Research & Article

The late ASEAN Secretary General, Surin Pitsuwan, had a yet to be realized dream of turning ASEAN from a relatively successful regional organization into a community. Given the heightened threats to human security coming from ecological problems, it is important to ponder the ways in which cultural treasures in Southeast Asia could help Southeast Asians, young and old, face these ecological threats as a community.

To pursue this thesis, this paper is organized in five steps. First, it identifies the ecological threats in Southeast Asia in the forms of traditional elements, earth/soil, wind, fire, and water. Second, it examines the traditional epistemic grounds for knowledge and practices in dealing with nature. Third, it uses the ancient story of a wounded warrior discovering the Malay martial art of Silat to suggest solutions to these threats. Fourth, it reviews two successful cases of protecting nature in Southeast Asia, “yellow trees” in Thailand and “green mosques” in Indonesia. Finally, it turns to a successful Marvel movie for inspiration on how to achieve a new self-understanding to protect and foster human (and non-human) community.