Author Description

James Low was sent to Burma by the East India Company during its invasion of the country in 1824. At the time, the place was almost completely unknown to the British, particularly the occupied southern province of Tenasserim (Tanintharyi). Lieutenant Low was a soldier, but he was also a linguist, diplomat and scholar with a keen eye to record a hidden part of the earth that had barely been seen by outsiders. This included not only Tenasserim but parts of Upper Burma, the Shan plateau and northern Siam as well. His initial reports were only to the Company, but in the 1830s they were serialized in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. In this edition, they have been collected in book form as Mr. Low seems to have intended, along with extensive maps and illustrations from both his own hand and that of Boon Khon, a Thai artist. The text has also been annotated in collaboration with residents of the province who alone can explain its obscure details, while GPS points allow the reader to follow Low's journeys. In sum, this work offers a uniquely detailed portrait of Tenasserim at a critical moment of its long, complex history.