Southeast Asia straddles one of the two trade routes linking East Asia and the Mediterranean. For many centuries, merchants traveled through the Straights of Malacca to points further east, bringing spices, gold, and other precious commodities, and...

Notions of human rights are controversial in Southeast Asia, as elsewhere, because they embrace basic values reaching to the core of personal, social, and national identity, and encompass complex moral, philosophical, and cultural issues played out...

Six colorful tribal groups in Thailand are the Karen, Hmong, Mien, Lahu, Akha, and Lisu. All have migrated from southwest and south-central China and have been mountain dwellers for many generations. All but the Karen can still be found in southern...

vast region of Asia situated east of the Indian subcontinent and south of China. It consists of two dissimilar portions: a continental projection (commonly called mainland Southeast Asia) and a string of archipelagoes to the south and east of the...

Literary, performing, and visual arts of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The “classical” literatures of Southeast Asia can be divided into three major regions: the Sanskrit...

The term ‘Southeast Asia’ has come to cover all Asian countries south of China and east of India, an area of some 4.5 million sq. km. As of 1985, this region was estimated to have a population of 404 million, of whom 243 million lived in...

Vast region of Asia lying east of the Indian subcontinent and south of China. It includes a mainland area (also called Indochina) and a string of archipelagoes to the south and east and is generally taken to include Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia,...

Southeast...