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Prey Veng province

Prey Veng (ព្រៃវែង ; lit. 'High Forest') is a province (khaet) of Cambodia. The capital is Prey Veng. With a population of 1.1 million people, it is the third most populous province.

This densely populated agricultural region is located on the east bank of the Mekong. The name literally means "long forest" in khmer, but the last great forests have gradually disappeared there over 30-year to provide for agricultural land.

History
In early Christian era, the province was a major center of the kingdom of Funan, between economic and political capitals of the country what were Oc Eo (now in the Vietnamese province of An Giang) and Angkor Borei (in the Cambodian province of Takéo province).

However, with the advent of Chen-la, the hub of the kingdom moved farther west, to Koh Ker and Angkor and the region lost its importance.

In the 15th century, the Khmer emperors, under threat from the Siamese (former name of people of current Thailand) decided to resettle back to the east, to Oudong, Lovek then Phnom Penh. Prey Veng did not favor them as it was too close to another danger, namely the Annam. Nevertheless, they formed an army at Ba Phnom in 1473 to defend against an invasion of Siam.

Under the French protectorate, the colonial authorities saw potential of the region in terms of agriculture and fishing and its proximity to the French colony of Cochin China. Mass deforestation took place, to create land for agriculture.

In 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took power, the province experienced its first famine, until 1977. Thousands of people in Prey Veng province were killed by the Khmer Rouge and buried in mass graves.

As the Vietnamese army advanced in January 1979, the region regained its position and became one of the first areas of Cambodia liberated from the Khmer Rouge.

Geography
The province is bordered by those of Kampong Cham to the northwest, Tbong Khmum to the northeast, Kandal to the west, and Svay Rieng to the east and by Vietnam (Đồng Tháp, Long An and Tây Ninh) to the south. It is crossed by two major rivers of the country, namely the Mekong and Tonle Bassac.

The total land area of the province is 4,883 km2, which equals 2.7% of the total land area of Cambodia (181,035 km2). This consists of 445.18 km2 or 9.12% of human settlements, 3,100 km2 or 63.49% of agricultural land use, 194.61 km2 or 3.99% of forested area, 1,082.86 km2 or 22.18% of public land, infrastructure and water bodies. The remaining 60.35 km2 or 1.24% are unused areas.

Population
The total population is 947,357 persons or 7.07% of the total population of 13,388,910 persons in Cambodia In the above number are also consisting of 825,818 person or 80.54% are farmers, 140,685 person or 13.72% are fishermen, 44,561 person or 4,35% are traders, 14,267 person or 1.39% are government's officers. The average density 194.0 person per km2.

The majority of the population is of Khmer origin and only 1.13% are from ethnic minorities such as Kinh (Viet), the Muslim Chams or Laos.

Economy
The province boasts of silt deposited in each flood, this makes the region conducive to agriculture and fishing. It is part of what is called the "great green belt" of Cambodia.

The main crop of rice and has the largest area devoted to rice in the country, contributing about 10% in the national crop and is among those that emerge each year the largest surplus. Tobacco, mung beans, cane sugar, palm sugar, cassava, sesame and fruits such as coconuts, mangoes and cashews are grown in Prey Veng. Rubber trees have played an important economic role in the past, but the plantations were abandoned during the wars that bloodied the country decades ago.

Districts

The province contains 1139 villages organized by 116 communes and 12 districts and 1 municipality. The districts are:

Religion
The state religion is Theravada Buddhism. More than 99.5% of the people in Prevy Veng are Buddhists. Chams have been practicing Islam for hundreds of years. A small percentage follow Christianity.

Ba Phnom
Ba Phnom is located 78 kilometers east of Phnom Penh and 45 kilometres south of the provincial capital. Its name literally means "ancestor of the hill". There is actually a mound of 139 meters.

Archaeological research has shown that it was an important cultural center of the kingdom of Fu-Nan, and a sacred place in which they worshipped Shiva. The site seems to have retained its sacred character throughout the Angkor period, and traces of animist and Buddhist rituals have also been found.

Prey Veng
The provincial capital is located on the National Road 11 between Neak Leung and Kampong Cham. It is located about 2 and half hours by road from Phnom Penh and 3 hours from Ho Chi Minh City. This quaint town is off the usual tourist trail and is uncrowded. It houses several old dilapidated colonial homes. There is a large lake west of the city which is dry from March to August.

Notable people

 * Thoeun Theara - professional kickboxer
 * Lorn Panha - professional kickboxer

title: Prey Veng province


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Ratanakiri province

Ratanakiri (រតនគិរី, UNGEGN: Rôtânôkĭri, ALA-LC: Ratanagirī ; lit. 'Gem Mountains') is a province of northeast Cambodia. It borders the provinces of Mondulkiri to the south and Stung Treng to the west and the countries of Laos (Attapeu) and Vietnam (Gia Lai and Kon Tum) to the north and east, respectively. The province extends from the mountains of the Annamite Range in the north, across a hilly plateau between the Tonlé San and Tonlé Srepok rivers, to tropical deciduous forests in the south. In recent years, logging and mining have scarred Ratanakiri's environment, long known for its beauty.

For over a millennium, Ratanakiri has been occupied by the highland Khmer Loeu people, who are a minority elsewhere in Cambodia. During the region's early history, its Khmer Loeu inhabitants were exploited as slaves by neighboring empires. The slave trade economy ended during the French colonial era, but a harsh Khmerization campaign after Cambodia's independence again threatened Khmer Loeu ways of life. The Khmer Rouge built its headquarters in the province in the 1960s, and bombing during the Vietnam War devastated the region. Today, rapid development in the province is altering traditional ways of life.

Ratanakiri is sparsely populated; its 184,000 residents make up just over 1% of the country's total population. Residents generally live in villages of 20 to 60 families and engage in subsistence shifting agriculture. Ratanakiri is among the least developed provinces of Cambodia. Its infrastructure is poor, and the local government is weak. Health indicators in Ratanakiri are extremely poor; men's life expectancy is 39 years, and women's is 43 years. Education levels are also low, with just under half of the population illiterate.

History
Ratanakiri has been occupied since at least the Stone or Bronze Age, and trade between the region's highlanders and towns along the Gulf of Thailand dates to at least the 4th century A.D. The region was invaded by Annamites, the Cham, the Khmer, and the Thai during its early history, but no empire ever brought the area under centralized control. From the 13th century or earlier until the 19th century, highland villages were often raided by Khmer, Lao, and Thai slave traders. The region was conquered by local Laotian rulers in the 18th century and then by the Thai in the 19th century. The area was incorporated into French Indochina in 1893, and colonial rule replaced slave trading. The French built huge rubber plantations, especially in Labansiek (present-day Banlung); indigenous workers were used for construction and rubber harvesting. While under French control, the land comprising present-day Ratanakiri was transferred from Siam (Thailand) to Laos and then to Cambodia. Although highland groups initially resisted their colonial rulers, by the end of the colonial era in 1953 they had been subdued.

Ratanakiri Province was created in 1959 from land that had been the eastern area of Stung Treng Province. The name Ratanakiri (រតនគិរី) is formed from the Khmer words រតនៈ (rôtânô "gem" from Sanskrit ratna) and គិរី (kĭri "mountain" from Sanskrit giri), describing two features for which the province is known. During the 1950s and 1960s, Norodom Sihanouk instituted a development and Khmerization campaign in northeast Cambodia that was designed to bring villages under government control, limit the influence of insurgents in the area, and "modernize" indigenous communities. Some Khmer Loeu were forcibly moved to the lowlands to be educated in Khmer language and culture, ethnic Khmer from elsewhere in Cambodia were moved into the province, and roads and large rubber plantations were built. After facing harsh working conditions and sometimes involuntary labor on the plantations, many Khmer Loeu left their traditional homes and moved farther from provincial towns. In 1968, tensions led to an uprising by the Brao people in which several Khmer were killed. The government responded harshly, torching settlements and killing hundreds of villagers.

