Sei sulla pagina 1di 1

Only in the past sixty years has “Southeast Asia” been used to refer to the

region comprising modern-day Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos,


Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the
Philippines. These ten countries cover an area more than three times that
of Great Britain, France, and Germany combined, and they have a population
about twice as great.

These countries have similar warm, wet climates, and they share many trees,
flowers, and crops. But their hilly uplands are quite different from their lush
river valleys. Also, of course, life in the islands—dominated as it is by
the surrounding sea—is different from life on the mainland. Culturally, the
region is extremely diverse. Its peoples speak many unrelated languages
employing a number of alphabets. Several sects of Buddhism, Islam, and
Christianity are widespread; other religions, such as Hinduism, also
have hundreds of thousands of followers. At the same time, some have
suggested that there are traits common to the cultures of Southeast Asia.
Among these are the relatively high status of women, a tendency to place
sacred sites on hills or mountains, and myths involving oppositions between
beings associated with the sky or mountains and those associated with the
waters or coasts.

Potrebbero piacerti anche