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THE UNIQUE PROBOSCIS MONKEYS OF BORNEO © Dr. John Freedman, 2019
The island of Borneo in southeast Asia is the world’s third
largest island and one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. It has
been isolated from the Asian mainland for over 10,000 years ago and is home to
many organisms which exist nowhere else and provide endless fascination for nature-lovers.
Perhaps my favorite of all of Borneo’s rare denizens is the unique proboscis
monkey, aptly named Nasalis larvatus
due to its long, rubbery-looking nose. These creatures look like no other
primate. Though some may say they are comically homely, the monkeys themselves would
beg to differ. They frolic, preen and show off with an air of haughty
superiority- seemingly very aware that they are decidedly different from all
their primate brethren, and quite special at that. The monkeys proudly sport an
uncommonly large, fleshy, and pendulous nose that hangs down over their mouth. This
trait gave rise to an alternative Malay name for the monkey in the 17th
century: Orang Belanda, which means Dutchman, in a less than
flattering reference to the Dutch sailors and traders whom the natives thought
the monkey resembled. The monkey’s pronounced proboscis can be up to 8 inches
long in mature males. The purpose and evolutionary significance of the outsized
organ is a matter of some contention in these little-studied creatures. Most
primatologists would say it is the result of sexual selection, with females
preferring the better-endowed males. The males make a honking mating call, and
because the nose is an echo chamber, the sound is louder and more resonant in
the monkeys with the biggest honkers. Thus in this case, in terms of ability to
attract a mate, (nasal) size matters. An alternative and not mutually exclusive
theory is that the largest-nosed males can emit the loudest alarm call when a
predator is endangering its brood (and in the jungles of Borneo, there is no
shortage of predators, including crocodiles, pythons, clouded leopards, eagles,
and huge monitor lizards almost as fearsome as their cousins on nearby Komodo
Island in Indonesia.) Thus the larger-nosed males may have an evolutionary
advantage in a louder warning call to protect their offspring as well as their social and mating group.
These monkeys are quite large, with males growing to over 50
pounds and females about half that. The males are among the largest of all the
Old World and New World monkeys, and they have a very noticeable and
protuberant pot belly – perhaps another feature that caused the indigenous
inhabitants to liken them to well-fed Dutch traders. Their coloring is
beautiful: a soft tan body with a radiant reddish-orange on the crown of the
head and the shoulders, and taupe-gray limbs.
These creatures live in coastal regions of the island and
thrive in mangrove forests and riverine rainforest. Borneo is the only island in
the world which is home to three different countries - Malaysia, Indonesia and
Brunei - and the proboscis monkeys inhabit the coastal areas and estuaries of
all three. They are folivorous and frugivorous (leaf- and fruit-eating) and are
primarily arboreal. They do take short jaunts on land, where they mostly move
quadripedally but it is a real treat to seem them saunter about bipedally
sometimes. Proboscis monkeys are world-class jumpers, usually from tree to tree,
but also frequently catapulting themselves from the trees into the water. They are
excellent swimmers, with webbed feet and hands to facilitate this skill, and are
the most aquatic of all primates.
Proboscis monkeys are highly social animals, which adds to the pleasure
and drama of viewing them. They organize into groups usually consisting of one
dominant male and a harem of 10-20 females and their young. Interestingly, the
females commonly switch groups. Some groups are made up only of young
bachelors, aspirants to adulthood and harem-ruling, which will come in time.
The groups are non-territorial and actually have a “fission-fusion” lifestyle
in which they tend to coalesce at the coast or riverside at night and then
separate and move inland to forage during the day.
Sadly these unique and amazing creatures are dwindling in
numbers. The population island-wide has diminished by over 50% in the last 3
generations, over the past 40 years or so. They have been hunted for food and
also for their bezoars which are valued in traditional medicine. The governments
of all three countries on the island have now outlawed hunting or capturing or
harming the animals in any way. These delicate creatures do not survive long in
captivity due to their very specialized dietary requirements. They require
young leaves and unripe fruit from coastal and riparian trees which have a high
mineral content. They also have a complex multi-chambered stomach and rely on a
specific microbiome of symbiotic bacteria for digestion. Changes in habitat or
diet thus wreak havoc with their digestive processes.
The proboscis monkey is designated as Endangered by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are still subject
to natural predation, but the primary cause of their diminishing numbers is
ongoing habitat loss due to destruction of the mangroves and rainforest by
logging and oil palm plantations. By most estimates, only about 7000 or so of
these marvelous creatures remain.
Fortunately there are
over a dozen sanctuaries and protected areas throughout Borneo for these very
special monkeys. For those cruising the South China Sea, which skirts the north
coast of Borneo, excellent opportunities to glimpse these fantastic creatures
can be found at Bako National Park outside of Kuching in Sarawak (the western
part of Malaysian Borneo), on short river cruises into the mangroves in
Brunei’s capital city of Bandar Seri Bagawan, and very best of all at the extraordinary Labuk Bay
Sanctuary just outside of the city of
Sandakan in Sabah (Malaysia’s easternmost province).