In the 1960s, the ascendant Khmer Rouge forged an alliance with ethnic minorities in Ratanakiri, exploiting Khmer Loeu resentment of the central government. The Communist Party of Kampuchea headquarters was moved to Ratanakiri in 1966, and hundreds of Khmer Loeu joined CPK units. During this period, there was also extensive Vietnamese activity in Ratanakiri. Vietnamese communists had operated in Ratanakiri since the 1940s; at a June 1969 press conference, Sihanouk said that Ratanakiri was "practically North Vietnamese territory". Between March 1969 and May 1970, the United States undertook a massive covert bombing campaign in the region, aiming to disrupt sanctuaries for communist Vietnamese troops. Villagers were forced outside of main towns to escape the bombings, foraging for food and living on the run with the Khmer Rouge. In June 1970, the central government withdrew its troops from Ratanakiri, abandoning the area to Khmer Rouge control. The Khmer Rouge regime, which had not initially been harsh in Ratanakiri, became increasingly oppressive. The Khmer Loeu were forbidden from speaking their native languages or practicing their traditional customs and religion, which were seen as incompatible with communism. Communal living became compulsory, and the province's few schools were closed. Purges of ethnic minorities increased in frequency, and thousands of refugees fled to Vietnam and Laos. Preliminary studies indicate that bodies accounting for approximately 5% of Ratanakiri's residents were deposited in mass graves, a significantly lower rate than elsewhere in Cambodia.

After the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge in 1979, government policy toward Ratanakiri became one of benign neglect. The Khmer Loeu were permitted to return to their traditional livelihoods, but the government provided little infrastructure in the province. Under the Vietnamese, there was little contact between the provincial government and many local communities. Long after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, however, Khmer Rouge rebels remained in the forests of Ratanakiri. Rebels largely surrendered their arms in the 1990s, though attacks along provincial roads continued until 2002.

Ratanakiri's recent history has been characterized by development and attendant challenges to traditional ways of life. The national government has built roads, encouraged tourism and agriculture, and facilitated rapid immigration of lowland Khmers into Ratanakiri. Road improvements and political stability have increased land prices, and land alienation in Ratanakiri has been a major problem. Despite a 2001 law allowing indigenous communities to obtain collective title to traditional lands, some villages have been left nearly landless. The national government has granted concessions over land traditionally possessed by Ratanakiri's indigenous peoples, and even land "sales" have often involved bribes to officials, coercion, threats, or misinformation. Following the involvement of several international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), land alienation had decreased in frequency as of 2006. In the 2000s, Ratanakiri also received hundreds of Degar (Montagnard) refugees fleeing unrest in neighboring Vietnam; the Cambodian government was criticized for its forcible repatriation of many refugees.

Geography and climate
The geography of Ratanakiri Province is diverse, encompassing rolling hills, mountains, plateaus, lowland watersheds, and crater lakes. Two major rivers, Tonle San and Tonle Srepok, flow from east to west across the province. The province is known for its lush forests; as of 1997, 70–80% of the province was forested, either with old-growth forest or with secondary forest regrown after shifting cultivation. In the far north of the province are mountains of the Annamite Range; the area is characterized by dense broadleaf evergreen forests, relatively poor soil, and abundant wildlife. In the highlands between Tonle San and Tonle Srepok, the home of the vast majority of Ratanakiri's population, a hilly basalt plateau provides fertile red soils. Secondary forests dominate this region. South of the Srepok River is a flat area of tropical deciduous forests.

Like other areas of Cambodia, Ratanakiri has a monsoonal climate with a rainy season from June to October, a cool season from November to January, and a hot season from March to May. Ratanakiri tends to be cooler than elsewhere in Cambodia. The average daily high temperature in the province is 34.0 °C, and the average daily low temperature is 22.1 °C. Annual precipitation is approximately 2200 mm. Flooding often occurs during the rainy season and has been exacerbated by the recently built Yali Falls Dam.

Ratanakiri has some of the most biologically diverse lowland tropical rainforest and montane forest ecosystems in mainland Southeast Asia. One 1996 survey of two sites in Ratanakiri and one site in neighboring Mondulkiri recorded 44 mammal species, 76 bird species, and 9 reptile species. A 2007 survey of Ratanakiri's Virachey National Park recorded 30 ant species, 19 katydid species, 37 fish species, 35 reptile species, 26 amphibian species, and 15 mammal species, including several species never before observed. Wildlife in Ratanakiri includes Asian elephants, gaur, and monkeys. Ratanakiri is an important site for the conservation of endangered birds, including the giant ibis and the greater adjutant. The province's forests contain a wide variety of flora; one half-hectare forest inventory identified 189 species of trees and 320 species of ground flora and saplings.

Nearly half of Ratanakiri has been set aside in protected areas, which include Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary and Virachey National Park. Even these protected areas, however, are subject to illegal logging, poaching, and mineral extraction. Though the province has been known for its relatively pristine environment, recent development has spawned environmental problems. The unspoiled image of the province often conflicts with the reality on the ground: visitors "expecting to find pristine forests teeming with wildlife are increasingly disappointed to find lifeless patches of freshly cut tree stumps". Land use patterns are changing as population growth has accelerated and agriculture and logging have intensified. Soil erosion is increasing, and microclimates are being altered. Habitat loss and unsustainable hunting have contributed to the province's decreasing biodiversity.

Government and administrative divisions
Government in Ratanakiri is weak, largely due to the province's remoteness, ethnic diversity, and recent history of Khmer Rouge dominance. The provincial legal framework is poor, and the rule of law is even weaker in Ratanakiri than elsewhere in Cambodia. Furthermore, government services are ineffective and insufficient to meet the needs of the province. The Cambodian government has traditionally accepted substantial support from NGOs in the region.

Thon Saron is the provincial governor. As of the 2017 communal elections, commune councils in Ratanakiri are composed of 207 members representing the CPP, 51 members representing the Cambodia National Rescue Party, and two members representing the Grassroots Democracy Party. Political scientist Caroline Hughes has suggested that the CPP's overwhelming dominance in rural areas such as Ratanakiri stems from the central government's ability to suppress collective action, which in urban areas is offset by international donors and NGOs that provide support for opposition parties. Fifty-one commune council members in Ratanakiri (20%) were women as of the 2012 communal elections, and 98% of Ratanakiri's government staff was Khmer as of 2006. Bou Lam, a member of the CPP, represents Ratanakiri in the National Assembly of Cambodia.

Village government in Ratanakiri has both traditional and administrative components. Traditional forms of government, namely village elders and other indigenous institutions, are dominant. Members of each village designate one or more community elders to manage village affairs, mediate conflicts, and ensure that villagers follow customary laws, particularly about land and resource use. Elders do not play an autocratic role, and are instead primarily respected advisors and consensus builders. Village elders are generally male, but women also play a role in the management of the community and its resources. A village may also have a village chief, i.e., a local government person who is appointed by a higher governmental official. The village chief serves as a liaison between the village and outside government officials, but lacks traditional authority. The role of the village chief in village governance may be poorly defined; in one Kreung village, residents told a researcher that they were "very unclear exactly what the work of the village chief entailed." The province is divided into eight districts and one municipality, further divided into 50 communes, as follows:

Economy and transportation

The vast majority of workers in Ratanakiri are employed in agriculture. Most of the indigenous residents of Ratanakiri are subsistence farmers, practicing slash and burn shifting cultivation. (See Culture below for more information on traditional subsistence practices.) Many families are beginning to shift production to cash crops such as cashews, mangoes, and tobacco, a trend that has accelerated in recent years. Ratanakiri villagers have traditionally had little contact with the cash economy. Barter exchange remains widespread, and Khmer Loeu villagers tended to visit markets only once per year until quite recently. As of 2005, monetary income in the province averaged US$5 per month per person; purchased possessions such as motorcycles, televisions, and karaoke sets have become extremely desirable.

