For most of the 16th century, the Portuguese had a "No Trespassing" sign over the sea routes to Asia. They kept their navigation charts—the roteiros —under literal lock and key. But every secret has a price. Enter Jan Huygen van Linschoten , a Dutch spy working as a secretary to the Portuguese Archbishop in Goa. He spent years copying top-secret Portuguese sailing directions and trade secrets. In 1595, he published them in a blockbuster book, the Reys-gheschrift vande navigat

I had visited all the countries of Southeast Asia until October 2025, when Timor-Leste became the 11th member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). I therefore took advantage of my son’s Easter school holiday to visit the former Portuguese territory, so here’s a bit of a photo essay. We arrived in the capital Dili, a town of 300,000 inhabitants. The Portuguese influence was immediately apparent: the language of Camões is one of two official languages, the oth

The 36th Singapore International Film Festival was held from November 26 to December 7, 2025. Although the SIFF is known for its focus on Asian filmmakers and promotion of Southeast Asian films, it also includes in its programming notable independent and non-commercial films from around the world. On December 6, with the support of the Portuguese Embassy in Singapore , the SIFF presented the Portuguese movie O riso e a faca , known in English as "I Only Rest in the Storm", b

One of the top Portuguese guitar players, Pedro Jóia , will be performing in Singapore on December 12. The 55-year-old has performed in Asia before, in mainland China and Macau. In Singapore, Jóia will offer a Christmas concert at the National Library Building . It's free admission, so get there well before the 6:30pm start! Many thanks to the Embassy of Portugal in Singapore as well as the Instituto Camões for organizing the event with the support of Singapore's National Lib

The Philippines was named in 1542 after King Philip II of Spain (who also became King Philip I of Portugal in 1580). According to the Treaty of Tordesillas that preposterously divided the newly discovered lands beyond Europe between Spain and Portugal, this archipelago of over 7,000 islands fell under Spanish claims. However, the first European expedition to reach the Philippines, while sent by the Spanish crown, was led by the Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães, known t

Map of Southeast Asia in Fernão Vaz Dourado's Atlas Universal of 1571 The Portuguese shocked maritime Southeast Asia when Afonso de...

This is the third and final post on José d'Almeida, a Portuguese pioneer of Singapore. Part 1 describes d'Almeida's life prior to...

200 years ago, in 1825, José d'Almeida Carvalho e Silva arrived as a 41-year-old Portuguese physician in Singapore, then only into its...

I’ve written about how Singapore, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence from the United Kingdom this year, could...

Today, August 9, is Singapore's National Day. The country is celebrating 59 years of independence a few days before the close of the 2024...

To be Eurasian is to be between two worlds, with ancestors from both Europe and Asia. From the perspective of ethnicity there is much...

I just returned with my family from a year-end vacation in Cebu, in the central part of the Philippines. While we spent most of the time...

I'm on a family vacation this week in Java, Indonesia, and have been looking for more signs of Portuguese influence to build on my...

The Catholic Church's World Youth Day that just ended on August 6 saw thousands of pilgrims from all across Asia travel to Portugal. One...

Mystical Bali is often called the Island of the Gods, apparently because of the abundance of temples there. As I was reminded on a recent...

When the Portuguese took control of Malacca in 1511, the Sultan of Malacca escaped south and founded the Johor Sultanate, which included...

I just spent a week holidaying with my family in Manado on the northern tip of Sulawesi, the fourth largest island in Indonesia. Aside...

When most people think of Vietnam in a historical context, the Vietnamese war and the American role come to mind, or perhaps the French...

I had the pleasure of spending last weekend in Phuket, Thailand. Reading about things to do, I came across the fact that Old Phuket Town,...

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is not among the most well-known countries of Southeast Asia. A former British colony, it was starting...