Republic of the Philippines

OCCIDENTAL MINDORO STATE COLLEGE

Labangan, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro
website: www.omsc.edu.ph email address: [email protected]
Tele/Fax: (043) 457-0231 CERTIFIED TO ISO 9001:2015
CERT. NO.: 50500643 QM15

Learning Module
in
Mainland Southeast Asia

Compiled by:

RUDY A. CANDELARIO

The compiler does not own any of the contents of this learning module. Due credits and
acknowledgment are given to the authors, internet sources, and researchers listed on
the reference page. Such sources are reserved to further explain concepts and cannot
be credited to the compiler and the school. All diagrams, charts, and images are used for
educational purposes only. The sole objective of this instructional material is to facilitate
independent learning and not for monetary gains because this is NOT FOR SALE

2020 Edition

1
 LESSON 1
Introduction to Southeast Asia

TOPICS
1. Types of Societies of men and Basic Characteristics
2. Countries in Mainland & Island Southeast Asia
3. Early Civilization of People in Mainland Southeast Asia Countries

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. identify the way of life of ancient people during prehistoric times,
2. discuss the changes made by trading & migration to the civilization
of people, and
3. familiarize oneself in the unique characteristic of every country in
Southeast Asia.

TOPIC 1 : Types of Societies of Men and Basic Characteristics

Asia
1. Hunting & Gathering - These are small, simple societies in which people hunt and
gather food. Because all people in these societies have few possessions, the
societies are fairly egalitarian, and the degree of inequality is very low.

2. Horticultural & Pastoral - Horticultural and pastoral societies are larger than
hunting-and-gathering societies. Horticultural societies grow crops with simple
tools, while pastoral societies raise livestock. Both types of societies are
wealthier than hunting-and-gathering societies, and they also have more
inequality and greater conflict than hunting-and-gathering societies.

3. Agricultural - These societies grow great numbers of crops, thanks to the use of
plows, oxen, and other devices. Compared to horticultural and pastoral societies,
they are wealthier and have a higher degree of conflict and of inequality.

4. Industrial - These societies feature factories and machines. They are wealthier
than agricultural societies and have a greater sense of individualism and a
somewhat lower degree of inequality that still remains substantial.

5. Post-Industrial - These societies feature information technology and service jobs.

Higher education is especially important in these societies for economic success.

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The Development of Modern Society

Hunting and Gathering Societies

Beginning about 250,000 years

ago, hunting-and-gathering societies are the
oldest ones we know of; few of them
remain today, partly because modern
societies have encroached on their
existence. As the name hunting-and-
gathering implies, people in these societies
both hunt for food and gather plants and
other vegetation. They have few
possessions other than some simple
hunting-and-gathering equipment. To
ensure their mutual survival, everyone is
expected to help find food and also to share the food they find. To seek their food,
hunting-and-gathering peoples often move from place to place. Because they are
nomadic, their societies tend to be quite small, often consisting of only a few dozen
people. Beyond this simple summary of the type of life these societies lead,
anthropologists have also charted the nature of social relationships in them. One of
their most important findings is that hunting-and-gathering societies are fairly
egalitarian. Although men do most of the hunting and women most of the gathering,
perhaps reflecting the biological differences between the sexes discussed earlier,
women and men in these societies are roughly equal. Because hunting-and-gathering
societies have few possessions, their members are also fairly equal in terms of wealth
and power, as virtually no wealth exists.

Horticultural and Pastoral Societies

Horticultural and pastoral societies

both developed about 10,000–12,000 years
ago. In horticultural societies, people use
hoes and other simple hand tools to raise
crops. In pastoral societies, people raise
and herd sheep, goats, camels, and other
domesticated animals and use them as
their major source of food and also,
depending on the animal, as a means of
transportation. Some societies are either
primarily horticultural or pastoral, while
other societies combine both forms.
Pastoral societies tend to be at least somewhat nomadic, as they often have to move to
find better grazing land for their animals. Horticultural societies, on the other hand,
tend to be less nomadic, as they are able to keep growing their crops in the same
location for some time. Both types of societies often manage to produce a surplus of
food from vegetable or animal sources, respectively, and this surplus allows them to
trade their extra food with other societies. It also allows them to have a larger
population size than hunting-and-gathering societies that often reaches several hundred
members.
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 Accompanying the greater complexity and wealth of horticultural and pastoral
societies is greater inequality in terms of gender and wealth than is found in hunting-
and-gathering societies. In pastoral societies, wealth stems from the number of animals
a family owns, and families with more animals are wealthier and more powerful than
families with fewer animals. In horticultural societies, wealth stems from the amount of
land a family owns, and families with more land are wealthier and more powerful.

One other side effect of the greater wealth of horticultural and pastoral societies
is greater conflict. As just mentioned, sharing of food is a key norm in hunting-and-
gathering societies. In horticultural and pastoral societies, however, wealth (and more
specifically, the differences in wealth) leads to disputes and even fighting over land and
animals. Whereas hunting-and-gathering peoples tend to be very peaceful, horticultural
and pastoral peoples tend to be more aggressive.

Agricultural Societies

Agricultural societies developed

some 5,000 years ago in the Middle East,
thanks to the invention of the plow. When
pulled by oxen and other large animals, the
plow allowed for much more cultivation of
crops than the simple tools of horticultural
societies permitted. The wheel was also
invented about the same time, and written
language and numbers began to be used.
The development of agricultural societies
thus marked a watershed in the
development of human society. Ancient
Egypt, China, Greece, and Rome were all agricultural societies, and India and many other
large nations today remain primarily agricultural.

