CASE STUDY 5 -SOUTHEAST ASIA

MAP OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

SOUTHEAST ASIA
Subregion of Asia, consisting of the country that are south of China, east of india and the north of Australia. Consist of 2 geographic regions which is Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia. The Mainland Southeast is  known as Indochina which comprises Cambonia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Peninsular of Malaysia. The Maritime Southeast Asia is analogous to the Malay Arhipelago which comprises Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. Austronesian peoples predominate in this region. The major religions are Buddhism and Islam, followed by Christianity. However, a wide variety of religions are found throughout the region, including many Hindu and animist influenced practices.

TYPE OF COUNTRY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA.

COUNTRY	POPULATION IN 2009	CAPITAL
BRUNAI	428,000	Bandar Seri Begawan
BURMA	50,020,000	Naypyidaw
CAMBODIA	14,805,000	Phnom Penh
TIMOR LESTE	1,134,000	Dili
INDONESIA	240,271,522	Jakarta
LAOS	6,320,000	Vientiane
MALAYSIA	28,318,000	Kuala Lumpur
PHILIPPINES	91,983,000	Manila
SINGAPORE	5,076,700	Singapore
THAILAND	67,764,000	Bangkok
VIETNAM	88,069,000	Hanoi

HISTORY

MAP OF VIETNAM

MAP OF THAILAND

• Very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the 2nd century BCE onwards.The Jawa Dwipa Hindu kingdom in Java and Sumatra existed around 200 BCE. The history of the Malay-speaking world begins with the advent of Indian influence, which dates back to at least the 3rd century BCE.
• Indian traders came to the archipelago both for its abundant forest and maritime products and to trade with merchants from China, who also discovered the Malay world at an early date.
• Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago. Homo floresiensis seems to have shared some islands with modern humans until only 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the modern population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor and the Philippines, migrated to South East Asia from Taiwan. They arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE, and as they spread through the archipelago, confined the native Melanesian peoples to the far eastern regions.
• Contrary to the popular believe as depicted above, studies presented by HUGO (Human Genome Organization) through genetic studies of the Asian races, scientifically points out to a single Asian migration from South East Asia travelling northwards slowly populating Southern parts of East Asia and then East Asia itself instead of the other way around.
• Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonization of Madagascar by the Austronesian people, as well as commerce between West Asia and Southeast Asia. Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome, while a slave from the Sulu Sea was believed to have been used in Magellan's voyage as a translator.

GEOGRAPHICAL

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

BANGKOK CITY, THAILAND

• It is divided into 2 which is mainland and maritime.
• The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of India are culturally part of Southeast Asia and sometimes considered both South Asian and Southeast Asian.
• The Seven Sister States of India are also geographically part of southeast Asia. Hainan Island and several other southern Chinese regions such as Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi are considered both East Asian and Southeast Asian.
• The rest of New Guinea is sometimes included so are Palau, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, which were all part of the Spanish East Indies.
• The eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor (east of Wallace Line) are considered to be ecologically part of Oceania while the Indonesian part of New Guinea is both ecologically and geographically part of Oceania.

CLIMATE

HANOI, VIETNAM

AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND

The climate in Southeast Asia is mainly tropical–hot and humid all year round with plentiful rainfall. Southeast Asia has a wet and dry season caused by seasonal shift in winds or monsoon. The tropical rain belt causes additional rainfall during the monsoon season. The rain forest is the second largest on earth (with the Amazon being the largest). An exception to this type of climate and vegetation is the mountain areas in the northern region, where high altitudes lead to milder temperatures and drier landscape. Other parts fall out of this climate because they are desert like.

DEMOGRAPHICS

KHAO SOK NATIONAL PARK, THAILAND

• Southeast Asia has an area of approximately 4,000,000 km² (1.6 million square miles). As of 2004, more than 593 million people lived in the region, more than a fifth of them (125 million) on the Indonesian island of Java, the most densely populated large island in the world.
• Indonesia is the most populous country with 230 million people and also 4th most populous country in the world.
• The distribution of the religions and people is diverse in Southeast Asia and varies by country.