He created an empire. When his enemies ambushed him, they left no trace of his body.
The Chronicles sang of his glory and his merit. His capital, Bagan, left behind thousands of breathtaking Buddhist temples – a unique legacy, a gift to the world. Bagan has another aspect to its heritage: the story of a struggle for power and the forging of a nation that we know today as Myanmar or Burma.
Like a whodunnit, unravelling the suspects behind the assassination discloses a deeper story about this great civilization a thousand years ago. The people, their beliefs, their arts, their desires. Their achievements and their defeats.
The mystery of who killed the king of Bagan is a gateway to exploring the puzzle of how Bagan came to be. Why its people filled a parched land with pagodas. Why their story deserves to be told.
Archives: Books
The Margins
Only Ethan Hicks knows what happened up on the mountain, for everyone else is dead. Hundreds of them, hundreds of westerners, their bodies yet to be recovered from the devastated commune that sits high above the Kullu Valley.
It’s an unfolding tragedy that has caught the attention of the world’s media, and pressure is rapidly growing on the Indian authorities to provide answers. For them, of course, Ethan—found barely alive at the foot of the mountain—is the key to everything.
And the account he gives to investigators will prove extraordinary: of a remote commune that grew beyond recognition through a simple quirk of fate. Of a harmonious society that became driven by greed. Of a paradise befouled by its own inhabitants.
Yet, for all of Ethan’s candour, there were some events that took place on the mountain of which he cannot speak—dark, terrible secrets that he intends to take to his grave.
Virtual Center and Other Science Fiction Stories
A collection of science fiction that borders on science possible, Virtual Center and Other stories brings to you some brilliant, adventurous possibilities of our tech-dominant lives.
Virtual Center is the first in this collection and is the 2002 Palanca Awards first-prize winner for Futuristic Fiction. It tells the story of rich people who have chosen to live the rest of their lives virtually while poor people care for them–until a young anarchist attempts to disrupt the system. Hatchling refers to the monster tiyanak of Philippine supernatural lore. The Creator Defends His Creation is the testimony of a man standing trial for fraud for building an android and getting him elected as president. By the Light of the Moon introduces an alien figure from Venus who revels in being hailed as the goddess Haliya, protector of the timid moon god. The Sincerest Form of Flattery is the story of a girl who maintains a lifelong resentment against her younger sister, a clone of her grandmother. The Beautiful and the Whole is a post-apocalyptic story in which a nation, in an attempt to rejuvenate its population after a devastating world war, has instituted restrictive laws regarding marriage and reproduction.
Riverrun, A Novel
Riverrun is a rite-of-passage novel on the life of Danilo Cruz, a young gay man who
grows up in a colourful and chaotic military dictatorship in the Philippines. Shaped
like a memoir, it glides from childhood to young adulthood in chapters written like
flash fiction and vignettes, along with a recipe for shark meat, a feature article,
extracts from a poem and vivid songs. It can be classified as literary fiction, that is
nevertheless accessible to the general reader.
Don’t mess with my Professionalism
Questioning others’ professionalism is an immediate negative reaction that many international executives have when they are facing a behavior, which is culturally different from theirs and which they don’t understand in the workplace. ‘Professionalism’ becomes the alibi for ethnocentrism, which in turn, jeopardizes relationships at work and reduces chances of success in the evergrowing multicultural business world.
In this book, Vanessa Barros goes beyond individual views of ‘professionalism’ to provide effective strategies to resolve intercultural conflict.
Young Mongols
In 1990, Mongolia’s youth-led revolution threw off the Soviet yoke, ushering in multi¬party democracy. Thirty years later, the country’s youth are still leading Mongolia’s democratic development.
This powerful, inclusive book introduces readers to modern Mongolia through the stories of young leaders fighting to make their country a better, more democratic place. Its intersectional perspective explores the complexity of Mongolia today: the urban planning and pollution issues that plague the capital city of Ulaanbaatar; the struggles of women, the LGBTQIA+ population, people with disabilities, and ethnic minorities to claim their equitable places in society; the challenge of providing education in the world’s least densely populated country to prepare the workforce of tomorrow; and how to fairly divide the spoils of the country’s vast mineral resource wealth.
This rising generation of Mongolians is already wielding real power and shaping their country’s future. Their work will determine whether the country is able to overcome its development and democratization challenges, its relationship to the world, and who the winners (and losers) will be in Mongolian society.
Born To Die
This is a key text to understand the processes of urban violence in Colombia. It reveals the world of the young people who formed gangs and shook up Colombia with their recklessness. The book also explores the cultural and historical roots of a generation that got caught up in the drug-trafficking phenomenon and created a subculture with odd forms of religiousness, irreverent languages and a defiant attitude towards death. This book is short and entertaining, yet hard to swallow, as the reader is thrust into realities that only a few people live and understand, and many of us want to change.
Raffles Readers
Raffles Hotel is the best-known, oldest and most elegant hotel in Singapore. When it was first built in 1887, it stood on Beach Road, overlooking the sea. Presently, Beach Road is in the middle of a thriving, modern city. There are many tales of the weird and wonderful happenings at this beautiful hotel-hundreds of famous people have also stayed there.
This book holds the secrets to a century of adventures, including monsters, missing silver, spies, ghost brides and zombies. Spanning the 1920s to 2000s, these imaginative tales will draw readers into the wondrous world of the iconic Raffles Hotel and the escapades of its young guests.
Everyday Ninja
When Kareem and Raffi see an awesome ninja at the park, they go back again and again, wondering if they’ve got what it takes to be super ninjas too. But the boys are in for a big surprise when the ninja does a perfect arabesque.
Horrid High: Back to School
When Granny Grit is called away on a most mysterious mission, twelve-year-old Ferg and his friends are left at the mercy of Cook Fracas’s frenzied food fights, Colonel Craven’s manic panics and Miss Nottynuf’s nervous nail-biting. To make matters worse, the Grand Plan is still missing and the kids must find it before someone truly awful does.
Can Ferg and his friends survive another term at the world’s most horrid school? Return to Horrid High and find out!