We have already seen that the greater food production of horticultural and
pastoral societies led them to become larger than hunting-and-gathering societies and
to have more trade and greater inequality and conflict. Agricultural societies continue all
these trends. First, because they produce so much more food than horticultural and
pastoral societies, they often become quite large, with their numbers sometimes
reaching into the millions. Second, their huge food surpluses lead to extensive trade,
both within the society itself and with other societies. Third, the surpluses and trade
both lead to degrees of wealth unknown in the earlier types of societies and thus to
unprecedented inequality, exemplified in the appearance for the first time of peasants,
people who work on the land of rich landowners. Finally, agricultural societies’ greater
size and inequality also produce more conflict. Some of this conflict is internal, as rich
landowners struggle with each other for even greater wealth and power, and peasants
sometimes engage in revolts. Other conflict is external, as the governments of these
societies seek other markets for trade and greater wealth.

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 If gender inequality becomes
somewhat greater in horticultural and
pastoral societies than in hunting-and-
gathering ones, it becomes very pronounced
in agricultural societies. An important reason
for this is the hard, physically taxing work in
the fields, much of it using large plow animals,
that characterizes these societies. Then, too,
women are often pregnant in these societies,
because large families provide more bodies to
work in the fields and thus more income.
Because men do more of the physical labor in
agricultural societies—labor on which these societies depend—they have acquired
greater power over women (Brettell & Sargent, 2009). In the Standard Cross-Cultural
Sample, agricultural societies are much more likely than hunting-and-gathering ones to
believe men should dominate women.

Industrial Societies

Industrial societies emerged in the

1700s as the development of machines and
then factories replaced the plow and other
agricultural equipment as the primary mode
of production. The first machines were
steam- and water-powered, but eventually,
of course, electricity became the main source
of power. The growth of industrial societies
marked such a great transformation in many
of the world’s societies that we now call the
period from about 1750 to the late 1800s the
Industrial Revolution. This revolution has had
enormous consequences in almost every aspect of society, some for the better and
some for the worse.

On the positive side, industrialization brought

about technological advances that improved
people’s health and expanded their life spans.
As noted earlier, there is also a greater
emphasis in industrial societies on
individualism, and people in these societies
typically enjoy greater political freedom than
those in older societies. Compared to
agricultural societies, industrial societies also
have lowered economic and gender
inequality. In industrial societies, people do
have a greater chance to pull themselves up by their bootstraps than was true in earlier
societies, and rags-to-riches stories continue to illustrate the opportunity available
under industrialization. That said, we will see in later chapters that economic and
gender inequality remains substantial in many industrial societies.

On the negative side, industrialization meant the rise and growth of large cities and
concentrated poverty and degrading conditions in these cities, as the novels of Charles
Dickens poignantly remind us. This urbanization changed the character of social life by
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creating a more impersonal and less traditional Gesellschaft society. It also led to riots
and other urban violence that, among other things, helped fuel the rise of the modern
police force and forced factory owners to improve workplace conditions. Today
industrial societies consume most of the world’s resources, pollute its environment to
an unprecedented degree, and have compiled nuclear arsenals that could undo
thousands of years of human society in an instant.

Post- Industrial Societies

We are increasingly living in what has been

called the information technology age (or
just information age), as wireless technology
vies with machines and factories as the basis
for our economy. Compared to industrial
economies, we now have many more service
jobs, ranging from housecleaning to
secretarial work to repairing computers.
Societies in which this transition is happening
are moving from an industrial to a
postindustrial phase of development.
In postindustrial societies, then, information technology and service jobs have replaced
machines and manufacturing jobs as the primary dimension of the economy (Bell,
1999). If the car was the sign of the economic and social times back in the 1920s, then
the smartphone or netbook/laptop is the sign of the economic and social future in the
early years of the 21st century. If the factory was the dominant workplace at the
beginning of the 20th century, with workers standing at their positions by conveyor
belts, then cell phone, computer, and software companies are dominant industries at
the beginning of the 21st century, with workers, almost all of them much better
educated than their earlier factory counterparts, huddled over their wireless technology
at home, at work, or on the road. In short, the Industrial Revolution has been replaced
by the Information Revolution, and we now have what has been called an information
society (Hassan, 2008).

As part of post-industrialization in the United

States, many manufacturing companies have
moved their operations from U.S. cities to
overseas sites. Since the 1980s, this process
has raised unemployment in cities, many of
whose residents lack the college education
and other training needed in the information
sector. Partly for this reason, some scholars
fear that the information age will aggravate
the disparities we already have between the
“haves” and “have-nots” of society, as people
lacking a college education will have even more trouble finding gainful employment
than they do now (W. J. Wilson, 2009). In the international arena, postindustrial
societies may also have a leg up over industrial or, especially, agricultural societies as
the world moves ever more into the information age.

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 TOPIC 2: Countries in Mainland & Island Southeast Asia
Asia
Asia is the largest continent in the world. Its
name came from the word for “sunrise”, in many
languages. It was referred to as asu (ascend) or asa
(east), referring to the direction of the sunrise.

Regions in Southeast Asia

• Southeast Asia consists of two distinctive

different geographic regions, one is mainland
Southeast Asia, also known as Indochina, on the Indochinese peninsula; it
comprises the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand,
Vietnam and West Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia)

• The other is the Malay Archipelago, or Maritime Southeast Asia, which comprises
the countries of: Brunei (on the island of Borneo), East Malaysia (with the
Malayan states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern part of Borneo), all the
islands of Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Timor-Leste (East Timor).

Maritime or Island Southeast Asian Countries

Again, the countries in Maritime or Island Southeast Asia are:

 Indonesia
 Malaysia
 Singapore
 Brunei
 East Timor
 Philippines

Indonesia

• Indonesia is the world’s biggest archipelago,

with an area of 1,919,440 sq. kms. and with
over 237 million people. It is the world’s
largest Muslim nation and the 4th most
populated nation of the world.

• Half of its 13,500 islands are inhabited,

including Java (the most densely populated
island) Sumatra, Sulawesi (Celebes) and tiu.co.uk
West Irian. It has most of the island of
Borneo but shares it with Malaysia.

