Sejarah Asia Tenggara

Location of Southeast Asia

Prasejarah

Masyarakat agrikultur awal

Agriculture was a natural development based on necessity. Before agriculture, hunting and gathering sufficed to provide food. The chicken and pig were domesticated here, millennia ago. So much food was available that people could gain status by giving food away in feasts and festivals, where all could eat their fill. These big men (Malay: orang kaya) would work for years, accumulating the food (wealth) needed for the festivals provided by the orang kaya. These individual acts of generosity or kindness are remembered by the people in their oral histories, which serves to provide credit in more dire times. These customs ranged throughout Southeast Asia, stretching, for example, to the island of Papua. The agricultural technology was exploited after population pressures increased to the point that systematic intensive farming was required for mere survival, say of yams (in Papua) or rice (in Indonesia). Rice paddies are well-suited for the monsoons of Southeast Asia. The rice paddies of Southeast Asia have existed for millennia, with evidence for their existence coeval with the rise of agriculture in other parts of the globe.

Yam cultivation in Papua, for example, consists of placing the tubers in prepared ground, heaping vegetation on them, waiting for them to propagate, and harvesting them. This work sequence is still performed by the women in the traditional societies of Southeast Asia; the men might perform the heavier duties of preparing the ground, or of fencing the area to prevent predation by pigs.

Ancient kingdoms

Southeast Asia has been inhabited since pre-historic times. The communities in the region evolved to form complex cultures with varying degrees of influence from India and China.

The ancient kingdoms can be grouped into two distinct categories. The first is agrarian kingdoms. Agrarian kingdoms had agriculture as the main economic activity. Most agrarian states were located in mainland Southeast Asia. Examples are Ayutthaya, based on the Chao Phraya River delta and the Khmer Empire on the Tonle Sap. The second type is maritime states. Maritime states were dependent on sea trade. Malacca and Srivijaya were maritime states.

Very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the second century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century, Buddhism and Hinduism were the main religions in Southeast Asia. The kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia were Buddhist states while the Malay archipelago was more influenced by Hinduism.

Several kingdoms developed on the mainland, initially in modern-day Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The first dominant power to arise In the archipelago was Srivijaya in Sumatra. From the fifth century CE, the capital, Palembang, became a major seaport and functioned as an entrepot on the Spice Route between India and China. Srivijaya was also a notable centre of Buddhist learning and influence. Srivijaya's wealth and influence faded with changes in nautical technology in the tenth century CE. This enabled Chinese and Indian merchants to ship cargo directly between their countries and also enabled the Chola state in southern India to carry out a series of destructive attacks on Srivijaya's possessions, ending Palembang's entrepot function.

Java was dominated by a kaleidoscope of competing agrarian kingdoms including the Sailendras, Mataram and finally Majapahit.

Muslim traders started to visit Southeast Asia in the Twelfth Century CE. Pasai was the first Muslim state. Srivijaya finally collapsed after internal strife. The Sultanate of Malacca, founded by a Srivijayan prince, rose to prominence under Chinese patronage and assumed Srivijaya’s role. Islam spread throughout the archipelago in the 13th and 14th century at the expense of Hinduism with Malacca functioning (after its rulers converted) as the center of Islam in the region.

Other sultanates, such as Brunei in Borneo and Sulu in the modern day Philippines experienced relatively few contacts with other kingdoms.

European Colonization

to be written

Contemporary Southeast Asia

to be written

Berkas:SEAsia.jpg

Landforms of Southeast Asia, from the relief globe at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois

See also

• Southeast Asian Buddhism
• Hinduism in Southeast Asia
• History of Asia
• History of present-day nations and states
• History of Brunei
• History of Cambodia
• History of East Timor
• History of Indonesia
• History of Laos
• History of Malaysia
• History of Myanmar
• History of the Philippines
• History of Singapore
• History of Thailand
• History of Vietnam

Further reading

• Heidhues,Mary Somer. "'Southeast Asia: A Concise History" ISBN: 0500283036
• Osborne, Milton. Southeast Asia. An introductory history. ISBN 1865083909
• Tarling, Nicholas (ed). The Cambridge history of Southeast Asia Vol I. ISBN 0521663695

Pranala luar

• Ancient Southeast Asia