Today's Egypt is not ancient Egypt, the early Egypt civilization had been lost in history. The modern people of Egypt is highly arablized, they called themselves Egyptian Arabs. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza are the monument remained in earth to remind us of the early Egyptian Civilization.
Egyptian had lost their identity through time, now they are Arab
May be the Coptic people is considered the only living heritage who may traced their root to the Egyptian civilization. Coptic Christian is now only 9% of total population today, in their own native land. Like Arab Christian, they are leaving their home land....under political and social pressure....
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Cham People & Malaysia
Early Cham people in Malaysia
Vietnam's April 1999 census showed 63,146 Muslims. Over 77% lived in the Southeast Region, with 34% in Ninh Thuan Province, 24% in Binh Thuan Province, and 9% in Ho Chi Minh City; another 22% lived in the Mekong River Delta region, primarily in An Giang Province. Only 1% of Muslims lived in other regions of the country.
There are 3 types of Muslims in Vietnam, (1)The Champa Muslims(người Chăm or người Chàm), (2)Muslim due to intermarriage between Vietnamese and other Muslims and (3) Muslim conversion. The majority of Muslims in Vietnam are Cham people.
Champa Kingdom(from 7th century to 1832)
The kingdom of Champa(占城,又称占婆、占波)was found in the 2nd century and lasted until the 17th century. Champa at times included the modern Vietnamese provinces of Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, and Bình Thuận. Though Cham territory included the mountainous zones west of the coastal plain and (at times) extended into present-day Laos, for the most part the Cham remained a seafaring people dedicated to trade, and maintained few settlements of any size away from the coast. The people is of Malayo-Polynesian stock with indianised culture. When Islam came, few Champa people adopted it. However, some time between 1607 and 1676, the king of Champa became Muslim thus precipitating most of his people to enter Islam also.
Historical Champa consisted of up to five principalities: 1. Indrapura ("City of Indra"),2.Amaravati ,3.Vijaya, 4.Kauthara, and 5.Panduranga.
Throughout the century, the Champa provinces were slowly annexed one by one until finally, by the 17th century they were completely absorbed by the Ðai Viet (vietnamese). Thereafter began a gradual decline under pressure from Đại Việt, the Vietnamese polity centered in the region of modern Hanoi. In 1471, Viet troops sacked the northern Cham capital of Vijaya, and in 1697 the southern principality of Panduranga became a vassal of the Vietnamese emperor. In 1832, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mang(明命,1791-1841; born Nguyễn Phúc Đảm 阮福膽, also known as Nguyễn Phúc Kiểu 阮福晈; he was the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841) annexed the remaining Cham territories. Panduranga, present-day Phan Rang in Ninh Thuận Province, was the last of the Cham territories to be annexed by the Vietnamese.
During the reign of Minh Mang, the Champa were severly persecuted. As a consequence, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Chien, decided to gather his people (those on the mainland) and migrated south to Cambodia. Whereas those on the coastline, they migrated to Trengganu (Malaysia). The area where the king and the mainlanders settled is still known to this day as Kompong Cham. They were not concentrated in one area but were scattered along the Mekong river in Vietnam, forming 13 villages along it. Throughout the years, their children were sent to Kelantan (Malaysia) to learn Qur'an and Islamic studies. Once studies were completed, these children then return home to teach others in these 13 villages. Also, another factor which helps them to preserve the true teaching of Islam was the interaction between them and the Malaysian Muslim traders who sailed through the Mekong river.
Not all the Champa Muslims migrated with the king. A group stayed behind in Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiªt provinces (Central Vietnam). With their increasing isolation with other Muslims, they began to mix Islam with Buddhism, Hindism and Bà La Môn . Hence, their descendants became lost to the true teachings of Islam. In 1959, these descendants came into contact with the Champa Muslims in Châu Ðoc (one of the 13 villages in South Vietnam) and also with the Muslims community in Saigon (Ho Chí Minh city). The Muslim community in Saigon, mainly consisted of Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Indonesians and Arabs. As a result of this interaction, the descendants who had lost Islam began to return to true Islam.
After April 30th 1975, while the majority of Vietnamese Muslims remain in Vietnam under the communist regime, a sizable number of them managed to escape to other countries. The majority of them settled in America, France, Malaysia, India, Canada and a handful in Australia.
(i) Trade between Champa and Malacca
During a stop at Pulo Ubi near the Gulf of Siam on 13 May 1687, William Dampier, the English traveler, met a vessel of Champa origin anchored on the eastern side of the island. The vessel carried rice and lacquer and was on its way to Malacca. All forty crew members were Chams. They carried broad swords, lances, and some guns. Dampier wrote that the Chams were actively involved in trade with the Dutch at Malacca. The Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) mentions the presence of Chams in Malacca during the reigns of the Malay sultans. They were known to be political refugees who had arrived in Malacca after 1471. They were well received by the rulers of Malacca, who appointed some Cham noblemen to official positions in the court. In highlighting the Cham presence in Malacca, Marrison draws attention to the fact that the Chams probably contributed to the racial admixture of the Malays of the Peninsula and hence some Cham influences may have survived in Malay cultural tradition. Malacca was a destination in the post-1471 Cham diaspora, mainly due to ethno-cultural considerations.
(ii)Cham and Islam
While the rulers of Malacca had converted to Islam in 1414, Islam had not yet made major inroads into Champa. Islam would later become important, however, in the strong connection between the Chams and the Malays. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it would be the main factor in rallying Malay help for the Chams in resisting Vietnamese domination. Chams only converted to Islam in the seventeenth century, almost three centuries after the Malays. But Islam was introduced into Champa at an earlier, undetermined date. Maspero stated that some Chams may have converted to Islam as early as the era of Sung dynasty China. Two Kufic inscriptions found in what was southern Champa are dated around 1030 CE and there is some indication of a Muslim community in Champa in the tenth century.
(iii)Cham and Kelantan
While Kelantan has been known as the serambi Mekah (gateway to Mecca) since the fall of Malacca in 1511, this title does not necessarily mean that religious practice was like that of the present day, when religion is paramount in the lives of the Kelantanese. Po Rome’s presence in Kelantan a few years prior to his ascension to the throne of Champa was likely an attempt to learn broadly about Malay culture, including the powerful Malay magic and the new Islamic religion. Instead of being the main concern of Po Rome, Islam was part of the wider Malay culture that he and other Chams were hoping to learn about in order to rekindle their ethnic and cultural links with the Malay world.
People-to-people relations between the Chams and the Malays were not confined to religious activities. It is likely that the Chams had been frequenting Kelantan for many centuries. Several place names there, such as Pengkalan Chepa and Kampung Chepa, suggest close ties between the two peoples and wide acceptance on the part of the Malays. There were costume and textile names associated with Champa, for example, tanjak Chepa (headdress), sutra Chepa (silk), and kain Chepa (cloth). Chepa is used to describe one type of keris (dagger). There was padi Chepa (Champa paddy) and sanggul Chepa (a hair decoration). It is believed that a mosque in Kampung Laut was built by Cham sailors who frequented Kelantan. And according to the Hikayat Kelantan (Kelantan Annals), the ancestors of Long Yunus, the founder of the present-day Kelantan sultanate, originated in a state known as Kebayat Negara or Kembayat Negara, which is believed to be Champa.
Cham movement to the Malay Peninsula seemed to be frequent and even lasting. As early as the late fifteenth century, a Cham colony was established at Malacca. While most of the colony’s inhabitants were merchants, it began as a sanctuary for Cham refugees. In 1594, the king of Champa sent a military force to assist the Sultan of Johore to fight against the Portuguese in Malacca. While no explanation was given for the Cham king’s action, it is likely that it was influenced by the common Malay identity and possibly common Islamic faith of the rulers of Champa and their Malay counterparts.
According to the Babad Kelantan (Kelantan Annals), a Cham prince arrived in Kelantan in the mid-seventeenth century who was known as Nik Mustafa. After residing in Kelantan for many years, he returned to Champa and was made king, reigning with the title of Sultan Abdul Hamid. Another Cham ruler who is believed to have been Muslim was Po Rome’s son, Po Saut (1660–1692), the last ruler of independent Champa.
The Cham classic entitled Nai Mai Mang Makah (The Princess from Kelantan) tells the story of a princess from Kelantan who was trying to convert the Cham king to Islam. The event was not dated. Po Dharma and Gerard Moussay are of the opinion that the event took place between the 1693 fall of Champa and the 1771 Tayson rebellion. Manguin suggests that Malay migration into Champa played its part in influencing the people to convert to Islam. Accordingly, the Chams were also influenced by the Malays to adhere to the Sunni Shafie sect and, like the Malays, they also kept traces of Shi’ite devotion. However, Manguin also believed that Malay migration to Champa was much more restricted, especially after Champa was absorbed by Vietnam.
French missionary sources mention that during the thirty years prior to the fall of Champa to the Nguyen in 1693, there were many Malay scribes and missionaries in the court of Champa. Their main task was to propagate the Islam faith to the Chams. It is likely that these Malays became involved in the Cham struggle against Vietnamese encroachment into Cham territories, resulting in several anti-Vietnamese movements. In this regard, the Chams clearly invoked their Malay-Islamic identity in trying to enlist help against the Vietnamese.
(iv)Malay- Islamic Aids to Cham Resistance
Between the establishment of Nguyen rule over Champa in 1693 and the final annihilation of the Cham political entity in 1835, the Chams made many attempts to break away from Vietnamese rule. These normally took the form of armed revolts. Among the major Cham revolts were those of 1693, 1728, 1796, and 1832-34.
The Cham resistance of 1796 control was led by a Malay nobleman named Tuan Phaow. He is believed to have been from Kelantan, as he told his Cham followers that he was from Mecca (Kelantan). His followers consisted mainly of Chams from Binh Thuan and from Cambodia (giving rise to the suggestion that he was from Cambodia), as well as Malays. Tuan Phaow’s resistance had a religious dimension. In order to legitimize his actions, Tuan Phaow claimed to have been sent by God to help the Chams resist the Vietnamese. Tuan Phaow’s forces were up against Nguyen Anh (Gia Long, founder of the Nguyen Dynasty). Despite putting up strong resistance for almost two years, Tuan Phaow’s forces were cornered and defeated by the Nguyen army working in league with a pro-Nguyen Cham ruler. Tuan Phaow reportedly escaped to Mecca. This resistance movement was the first clear indication that Cham resistance had a strong Malay connection. It also shows the Islamic religious dimension becoming a common rallying call.
