Wednesday Rojak #61 – Here be dragons

Indonesian batik, underwater shipwrecks and the fearsome Komodo Dragon – this week’s rojak brings us to Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia.

photo credit: Chester Zoo

• Andy Brouwer shares a paper by noted Cambodia scholar David Chandler on Cambodia’s Potted History.
• In Java, some makers of traditional batiks are worried that their designs may be poached internationally.
• The carvings at Candi Tegowandi tell a story of how you shouldn’t mess with women, lest you get dragged around by the hair.
• Johan blogs about seeing the komodo dragon in its stomping grounds.
• A large collection of Buddha statues (of unknown provenance) make this temple in Johor the Angkor Wat of Malaysia.
• A gamelan gong taken by Raffles almost 200 years ago becomes the focal point of an exhibition at the British Museum.
• Thet in the ASEEAN Travel group shares some of the medieval architecture in Myanmar: the Shwesigon Pagoda, Sulamani Guphaya  Pagoda and the Damayangyi Temple.
• Rachel, a historian, has a sneak peek at the recovered treasures from the Belitung Shipwreck, currently housed under the Hua Song Museum in Singapore.

In this series of occasional rojaks (published on Wednesdays) I feature other sites in the blogosphere that are related to archaeology and culture in Southeast Asia. Got a recommendation for the next Wednesday rojak? Email me!