Larger-scale agriculture occurs on rubber and cashew plantations. Other economic activities in the province include gem mining and commercial logging. The most abundant gem in Ratanakiri is blue zircon. Small quantities of amethyst, blue sapphire and Peridot are also produced. Gems are generally mined using traditional methods, with individuals digging holes and tunnels and manually removing the gems; recently, however, commercial mining operations have been moving into the province. Logging, particularly illegal logging, has been a problem both for environmental reasons and because of land alienation. In 1997, an estimated 300,000 cubic meters of logs were exported illegally from Ratanakiri to Vietnam, compared to a legal limit of 36,000 cubic meters. John Dennis, a researcher for the Asian Development Bank, described the logging in Ratanakiri as a "human rights emergency".

Ratanakiri's tourist industry has rapidly expanded in recent years: visits to the province increased from 6,000 in 2002 to 105,000 in 2008 and 118,000 in 2011. The region's tourism development strategy focuses on encouraging ecotourism. Increasing tourism in Ratanakiri has been problematic because local communities receive very little income from tourism and because guides sometimes bring tourists to villages without residents' consent, disrupting traditional ways of life. A few initiatives have sought to address these issues: a provincial tourism steering committee aims to ensure that tourism is non-destructive, and some programs provide English and tourism skills to indigenous people.

Ox-cart and motorcycle are common means of transportation in Ratanakiri. The provincial road system is better than in some parts of the country, but remains in somewhat bad condition. National Road 78 between Banlung and the Vietnam border was built between 2007 and 2010; the road was expected to increase trade between Cambodia and Vietnam. There is a small airport in Banlung, but commercial flights to Ratanakiri have long been discontinued.

Demographics and towns

As of 2013, Ratanakiri Province had a population of approximately 184,000. Its population nearly doubled between 1998 and 2013, largely due to internal migration. In 2013, Ratanakiri made up 1.3% of Cambodia's total population; its population density of 17.0 residents per square kilometer was just over one fifth the national average. About 70% of the province's population lives in the highlands; of the other 30%, approximately half live in more urbanized towns, and half live along rivers and in the lowlands, where they practice wetland rice cultivation and engage in market activities. Banlung, the provincial capital located in the central highlands, is by far the province's largest town, with a population of approximately 25,000. Other significant towns include Veun Sai in the north and Lomphat in the south, with populations of 2,000 and 3,000 respectively.

In 2013, 37% of Ratanakiri residents were under age 15, 52% were age 15 to 49, 7% were age 50 to 64, and 3% were aged 65 or older; 49.7% of residents were male, and 50.3% were female. Each household had an average of 4.9 members, and most households (85.6%) were headed by men.

While highland peoples have inhabited Ratanakiri for well over a millennium, lowland peoples have migrated to the province in the last 200 years. As of 2013, various highland groups collectively called Khmer Loeu made up approximately half of Ratanakiri's population, ethnic Khmers made up 36%, and ethnic Lao made up 10%. Within the Khmer Loeu population, 35% were Tampuan as of 1996, 24% were Jarai, 23% were Kreung, 11% were Brou, 3% were Kachok, and 3% were Kavet, with other groups making up the remaining one percent. There are also very small Vietnamese, Cham, and Chinese minorities. Though the official language of Ratanakiri (like all of Cambodia) is Khmer, each indigenous group speaks its own language. Less than 10% of Ratanakiri's indigenous population can speak Khmer fluently.

Health, education, and development
Health indicators in Ratanakiri are the worst in Cambodia. Life expectancy is 39 years for men and 43 years for women. Malaria, tuberculosis, intestinal parasites, cholera, diarrhea, and vaccine-preventable diseases are endemic. Ratanakiri has very high rates of maternal and child mortality; in Ratanakiri and neighboring Mondulkiri (whose figures were combined in the most recent survey), over 10% of children die before the age of five. Ratanakiri also has the country's highest rates of severe malnutrition. Ratanakiri residents' poor health can be attributed to a variety of factors, including poverty, remoteness of villages, poor quality medical services, and language and cultural barriers that prevent Khmer Loeu from obtaining medical care. The province has one referral hospital, 10 health centers, and 17 health posts. Medical equipment and supplies are minimal, and most health facilities are staffed by nurses or midwives, who are often poorly trained and irregularly paid.

As of 1998, Ratanakiri had 76 primary schools, one junior high school, and one high school. Education levels, particularly among Khmer Loeu, are very low. A 2002 survey of residents in six villages found that fewer than 10% of respondents had attended any primary school. Access to education is limited because of the expense of books, distance to schools, children's need to contribute to their families' livelihood, frequent absence of teachers, and instruction that is culturally inappropriate and in a language foreign to most students. Only 55% of Ratanakiri adults were literate as of 2013 (compared to 80% in Cambodia overall). Bilingual education initiatives, in which students begin instruction in native languages and gradually transition to instruction in Khmer, began in Ratanakiri in 2002 and appear to have been successful. The programs aim to make education more accessible to speakers of indigenous languages, as well as to give Khmer Loeu access to national political and economic affairs by providing Khmer language skills.

Ratanakiri is one of the least developed provinces in Cambodia. As of 2013, the average home had 1.9 rooms, and only 14.9% of buildings in the province had permanent roofs, walls, and flooring. Relatively few households (27.8%) had toilet facilities. The largest share of households (38.0%) obtained water from springs, streams, ponds, or rain; much of the remainder obtained water from protected (23.9%) or unprotected (15.1%) dug wells. Only 21.6% of Ratanakiri residents obtained water from sources that are considered safe (purchased water, piped water, or tube/piped wells). Household water sources were within the home for 28.0% of households, near the home for 39.1%, and away from the home for 32.9%. The most common source of light was battery power (39.5%), followed by government-provided power (25.5%), and kerosene (16.5%). Most households (85%) used firewood as the main fuel for cooking. A variety of NGOs, including Oxfam and Health Unlimited, work to improve health and living conditions in the province.

Culture
Khmer Loeu typically practice subsistence slash and burn shifting cultivation in small villages of between 20 and 60 nuclear families. Each village collectively owns and governs a forest territory whose boundaries are known though not marked. Within this land, each family is allocated, on average, 1–2 hectares (2.5–5 acres) of actively cultivated land and 5–6 hectares (12.5–15 acres) of fallow land. The ecologically sustainable cultivation cycle practiced by the Khmer Loeu generally lasts 10 to 15 years. Villagers supplement their agricultural livelihood with low-intensity hunting, fishing, and gathering over a large area.

Khmer Loeu diets in Ratanakiri are largely dictated by the food that is available for harvesting or gathering. Numerous food taboos also limit food choice, particularly among pregnant women, children, and the sick. The primary staple grain is rice, though most families experience rice shortages during the six months before harvest time. Some families have begun to plant maize to alleviate this problem; other sources of grain include potatoes, cassava, and taro. Most Khmer Loeu diets are low in protein, which is limited in availability. Wild game and fish are major protein sources, and smaller animals such as rats, wild chickens, and insects are also sometimes eaten. Domestic animals such as pigs, cows, and buffaloes are only eaten when sacrifices are made. In the rainy season, many varieties of vegetables and leaves are gathered from the forest. (Vegetables are generally not cultivated. ) Commonly eaten fruits include bananas, jackfruit, papayas, and mangoes.

Houses in rural Ratanakiri are made from bamboo, rattan, wood, saek, and kanma leaves, all of which are collected from nearby forests; they typically last for around three years. Village spatial organization varies by ethnic group. Kreung villages are constructed in a circular manner, with houses facing inwards toward a central meeting house. In Jarai villages, vast longhouses are inhabited by all extended families, with the inner house divided into smaller compartments. Tampuan villages may follow either pattern.

Nearly all Khmer Loeu are animist, and their cosmologies are intertwined with the natural world. Some forests are believed to be inhabited by local spirits, and local taboos forbid cutting in those areas. Within spirit forests, certain natural features such as rock formations, waterfalls, pools, and vegetation are sacred. Major sacrificial festivals in Ratanakiri occur during March and April, when fields are selected and prepared for the new planting season. Christian missionaries are present in the province, and some Khmer Loeu have converted to Christianity. Indigenous community representatives have described the missionaries as a major threat to their society. The region's ethnic Khmer are Buddhist. There is also a small Muslim community, consisting mainly of ethnic Cham.

