The program for March 17th is Tyranny and Insurgency in Post-War Burma by Keith Lorenz
The program for April 21st is "Our Turkey Trot" by Jackie Sprague
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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Adventurers: We quickly approach the new year and once again, Lowell, our program director, has fascinating talks scheduled.
In January Dr. Bill Chapman presents “A Heritage of Ruins”, a tour of ancient sites of Southeast Asia and a discussion of the challenges to their preservation. I have heard Bill speak and can assure you that we are in for a treat.
Talks for February and April will be presented by members Allan Lloyd and Jackie Sprague. I’m always pleased when members speak. For me member presentations are what the club is about. Allen presents “Norfolk Island and its Gift to Hawaii”; its “gift” is a surprising and anti-intuitive tale of water conservation, or more correctly, creation.
In March, Keith Lorenz, presents “Tyranny and Insurgency in Post-War Burma.” The details presented in this newsletter of his experience in the area suggest a fascinating evening.
In April Jackie Sprague speaks about Turkey. I’ve not been there but it, and especially Hagia Sophia, are at the top of my wishlist. I look forward to Jackie’s tour.
Finally, I look forward to our return to Treetops and want to thank Ralph Sprague for his efforts.
Thanks, Bob Liljestrand, President
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APRIL 21, 2016
Our Turkey Trot
Tree Tops Restaurant
by Member Jackie Sprague
Man has lived in the Anatolian steppes and the Tarrus Mountains since the Stone Age and the historically the Seljuk Empire dates from 1078 AD. We visited Dolmabache Palace; St. Georges Chapel; the Archeological Museum; the Blue Mosque; the Topkape Seraglio; a palace, the Grand Bazaar & the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. These are all ancient and historic spots.Our Turkey Trot
Tree Tops Restaurant
by Member Jackie Sprague
Leaving Istanbul, the Silk Market in Bursa was the first good stop on our tour, & we had a plethora of beautiful silks to buy since silk is produced in Turkey. The Mausoleum of Ataturk was very elaborate & grand. Ataturk is considered to be the George Washington of Turkey because he steered them toward democracy. Ataturk grew up poor, became educated & helped Turkey win the War against the Ottoman empire & the war to establish Turkey as an independent state.
When we reached the region of Cappadocia, we first visited the monastery of the Whirling dervishes; there the supplicants express their devotion to God as they whirl around in circles. In this area we saw natural outdoor formations caused by volcanic tuft that hardened over time. The people of early historic time dug homes into the “hoodoos”. Today people still live in these cave-like
dwellings, & the facilities are inferior to our modern homes. At the Outdoor Museum of Goreme, we visited cave chapels decorated by early Christian artists where there were painted crosses & Christian images. Our group was invited into one of the cave homes.
At Hierapolis, we saw some very beautiful cascades where the limestone from the underground decorated the edges of the pools and outcrops. There was a hillside there where Stephen from Bible times was stoned to death. Later we visited Ephesus, saw the famous façade of the library & visited the amphitheater where Paul preached. In Pergamum, we visited a museum where we saw many statues and artifacts from the Roman occupation of the region. At Troy, we saw the modern era wooden horse that tourists go inside to have their picture taken. There are many ancient stone structures in that area that indicate that in past history a port was at that site. A German man went to Troy; dug up some artifacts but most of the remaining ruins are from Roman times.
Returning to Istanbul, we toured the battle grounds & heard a lecture about the disastrous Anzac campaign in 1915 at Gallipoli.
Jackie Sprague has been a member since 2003 and is the immediate past program chair. Her husband Ralph is the immediate past president.
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MARCH 17, 2016—
Tyranny and Insurgency in Post-War Burma
Pagoda Hotel Ballroom
by Guest Keith Lorenz
Burma has known no peace since the surrender of the Japanese armed forces in 1945. As a news correspondent in Southeast Asia for thirty years, Keith Lorenz has maintained a special focus on Burma even though that country was essentially forgotten during the long American intervention in the region. His first visit to Rangoon was in 1962 - one month before General Ne Win, the president, blew up the university student center- and the country slid into a backwater in which it remained until a few years ago.
From the 1960's to the 1990's Mr. Lorenz made numerous trips into the insurgent held areas beyond the Thai border. He will show color images of the armed resistance camps of the Karen and Mon National Liberation Armies, including refugees and village life in these insecure liberated areas, and will provide an overview of Burma in colonial times, independence, and prospects for the
future.
