., illus., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.
We also have rare and out-of-print books on Vietnam, Thailand, Laos,
Cambodia, and Southeast-Asia.
