Buddha on Mecca's Verandah, The Wholesale Review by Chris Baker

Review by Chris Baker

With the dream of getting every elephant off the street

has published extensively on the history of the Tai polities in the Upper Mekong basin

this book deserves a place on the bookshelf of all of those interested in Burma

“This important book is theoretically engaged

Buddha on Mecca's Verandah, The Wholesale Review by Chris BakerThe Buddha on Mecca's Verandah examines the many ways in which people living along an international border negotiate their ethnic, cultural, and political identities. This ethnography of a small community of Thai Buddhists in the Malaysian state of Kelantan draws on rich, original vignettes to show how issues of territoriality, identity, and power frame the experiences of borderland residents. Although the Thai represent less than 10 percent of the