The 1832 Cham revolt took place as a reaction against Emperor Ming Mang’s harsh oppression of the Chams in reprisal for their support of Ming Mang’s viceroys in Gia Dinh in the south. Viceroy Le Van Duyet had refused to accept orders from Hue since 1728. After Duyet passed away in 1832, he was succeeded by his adopted son, Le Van Khoi, who continued to resist the Nguyen court. Ming Mang’s army carried out a series of oppressive activities against the Cham population in Binh Thuan to punish them for supporting Le Van Duyet and Le Van Khoi. In this conflict, the Malay-Cham connection is again evident in the form of Malay leadership. The Chams were led by a Islamic clergyman from Cambodia named Katip (Khatib) Sumat, who had spent many years studying Islam in Kelantan. Apparently, upon hearing that Champa was under attack by the Nguyen army, Katip Sumat immediately returned. Arriving in Binh Thuan in 1833, he was accompanied by a large force of Malays and Chams from Kelantan. Katip Sumat led the Chams in a series of guerrilla attacks against the Nguyen army. Apart from fighting for the survival of Champa, Katip Sumat invoked the Islamic bond in rallying Malay and Cham support for the cause. In some ways this turned the Cham struggle against the Vietnamese into a form of religious war. The Katip Sumat-led resistance, however, was defeated by the Nguyen army.
Katip Sumat’s Malay contingent did not consist only of volunteers. It is believed that they were sent by Sultan Muhamad I of Kelantan (1800-1837), who raised an army to accompany Katip Sumat to Champa. According to Po Dharma, the underlying factors were the Sultan’s acknowledgement that he and the ruler of Champa shared the same lineage (descendants of Po Rome) and of the need to preserve Islamic unity.
(vi)Cham - Malay linkage after French Occupation 1835
With the end of 1835 revolt, Cham links with the external world were also considerably reduced. This situation persisted until the second half of the nineteenth century, when Binh Thuan and five other provinces in the south were ceded to the French by the Nguyen at the end of the Franco-Vietnamese War of 1858-1861. The advent of French colonization of Vietnam actually ended Nguyen attempts to wipe out the Chams. The breakdown of the Nguyen administrative apparatus in the face of greater French control over the provinces saw the rekindling of ancient Cham aspirations to exert Cham identity. Efforts to re-establish traditional external linkages, including those with the Malay states, played an important role. This is evident from reports of religious teachers (ulama) from the Malay Peninsula who frequented the former land of Champa during the final years of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth. Like their predecessors, many of these visitors stayed for long durations in the former Champa as well as among the Chams in Cambodia. They married local Cham women and had children. Several of these families remained in the former Champa and in Cambodia, cementing relationships established in earlier centuries.
(extract from Vietnam-Champa Relations and the Malay-Islam Regional Network in the 17th–19th Centuries, by Danny Wong Tze Ken)
Cham People and Acheh
Aceh's origins are unquestionably Cham, as the Champa king Syah Pau Kubah sent his son Syah Pau Ling to rule over Aceh when the capital Vijaya (Champa) in 1471 AD, was sacked by the Vietnamese. Acehnese is the only other non-Chamic language in the 11 language Aceh-Chamic languages group.(source: Acheh Sultanate, wikipedia)
Cham people in Malaysia
The Champa Kingdom had long established trading ties with both the present-day Malaya, Pattani, Aceh as well as Java since the 4th Century. Multiple wars also broke out between the Kingdom of Champa with Java. Migration was simply inevitable. The Chams were Hindus. Some still are today, but many are now Muslim. Malaysia has some Cham immigrants and the link between the Chams and the Malaysian state of Kelantan is an old one.
From the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 until 1993, the Malaysian government took in no fewer than 7,000 Muslim Cham refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia, making them the only group out of the tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who passed through Malaysia to be accepted and settled. Though the official explanation was based on humanitarian considerations, the truth lies with Malay-Cham connections based on common Malay and Islamic identity(source:Danny Wong).
From June 1975 to 1988 about 10,722 refugees of Malay Cham ancestry have entered Malaysia and were placed in refugee camps in Kemumin, Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bahru, Kelantan. The camp was later renamed Taman Putra, Kemumin ... The refugee camp in Kemumin was administered by PERKIM. The refugees were placed in the camps for 2 years and during that time they were given classes on Islamic education, the Malay language and culture and the Malaysian way of life. Their health was also tended to. In early 1977, nearly 4/5ths of the refugees were allowed out of the camps to work in plantations and to engage in businesses. They were given visitor passes which was a temporary document enabling them to look for work and live temporarily in Malaysia. Many of the refugees, after they have left the refugee camp, lived and worked in Kelantan especially in Kota Bahru. Many of them also looked for work and opportunities in other states in Malaysia such as Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Melaka and Johor. Their children are allowed to study in schools; colleges and many of them are studying in higher institutions of learning. The Malay Cham refugees have integrated well with Malaysia and most Malaysians regard them as Malays. After 25 years of living in Malaysia, many of them have become citizens of Malaysia. Today, there are about 25,000 Malay Chams in Malaysia including those who are born here. The Malaysian government views the Chams as not just Chams but "Malay Chams". The Malay Muslim identity of the Chams of Cambodia guaranteed their entry into Malaysia and assisted their integration into Malaysian society. The Muslim identity of the Chams has reaped advantages for their community.(extract from Understanding the Cham identity in mainland Southeast Asia: contending views(2006))
Being consider as Malay, Malaysian constitution recognizes the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputra status. The laws of Malaysia defines a Melayu as a person who practices Islam and Malay cultures, speaks Bahasa Melayu and whose ancestors are Melayu, under article 160 of the Federal Constitution. Bumiputera or Bumiputra is a Malay term widely used in Malaysia, embracing indigenous people of the Malay Archipelago. The term comes from the Sanskrit word bhumiputra, which can be translated literally as "son of earth" .In the 1970s the government implemented economic policies designed to favour Bumiputra in Malaysia, and Cham people is considered as Bumiputra Malay.
Related articles:
1. Vietnam-Champa Relations and the Malay-Islam Regional Network in the 17th–19th Centuries, by Danny Wong Tze Ken, Associate professor in the Department of History, University of Malaya.
2. RESEARCH ON CHAM HISTORY IN MALAYSIA, by DANNY WONG TZE-KEN, www.sabrizain.org/malaya/library/chamhistory.pdf
3. Understanding the Cham identity in mainland Southeast Asia: contending views(2006), SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, publication Date: 01-OCT-06
4. The Historical Place of Acehnese: The Known and the Unknown(2007),by Graham Thurgood, California State University, Chico, USA, First International Conference of Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies, http://www.acehinstitute.org/aceh_fp_grahamthurgood.pdf
5. Cham Muslims of the Mekong Delta: place and mobility in the cosmopolitan(2007), by Philip Taylor, NUS Press.
6. Champa, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champa
7. Research on Cham History in Malaysia(, by DANNY WONG TZE-KEN, http://www.sabrizain.org/malaya/library/chamhistory.pdf
Vietnam's April 1999 census showed 63,146 Muslims. Over 77% lived in the Southeast Region, with 34% in Ninh Thuan Province, 24% in Binh Thuan Province, and 9% in Ho Chi Minh City; another 22% lived in the Mekong River Delta region, primarily in An Giang Province. Only 1% of Muslims lived in other regions of the country.
There are 3 types of Muslims in Vietnam, (1)The Champa Muslims(người Chăm or người Chàm), (2)Muslim due to intermarriage between Vietnamese and other Muslims and (3) Muslim conversion. The majority of Muslims in Vietnam are Cham people.
Champa Kingdom(from 7th century to 1832)
The kingdom of Champa(占城,又称占婆、占波)was found in the 2nd century and lasted until the 17th century. Champa at times included the modern Vietnamese provinces of Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, and Bình Thuận. Though Cham territory included the mountainous zones west of the coastal plain and (at times) extended into present-day Laos, for the most part the Cham remained a seafaring people dedicated to trade, and maintained few settlements of any size away from the coast. The people is of Malayo-Polynesian stock with indianised culture. When Islam came, few Champa people adopted it. However, some time between 1607 and 1676, the king of Champa became Muslim thus precipitating most of his people to enter Islam also.
Historical Champa consisted of up to five principalities: 1. Indrapura ("City of Indra"),2.Amaravati ,3.Vijaya, 4.Kauthara, and 5.Panduranga.
Throughout the century, the Champa provinces were slowly annexed one by one until finally, by the 17th century they were completely absorbed by the Ðai Viet (vietnamese). Thereafter began a gradual decline under pressure from Đại Việt, the Vietnamese polity centered in the region of modern Hanoi. In 1471, Viet troops sacked the northern Cham capital of Vijaya, and in 1697 the southern principality of Panduranga became a vassal of the Vietnamese emperor. In 1832, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mang(明命,1791-1841; born Nguyễn Phúc Đảm 阮福膽, also known as Nguyễn Phúc Kiểu 阮福晈; he was the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841) annexed the remaining Cham territories. Panduranga, present-day Phan Rang in Ninh Thuận Province, was the last of the Cham territories to be annexed by the Vietnamese.
During the reign of Minh Mang, the Champa were severly persecuted. As a consequence, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Chien, decided to gather his people (those on the mainland) and migrated south to Cambodia. Whereas those on the coastline, they migrated to Trengganu (Malaysia). The area where the king and the mainlanders settled is still known to this day as Kompong Cham. They were not concentrated in one area but were scattered along the Mekong river in Vietnam, forming 13 villages along it. Throughout the years, their children were sent to Kelantan (Malaysia) to learn Qur'an and Islamic studies. Once studies were completed, these children then return home to teach others in these 13 villages. Also, another factor which helps them to preserve the true teaching of Islam was the interaction between them and the Malaysian Muslim traders who sailed through the Mekong river.
Not all the Champa Muslims migrated with the king. A group stayed behind in Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiªt provinces (Central Vietnam). With their increasing isolation with other Muslims, they began to mix Islam with Buddhism, Hindism and Bà La Môn . Hence, their descendants became lost to the true teachings of Islam. In 1959, these descendants came into contact with the Champa Muslims in Châu Ðoc (one of the 13 villages in South Vietnam) and also with the Muslims community in Saigon (Ho Chí Minh city). The Muslim community in Saigon, mainly consisted of Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Indonesians and Arabs. As a result of this interaction, the descendants who had lost Islam began to return to true Islam.
After April 30th 1975, while the majority of Vietnamese Muslims remain in Vietnam under the communist regime, a sizable number of them managed to escape to other countries. The majority of them settled in America, France, Malaysia, India, Canada and a handful in Australia.
(i) Trade between Champa and Malacca
During a stop at Pulo Ubi near the Gulf of Siam on 13 May 1687, William Dampier, the English traveler, met a vessel of Champa origin anchored on the eastern side of the island. The vessel carried rice and lacquer and was on its way to Malacca. All forty crew members were Chams. They carried broad swords, lances, and some guns. Dampier wrote that the Chams were actively involved in trade with the Dutch at Malacca. The Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) mentions the presence of Chams in Malacca during the reigns of the Malay sultans. They were known to be political refugees who had arrived in Malacca after 1471. They were well received by the rulers of Malacca, who appointed some Cham noblemen to official positions in the court. In highlighting the Cham presence in Malacca, Marrison draws attention to the fact that the Chams probably contributed to the racial admixture of the Malays of the Peninsula and hence some Cham influences may have survived in Malay cultural tradition. Malacca was a destination in the post-1471 Cham diaspora, mainly due to ethno-cultural considerations.