• Its population is mostly Muslim (86%), with some Christian evangelicals (6%),
Catholics (3%), and Hindu and animists. The national language by law is Bahasa
Indonesia, but there are more than 742 languages, and dialects among 300
ethnic groups.

• Two early successive Malayan empires left their mark in the islands. The first
was the Sri Vijaya Buddhist Empire and the second is the Majapahit Empire. The

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 famous Borobodur (“many buddhas”) monument and pilgrimage site in Java is
a relic of the Sri Vijaya Empire.

• Its system of government is called “guided” democracy. It holds, after some

stops and starts, and Indonesia has had peaceful transitions of power since
Sukarno up to the present president Joko Widodo.

Malaysia

• Malaysia is a federation of 13 states with

an area of 329,847 sq. km. encompassing
the Malayan peninsula at the southern tip
of the Asian mainland and Sabah and
Sarawak on the island of Borneo

• Of the 27 million people, about 54% are

Malay, 45% Chinese, and 10% Indian.
Ethnic cousins of the Filipinos, the Malays
are friendly, hospitable and easy going.
The Chinese and Indian minorities used to
dominate the economy, but new Malay entrepreneurs have arisen

• Islam is the dominant religion. The national language is Bahasa Malaysia which
in 1972 spelled words similar to Bahasa Indonesia. English is widely used in
official and public functions.

• Malaysia overtook its Malay neighbors and left them far behind in the wake of its
tremendous economic growth – 2008, average incomes in this country was
$13,300. The Petronas Twin Towers (the world’s tallest building in 2004) is found
in this country.

• Malaysia has a parliamentary form of government. Its first prime minister is

Tunku Abdul Rahman. The prime minister, at present, is Najib Razak.

Singapore

• Singapore is located between Indonesia

and Malaysia. It was founded as a
British trading colony in 1819 by Sir
Stamford Raffles. It joined the
Malaysian Federation in 1963 but was
ousted two years later and became
independent. It subsequently became
one of the world's most prosperous
countries. Its port is one of the world’s
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busiest in terms of tonnage handled.

• Almost three fourths of its inhabitants are Chinese (74.2%), followed by Malays
(13.3%), and Indian (9.2%). Its official language is Mandarin which is spoken by
36.3% of the population. Majority of its population (33.9%) are Buddhists.

• More than three-fifths of Singapore's population subscribe to Buddhism. The

Chinese Mahayana Buddhism is the most prevalent form here. The largest

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 Chinese Mahayana Buddhist temple in Singapore is the Kong Meng San Phor Kar
See Monastery.

• Singapore has a Parliamentary System of government. The first prime minister is

Lee Kuan Yew and the prime minister at present, is Lee Hsien Loong.

Brunei

• Brunei is an independent sultanate on

the northwest coast of the island of
Borneo in the South China Sea, wedged
between the Malaysian states of Sabah
and Sarawak.

• Among the religions in Brunei, the most

predominant is Sunni Islam (67%),
followed by Buddhism (13%) and
Christianity (10%)

• Brunei is a Malay- dominated country. However, many linguistic and cultural

differences make Brunei Malay distinct from the larger Malay population of
nearby Malaysia and Indonesia, although they are ethnically related and share
the Muslim religion

• The system of government in Brunei is constitutional sultanate. Sultan Bolkiah

began his reign at age 22 in 1967 when his father, Sir Omar Ali Saifuddien,
abdicated the throne. The sultanate became wealthy during his reign mainly
because Brunei had cultivated the rich Seria oilfield. Up to now, Brunei is one of
the wealthiest nations in Asia with a very high per capita income.

East Timor

• East Timor is part of the island of Timor

in the Indonesian archipelago. The
word “Timor” in Malay means east. It is
officially called the Democratic Republic
of Timor-Leste. The capital is Dili. The
official language is Portuguese.

• The Portuguese began trading with

Timor by the early 16th century and
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colonized it throughout the mid-
century. Skirmishing with the Dutch in
the region eventually resulted in an 1859 treaty for which Portugal ceded the
western half of the island.

• The islanders were not converted to the major religions of Hinduism and Islam,
but 97% became Roman Catholic due to the Portuguese. Its population is 1.1
million in 2008, mostly Malay-Polynesian. Illiteracy is high and the people are
poor.

• On May 20, 2002, East Timor became an independent nation, with its own
government, flag and anthem. The resistance leaders Jose Ramos Horta and
Xamana Gusmao head the new parliamentary government.
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 • As mentioned earlier, East Timor has a parliamentary system of government.
The first prime minister is Mari Alkatiri. The prime minister, at present, is Rui
Maria de Araujo.

Philippines

• The Philippines is a Y-shapes

archipelago south of China in Southeast
Asia. Its 7,100 islands have a total land
area of 300,000 sq. kms. It ranks first in
the world production of coconut oil and
hemp, second in sugarcane and fifth in
tobacco.

• Filipinos are a racial mixture due to

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different cultures in their history.
Intermarriages are common and
majority of the people have mixed blood. Aboriginal tribes populate the
mountain interior. Most Filipinos belong to the Malay race, with a tawny
complexion, black hair and black eyes

• The Philippines became a colony of Spain from 1565 to 1898. After a short lived
independence, it became a colony of America in 1902. During World War II, it
was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Forces (1942-1945). It was granted
independence by America on July 4, 1946

• Of 96 million Filipinos, 93% are Catholics or Protestant Christians, followed by

Islam, the Iglesia ni Cristo and other religions

• The Philippines has a presidential system of government. Its first president was
Emilio Aguinaldo. At present, the president is Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Other Island Countries in Asia

The other island countries in Asia are:

 Sri Lanka
 Japan
 Taiwan
 Maldives

Sri Lanka

• The name Sri Lanka in Sanskrit means

“resplendent island.” It is an island in
Asia, south-east of India. Almost three
fourths (74.9%) of its inhabitants are
Sinhalese, an ethnic group native to the
island.

