Culture of Southeast Asia

8/6/2019 Culture of Southeast Asia

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Culture of Southeast Asia

The culture of Asia is human civilization in Asia. It features different kinds of cultural heritage of

many nationalities, societies, and ethnic groups in the region, traditionally called a continent

from a Western-centric perspective, of Asia. The region or "continent" is more commonly

divided into more natural geographic and cultural subregions, including the Central Asia, East

Asia, South Asia (the "Indian subcontinent"), North Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia.

Geographically, Asia is not a distinct continent; culturally, there has been little unity or common

history for many of the cultures and peoples of Asia.

Asian art, music, and cuisine, as well as literature, are important parts of Asian culture. Eastern

philosophy and religion also plays a major role,

with Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism,Christianity and Islam; all playing major roles.

One of the most complex parts of Asian culture is the relationship between traditional cultures

and the Western world.

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia consists of Vietnam and Maritime Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is usually

thought to include Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Mainland Southeast

Asia, Malaysia, Singapore, East Timor, Brunei and Indonesia. The region has been greatly

influenced by the cultures and religions of India and China as well as the

religions Islam and Christianity from Southwest Asia. Southeast Asia has also had a lot

of Western influence due to the lasting legacy of colonialism. One example is

the Philippines which has been heavily influenced by America and Spain due to nearly four

centuries of foreign rule.

A common feature found around the region are stilt houses. Another shared feature is rice

paddy agriculture, which originated in Southeast Asia thousands of years ago. Dance is also a

very important feature of the culture, utilizing movements of the hands and feet perfected over

thousands of years. Furthermore, the arts and literature of Southeast Asia is very distinctive as

some have been influenced by Indian, Hindu, Chinese, Buddhist and Islamic literature.

Dance

In the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, bhangra dance is very popular. The bhangra is a

celebration of the harvest. The people dance to the beat of a drum while singing and dancing.

In Thailand which is never colonized by Western countries, has retained cultural connections

with the two of the great centers of Asian civilizations, India and China. Dances of Burma, a



country which was colonized only for a brief period, also retain very strong influences from

these cultures.

In Southeast Asia, dance is an integral part of the culture; the styles of dance vary from island to

island. There are courtly dances, found, for example, wherever there are Rajahs and princesses.

There are also dances of celebration. For example, according to oral history, in 1212, when

10 Bornean datus left the rule of Sri Vijayan empire on Borneo, they sailed away and

negotiated settlement rights with the chieftain of the Negritos on the island of Panay. In

commemoration of the agreement, they danced; the Negritos danced as well.

Music

Asian music encompasses numerous different musical styles originating from a large number of

Asian countries.

The music of Indonesia demonstrates its cultural diversity, the local musical creativity, as wellas subsequent foreign musical influences that shaped contemporary music scenes of Indonesia.

Nearly thousands of Indonesian islands having its own cultural and artistic history and

character. This results in hundreds of different forms of music, which often

accompanies dance and theater. The music of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Flores and other islands have

been documented and recorded, and research by Indonesian and international scholars is

ongoing. The music in Indonesia predates historical records, various Native Indonesian tribes

often incorporate chants and songs accompanied with music instruments in their rituals. Today

the contemporary music of Indonesia is popular in the region, including neighboring countries;

Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

Music of Malaysia is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres in

Malaysia. A great variety of genres in Malaysian music reflect the specific ethnic groups of

multiracial Malaysian society consisting

of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban, Dayak, Kadazandusun, Eurasians and other groups.

In general, music of Malaysia may be categorized as classical, folk, syncretic (or acculturated

music), popular and contemporary art music. Classical and folk music emerged during the pre-

colonial period and exists in the form of vocal, dance and theatrical music such as Nobat, Mak

Yong, Mak Inang, Dikir barat, Ulek mayang and Menora. The syncretic music developed during

the post-Portuguese period (16th century) and contains elements from both local music and

foreign elements of Arabian, Persian, Indian, Chinese and Western musical and theatrical

sources. Among genres of this music are Zapin, Ghazal, Dondang

sayang, Joget, Jikey, Boria, Keroncong and Bangsawan.



Both Malaysian popular music and contemporary art music are essentially Western-based

music combined with some local elements. In 1950s, the musician P.Ramlee helped in creating

a Malaysian music that combined folks songs with Western dance rhythms and western Asian

music.

Traditional Vietnamese music is highly diverse and syncretistic, combining native and foreign

influences. Throughout its history, Vietnam has been heavily impacted by the Chinese musical

tradition, as an integral part, along with Korea, Mongolia and Japan. The

ancient Indochinese kingdom of Champa also had an historical effect upon this music, because

the Vietnamese court found it intriguing. However, even with these foreign influences, Vietnam

has a unique musical tradition stemming from its native roots.

The music of Thailand reflects its geographic position at the intersection of China and India,

and reflects trade routes that have historically included Persia, Africa, Greece and Rome. Thai

musical instruments are varied and reflect ancient influence from far afield - including the klong

thap and khim (Persian origin), the jakhe (Indian origin), the klong jin(Chinese origin), and

the klong kaek (Indonesian origin).

Though Thailand was never colonized by colonial powers, pop music and other forms of

modern Asian, European and American music have become extremely influential. The two most

popular styles of traditional Thai music are luk thung and mor lam; the latter in particular has

close affinities with the Music of Laos.

Aside from the Thai, ethnic minorities such as

the Lao, Lawa, Hmong, Akha, Khmer, Lisu, Karen and Lahu peoples have retained traditional

musical forms.

Music of the Philippines are performance arts composed in various genre and styles. The music

of the Philippines is a mixture of indigenous, other Asian, European, Latin American, and

American influences.



Documents

Culture of Southeast Asia