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Quick Answer: Is india considered southeast asia? – Kerala Travel Tours.South Asian Countries – International and Area Studies Library – U of I Library
Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives as the constituent. Southeast Asia consists of eleven countries that reach from eastern India to China, and is generally divided into “mainland” and “island” zones. India is the largest country of South Asia and the seventh-largest country in the world by area. Because of the vastness of the country and variety of culture.
– Is indian south east asian
The following article is based on a speech given by Niranjan C. The decorations are for the Hindu Festival of Lights Diwali a. Divali or Deepavali that is celebrated by Hindu communities around the world. Source: Wikimedia Commons. In the case of Southeast Asia, ethnic Indians, as well as the Chinese, have long been an integral part of their societies. These communities have acted as a bridge between the two regions. This article analyses the status of the Indian diaspora in Southeast Asia and evaluates if it can become a force to reckon with in the Indian foreign policy calculations.
Historically, Southeast Asia has been hugely influenced by both India and China in the realms of art, culture, architecture, court etiquettes, religion and many other things. Thus, Indian civilisation was naturally extended to the territories of present-day Southeast Asia. The climatic conditions between India and Southeast Asia are similar.
Indian traders would embark on voyages to Southeast Asia when the weather would be suitable. The spice and silk routes helped in the exchange of ideas, culture and people apart from the trade. The Colonial takeover of the region changed the equations between Indians and Southeast Asians towards the end of the 15 th century. In addition to this, the Treaty of Westphalia signed in made territory and sovereignty the basic tenets of the evolution of nation-states. Unfortunately, in the case of Southeast Asian countries, as in the case of everywhere else, nationalism emerged within the boundaries created by the colonial masters for their administrative purpose.
This led to the emergence of the modern state-nations in Southeast Asia which disrupted the natural movement of Indians across the region. Indians from various strata of society migrated during this period including indentured plantation labour, traders, clerks, bureaucrats, professionals along with the Indian slave diaspora and Indian convict diaspora.
There is no uniformity in terms of social, political and economic prowess among Indians in Southeast Asia. Numerically as well, Indian diaspora in these countries is varied. In Indonesia, traditionally the Sikhs, Sindhis and Tamils are engaged in various small businesses like sports goods, textiles and construction among many others. Recent trends indicate that the present Indian migration includes professionals holding senior positions in local and multinational companies in the fields of IT, education, and technology among other aspects.
Overall, the Indian community is well respected in Indonesia. Singapore is distinct in all the Southeast Asian countries as Indians are well represented in the judiciary, civil services and armed forces of that country. Some of the prominent persons of Indian origin include former President Late S.
Nathan and Late S. Rajaratnam, an influential personality in the public life of Singapore, among many others. The state ideology has been based on meritocracy which rejects ethnic privileges. This is one of the most important reasons indicating the success of the Indian community. This is in the stark contrast with Myanmar where ethnic Indians have no social, political or economic clout. When Myanmar got independence in , all the important spheres of society were populated by Indians.
Later nationalisation policies implemented by the government led to an exodus of Indians on a large scale. A poor section of the Indians and remnants of the trading community were left behind forming the present Indian diaspora in Myanmar.
Foreign Direct Investments from these countries is meagre. Same is the case with remittances when compared with those from Gulf or Western countries. In the political realm, except for Singapore, Indians are not well represented politically in these states. Even the administrative machinery constitutes few Indians.
Therefore, the Indian diaspora has little utility for lobbying on behalf of the home government. In addition to this, the region varies extensively in terms of polities. Very few countries are genuine democracies which again is a hindrance for lobbying. Moreover, there are very few influential Indians who can influence public opinion at large through various avenues such as ownership of media.
However, India needs to cultivate its relationship with the Indian diaspora in these countries. The Indian community is neither looked down upon nor loathed like some of the other communities in Southeast Asia which is a big positive for India. Overall, public opinion towards Indians is positive. As Southeast Asia is inching towards democracy, public opinion is becoming more important in government decision making. The government must also see to it that interests of the Indian community are preserved while negotiating mega trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership RCEP.
Given the economic potential of the region, the flow of Indian professionals in the region and general goodwill towards the Indian community, a diaspora has the potential to play an important role in the future. Views expressed here are personal. Historically, the term East Indies is loosely applied to any of three contexts. In a second, larger sense, East Indies refers to the Malay Archipelago including the Philippines , which now is more commonly called insular or archipelagic Southeast Asia.
Finally, in its broadest context, the term East Indies encompasses the foregoing plus all of mainland Southeast Asia and India. Kesavapany, A. Mani, P. Irudaya Rajan Eds. History Historically, Southeast Asia has been hugely influenced by both India and China in the realms of art, culture, architecture, court etiquettes, religion and many other things.
Indian diaspora in specific Southeast Asian countries There is no uniformity in terms of social, political and economic prowess among Indians in Southeast Asia.
