Life in the Valley of Death: The Fight to Save Tigers in a Land of Guns, Gold, and Greed
by Alan Rabinowitz
from Island Press
Dubbed the Indiana Jones of wildlife science by The New York Times, Alan Rabinowitz has devoted—and risked—his life to protect nature’s great endangered mammals. He has journeyed to the remote corners of the earth in search of wild things, weathering treacherous terrain, plane crashes, and hostile governments. Life in the Valley of Death recounts his most ambitious and dangerous adventure yet: the creation of the world’s largest tiger preserve.
The tale is set in the lush Hukaung Valley of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. An escape route for refugees fleeing the Japanese army during World War II, this rugged stretch of land claimed the lives of thousands of children, women, and soldiers. Today it is home to one of the largest tiger populations outside of India—a population threatened by rampant poaching and the recent encroachment of gold prospectors.
To save the remaining tigers, Rabinowitz must navigate not only an unforgiving landscape, but the tangled web of politics in Myanmar. Faced with a military dictatorship, an insurgent army, tribes once infamous for taking the heads of their enemies, and villagers living on less than one U.S. dollar per day, the scientist and adventurer most comfortable with animals is thrust into a diplomatic minefield. As he works to balance the interests of disparate factions and endangered wildlife, his own life is threatened by an incurable disease.
The resulting story is one of destruction and loss, but also renewal. In forests reviled as the valley of death, Rabinowitz finds new life for himself, for communities haunted by poverty and violence, and for the tigers he vowed to protect.
Myanmar (Burma) (Country Guide)
by Robert Reid
from Lonely Planet
Explore the vast, ancient ruins of Bagan, voyage up myriad waterways by riverboat, relax at a remote teahouse or sample fresh seafood beside white-sand beaches. Let this considered and responsible guide show you the adventure of a lifetime, while at the same time showing you how your travel experience best benefits the local people.
Should You Go? Weigh up the pros and cons of going to Myanmar by reading this special chapter.
Be Inspired - new highlights, itineraries and planning sections to help you plot your path.
Benefit The Locals by choosing private, locally owned hotels and eateries.
Make Your Own Way with detailed maps, including a full-color country map.
Connect With Culture - detailed History and Culture chapters provide insight into Myanmar's rich and complex heritage.
Finding George Orwell in Burma
by Emma Larkin
In one of the most intrepid travelogues in recent memory, Emma Larkin tells of the year she spent traveling through Burma, using as a compass the life and work of George Orwell, whom many of Burma’s underground teahouse intellectuals call simply “the Prophet.” In stirring prose, she provides a powerful reckoning with one of the world’s least free countries. Finding George Orwell in Burma is a brave and revelatory reconnaissance of modern Burma, one of the world’s grimmest and most shuttered police states, where the term “Orwellian” aptly describes the life endured by the country’s people. BACKCOVER: “A truer picture of authoritarianism than anyone has written since, perhaps, Orwell himself.”
—Mother Jones
“Mournful, meditative, appealingly idiosyncratic . . . an exercise in literary detection but also a political travelogue.”
—The New York Times
“Combining literary criticism with solid field reporting, [Larkin] captures the country at its best and, more often, its worst.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] sobering, journalistic memoir . . . A disquieting profile of a country and its people.”
—Newsweek
Burmese Phrasebook
by Unattributed Author
from Lonely Planet
Cross-cultural communication is easy in Myanmar - a smile will do the trick. But just a few words of Burmese will reward you with an enthusiastic reception. Test your bargaining skills at the many colorful markets or try your hand at karaoke Burmese-style. Get where you're going as you tour on a trishaw or chat with the locals as you party at a pwe. Whatever you choose, you won't be stuck for words!
In This Guide:
Get script savvy to make sense of signs and menus.
Read up on etiquette - don't sit with your back to a Buddha.
Show monks respect with special honorific vocabulary.
Get in sync with the seasons of the Buddhist lunar calendar.
Know your noodles - from mohinga to moun-ti.
Find the right word with the comprehensive dictionary.
Letters from Burma
by Aung San Suu Kyi
from Penguin (Non-Classics)
Human-rights activist and leader of Burma's National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to six years' house arrest in Rangoon in 1989 by the ruling military junta SLORC. She paints a vivid, poignant yet optimistic picture of her native land in this collection of writings from her imprisonment. Aung San Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Beyond the Last Village: A Journey Of Discovery In Asia's Forbidden Wilderness
by Alan Rabinowitz
from Island Press
"A fascinating account of inner and outer exploration and discovery in one of the last remote regions of the world - sharp-eyed, insightful, candid, and well written. "Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopar.
In 1993, Alan Rabinowitz, called "the Indiana Jones" of wildlife science by The New York Times, arrived for the first time in the country of Myanmar, known until 1989 as Burma, uncertain of what to expect. Working under the auspices of the Wildlife Conservation Society, his goal was to establish a wildlife research and conservation program and to survey the country's wildlife. He succeeded beyond all expectations, not only discovering a species of primitive deer completely new to science but also playing a vital role in the creation of Hkakabo Razi National Park, now one of Southeast Asia's largest protected areas.
Beyond the Last Village takes the reader on a journey of exploration, danger, and discovery in this remote corner of the planet at the southeast edge of the Himalayas where tropical rain forest and snow-covered mountains meet. As we travel through this "lost world"-a mysterious and forbidding region isolated by ancient geologic forces-we meet the Rawang, a former slave group, the Taron, a solitary enclave of the world's only pygmies of Asian ancestry, and Myanmar Tibetans living in the furthest reaches of the mountains. We enter the territories of strange, majestic-looking beasts that few people have ever heard of and fewer have ever seen-golden takin, red goral, blue sheep, black barking deer. The survival of these ancient species is now threatened, not by natural forces but by hunters with snares and crossbows, trading body parts for basic household necessities.
The powerful landscape and unique people the author befriends help him come to grips with the traumas and difficulties of his past and emerge a man ready to embrace the world anew. Interwoven with his scientific expedition in Myanmar, and helping to inform his understanding of the people he met and the situations he encountered, is this more personal journey of discovery.
Flame Tree: A Novel of Modern Burma
by Keith Dahlberg
from Orchid Press
This is the story of a man who has spent a lifetime avoiding confrontation, and who now find himself in a mediator's role, between a dictatorship and rebel armies fighting for survival, all the whole concerned for the safety of his loved one.
Golden Earth: Travels in Burma
by Norman Lewis
from Eland Books
The Treasures and Pleasures of Thailand and Myanmar: Best of the Best in Travel and Shopping (Impact Guides)
by Ron Krannich
from Impact Publications
This book examines the many travel pleasures and shopping treasures found in the major cities of Thailand and Mynamar.
Sunday Drives: Nostalgic Reminiscing with the Best of Burma-Shave
by Michael Larson
from iUniverse, Inc.
The Burma-Shave craze reached its zenith during the 1950s, with more than 7,000 signs posted across the United States.
To market Burma-Shave, Allen Odell, an advertising wordsmith, devised the concept of sequential signs to sell his shaving cream. Typically, six signs were erected, with each of the first five containing a line of verse, and the sixth trumpeting the brand name.
Burma-Shave signs appeared in every state except Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. The creative people at Burma-Shave, as well as customers who sent in jingles of their own, ultimately created more than 600 of the rhymes.
In the world of advertising, Burma-Shave stood as unique, creating signs that became a part of the popular culture.
Although the Burma-Shave company is no more, these fun little rhymes hold great nostalgic value for those of us who fondly remember them from our Sunday drives.
+++