Seeing these whimsical and
unusual creatures may take a little effort, but you will be well rewarded with
an unforgettable wildlife experience.
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---------------------------------------------------------------- You are an inspirational teacher! -Lynda R
I have enjoyed your lectures
so much. They have been both so informative and hugely entertaining.
Mrs KJC
Greatly enjoying your lectures on
board the Voyager. So grateful for your generous intellectual contribution to
our trip. Truly enriching. Thanks!!
H.B. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Seychelles: A Unique Destination
© Dr. John
Freedman, 2019
In my many interesting
conversations with fellow travelers at sea, I’m often asked about my favorite
destinations. I have a taste for the exotic and unusual, so a number of my
favorites
fall into that category.
High on the list is the unique granitic archipelago of the Seychelles.
A sovereign state since its
independence from Britain in 1976, the Republic of the Seychelles is certain to
intrigue those with a taste for the exotic – and the spectacularly beautiful.
The exoticism starts with the archipelago’s remote location 1000 miles off the
coast of Kenya in the warm turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean. The islands’
uniqueness begins with their geologic history. About 80 million years ago a
giant fragment of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana split into two pieces
which were destined to become India and Madagascar. But there were tiny shards
strewn between the two larger pieces in the breakup. These fragmentary bits
were what we now call the Seychelles. The India piece drifted northward from
its southerly oceanic position, eventually slamming into Asia (and creating the
Himalayas in the process) while the Madagascar piece stayed close to the
African mainland. But the lonely Seychelles – all 115 islands – were stranded
between the two in the middle of the ocean. They now compose the only oceanic
archipelago on the planet which consists of granitic continental fragments.
This extraordinary geological provenance also makes the Seychelles the world’s
oldest islands, by far. The great antiquity of the granite megaliths has
allowed them to be sculpted over eons into a breathtaking variety of sizes,
shapes and configurations, and the granite formations are as stunning in their
curvaceous beauty and delicate texture as they are in their impressive size and
heft. Much of the granitic substratum of the islands became carpeted with lush
tropical forest over millions of years, while white sand came to fringe the
islands’ innumerable coves. Nature was in an excellent, bountiful mood here.
Yet the Seychelles have
another special card to play: the islands’ biogeographic isolation and gentle
climate gave birth to a profusion of wonderful and unique life forms. With one
of the highest endemicity rates on the planet, the Seychelles are a
naturalist’s paradise. The Aldabra tortoises provide a sterling example of the
evolutionary principle of “island gigantism”, and they are the only giant
tortoises on the planet besides their famous cousins in the far away Galapagos.
The diminutive Seychelles frog provides a stunning example of the obverse evolutionary
phenomenon of “island dwarfism”: this tiny amphibian is about the size of your
fingernail. The endemic black paradise flycatcher can be seen only on the island
of La Digue (the best chance of seeing one is at the renowned Veuve Nature
Reserve – and there are only 100 left). A particularly fascinating avian
denizen is the Seychelles warbler – incredibly, the sex of its offspring is
determined by the availability of food. During times of plenty, only females
are born, to nurture the expected burgeoning population of young in the next
generation. During times of more constrained food availability, only males are
born, as they are the key foragers. The mechanism of this extraordinary
adaptation – exactly how the sex-specific reproduction occurs biologically in
the organism - is unknown but under intense study. Equally extraordinary and
more whimsical is the coco de mer - the world’s largest and unquestionably most
erotically-shaped nut. Actually a giant seed of the world’s tallest palm tree
which grows only in the Seychelles, the coco
de mer's enormous seed/nut bears an uncanny resemblance to the female buttocks and pelvic area. You can
see it growing on the 30 m/100 ft-tall palm trees on the island of Praslin,
where the tree is known as the longevity tree because it has been known to live for up to 800
years. Or just enjoy the many coco de mer
nuts which are decoratively displayed around the islands. The
swashbuckling British Victorian General Charles George Gordon believed that the
Seychelles were the Garden of Eden and the coco
de mer was the forbidden fruit. Eve must have been in very good shape to
hand it to Adam given that the seed weighs up to 45 kg/100 lbs.
But the Seychelles offer more
than natural wonders. The history of the archipelago is rich and colorful.
