This is the last of four films introduced by the Singaporean scholar Peter Lee who visits, explores and talks about the great empires of SE Asia as part of the series: The Mark of Empire, for Channel New Asia (CNA).
In the last of these films Peter goes to Indonesia and specifically to East Java to understand wwhat was probably the greatest empire ever built in SE Asia, that of Majapahit, which was a mixed Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that spanned from Thailand to the Spice Islands near Australia.
As always Peter is hands on trying everything out for himself, whether that is rice cultivation in the fertile fields of Java, dyeing batik with the villagers, dancing folk stories or scuba diving.
And along the way we learn a lot about the history and culture of this wonderful kingdom, which was the inspiration behind the modern movement to return control of the country to Indonesians themselves.
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