Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic crime fiction and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
Aroon Thaewchatturat and Tom Vater will present their new book Sacred Skin at Kinokunya Book Shop in Siam Paragon in Bangkok on July 1st at 5pm. The authors will talk about Thailand´s sacred tattoos and sign copies of their book.
Writer Tom Vater and photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat will be giving a talk on the history of Sak Yant at the Indian Cultural Center in Bangkok – Sukhumvit Soi 23, Jasmine Tower, 27th Floor - on June 30th at 6.30pm. Signed copies of their brand new book, Sacred Skin, Thailand´s Spirit Tattoos, will be available at [...]
My review of Chris Taylor´s excellent novel Harvest Season is running in The Wall Street Journal this week. A thoughtful meditation on backpacker mayhem in Southern China, quite unlike Alex Garland´s The Beach. Read the full review here.
Tom Vater and Aroon Thaewchatturat will present their new book Sacred Skin, Thailand´s Spirit Tattoos, at The River Space, in Bangkok on June 28th. The River Space is a project initiated by James Nachtwey. The dinners are inspired by Jim Haynes and his famous Paris dinners which have now lasted for more than 30 years. [...]
“Achan Thoy [pictured above] is a highly respected Dabot Ruesi, a hermit sage of Hindu origin, known as a Rishi or Yogi in India, a man with the power to apply sacred and magic tattoos to a devotee’s skin,” says ‘Sacred Skin’ author Tom Vator. “He is a sak yant tattoo master.” Photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat [...]
The Most Secret Place on Earth – The CIA’s Covert War in Laos, directed by Marc Eberle and written by Marc Eberle and Tom Vater has just been broadcast on the History Channel. The film traces the origin and development of the largest clandestine CIA operation to date (at least as far as the agency [...]
I have just been interviewed by Donald Gilliland, owner of Dasa Book Cafe, Bangkok’s best second hand bookshop, for his popular blog Garlic Never Sleeps. I answer questions about the life of a writer working in Asia, about past publications and my new book Sacred Skin, and also talk about some of my other (music) [...]
The trailer for The Most Secret Place on Earth (The CIA Covert War in Laos), directed by Marc Eberle and co-authored by Tom Vater, has clocked more than 22.000 hits on YouTube.
A new exhibition about the architectural designs of Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann is showing at Phnom Penh’s International Airport and features a display of my feature portrait of Molyvann, published last year in the Asia Wall Street Journal. Vann Molyvann, born in Kampot province in 1926, was appointed by Norodom Sihanouk in the 1960s to [...]
Tom Vater and Aroon Thaewchatturat will be giving a talk on the history and the contemporary significance of Sak Yant, Thailand´s Spirit Tattoos for the National Museum in Thailand on June 15th. As tradition dictates, the talk, accompanied by a slide show of images from their forth-coming book Sacred Skin, will only be open to [...]