Indian Diaspora as a soft power? All rights reserved.
Southeast Asia – Wikipedia – Quick Answer: Is india considered southeast asia?
A distinctive feature of Southeast Asia is its cultural diversity. Of the six thousand languages spoken in the world today, an estimated thousand are found in Southeast Asia. Archeological evidence dates human habitation of Southeast Asia to around a million years ago, but migration into the region also has a long history. In early times tribal groups from southern China moved into the interior areas of the mainland via the long river systems. Linguistically, the mainland is divided into three important families, the Austro-Asiatic like Cambodian and Vietnamese , Tai like Thai and Lao , and the Tibeto-Burmese including highland languages as well as Burmese.
Languages belonging to these families can also be found in northeastern India and southwestern China. Around four thousand years ago people speaking languages belonging to the Austronesian family originating in southern China and Taiwan began to trickle into island Southeast Asia. In the Philippines and the Malay-Indonesian archipelago this migration displaced or absorbed the original inhabitants, who may have been related to groups in Australia and New Guinea.
Almost all the languages spoken in insular Southeast Asia today belong to the Austronesian family. A remarkable feature of Southeast Asia is the different ways people have adapted to local environments. In premodern times many nomadic groups lived permanently in small boats and were known as orang laut, or sea people.
The deep jungles were home to numerous small wandering groups, and interior tribes also included fierce headhunters.
In some of the islands of eastern Indonesia, where there is a long dry season, the fruit of the lontar palm was a staple food; in other areas, it was sago. On the fertile plans of Java and mainland Southeast Asia sedentary communities grew irrigated rice; along the coasts, which were less suitable for agriculture because of mangrove swamps, fishing and trade were the principal occupations.
Due to a number of factors—low populations, the late arrival of the world religions, a lack of urbanization, descent through both male and female lines—women in Southeast Asia are generally seen as more equal to men that in neighboring areas like China and India. Cultural changes began to affect Southeast Asia around two thousand years ago with influences coming from two directions. Chinese expansion south of the Yangtze River eventually led to the colonization of Vietnam.
Chinese control was permanently ended in , but Confucian philosophy had a lasting influence when Vietnam became independent. Buddhism and Taoism also reached Vietnam via China. In the rest of mainland Southeast Asia, and in the western areas of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, expanding trade across the Bay of Bengal meant Indian influences were more pronounced. These influences were most obvious when large sedentary populations were engaged in growing irrigated rice, like northern Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Java, and Bali.
Rulers and courts in these areas who adopted Hinduism or forms of Buddhism promoted a culture which combined imported ideas with aspects of local society. Differences in the physical environment affected the political structures that developed in Southeast Asia. When people were nomadic or semi-nomadic, it was difficult to construct a permanent governing system with stable bureaucracies and a reliable tax base.
This type of state only developed in areas where there was a settled population, like the large rice-growing plains of the mainland and Java. However, even the most powerful of these states found it difficult to extend their authority into remote highlands and islands. Islamic teachings began to spread in Southeast Asia from around the thirteenth century. Islam teaches the oneness of God known to Muslims as Allah , who has revealed his message through a succession of prophets and finally through Muhammad ca.
These are: 1 the confession of faith. At the height of its power between the eighth and fifteenth centuries, a united Muslim Empire included all North Africa, Sicily, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, western Arabia, and southern Spain. From the tenth century CE Islam was subsequently brought to India by a similar moment of conquest and conversion, and its dominant political position was confirmed when the Mughal dynasty was established in the sixteenth century.
From at least the tenth century, Muslims were among the many foreigners trading in Southeast Asia, and a few individuals from Southeast Asia traveled to the Middle East for study. In the early stages of conversion, trade passing from Yemen and the Swahili coast across to the Malabar Coast and then the Bay of Bengal was also influential, as well as the growing connections with Muslims in China and India.
Muslim traders from western China also settled in coastal towns on the Chinese coast, and Chinese Muslims developed important links with communities in central Vietnam, Borneo, the southern Philippines, and the Javanese coast. Muslim traders from various parts of India e. Bengal, Gujarat, Malabar came to Southeast Asia in large numbers and they, too, provided a vehicle for the spread of Islamic ideas. As a result of its multiple origins, the Islam that reached Southeast Asia was very varied.
The normal pattern was for a ruler or chief to adopt Islam—sometimes because of a desire to attract traders, or to be associated with powerful Muslim kingdoms like Mamluk Egypt, and then Ottoman Turkey and Mughal India, or because of the attraction of Muslim teaching. Mystical Islam Sufism , which aimed at direct contact with Allah with the help of a teacher using techniques such as meditation and trance, was very appealing. The first confirmed mention of a Muslim community came from Marco Polo, the well-known traveler, who stopped in north Sumatra in Inscriptions and graves with Muslim dates have been located in others coastal areas along the trade routes.
