Buddhist Spaces
An Online Journey to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar
Let's Go ! Southeast Asia...well, part of it.
This is an actual on the ground tour where we travel together.
From my home in Siem Reap, I will travel with my assistant Mr. Sim, through Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos.
For the Myanmar section I will share past experiences and video content made with friends there.
Everyday I interact with you at home though video, community posts, and live feeds.
You will follow my itinerary online that includes
visiting monasteries, talking with Buddhist monks, journeys on the Mekong River, and celebrating life in Southeast Asia.
You will learn about the contemporary traditions of Theravada Buddhist practice while also learning about
the spiritual, religious, royal, and social origins of Southeast Asian Culture.
You will have access to downloadable learning materials and even quizzes for those who like to test what they are learning.
At the journey's end, each participant will receive a copy of my journal and some of the photographs made.
By the time you eventually make it to Southeast Asia in person, you will already have created memories.
A tour to Southeast Asia is more than art and culture. The Buddhist spaces of Southeast Asia include the natural environment, the Earth herself. We will walk the forests, climb the mountains, and traverse the land.
Lao saying
Mekong River, Luang Prabang, Laos
Yes, we will visit the iconic locations of art and architecture on this tour.
But, we will also meet people and visit their villages.
Such as when Mr. Sim and I walked through this forest village near Angkor Wat.
Everyday we will have a story to share.
You will laugh, wonder, and learn.
What You Can Expect
- Daily Updates in my field notes, short videos, community posts. Scheduled Live Feeds...Live From Bangkok!
- Engaging topics along the way about where we are.
- Gotta question? Post in the course Community Forum.
- Let me be your eyes and ears. Wanna see something specific where I am there? Let me know what it is and I'll attempt to include your request.
- I follow something of an itinerary, but the best travel experience is spontaneous.
Course and Journey Itinerary
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THE JOURNEY AHEAD
Where we are going. What we will experience..
CAMBODIA: Land of the Ancient Khmer and Contemporary Theravada Buddhism
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THAILAND: Asian Megacity to Ancient Capitals of Siam
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LAOS: Kingdom of a Million Elephants
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MYANMAR: Ethnic Buddhism and Local Spirits
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LEARNING TOPICS - Released Throughout Our Travels
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FIELD NOTES: Reflecting on Our Journey
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"Oh, the Places We Will Go!" (to quote Dr. Seuss)
How My Courses Are Organized
Please go to the WanderSight Homepage where you learn more about me, how I organize courses, my mission in offering these adventures, and numerous details about how
WanderSight eLearning is organized.
Or, click on the button for a brief overview of how I teach and how you will travel and learn.
Student Comments and Recommendations
Fred has been teaching these online journey courses as a college professor since 2009. He's got this dialed in.
Read what his college students have to say about his teaching and presentation of topics.
"If there's anything I've gotten from this course, it's that you've inspired me to travel even more. From the very first video you presented, I was surprised how we got a nomadic professor, and I was also a bit jealous that we don't get to travel with you. It would've been very immersive."
"Professor Sigman has delivered an unbelievable experience to his students. Taking us, not only on his personal & professional journeys abroad - but he created a place online that brought new worlds to us while we sat wide eyed viewing all the landscapes, architecture and lives that he shared."
"I find myself feeling that I have gained something beyond knowledge: awareness. I also find myself contemplating the world more often and with an awareness of artistic thinking that I did not have when this class began. Professor Sigman has posed the question “why” again and again in our lessons, encouraging us to question the world around us and how we think about it."
"What I personally gained through studying the culture and art of Bali is that we need to start appreciating and respecting nature for what it gives us. The art visualizes how we should be living in harmony with the planet."
"The Professor's videos are so beyond outstanding. His candor and candid retelling of his life - pulling art and memories together - he let us in and showed us this whole new world."
Journey Themes and Takeways
Like travel itself, my courses are arranged as any global journey would be. Interesting, interactive, and surprising. Many of these features are designed and recorded along the way in whatever course you are in. These platforms and learning methods have been used for a decade in my college courses.
Below are some of the topics and issues we explore during this journey.
How to EXPERIENCE the art and architecture
As I have led photographers throughout places such as Angkor, I hear, "I wish I knew what it is I am photographing." Identifying a diety or story is only the beginning. How do we engage with the subtle representations of the art while imersing ourselves into the volume of space and sound of a Buddhist temple or ancient ruin?
imagining southeast asia
In all of my travels, especially when visiting for the first time, I always travel with a literary companion in my shoulder bag. Someone who has been there and has written about their impressions and what they still wondered about after leaving. Between the literary and historical photography of SE Asia, I will also offer ways of photographing and making video for your next journey
TRAVEL AS CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE
There are traditions of Buddhist pilgrimages throughout Asia. Now there are the millions of tourists who roam the grounds and temples of many of the Buddhist monasteries while the monks and devout are engaged in their spiritual practices. How do these two worlds get along with one another?
dharma rain
The wisdom traditions from India which spread across SE Asia all teach our need to respect and care for the Earth. Throughout our region of travel many of the Buddhist temples are adorned with art that represents the teachings from the Lotus Sutra, the lives of forest dwellers, social responsibility, practices of meditation, and the vows of the Bodhisattva.
loss of culture and traditions
In many parts of the world, it is not only the environment that is at risk. So too are local customs, indigenous cultures, and ways of life. Already within the last two years in Cambodia entire villages have been bulldozed and the inhabitants moved off their ancestral lands.
MEETING REMARKABLE PEOPLE
You don't need me to offer tips and advice that are readily available in a guidebook or website. I am here to show you see how I have experienced SE Asia as a long-time voyager and as someone who makes Cambodia his home. One thing guidebooks do not explain is how to meet people and make longtime friends. Such as me and Maung Maung, one of Myanmar's best known photographers.
Wander Thoughts: Our learning often begins at the end of a journey
Fred teaching on camera from Buddhist pagoda in Cambodia
We long to make a journey, go on a pilgrimage, find adventure. We travel to learn from the places and people we meet along the way. For the true seeker, we do not want to travel in a vacuum. We want to interact with the places we visit and the people we meet. And…when we return home, we want to feel as though we not only brought something of that place back with us…that is in us…we also want to leave something of ourselves behind. In my travels I have often taken a certain comfort in knowing that a part of me is still back there. A memory left in the people I meet; my own ignorance of a place is replaced with understanding. Maybe I will meet up with myself again....
When I was a tenured professor at my university, I always traveled between semesters and while on sabbatical. One summer I remained in residence at the Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu, living at their wonderful guesthouse. When the time came to go back to the States and another semester, oh man, I did not want to leave. One evening I asked a fellow traveler at dinner, who made annual visits to Kathmandu to study with a Buddhist teacher, how he kept that intense spirit of being at the monastery alive after he returned home to the States. The monk who was eating with us interrupted and said to me, “Your students are with you now.” That is one of those quizzical responses one receives from a Buddhist monk. But now, with these courses, maybe…maybe, I understand.
Join WanderSight now and you will have access to our online community. My topics page Wander Thoughts. Before the course even begins, you will receive videos and learning materials. No obligation. Notification will be sent when you can enroll. Early sign ups will receive a discount code.
Enrollment begins March 15
Journey begins April 1
"Sometimes one simply doesn't understand
what one is looking at...
To learn a place is like getting to know a person:
it is an exercise in depth psychology."
- Andrew Solomon, from Far & Away: How Travel Can Change the World.