• Sri Lanka is a multi-religious society.

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Buddhism is the major religion, about
70% of its population. Hinduism is mainly
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 practised by Tamils in Sri Lanka who ethnically belong to South India where
Hinduism was predominantly practiced. Muslims comprise nearly 7% of its
population.

• The Portuguese controlled the coastal areas of the island in the 16th century and
the Dutch in the 17th century. The island was ceded to the British in 1796,
became a crown colony in 1802, and was formally united under British rule by
1815. As Ceylon, it became independent in 1948; its name was changed to Sri
Lanka in 1972

• At first, the country has a parliamentary system of government. Later on, it was
changed to republican system of government. The first prime minister was Don
Stephen Senanayake. The president of the republic, at present is Mahinda
Rajapaksa.

Japan

• Japanese call their nation Nippon or Niho,

“Land of the Rising Sun.” It is an archipelago
of 4,233 islands in East Asia. The four main
islands are Honshu (the largest), Hokkaido,
Shikoku and Kyushu, which comprise 97% of
the land. With an area of 373,31 3 sq. km. it
is larger than Britain.
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Taiwan

• Taiwan (Formosa) is a small group of islands

north of the Philippines and west of the
South China Sea. It is only separated from
mainland China by a narrow strait. The
main island is shaped like a kamote (sweet
potato), so the native Taiwanese refer to
themselves as “children of the sweet
potato.
cnn.com

Maldives

• The Republic of Maldives is a group of

atolls in the Indian Ocean about 417 mi
(671 km) southwest of Sri Lanka. Its 1,190
coral islets stretch over an area of 35,200
sq mi (90,000 sq. km). None of its islands
rises more than six feet above sea level.

Another Island in Southeast Asia

There is another island in Southeast Asia which is located in the Indian Ocean
2623 kilometers north-west of Perth, Australia. It is 19 kilometers long and 14
kilometers wide and has an area of 135,000 hectares.
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Christmas Island

 It had been administered as a British

possession by the Colony of Singapore,
and had, from the middle of nineteenth
century, been administered by British
Governors in Ceylon or Singapore under
the Straits Settlements
 Captain William Mynors of the Royal
Mary, an English East India Company australia.com
vessel, named the island when he sailed
past it on Christmas Day, in 1643. It became an Australian Territory on 1 October
1958 with the proclamation of the Christmas Island Act 1958–59.
 Islanders enjoy freedom of speech and press. The only publication is a
newspaper called The Islander, which is produced by the Shire of Christmas
Island, the local government body. Under British rule, the island became a major
region for phosphate mining, a mineral byproduct of volcanic eruptions.

TOPIC 3: Early Civilization of People in Mainland Southeast Asian Countries

Cambodia

1. Ethnic Group - Khmers

2. Emergence as a Nation - Ancestors of the Khmers are thought to have arrived in
the Angkor area between 5 and 10 thousand years ago. Good fishing
opportunities lead them to the shores of Tonle Sap Lake.
3. Occupation – – Fishing of inhabitants near Tonie Sap Lake & Farming of those
who are far from the lake. Slash & burn (kaingin) system of agriculture was
practiced.
4. Time - Rather than being so time-focused, people are more event-focused. This
means that rather than taking your cue for lunch from the time on your watch,
lunch will happen in accordance with the proceedings of the day.
5. Family - Family, and service to that family, is of great importance to them.
6. Fatalism – They believe that the power of the self to intervene in the course of
life’s events, or to enhance one’s prospects, is significantly diminished.
Individuals are often resigned to whatever lot they face, making peace with what
is.
7. Traditional Roles of Men & Women - Legally, the husband is the head of the
Khmer family. The husband is responsible for providing shelter and food for the
family unit. The role of the wife/woman rarely stretches beyond the confines of
the household.
8. Religion & Traditional Beliefs - About 90 per cent of the Cambodian population
are Theravada Buddhists. Another religion present in the country is Hinduism.
Their famous temple was the Angkor Wat – the biggest Hindu temple in the
world,
9. Arts & Architecture - The unique Khmer style that can be witnessed at the wats
and museums are the result of an amalgamation of the indigenous animistic
beliefs and the once Indian religion of Buddhism. Houses were very elevated off

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 the ground and built largely from wood. The walls were made from bamboo, and
the roof covered with thatched leaves or coconut palms. The traditional house is
raised on a framework of wooden posts to provide protection from floods and
intruders, and to create a multipurpose space under the house. This under part
served as a place for women to work, a place to sleep during the hot season, a
storage space, and a place to keep domestic animals.
10. Traditional Dress - Much of the traditional wear is made from golden silk,
crafted with patterns and designs unique to Cambodia. A karma is a thin towel-
sized piece of fabric, often wrapped around people’s heads for protection from
the sun, are used as a sarong, and are used to carry things in. The Sampot is the
national garment of the Kingdom. It is a form of sarong that is worn by men and
women
11. Traditional Dance - There are three kinds of dances in the country. Folk, sacred,
and classical. Of the three, classical dance is the most prevalent in the country
today
12. Traditional Food - Cambodian traditional cuisine is all about noodles, soups,
curries, and a host of grilled and fried bits and pieces. Among the most popular
of ingredients is fish paste, and prawn paste. Whereas commercial alcoholic
drinks are common throughout the country, non-commercial alcohol made from
rice is still drunk.
13. Traditional celebrations - Cambodia has so many incredible festivals. Among the
most popular is the Khmer New Year. In the early days of April, three days of
celebrations fill the streets of the big cities. The water festival is another special
one.