Because of the province's high prevalence of malaria and its distance from regional centers, Ratanakiri was isolated from Western influences until the late 20th century. Major cultural shifts have occurred in recent years however, particularly in villages near roads and district towns; these changes have been attributed to contact with internal immigrants, government officials, and NGO workers. Clothing and diets are becoming more standardized, and traditional music is being displaced by Khmer music. Many villagers have also observed a loss of respect for elders and a growing divide between the young and the old. Young people have begun to refuse to abide by traditional rules and have stopped believing in spirits.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Ratanakiri province


text:
User:Benwbrum/Hapiru

Back in 2004, tired of the long arguments about the nature of the Hapiru, I collected all the references to the subject I could find in my own library and typed them up here. Other editors -- most notably User:Llywrch added more quotations to that sources list.

The editors who had been contesting the article incorporated much of that material into the the article, reaching a consensus. Since that time, that listing of sources has been merged into the main article and the Hapiru/Sources was deleted. Here I reproduce the sources article below.

This page lists the sources used in compiling the Habiru article.

=Secondary sources for the Hapiru article=

P 239-240
The historical character of the Patriarchal period was further reinforced - so it was thought some years ago - by the mention in cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts dating mostly from the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries BC of a category of people, generally grouped in bellicose bands, called habiru(c) (or `apiru in Egyptian), a name which sounded remarkably like biblical 'Ibri, the Hebrews. There was at last the long-awaited appearance in non-hebraical sources of Abraham's kin!

Unfortunately, recent and thorough reappraisals of these sources have shown beyond any doubt that the Habiru have nothing in common with the Hebrews but a similitude of name. They were neither a people nor a tribe, but a class of society made up of refugees, of 'displaced persons' as we would now say, who frequently turned into outlaws 25 [In actual fact, the Mittani Khabers married into the Egyptian 18th dynasty, and their offspring labeled themselves "Kheperu." The "Mittani" (Mitayn, "200 sons") region of Assyria had famous pottery that science labels "Habur", silent K from the Khabur. They spoke "Luwian" which is Hebrew. That is why the Torah says the Levites are a tribe of Hebrews. There is the connection: plain as the language spoken. When they invaded south, they renamed the region "The Levant" after the Levite tribes, and "Canaan" after their trade: Cains...blacksmiths..."Kanni" of VasuKanni, the capital of Mittani. Luwian is an Akkadian language: Semitic. Specifically, N.W. Akkadian is Hebrew/Levite. The "Shasu of YHW" that were bands of roving marauders actually translates as "Children (Shasu/Chasu) of YWH. His son, "Aye" called himself a "Kheprukheperu" because both mom and dad were Hebrews. Connections made, case closed.]

P 466, notes to chapter 14
25. J. BOTTERO, Le Problemes des Habiru a la 4eme Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Paris, 1954. M. GREENBERG, The Hab/piru, New Haven, 1955. See also: J. BOTTERO, 'Habiru', RLA IV (1972), pp 14-27.

Comments on this source
Roux's Ancient Iraq is a general guide to Mesopotamian history, from the pre-historic period up to the Persian Empire. According to the reviews on Amazon, Roux is actually an amateur who wrote the three editions in his retirement. It was required reading in my Akkadian class in college. Benwbrum 18:14, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

P. 68
On the fringes of most of the writing civilizations a social group called the `apiru or habiru or hapiru consisted of stateless persons who had withdrawn from peasant and city life and made their livings as robbers and mercenaries.6 The term apparently means "dusty" or "crosser" and refers to desert travelers, and it is used as a designation for a social class of dissatisfied former city dwellers who had taken to a life of brigandage, preying on kings ruling small cities and their commerce.

Interest in the term hapiru has derived from the possibility that it is related to the word for Hebrew, `ibri[second I is long -BWB] in Hebrew. The term does not refer to a self-conscious ethnic group. For one thing, the term is attested even as early as the Old Assyrian trade in the 1900s B.C.E. Although one can conceive of the later Hebrews as originating from among such groups, it does not seem that there was a direct connection.7

P. 183 (Notes to page 68)
6. A helpful summary is M. Greenberg, Hab/piru.

7. On the term and its apparent Hebrew analogue, see M. Greenberg, The Hab/piru, and G. Buccellati, "`Apiru and Munnabtutu - The Stateless of the First Cosmopolitan Age," JNES 32 (1977): 145-47.

Source: Wolfram von Soden, The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the study of the Ancient Near East, Grand Rapids, 1994. ISBN 0-8028-0142-0
(Translation of Einfuehrung in die Altorientalistik, Darmstadt, 1985.)

Page 78
There were different designations for groups of foreign origin who were not fully assimilated, which naturally often formed elements of unrest. Such was the case as early as the Old Babylonian and even before, but above all in the Amarna Age in Syria and Nuzi. Among these terms, the word hapiru, the basic meaning of which still has not been clarified, has been frequently discussed. This word appeaqrs in ancient Egyptian and in Ugaritic as `pr, and sounds similar to Hebrew `ibri, although hapiru is certainly not to be equated with `ibri. It is impossible to speak in only a few sentences about these and similar, less widespread group designations, since these frequetnly denote different types of groups, depending on the place and time.20 Most importantly, however, the fate of Syrian city-states was decisively determined in part by the non- or only partially integrated fringe groups such as the Hapiru.

Page 78, Footnote 20
20. C.f. J. Bottero, "Habiru," RLA IV (1972): 14-27; O. Loretz, Habiru-Hebraeer. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fuer die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 160 (1984); M. Greenberg, The Hab/piru (New Haven, 155[sic]). The cuneiform writings permit readings with b and p; in Egypt and Ugarit the term was written `pr.

Comments on this source
I haven't read all of this book. The quotation is from Chapter VI State and Society, 4. Society and Social Groups, c. Sedentary and Nonsedentary (Nomads and Seminomads. The text preceding the quote deals with defining nomadism and seminomadism, the Martu/Amurru in the Old Babylonian period, the mushkenum.  The text following the quote in this section discusses the practice of deportation from 1300 on. Benwbrum 00:01, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Page 13
When Ugarit was destroyed some hundred tablets were being baked in the oven, and so from this site we have documents written on the very eve of its destruction. One of these tablets "from the oven" - a letter from a certain Ydn to "the king, his master" - mentions prm (hapiru), and requests that the king "equip 150 ships."19

19. RS 18.148 = no. 62 (pp. 88-89), vol 5.

Page 151
Among foreign professionals, the lowest level seems to have been that of the hapiru (or `prw), free-lancers who were hired merely for a season or campaign. Egyptian, Ugaritic, and Hittite texts all make mention of hapiru, both as hired troops and as troublesome elements against whom action had to be taken. The "Hebrew" traditions in early Israel indicate that many of the hapiru who fought for the pharaoh were hired from the less settled populations in the southern Levant. Etymologically, the word hapiru seems to have had no specifically military connotation, meaning some thin glike "vagrants", or "those who have crossed boundaries," and clearly not all hapiru were warriors.49 But in the Late Bronze Age many hapiru  were associated with mercenary military service, and apparently they were hired for hand-to-hand rather than for long-range combat. The Sumerian ideogram that is often used alongside or in place of the word hapiru is SA.GAZ, which seems originally to have meant "he who commits aggression," or "one who knocks down," or even "killer."50 The hapiru, or SA.GAZ, seem to have fought in conjunction with chariots but were not themselves charioteers or chariot archers.51

A preferable source of seasoned infantrymen for temporary service was a vassal state or a province on the frontier. As indicated above, the Hittite kings (who rarely hired hapiru) seem to have assembled the considerable infantry needed for a major campaign by requiring every subject district to send to the Great King a certain number of troops. ....

49. Of a score of studies on the hapiru the most recent is by Nadav Na'aman, "Hapiru and Hebrews: The Transfer of a Social Term to the literary Scene," JNES 45 (1986): 271-88; see also H Cazelles, "The Hebrews", in D Wiseman, ed., Peoples of Old Testament Times (Oxford, 1973), 1-28.