Although likely visited by Malay seafarers and others over the centuries, the
archaeologic record indicates that the islands were never inhabited before the
coming of the Europeans. The first recorded sighting is in the chronicles of
Vasco da Gama’s third Indian Ocean crossing in 1503. He humbly named them the Islas Amirantes (Admiral’s Islands)
after himself. The first documented European visit was by a ship of the British
East India Company in 1609, whose chroniclers described the islands as “a
paradise” where they replenished their stores with fresh water, fish, coconuts,
birds, and the ample meat of turtles and giant tortoises. The British, being quite
busy with conquests elsewhere, were slow to follow up. Without a colonial
overlord, the islands became a pirate haven in the latter 1600s, a satellite of
the much larger pirate stronghold on Madagascar. Most famous among the pirates
was Olivier Le Vaisseur, better-known as “La Buse” (The Buzzard”). La Buse
plundered a Portuguese ship carrying the treasures of the Catholic church,
including the 7-foot high solid gold, jewel-encrusted Cross of Goa – with an estimated
value of $250 million in today’s dollars. This and the rest of his treasure
were supposedly buried somewhere on the north end of Mahé before he was
captured and hanged in 1730. At least one cryptogram from the time has
survived, allegedly hinting at the location of the treasure, which is still
actively being sought by treasure hunters. The pirate period would end in 1742 when
the French sent a colonial mission from their outpost in Mauritius to take
possession of the highly-reputed islands. They aptly named the main island Ile d’Abondance (Island of Abundance)
though its name was soon officially changed to Mahé (its name to this day) after
the Governor of Mauritius who had sponsored the colonizing endeavor. The French
named the whole island group after Louis XV’s Minister of Finance, Jean Moreau
de Séchelles, and that name has stuck through thick and thin. The French colonists
imported and planted nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and black pepper – all enormously
valuable spices at the time – and brought in African slaves to work the
plantations. This dark history importantly gave root to what is today a vibrant
and beautiful creole or “Seychellois” culture, rich in folk traditions and
famed for its ginger-spiced cuisine which mixes African, French and Asian
influences and capitalizes on the islands’ abundant fresh seafood. The mix of
African and European cultures also gave rise to the colorful Seychellois patois
which enriches the island’s culture to this day.
The British and French would
tussle over these (and innumerable other) island chess pieces in the period of colonial
conquest and European imperial power politics during the 18th and 19th
centuries. French hegemony over the Seychelles would officially come to an end
in 1814 when the British formally took possession of the islands as part of the
spoils of the Napoleonic Wars, the islands would remain British until
independence in 1976.
Cruisers usually visit one
of several ports in what is known as the Inner Islands. That’s good, because
the Inner Islands are the most dramatic and granitic, whereas the outer islands
(most of which are uninhabited) are more coralline. Yet there is plenty of
coral and wonderful snorkeling around the granitic islands, so it’s the best of
both worlds. The most commonly visited port is the capital city of Victoria on
the “big” island of Mahé. The capital itself offers interesting architecture
and history, but the island’s greatest draw is the natural beauty of its
granite-pillared beaches. Another draw on Mahé is the Morne Seychellois
National Park, which covers 20% of the island and offers great hiking, though
primarily in the thick forest of the interior rather than on the granite-studded
coast. A second port often visited is the fabulously beautiful island of La
Digue with some of the Seychelles’ most iconic beaches, including Anse Source
De L’Argent and Grand Anse (the French word anse
means handle, as on a teacup, which reflects the shape of these gently
curved beaches). La Digue is the 4th largest inhabited island in the
Seychelles (after Mahé, Praslin, and Silhouette) but you can still walk most of
it in a couple of hours. Bicycles and oxcarts are a great way to get around
this tranquil island. La Digue is considered a birder’s paradise, but don’t
miss the Aldabra tortoise preserve. A third port often visited is Praslin, which
is known for one of the Seychelles’ most scenic beaches, Anse Lazio, as well as
the Vallée de Mai preserve where the coco
de mer grows in stately abundance. Praslin is where General Gordon came up
with his theory that the Seychelles were the biblical Garden of Eden.
Depending on your itinerary,
you’ll have lots of great options in the Seychelles. The main Inner Islands are quite close together - ferries
between Mahé and Praslin take about an hour, between Praslin and La Digue only
about 15 minutes.
That begins to scratch the
surface of what’s in store for those lucky enough to visit the amazing
Seychelles. It is surely a uniquely beautiful and interesting destination to
set your sights on. Open your mind and get your camera ready!
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My wife and I were on the Oceania Insignia from Singapore to Abu Dhabi and were lucky enough to attend all of your outstanding lectures - the best that
we have ever attended in over ten cruises.
Thank you and kind regards,
Chris and Joanna Thomas --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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SIMMERING SAIGON © Dr. John Freedman, 2019
Vietnam’s most vibrant city makes not only my short list of
My Favorite Asian Cities, but also my short list of My Favorite Cities of the
World. It has all the requirements for a city that one can delightedly go back
to again and again: a rich and emotionally involving history, friendly and
upbeat people, a peppy and positive vibe, eminently walkable streets and
byways, unending color and diversity, a thriving economy assuring dynamic
growth and change, and a local cuisine second to none. The ubiquitous pho (the city’s signature dish, an
ultra-savory meal-in-a-bowl soup infused with fresh cut basil, chili and lime)
is to me a metaphor for the city itself – always simmering day and
night on every street corner, full of varied and colorful ingredients, redolent
of exotic spices, and offering something different in every spoonful.