(ii)Cham and Islam
While the rulers of Malacca had converted to Islam in 1414, Islam had not yet made major inroads into Champa. Islam would later become important, however, in the strong connection between the Chams and the Malays. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it would be the main factor in rallying Malay help for the Chams in resisting Vietnamese domination. Chams only converted to Islam in the seventeenth century, almost three centuries after the Malays. But Islam was introduced into Champa at an earlier, undetermined date. Maspero stated that some Chams may have converted to Islam as early as the era of Sung dynasty China. Two Kufic inscriptions found in what was southern Champa are dated around 1030 CE and there is some indication of a Muslim community in Champa in the tenth century.
(iii)Cham and Kelantan
While Kelantan has been known as the serambi Mekah (gateway to Mecca) since the fall of Malacca in 1511, this title does not necessarily mean that religious practice was like that of the present day, when religion is paramount in the lives of the Kelantanese. Po Rome’s presence in Kelantan a few years prior to his ascension to the throne of Champa was likely an attempt to learn broadly about Malay culture, including the powerful Malay magic and the new Islamic religion. Instead of being the main concern of Po Rome, Islam was part of the wider Malay culture that he and other Chams were hoping to learn about in order to rekindle their ethnic and cultural links with the Malay world.
People-to-people relations between the Chams and the Malays were not confined to religious activities. It is likely that the Chams had been frequenting Kelantan for many centuries. Several place names there, such as Pengkalan Chepa and Kampung Chepa, suggest close ties between the two peoples and wide acceptance on the part of the Malays. There were costume and textile names associated with Champa, for example, tanjak Chepa (headdress), sutra Chepa (silk), and kain Chepa (cloth). Chepa is used to describe one type of keris (dagger). There was padi Chepa (Champa paddy) and sanggul Chepa (a hair decoration). It is believed that a mosque in Kampung Laut was built by Cham sailors who frequented Kelantan. And according to the Hikayat Kelantan (Kelantan Annals), the ancestors of Long Yunus, the founder of the present-day Kelantan sultanate, originated in a state known as Kebayat Negara or Kembayat Negara, which is believed to be Champa.
Cham movement to the Malay Peninsula seemed to be frequent and even lasting. As early as the late fifteenth century, a Cham colony was established at Malacca. While most of the colony’s inhabitants were merchants, it began as a sanctuary for Cham refugees. In 1594, the king of Champa sent a military force to assist the Sultan of Johore to fight against the Portuguese in Malacca. While no explanation was given for the Cham king’s action, it is likely that it was influenced by the common Malay identity and possibly common Islamic faith of the rulers of Champa and their Malay counterparts.
According to the Babad Kelantan (Kelantan Annals), a Cham prince arrived in Kelantan in the mid-seventeenth century who was known as Nik Mustafa. After residing in Kelantan for many years, he returned to Champa and was made king, reigning with the title of Sultan Abdul Hamid. Another Cham ruler who is believed to have been Muslim was Po Rome’s son, Po Saut (1660–1692), the last ruler of independent Champa.
The Cham classic entitled Nai Mai Mang Makah (The Princess from Kelantan) tells the story of a princess from Kelantan who was trying to convert the Cham king to Islam. The event was not dated. Po Dharma and Gerard Moussay are of the opinion that the event took place between the 1693 fall of Champa and the 1771 Tayson rebellion. Manguin suggests that Malay migration into Champa played its part in influencing the people to convert to Islam. Accordingly, the Chams were also influenced by the Malays to adhere to the Sunni Shafie sect and, like the Malays, they also kept traces of Shi’ite devotion. However, Manguin also believed that Malay migration to Champa was much more restricted, especially after Champa was absorbed by Vietnam.
French missionary sources mention that during the thirty years prior to the fall of Champa to the Nguyen in 1693, there were many Malay scribes and missionaries in the court of Champa. Their main task was to propagate the Islam faith to the Chams. It is likely that these Malays became involved in the Cham struggle against Vietnamese encroachment into Cham territories, resulting in several anti-Vietnamese movements. In this regard, the Chams clearly invoked their Malay-Islamic identity in trying to enlist help against the Vietnamese.
(iv)Malay- Islamic Aids to Cham Resistance
Between the establishment of Nguyen rule over Champa in 1693 and the final annihilation of the Cham political entity in 1835, the Chams made many attempts to break away from Vietnamese rule. These normally took the form of armed revolts. Among the major Cham revolts were those of 1693, 1728, 1796, and 1832-34.
The Cham resistance of 1796 control was led by a Malay nobleman named Tuan Phaow. He is believed to have been from Kelantan, as he told his Cham followers that he was from Mecca (Kelantan). His followers consisted mainly of Chams from Binh Thuan and from Cambodia (giving rise to the suggestion that he was from Cambodia), as well as Malays. Tuan Phaow’s resistance had a religious dimension. In order to legitimize his actions, Tuan Phaow claimed to have been sent by God to help the Chams resist the Vietnamese. Tuan Phaow’s forces were up against Nguyen Anh (Gia Long, founder of the Nguyen Dynasty). Despite putting up strong resistance for almost two years, Tuan Phaow’s forces were cornered and defeated by the Nguyen army working in league with a pro-Nguyen Cham ruler. Tuan Phaow reportedly escaped to Mecca. This resistance movement was the first clear indication that Cham resistance had a strong Malay connection. It also shows the Islamic religious dimension becoming a common rallying call.
The 1832 Cham revolt took place as a reaction against Emperor Ming Mang’s harsh oppression of the Chams in reprisal for their support of Ming Mang’s viceroys in Gia Dinh in the south. Viceroy Le Van Duyet had refused to accept orders from Hue since 1728. After Duyet passed away in 1832, he was succeeded by his adopted son, Le Van Khoi, who continued to resist the Nguyen court. Ming Mang’s army carried out a series of oppressive activities against the Cham population in Binh Thuan to punish them for supporting Le Van Duyet and Le Van Khoi. In this conflict, the Malay-Cham connection is again evident in the form of Malay leadership. The Chams were led by a Islamic clergyman from Cambodia named Katip (Khatib) Sumat, who had spent many years studying Islam in Kelantan. Apparently, upon hearing that Champa was under attack by the Nguyen army, Katip Sumat immediately returned. Arriving in Binh Thuan in 1833, he was accompanied by a large force of Malays and Chams from Kelantan. Katip Sumat led the Chams in a series of guerrilla attacks against the Nguyen army. Apart from fighting for the survival of Champa, Katip Sumat invoked the Islamic bond in rallying Malay and Cham support for the cause. In some ways this turned the Cham struggle against the Vietnamese into a form of religious war. The Katip Sumat-led resistance, however, was defeated by the Nguyen army.
Katip Sumat’s Malay contingent did not consist only of volunteers. It is believed that they were sent by Sultan Muhamad I of Kelantan (1800-1837), who raised an army to accompany Katip Sumat to Champa. According to Po Dharma, the underlying factors were the Sultan’s acknowledgement that he and the ruler of Champa shared the same lineage (descendants of Po Rome) and of the need to preserve Islamic unity.
(vi)Cham - Malay linkage after French Occupation 1835
With the end of 1835 revolt, Cham links with the external world were also considerably reduced. This situation persisted until the second half of the nineteenth century, when Binh Thuan and five other provinces in the south were ceded to the French by the Nguyen at the end of the Franco-Vietnamese War of 1858-1861. The advent of French colonization of Vietnam actually ended Nguyen attempts to wipe out the Chams. The breakdown of the Nguyen administrative apparatus in the face of greater French control over the provinces saw the rekindling of ancient Cham aspirations to exert Cham identity. Efforts to re-establish traditional external linkages, including those with the Malay states, played an important role. This is evident from reports of religious teachers (ulama) from the Malay Peninsula who frequented the former land of Champa during the final years of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth. Like their predecessors, many of these visitors stayed for long durations in the former Champa as well as among the Chams in Cambodia. They married local Cham women and had children. Several of these families remained in the former Champa and in Cambodia, cementing relationships established in earlier centuries.
(extract from Vietnam-Champa Relations and the Malay-Islam Regional Network in the 17th–19th Centuries, by Danny Wong Tze Ken)
Cham People and Acheh
Aceh's origins are unquestionably Cham, as the Champa king Syah Pau Kubah sent his son Syah Pau Ling to rule over Aceh when the capital Vijaya (Champa) in 1471 AD, was sacked by the Vietnamese. Acehnese is the only other non-Chamic language in the 11 language Aceh-Chamic languages group.(source: Acheh Sultanate, wikipedia)
Cham people in Malaysia
The Champa Kingdom had long established trading ties with both the present-day Malaya, Pattani, Aceh as well as Java since the 4th Century. Multiple wars also broke out between the Kingdom of Champa with Java. Migration was simply inevitable. The Chams were Hindus. Some still are today, but many are now Muslim. Malaysia has some Cham immigrants and the link between the Chams and the Malaysian state of Kelantan is an old one.
From the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 until 1993, the Malaysian government took in no fewer than 7,000 Muslim Cham refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia, making them the only group out of the tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who passed through Malaysia to be accepted and settled. Though the official explanation was based on humanitarian considerations, the truth lies with Malay-Cham connections based on common Malay and Islamic identity(source:Danny Wong).
From June 1975 to 1988 about 10,722 refugees of Malay Cham ancestry have entered Malaysia and were placed in refugee camps in Kemumin, Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bahru, Kelantan. The camp was later renamed Taman Putra, Kemumin ... The refugee camp in Kemumin was administered by PERKIM. The refugees were placed in the camps for 2 years and during that time they were given classes on Islamic education, the Malay language and culture and the Malaysian way of life. Their health was also tended to. In early 1977, nearly 4/5ths of the refugees were allowed out of the camps to work in plantations and to engage in businesses. They were given visitor passes which was a temporary document enabling them to look for work and live temporarily in Malaysia. Many of the refugees, after they have left the refugee camp, lived and worked in Kelantan especially in Kota Bahru. Many of them also looked for work and opportunities in other states in Malaysia such as Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Melaka and Johor. Their children are allowed to study in schools; colleges and many of them are studying in higher institutions of learning. The Malay Cham refugees have integrated well with Malaysia and most Malaysians regard them as Malays. After 25 years of living in Malaysia, many of them have become citizens of Malaysia. Today, there are about 25,000 Malay Chams in Malaysia including those who are born here. The Malaysian government views the Chams as not just Chams but "Malay Chams". The Malay Muslim identity of the Chams of Cambodia guaranteed their entry into Malaysia and assisted their integration into Malaysian society. The Muslim identity of the Chams has reaped advantages for their community.(extract from Understanding the Cham identity in mainland Southeast Asia: contending views(2006))
Being consider as Malay, Malaysian constitution recognizes the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputra status. The laws of Malaysia defines a Melayu as a person who practices Islam and Malay cultures, speaks Bahasa Melayu and whose ancestors are Melayu, under article 160 of the Federal Constitution. Bumiputera or Bumiputra is a Malay term widely used in Malaysia, embracing indigenous people of the Malay Archipelago. The term comes from the Sanskrit word bhumiputra, which can be translated literally as "son of earth" .In the 1970s the government implemented economic policies designed to favour Bumiputra in Malaysia, and Cham people is considered as Bumiputra Malay.