Thailand

1. Ethnic Group - The Central Tai is the dominant ethnic group and accounts for 36
percent of the population. The Thai-Lao and Lanna Tai, who together account for
about 40 percent of the population, were not assimilated into the national
culture until the twentieth century.
2. Traditional Occupation – Farming & Fishing. Slash & burn (kaingin) system of
agriculture was practiced during the early days
3. Land Tenure & Property - In the past, all land was owned by the crown in theory,
but individuals had use rights if they paid taxes on the land that they occupied.
Because of the low population density, land ownership in rural areas was not a
matter of concern.
4. Classes & Castes - In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the social
strata included an elite of Thai nobles, a small commercial middle class of
Chinese and Europeans, and a lower class that included mostly rural farmers.
5. Religious Belief - A noticeable manifestation of animism in Thai Buddhism are
the spirit houses associated with almost all houses and buildings. These usually
are small model houses placed on a pedestal, that serve as a home for the spirits
associated with the site. These houses are decorated and presented with daily
offerings. Many large trees also are considered to serve as the home of spirits
and are decorated and given offerings.
6. Government – In the past, monarchy was the system of government. At
present, it is constitutional monarchy.
7. Inheritance - Property generally is divided equally among the children after the
parents die. However, it is common practice for one child, usually the youngest
daughter, to assume primary responsibility for looking after the parents in their
old age, and this person inherits the family home.

13
8. Education - In the past, young boys attended school in a nearby Buddhist
monastery, where they would be taught to read and write. Girl's education took
place mainly at home as they learned to perform domestic tasks.
9. Etiquette - The Thai and other Buddhists follow the widespread Buddhist custom
of not touching a person on the head, which is considered the highest part of the
body. Patting a child on the head is thought to be dangerous to the well-being of
the child. A person should not point the feet at anyone or at an image of
Buddha. Footwear is removed when entering temple complexes, and it is polite
to remove footwear when entering a house. Buddhist monks are not supposed
to come into contact with women. It is traditional to greet a person with a prayer
like gesture called a wai . It is considered improper to lose one's temper or show
too much emotion in public.
10. Death and the Afterlife - Buddhists believe that those who die are reborn in a
form that is appropriate to the amount of merit they accumulated while alive.
The cycle of death and rebirth is believed to continue as long as ignorance and
craving remain. The cycle can be broken only through enhanced personal
wisdom and the elimination of desire.
11. Literature - Written literature dates back to the Sukhothai period (1250–1350),
and earlier traditions. The oldest known poem, the Suphasit Phra Ruong, was
written in the late 1200s.
12. Graphic Arts - The graphic arts include art forms associated with Buddhist
temples such as sculpture in wood, stucco, and stone; mural painting; and
bronze castings of images of Buddha.
13. Performance Arts - Classical dance developed from folk dances and incorporated
elaborate Indian hand gestures and arm and leg movements, probably through
the Mon and Khmer cultures.
14. Architecture - The traditional house is raised on a framework of wooden posts to
provide protection from floods and intruders, and to create a multipurpose
space under the house. This under part served as a place for women to work, a
place to sleep during the hot season, a storage space, and a place to keep
domestic animals. People usually sit on mats, and there is little furniture.
15. Traditional Food – Rice is the staple food at every meal for most people. All food
is brought to the table at once rather than being served in courses. A meal will
include rice, dishes with gravy, side dishes, soup, and a salad.

Laos

1. Ethnic Group - More people of Lao ethnic origin live in Thailand than in Laos. Laos
was almost absorbed into Siam and that has tinged Lao national identity with
fears of disappearance.
2. Traditional house - Most Lao people live in rural villages clustered around a
temple. Lao, Tai, and groups such as the Khmu live in houses raised off the
ground on stilts. In Khmu villages, instead of a temple, there may be a communal
house for meetings, usually used by men.
3. Traditional Food - Sticky rice is the staple food. Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, and
some other groups favor non-sticky varieties that can be eaten with chopsticks
or spoons rather than with fingers. Laab , finely chopped meat with spices, is a
favorite dish that can be eaten raw or cooked. For most lowland Lao, fish dishes
are a central part of the diet.
4. Land Tenure and Property - Land that was not freehold was technically Crown
Land. However, there was a commercial market for land in the towns and some
14
 freehold titles were granted to people in the countryside. Rights to swiddens are
based on use. Customary rights are exercised over rivers, streams and ponds,
and communal rights apply to some forests.
5. Traditional Dress - Before the revolution, some styles of dress and fabrics were
reserved for the king and his court. Formal dress for all groups imitated courtly
style and included the sampot for men and the sinh skirt for women. The sampot
is a traditional form of dress not unlike the Indian dhoti in which the corner of
cloth is drawn up between the legs and tucked in at the back, thus forming a
kind of billowing short trousers. The sinh is a long traditional skirt that is usually
made of silk and that features a wide and often elaborately woven section at the
foot. Minorities, especially women, wore Lao dress or traditional dresses.
6. Government – Since 1975 the country has been a communist one-party state.
Until the proclamation of a constitution in 1991, the Communist Party ruled by
decree.
7. Division of Labor by Gender - Besides age, gender is the main way in which social
roles and practices are organized. In Buddhism, men are the main religious
leaders as monks, and while women can become nuns, it does not entail a sacred
transformation. Women are the main everyday supporters of Buddhism.
Shamanism among Lao is usually a prerogative of women. There are male
shamans, but monks often traffic in magic and preempt their role.
8. Marriage - Ethnic Lao partners have a considerable degree of freedom in
choosing a spouse, although there is some preference for cousins. Parents may
propose a potential spouse and must be consulted about potential marriage
partners. A payment like a bride-price is made, and its value varies considerably.
The marriage ceremony usually takes place in the bride's family home. At the
center of the ritual is a spirit-calling ceremony. Among the Hmong, there has
been some practice of so-called marriage by capture. Residence in these cases is
patrilocal.
9. Inheritance - Aside from the inheritance of the main house by the youngest
daughter among ethnic Lao, inheritance tends to be equal between sons and
daughters. Jewelry and woven cloth pass from mothers to daughters. Among
patrilineal highlanders, houses and land, if they are held by residentially stable
groups, are passed through sons, usually the eldest, while daughters are given a
substantial dowry.
10. Child Rearing and Education - A key rite of passage for Buddhist males is to enter
the monastery, but no similar public event is available to women. Marriage and
having children are their key rite of passage.
11. Etiquette - Among all groups, but particularly among the ethnic Lao, a high value
is placed on the avoidance of conflict and actions likely to cause emotional
discomfort.
12. Religious Beliefs - The ethnic Lao and some Tai groups are Theravada Buddhists.
There are also beliefs usually labeled animistic and beliefs associated with
shamanism that involve house spirits, village spirits, district spirits, city spirits,
and spirits of the realm.
13. Death and the Afterlife - Among the Lao, cremation is practiced except for those
who have anomalous deaths, such as women who die in childbirth. Although
Buddhists desire the ending of the cycle of rebirths and the achievement of
nirvana, the aim of most death rituals is to speed the soul of the deceased
through the various hells and into rebirth through the transference of merit from
the living to the dead.
14. Medicines – The Lao people have many ideas on sickness. Those ideas include
spirit loss and the balance and imbalance of humors that can be remedied by
diet and by herbal medicines. For spirit loss, a baci, or a shamanistic ceremony

