INTRODUCTION TO SOUTHEAST ASIA (HISTORY, PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY)

Southeast Asia consists of eleven countries that reach from eastern India to China, and is generally divided into “mainland” and “island” zones. It has so many highlights but it’s not easy to know where to begin. Southeast Asia own many ancient temples, giant mountains, bustling cities, beautiful beaches and large oceans…etc. The tourists can whisk through such a diversity of the cultures and geography with so much ease that no place in the world has.

If Jakarta is the melting pot of Indonesia, Bangkok is in your face- at turns confronting and attractive. Singapore where is “ shopping Asia” , a luxury country and is a green lung of region. But for most travelers, the Philippines is the most perfect volcano. And Vietnam is famous with the palm- fringed beaches such as Nha trang, Phu Quoc Island.

History

The history of SoutheastAsia has been characterized as interaction between regional players and foreign powers. Each country is intertwined with all the others. For instance, the Malay empires of Srivijaya and Malacca covered modern day Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore while the Burmese, Thai, and Khmer peoples governed much of Indochinahttp://southeastasialtravelguide.blogspot.com/. At the same time, opportunities and threats from the east and the west shaped the direction of Southeast Asia. The history of the countries within the region only started to develop independently of each other after European colonizationwas at full steam between the 17th and the 20th century.

During the 1990s, Southeast Asia emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world. Its successes have caused some to call Southeast Asia an economic miracle and Singapore one of the "Four Asian Tigers". Though the Asian Financial Crisis struck in the late 1990s and left many crippled, the economy of the region has started to pick up again at a more sustainable rate as demand from the United States and People's Republic of China soar. ( http://en.wikipedia.org)

People and technology

Modern South-East Asian belong to four main groups. The Negrito, descandants of the oldest residents, who physically resemble Australian aborigines, are found in places like the mountain of Luzon and Peninsular Malaysia.

Member of the Austronesian language family populated Taiwan from the Asian mainland as early as 4000 BC, and then moved southwards through Malaysia, central, western and eastern Indonesia; from approximately 1000BC this expansion continued eastward into the Pacific.

Pottery was being produced in Thailand as early as 8000 years ago.

South-East Asia around 5000 years ago, when pottery of a different style, painted red of stamps with designs, appeared on the islands; its spread has been associated with the migration of the Austronesian peoples.

Rice was being cultivated in North-East Thailand in the northern Vietnam as early as 4000 Bc (China, by contrast, was growing an consuming millet at the time), and bronze bracelets, spear points and axes were being produced before 3000 BC.

By 500 BC bronze casters in Dong Son, northern Viet Nam, were making huge, elaborately decorated bronze drums. Some were transported as far away as eastern Indonesia, which suggests that where was a complex trade network linking the cultures of South-East Asia by this time.