50. Mary Gray, "The Hapiru-Hebrew Problem in the Light of the Source Material Available at Present," Hebrew Union College Annual 29 (1958): 137ff.

51. W. Helck, ''Die Beziehungen Aegyptens zu Vorderasien im 3. und 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. (Wiesbaden, 1962), 522-31, proposed that the terms maryannu and `prw'' stood respectively for chariotry and infantry professionals.

Page 220
In the interior, centers such as Deir `Alla (Succoth), Lachish, and Hazor were most likely sacked by "Israelites," seminomadic tribesmen who for generations had scraped out an existence in the hill country flanking the valleys of the Jordan and its tributaries, and in the desert fringe to the east. until teh Catastrophe, the best that either Philistines or Israelites could hope for was service as ne`arim or hapiru in the employ of a petty king. But now they were in a position to kill the king, loot his palace and his city, and burn them to the ground. Not all the Canaanite cities between the Jordan and the Mediterranean were razed. Shechem was spared by the Israelite tribesmen, the Israelites foreswearing hostilities against the city, and the Shechemites granting to those Israelites who submitted to circumcision the rights of connubium and of participation in the venerable cult on Mt. Gerizim. Gibeon was also spared, having come to terms with the invaders: in return for their lives, the Gibeonites were said to have pledged themselves and their descendants to serve their conquerors as hewers of wood and drawers of water.

Comments on this source
Bronze Age is an attempt by Drews to explain the Catastrophe around 1200 B.C. This is the same event that draws speculation about Sea Peoples and such. Part one lays out the evidence and acquaints the reader with the standard picture of the pre-1200 Near East and with the chronology of the collapse of kingdoms after that. Part Two lays out previously advanced views of the Catastrophe's cause, including chapters titled "Earthquakes", "Migrations", "Ironworking", "Drought", "Systems Collapse", and "Raiders". Part Three advances Drews' theory that the Catastrophe was the result of changes in military tactics that shifted the balance of military power from well-organized/well-funded armies of chariots to poorly-funded armies of javelin throwers.

The three quotes above come from radically different contexts within Drews' book. Page 13 is in the middle of part one, and is laying out the accepted view of the evidence. Page 151 is in the middle of supporting statements for his own hypothesis, and also represents accepted scholarship. However, this is a description of a synthesis of the evidence, rather than a presentation of the evidence itself. Page 220 occurs in Drews's conclusion, which is a speculative narrative account of what the Catastrophe might have been like, using his own hypothesis as an assumption and re-interpreting the evidence in light of that. In particular, page 220 makes no claim to identify hapiru with the Israelites, as Drews is using the terms "Israelite" and "Philistine" in this context as convenient labels for socio-economic groups within his narrative. Benwbrum 00:44, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Pages 69-70
The most likely explanation of the pankus is that is was a convocation of the Great King's vassals, each of whom had at his command a small troop of soldiers. Although some historians have imagined the army of the Hittite king as a militia of the "Hittite nation," perhaps similar to Alaric's Visigoths, it was in fact drawn from various language groups, and many of the most important units were "mercenary" (we cannot even be certain that the majority of the troops serving in this Hittite monarchy spoke Hittite). Thus in the Hittite Law Code there appear "the Manda Warriors" and "the Sala warriors" alongside various local units.31 It is becoming clear that in the second millennium a generic term for "mercenary soldiers" was the word hapiru or the Sumerogram SA.GAZ. The hapirus (or SA.GAZ) appear in fourteen documents from the period of the Hittite Empire and have recently turned up in two texts from the Old Kingdom.32 In these two texts, which Heinrich Otten dates to the seventeenth or sixteenth century, "the troops from Hatti and the SA. GAZ troops" appear almost as a formula, and it appears that the king's relationship to the mercenaries was no different from his relationship to the militias conscripted from the towns of Hatti.33  Both the SA. GAZ units and the units from Hatti were personally bound to the king, and he to them, by formidable oaths. The military oath was taken by all commanders, whether of local levies or of professional troops, and invited upon the oath-breaker (whether king or vassal) a long and horrible catalog of divine punishments.34

Footnotes to pages 69-70
31. See E. Neufeld, The Hittite Laws (London: Luzac & Co., 1951), 18 (Section 54 of the code), and commentary on page 168.

32. H. Otten, "Zwei althethitische Belege zu den Hapiru (SA.GAZ)," ZA 52 (1957): 216-23

33. Of the SA. GAZ in the period of the Hittite Old Kingdom, Otten concludes ("Zwei althethitische Belege," 223): "Ihre militaerische Dienstleistung is offenkundig. Deutlich wird jetzt, dass die diesbezueglichen Belege sich auf die Zeit des Alten Reiches, also auf die Periode der Konsolidierung des hethitischen Staates in Anatolien vor 1500 v. Chr (17./16. Jh.) konzentrieren.  Neu tritt dabei ihre rechtliche Stellung zum Hofe hervor, indem der Koenig sich eidlich zur Einhaltung von Abmachungen verpflichtet, wobei die Hapiri anderen militaerischen Formationen und Chargen offensichtlich gleichgestellt werden.  Das zeigt eine soziale Lage dieser Hapiri auf, wie sie bisher den Texten nicht zu entnehmen war."

34. In the form that it has come down to us, the oath dates from the fifteenth century B.C. See N. Oettinger, Die militaerishce [sic] Eid der Hethiter (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1976).

Comments on this source
=Primary sources for the Hapiru article=

The following quotes all come from Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, James B. Pritchard, Ed. Second Edition. Princeton, 1955.

Text
Now after an hour they were drunken, and Thoth said to [the Enemy of Joppa: "I'll deliver] myself, along with (my) wife and children, (into) your own town.3 Have the ma[ryanu] bring in [the horses and give] them feed, or an apir4 may pass by ... them." So they guarded the horses and gave them feed.

Comments on this source
This is an Egyptian account of acts by a General Thoth under Thut-mose III. The fragmentary account above is followed by Thoth's conquest of Joppa.

Text
Hantidassus of Hurma, Abaras of Samuhas, Katahhas of Ankuwa, the Queen of Katapa, Ammammas of Tahurpa, Hallaras of Dunna, Huwassanas of Hupisna, Tapisuwa of Ishupitta, the "Lady" of Landa, Kunniyawannis of Landa, NIN.PISAN.PISAN of Kinza, Mount Lablana,18 Mount Sariyana,19 Mount Pisaisa, the Lulahhi gods (and) the Hapiri20 gods, Ereskigal, the gods and goddesses of the Hatti land, the gods and goddesses of Amurru land, all the olden gods, Naras, Napsaras, Minki, Tuhusi, Ammunki, Ammizadu, Allalu, Anu, Antu, Apantu, Ellil, Ninlil, the mountains, the rivers, the springs, the great Sea, heaven and earth, the winds (and) the clouds - let these be witnesses to this treaty and to the oath.

Comments on this source
This occurs in the middle of a long listing of gods to bear witness to the treaty. It is preceded by a long list of other gods included in the invocation and is followed by a "If Dubbi-Tessub breaks the treaty, may the gods punish him, and if he keeps it may these gods protect him" formula, which concludes the treaty. The obligations of each party are specified in the text of the treaty before the invocation. Benwbrum 05:34, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Text
Hallaras of Dunna, Huwassanas of Hupisna, the "Lady" of Landa, Kunniyawannis of Landa, the Lulahhi gods (and) the Hapiri gods 4 all the gods and goddesses of the Hatti land, the gods and goddesses of the country of Kizzuwatna, Ereskigal, Nara, Namsara, Minku, Amminku, Tussi, Ammizadu, Alalu, Anu, Antu, Ellil, Ninlil, Belat-Ekalli, the mountains, the rivers, the Tigris (and) the Euphrates, heaven and earth, the winds (and) the clouds;

Footnote
4. Much discussed in connection whether the Hapiru, ubiquitous in cuneiform texts of the times, are to be equated with the Hebrews.