Related articles:
1. Vietnam-Champa Relations and the Malay-Islam Regional Network in the 17th–19th Centuries, by Danny Wong Tze Ken, Associate professor in the Department of History, University of Malaya.
2. RESEARCH ON CHAM HISTORY IN MALAYSIA, by DANNY WONG TZE-KEN, www.sabrizain.org/malaya/library/chamhistory.pdf
3. Understanding the Cham identity in mainland Southeast Asia: contending views(2006), SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, publication Date: 01-OCT-06
4. The Historical Place of Acehnese: The Known and the Unknown(2007),by Graham Thurgood, California State University, Chico, USA, First International Conference of Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies, http://www.acehinstitute.org/aceh_fp_grahamthurgood.pdf
5. Cham Muslims of the Mekong Delta: place and mobility in the cosmopolitan(2007), by Philip Taylor, NUS Press.
6. Champa, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champa
7. Research on Cham History in Malaysia(, by DANNY WONG TZE-KEN, http://www.sabrizain.org/malaya/library/chamhistory.pdf
Monday, December 14, 2009
Remember Nanjing Massacre
On December 13, 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army stormed the Chinese city of Nanking. During the following six weeks, they murdered and tortured countless civilians whose only crime was being Chinese. Over 300,000 people were killed and over 20,000 women were brutally raped.
This year 2009 marks the 72th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre. Despite its far-reaching implications, much of the world remains unaware of the events which took place in the Chinese city of Nanking in December 1937. The war left a legacy of distrust, which even today,still tarnishes relations between Japan and the other countries of East Asia. Japan still did not provide official apology for her crime to the people and country of China, and Nanjing. And worst, over the decades, the Japanese began to deny that this massacre ever occurred. They tried to erase the history from their memory and brainwashed their children, that it is just a normal war....
City mourns Nanjing Massacre
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-14 07:40
NANJING: Sixteen more items giving evidence of the Japanese invaders' atrocities during World War II have been donated to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre.
The donation came as the city marked the 72nd anniversary of the massacre yesterday.
The items were donated by a Japanese man surnamed Ohigashi, who has given the memorial hall more than 1,000 items in the past, local sources said over the weekend.
The new items include a copy of the Japanese newspaper Osaka Mainichi Shimbun dated Sept 20, 1937, which carries a report of the Japanese aircraft bombing Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province.
An introduction by the Japanese army recorded the battles they fought in Nanjing.
The most valuable pieces, according to Zhu Chengshan, curator of the memorial hall, were 13 photos and an envelope.
"The photos were shot by a military officer in February 1938 and sent to his daughter, Yamazaki Yonego," Zhu said on Saturday.
The photos were of scenes of the damaged city and slaughtered citizens in Nanjing, Zhu said.
Pointing at a photo showing scattered bodies, he said, "they are the best evidence of history, in which Japanese troops committed atrocities in Nanjing".
Invading Japanese troops occupied Nanjing on Dec 13, 1937, and launched a six-week massacre. Chinese records show that more than 300,000 people, not only unarmed soldiers but also civilians, were murdered.
A series of activities, including a religious assembly by Chinese and Japanese monks, a ceremony to release lanterns of peace and a vigil for the dead, will take place, to "remind people of the history and encourage them to strive for peace", Zhu said.
Thousands of Chinese and foreigners gathered in the city yesterday to mourn people killed by invading Japanese troops 72 years ago during the Nanjing Massacre.
A siren sounded at 10 am as 5,000 people gathered on the square in front of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre, mourning the dead in silence and presenting wreaths.
Later, the bell tolled as the those in the crowd prayed for world peace.
Chinese and Japanese monks also held a religious assembly yesterday in Nanjing to mourn victims of the Nanjing Massacre.
Similarly, about 30 Japanese monks, 50 Chinese monks, believers of Buddhism and 30 survivors of the massacre prayed for world peace at the assembly.
"It's a very sad day," said Zhao Bin, a survivor.
"On the anniversary each year, I miss very much my relatives and others cruelly killed by the Japanese invaders," the 72-year-old said.
"History should not be allowed to repeat."
(source: Xinhua-China Daily, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-12/14/content_9167576.htm)
China has published the names of 13,000 people who were murdered by Japanese troops during the 1937 Rape of Nanking. The list was published in response to Japanese unwillingness to acknowledge the severity of their crime. Over 300,000 people were brutally slaughtered in the massacre.
Today, we remember the victims of Nanjing Massacre, and prayed that the genocide of this nature will not happen again, in the world. We also remember the victims of other genocides, especially Armenian Genocide at the same time...... where Justice has not be given to the victims of the massacre.
Japan officially acknowledges the massacre, it says the scale of killing and rape was much smaller than the Chinese claim and that such things happen in war.
In 2005 there were angry protests in China after Japan published school text books which China claimed played down the country's war time atrocities.
Japanese politicians have also sparked anger in China by visiting the Yasukuni shrine - which honours fallen Japanese soldiers, including 14 convicted war criminals.
Earlier posting:
Monday, August 10, 2009, Nanking Massacre 1937(南京大屠殺)
Related websites:
1. http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00520/yuen/sitemap.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre_Memorial_Hall
3. http://www.nj1937.org/english/default.asp
4. http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/NM.html
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_War_Crimes_Tribunal
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre
Related books/artickes:
1. They were in Nanjing: the Nanjing Massacre witnessed by American and British(2004),by Suping Lu, published by Hong Kong University Press
2. Nanking 1937: memory and healing(2002), by Robert Sabella, Feifei Li, David Liu, published by M.E. Sharpe
3. Documents on the rape of Nanking(1999), by Timothy Brook, published by University of Michigan Press
4. Eyewitnesses to massacre: American missionaries bear witness to Japanese(2001),by Kaiyuan Zhang, published by M.E. Sharpe
5. The Nanjing massacre: a Japanese journalist confronts Japan's national shame(1999), by Katsuichi Honda, Frank Gibney, published by M.E. Sharpe
This year 2009 marks the 72th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre. Despite its far-reaching implications, much of the world remains unaware of the events which took place in the Chinese city of Nanking in December 1937. The war left a legacy of distrust, which even today,still tarnishes relations between Japan and the other countries of East Asia. Japan still did not provide official apology for her crime to the people and country of China, and Nanjing. And worst, over the decades, the Japanese began to deny that this massacre ever occurred. They tried to erase the history from their memory and brainwashed their children, that it is just a normal war....
City mourns Nanjing Massacre
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-14 07:40
NANJING: Sixteen more items giving evidence of the Japanese invaders' atrocities during World War II have been donated to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre.
The donation came as the city marked the 72nd anniversary of the massacre yesterday.
The items were donated by a Japanese man surnamed Ohigashi, who has given the memorial hall more than 1,000 items in the past, local sources said over the weekend.
The new items include a copy of the Japanese newspaper Osaka Mainichi Shimbun dated Sept 20, 1937, which carries a report of the Japanese aircraft bombing Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province.
An introduction by the Japanese army recorded the battles they fought in Nanjing.
The most valuable pieces, according to Zhu Chengshan, curator of the memorial hall, were 13 photos and an envelope.
"The photos were shot by a military officer in February 1938 and sent to his daughter, Yamazaki Yonego," Zhu said on Saturday.
The photos were of scenes of the damaged city and slaughtered citizens in Nanjing, Zhu said.
Pointing at a photo showing scattered bodies, he said, "they are the best evidence of history, in which Japanese troops committed atrocities in Nanjing".
Invading Japanese troops occupied Nanjing on Dec 13, 1937, and launched a six-week massacre. Chinese records show that more than 300,000 people, not only unarmed soldiers but also civilians, were murdered.
A series of activities, including a religious assembly by Chinese and Japanese monks, a ceremony to release lanterns of peace and a vigil for the dead, will take place, to "remind people of the history and encourage them to strive for peace", Zhu said.
Thousands of Chinese and foreigners gathered in the city yesterday to mourn people killed by invading Japanese troops 72 years ago during the Nanjing Massacre.
A siren sounded at 10 am as 5,000 people gathered on the square in front of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre, mourning the dead in silence and presenting wreaths.
Later, the bell tolled as the those in the crowd prayed for world peace.
Chinese and Japanese monks also held a religious assembly yesterday in Nanjing to mourn victims of the Nanjing Massacre.
Similarly, about 30 Japanese monks, 50 Chinese monks, believers of Buddhism and 30 survivors of the massacre prayed for world peace at the assembly.
"It's a very sad day," said Zhao Bin, a survivor.
"On the anniversary each year, I miss very much my relatives and others cruelly killed by the Japanese invaders," the 72-year-old said.
"History should not be allowed to repeat."
(source: Xinhua-China Daily, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-12/14/content_9167576.htm)
China has published the names of 13,000 people who were murdered by Japanese troops during the 1937 Rape of Nanking. The list was published in response to Japanese unwillingness to acknowledge the severity of their crime. Over 300,000 people were brutally slaughtered in the massacre.
Today, we remember the victims of Nanjing Massacre, and prayed that the genocide of this nature will not happen again, in the world. We also remember the victims of other genocides, especially Armenian Genocide at the same time...... where Justice has not be given to the victims of the massacre.
Japan officially acknowledges the massacre, it says the scale of killing and rape was much smaller than the Chinese claim and that such things happen in war.
In 2005 there were angry protests in China after Japan published school text books which China claimed played down the country's war time atrocities.
Japanese politicians have also sparked anger in China by visiting the Yasukuni shrine - which honours fallen Japanese soldiers, including 14 convicted war criminals.