15
 may be performed. The indigenous medical tradition that draws on Indian
knowledge is paralleled by Sinitic folk medical traditions in the towns.
15. Literature - Traditional literature draws on Indian epics such as the Ramayana
but also includes indigenous forms such as Sinxay
16. Graphic Arts - Graphic arts are almost totally dependent on traditional Buddhist
themes, which are expressed in an architectural form as murals or carvings on
temple doors and window shutters.
17. Performance Arts - Before 1975, performances of the Ramayana were
patronized by the king, and there were some attempts at privately sponsored
modern theater.

Vietnam

1. Ethnic Group - Vietnam is home to fifty-four official ethnic groups, the majority
of which live in highland areas, although some large groups such the Cham or
Chinese live in lowland or urban areas.
2. Architecture - Vietnamese rural villages feature a variety of architectural styles.
Village residents in lowland river deltas usually live in family compounds that
feature one or more rectangular-shaped houses made of brick and mortar. .
Village homes are normally built extremely close to each other, creating nuclear
or semi-nuclear settlements surrounded by agricultural fields. Historically,
villages planted dense stands of bamboo around their communities to define
their boundaries and protect them from trespassers
3. Food - Rice is the dietary staple which most people eat three meals a day. A
common ingredient for cooked dishes and the dipping sauces is salty fish sauce
( nuoc mam ). Another important family practice is the serving of tea from a
small tea pot with small cups to guests.
4. Land Tenure and Property - The Vietnamese government, in line with socialist
ideology, does not legally recognize private land ownership. Since the early
1990s, the government has made moves to recognize de facto land ownership by
granting individuals long-term leaseholds.
5. Classes and Castes - The vast majority of the contemporary Vietnamese
population is poor. Another important axis of stratification is the distinction
between mental and manual labor.
6. Government - Vietnam is a socialist republic with a government that includes an
elected legislature, the national assembly, a president as head of state, and a
prime minister as head of government. However, real political power lies with
the Vietnamese Communist Party.
7. Division of Labor by Gender - In prerevolutionary Vietnam the "public" ( ngoai )
domain was the male domain while the "domestic" ( noi ) domain was for
women.
8. Marriage - Marriage is an expected rite of passage for the attainment of
adulthood. Almost all people marry, usually in their late teens or early twenties.
According to Vietnamese law, arranged marriage and polygamy are illegal.
9. Domestic Unit - The common pattern for the domestic unit is to have two or
three generations living together in one home.
10. Inheritance - The general custom is for the eldest son to inherit the parental
home and the largest portion of the family property, particularly land. Younger
sons will often inherit some land or other items, such as gold. In rare cases
daughters receive small items

