1. Southeast Asia Today

2. Religious Traditions  The traditional religion in Southeast Asia is animism, the belief that spirits exist in animals, plants, objects, and places. In animism, people worship by performing rituals to please spirits.  Other cultures entering Southeast Asia through trade or conquest brought their traditions with them.  Confucianism from China has influenced Vietnam.  Arab traders brought Islam to Southeast Asia.  Buddhism is the main religion in Thailand today. Christianity was spread by Europeans to Southeast Asia. Today the Philippines is mostly Catholic.

3. Thailand Today  One attribute of Thai culture is its remarkable architecture. Thai buildings traditionally have steeply slanted roofs to shed heavy monsoon rains. The most important buildings in Thai architecture are wats, or Buddhist temples, influenced by the designs from India, the Khmer empire, and China.  Buddhism is the traditional religion in Thailand. Traditionally, young men live as monks for 3 months during the rainy season. As more young people move to cities, fewer young men spend time as monks, or make shorter commitments to religious life (or sometimes at all).

4. Thailand Today  4 out of 5 young people in Thailand work in cities, especially Bangkok’s large metropolitan area. Urban life has also changed people’s clothing, food, and entertainment. Because of the migration to cities in Thailand, people now wear Western clothing.

5. Regional Languages  Each country in the region has a dominant native language. The dominant language is the official language used by government, business, education, and the media.  Southeast Asia is home to hundreds of languages. With this language diversity, it is difficult to unify the Southeast Asian countries. Because of the isolated communities, many Southeast Asian dialects continue to survive.  The dominant language in Singapore is Chinese because of migration. Immigrants from India brought various Indian languages to Malaysia, Singapore, and Myanmar.

6. Regional Languages  Colonialism was most responsible for causing European languages to gain influence in Southeast Asia.  When the countries of Southeast Asia gained independence, most of them chose their dominant native language as their official language. When a regional language disappears, traditional culture is lost.

7. Saving the Elephant  Although smaller than their African cousins, Asian elephants are huge and awe-inspiring creatures. As recently as 1900, it is estimated 80,000 Asian elephants may have been living in the wild. Today, their population is thought to range from 30,000 to 50,000.  Poachers kill Asian elephants for their ivory tusks. In 1975, a law was passed banning the trade of ivory to try to protect the elephants.  The loss of habitat threatens elephants’ ability to get enough food. They wander into fields and eat crops, which brings them into conflict with the farmers who planted those crops. The farmers sometimes kill the elephants in order to protect their crops.

8. Saving the Elephant  In Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, many conservationists have begun to use modern technology, such as electric fences that run off solar power, to keep elephants confined to protected places. They also use hammocks near crops, like we would use scarecrows. The results have been dramatic. No elephants were killed anywhere in Cambodia from 2005 to 2010.

9. Governing Fragmented Countries  Because they are all physically fragmented countries with diverse ethnic groups, it is difficult for the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines to unify their countries. Fragmented countries are countries that are physically divided into separate parts, such as a chain of islands.  Indonesia is made up of more than 17,000 islands. More than half of all Indonesians live on the island of Java. Sumatra is rural and contains large plantations. The country includes more than 300 ethnic groups and more than 700 languages are spoken.  Indonesia’s motto is “Diversity in unity,” although unity is not always easy to achieve.  Malaysia is divided between a mainland area and an island. The mainland section is on the Malay Peninsula, and the island section is part of the island of Borneo.

10. Governing Fragmented Countries  Both the Indonesian and Malaysian governments are improving the overall standards of living to try to unify their countries.  Like Indonesia, the Philippines consists of thousands of islands, most of which are less than a square mile in size. Its wide variety of ethnicities includes Malays, Chinese, Japanese, Arab, and Spanish.  The two official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and English.  A large number of Filipinos have left their country because of the high unemployment but send a share of their earnings back to the Philippines as remittances to help their families at home.

11. Migration Within Indonesia  Indonesia is the 4 th most populous country in the world with the majority of the people living on just a few of Indonesia’s many islands. Living on the remote islands isolates citizens from the greater population, and the country remains fragmented.  The Dutch began the policy of relocating Indonesians to more remote, less populated areas in the 1800s. After Indonesia won independence in 1949, the Indonesian government continued promoting migrations from inner islands to outer islands. When the Indonesian government promoted relocation, the officials were hoping to spread an official language throughout the islands. An unwanted effect of this migration is the damage to the environment.

12. Singapore’s Growth  The British established the modern port of Singapore in the early 1800s to compete with the Dutch in trade. The location near trade routes has helped Singapore succeed economically. Today, the tiny island country is one of the world’s busiest ports – and a strong economic power.  Ethnic tensions separate Malaysia and Singapore. Singapore was once part of Malaysia but was offered its independence in 1965. Since then, Singapore has thrived because of its prime location, serving as the main transit point for sending raw materials such as timber, rubber, rice, and petroleum from Southeast Asia to other parts of the world.

13. Singapore’s Growth  Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew led Singapore from 1959 to 1990. The government of Singapore wants to continue the industrialized, economically prosperous society that is strictly controlled and has little crime like it was under Yew’s leadership.  To attract foreign investment, Singapore offers low tax rates and other economic incentives. Singapore’s leaders invested heavily in infrastructure improvements to gain access to current technologies.

14. Malaysia and New Media  Since gaining its independence in 1963, Malaysia has enjoyed prosperity and calm. Although the government has concentrated on building the economy, it has limited the freedoms of the people.  New media technologies threatens the ability of the Malaysian government to control information. The government tries to control its society by limiting information. Government interference is not uncommon.  The arrival of the Internet in Malaysia has challenged government versions of the truth. The government withholds information from its citizens. Tough laws punish media outlets that criticize the government. Because of this, young people in Malaysia prefer to get their news from online sources.