Earlier posting:
Monday, August 10, 2009, Nanking Massacre 1937(南京大屠殺)
Related websites:
1. http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00520/yuen/sitemap.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre_Memorial_Hall
3. http://www.nj1937.org/english/default.asp
4. http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/NM.html
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_War_Crimes_Tribunal
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre
Related books/artickes:
1. They were in Nanjing: the Nanjing Massacre witnessed by American and British(2004),by Suping Lu, published by Hong Kong University Press
2. Nanking 1937: memory and healing(2002), by Robert Sabella, Feifei Li, David Liu, published by M.E. Sharpe
3. Documents on the rape of Nanking(1999), by Timothy Brook, published by University of Michigan Press
4. Eyewitnesses to massacre: American missionaries bear witness to Japanese(2001),by Kaiyuan Zhang, published by M.E. Sharpe
5. The Nanjing massacre: a Japanese journalist confronts Japan's national shame(1999), by Katsuichi Honda, Frank Gibney, published by M.E. Sharpe
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Mesopotamia Civilization(美索不达米亚文明)
The lost civilization - Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia Civilization was one of the early civilization which had been lost in history. It was the civilization of people living in today's Iraq. Today not only the civilization, their languages, their people had been lost in time. Unlike Persia, today's Iran who was able to survive from wars and Arabization, and remained strongly in its Persian character(except religion). Like Egypt civilization, Mesopotamia civilization left without traces left in Iraq, today Iraq together with Egypt are highly arabized , except some archeological sites and artifacts remained to remind us of their existence in history....is it sad for the civilization?....
Mesopotamia (Arabic: بلاد الرافدين transliterated: Bilad Al-Rafidayn, Greek exonym: Μεσοποταμία, "land between the rivers") is a toponym for the Tigris–Euphrates region in the eastern Mediterranean, largely corresponding to Iraq, as well as northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khūzestān Province of southwestern Iran.
Widely considered as the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age, it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire, and later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It mostly remained under Persian rule until the 7th century Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire.
The urban history of Mesopotamia begins with the emergence of urban societies in northern Iraq in the early 6th millennium BCE.
A cultural continuity and spatial homogeneity for this entire historical geography ("the Great Tradition") is popularly assumed, though the assumption is problematic. Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient states with highly developed social complexity. The region was famous as one of the four riverine civilizations where writing was first invented, along with the Nile valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley in Pakistan and Yellow River valley in China (Although writing is also known to have arisen independently in Mesoamerica).
Mesopotamia housed historically important cities such as Uruk, Nippur, Nineveh, and Babylon as well as major territorial states such as the city of Ma-asesblu, Akkadian kingdom, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Assyrian empire. Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were Ur-Nammu (king of Ur), Sargon (who established the Akkadian Kingdom), Hammurabi (who established the Old Babylonian state), and Tiglath-Pileser I (who established the Assyrian Empire).
"Ancient Mesopotamia" begins in the late 6th millennium BC, and ends with either the rise of the Achaemenid Persians in the 6th century BCE or the Islamic conquest of Iraq in the 7th century CE.
(source: Extract from wikipedia)
Genesis Chapter 9 of the Bible, narrates the curse Noah puts on Ham for viewing him naked in his tent. The descendants of Ham (called the descendants of Canaan, Ham's son), are to be the lowest of slaves. Because his sons Shem and Japheth cover their father's nakedness, Noah blesses them and their de scendants, giving them the sons of Ham as slaves. Genesis 10 lists the descendants of the three sons of Noah which make up the three great races: the Japhethites (sons of Japheth), the Hamites (sons of Ham), and the Semites (the sons of Shem). "From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood."
Genesis Chapter 11: 1-2
1 Now all the earth had one language and the words were common [to all].
2 And men moved east, and they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there.
The land of Shinar was reported to be Babylonia. It was first Sumer, Akkad, and then Babylonia. This is where the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth went after they tarried in the highlands of Armenia, after the Great flood. This is the place where Tower of Babel was built, where the Book of Genesis Chapter 11:1-9 told us that after the collapse of the tower, the common language or a unity language was gone, mankind begin to speak different languages, they are then scattered.
The video series Part 1-6 is focused on Sumer(苏美尔).
Sumer is the ancient country in southeastern Mespotamia(now in Kuwait and northern Saudi Arabia, the southern part of modern Iraq). It is the birthplace of first civilization in world history. The Sumerian history lasted from 3500 BC to 2000 BC. The Assyrian and Babylonian culture continued the Sumerian civilization after the period.
Sumer was the half of Mesopotamia to the south, where Akkad to the north was the other half. The Sumerians formed city states, but constantly at war with each others and other people, due to water is a scarce resources. The stronger city state took over the smaller and weaker city states, city states become larger.
The five "first" cities said to have exercised pre-dynastic kingship:
1. Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain)
2. Bad-tibira (probably Tell al-Madain)
3. Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh)
4. Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah)
5. Shuruppak (Tell Fara)
Other principal cities:
6. Kish (Tell Uheimir & Ingharra)
7. Uruk (Warka)
8. Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar)
9. Nippur (Afak)
10. Lagash (Tell al-Hiba)
11. Ngirsu (Tello or Telloh)
12. Umma (Tell Jokha)
13. Hamazi 1
14. Adab (Tell Bismaya)
15. Mari (Tell Hariri) 2
16. Akshak 1
17. Akkad 1
18. Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat)
(1 - location uncertain)
(2 - an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia)
Minor cities (from south to north):
1. Kuara (Tell al-Lahm)
2. Zabala (Tell Ibzeikh)
3. Kisurra (Tell Abu Hatab)
4. Marad (Tell Wannat es-Sadum)
5. Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim)
6. Borsippa (Birs Nimrud)
7. Kutha (Tell Ibrahim)
8. Der (al-Badra)
9. Eshnunna (Tell Asmar)
10. Nagar (Tell Brak) 2
(2 - an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia)
The Sumerian eventually battle another people from the north, who are from Arabian Peninsula, called Akkadians,who are Semitic, who spoke Semitic language( related to Hebrew and Arabic). The city states of Sumer fell under Akkadian kingdom, the capital is Akkad, which later become Babylon. The Akkadian however abandoned much of their culture and adopt Sumerian culture.The Sumerian of the city of Ur did regain control , but only for a short period, another Semitic, the Amorites, gain control and started the end of Sumerian, who disappeared from human history around 2,000 BC. Genesis 10:16 described Amorites is the descendants of Canaan, son of Ham.
But the Sumerian civilization continued to the Semitic people, who adopt the Sumerian culture,which included system of Monarchy, Law, Writing, Religion, Science and Mathematics. Who is the Sumerian? the original Sumerian or the Semitic people who adopt their culture?.......
Noted Sumerian history recorded the story of the Great Flood(similar to the Great Flood of Noah), and according to Book of Genesis, the originator of the Hebrew race is the patriarch Abraham, who originally came from the city of Ur. Is it Sumerian Ur?
Note: Middle East , Near East ancient history is the lesser read history by us(including me), despite that the happening in this region will affect our lives in other region including Asia, Europe and America as well. The history of the past was complicated but interesting. There were wars with blood of the politic, race and religion, and tears from suffering of ordinary people. There were conflicting information from various schools based on their religion, politic, and racial bias. The understanding of the ancient history will enable us to understand the modern history of the region better. The modern history in Middle East is as complicated as the ancient history. The history seems to repeat. This is my personal reading of the historical articles, it helps me to understand global problem better, and not based on media biased articles(west and east). There are various sources in the internet and books, other than wikipedia. You need to be wise personally to select the data. Middle East is not all Arab history, there are Persian, Turks, Kurds, Jews, Arameans, Copts, Yemenis, Greeks, Samaritans, Pashtuns, Turkmens....... some have lost their native languages, some races are on the way to extinction e.g. Samaritans is with 700 people left. There were IDP, political refugee....the problems are all caused by politic, war, genocides, all caused by mankind itself. It is the history of greed and power, messes left by colonists(west and east)......
The posting was to provide some historical background to understand the video.
Mesopotamia Civilization was one of the early civilization which had been lost in history. It was the civilization of people living in today's Iraq. Today not only the civilization, their languages, their people had been lost in time. Unlike Persia, today's Iran who was able to survive from wars and Arabization, and remained strongly in its Persian character(except religion). Like Egypt civilization, Mesopotamia civilization left without traces left in Iraq, today Iraq together with Egypt are highly arabized , except some archeological sites and artifacts remained to remind us of their existence in history....is it sad for the civilization?....
Mesopotamia (Arabic: بلاد الرافدين transliterated: Bilad Al-Rafidayn, Greek exonym: Μεσοποταμία, "land between the rivers") is a toponym for the Tigris–Euphrates region in the eastern Mediterranean, largely corresponding to Iraq, as well as northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khūzestān Province of southwestern Iran.
Widely considered as the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age, it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire, and later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It mostly remained under Persian rule until the 7th century Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire.
The urban history of Mesopotamia begins with the emergence of urban societies in northern Iraq in the early 6th millennium BCE.
A cultural continuity and spatial homogeneity for this entire historical geography ("the Great Tradition") is popularly assumed, though the assumption is problematic. Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient states with highly developed social complexity. The region was famous as one of the four riverine civilizations where writing was first invented, along with the Nile valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley in Pakistan and Yellow River valley in China (Although writing is also known to have arisen independently in Mesoamerica).
Mesopotamia housed historically important cities such as Uruk, Nippur, Nineveh, and Babylon as well as major territorial states such as the city of Ma-asesblu, Akkadian kingdom, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Assyrian empire. Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were Ur-Nammu (king of Ur), Sargon (who established the Akkadian Kingdom), Hammurabi (who established the Old Babylonian state), and Tiglath-Pileser I (who established the Assyrian Empire).
"Ancient Mesopotamia" begins in the late 6th millennium BC, and ends with either the rise of the Achaemenid Persians in the 6th century BCE or the Islamic conquest of Iraq in the 7th century CE.
(source: Extract from wikipedia)
Genesis Chapter 9 of the Bible, narrates the curse Noah puts on Ham for viewing him naked in his tent. The descendants of Ham (called the descendants of Canaan, Ham's son), are to be the lowest of slaves. Because his sons Shem and Japheth cover their father's nakedness, Noah blesses them and their de scendants, giving them the sons of Ham as slaves. Genesis 10 lists the descendants of the three sons of Noah which make up the three great races: the Japhethites (sons of Japheth), the Hamites (sons of Ham), and the Semites (the sons of Shem). "From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood."
Genesis Chapter 11: 1-2
1 Now all the earth had one language and the words were common [to all].
2 And men moved east, and they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there.
The land of Shinar was reported to be Babylonia. It was first Sumer, Akkad, and then Babylonia. This is where the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth went after they tarried in the highlands of Armenia, after the Great flood. This is the place where Tower of Babel was built, where the Book of Genesis Chapter 11:1-9 told us that after the collapse of the tower, the common language or a unity language was gone, mankind begin to speak different languages, they are then scattered.
The video series Part 1-6 is focused on Sumer(苏美尔).