The city was officially re-named Ho Chi Minh City after the
fall of South Vietnam in 1975, but its original historic name of Saigon still has
staying power, so you can feel free to use it without fear of political
incorrectness. The area was first settled hundreds of years before the Vietnamese
arrived, starting as the small port town known of Prei Nokor under the control
of Cambodia’s imperious Kings of Angkor. After falling under Vietnamese
suzerainty in the late 17th century, it quickly became an important
farming area and bustling mercantile hub. The hyper-industrious Viet people saw their
city grow into the country’s largest city, its major commercial center, and its
gateway to the world. The French were quick to make Saigon the capital of their
showcase Indochinese colony in the 19th century. Even today the city
retains and leverages a charming air of its “Indochine” aesthetic history with a rich heritage of French
colonial architecture including the wedding cake City Hall, the old General
Post Office designed by Alfred Eiffel, the Franco-Romanesque Notre Dame
Cathedral, and the elegant Opera House – all within a leisurely walk of each
other in the city’s central District 1. The French café spirit lives on in
Saigon where you’ll find the best coffee, baguettes, croissants and ice cream
in Asia. Also in the easily walkable central district are the storied old hotels
of yesteryear like the Continental (1888), the Majestic (1925) and the Rex
(1927) – all doing a brisker business than ever. Within a short stroll is
Saigon’s iconic Reunification Palace – a 1960s-era structure which formerly
served as the Presidential Palace of South Vietnam’s leaders until it became
the site where the Vietnam War decisively ended when a North Vietnamese tank
bulldozed its way through the wrought iron front gate at 10:45AM on April 30,
1975. Another short stroll will take you to one of Saigon’s busiest and largest
markets, Cho Ben Thahn. Just a short taxi ride away is Saigon’s energetic and
culturally-rich Chinatown, known as Cholon. And any meanderings through the
city will also take you to innumerable temples representing the region’s 4 major religions in all their syncretism: Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and ancient shamanistic folk religion.
In addition to its rich history, the city exudes a modern
and youthful energy. Over 2/3 of its 8 million residents were born after the
war, and they are busy-busy-busy – working, making deals, chatting, and eating.
Saigon is one of Asia’s great “Marx meets Mammon” cities, and it is certainly
one where Mammon has always had the strongest foothold. Most of the city’s
youthful denizens are perched on one of the 5 million motorcycles which add
even more color and kineticism to the cityscape. Just a few blocks from
Saigon’s super-convenient downtown cruise port is the Bitexco Tower, a sleek
modern skyscraper symbolizing Saigon’s headlong rush into the future - but
surrounded by historic buildings which anchor it to its intriguing past. The
indefatigable Vietnamese are constantly at it with urban improvement projects, yet they are seeing to it that the city remains one of the most walkable in the
world, from its wide French-style tree-lined boulevards to its quaint
sidestreets with endless opportunities for “people-seeing”.
Easy day trips from Saigon include the unique Cu Chi Tunnels
where the Viet Cong impossibly lived underneath the feet of US and South
Vietnamese troops, the astoundingly fecund Mekong Delta with its floating
markets and picturesque towns such as Sa Dec (of Marguerite Duras’ The Lovers
fame) and the whimsically Disney-esque Great Cao Dai Temple of Tay Ninh.
All in all I find “Simmering Saigon” to be one of the world’s
most interesting, invigorating, and easy cities to enjoy. It is always a most
welcome stop on any voyage to Asia!
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Dr. John is THE BEST lecturer we have ever heard on all our cruises - bar none. Marilyn K, Oceania Insignia World Cruise
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Thank you for your fabulous
presentations on China, Japanese history and culture and destinations, and the Buddhism series. Your talks represent a
phenomenal amount of research and understanding of the Asian cultures. I want
to thank you for that and for the way that you present everything in context so
that we can understand how and why things happened the way they did. In
my end-of-cruise comments survey, I told them you were the highlight of the journey. So,
congratulations and thanks for making this a special trip for us!
Dr. Richard M Regent Seven Seas Voyager, Singapore-to-Beijing ------------------------------------------------------
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Spectacular Angkor! © Dr. John Freedman 2019
Of all my experiences in Asia, there is perhaps
none more stunning and climactic than watching the sun rise over the
incomparable Angkor Wat. It is difficult to capture the essence of this
singular experience with the written word, but let’s try.
This architectural wonder of Angkor Wat served as the Khmer
Empire’s great state temple (Angkor=Capital, Wat=Temple) in the early 12th century.