Comments on this source
The quote appears in a long list of gods, and is followed by the threat/promise of divine retribution/reward for "Mattiwaza, the prince, and the sons of the Hurri country" if they keep or break the oath.

Text
His majesty reached the town of Memphis, his heart appeased over all countries, with all lands beneath his soles. List of the plunder which his majesty carried off: princes of Retenu: 12746; brothers of princes: 179; Apiru:47 3,600; living Shasu: 15200; Kharu: 36,300; living Neges: 15,070; the adherents thereof: 30,652; total: 89,600 men;48; similarly their goods, without their limit; all (kinds of) cattle, without their limit; chariots of silver and gold: 60; painted chariots of wood: 1032; in addition to all their weapons of warfare, being 13,050;49 through the strength of his august father, his beloved, who is thy50 magical protection, Amon, who decreed to him valor.

Comments on this Source
This was taken from two stele -- one at Memphis, and one at Karnak. Translation is by John A. Wilson (credited on p. 227).

Text
On this day,1 lo [one came to tell] his [majesty]: The Apiru2 of Mount Yarmuta,3 with Teyer. . ., [have ari]sen in attack upon the Asiatics of Rehem. Then [his majesty] said: How can these wretched Asiatics think [of taking] their [arms] for further disorder? . . . Then his majesty commanded a certain number of people from his [infantry and his] numerous chariotry that their faces turn back to the foreign country Djahi.4 The space of two days elapsed, [and they returned in triumph from] the country  Ye. . ., having [their] levy [consisting of] living [captives] as plunder. . ..

Comments on this source
The text is from a basalt stela and records events from the reign of Seti I. Translation is by John A. Wilson.

Text
(XXX 2) I made for the a fresh foundation from the many classes whose sons I carried off to thy house, (named) "Taking the Others".8

(XXXI 8) Warriors, sons of (foreign) princes, maryanu, apiru9, and people settled who are in this place: 2093 persons.7

Comments on this source
These items are from a list of properties bequeathed upon the Egyptian temples by Ramses III. The selection in ANET is only of gifts related to Ramses' activities abroad. Subject headings are A. Activity on the Mediterranean, B. Temple of Amon in Asia, C. Towns of Amon's Estate, D. Serfs of the Temples, E. Temple Cattle, F. Temple Grain, G. Temple Oil, H. Temple Cedar, and I. Summary of Northern Wars. Sections C-H are each divided into Theban, Heliopolitan, and Memphite sections. The quotation is from D, Serfs of the Temples, Heliopolitan Section.

This source was also translated by John A. Wilson

Text
The next day word of the enemy came as follows: "Yapah-Adad has made ready the settlement Zallul on this side of the bank of the Euphrates River, and with two thousand troops of the Hapiru of the land, 9 is dwelling in that city."

Comments on this source
This is a letter from the Royal Archives of Mari, excavatd from the palace of Zimri-Lim (late 18th century BC). It was translated by W. F. Albright, in collaboration with George E. Mendenhall.

The author continues his letter after the quote by explaining his response to the news by fortifying a town nearby Zallul, the mobilization of both lands, and the author's hesitation to attack a well-fortified position. Benwbrum 00:55, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Text
To the king, my lord and my Sun-god: Thus Lab'ayu, thy servant and the dirt on which thou dost tread. At the feet of the king, my lord, and my Sun-god, seven times and seven times I fall.

I have heard the words which the king wrote to me and who am I that the king should lose his land because of me? Behold, I am a faithful servant of the king, and I do not withhold my tribute, and I do not refuse the requests of my commissioner. Now they wickedly slander me, but let the king, my lord, not impute rebellion to me!

Further, my crime is that I entered Gezer and said publicly: "Shall the king take my property and not likewise the property of Milkilu?" I know the deeds which Milkilu has done against me.

Further, the king wrote concerning my son. I did not know that my son associates with the `Apiru, and I have verily delivered him into the hand of Addaya.

Comments on this source
This letter is from the Tell el-Amarna collection. The quotation is from the beginning of the letter to the sentence mentioning the Habiru. It completes with another plea for Lab'ayu's loyalty expressing that he would yield his wife or his life upon the king's command. It, along with the other Amarna letters quoted here, was translated by W. F. Albright and George E. Mendenhall, witha few corrections by W. L Moran, S. J.Benwbrum 05:07, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Text
Let the king know that powerful is the hostility against me and against Shuwardata. Let the king, my lord, protect his land from the hand of the `Apiru. If not, (then) let the king, my lord, send chariots to fetch us, lest our servants smite us.

Text
EA, No. 271 [Milkilu, prince of Gezer to the Pharaoh]13 In a list of enemies poised against him, Milkilu writes: "Let the king, my lord, protect his land from the hand of the 'Apiru. if not (then) let the king, my lord, send chariots to fetch us, lest our servants smite us."

RA, 19, p.106 [Shuwardata to the Pharaoh]16 "Let the king, my lord, learn that the chief of the 'Apiru has risen (in arms) against the lands which the god of the king, my lord, gave me; (16) but I have smitten him. Also let the king, my lord, know that all my brethern have abandoned me, and (20) it is I and 'Abdu-Heba (who) fight against the chief of the 'Apiru. And Zurata, prince of the Accho, and Indaruta, prince of Achshaph, it is they (who) hastened (25) with fifty chariots -- for I had been robbed (by the 'Apiru) -- to my help; but behold they are fighting against me, so let it be agreeable to the king, my lord, and {30) let him send Yanhamu, and let us make war in earnest, and let the lands of the king, my lord, be restored to their (former) limits!"

EA, No.286 ['Abdu-Heba, prince of Jerusalem, to the Pharaoh]17 "What have I done to the king, my lord,? They blame me before the king, my lord, (saying): '`Abdu-Heba has rebelled against the king, his lord.' Behold, as for me, (it was) not my father (10) and not my mother (who) set me in this place; the arm of the mighty king brought me into the house of my father! Why should I commit (15) transgression against the king, my lord? As long as the king, my lord, lives, I will say to the commissioner of the king, my lord, 'Why do ye favor the 'Apiru and oppose the governors?' -- And thus (21) I am blamed in the presence of the king, my lord. Because it is said, 'Lost are the lands of the king, my lord,' thus am I blamed to the king, my lord!"

EA, No.287 ['Abdu-Heba, prince of Jerusalem, to the Pharaoh]18 "Behold, this deed is the deed of Milkilu (30) and the deed of the sons of Lab'ayu who have given the land of the king to the 'Apiru. Behold, O king, my lord, I am right!"

EA, No.288 ['Abdu-Heba, prince of Jerusalem, to the Pharaoh]19 "The land of the king is lost; in its entirely (25) it is taken from me; there is war against me, as far as the lands of Seir (and) as far as Gath-carmel! all the governors are at peace, but there is war against me. I have become like an 'Apiru (30) and do not see the two eyes of the king, my lord, for there is war against me. I have become like a ship in the midst of the sea! The arm of the might king (35) conquers the land of Naharaim and the land of Cush, but now the 'Apiru capture the cities of the king. There is not a single governor (remaining) (40) to the king, my lord -- all have perished! Behold, Turbazu has been slain in the (very) gate of Sile, (yet) the king holds his peace. Behold Zimreda, the townsmen of Lachish have smitten him, slaves who have become 'Apiru. (45) Yaptih-Hadad has been slain [in] the very gate of Sile, (yet) the king holds his peace. [Wherefore] does not [the king] call them to account?"

EA, No.289 ['Abdu-Heba, prince of Jerusalem, to the Pharaoh]20 "Behold this land belongs to the king, or why like the town of Gaza is it loyal to the king? Behold the land of the town of Gath-carmel, it belongs to Tagu, and the men of Gath (20) have a garrison in Beth-Shan. Or shall we do like Lab'ayu, who gave the land of Shechem to the 'Apiru? (25) Milkilu has written to Tagu and the sons of (Lab'ayu), (saying) 'Ye are (members of) my house. Yield all of their demands to the men of Keilah, and let us break our alliance (with) Jerusalem!'"