A major development was the decision of the ruler of Melaka, on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, to adopt Islam around Melaka was a key trading center, and the Malay language, spoken in the Malay Peninsula and east Sumatra, was used as a lingua franca in trading ports throughout the Malay-Indonesian archipelago. Malay is not a difficult language to learn, and it was already understood by many people along the trade routes that linked the island world.
Muslim teachers therefore had a common language through which they could communicate new concepts through oral presentations and written texts. A modified Arabic script displaced the previous Malay script.
Arabic words were incorporated into Malay, particularly in regard to spiritual beliefs, social practices, and political life. Local heroes often became Islamic saints, and their graves were venerated places at which to worship.
Some aspects of mystical Islam resembled pre-Islamic beliefs, notably on Java. Women never adopted the full face veil, and the custom of taking more than one wife was limited to wealthy elites. Law codes based on Islam usually made adjustments to fit local customs. Pork was forbidden to Muslims, a significant development in areas like eastern Indonesia and the southern Philippines where it had long been a ritual food.
A Muslim could often be recognized by a different dress style, like chest covering for women. Male circumcision became an important rite of passage. Reforming tendencies gained strength in the early nineteenth century when a group known as the Wahhabis captured Mecca. The Wahhabis demanded a stricter observance of Islamic law. Although their appeal was limited in Southeast Asia, some people were attracted to Wahhabi styles of teaching. There was a growing feeling that greater observance of Islamic doctrine might help Muslims resist the growing power of Europeans.
Muslim leaders were often prominent in anti-colonial movements, especially in Indonesia. However, the influence of modernist Islamic thinking that developed in Egypt meant educated Muslims in Southeast Asia also began to think about reforming Islam as a way of answering the Western challenge. However, by the late s, a roughly standard usage of the term “Southeast Asia” and the territories it encompasses had emerged.
Sovereignty issues exist over some islands in the South China Sea. While Peninsular Malaysia is geographically situated in Mainland Southeast Asia , it shares many similar cultural and ecological affinities with surrounding islands, thus it is often grouped with them as part of Maritime Southeast Asia.
On some occasions, Sri Lanka has been considered a part of Southeast Asia because of its cultural and religious ties to Mainland Southeast Asia. East Timor and the eastern half of Indonesia east of the Wallace Line in the region of Wallacea are considered to be geographically associated with Oceania due to their distinctive faunal features. Geologically, the island of New Guinea and its surrounding islands are considered as parts of the Australian continent , connected via the Sahul Shelf.
Even though they are geographically closer to Maritime Southeast Asia than mainland Australia , these two Australian external territories are not geologically associated with Asia as none of them is actually on the Sunda Plate.
The United Nations geoscheme has classified both island territories as parts of Oceania , under the Australia and New Zealand Australasia subregion. Some definitions of Southeast Asia may include Taiwan. The region was already inhabited by Homo erectus from approximately 1,, years ago during the Middle Pleistocene age. Ancient remains of hunter-gatherers in Maritime Southeast Asia, such as one Holocene hunter-gatherer from South Sulawesi , had ancestry from both, the South-Eurasian lineage represented by Papuans and Aboriginal Australians , and the East-Eurasian lineage represented by East Asians.
The authors concluded that East Asian-related ancestry expanded from Mainland Southeast Asia into Maritime Southeast Asia much earlier than previously suggested, as early as 25,BC, long before the expansion of Austroasiatic and Austronesian groups.
The remainders, known as Negritos, form small minority groups in geographically isolated regions. Southeast Asia was dominated by East Asian-related ancestry already in 15,BC, predating the expansion of Austroasiatic and Austronesian peoples.
In the late Neolithic , the Austronesian peoples , who form the majority of the modern population in Brunei, Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia, and the Philippines, migrated to Southeast Asia from Taiwan in the first seaborne human migration known as the Austronesian Expansion. The Austronesian peoples of Southeast Asia have been seafarers for thousands of years.
They spread eastwards to Micronesia and Polynesia , as well as westwards to Madagascar , becoming the ancestors of modern-day Malagasy people , Micronesians , Melanesians , and Polynesians. Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History about Chryse and Argyre , two legendary islands rich in gold and silver, located in the Indian Ocean.
Their vessels, such as the vinta , were capable to sail across the ocean. Magellan’s voyage records how much more maneuverable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships. Studies presented by the Human Genome Organisation HUGO through genetic studies of the various peoples of Asia show empirically that there was a single migration event from Africa, whereby the early people travelled along the south coast of Asia, first entered the Malay peninsula 50,—90, years ago.
The Orang Asli, in particular the Semang who show Negrito characteristics, are the direct descendants of these earliest settlers of Southeast Asia. These early people diversified and travelled slowly northwards to China, and the populations of Southeast Asia show greater genetic diversity than the younger population of China. Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as BC to 1 AD.