Sumer is the ancient country in southeastern Mespotamia(now in Kuwait and northern Saudi Arabia, the southern part of modern Iraq). It is the birthplace of first civilization in world history. The Sumerian history lasted from 3500 BC to 2000 BC. The Assyrian and Babylonian culture continued the Sumerian civilization after the period.
Sumer was the half of Mesopotamia to the south, where Akkad to the north was the other half. The Sumerians formed city states, but constantly at war with each others and other people, due to water is a scarce resources. The stronger city state took over the smaller and weaker city states, city states become larger.
The five "first" cities said to have exercised pre-dynastic kingship:
1. Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain)
2. Bad-tibira (probably Tell al-Madain)
3. Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh)
4. Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah)
5. Shuruppak (Tell Fara)
Other principal cities:
6. Kish (Tell Uheimir & Ingharra)
7. Uruk (Warka)
8. Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar)
9. Nippur (Afak)
10. Lagash (Tell al-Hiba)
11. Ngirsu (Tello or Telloh)
12. Umma (Tell Jokha)
13. Hamazi 1
14. Adab (Tell Bismaya)
15. Mari (Tell Hariri) 2
16. Akshak 1
17. Akkad 1
18. Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat)
(1 - location uncertain)
(2 - an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia)
Minor cities (from south to north):
1. Kuara (Tell al-Lahm)
2. Zabala (Tell Ibzeikh)
3. Kisurra (Tell Abu Hatab)
4. Marad (Tell Wannat es-Sadum)
5. Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim)
6. Borsippa (Birs Nimrud)
7. Kutha (Tell Ibrahim)
8. Der (al-Badra)
9. Eshnunna (Tell Asmar)
10. Nagar (Tell Brak) 2
(2 - an outlying city in northern Mesopotamia)
The Sumerian eventually battle another people from the north, who are from Arabian Peninsula, called Akkadians,who are Semitic, who spoke Semitic language( related to Hebrew and Arabic). The city states of Sumer fell under Akkadian kingdom, the capital is Akkad, which later become Babylon. The Akkadian however abandoned much of their culture and adopt Sumerian culture.The Sumerian of the city of Ur did regain control , but only for a short period, another Semitic, the Amorites, gain control and started the end of Sumerian, who disappeared from human history around 2,000 BC. Genesis 10:16 described Amorites is the descendants of Canaan, son of Ham.
But the Sumerian civilization continued to the Semitic people, who adopt the Sumerian culture,which included system of Monarchy, Law, Writing, Religion, Science and Mathematics. Who is the Sumerian? the original Sumerian or the Semitic people who adopt their culture?.......
Noted Sumerian history recorded the story of the Great Flood(similar to the Great Flood of Noah), and according to Book of Genesis, the originator of the Hebrew race is the patriarch Abraham, who originally came from the city of Ur. Is it Sumerian Ur?
Note: Middle East , Near East ancient history is the lesser read history by us(including me), despite that the happening in this region will affect our lives in other region including Asia, Europe and America as well. The history of the past was complicated but interesting. There were wars with blood of the politic, race and religion, and tears from suffering of ordinary people. There were conflicting information from various schools based on their religion, politic, and racial bias. The understanding of the ancient history will enable us to understand the modern history of the region better. The modern history in Middle East is as complicated as the ancient history. The history seems to repeat. This is my personal reading of the historical articles, it helps me to understand global problem better, and not based on media biased articles(west and east). There are various sources in the internet and books, other than wikipedia. You need to be wise personally to select the data. Middle East is not all Arab history, there are Persian, Turks, Kurds, Jews, Arameans, Copts, Yemenis, Greeks, Samaritans, Pashtuns, Turkmens....... some have lost their native languages, some races are on the way to extinction e.g. Samaritans is with 700 people left. There were IDP, political refugee....the problems are all caused by politic, war, genocides, all caused by mankind itself. It is the history of greed and power, messes left by colonists(west and east)......
The posting was to provide some historical background to understand the video.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Nanking Massacre 1937(南京大屠殺)
Nanking Massacre 1937, is still linger in the mind of the victim family in China. It has been since the WW2, after the Japanese occupied China during the war. Yet, the Japanese government is not willing to provide a public formal apology for the massacre. The German had the courage to apologize for the war crime of Holocaust(猶太人大屠殺), the genocide of approximately 6 million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler and its allies and collaborators. Jews and German are able to forgive and forget about the bitter history, and moved forward in their lives. But the Japanese was not able to do so(except some who understand the issues). This has deny the families of victims their right for apology and compensation, they still remember the bitterness of the war crimes and the death of their love ones. Japan is now a modern nation with advocation of democracy and human right, but was not able to put their step forward to offer a human comfort to the families of the victims, a formal apology. They are playing the political games, political pride above humanity, it is difficult to admit their wrongs.
Nanking Massacre 1937(南京大屠殺)
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, refers to a six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, on 9-12-1937. During this period, 20-80,000 women were raped and nearly 300,000 Chinese civilians were murdered by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Attempt to erase history and war crimes in school textbooks: The PRC joined other Asian countries, such as South Korea, North Korea,and Singapore, in criticizing Japanese history textbooks that "whiten" Japanese war crimes in WW2. They claimed that the rise of militarism became evident in Japanese politics. Why want to erase the fact of history? their action revealed their long term strategy to brain wash their school children on justification of the war.
Visit and paid respect to war criminals by the nation's top leaders: Muchanti-Japanese sentiment has raised, and this has been exacerbated by burgeoning feelings of Chinese nationalism and former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine(靖国神社) . Although Koizumi openly declared – in a statement made on 22-4-2005 in Jakarta- "deep remorse" over Japan's wartime crimes (the latest in a series of apologies spanning several decades), many Chinese observers regard the apology as insufficient and not backed up by sincere action. (source: wikipedia). The frequent visit to the WW2 war criminals proved that their apologies were not sincere.
The Japan denied the Nanjing Massacre(or Nanking Massacre) is an act of inhuman, and disrespect to the victim families, a total insult to the victim of their war crimes in WW2. An attempt to alter the history,in order to brainwash their school children is a reflection of their bad faith and non-sincere action of apology. The paying of respect to the war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine by the nation's top leader is adding salt to the pains of their war crime victims.There is ground for worry by the victim countries.
Of the 2,466,532 people contained in the shrine's Book of Souls, 1,068 were convicted of war crimes by a post World War II court. Of those, 14 are convicted Class A war criminals.
An English-language sign at the shrine describes Japan as being "forced" into World War II by deliberate strategy of the US President Roosevelt, using trade embargoes to force resource poor Japan into war. A big lie by Japan, America become involved in WW2, was because of the unannounced military strike by Japanese navy planes against USA naval base at Pearl Harbor on 7-12-1941, Sunday morning. An evidence that Japan intentionally erase their involvement in WW2 and war crimes.
(Photo credited to Jeff Windham in 2007).
The Pearl Harbor Attack
Warning Note: This documentary film on Nanking Massacre is purely documentary, unlike the early documentary film " Nanking" which I saw in DVD. Initially I was undecided whether to post this in the blog. But The Nanking Massacre is a true story that no human being will deny the wrongdoing and the crime committed. They are very cruel.......If you are under 18 , or cannot stand the seeing of human violation, please avoid watching this film.
星洲日報／國際‧2009.08.09
1. Nanking Massacre, by www.wikipedia.org.
2. Documentary film/DVD: Nanking(2007), directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, that makes use of letters and diaries from the era as well as archive footage and interviews with surviving victims and those involved in the massacre.
3. The Rape of Nanking:The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (1997), by Iris Shun-Ru Chang(張純如).
4. Nanking Massacre memorial Hall(侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆) official website: http://www.nj1937.org/english/default.asp
5. Yasukuni Shrine, www.wikipedia.org.
6. http://www.nanking-massacre.com/
7. Nanking 1937, http://www.princeton.edu/~nanking/html/history_of_the_nanking_massacre.html
8. http://www.nj1937.org/english/default.asp
9. Iris Chang, http://www.irischang.net/
10. http://www.leekianseng.com/seJapaneseHistoryMuseum.htm
Nanking Massacre 1937(南京大屠殺)
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, refers to a six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, on 9-12-1937. During this period, 20-80,000 women were raped and nearly 300,000 Chinese civilians were murdered by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Eyewitness accounts of Westerners and Chinese present at Nanking in the weeks after the fall of the city state that over the course of six weeks following the fall of Nanking, Japanese troops engaged in rape, murder, theft, arson, and other war crimes. Some of these accounts came from foreigners who opted to stay behind in order to protect Chinese civilians from harm, including the diaries of German John Rabe and American Minnie Vautrin. Other accounts include first-person testimonies of the Nanking Massacre survivors, eyewitness reports of journalists (both Western and Japanese), as well as the field diaries of military personnel. An American missionary, John Magee, stayed behind to provide a 16 mm film documentary and first-hand photographs of the Nanking Massacre.
A group of foreign expatriates headed by John Rabe had formed the 15-man International Committee on November 22 and mapped out the Nanking Safety Zone in order to safeguard civilians in the city. Rabe and American missionary Lewis S. C. Smythe, secretary of the International Committee and a professor of sociology at the University of Nanking, recorded the actions of the Japanese troops and filed complaints to the Japanese embassy.
In 2007, a group of around 100 Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) lawmakers again denounced the Nanjing Massacre as a fabrication, arguing that there was no evidence to prove the allegations of mass killings by Japanese soldiers. They accused Beijing of using the alleged incident as a "political advertisement". Japan questions if the Rape of Nanjing even occurred; a Japanese produced documentary film released just prior to the 60th anniversary of the massacre, titled" The Truth about Nanjing", denies that any such atrocities took place. These disputes have stirred up enmity against Japan from the global Chinese community, including Taiwan.
The memory of the Nanking Massacre has been a stumbling block in Sino-Japanese relations since the early 1970s. Bilateral exchanges on trade, culture and education have increased greatly since the two countries normalized their bilateral relations and Japan became China’s most important trading partner. Trade between the two nations is worth over $200 billion annually. Despite this, many Chinese people still have a strong sense of mistrust and animosity toward Japan that originates from the memory of Japanese crimes such as the Nanking Massacre. This sense of mistrust is strengthened by the misconception that Japan is unwilling to admit to and apologize for the atrocity.
Chinese sources list the total number of military and non-military casualties in WW2, both dead and wounded, at 35 million. Most Western historians believed that the total number of casualties was at least 20 million. The property loss suffered by the Chinese was valued at 383 billion US dollars according to the currency exchange rate in July 1937, roughly 50 times the GDP of Japan at that time (US$7.7 billion).Attempt to erase history and war crimes in school textbooks: The PRC joined other Asian countries, such as South Korea, North Korea,and Singapore, in criticizing Japanese history textbooks that "whiten" Japanese war crimes in WW2. They claimed that the rise of militarism became evident in Japanese politics. Why want to erase the fact of history? their action revealed their long term strategy to brain wash their school children on justification of the war.