It also was designed to serve as a magnificent mausoleum for its builder,
the Sun God-King Suryavarman II. It has been described by observers throughout
nine centuries with virtually every superlative available to writers in all
languages. Intrepid French explorer Henri Mouhot, the temple’s 19th-century
“discoverer” (of course, it had never truly been lost) wrote in his journal in
1862: “This grand temple, a rival to that of Solomon and erected by an ancient
Michelangelo, is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome.” Its
unparalleled enormity is not disputed – it is the largest religious structure
ever built. Its artistic beauty, depth and unity, along with its engineering
genius, complete the picture of a structure that represents the apogee of
classical Khmer architecture and one of the greatest human achievements of all
time.
To watch the sunrise over the great temple, one
has to set out not long after 5:00AM and carefully walk down the long stone
causeway over the temple complex’s 700-foot moat. The builders of Angkor were
masters of hydrology and the entire city was one of moats, canals, and great
reservoirs known as baray. Angkor Wat’s huge moat was designed not only
for protection and irrigation purposes, but also to create an earthly representation
of the celestial ocean which surrounded the mythological home of the ancient
Hindu gods, Mt. Meru. Angor Wat’s five grand towers or prasats are each
shaped like a lotus bud and taken together they represent the five peaks of Mt.
Meru. They are arranged in a quincunx (put that down on a Scrabble board and
you win the game) which is an ancient Hindu pattern with four towers on the
four corners of a rectangle and one majestic tower in the middle. The saffron disk of the sun spreads a soft
bath of light as it rises behind and then over this expansive and richly
metaphorical “temple mount” scene.
Of all the superlatives used to describe Angkor
Wat, three seem most apt and encompassing: spectacular (the wow factor is
certainly the first reaction), timeless (thus one stands in the Cambodian
jungle today to watch the sun rise over the tomb and funerary temple of a ruler
who left this earth in the year 1150AD), and captivating (the fascinating
history and culture of this great Hindu temple city, which later became
Mahayana Buddhist and then Theravada Buddhist, is endlessly absorbing and
intriguing).
Once the sun has risen, in the full light of
the pleasantly cool morning, it is then a treat to follow the sunrise homage
with a personal exploration of this amazing structure. Imagine
three-quarters-of-a-mile of finely carved bas-reliefs depicting innumerable
scenes from the Hindu epics as well as the pomp and ceremony of the Khmer Sun
King’s court and gripping depictions of his epic battles. It is was said over a
hundred years ago and still true today that Angkor Wat is the most richly and
intricately carved building in the world. As you ascend the temple mount, you
will cross three progressive enclosures, rising higher and higher until you
reach the upper level of the temple mount from where you can gaze down at the
vast jungle in which this improbable jewel is ensconced. Imagine the expansive
jungle as it was in Angkor’s glory days: peopled with over 1 million
inhabitants in long-gone wooden and thatch houses. Today, only stone survives.
If you have very high expectations for your
trip to Angkor Wat, prepare to have them exceeded by this indescribably
beautiful and impressive monument to the great Khmer civilization that ruled
the Indochinese Peninsula for more than 600 years. But there’s more! : The
great imperial city of Angkor had hundreds of magnificent temples besides
Angkor Wat, and many still stand today as testaments to this grand
civilization. One should not miss the famed and exotic-looking Ta Prohm, with
its symbiotic armature of giant fig trees, or the enigmatic Bayon with its 256
giant Buddha-like faces (actually the God of Mercy, Lokeshvara, before the
later Buddhists gave him a sex change to the Goddess of Mercy– or perhaps the
face of God-King Jayavarman VII who built the temple and fancied himself as the
earthly incarnation of Lokeshvara). A perfect complement to a morning taking in
Angkor Wat’s grandeur is an afternoon visit to Banteay Srei, a small and
exquisitely wrought temple constructed of a rare rose-hued sandstone. Banteay
Srei is renowned for the refinement of its intricate carvings on every pediment
(the triangular area above an entrance doorway) and lintel (a cross-beam over
an entrance doorway or wall) as well as its innumerable walls, doors, and
arches. Dramatic episodes from the mythopoeic Hindu epics are finely carved, as
if by a jeweler’s hand, at every turn. The carving was so exquisite that when
the temple was first “discovered” in the late 19th century it was felt to date
from the early 14th century, about 200 years after the building of Angkor Wat.
But decades later the consecration stele was unearthed and the temple was able
to be precisely dated to 967 AD — a full 150 years before the building of
Angkor Wat had even begun. One can only marvel at this artistic tour de force
and it is made all the richer by the soft glow of the late afternoon sun on the
rose-hued stone.