EA, No.290 ['Abdu-Heba, prince of Jerusalem, to the Pharaoh]21 "[To] the king, my lord, say: Thus ['Abdu]-Heba, thy servant. At the two feet of the [king,] my lord, seven times and seven times I fall. (5) Behold the deed which Milkilu and Shuwardata did to the land of the king, my lord! They rushed troops of Gezer, troops of Gath (10) and troops of Keilah; they took the land of Rubutu; the land of the king went over to the 'Apiru people. But now even (15) a town of the land of Jersualem, Bit-Lahmi by name, a town belonging to the king, has gone over to the side of the peple of Keilah. let my king harken to 'Abdu-Heba, thy servant, (20) and let him send archers to recover the royal land for the king! But if there are no archers, the land will pass over to the 'Apiru people. (25) This was done at the command of Milkilu [and at] the command of Shuwardata (?)... So let my king (30) take care of [his] land!"

EA, No.298 [Yapakhu, prince of Gezer, to the Pharaoh]24 "Let the king my lord know that my younger brother is estranged from me, and has entered (25) Muhhazu, and has given his two hands to the chief of the 'Apiru. And now the [land of ... ]anna is hostile to me."

Comments on this source
W.F. Albright translated these letters in collaboration with George E. Mendenhall; W.L. Moran, S.J. made a few corrections for the 3rd edition.

I have silently pruned some material from the footnotes that refer to the text I did not copy here; not all of the letters on these pages mention the 'Apiru/Habiru. -- llywrch 08:57, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Source: The Statue of Idrimi (ANET, 3rd ed. P557)
"(So) I took with me my horse, my chariot and, my groom, went away and crossed over into the desert country and even entered into the region of the Sutian warriors. I stayed with them (once) overnight in my ... chariot, but the next day I moved on and went to the land of Canaan. I stayed in Ammia in the land of Canaan; in Ammia lived (also) natives of Halab, of the country of Mushkishkhi, of the country Ni' and also warriors from the country Ama'e. They discovered that I was the son of their overlord and gathered around me. There I grew up and stayed for a long time. For seven years I lived among the Hapiru-people. (Then) I released birds2 (to observe their flight) and looked into (the entrails of) lambs (and found) that after seven years Adad had become favorable to me. So I built boats, made ... soldiers board them, approached the country."

Comments on this source
This inscription was found in 1939 at Atchana in Syria, but not published (by Sidney Smith, The Statue of Idrimi) until 1949 due to the war. This translation is the work of A. Leo Oppenheim, who notes that he translated the ideogram dIM as "Adad". I know from other references that Idrimi was a king in Mitanni.

The quotation above is Idrimi's narrative of the years between his departure from Emar, where he, his mother & his brothers lived in exile with his mother's family, until he returned to Alalakh to become its king. -- llywrch 08:57, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Comments on this source
Robert D. Biggs, (Review of the above). Journal of Near Eastern Studies 58 (4), October 1999, p294.

title: User:Benwbrum/Hapiru


text:
Svay Rieng province

 Svay Rieng (ស្វាយរៀង, UNGEGN: Svay Riĕng, lit. 'The Mango's Range') is a province (khaet) in Cambodia. Located in the southeast, the province juts into Vietnam (Long An and Tây Ninh), which surrounds it to the north, east and south. The only other Cambodian province to border Svay Rieng is Prey Veng. The capital is Svay Rieng while the largest city is Bavet, which is the international border between Cambodia and Vietnam.

Districts and municipalities
The province is subdivided into 6 districts and 2 municipalities.

These 6 districts and 2 municipalities are subdivided into 84 khums and 690 phums.

Religion
The state religion is Theravada Buddhism. More than 99.8% of the people in Svay Rieng are Buddhists, It's the second most Buddhist province in the country. Chams have been practicing Islam for hundreds of years. A small percentage follow Christianity.

Geography
The province projects into Vietnam and is referred to as the Parrot's Beak (Vietnamese: Mỏ Vẹt).

Culture
Dance

Svay Rieng province is the birthplace of the Cambodian coconut dance. It originated around 1960 in Romeas Haek District. The dance is a performance with coconuts involving men and women.

Notable people

 * U Sam Ouer, poet and former UN delegate
 * Khieu Samphan, former president and convicted war criminal
 * Thun Sophea, kickboxer

title: Svay Rieng province


text:
Takéo province

Takéo (តាកែវ,, lit. 'The Grandpa Keo') is a province (khaet) of Cambodia. Located in the south of Cambodia to the west of Bassac River, Takéo borders the provinces of Kampot to the west, Kampong Speu to the northwest and Kandal to the north and east. Its southern boundary is the international border with Vietnam (An Giang). The provincial capital, recently known as the provincial town Doun Kaev (formerly called Takeo), is a small city with a population of 39,186.

Takéo is often referred to as the "cradle of Khmer civilization" due to the former kingdom of Funan and its successor, Water Chenla, being centered in the region.

Administration
the province has 9 districts and 1 municipality, 97 communes and 3 sangkats and 1,119 villages.

Previously, before Doun Kaev District was renamed to Krong Doun Kaev, the province was subdivided into 10 districts, 100 communes and 1,117 villages.

Religion
The state religion is Theravada Buddhism. More than 99.2% of the people in Takeo are Buddhists. Ethnic Chams have been practicing Islam for hundreds of years. A small percentage follow Christianity.

Tourist attraction

 * Phnom Chisor is a mountain north of the city of Takeo. At the summit there are temple ruins from the 10th and 11th centuries. From the mountain there is a good view. The climb is 503 steps. At the summit there are simple beverage stalls. A moped can be taken for the 26-kilometer journey.
 * Phnom Da – a 17 meter high temple dating back to the Funan kingdom (6th century) on a 100m high hill. It can be reached by an hour boat ride from Takeo. Farmers on the partially flooded rice fields and fishermen and many duck farms can be observed. Large wooden boats deliver cargoes from Vietnam.
 * Angkor Borei – On the road from the town of Takeo is Phnom Da temple. Previously, this was an important trading center. At the harbor there is a small museum documenting the Funan kingdom.

Notable people

 * Haing S. Ngor, actor, physician, author
 * Ho Vann, politician
 * Kem Ley, activist
 * Kem Sokha, politician
 * Khim Borey, footballer
 * Khun Srun, writer
 * Ou Chanrith, politician
 * Pen Sovan, former Prime Minister
 * Prach Chhuon (ប្រាជ្ញឈួន), master of the classical Khmer cultural string instrument of Chapei
 * Preah Maha Ghosananda, Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia
 * Sok An, deputy prime minister
 * Ta Mok, former Khmer Rouge militant
 * Yem Ponhearith, politician
 * Dr. Kol Pheng, Founder of Pannasastra University of Cambodia
 * His Excellency Samdech Vibol Panha Sok An (សុខ អាន), Minister in Charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers

title: Takéo province


text:
Fort Buchanan

Fort Buchanan is the name of two United States Army forts:

 * Fort Buchanan, Arizona, is a former United States Army base in Arizona to control land purchased in the Gadsden Purchase
 * Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico is the only active U.S. Army installation in the Caribbean, home of the 1st Mission Support Command.

title: Fort Buchanan


text:
K-PAX

K-PAX is an American science fiction novel by Gene Brewer, the first in the K-PAX series. The series deals with the experiences on Earth of a being named Prot. It is written in the first person from the point of view of Prot's psychiatrist.

K-PAX was adapted into a theatrical film of the same name, released in 2001.

Series

 * K-PAX (1995)
 * K-PAX II: On a Beam of Light (2001)
 * K-PAX III: Worlds of Prot (2002)
 * K-PAX IV: A New Visitor from the Constellation Lyra (2007)
 * K-PAX V: The Coming of the Bullocks (2014)

Synopsis
In 1990, a man is picked up by the New York Police after being found bending over the victim of a mugging at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. After responding to the police questions with somewhat strange answers, he is transferred to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation. Although not physically ill, he is found to harbor the strange delusion that he is from a planet called K-PAX in the Lyra constellation. The patient calls himself "prot" (pronounced to rhyme with "goat", and intentionally written in lower-case to reflect the insignificance of an individual life form in the universe). He is eventually transferred to the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute (MPI), where he becomes the patient of Dr. Gene Brewer.