Visit and paid respect to war criminals by the nation's top leaders: Muchanti-Japanese sentiment has raised, and this has been exacerbated by burgeoning feelings of Chinese nationalism and former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine(靖国神社) . Although Koizumi openly declared – in a statement made on 22-4-2005 in Jakarta- "deep remorse" over Japan's wartime crimes (the latest in a series of apologies spanning several decades), many Chinese observers regard the apology as insufficient and not backed up by sincere action. (source: wikipedia). The frequent visit to the WW2 war criminals proved that their apologies were not sincere.
The Japan denied the Nanjing Massacre(or Nanking Massacre) is an act of inhuman, and disrespect to the victim families, a total insult to the victim of their war crimes in WW2. An attempt to alter the history,in order to brainwash their school children is a reflection of their bad faith and non-sincere action of apology. The paying of respect to the war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine by the nation's top leader is adding salt to the pains of their war crime victims.There is ground for worry by the victim countries.
Yasukuni Shrine( 靖國神社)
Yasukuni Shrine (靖国神社 Yasukuni Jinja) is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo,Japan. It is dedicated to the Kami (spirits) of soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan.Of the 2,466,532 people contained in the shrine's Book of Souls, 1,068 were convicted of war crimes by a post World War II court. Of those, 14 are convicted Class A war criminals.
On 17 October 1978, 14 Class A war criminals (convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East), including Hideki Tojo, were enshrined as "Martyrs of Shōwa" (昭和殉難者 Shōwa junnansha), ostensibly that they were on the war dead registry. They are listed below, according to their sentences:
- Death by hanging:
- Lifetime imprisonment:
- 20-year imprisonment:
- Died before a judicial decision was reached (due to illness or disease):
All imprisoned war criminals had commuted sentences, or released by 1958.
The enshrinement was revealed to the media on April 19, 1979, and a controversy started in 1985 which continues to this day.
An English-language sign at the shrine describes Japan as being "forced" into World War II by deliberate strategy of the US President Roosevelt, using trade embargoes to force resource poor Japan into war. A big lie by Japan, America become involved in WW2, was because of the unannounced military strike by Japanese navy planes against USA naval base at Pearl Harbor on 7-12-1941, Sunday morning. An evidence that Japan intentionally erase their involvement in WW2 and war crimes.
(Photo credited to Jeff Windham in 2007).
The Pearl Harbor Attack
Warning Note: This documentary film on Nanking Massacre is purely documentary, unlike the early documentary film " Nanking" which I saw in DVD. Initially I was undecided whether to post this in the blog. But The Nanking Massacre is a true story that no human being will deny the wrongdoing and the crime committed. They are very cruel.......If you are under 18 , or cannot stand the seeing of human violation, please avoid watching this film.
.........大批日本右翼份子前來鬧場，與反靖國人士險些爆發衝突。
街頭有眾多日本右翼團體來抗議當晚舉行的“為黑暗的靖國點上和平燭光”遊行，並高舉日本國旗和西藏雪山獅子旗????。.......WHAT IS THEIR ACTUAL AGENDA?
日本‧媒體指聯手“抗日”‧兩岸團體促取消靖國神社
2009-08-09 15:30
（日本‧東京）台海兩岸團體連手抗議靖國神社！
中國大陸、台灣、韓國和日本的部份日軍戰死者遺屬及市民，上週六在東京要求取消靖國神社合祀。
日本媒體指出，中國大使館是這場儀式的後援單位之一，這變成兩岸人民聯手“抗日”。
中日兩國上週六首次聯合為在日殉難的中國勞工舉行“在日殉難中國勞工慰靈祭”，中國六首度派出70人團體赴東京參加法會；中國駐日大使崔天凱也出席儀式。
與此同時，台灣立法委員高金素梅亦率領50人“還我祖靈”隊赴東京本久寺，參加法會，並在東京舉行一系列反靖國神社的活動，要求靖國神社不要隨意地把他們的祖先靈位放在神社內。
她強調：“台灣原住民的心，是與被日本強擄勞工苦難者永遠聯結在一起的……希望與強擄勞工受難者一起手攜手、心連心，共同向日本政府發聲，要求恢復歷史正義，努力爭取世界和平。”
高金素梅對“抗日”說法不以為然。她表示，她從2002年起就發起“還我祖靈”運動，希望台灣原住民祖先從日本的靖國神社除名，亦希望日本政府能道歉、反省、賠償。
她指出，往年有韓國、琉球人士參加，今年確實首度有中國人參加，但亞洲人都可參與，她不希望被泛政治化。
日右翼險與反靖國人士衝突
大批日本右翼份子前來鬧場，與反靖國人士險些爆發衝突。
街頭有眾多日本右翼團體來抗議當晚舉行的“為黑暗的靖國點上和平燭光”遊行，並高舉日本國旗和西藏雪山獅子旗。
在重重警力戒備下，右翼團體與高金素梅率領的反靖國人士，多次差點爆發衝突。
日本右翼人士及部份路人高喊：“中國人滾回去、台灣人不要傻傻被中國利用”、“沒有日本，台灣現在就是沒自由民主的中國的一部份”。高金素梅等人也多次比出“大拇指朝下”加以反擊。
有日本人士表示，現在兩岸關係改善，高金素梅8月也將率團前往北京、雲南，背後有政治因素存在。但高金素梅反駁，她這次率團到日本或是將前往中國，都是從事文化活動。
靖國神社是位於日本東京都千代田區九段北的一座神社。該神社供奉自明治維新以來為日本帝國戰死的軍人及軍屬，其中絕大多數是在中日戰爭及太平洋戰爭中陣亡的日軍官兵及殖民地募集兵，性質上類似華人社會的忠烈祠。靖國神社在第二次世界大戰結束前一直由日本軍方專門管理，是國家神道的象徵；在二戰後，遵循政教分離原則，改組為宗教法人。
由於靖國的祭祀對象包括了14名甲級戰犯，使得該神社被東亞各國視為日本軍國主義的象徵而備具爭議性。(source:wikipedia)
We can only prayed that there will be no genocide or massacre in any time, in any part of the world in this modern era. We remember the victims of Nanking Massacre, and Iris Chang in our prayer.
1. Nanking Massacre, by www.wikipedia.org.
2. Documentary film/DVD: Nanking(2007), directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, that makes use of letters and diaries from the era as well as archive footage and interviews with surviving victims and those involved in the massacre.
3. The Rape of Nanking:The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (1997), by Iris Shun-Ru Chang(張純如).
4. Nanking Massacre memorial Hall(侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆) official website: http://www.nj1937.org/english/default.asp
5. Yasukuni Shrine, www.wikipedia.org.
6. http://www.nanking-massacre.com/
7. Nanking 1937, http://www.princeton.edu/~nanking/html/history_of_the_nanking_massacre.html
8. http://www.nj1937.org/english/default.asp
9. Iris Chang, http://www.irischang.net/
10. http://www.leekianseng.com/seJapaneseHistoryMuseum.htm
Friday, May 8, 2009
May Fourth Movement五四運動
I nearly forgot the May Fourth Movement五四運動/五四运动; on 4th of May,the student demonstration in Beijing on 4-5-1919, which demonstrated against the unfair treatment of Treaty of Versailles after the first world war on China(a victor country), especially on Shandong problem. Shandong problem is the dispute over article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles 1919. The article transferred the German concessions in Shandong Peninsular to Japan, rather than returning the sovereign authority of the land to China. Treaty of Versailles was the peace treaty signed on 28-6-1919 at the end of WW1, between Germany and the Allied Power at Paris Peace Conference. China did not signed the treaty, but signed a separate treaty directly with Germany in 1921.
May Forth Movement is also refered to the period between 1915-1921, also called New Cultural Movement(新文化運動/新文化运动). The New Cultural Movement was formed after the failure of Chinese Republic found in 1912 which overthrown the Qing dynasty, when Yuan Shikai(袁世凯)become the 2nd President of China,when Dr Sun Yat Sen resigned.He was a warlord who attempt to become the new emperor of China. The movement called for the creation of new Chinese culture against the traditional Confucian culture(儒家). The new culture will be based on the global and western thinking at the time,especially science(科学)and democracy(民主). They called it Mr Science(赛先生) and Mr Democracy(德先生). The people who involved in the movement were Chen Duxiu(陈独秀),Cai Yuanpei(蔡元培),Cai Yuanpei(李大钊),Lu Xun(魯迅),Hu Shih(胡適/胡适), who are all famous scholars from Peking University(北京大學) or Beida(北大).
Cai Yuanpei(1876-1940蔡元培)
The person who facilitate the initiation of the movement was Cai Yuanpei(1876-1940蔡元培) who is the chancellor of Peking University, who recruited many famous scholars and thinkers, even from different or opposing views,they are Hu Shih(胡適),Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and Gu Hongming(辜鴻銘). Gu Hongming(1857-1928),from Penang who is a scholar who advocate Confucian value and monarchy, which was having opposing views from others.Hu Shih(1891-1962) promoted Vernacular Chinese(白话)which is spoken Chinese and against the classical Chinese which is difficult to understand . Most of the scholars at the time was having political thinking inclined to communism, except Gu Hongming and Hu Shih; Cai Yuanpei as a university chancellor allowed the students to expose to the different thinking at the time. That is democracy, respect of different views and thinking. He was the man that facilitate the movement. Peking university later on produced many great scholars,writers,academician which have influence the modern China.Without Cai Yuanpei,there will be no Beida(北大) or Peking University, no New Cultural Movement,no May Fourth Movement, it all because of democracy spirit of Mr Cai Yuanpei, the chancellor of Peking University. The Peking University of today still maintain the tradition, and produced students who dare to give their view, even difference from the ruling party. Because it is the birth place of New Cultural Movement, the May Fourth Movement.
Gu Hongming(辜鴻銘)(1857-1928), from Penang,Malaysia.
The May Fourth Movement is more a political movement that called for the awakening of Chinese on nationalism and changes based on the New Cultural Movement initiated by the academician and scholars. It shifted the awakening from the small base of academic to mobilization of the masses of Chinese people from various background. It moved the Chinese from cultural issues of the academician and scholars to political movement of the people or masses to change, and later lead to revolution to form a new People Republic of China in 1-10-1949.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Strait Settlement(1826-1946)海峽殖民地
Strait Settlement (海峽殖民地)were a group of British territories located in South East Asia. It was established in 1826 as part of territories controlled by British East India Company
The Strait Settlement was originally included Penang, Singapore and Malacca. In 1786, Sir Francis Light acquired Penang from Sultan of Kedah,and 1798 Province Wellesley was acquired. In 6-2-1819, Sir Stamford Raffles took Singapore. In 1824, British exchange Bancoolen(west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia) with Dutch Malacca(West coast of Malaya) under Anglo-Dutch Treaty. The Chinese called the settlement "San-Cho-Foo"(三洲府) which litrally mean three settlements.