16
11. Kin Groups - Patrilineages are the most important kin groups. At birth, children
become members of their father's patrilineage and are forbidden from marrying
anyone of that patrilineage within five degrees of relation.
12. Etiquette - Polite behavior is highly valued. One of the most important
dimensions of politeness is for the young to show respect to their elders. In
everyday life, younger people show this respect by using hierarchical terms of
address when interacting with their seniors and parents regularly instruct their
children on their proper usage. Younger people should also be the first to issue
the common salutation chao when meeting someone older, should always invite
their seniors to begin eating before they do, ask for permission to leave the
house, announce their arrival when they return, and not dominate
13. Religious Beliefs - The Vietnamese government recognizes six official religions:
Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, and two indigenous religious
traditions that emerged during the colonial period, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao. The
Mahayana tradition of Buddhism is dominant in Vietnam, and over 70 percent of
Vietnamese consider themselves at least nominally Buddhist
14. Religious Practitioners - Each of the main religious traditions has its own set of
practitioners such as Christian priests, nuns, and ministers, Buddhist monks and
nuns, Islamic clerics, and Cao Dai and Hao Hao priests. Vietnamese society also
features spirit priests, Taoist masters, spirit mediums, diviners, and astrologers.
The three former specialists have the ability to interact with the spirit world in
order to learn the spirits' desires and persuade or coerce them to behave in
particular manners. They are usually consulted to help the living cure illness or
end a pattern of misfortune.
15. Death and the Afterlife - The vast majority of Vietnamese hold that a person's
soul lives on after death. One of the most important moral obligations for the
living, especially the deceased's children, is to conduct a proper funeral that will
facilitate the soul's movement from the world of the living to what Vietnamese
refer to as "the other world" ( gioi khac ). This transfer is vital because a soul that
does not move to the other world is condemned to becoming a malevolent
wandering ghost, while the soul that does move can become a benevolent family
ancestor. The other world is regarded as identical to that of the living. To live
happily there, the dead depend on the living to provide them with essential
items. At a minimum this includes food, though some also send money, clothing,
and other items. Family members deliver these items through mortuary rituals,
especially those performed annually on the deceased's death anniversary. All
rituals associated with death have a tremendous moral significance in
Vietnamese society.
16. Medicines - Vietnam has two main herbal traditions: Chinese herbal medicine
( thouc bac or "northern drugs") and Vietnamese herbal medicine ( thuoc nam or
"southern drugs"). The Vietnamese have a range of indigenous healers, such as
spirit mediums or other spirit specialists, who are consulted in cases of
prolonged physical or mental illness. These healers believe that disease and
misfortune are caused by spirits or other malevolent entities. The techniques
they employ involve contacting the spirit world, finding and identifying the
offending spirit, and determining what is needed to end the spirit's torments.
17. Literature - Vietnam has a vibrant literary tradition dating back many centuries.
Elite mandarins and scholars in the pre-modern period composed sophisticated
poetry. Many poems from earlier eras such as Nguyen Du's The Tale of Kieu or
Nguyen Dinh Chieu Luc Van Tien are regarded as literary masterpieces. Along
with these traditions, the Vietnamese also maintained a rich oral legacy of songs,
poems, and morality tales people still recite today.
18. Performance Arts - The most popular performance arts in Vietnam have
historically been a variety of musical theater traditions. The main forms included
17
 the courtly tradition of classical opera ( hat tuong ); reform theater ( hat cai
luong ); an innovative tradition that emerged in the Mekong Delta in the early
twentieth century; and hat cheo, a rural folk tradition.

Malaysia

1. Ethnic Relations - Malaysia's ethnic diversity is both a blessing and a source of

stress. The melange makes Malaysia one of the most cosmopolitan places on
earth, as it helps sustain international relationships with the many societies
represented in Malaysia: the Indonesian archipelago, the Islamic world, India,
China, and Europe.
2. Food - Malaysia's diversity has blessed the country with one of the most
exquisite cuisines in the world, and elements of Malay, Chinese, and Indian
cooking are both distinct and blended together. Rice and noodles are common to
all cuisine; spicy dishes are also favorites.
3. Land Tenure and Property - Land ownership is a controversial issue in Malaysia.
Following the rubber boom the British colonial government, eager to placate the
Malay population, designated portions of land as Malay reservations. Since this
land could only be sold to other Malays, planters and speculators were limited in
what they could purchase. Malay reserve land made ethnicity a state concern
because land disputes could only be settled with a legal definition of who was
considered Malay.
4. Division of Labor - The old ethnic division of labor (Malays in agriculture, Indians
in the professions and plantations, and Chinese in mining and commerce) has
steadily eroded.
5. Classes and Castes - Class position in Malaysia depends on a combination of
political connections, specialized skills, ability in English, and family money.
6. Government - Malaysia's government is nominally headed by the king whose
position rotates among the nine hereditary Malay rulers every five years. The
king selects the prime minister from the leading coalition in parliament, a body
which is further divided into the elected representatives of the Dewan Rakyat
and the appointed senators of the Dewan Negara.
7. Marriage - Even with significant changes in marriage practices, weddings reveal
the sharp differences in Malaysian society. There are two ways to marry:
registering the union with the government; and joining in marriage before a
religious authority.
8. Domestic Unit - Malaysian households have undergone a tremendous
transformation following the changes in the economy. The shift from agricultural
commodities to industrial production has made it difficult for extended families
to live together.
9. Inheritance - The critical issue of inheritance is land. With the importance Malays
place on land ownership, it is rarely viewed as a commodity for sale, and the
numerous empty houses that dot the Malaysian landscape are testament to
their absentee-owners unwillingness to sell. Gold is also a valuable inheritance;
Malaysians from all groups readily turn extra cash into gold as a form of
insurance for the future.
10. Kin Groups - The crucial kin distinctions in Malaysian culture are between ethnic
groups, which tend to limit intermarriage. Among the majority of Malays, kin
groups are more horizontal than vertical, meaning that siblings are more
important than ancestors.
11. Etiquette - Malaysian society is remarkable due to its openness to diversity. The
blunders of an outsider are tolerated, a charming dividend of Malaysia's
18
 cosmopolitan heritage. Yet this same diversity can present challenges for
Malaysians when interacting in public. Because there is no single dominant
cultural paradigm, social sanctions for transgressing the rights of others are
reduced. Greetings are always expressed with the right hand, which is the
dominant hand in Malaysian life. Since the left hand is used to cleanse the body,
it is considered inappropriate for use in receiving gifts, giving money, pointing
directions, or passing objects.
12. Religious Beliefs - Nearly all the world religions, including Islam, Buddhism,
Hinduism, and Christianity are present in Malaysia. Religion correlates strongly
with ethnicity, with most Muslims Malay, most Hindus Indian, and most
Buddhists Chinese.
13. Rituals and Holy Places - Malaysia's most prominent holy place is the National
Mosque, built in the heart of Kuala Lumpur in 1965.
14. Death and the Afterlife - Malaysians have a strong interest in the metaphysical,
and stories about spirits and ghosts whether told in conversation, read in books,
or seen on television gain rapt attention. Many of these stories sustain a
relationship with people who have passed away, whether as a form of comfort
or of fear. Cemeteries, including vast fields of Chinese tombs marked with family
characters and Muslim graves with the distinctive twin stones, are sites of
mystery. The real estate that surrounds them carries only a modest price due to
the reputed dangers of living nearby.
15. Medicines & Health Care - Malaysia boasts a sophisticated system of modern
health care with doctors trained in advanced biomedicine. These services are
concentrated in the large cities and radiate out in decreasing availability.
Customary practitioners, including Chinese herbalists and Malay healers,
supplement the services offered in clinics and hospitals and boast diverse
clientele.
16. Literature - The pre-colonial Malay rulers supported a rich variety of literary
figures that produced court chronicles, fables, and legends that form a
prominent part of the contemporary Malaysian cultural imagination.
17. Graphic Arts - A small but vibrant group of graphic artists are productive in
Malaysia. Practitioners of batik, the art of painting textiles with wax followed by
dying to bring out the pattern, still work in northern peninsular Malaysia. Batik-
inspired designs are often produced in factories on shirts, sarongs, table cloths,
or dresses forming an iconic Malaysian aesthetic.