Prot is extremely fond of fruit, including banana skins and apple cores, which he eats during each session. He tells Brewer that he is 337 Earth years old, that he has visited Earth often, and that on this visit he has traveled to most of the world's countries for the past four years and nine months. He exhibits a sense of humor, reassuring Brewer on the first session that, despite being one, an alien will not burst out of his chest. Brewer discovers that prot is also a savant who possesses arcane information about astronomy that excites a group of astronomers who meet him. Prot states that he possesses at least rudimentary conversational knowledge of most human languages as well as the languages of animals, including whale song and the apparent gibberish of some schizophrenic patients.

Though prot's dialogue is usually satirical, he turns out to be highly suggestible and easily hypnotized. Once Brewer learns this, he begins more serious therapy. With the help of journalist Giselle Griffin, Brewer discovers that prot may be Robert Porter, who was traumatized by the murder of his wife and child, and his subsequent killing of the perpetrator, and that prot may be an alter ego resulting from dissociative identity disorder. Brewer speculates that the name prot is derived from Porter's surname.

When prot "returns" to his own planet, Robert Porter is left in a catatonic state. However, Bess, another patient prot had promised to take with him, disappears along with a box of souvenirs prot has been collecting. Before departing, prot promises to return in five Earth years.

Adaptations
The 2001 film K-PAX was directed by Iain Softley and based on the first book in this series. Kevin Spacey portrays prot, and Jeff Bridges plays the psychiatrist.

K-PAX was made into a stage play, also written by Gene Brewer, and has been performed at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, directed by Victor Sobchak. In 2010, the play made its North American debut at The Geneva Underground Playhouse in Geneva, Illinois directed by Eric Peter Schwartz.

Reception
Booklist called the novel "fascinating". Psychiatrist Allan Beveridge wrote that the novel is a good example of "why psychiatrists should read fiction", saying that it shows "how to approach moral quandaries and decision-making". Science fiction scholar David Ketterer compares it with the novel Star-Begotten by H.G. Wells. Reviewer Michael Berry wrote "There aren't many possible denouements for a book like this, and Brewer steers a middle course between the extremes of outright fantasy and predictable mundaneness. K-PAX displays the mildly off-putting attitude found in such movies as Rain Man and Forrest Gump, that we all can learn so much about ourselves from the simple-minded, but one can't deny that some of the story's episodes are genuinely funny and touching." Reviewer Lisa Koosis wrote that Prot "is one of the more extraordinary characters found in current science fiction" and that the author, "without actually having the characters set foot on another planet, manages to bring an alien world to life".

Lawsuit
Upon the release of the film version of the book, Argentinian director Eliseo Subiela claimed that K-PAX plagiarized his 1986 film Man Facing Southeast, and sued Brewer. The complaint was later withdrawn when Subiela could not afford continued litigation, but maintained his stated position on the matter until his death in late 2016. Brewer went on to release a memoir exploring his inspiration for the books, called Creating K-PAX or Are You Sure You Want to Be a Writer?

title: K-PAX


text:
Human Life International

Human Life International (HLI) is a Roman Catholic, U.S.-based anti-abortion organization. It is one of the largest anti-abortion organizations in the United States. It describes itself as "the largest international pro-life organization in the world", saying that it has affiliates and associates in over 80 nations worldwide and has sent representatives to approximately 160. The group is led by clergy. It has been based in Front Royal, Virginia since 1996.

Human Life International was established in 1981 in Gaithersburg, Maryland by Paul Marx, as a continuation of the Human Life Center founded by Marx at Saint John's University, Minnesota in 1972. Its mission is to train and organize anti-abortion movement leaders — priests, crisis pregnancy centers, civic leaders, radio and television programmers, and family counselors. HLI bases its activism on Catholic anti-abortion beliefs, which propose that life begins at conception. The group also advocates against contraceptives. It has supported the criminalization of homosexuality in Uganda.

In the mid-1990s, Jennifer Gonnerman described HLI's anti-abortion campaign as more influential than that of the Operation Save America. In 1997, Human Life International supported the founding of the Center for Family and Human Rights. The group is affiliated with the Population Research Institute. From 2000 to 2014, the group used $7.9 million for anti-abortion causes.

Shenan J. Boquet became president of HLI in November 2011.

In 2017, The Guardian reported that several US crisis pregnancy center (CPC) and anti-abortion groups including Human Life International (HLI), have been providing money and assistance to networks of CPC's in Latin America, as well as lobbying against the liberalization of abortion laws throughout the region. HLI started their network of CPC's in the region in the 1980's, with the total number of locations having increased to approximately 130 CPC's across 20 countries by 2015.

title: Human Life International


text:
Tübinger Stift

The Tübinger Stift is a hall of residence and teaching; it is owned and supported by the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg, and located in the university city of Tübingen, in South West Germany. The Stift was founded as an Augustinian monastery in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, in 1536, Duke Ulrich turned the Stift into a seminary which served to prepare Protestant pastors for Württemberg. To this day the scholarship is still given to students in preparation for the ministry or teaching in Baden-Württemberg. Students receive a scholarship which consists of boarding, lodging and further academic support.

Some of the well known "Stiftlers" are the astronomer Johannes Kepler and his associate, statesman Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, the poet Friedrich Hölderlin who had as roommates the philosophers G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling (although the latter was five years their junior), the theologians David Friedrich Strauß, Johann Albrecht Bengel, Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, Ferdinand Christian Baur and Eberhard Nestle, and the philologist August Pauly.

Notable alumni

 * Nikodemus Frischlin, poet, playwright, humanist, mathematician, astronomer (1547–1590)
 * Michael Maestlin, astronomer, mathematician (1550–1631)
 * Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, Statesman (1568–1634)
 * Johannes Kepler, astronomer (1571–1630)
 * Johann Valentin Andreae, theologian (1586–1654)
 * Wilhelm Schickhardt, theologian, astronomer, universal scientist (1592–1635)
 * Johann Albrecht Bengel, theologian (1687–1752)
 * Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, theologian (1702–1782)
 * Karl Friedrich Reinhard, French politician and diplomate (1761–1837)
 * Karl Philipp Conz, poet, writer (1762–1827)
 * Friedrich Hölderlin, poet (1770–1843)
 * Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher (1770–1831)
 * Friedrich Schelling, philosopher (1775–1854)
 * Gustav Schwab, minister, poet, writer (1792–1850)
 * Ferdinand Christian Baur, theologian (1792–1860)
 * August Pauly, philologist (1796–1845)
 * Wilhelm Hauff, writer (1802–1827)
 * Wilhelm Waiblinger, poet, writer (1804–1830)
 * Eduard Mörike, minister and poet (1804–1875)
 * Friedrich Theodor Vischer, writer, professor of literature (1807–1887)
 * David Friedrich Strauß, theologian, philosopher, writer (1808–1874)
 * Hermann Kurz, poet, writer (1813–1873)
 * Eduard Zeller, theologian, philosopher (1814–1908)
 * Georg Herwegh, poet, revolutionist (1817–1875)
 * Ferdinand von Hochstetter, geologist, naturalist (1829–1884)
 * Albert Schäffle, economist, sociologist, politician (1831–1903)
 * Eberhard Nestle, theologian, orientalist (1851–1913)
 * Hans Vaihinger, philosopher (1852–1933)
 * Johannes Hieber, politician (1862–1951)
 * Karl Heim, theologian (1874–1958)
 * Edwin Hoernle, politician (1883–1952)

Quotes

 * "One need only utter the words 'Tubingen School' to get an understanding of what German philosophy is at bottom—a very cunning form of theology." — Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, 1895, par. 10.

title: Tübinger Stift