Its influence spread to other parts Southeast Asia. Most Southeast Asian people were originally animist , engaged in ancestors, nature, and spirits worship. These belief systems were later supplanted by Hinduism and Buddhism after the region, especially coastal areas, came under contact with Indian subcontinent during the first century.
They periodically invited Indian Brahmins into their realms and began a gradual process of Indianisation in the region. It then spread into Southeast Asia via Bay of Bengal , Indochina, then Malay Archipelago, leading to thousands of Shiva temples on the islands of Indonesia as well as Cambodia and Vietnam, co-evolving with Buddhism in the region. This branch was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture.
Mahayana Buddhism established presence in Maritime Southeast Asia, brought by Chinese monks during their transit in the region en route to Nalanda. The spread of these two Indian religions confined the adherents of Southeast Asian indigenous beliefs into remote inland areas. Maluku Islands and New Guinea were never Indianised and its native people were predominantly animists until the 15th century when Islam began to spread in those areas.
After the region came under contact with the Indian subcontinent circa BCE, it began a gradual process of Indianisation where Indian ideas such as religions, cultures, architectures, and political administrations were brought by traders and religious figures and adopted by local rulers.
In turn, Indian Brahmins and monks were invited by local rulers to live in their realms and help transforming local polities to become more Indianised, blending Indian and indigenous traditions. The first Indian-influenced polities established in the region were the Pyu city-states that already existed circa second century BCE, located in inland Myanmar. It served as an overland trading hub between India and China. It became the dominant trading power in mainland Southeast Asia for about five centuries, provided passage for Indian and Chinese goods and assumed authority over the flow of commerce through Southeast Asia.
By the fifth century CE, trade networking between East and West was concentrated in the maritime route. Foreign traders were starting to use new routes such as Malacca and Sunda Strait due to the development of maritime Southeast Asia. This change resulted in the decline of Funan, while new maritime powers such as Srivijaya , Tarumanagara , and Medang emerged. Srivijaya especially became the dominant maritime power for more than 5 centuries, controlling both Strait of Malacca and Sunda Strait.
Many of the surviving examples of the Hindu cultural influence found today throughout Southeast Asia are the result of the Chola expeditions. The empire’s capital Angkor hosts majestic monuments—such as Angkor Wat and Bayon.
Satellite imaging has revealed that Angkor, during its peak, was the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the world.
The Vietnamese launched a massive conquest against the Cham people during the Vietnamese invasion of Champa , ransacking and burning Champa, slaughtering thousands of Cham people, and forcibly assimilating them into Vietnamese culture.
During the 13th century CE, the region experienced Mongol invasions , affected areas such as Vietnamese coast, inland Burma and Java. Myinsaing Kingdom became the real ruler of Central Burma and challenged the Mongol rule. This resulted in the second Mongol invasion of Burma in , which was repulsed by Myinsaing. Singhasari rejected the proposal and injured the envoys, enraged the Mongols and made them sent a large invasion fleet to Java. Unbeknownst to them, Singhasari collapsed in due to a revolt by Kadiri, one of its vassals.
When the Mongols arrived in Java, a local prince named Raden Wijaya offered his service to assist the Mongols in punishing Kadiri. After Kadiri was defeated, Wijaya turned on his Mongol allies, ambushed their invasion fleet and forced them to immediately leave Java. Majapahit would soon grow into a regional power.
Its greatest ruler was Hayam Wuruk , whose reign from to marked the empire’s peak when other kingdoms in the southern Malay Peninsula , Borneo , Sumatra , and Bali came under its influence.
Various sources such as the Nagarakertagama also mention that its influence spanned over parts of Sulawesi , Maluku , and some areas of western New Guinea and southern Philippines , making it one of the largest empire to ever exist in Southeast Asian history. Majapahit then collapsed around It was the last major Hindu kingdom and the last regional power in the region before the arrival of the Europeans. Islam began to make contacts with Southeast Asia in the eighth-century CE, when the Umayyads established trade with the region via sea routes.
In the 11th century, a turbulent period occurred in the history of Maritime Southeast Asia. The Indian Chola navy crossed the ocean and attacked the Srivijaya kingdom of Sangrama Vijayatungavarman in Kadaram Kedah ; the capital of the powerful maritime kingdom was sacked and the king was taken captive.
Along with Kadaram, Pannai in present-day Sumatra and Malaiyur and the Malayan peninsula were attacked too. Soon after that, the king of Kedah Phra Ong Mahawangsa became the first ruler to abandon the traditional Hindu faith, and converted to Islam with the Sultanate of Kedah established in Samudera Pasai converted to Islam in , the King of Malacca Parameswara married the princess of Pasai, and the son became the first sultan of Malacca.
Soon, Malacca became the center of Islamic study and maritime trade, and other rulers followed suit. There are several theories to the Islamization process in Southeast Asia. Another theory is trade. The expansion of trade among West Asia, India and Southeast Asia helped the spread of the religion as Muslim traders from Southern Yemen Hadramout brought Islam to the region with their large volume of trade.
