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Introduction to Southeast Asia:
History, Geography, and Livelihood
by Barbara Watson Andaya
Southeast Asia consists of eleven countries that reach from
eastern India to China, and is generally divided into
“mainland” and “island” zones. The mainland (Burma,
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) is actually an extension
of the Asian continent. Muslims can be found in all mainland countries,
but the most significant populations are in southern Thailand
and western Burma (Arakan). The Cham people of central Vietnam
and Cambodia are also Muslim.
Island or maritime Southeast Asia includes Malaysia, Singapore,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, and the new nation of East Timor
(formerly part of Indonesia). Islam is the state religion in Malaysia
and Brunei. Although 85 percent of Indonesia’s population of over
234,000,000 are Muslims, a larger number than any other country
in the world, Islam is not the official state religion. Muslims are a
minority in Singapore and the southern Philippines.
Geography, Environment, and Cultural Zones
Virtually all of Southeast Asia lies between the tropics,
and so there are similarities in climate as well
as plant and animal life throughout the region.
Temperatures are generally warm, although
it is cooler in highland areas. Many sea and
jungle products are unique to the region, and
were therefore much desired by international
traders in early times. For example, several
small islands in eastern Indonesia were once
the world’s only source of cloves, nutmeg,
and mace. The entire region is affected by the
monsoon winds, which blow regularly from
the northwest and then reverse to blow from
the southeast. These wind systems bring fairly
predictable rainy seasons, and before steamships
were invented, these wind systems also
enabled traders from outside the region to arrive
and leave at regular intervals. Because of this reliable
wind pattern, Southeast Asia became a meeting place for trade between India and China, the two great markets
of early Asia.
There are some differences in the physical environment
of mainland and island Southeast Asia. The first
feature of mainland geography is the long rivers that
begin in the highlands separating Southeast Asia from
China and northwest India. A second feature is the extensive
lowland plains separated by forested hills and
mountain ranges. These fertile plains are highly suited
to rice-growing ethnic groups, such as the Thais, the
Burmese, and the Vietnamese, who developed settled
cultures that eventually provided the basis for modern
states. The highlands were occupied by tribal groups,
who displayed their sense of identity through distinctive
styles in clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles. A third
feature of mainland Southeast Asia is the long coastline.
Despite a strong agrarian base, the communities
that developed in these regions were also part of the
maritime trading network that linked Southeast Asia to
India and to China.
The islands of maritime Southeast Asia can range
from the very large (for instance, Borneo, Sumatra, Java,
Luzon) to tiny pinpoints on the map (Indonesia is said
to comprise 17,000 islands). Because the interior of these
islands were jungle clad and frequently dissected by
highlands, land travel was never easy. Southeast Asians
found it easier to move by boat between different areas,
and it is often said that the land divides and the sea
unites. The oceans that connected coasts and neighboring
islands created smaller zones where people shared
similar languages and were exposed to the same religious
and cultural influences. The modern borders created by
colonial powers—for instance, between Malaysia and
Indonesia—do not reflect logical cultural divisions.
A second feature of maritime Southeast Asia is the
seas themselves. Apart from a few deep underwater
trenches, the oceans are shallow, which means they are
rather warm and not very saline. This is an ideal environment
for fish, coral, seaweeds, and other products.
Though the seas in some areas are rough, the region as
a whole, except for the Philippines, is generally free of
hurricanes and typhoons. However, there are many active
volcanoes and the island world is very vulnerable to
earthquake activity.
Lifestyle, Livelihood, and Subsistence
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 1427, 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.
The Arrival of Islam in Southeast Asia
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. 570-632 CE). The
basic teachings of Islam are contained in the Qur’an
(Koran), the revelation of Allah’s will to Muhammad,
and in the hadith, reports of Muhammad’s statements
or deeds. There are several specific requirements of a
Muslim, which are known as the “Five Pillars”. These
are: 1) the confession of faith. “I testify that there is
no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet”; 2)
prayers five times a day, at daybreak, noon, afternoon,
after sunset and early evening; 3) fasting between sunrise
and sunset in the month of Ramadan, the ninth
month of the lunar year; 4) pilgrimage to Mecca (in
modern Saudi Arabia), or hajj, at least once in a lifetime
if possible; and 5) payment of ¼º of income as alms, in
addition to voluntary donations. There are no priests
in Islam, but there are many learned teachers, known
as ‘ulama, who interpret Islamic teachings according to
the writings and commentaries of scholars in the past,
and the teachings of the four schools of law practiced
within the majority Sunni tradition. Sunni Muslims,
who comprise about 85 percent of all Muslims, recognize
the leadership of the first four Caliphs and do not
attribute any special religious or political position to descendants
of the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali.
After the Prophet’s death, Islam continued to expand.
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.
The chronology of Islam’s arrival in Southeast Asia
is not known exactly. 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.g.
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 1292. 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 1430. 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.
Change over Time
Islam’s success was primarily due to a process that historians
term “localization,” by which Islamic teachings
were often adapted in ways that avoided avoid major
conflicts with existing attitudes and customs. 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. Cultural practices like cockfighting and gambling
continued, and spirit propitiation remained central in
the lives of most Muslims, despite Islam’s condemnation
of polytheism. 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.
The changes that Islam introduced were often most
visible in people’s ordinary lives. 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. Muslims in urban centers acquired more access
to education, and Qur’anic schools became a significant
focus of religious identity.
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. These reform-minded
Muslims were often impatient with rural communities
or “traditionalists” who maintained older pre-Islamic
customs. Europeans eventually colonized all Southeast
Asia except for Thailand. Malaya, Burma, Singapore,
and western Borneo were under the British; the Dutch
claimed the Indonesian archipelago; Laos, Cambodia,
and Vietnam were French colonies; East Timor belonged
to Portugal; and the Spanish, and later the Americans,
controlled the Philippines.
After these countries gained their independence following
World War II, the major question for politically
active Muslims has concerned the relationship between
Islam and the state. In countries where Muslims are in
a minority (like Thailand
and the Philippines) this
relationship is still causing
tension. In Malaysia,
Muslims are only around
55 percent of the population
and there must be
significant adjustments
with the largest non-Muslim
group, the Chinese.
In Indonesia, Muslims
are engaged in a continuing
debate about different
ways of observing the
faith, and hether Islam
should assume a greater
role in government.
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