Influenced and intrigued as he was by all things Asian, and wanting to escape the monotony of America’s first planned community, when Carleton Cole’s path took him to Thailand, it came as no surprise to him. For years he had been fascinated by Thailand, reading everything he could about the country and even taking a menial job in a local Thai restaurant to rub shoulders with Thais exiled in the American Midwest.

Confronted by the seriously limited employment options open to the holder of a liberal-arts bachelor’s degree, he set about transplanting himself to what would soon become his adopted home, and a base for exploring the rest of Asia. An atypically quiet American who didn’t fit into US society, Carleton Cole has found his place in the Land of Smiles, and has developed and maintained a passion for things Thai and Asian.

Reviews

An honest, refreshing, and humorous tale of development, discovery, and destination. Carleton Cole has travelled wide and far, both inwards and outwards to reach his present home in Thailand. It was a journey worth taking and definitely a story worth reading. A worthy addition to the travel writing canon.
– Roger Beaumont, author of “What’s Your Name I’m Fine Thank You”

Parlaying a job as the lone American busboy in a Thai restaurant in St Louis, Carleton Cole winds up in Bangkok as a travel writer for The Nation. He romps through Thailand, Cambodia, India, Ladakh, Sikkim, Nepal, Japan, South Korea, Brunei, Laos and Turkey. This reader happily traipsed along. Cole’s sharp eye and gentle humour make for travel writing at its best.
– James Eckardt, author of several books set in Thailand, including “Bangkok People”

Balinese beat goes on
Carleton Cole
Bangkok Post, February 12, 2012
The island’s mesmerising classical dance and music arts are among the many proudly preserved traditions that seem to defy the march of modernity

Drums keep the beat and flutes add to the soft melody, but it is the xylophone players that truly match the dancer’s frenzied motions. Expertly quivering and fluttering, she dances with great grace just as generation after generation of her ancestors did for the courts of the kings of Bali in centuries past.

This scene at Ubud Palace is one played out dozens of times nightly at venues throughout the town of Ubud in south-central Bali, which is just over an hour by road from Denpasar airport.

But dance and music are just two of the many classical Balinese arts that are protected here, where the survival and robustness of the local culture in an increasingly globalised world is somewhat surprising.

Bali, and Ubud in particular, is also full of examples of its traditional landscaping, religion, art and down-to-earth architecture that blends into nature. A subject of countless coffee table photography books, fine examples of lush Balinese gardens and courtyard style, temple-inspired architecture abound. Balinese temples are often situated near lakes or seas and in forests. Indeed, it can be challenging to tell the difference from multi-tiered, tower-filled Balinese temples and the guest-houses copying them and faithfully incorporating elements of the holy structures… More 

Take a leap into faith at buddhist relics museum
Carleton Cole,
Bangkok Post, February 26, 2012
A family-run centre dedicates itself to making priceless relics of different Buddhist sects as well as Hindu and Brahmin treasures available for all to see and savour


It seems like a grand boast for a museum that has been carrying on with little fanfare since 2009 on Rama III Road along the Chao Phraya River. But when you take into consideration the massive collection of Buddhist relics on display _ Mr Chuan calls it the world’s largest _ the claim seems to be much less grandiose.


And regardless of one’s background, it’s undeniable that a sense of wonder permeates the thousands of fascinating Buddhist, Hindu and Brahmin images at this unique gallery.
Mr Chuan’s Chinese-Malay family have for decades been involved in setting up displays of Buddhist relics such as pieces of bone, hair and crystallised flesh of the historic Buddha and enlightened arahat who achieved the state of nirvana.

He said his family chose Thailand to house his museum because it’s one of the world’s major centres of international Buddhism. The museum houses three replicas of Thailand’s most revered statue, the Emerald Buddha, which are larger and closer to the observer. Each of the images is adorned in one of three sets of coverings representing the cool, hot and rainy seasons. More
 

The bigger they are the harder they brawl

Carleton Cole
Bangkok Post, October 30, 2011

A local school is popularising the art of sumo in Siam _ offering fun for all ages and turning out fighters capable of contending with the big boys on the world stage


All at once the two stocky young Thai men clad in what some might think are cloth diapers for the super-sized charge from opposite ends of the ring, grappling at each other’s thick white belts and thumping heads, their shoulders and chests together. Then one of them swiftly brings his arms underneath his opponent’s bulging stomach and thrusts him backwards and out of the ring. The match is over as abruptly as it started.

It’s the kind of concentrated application of brawn and brains that takes place hundreds of times a day when students practise at the Sumo Foundation of Thailand centre just off Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Soi 71.

“I love sumo because it requires patience, perseverance and can be applied to challenges in life,” says Sumio Kurasawa, president of the foundation and former coach of the Thailand Sumo National Team. He has been married to a Thai woman for 30 years and has lived in Thailand since 1979. Kurasawa started practicing and developing a passion for sumo in his teens. “Eighteen years ago I received a call from a friend who wanted help in starting a sumo foundation in Thailand in order to further the goal of making sumo an Olympic sport.” While that aim may be elusive, Kurasawa is happy to have introduced many Thais to the art of sumo wrestling over the years. More

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