Many settled in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. This is evident in the Arab-Indonesian, Arab-Singaporean, and Arab-Malay populations who were at one time very prominent in each of their countries. Finally, the ruling classes embraced Islam and that further aided the permeation of the religion throughout the region.
The ruler of the region’s most important port, Malacca Sultanate , embraced Islam in the 15th century, heralding a period of accelerated conversion of Islam throughout the region as Islam provided a positive force among the ruling and trading classes. Gujarati Muslims played a pivotal role in establishing Islam in Southeast Asia. Trade among Southeast Asian countries has a long tradition. The consequences of colonial rule, struggle for independence, and in some cases war influenced the economic attitudes and policies of each country.
Records from Magellan’s voyage show that Brunei possessed more cannon than European ships, so the Chinese must have been trading with them. Malaysian legend has it that a Chinese Ming emperor sent a princess, Hang Li Po , to Malacca, with a retinue of , to marry Sultan Mansur Shah after the emperor was impressed by the wisdom of the sultan.
Han Li Po’s well constructed is now a tourist attraction there, as is Bukit Cina , where her retinue settled. The strategic value of the Strait of Malacca , which was controlled by Sultanate of Malacca in the 15th and early 16th century, did not go unnoticed by Portuguese writer Duarte Barbosa , who in wrote: “He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice.
Western influence started to enter in the 16th century, with the arrival of the Portuguese in Malacca, Maluku and the Philippines, the latter being settled by the Spanish years later. By the 19th century, all Southeast Asian countries were colonised except for Thailand. European explorers were reaching Southeast Asia from the west and from the east.
Regular trade between the ships sailing east from the Indian Ocean and south from mainland Asia provided goods in return for natural products, such as honey and hornbill beaks from the islands of the archipelago.
Before the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the Europeans mostly were interested in expanding trade links. For the majority of the populations in each country, there was comparatively little interaction with Europeans and traditional social routines and relationships continued. For most, a life with subsistence-level agriculture, fishing and, in less developed civilizations, hunting and gathering was still hard. Europeans brought Christianity allowing Christian missionaries to become widespread.
Thailand also allowed Western scientists to enter its country to develop its own education system as well as start sending Royal members and Thai scholars to get higher education from Europe and Russia. Gujarat , India had a flourishing trade relationship with Southeast Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries. The United States took the Philippines from Spain in Internal autonomy was granted in , and independence in Most countries in the region maintain national autonomy.
Democratic forms of government are practiced in most Southeast Asian countries and human rights is recognised but dependent on each nation state. Socialist or communist countries in Southeast Asia include Vietnam, Laos. ASEAN provides a framework for the integration of commerce and regional responses to international concerns. China has asserted broad claims over the South China Sea , based on its nine-dash line , and has built artificial islands in an attempt to bolster its claims.
China also has asserted an exclusive economic zone based on the Spratly Islands. China , the Court ruled in favor of the Philippines and rejected China’s claims. Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia and is also the largest archipelago in the world by size according to the CIA World Factbook. Geologically, the Indonesian Archipelago is one of the most volcanically active regions in the world.
Geological uplifts in the region have also produced some impressive mountains, culminating in Puncak Jaya in Papua , Indonesia at 5, metres 16, feet , on the island of New Guinea ; it is the only place where ice glaciers can be found in Southeast Asia. The highest mountain in Southeast Asia is Hkakabo Razi at 5, metres 19, feet and can be found in northern Burma sharing the same range of its parent peak, Mount Everest.
Mayon Volcano , despite being dangerously active , holds the record of the world’s most perfect cone which is built from past and continuous eruption.
Geographically, Southeast Asia is bounded to the southeast by the Australian continent , the boundary between these two regions is most often considered to run through Wallacea. Both countries share the island of New Guinea.
Islands to the east of the Philippines make up the region of Micronesia. These islands are not biogeographically, geologically or historically linked to mainland Asia, and are considered part of Oceania by the United Nations , The World Factbook and other organizations. Several countries of Maritime Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, are dialogue partners of the Pacific Islands Forum, but none have full membership.
Maritime Southeast Asia was often grouped with Australia and Oceania in the mid to late s, rather than with mainland Asia. The non-continental Australian external territories of Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling Islands are sometimes considered part of Maritime Southeast Asia, as they lie in much closer proximity to western Indonesia than they do to mainland Australia. The climate in Southeast Asia is mainly tropical—hot and humid all year round with plentiful rainfall.
The majority of Southeast Asia has a wet and dry season caused by seasonal shifts in winds or monsoon. The tropical rain belt causes additional rainfall during the monsoon season. The rainforest is the second largest on Earth with the Amazon rainforest being the largest. Exceptions to this rainforest climate and vegetation are:. Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in the world.