For those who want to get (just slightly) off
the beaten trail, the stunning temples of the Ruolos group just southeast of
central Angkor predate Angkor Wat by over 200 years and can be seen in a solid
half-day of exploration. The sacred mountain and waters of Phnom Kulen and the
striking temples of Koh Ker to the northeast can easily be combined with a visit
to Banteay Srei on a day trip. These forays will more than amply reward you for
your initiative. The entire area in and around what is now the tourist mecca of
Siem Reap (meaning “Defeat of the Thais” – though ultimately the imperious
Siamese did successfully overrun and sack Angkor in 1431) is a vast array of magnificent
architectural and cultural treasures.
The glories of ancient Angkor will never cease
to amaze. Spectacular, timeless, captivating!
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We
thoroughly enjoyed your interesting and thought-provoking discussions!
Thanks,
Clint
B ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Grandeur of the Great Wall of China
© Dr. John Freedman 2019
For me, there is simply no other experience on the planet like walking on the Great Wall of China. It is astounding on so many levels.
Its history and its great antiquity grip the imagination: from its
origins in the 7th century BC, to its famous consolidation by China’s very
first Emperor in 221 BC, to its remarkable enhancement into its current state
of architectural grandeur by the great Ming emperors of the 14th and 15th
centuries. The sheer scope boggles the mind. Can it really extend over 5,500
miles east to west across the vast expanse of northern China? Indeed it does. It
stands without peer as both the largest and longest building project in human
history. As a technological feat, it inspires awe. Looking around from any
vantage point, it is an engineering marvel that seems to border on the
impossible, carving a massive serpentine path along the crests of steep and
craggy mountains. The natural beauty of its setting is breathtaking. The wall
offers undulating mountain vistas, and its thousands of towers are
never-ending, changing magnificently with the seasons.
From a functional standpoint, the wall is intriguing — and full of
irony. Its principal function was always to serve as a defensive military
barrier to protect the realm against invasion from the north by barbarian
assailants. Secondarily, it served as an east-west transportation corridor for merchants
and messengers, through otherwise impenetrable terrain. It also served
important social functions, controlling migration and dividing civilized society
from the hinterlands. Yet despite its grand extent and great utility, the wall ultimately
failed in its principal military function: China – not once, but twice -
succumbed to foreign invasion by northern intruders. The Mongol hordes of Kublai Khan penetrated the
wall in the late 13th century and ruled China for almost 100 years. Less than 300 years later, the fierce Manchurian
armies breached the wall in 1644 and stayed as ruling overlords into the 20th
century. China’s final dynasty and last emperor trace their provenance to the Manchu invaders.
Today, the changcheng (“long
wall”, as the Chinese very aptly refer to it) is China’s premier tourist
attraction and undeniably qualifies as one of the world’s greatest wonders. Indeed,
there is great accuracy as well as important irony to the common witticism that
the wall - which was historically built to keep foreigners out - now brings them in by the millions.
Whatever part of the wall you visit, you will be impressed. There
are several easily accessible spans around Beijing. The Badaling and Mutianyu
sections of the wall are nearest to the city, northwest and northeast respectively,
each 1-2 hours from city center by road. The Huangyaguan Pass section is
nearest to the cruise port of Tianjin. All are striking and awe-inspiring as
they carve their sure and mighty path over miles of rugged mountain terrain,
enduring as a powerful symbol of a massive and mighty country with a fascinating but turbulent history.
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---------------------------------------------------------- Our cruise proved to be full of learning
opportunities with four good lecturers. Our favorite lecturer was Dr. John
Freedman, a retired medical doctor who had worked in Brazil,Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Cuba and Haiti.
His lectures gave meaning and insight to our
ports of call.
- Carol H Oceania Insignia World Cruise 2016 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Indian Ocean: Crossroads of the World © Dr. John Freedman 2019
The Indian Ocean is a
spectacularly beautiful destination. Those who love sun, sand and sea will find
more than their fill of joy in this part of the world. But beyond its
magnificent beauty, the Indian Ocean is also a region of unique geopolitical
and economic significance – perhaps moreso than any other ocean on our planet,
and perhaps now more than ever. Of course there is
really only one ocean on planet Earth, the saline hydrosphere that covers
three- fourths of the earth’s surface and contains 97% of our planet’s water.
That’s a lot of water – billions of billions of gallons – and it is roughly, if
artificially, divided up by geographers into 3 major ocean systems: the
Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. (Some geographers count the
circumferential ocean around Antarctica as a separate “Southern Ocean” and the
northernmost arms of the Atlantic and Pacific as a separate “Arctic Ocean”, but
we’ll just consider the Big Three for now.) The Indian Ocean is the smallest of
the 3 major oceans – but still of impressive extent: it covers over 27 million
square miles and is over 5 miles deep at its deepest point in the Java Trench.
It is the warmest of the planet’s oceans, and it is getting even warmer as the
heat energy from global warming is transferred into it from the Pacific via a
massive oceanic heat transfer mechanism known as the Indonesian Throughflow.
The warm waters of the Indian Ocean combined with its relatively low salinity
and its exquisite clarity and soft aquamarine tones make it my favorite ocean
for swimming, be it in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, the Seychelles, or
Zanzibar.
