Introduction
South East Asia comprises of eleven countries both in the mainland Asia and maritime. The region extends from East India to China. Mainland countries include Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The mainland countries are extensions of the Asian continent. The region has a diverse culture with Muslims being found in all the mainland countries in addition to other indigenous religions (Andaya 1). However, the Muslims tend to coalesce in the Southern Thailand region and Western Burma. Other regions where there are Muslims include the central Vietnam whereby the most dominant Islamic tribe is the Cham people.
Similarities and Differences
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Philippines. The maritime regions have large populations of Muslims. For instance, in Malaysia, Islam is the state religion (Lipson et al., 1). This is the case in Brunei too. However, some countries such as Indonesia have strong links to the religion but have not declared it as a state religion. For example, Indonesia has majority Muslim population, but it has not declared it to be the state religion. In other parts of the maritime Southeast Asia, Muslims are the minority. This is the case in Singapore and Philippines.
Historically, the South East Asia has been the meeting point for the foreigners (Russell 5). Special attributes about the region led to the attraction of the foreign traders to the region. For instance, having a favorable and predictable rain pattern led to the special crop seasons, which led to the increased demand. In the pre industrialization age, the move to the Far East was often done with the trade in mind (Andaya 1). Common produces from the region included nutmeg, mace, and cloves. These products were available mainly due to the climatic conditions favoring their growth.
Another aspect that opened up the region to the external traders was the Monsoon winds. The entire region is affected by the winds. They also blow in a predictable manner. Therefore, the traders could predict when to move to the region and trade and when to move back to the North West. Therefore, trade set the basis of the current cosmopolitan nature. The region has been traditionally being inhabited by different tribes. There are distinctive tribes in the region that tend to inhabit the land based on the geographical layout as well as their way of life. In the extensive lowlands, the farming communities such as Burmese and Vietnamese settled and created the basis of the nations after h land were inhabited by different tribes that had a distinctive sense of identity (Andaya 1). The sense of identity could be manifested in the appointed clothing styles and the jewelry adorned.
The geography of the region defined its culture and economy. The maritime region has different geographical outlay with the size of the islands ranging from large ones such as Java to smaller ones which make up the modern day Indonesia. Smaller islands could not support an agrarian culture that had been manifested in the mainland Southeast Asia (Roman and Russell 2). Consequently, the people resorted to fishing and trading as their main economic activity. Another geographical factor that formed the current cultural norms in the region is the forested nature of the islands. The fact that the Islanders failed to develop agriculture led to the development of dense forest vegetation. Deep forestation meant that the people could not travel on land. As a result, the use of boats became increasingly popular. Due to the movement through the boats in the oceans that connected the islands, these zones came to adopt the same languages and cultural orientations. Therefore, before the onset of the colonial borders, the people were integrated. This is the case in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity is the most outstanding feature of the region. The region has over one thousand languages. This is representative of a sixth of the world languages. The language development has been influenced by migration aspect in addition to the self-development. Archeological evidence places human habitation in the region to over a million years ago (Lipson et al. 1). The early migration patterns were from China through the long river system. Migration from northeastern Asia can also be found in the region. Main language groups in the region include the Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burmese and Tai.
Culture and Culture Patterns
Migration has had a major impact on the languages spoken in the region. For instance, since the onset of migration from the China and Taiwan region, the indigenous languages have been abolished. The new language that arose was the Austronesian. The language resulted from the displacement and absorption of the original settlers in the region. Hence the current trend whereby almost all languages spoken in the insular southeast are of the Austronesia, language family. The lifestyles that the people in the region lead have a common alignment to the local environment. The people in South East Asia have adapted their lives to the local environment. In the premodern Southeast Asia, there were many nomadic people who lived in the small boats. These people were known as orang laut. The sea people often derived their livelihood from the sea. In the interior jungles, there were small groups of hunters that kept on wandering the forested region (Andaya 1). In the interior sedentary main land, there were settlements based on agrarian lifestyle focusing on rice growing. The region near the coast that was unsuitable for irrigated farming due to the mangrove forests was used for fishing.
The culture of the region has also been influenced by the local environment. For instance, in the interior jungles, the wandering people were often limited in number. The smaller number and the nomadic lifestyle led to the rise of an unprecedented trend whereby the women were perceived as equals to men (Lipson et al. 1). The delayed onset of the urbanization concept may have facilitated the unprecedented trend. This is the opposite in the Chinese region where the original inhabitants descended from.
Religion
The cultural changes in the region started manifesting long time ago. The main influences came from the Chinese expansion along the Yangtze River. The expansion eventually led to the colonization of Vietnam. Even after the permanent halting of the Chinese colonization, the effects of the contact could still be felt. For instance, the religions of Buddhism and Taoism reached Vietnam through the Chinese colonization. The second source of the influence was from India. The expanding trade in the Bay of Bengal led to the increased contact with the Indian influences (Lipson et al..1). The regions affected by the Indian influence include Vietnam and Cambodia. These regions adopted a mixture of the local society and the imported ideas. The regions still practice Hinduism and Buddhism.
Contact with the external world led to the development of Islamic religion. There is no chronology of the inset of the religion (Lipson et al. 1). However, the opening up of the region to trade is taunted as one of the reasons behind the development of the religion. Most of the traders from Yemen and Swahili coast had an important impact on the development of the religion increased acceptance of the religion in the India and China also led to the development of the religion in the southeast region.
Picture 1: Muslims holding prayers (Source: http://asiasociety.org/files/Indonesia_Islam.jpg)
The Future
Going into the future, the region will have to change. Instead of relying on the common traditional practices, the region will be inevitably affected by the western notions. For instance, education has called for the increased integration of all the sexes in the organizations. For countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, the above trend is going to reduce the Islamic borne perception that women ought to be subject to the men. With the increased interaction through travel and opened up communication channels, the region will be affected by the western civilization ideals affecting the issues such as women empowerment.
In conclusion, the region has a diverse cultural background due to prolonged contact with other cultures. There are different language groups in the southeast region even though most of the languages have some phonetic similarities. The dominant religion in the region is Islam. However, there are also some communities that practice Buddhism and Hinduism. The dominant diet includes agrarian and fish products. The main source of protein is fish owing to the climatic conditions and shallow oceans which are ideal for fish. The region has a high level of gender equality with women assuming almost similar positions with men.
Works Cited
Andaya, Barbara Watson. "Introduction To Southeast Asia." Asia Society. N.p., 2016. Web. 24 July 2016.
Lipson, Mark, et al. "Reconstructing Austronesian population history in island Southeast Asia." Nature Communications 5. N.p., 2014. Web. 24 July 2016.
Roman, Brent, and Susan Russell. "Southeast Asian Food and Culture." (2014). PDF
Russell, Susan. "Islam: A Worldwide Religion and Its Impact in Southeast Asia." (2010). PDF