The vast majority of Southeast Asia falls within the warm, humid tropics, and its climate generally can be characterised as monsoonal. The animals of Southeast Asia are diverse; on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra , the orangutan , the Asian elephant , the Malayan tapir , the Sumatran rhinoceros and the Bornean clouded leopard can also be found.
Six subspecies of the binturong or bearcat exist in the region, though the one endemic to the island of Palawan is now classed as vulnerable. Tigers of three different subspecies are found on the island of Sumatra the Sumatran tiger , in peninsular Malaysia the Malayan tiger , and in Indochina the Indochinese tiger ; all of which are endangered species. The Komodo dragon is the largest living species of lizard and inhabits the islands of Komodo , Rinca , Flores , and Gili Motang in Indonesia.
The Philippine eagle is the national bird of the Philippines. It is considered by scientists as the largest eagle in the world, [] and is endemic to the Philippines’ forests. The wild Asian water buffalo , and on various islands related dwarf species of Bubalus such as anoa were once widespread in Southeast Asia; nowadays the domestic Asian water buffalo is common across the region, but its remaining relatives are rare and endangered.
The mouse deer , a small tusked deer as large as a toy dog or cat, mostly can be found on Sumatra, Borneo Indonesia , and in Palawan Islands Philippines. The gaur , a gigantic wild ox larger than even wild water buffalo, is found mainly in Indochina. There is very little scientific information available regarding Southeast Asian amphibians. Birds such as the green peafowl and drongo live in this subregion as far east as Indonesia.
The babirusa , a four-tusked pig, can be found in Indonesia as well. The hornbill was prized for its beak and used in trade with China. The horn of the rhinoceros, not part of its skull, was prized in China as well. The Indonesian Archipelago is split by the Wallace Line. This line runs along what is now known to be a tectonic plate boundary, and separates Asian Western species from Australasian Eastern species.
As the pace of development accelerates and populations continue to expand in Southeast Asia, concern has increased regarding the impact of human activity on the region’s environment. A significant portion of Southeast Asia, however, has not changed greatly and remains an unaltered home to wildlife. The nations of the region, with only a few exceptions, have become aware of the need to maintain forest cover not only to prevent soil erosion but to preserve the diversity of flora and fauna.
Indonesia, for example, has created an extensive system of national parks and preserves for this purpose. Even so, such species as the Javan rhinoceros face extinction, with only a handful of the animals remaining in western Java.
The shallow waters of the Southeast Asian coral reefs have the highest levels of biodiversity for the world’s marine ecosystems, where coral, fish, and molluscs abound.
According to Conservation International, marine surveys suggest that the marine life diversity in the Raja Ampat Indonesia is the highest recorded on Earth.
Diversity is considerably greater than any other area sampled in the Coral Triangle composed of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. The Coral Triangle is the heart of the world’s coral reef biodiversity, the Verde Passage is dubbed by Conservation International as the world’s “center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity”.
The whale shark , the world’s largest species of fish and 6 species of sea turtles can also be found in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean territories of the Philippines. The trees and other plants of the region are tropical; in some countries where the mountains are tall enough, temperate-climate vegetation can be found.
These rainforest areas are currently being logged-over, especially in Borneo. While Southeast Asia is rich in flora and fauna, Southeast Asia is facing severe deforestation which causes habitat loss for various endangered species such as orangutan and the Sumatran tiger.
The two worst regional hazes were in and in which multiple countries were covered with thick haze, mostly caused by ” slash and burn ” activities in Sumatra and Borneo.
Muar experienced the highest API level of on 23 June at around 7 am. Even prior to the penetration of European interests, Southeast Asia was a critical part of the world trading system.
A wide range of commodities originated in the region, but especially important were spices such as pepper, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
The spice trade initially was developed by Indian and Arab merchants, but it also brought Europeans to the region. First, Spaniards Manila galleon who sailed from the Americas and Kingdom of Portugal , then the Dutch, and finally the British and French became involved in this enterprise in various countries. The penetration of European commercial interests gradually evolved into annexation of territories, as traders lobbied for an extension of control to protect and expand their activities.
An economic effect of this imperialism was the shift in the production of commodities. For example, the rubber plantations of Malaysia, Java, Vietnam, and Cambodia, the tin mining of Malaya, the rice fields of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and the Irrawaddy River delta in Burma, were a response to the powerful market demands. The overseas Chinese community has played a large role in the development of the economies in the region.
The origins of Chinese influence can be traced to the 16th century, when Chinese migrants from southern China settled in Indonesia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries. The region’s economy greatly depends on agriculture; rice and rubber have long been prominent exports. Manufacturing and services are becoming more important. Newly industrialised countries include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, while Singapore and Brunei are affluent developed economies.
The rest of Southeast Asia is still heavily dependent on agriculture, but Vietnam is notably making steady progress in developing its industrial sectors. Seventeen telecommunications companies contracted to build the Asia-America Gateway submarine cable to connect Southeast Asia to the US [] This is to avoid disruption of the kind caused by the cutting of the undersea cable from Taiwan to the US in the Hengchun earthquakes.
Tourism has been a key factor in economic development for many Southeast Asian countries, especially Cambodia. According to UNESCO, “tourism, if correctly conceived, can be a tremendous development tool and an effective means of preserving the cultural diversity of our planet. By the early 21st century, Indonesia had grown to an emerging market economy, becoming the largest economy in the region.
It was classified a newly industrialised country and is the region’s singular member of the G major economies. Southeast Asia has an area of approximately 4,, square kilometres 1,, sq mi. As of , around million people live in the region, more than a fifth live million on the Indonesian island of Java , the most densely populated large island in the world. Indonesia is the most populous country with million people, and also the fourth most populous country in the world.
The distribution of the religions and people is diverse in Southeast Asia and varies by country. The Aslians and Negritos were believed as one of the earliest inhabitants in the region.
In modern times, the Javanese are the largest ethnic group in Southeast Asia, with more than million people, mostly concentrated in Java , Indonesia. The second-largest ethnic group in Southeast Asia is Vietnamese Kinh people with around 86 million population, mainly inhabiting in Vietnam, thus forming a significant minority in neighboring Cambodia and Laos.
The Thais is also a significant ethnic group with around 59 million population forming the majority in Thailand. In Burma, the Burmese account for more than two-thirds of the ethnic stock in this country, with the Indo-Aryan Rohingya make up a significant minority in Rakhine State. Indonesia is clearly dominated by the Javanese and Sundanese ethnic groups, with hundreds of ethnic minorities inhabited the archipelago, including Madurese , Minangkabau , Bugis , Balinese , Dayak , Batak and Malays.
While Malaysia is split between more than half Malays and one-quarter Chinese, and also Indian minority in the West Malaysia however Dayaks make up the majority in Sarawak and Kadazan-dusun makes up the majority in Sabah which are in the East Malaysia. In city-state Singapore, Chinese are the majority, yet the city is a multicultural melting pot with citizens of Malay, Indian, Eurasian and other ethnic descents.
While the Khmers are the majority in Cambodia and form a significant minority in Southern Vietnam and Thailand, the Hmong people are the minority in Vietnam, China, and Laos.
Religion in Southeast Asia []. Countries in Southeast Asia practice many different religions. Indonesia is the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world. There are approximately million Buddhists in Southeast Asia, making it the second-largest religion in the region, after Islam.
Ancestor worship and Confucianism are also widely practised in Vietnam and Singapore. The Philippines has the largest Roman Catholic population in Asia. In October , the number of Christians, both Catholic and Protestant in Southeast Asia, reached million, of which 97 million came from the Philippines , 29 million came from Indonesia , 11 million came from Vietnam , and the rest came from Malaysia , Myanmar , East Timor , Singapore , Laos , Cambodia and Brunei.
No individual Southeast Asian country is religiously homogeneous. Some groups are protected de facto by their isolation from the rest of the world.
Christianity also predominates in the rest of the part of the Philippines, New Guinea , Flores and Timor. Garuda , the phoenix who is the mount vahanam of Vishnu , is a national symbol in both Thailand and Indonesia; in the Philippines, gold images of Garuda have been found on Palawan ; gold images of other Hindu gods and goddesses have also been found on Mindanao.
Balinese Hinduism is somewhat different from Hinduism practised elsewhere, as Animism and local culture is incorporated into it. Christians can also be found throughout Southeast Asia; they are in the majority in East Timor and the Philippines, Asia’s largest Christian nation. In addition, there are also older tribal religious practices in remote areas of Sarawak in East Malaysia, Highland Philippines, and Papua in eastern Indonesia.
In Burma, Sakka Indra is revered as a Nat. In Vietnam, Mahayana Buddhism is practised, which is influenced by native animism but with a strong emphasis on ancestor worship. Each of the languages has been influenced by cultural pressures due to trade, immigration, and historical colonization as well.
There are nearly native languages in the region. The language composition for each country is as follows with official languages in bold :. Indonesia has over languages in over 17, islands across the archipelago, making Indonesia the second most linguistically diverse country on the planet, [] slightly behind Papua New Guinea. The official language of Indonesia is Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia , widely used in educational, political, economic, and other formal situations. In daily activities and informal situations, most Indonesians speak in their local language s.
For more details, see: Languages of Indonesia. Also Brunei shows a strong influence from Arabia. Vietnam and Singapore show more Chinese influence [] in that Singapore, although being geographically a Southeast Asian nation, is home to a large Chinese majority and Vietnam was in China’s sphere of influence for much of its history. Indian influence in Singapore is only evident through the Tamil migrants, [] which influenced, to some extent, the cuisine of Singapore.
Throughout Vietnam’s history, it has had no direct influence from India — only through contact with the Thai, Khmer and Cham peoples. Moreover, Vietnam is also categorized under the East Asian cultural sphere along with China, Korea, and Japan due to a large amount of Chinese influence embedded in their culture and lifestyle.
