Ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples profiles
(Culture and religion)
Thousands fish for luck in central Vietnam's marsh festival
The Dong Hoa fishing festival, which began dozens of years ago, is a yearly festival celebrated in the fifth month of the lunar calendar at the Vuc Marsh in Xuan Vien Commune, Nghi Xuan District. The marsh spans around a kilometer and is near the Hong ...
Duc Hung
The ‘death jars’ of Laos continue to intrigue
The so-called “death jars” of Laos could be more widespread than previously thought. Australian archaeologists and Lao Government officials have reported discovering 15 new sites containing 137 of the massive stone jars, which are believed to be around 1000 years old. Experts believe the jars are related ...
Ethnic cultural centre in land dispute
A Bunong ethnic community representative on Tuesday claimed Mondulkiri provincial officials have not begun measuring land for the Hill Tribes Cultural Centre in the Phnom Dos Kramom mountain area even though they had received an order to do so from Prime Minister Hun Sen late ...
River Festival comes close to capital for first time
For the first time in four years the annual Mekong River Festival and multi-sport gala, a celebratory event to pay tribute to Asia’s seventh longest river, is to be held within easy distance of Phnom Penh. Running from March 9-11, the fourth edition of the ...
H S Manjunath
Indigenous communities resisting dams in Indonesia claim they face repression, rights abuses
In October 2014, when developers entered Seko and Central Seko to begin preliminary work on a 480-megawatt hydroelectric dam, the communities living there say no one asked their permission. The area, in the Seko Subdistrict of North Luwu, in the southern part of Indonesia’s Sulawesi ...
Hearing Myanmar: teaching artistry in Yangon
Community music center Gitameit’s brand new three-story building has just been finished. It sits with fresh concrete and sparkling glass right beside the center’s old, slightly ramshackle building in a small plot on a quiet road of Yangon’s Yankin Township. Gitameit’s music library—a collection of records, ...
Vientiane gears up for an exciting Lao New Year
People nationwide are eagerly anticipating the Lao New Year (Pi Mai Lao) festival (Year of the Rooster) next week, with the official holiday taking place from April 14-16. Vientiane is preparing an exciting programme of activities for locals and visitors alike, including a Miss Vientiane ...
Phongsaly's charms attracting more visitors
The number of visitors to Phongsaly province is rising steadily, with a significant jump from the more than 82,000 people recorded in 2015 to 103,583 visitors in 2016. The province’s tourism section is confident this trend will continue and is predicting at least 110,000 visitors ...
Saving Vietnam's floating markets
Amid mighty rivers and dense mangroves, the busy floating markets in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta have long shaped the delta’s well-known “water civilization.” As many as a dozen floating markets still remain along major waterways around the delta, where boats, houses, and markets float upon the ...
Rakhine Advisory Commission presents 30 recommendations
The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State yesterday presented almost 30 recommendations of action that the Myanmar government can take to immediately improve the situation on the ground in Rakhine as the commission released its interim report. Kofi Annan, Chair of the Advisory Commission, said the ...