In 1826, the three British settlements were under Incorporated Settlement of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore and Malacca. The Prince of Wales or Penang as capital. In 1832, the capital was moved to Singapore.
But from 1-4-1867, the Strait Settlements came under direct control as British crown colony. The settlement was now answerable to the Colony Office in London, instead of East India Company in Calcutta, India. The Head of the Strait Settlements was the Governor,who administrated the colony with the help of Executive Council(comprised of official members , and legislative council which composed partly officials and partly nominated members, but officials have narrow majority.Penang and Malacca were administrated by resident councillors,under direct control of the Governor.
In 1874, Dindings was ceded to British under Pangkor Treaty 1874.
The Cocos Island(Keeling Island, and Christmas Island were in 1886 transferred to Strait Settlement. Labuan joined in 1906.
The colony was dissolved on 1-4-1946, after the WW2. Singapore become separate crown colony.Penang and Malacca joined the newly established Malayan Union.Labuan was initially annexed to Singapore, but later joined the new colony of British North Borneo.The Cocos Island(Keeling Island)and Christmas Island were transferred to Australian administration in 1955 and 1957 respectively.
Medical Service
The Headquarter of Medical department of the Strait Settlement was in Penang where the Senior Surgeon has his official residence. The Government Medical Service was simple,which included Senior Surgeon (or Superintending Surgeon)who was the professional and administration head of the medical service, at Penang. Assistant Surgeon at each of the settlements.The first doctors are all Medical Officers in the army of East India Company, who are both military and civil service. Later on however there were separation of duties. The senior Surgeon left Penang when the headquarter of Medical Service followed the capital of Strait Settlement, moved to Singapore in 1835. So until 1946, the strait settlement medical service was controlled from Singapore.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Phuket & Penang(The 2Ps)
Penang island and Province Wellesley, Malaysia
(credited to source: zh:Image:Penang State Map.jpg. —Bkell (talk) 03:25, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
Phuket Island ,Thailand
Phuket & Penang( The 2 Ps)
If you look at the map, Phuket, Penang, Pulau Langkawi is located along the coast of
Phuket (普吉), the largest island in
Phuket is the island
Penang and Phuket, together with
The relationship between Phuket and
Francis Light, the founder of Penang stayed in Phuket for 15 years from 1771-1786. He found Penang in 1786. There was no trace of Francis Light in Phuket but there is a bronze statue of Francis Light standing in front of Penang Museum at Light Street. There is also a tomb in Western Road Cemetery. Francis Light was in Penang from 1786 to 1794. Francis Light was looking for a trading post for East India Company to protect the opium trade in China. He selected Penang over Phuket due to safer harbour. He was a person who known Phuket well, but chose Penang.
Another man is Khaw Sim Bee, from Na Ranong family was the one who introduced rubber trees to Phuket and the first rubber tree was planted in Trang. The rubber become the major crop of Thailand. He was the Governor of Monthon Phuket, a monthon was a country sub-division of Thailand in the begining of 20th century. The Monthon Phuket was established in 1898, it controlled Phuket, Ranong, Phang Nga, Ta kuapa, and Krabi provinces. In 1907, Satun was added when most of area of Monthon Kedah was ceded to Britain. Khaw Sim Bee is political-businessman, holding official position as well as having businesses in tin mining, shipping, trading, insurance, transport, and rubber etc.Khaw Sim Bee in Thailand, he goes by several names and titles, including Phraya Phakdi, Phraya Ratsada, and Phraya Ratsadanupradit Maissara Phakdi. His family was from Penang & his business base was also in Penang. Penang being a British port, was the source for the labor required for the tin mining and also the capital required for the industry. There are many monuments in Thailand, especially Phuket, Trang, and Ranong for remembrance of his contribution in South Thailand. But in Penang, there is one road named after him, the Khaw Sim Bee Road(or Jalan Khaw Sim Bee in Malay language)
Other than culture and trading, Penang is also the place for education for Phuket Chinese and other Chinese from South Thailand. Han Chiang High School and Chung Ling High School were the two popular school for the Phuket Chinese.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Penny Farthing Kangaroo Bicycle前轮大后轮小的脚踏车
Mr Mok Kim Weng, the man who love bicycle, opened a bicycle shop in the small town of Simpang Empat, Semanggol, Perak. The shop is dealing in retailing and repairing of bicycles.
Mr Mok has collection of old bicycles, one of the oldest is Penny Farthing Kangroo, make in England in 1884. But Mr Mok said it is much earlier, actually 1881.
There are not many Penny Farthing bicycle available now in the world. It is the only one in Malaysia.
The description of Penny Farthing actually refers to old British penny and Farthing(1/4 penny) coins. Penny is of larger coin size than farthing, the side view resembles the Penny leading the farthing. It is just like the first machine that called bicycle, that have large front wheel and smaller rear wheel. That is the reason for the name of Penny Farthing to the first bicycle. The name is reported only appeared in
print from 1927.
Penny Farthing is also called High Wheel, High Wheeler and Ordinary Bicycle(initially it was the first to be called Bicycle, which meant two wheels). It was the type of bicycle with a large front wheel and a much smaller rear wheel. The bicycle was popular between Boneshaker(or Velocipede) until the introduction of Safety bicycle.
The Boneshaker was the first to use pedals directly applied to front wheel in 1865 . It was called Velocipede,which meant fast foot.
It was James Starley and others that begin to produce bicycle based on French boneshaker, but with the front wheel of increasing size, as larger front wheel enable faster speed. The rider was sitting on top of the front wheel,and his feet could not reach the ground.
The ordinary bicycle was a direct drive bicycle,
meaning the cranks and pedals are fixed directly to the hub. Instead of using "gears" to multiply the revolutions of the pedals, the driven wheel was enlarged to close to the rider's inseam to increase the maximum speed. (source: www.wikipedia.com)
Note the first all metal bicycle only appeared in 1870, prior to that bicycles are wooden bicycles. The bicycle frame was then all make of steel tubing, reducing the overall weight of the bicycle.
Kangaroo gear is not related to Australian in anyway, it refers to kangaroo style gear up chains drive fitted to the larger front driving wheel or kangaroo gear, a early bicycle gearing system comprising independent right and left chain wheels driven by their own chain from the front driving wheel . The idea of kangaroo gear was put into commercial production by Hillman, Herbert, & Cooper of Premier Bicycle Co of Coventry in 1884 with their Kangaroo model. The model was officially introduced by the company in the Stanley Show, at the Floral Hall , Covent Gardein , London in February 1884. The model and this name, Kangaroo give rise to the type of bicycle using the kangaroo gear. Kangaroo become the trademark of the company for the bicycle. Kangaroo bicycle also attempt to make ordinary bicycle more manageable by fitting wheels of nearly equal size, but the most important is the two chain drive on the front wheel. The kangaroo bicycle set a new trend in bicycle history. Most bicycle manufacturers start produce the kangaroo bicycle.
The kangaroo was however replaced by rear chain safety bicycle, devised by Rover in 1885. The manufacturer was reported only produced kangaroo bicycle from 1884 to 1887. The kangaroo type disappeared from the bicycle catalogues by 1888.
From the history mentioned above, the Penny Farthing Kangaroo bicycle can only be around from 1884, the year of its first commercial production until 1887 where it no longer manufactured by the producer in England. Mr Mok said that the bicycle he owned is manufactured much earlier in 1881 is not possible, as the fist kangaroo bicycle only commercially produced in 1884. It is only between 1884 to 1887. Unless the bicycle is the prototype during R&D stage. The year of 1884 may be correct, and it is the first year of commercial production.
Note in bicycle literature, the Kangaroo bicycle was refer to as both a dwarf ordinary and dwarf safety, as the bicycle type appeared during the transition period between the ordinary or penny farthing and the development of safety bicycle. The kangaroo was promoted in the advertisement in those period as" Safer than tricycle"; "Faster than a bicycle" .
The development history of bicycle is from Hobbyhorse (or Draisienne)- a walking machine; Velocipede (or Boneshaker) a faster due to pedals attached to front wheel; Penny Fathing or Bicycle or ordinary bicycle- two wheels of different size, with front wheel of larger size to enable the bicycle to move faster; kangaroo- adding a gearing system , until Safety bicycle- two wheels of identical sizes and a chain driven rear wheel.
Hillman, Herbert, & Cooper of Premier Bicycle Co, Coventry, England
The firm had been established in 1876 with three partners, William Hillman, William Henry Herbert and George Beverley Cooper. Hillman had previously been a foreman at the Coventry Sewing Machine company and had practical experience.
What is safety bicycle?
The safety bicycle or low safety is a type of bicycle that became very popular beginning in the late 1880s. The first safety, using a diamond frame, was invented by John Kemp Starley in 1885. "Safeties" are characterized by having two wheels of identical - or nearly identical - size, and a chain-driven rear wheel.
The safety bicycle was a big improvement on the previous penny-farthing design which it replaced. The chain drive, coupling a large front cog (the chainring) to a small rear cog (the sprocket) to multiply the revolutions of the pedals, allowed for much smaller wheels, and replaced the need for the large, directly pedaled front wheel of the "penny-farthing" or "high ordinary". The smaller wheel gave a harder ride, thus hastening the replacement of solid tires with pneumatic ones. (source: www.wikipedia.com).
The first pnuematic tire was first applied to the safety bicycle by a young animal doctor, who is giving more comfortable ride to the son, his name is Dunlop, sound familiar to Malaysian?
Please also noted that the Rover Safety bicycle was launched by John Kemp Starley(1854-1901),who is the nephew of James Starley(1830-1881). James Starley , who was responsible for making popular the ordinary bicycle or penny farthing, and called the Father of Bicycle Industry. James also builds the original Aerial high-wheeler in 1870,with 50 inch front wheel to make use of suspension principle. John Kemp Starley , who is the inventor of modern bicycle, the safety bicycle,and the founder of name Rover. The Rover begin manufactured of automobile car after the death of John Kemp Starley, who also make electric car but never put into production..
In Vienna, Austria, there is a group of 20 riders, enjoyed riding Penny Farthings(you can visit their web site refer to www.wk.at)The oldest Penny Farthings is ca 1875, wheel size 112cm & black in color, the owner is Bicycle Museum Vosendorf Castle, Austria.
Another 1875 Penn Farthings is the ariel high wheel bicycle patented by James Starley on 11-8-1870 under the licence by Haynes & Jefferis, Coventry, England. It was market until 1879. The owner is National Fietsmuseum , Velorama, Netherlands.
The visit to Simpang Empat, Kerian is a history of bicycle well learnt....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
