Endang W. Puspoyo of Jakarta, Indonesia, was attracted to kites by their beauty many years ago. She soon began making and flying her own, then took to collecting them. She helped organize the first international festival in Jakarta in l993, and has been a force in Indonesian kiting ever since. With a powerful cabinet minister husband supporting her, she has now opened her own museum, actually a complex of found old buildings and new construction. The museum is 15 miles from downtown Jakarta

Small, boyish-looking, ever-smiling, Ha Yi Qi (pronounced Ha Eechee), of Beijing, hardly presents as a tycoon, but that is exactly what the renowned kitemaker is. A fourth generation craftsman, “Mr. Ha,” as he is widely known in the West, runs a factory employing well over 100 people and brings in serious money to his country from his exports to a dozen countries, mainly the U.S. and Japan. He travels widely and finds obtaining an exit visa from his country much easier than most, a tribute to his economic contribution.

There have been many times in the 175 years since George Pocock gave kite traction its modern foundation that kitesailing has seemed about to become mainstream, but maybe it really is going to happen this time. Currently generating impetus is the work that Dean Jordan and Dave Culp did for the Oracle syndicate in the recent America’s Cup challenge. Time was ultimately against them for this regatta, but they were successful in developing a kite that qualified under the rules as a spinnaker and that many believe was faster.

Here’s a bit of a snigger. Clyde Cook, Volker Hoberg and I were at the Pasir Gudang kite festival in Malaysia last spring. Volker, on his way back to Europe after spending six months with us in New Zealand, had made himself a four-meter pilot kite which was flying on the Thursday of the festival when it was, unfortunately, cut away. Fortunately by a fellow German—–I’m sure you’ll agree that the odd spot of domestic violence is preferable to an international incident.

When master kitemaker Teizo Hashimoto died 13 years ago, there was no one to carry on the ancient tradition of Edo kitemaking. Edo is the old word for Tokyo. Masaaki Modegi, dean of Japanese kite collectors with his own museum in Tokyo, urged Mikio Toki to take up where Hashimoto had left off and Toki agreed to do it.

A foreign observer at the royal kitefighting tournament in Bangkok recently found himself participant instead of observer. Standing in the middle of a dense crowd observing the action overhead, he watched as a Chula engaged in mortal combat with a Pakpao. A siren was sounding loudly, whistles blowing, spectators shouting in excitement. Suddenly there was a swishing sound just overhead and a plummeting kite slammed painfully into the shoulder of the farang (Westerner).

Boontham Himsakun and Vinai Phomitong have been flying kites together for 40 years and constitute the best kite competitition team in Bangkok today.

Every afternoon in March at 3 p.m., kite teams assemble on the 700-yard kite field next to the royal palace in Bangkok to do aerial battle. In a centuries-old tradition unlike any other in the world, the sky fighting take place between two very different types of kites—–the large and aggressive male Chula and the small and flirty female Pakpao. It’s an erotic dance in the sky.

What with the war in Iraq and the severe acute respiratory syndrome scare, travel agent Ajay Prakash of Bombay found himself with time on his hands. His response? Write a booklet about the kites of India.

Continuing his study of kites in the Philippines, Orly Ongkingco has just issued a revised, expanded booklet titled The Philippine Kite. Covering the basics——the invention of the kite, origin of the indigenous Philippine Gurion (swallow) kite, flying traditions in the Philippines, the role of monsoon winds and the rice harvest in the sport, kite fishing and bat catching with leaf kites, and so forth——–Ongkingco breaks some new ground.