From the Foundation

Assistant Program Officer Kenta Kusuda visited Singapore, Thailand, and Laos from Sunday, November 18 to Tuesday, November 27. The main purpose of his trip was to meet with six grant recipients working on grant projects in these countries. Mr. Kusuda’s interactions with the recipients and others during his visit yielded many valuable results.

In Singapore Mr. Kusuda met with Ms. Chie Ikeya, a recipient of a Research Grant under the Special Subject “Preservation, Compilation, and Annotation of Indigenous Documents in Peripheral Regions of Asia” for a project titled “Cataloging, Transcription, Translation, and Preservation of Legal Documents and Indigenous Dhammasat Between the Twelfth and Nineteenth Centuries.” Ms. Ikeya reported on the progress of her project and spent the whole afternoon introducing Mr. Kusuda to the staff of the National University of Singapore Southeast Asian Studies Programme, to which Ms. Ikeya belongs. As the hub of Southeast Asia, Singapore is an ideal environment in which to undertake research on the region. In this regard, Mr. Kusuda’s time at NUS gave him a better feel for the researchers’ diverse concerns in making the most of the location.

In Bangkok, Thailand, Mr. Kusuda met with U Nyunt Han, another grant recipient under the indigenous documents Special Subject, who is conducting his project “Preservation, Compilation, and Annotation of Ancient Mon Palm-Leaf Manuscripts and Paper Manuscripts in Myanmar” while working as an advisor to the Myanmar Department of Archaeology. The day before Mr. Kusuda arrived in Thailand, there had been a large antigovernment demonstration in Myanmar with tragic results. In spite of these unstable conditions, U Nyunt Han has been able to travel freely within Myanmar’s central and outlying regions and to travel extensively overseas, gaining intimate knowledge of the area in the process. Mr. Kusuda benefited from U Nyunt Han’s knowledge, leaving Myanmar with valuable insights in relation to the many Toyota Foundation projects in the country.

The last stop on Mr. Kusuda’s journey was Laos, where he spent five days with Etsuo Mushiake. Mr. Mushiake has been involved with Laos since the early 1990s, and in 2006 he began a Research Grant project titled “The Cultures and Lifestyles of Villages as Sung in the Lam Songs of Southern Laos: An Attempt to Produce a Complete Translation with Commentary to Enable an Appreciation of the Richness of Livelihood Depicted in the Songs.” Mr. Mushiake’s activities in the project center on compiling and recording the lam storytelling songs of Laos. During Mr. Kusuda’s stay in Laos, he accompanied Mr. Mushiake on research visits to about 10 villages, mostly in southern Laos, where he was able to get a glimpse into the richness of village life.

Kenta Kusuda and the Toyota Foundation are grateful for the hospitality that so many people extended to Mr. Kusuda during his visit.