In addition to reporting on Southeast Asia for NBC News, Mutual Broadcasting, VOA, the London Daily Telegraph, San Francisco Chronicle and, after the Vietnam war, for UN Radio and the New York Journal of Commerce. Mr. Lorenz initiated the Salween Liaison Office in 1984 which, as a small NGO, aims to provide humanitarian relief and political awareness of the plight of the ethnic minorities in Burma. He has resided primarily in Honolulu since first coming here on a journalism fellowship at the East West Center. Mr. Lorenz wrote the text for a coffee table-sized art book, published in 2013, featuring forty years work, mainly in Asia, by a National Geographic photographer. It may be glimpsed by going to www.chesleyphotovoyage.com
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FEBRUARY 18, 2016—
Norfolk Island and its Gift to Hawai`i
Tree Tops Restaurant
by Member Alan LloydNorfolk Island was discovered and named in 1774 by Captain James Cook, RN. The British then used the island as a penal colo-ny until it outgrew its capacity in the 1850s. At that point, the British removed all the prisoners and turned the island over to the descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers, who had been living on Pitcairn Island. The vast majority of the current inhabitants are descended from those same few mutineers. The link between Norfolk Island and Hawai`i is equally interesting.
Norfolk Island is home to the eponymous Norfolk Island pine tree, which are prolific in Hawaii. These stately evergreens can be found on all the islands. Many years ago, Alan’s father was the chief engineer for Dole Pineapple Company on Lana`i. He had to create a water system for the island, so he tapped into the aquifer in the central mountains and carefully monitored both the level of the aquifer and the rainfall to make sure he didn’t deplete the water supply below sustainable levels. Oddly, however, he found that the company could pump more than the amount of rainfall without reducing the water level.
The mystery was solved when a measuring system was set up under some of the Norfolk pines brought to Lana`i and found that they added about 20 gallons per day per tree of water to the aquifer by trapping and condensing fog & heavy clouds! It was quick-ly decided to import & plant large numbers of the tree seedlings to help increase the island’s water supply. The trees are also very useful in serving as a windbreak and in preventing soil erosion.
Alan Lloyd was born & raised in Honolulu & is a retired professional engineer with Hawaiian Electric. He has been a member of the Adventurers’ Club since 1986 & served as program chair. He has been a lecturer on cruise ships & for various organizations in Hawai`i.
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A Heritage of Ruins:
The Ancient Sites of Southeast Asia and their Conservation
by Guest Bil Chapman, D.Phil.
The ancient ruins of Southeast Asia have long sparked curiosity and romance in the world’s imagination. They appear in ac-counts of 19th-century French explorers, as props for Indiana Jones’ adventures, and more recently as the scene of Lady Lara Croft’s fantastical battle with the forces of evil. They have been featured in National Geographic magazine and serve as backdrops for popular television travel and reality shows. Based on more than fifteen years of travel, research, and visits to hundreds of an-cient sites, and his recent book of the same title, Dr. Chapman will explore the varied roles these monumental remains have played in the histories of Southeast Asia’s modern nations, and the complexities in efforts to manage and preserve them.
Pagan (Bagan), Borobudur, and Ayutthaya lie at the center of this cultural and architectural tour, along with less visited sites, including Laos’ stunning Vat Phu, the small temple platforms of Malaysia’s Lembah Bujang Valley, the candi of the Dieng Plateau in Java, and the ruins of Mingun in Burma and Wiang Kum Kam near Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.
William Chapman is Director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and Professor in the Department of American Stud-ies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He holds a Master’s degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia, and a D. Phil in Anthropology from Oxford University in England. A four-time Fulbright scholar, he has traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia and has served as a lecturer at Silpakorn, Kasetsart and Chulalongkorn Universities. His book, A Heritage of Ruins, was pub-lished in 2013 by University of Hawai`i Press.
Dr. Chapman presented this program at the Explorer’s Club in New York City in March, 2015.
6pm: Cocktails - Pagoda Hotel 1525 Rycroft St.
Parking in Ross garage for $1/hr or Pagoda lot for $1/hr.
6:45 PM Dinner Menu:
A full grand buffet including stuffed chicken breast with truffle sauce, island style catch with ginger cilantro sauce, tofu watercress salad and other salad items. Selection of pies and cakes, plus tea and coffee……………..$35.00
Reservations: Renate Ryan at renateryan@hotmail.com or 926-6226 by Jan 18th (extended deadline)
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Know of a good future speaker or program (maybe yourself!)?
Tell our Program Chair Lowell Angell about it.
Email him at angell@hawaii.edu.
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