Myanmar

1. Ethnic Relations - The majority of the people speak Tibeto-Burman languages.

Tibeto-Burman speakers in Burma can be divided into six distinct groups.
2. Architecture - Buddhist temples are the most important architectural features
throughout the country. The traditional house is made largely of bamboo.
Flattened pieces of bamboo made into large plaited sections are used to make
the walls. The floors are made of bamboo planks or wood. The frame of the
house is made of wood, with hard and durable wood being used for the house
posts. Roof coverings are made of a variety of materials, including thatch made
from broad-leafed grass or palm fronds
3. Food - Rice is the staple food except among those in highland areas where rice is
difficult to grow. In those areas, rice, millet, sorghum, and corn are the staples.
Rice is accompanied by a raw salad of leaves, fruit, or vegetables; a soup; and
curries of fish, meat, prawns, or eggs

19
4. Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions - Feasting and sharing food are an
important feature of traditional agricultural and religious rites. Often special
foods are prepared for those occasions. Htamane, which is served during the rice
harvest festival February, is made of glutinous rice mixed with sesame seeds,
peanuts, shredded ginger, and coconut.
5. Land Tenure and Property - In areas under Burmese rule, land traditionally was
held on the basis of service to the court and could be leased or sold and passed
on to one's heirs; it also could be taken away by the court. In more remote areas,
land ownership tended to be related to continual cultivation and occupancy.
6. Classes and Castes - Essentially, the society is divided into a tiny elite, a fairly
small middle class, and a large number of very poor people
7. The Relative Status of Women and Men -. Traditional society was known for the
relatively high status of women. If a couple divorces, for example, common
goods are divided equally and the wife retains her dowry as well as the proceeds
from her commercial activities.
8. Domestic Unit - A newly married couple may live with the parents of one partner
(often the parents of the wife) but soon establish their own household.
9. Child Rearing and Education - Young children undergo several rites of passage.
When a child is a few years old, a ceremony is held to give the child a name.
Children in rural areas grow up surrounded by the implements that they will use
when they grow up and watch adults performing domestic, agricultural, and
artisanal tasks.
10. Etiquette - . The Burmese and other Buddhists follow the Buddhist custom of not
touching a person on the head, since spiritually this is considered the highest
part of the body.
11. Religious Beliefs - Burmese follow the Theravada form of Buddhism, which is
also known as Hinayana Buddhism and the doctrine of the elders or the small
vehicle. In Theravada Buddhism, it is up to each individual to seek salvation and
achieve nirvana.
12. Rituals and Holy Places - Thingyan, the water festival, marks the advent of the
new year in mid-April. Buddha images are washed, and monks are offered alms.
It is also marked by dousing people with water and festive behavior such as
dancing, singing, and theatrical performances.
13. Death and the Afterlife - Buddhists believe that those who die are reborn in a
form that is in keeping with the merit they accumulated while alive. Funerals for
monks tend to be elaborate, while those who have died a violent death generally
are quickly buried with very little ceremony, since their spirits are believed to
linger as malevolent ghosts.
14. Health Care - The use of traditional forms of medicine remains important,
especially among the ethnic minorities. Few young people, however, receive
training in these forms of medicine by an aging group of traditional healers and
many traditional practices and the knowledge of traditional remedies are being
lost.
15. Graphic Arts - Weaving is a highly developed traditional art form. Among the
Burmese, it reached its highest form in the production of lun-taya acheik cloth.
Traditional painting on paper made from tree bark or bamboo pulp is known
as parabaik painting.
16. Performance Arts - Popular performances often combine music, dance, and
drama in a pwe ("show"). These shows take place at fairs, religious festivals,
weddings, funerals, and sporting events

20
 ASSESSMENT

TOPIC 1: Activity 1

Name: _________________________________ Rating:_______

Year/Course/ Section:_____________________ Date:_________

Identification: Answer the following questions: Use separate sheet of paper for your
answer. (2 points each)

1. What are the countries in Mainland Southeast Asia?

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
2. What are the societies of men since the early days (pre-history) up tom the
present? Give their characteristics.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
3. How did discovery and invention help in the development of modern society?
Give examples.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
4. How did Hinduism and Buddhism influence the early civilization of people in
mainland Southeast Asia?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

II. Instruction – Encircle the letter with the correct answer:

1. The name of this continent means “sunrise”.

a. America b. Australia c. Asia d. Africa
2. The country in Asia which is not located in the mainland is _________.
a. Myanmar b. Indonesia c. Thailand d. Kampuchea
3. The country in Mainland Southeast Asia which is a peninsula.
a. Brunei b. East Timor c. Malaysia d. Laos
4. The country in Southeast Asia which maintains that Sabah is a part of their
territory.
a. Laos b. Malaysia c. East Timor d. Brunei
5. The society of men which is egalitarian.
a. Hunter-Gatherer b. Pastoral c. Agricultural d. Industrial
6. The society of men which appeared due to the invention of plow.

21
 a. Hunter-Gatherer b. Pastoral c. