Things I remember - Late 90s & 00s
1997 - 2000
The work done for the book on Bintan in the early 2000s had all the components of a proper academic research, except that it was done outside Academia. But this first taste of historical and ethnographic rigour made me realise that scientific academic research was my calling. It made me accept "discipline", something I had rejected after running away from a ballet class at the age of five years old. With the Phoenix, as I like to call the Bintan book,
Late 90s
2000
Article on the Bukit Batu cemetery of Bintan, published in Archipel, the journal of the Ecole Française d'Extrème Orient with a focus on South East Asia. It includes the archeological study of the site, followed by the transcript and analysis of local legends concerning the historical characters of the Sejarah Melayu allegedly buried there. This narrative was received from Pak Atan, the keeper of the cemetery.
