Birds’ Nests: Business and Ethnicity in Southeast Asia

By Kasem Jandam
412 pp. 2021, 17 x 14 cm. Paperback

Southeast Asia is renowned for birds’ nests and bird’s-nest trade, which is highly valued. The bird’s nest is dubbed as ‘White Gold’ and ‘Caviar of the East.’ 

This book offers knowledge of birds’ nests in various dimensions: the history in using of birds nests, the way of beliefs about birds-backed rituals within the ethnicities, and wisdom in the bird’s-nest business world: the bird’s-nest consumption and its impact on ecology and the environment, the innovations in the bird’s nest-business and the legal system related to the benefit and property of the public, private, community, and non-exclusive economic nesting resources. It also covers the trade and the relationship of ethnic groups within the state and across the country—the influence of Hong Kong’s bird’s-nest market to the bird’s-nest business in Southeast Asia. 

Birds’ Nests. Business and Ethnicity in Southeast Asia: An Anthropological Study of Business is a co-publication between TSRI Publications and Silkworm Books. 

About the author 

Kasem Jandam, a native of Nakhon Si Thammarat, a researcher on the national policy and international relationship, the Thailand Research Fund. His research works included “Ethnicity and Bird’s-Nest Resources in Southeast Asia.” His latest book in Thai is The Global Bird’s Nest Industry (2020). 

About TSRI (formerly TRF)

The Thailand Research Fund (TRF) was established in response to the 1992 Research Endowment Act. Its primary duty is to support science, technology, humanity, and social science for economic and social development and higher education. In 2019, TRF and other government funding agencies for higher education were merged, for efficiency, into The Thailand Science, Research, and Innovation Office (TSRI), established by the National Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation Policy Council. The organization is a government entity holding the status of a juristic person. Its objective is to enhance, support, and drive the national research and innovation systems. 

Table of Contents 

Introduction 
Chapter 1 Communities and Bird’s-Nest Resources in Vietnam 
Chapter 2 Ethnic Groups and Bird’s-Nest Resources in Indonesia 
Chapter 3 Ethnic Groups and Bird’s-Nest Resources in the Federation of Malaysia
Chapter 4 Culture and Edible Birds’ Nests in the Philippines 
Chapter 5 Ethnic Groups and Bird’s-Nest Resources in Thailand 
Chapter 6 Birds’ Nests and Ethnic Groups in Hong Kong 
Endnotes 
References 
Index