The Indian Ocean has
long been the least studied of the world’s great ocean systems, yet that seems
to be changing as more and more attention is focused on its economics and the
overlay of geopolitics. Indeed, the Indian Ocean connects the Atlantic and
Euro-African and Middle Eastern worlds to south Asia and ultimately through the
Strait of Malacca to the greater Asian and Pacific worlds. Ancient Egyptian
mariners traveled from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean via man-made
canals which connected the Nile Delta to the Red Sea (pre-dating the Suez Canal
by at least 3000 years). At the dawn of the first mil lennium, Greek sailors of
the Alexandrian world were the first to grasp and master the unique and
powerful monsoon system of the Indian Ocean. Understanding how to harness the
energy of the monsoon was revolutionary, in that it made truly long-distance
sea travel practical for the first time in human history. We think of the
monsoon as a terrestrial rain phenomenon, but at sea it is actually a
seasonally reversing wind regime of prodigious power over a vast ocean expanse.
Every summer the warm air over the Asian landmass creates a low-pressure zone,
and cooler air over the Indian Ocean comes rushing toward the Asian continent.
That pattern reverses itself in the winter. For centuries, seaborne traders
harnessed the powerful reversing winds of the monsoon to go back and forth to
India, the “Spice Islands” of Indonesia, and to and from the exotic realms of
Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. Persian and Arab traders dominated these
routes for centuries, and many grew spectacularly rich from the enormous
profits on ivory and gold from Africa and spices, silk and porcelains from the
Orient. Their extensive trade activity went hand in hand with the
Islamicization of much of south and Southeast Asia, a legacy which exists to
this day. The monsoons also propelled immense Chinese treasure ships to and
from Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Horn of Africa. Indian
and Sri Lankan traders rode the winds to Southeast Asia, where both Hinduism
and Buddhism followed in their wake, with Buddhism’s profound influence
throughout Asia enduring to this day.
Famed medieval
traveler-explorers such as the Venetian trader Marco Polo and the Moroccan
pilgrim Ibn Battuta sailed across the Indian Ocean en route to China and wrote
of its charms and mysteries – and its mercantile importance. They and other
navigators since the 2nd century AD depended on maps created by the great Alexandrian
mathematician and astronomer, Claudius Ptolemy. Ptolemaic maps depicted the
Indian Ocean clearly enough, but incorrectly showed it to be a giant landlocked
sea. Ptolemy and his centuries of disciples in the ancient cartographic world
believed the southern end of Africa was connected to a large landmass known as Terra
Australis Nondum Cognita (Southern Land Not Yet Known). This purely
mythical land, amazingly, did turn out to exist – we know it today as
Antarctica. But we know today that Antarctica is actually a separate
stand-alone continent.
It was not until 1488
that the intrepid Portuguese sailor Bartolomeu Dias was able to definitively
prove all the mapmakers wrong by rounding the southern tip of Africa by sea – a
feat which changed the world forever by showing there was indeed an oceanic
route between the Atlantic world of Europe and the Indian Ocean, which would
then serve as the great crossroads and gateway to all of Asia. Vasco da Gama took
the next giant step when he made it from Lisbon all the way to India in 1498.
This opened the way not just for a new Age of Imperialism by the Portuguese and
a host of other European powers who followed quickly and rapaciously, but also
for world-changing globalization of trade and cultural diffusion between East
and West – processes which continually accelerated over subsequent centuries
and which are today more robust and of more importance than ever.
Steamships freed
traders from the tyranny of the monsoon regime in the 19th century, and trade
increased exponentially, a pattern which shows no sign of slowing down today or
long into the future. Today the Indian Ocean is a vital shipping lane for the
world’s goods and is also an energy superhighway. China, for example, gets 80%
of its petroleum products from the Gulf States, via the Indian Ocean. The key
geographical “choke points” of the Indian Ocean trade route have for centuries
been coveted geopolitical loci, and remain so to this day. Two of the most important
– the Strait of Hormuz which is the “neck of the wine bottle” of the Persian
Gulf and the Strait of Malacca which is the “funnel to East Asia” – have been
sites of great strategic value, continued political intrigue, and intermittent
warfare for over 500 years.
