Hello! I’m looking for any recommendations for books that explore the history, culture, religion and art of mainland and maritime Southeast Asia before the arrival of Europeans in the region. While there are quite a few books on Southeast Asian history out there (although it does seem like there are significantly fewer scholars and scholarship being done on SEA history in comparison to East Asian history), most of the ones I’ve come across tend to focus on the impact that European colonialism had on these societies rather than how they developed, functioned and existed on their own. Any books that cover the the following places from the Neolithic Revolution to about 1600 C.E. - the Siamese kingdoms of Sukhothai and Ayuttaya, Lao kingdoms such as Lan Xang and Lan Na, Angkor and other Cambodian successor states, Champa, Dai Viet, Burmese kingdoms such as Pegu and Arakan, the Shan State, the Mon kingdom of Hariphunchai, into the Himalayas like Ahom, Chutiya and Kachari, to the Malay and Indonesian states such as the Srivijaya and Majapahit Empires, etcetera.
Also, I’d really appreciate any recommendations for ethnographies about the tribal groups that are found all over the highlands of mainland Southeast Asia such as the Mon, Hmong, Karen, Miao, and so on. Thank you!
I can offer some recommendations for the Philippines and Viet Nam.
First, the Philippines:
Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms by Laura Lee Junker. An archaeology book focused on the economics of the polities of the Philippines, many of which had close relations with polities such as the ones you listed as Malay or Indonesian. After all, these states were themselves well-known outside the archipelago and the modern Philippines is too a “Malay country”.
Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society by William Henry Scott. Essentially an ethnography constructed by evaluating various Spanish records of their very early time in the archipelago. You obviously need to read this with the source materials in mind, but I think Scott does a good job of pointing out the areas where the sources are probably inclined to being unreliable.
Muslims in the Philippines by Cesar Adib Majul. This actually goes through the whole colonial period too, but is valuable for understanding an extremely important aspect of Filipino culture and society. Islam has had a major influence on the Philippines, and this book was and remains essential.
Islamic Far East: Ethnogenesis of Philippine Islam by Isaac Donoso. As the title implies, this is a study of how Islam arrived in the Philippines and how it became uniquely Filipino.
Philippine Gay Culture: Binabae to Bakla, Silahis to MSM by J. Neil C. Garcia. I recommend this mainly for the section devoted to precolonial women and sexual minorities. It’s a review of various historical narratives and sources and is extremely important.
For Viet Nam:
Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liễu Hạnh in Vietnamese History by Olga Dror. A history of this very important cult (particularly important in the north) in Vietnamese religion. The princess has come to represent many different things to many groups and has been used for various agendas through history.
Việt Nam: Borderless Histories edited by Nhung Tuyet Tran and Anthony Reid. An edited volume covering various aspects of Vietnamese history, from expansion southward, to the relationship with Han, to gender, and many other areas. A really great read and important to the newer waves of Vietnamese Studies.
Nguyễn Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by Li Tana. Really the title sums up the book. This is about what is now southern Viet Nam, how Vietnamese people expanded into the area, and how the Nguyen ruled the region as effectively a separate country from the Le Dynasty.
Essays Into Vietnamese Pasts edited by Keith W. Taylor and John K. Whitmore. The topics covered in this volume are extremely wide-reaching, coming up through post-colonialism. Many of the authors collected in the volume (1995) have gone onto be leaders in Vietnamese Studies (most authors were PhD students at the time). Essays on Cham deities, the world of trade in central Viet Nam in the 18th century, tales about Do Anh Vu (12th century), and more are collected.
The Origins of Ancient Vietnam by Nam C. Kim. This is an archaeology book gathering together the current research on the origins of states in what is now northern Viet Nam - the cradle of the Vietnamese peoples’ civilization. Where did Vietnamese culture originate? What were the first states? These questions are important for identity and are looked at quite closely here.