Rice paddy agriculture has existed in Southeast Asia for millennia, ranging across the subregion. Some dramatic examples of these rice paddies populate the Banaue Rice Terraces in the mountains of Luzon in the Philippines. Maintenance of these paddies is very labour-intensive. The rice paddies are well-suited to the monsoon climate of the region. The region has diverse metalworking, especially in Indonesia. This includes weaponry, such as the distinctive kris , and musical instruments, such as the gamelan.
The region’s chief cultural influences have been from some combination of Islam , India , and China. Diverse cultural influence is pronounced in the Philippines, derived particularly from the period of Spanish and American rule, contact with Indian-influenced cultures, and the Chinese and Japanese trading era. As a rule, the peoples who ate with their fingers were more likely influenced by the culture of India, for example, than the culture of China, where the peoples ate with chopsticks ; tea, as a beverage, can be found across the region.
The fish sauces distinctive to the region tend to vary. The arts of Southeast Asia have an affinity with the arts of other areas. Dance in much of Southeast Asia includes movement of the hands as well as the feet, to express the dance’s emotion and meaning of the story that the ballerina is going to tell the audience.
Most of Southeast Asia introduced dance into their court; in particular, Cambodian royal ballet represented them in the early seventh century before the Khmer Empire , which was highly influenced by Indian Hinduism. Apsara Dance , famous for strong hand and feet movement, is a great example of Hindu symbolic dance. Puppetry and shadow plays were also a favoured form of entertainment in past centuries, a famous one being Wayang from Indonesia. The arts and literature in some of Southeast Asia are quite influenced by Hinduism, which was brought to them centuries ago.
Indonesia, despite conversion to Islam which opposes certain forms of art, has retained many forms of Hindu-influenced practices, culture, art, and literature. It has been pointed out that Khmer and Indonesian classical arts were concerned with depicting the life of the gods, but to the Southeast Asian mind, the life of the gods was the life of the peoples themselves—joyous, earthy, yet divine. The Tai , coming late into Southeast Asia, brought with them some Chinese artistic traditions, but they soon shed them in favour of the Khmer and Mon traditions, and the only indications of their earlier contact with Chinese arts were in the style of their temples, especially the tapering roof, and in their lacquerware.
Traditional music in Southeast Asia is as varied as its many ethnic and cultural divisions. Main styles of traditional music can be seen: Court music, folk music, music styles of smaller ethnic groups, and music influenced by genres outside the geographic region. Of the court and folk genres, Gong chime ensembles and orchestras make up the majority the exception being lowland areas of Vietnam. String instruments also are popular in the region. On 18 November , UNESCO officially recognized angklung as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity , and encourage the Indonesian people and government to safeguard, transmit, promote performances and to encourage the craftsmanship of angklung making.
The history of Southeast Asia has led to a wealth of different authors, from both within and without writing about the region. Originally, Indians were the ones who taught the native inhabitants about writing. This is shown through Brahmic forms of writing present in the region such as the Balinese script shown on split palm leaf called lontar see image to the left — magnify the image to see the writing on the flat side, and the decoration on the reverse side.
The antiquity of this form of writing extends before the invention of paper around the year in China. Note each palm leaf section was only several lines, written longitudinally across the leaf, and bound by twine to the other sections.
The outer portion was decorated. The alphabets of Southeast Asia tended to be abugidas , until the arrival of the Europeans, who used words that also ended in consonants, not just vowels.
Other forms of official documents, which did not use paper, included Javanese copperplate scrolls. This material would have been more durable than paper in the tropical climate of Southeast Asia. The same phenomenon is present in Indonesian, although different spelling standards are utilised e. The use of Chinese characters, in the past and present, is only evident in Vietnam and more recently, Singapore and Malaysia.
Association football is the most popular sport in the region, with the ASEAN Football Federation , the region’s primary regulatory body, formed on 31 January , in Jakarta , Indonesia. AFF Championship is the highest football competition in the region since its inaugural in with Thailand becoming the most title in the competition with 5 titles. The reigning winner is Thailand , who defeated Indonesia in the final. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. South-eastern region of Asia.
Official languages. Other languages. Mon Nicobarese Aslian. Tamil Telugu Malayalam. Aka-Jeru Present Great Andamanese. Onge Jarawa Sentinelese? Thai Lao Shan. Capital cities. Largest cities. Central Asia. Eastern Asia. Northern Asia. South-eastern Asia. Southern Asia. Western Asia. South China Sea. Camotes Sea. Philippine Sea Pacific Ocean. Sibuyan Sea. Visayan Sea.
Bismarck Sea. Gulf of Thailand. Gulf of Tonkin. Bay of Bengal. Indian Ocean. Strait of Malacca. Makassar Strait. Gulf of Carpentaria. Karimata Strait. Luzon Strait. Gulf of Tomini.
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