The Indian Ocean has
long been a major theatre for?global
geopolitics, and this is especially true today as?China definitively assumes the mantle of a world superpower. China and
India are two Asian giants who vie for economic dominance and political
hegemony in the Indian Ocean sphere. China’s “soft power” approach through
robust economic and diplomatic initiatives has been carried out on a massive
scale in Africa over the past decade – so much so that some pundits have gone
so far as to call Africa “China’s second continent.” The Indian Ocean is
China’s sea bridge to Africa and the Middle East. Along the route there are
numerous countries whose political and economic kinship China is very actively
courting, such as Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Bangladesh, and
Pakistan (Karachi itself, the second most populous city in the world by some
calculations, is a major Indian Ocean port city). China has developed what the
U.S Defense Department has referred to as a “String of Pearls” of ports and
potential naval bases spanning the Indian Ocean from Asia to Africa. A new
Chinese naval base for “peace-keeping and anti-piracy activities” opened in
Djibouti in July 2017. The U.S. also has a base in Djibouti as well as a major
naval base on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. The Maldives, a
stunningly beautiful archipelagic nation in the northern Indian Ocean, is today
in the throes of a dynamic internal confrontation between democratic and
authoritarian forces – China, India, the U.S. and other western powers have all
begun jockeying for an advantageous position as the political drama plays out.
So while the Indian Ocean is indeed
spectacularly beautiful and “exotic” and a destination full of picture postcard
natural beauty, we should not forget its dynamic economic and geopolitical
importance throughout human history and into the present day. As the
“crossroads of the world” it will surely play a large and pivotal role in the
future evolution of world history.
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---------------------------------------------------- You are an excellent presenter - your material is not only informative but entertaining.
Alex L --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Sunset at The Temples of Bagan
© Dr. John Freedman 2019
One of the greatest
wonders of Asia is the visually striking landscape of thousands of ancient religious
structures spread over the vast plain of Bagan in central Myanmar, a site known
as the Temples of Bagan. This forest of “payas” (temples or pagodas) and stupas
(holy shrines containing relics) was built along a wide bend of the Iriwaddy
River between the 10th and 14th centuries when the
ancient Kingdom of Bagan was thriving. The Kingdom covered much of present-day
Myanmar, and Bagan was its political center and spiritual heart. Little has
changed over the millennium to take away from the splendor that Marco Polo
described as “one of the finest sights in the world.” Over two thousand temples
remain today, from an estimated 10,000 that were built. The structures are of a
seemingly infinite variety of shapes and of every size. Some are gigantic,
majestic edifices while others are humble pillar-like tributes to the Buddha’s
grace and wisdom. The sheer number is overwhelming, and even today the Bagan
plain remains host to the greatest concentration of religious monuments ever
built anywhere. Many consider it to be one of the “hidden” jewels of southeast
Asia, as it receives just a small fraction of the tourists who visit other epic
sites such as Angkor in Cambodia and Borobudur in Indonesia.
You can spend days
exploring the temples, and for every one you climb to take in the expansive
360-degree view, you will see hundreds more beckoning you. Like other religious
sites in southeast Asia, there are early Hindu influences which gave way
syncretically to Buddhist architectural elements and iconography. Many of the temples were built during the
reign of the legendary King Anawrahta (1044-1078AD), who was a devout Theravada
Buddhist and is considered by many to be the father of the Burmese nation. The
plains of Bagan remained an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists even after
Bagan was overrun by the Mongols in 1289, and they remain so to this day.
Small roads, mostly
unpaved, snake their way throughout the expansive plain, and you can travel
them by horse cart, bicycle or automobile. I recommend trying all three modes
of transport as each has its allure and advantages. The myriad of structures of
every shape and size, and the refraction of light by the mist and dust that sit
over the endless plain, give the vistas of Bagan an ethereal and other-worldly
quality. In Bagan as nowhere else on earth, I get the sense that I could be
looking at the remains of an ancient civilization on a distant planet.
Unquestionably my
favorite activity in Bagan is viewing the sunset from the top of one of the
innumerable temples which have giant open terraces that serve as grand viewing
platforms. There are so many temples to be climbed and you can choose your
angle, decide how remote you wish to be, and even determine how many temples
you want to see dotting the landscape before you. One of my favorites for a
sunset view is Pyathada Paya, a 13th-century structure which is a bit
off the beaten path in the eastern section of the plain. As the sun sets over
the western plain, Pyathada’s easterly location means you will see a huge
number of temples silhouetted before you, as well as the mighty Irriwaddy River
in the background. The sense of other-worldliness is accentuated at sunset when
the sun reflects off the saffron-tinged land and the pagodas become scattered
jewels in every shade of pink and gold. The sun first reflects brilliantly off
the gilded portions of the tops of many of the pagodas. Then, as it sets, all
the structures slowly become more and more distinctly silhouetted. The scene is
made all the more striking by the orange- and then purple-streaked sky, the
rose-colored mountains, and the silver ribbon of the Irriwaddy as a backdrop. There
is an ineffable sense of mystery that pervades, as is always the case when one
is given to ponder the almost incredible story of our species and its amazing
accomplishments. A wonderful added bonus
is the cool air that wafts in at sunset, bringing with it a sense of comfort
and respite. The sight is one to behold, and the feeling is one of tranquility,
beauty and wonder.
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All text and photographic content are copyrighted by Dr. John Freedman, 2019 - All Rights Reserved
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