Mouths of the Mekong

Fraser based this 52x47-inch batik of Vietnam's Mekong river on a military map from the Library of Congress. The bloody color of the South China Sea contrasts with the edges of the tropical forests and "resembles a sorrowful, skeleton-faced Buddha," the artist says. Land mines from the Vietnam War still threaten those who remain in this countryside.

Growing human demands on the Mekong Delta, as well as on the Red River Delta to the north, will displace a larger proportion of the population in Vietnam than in any other country, Pilkey says.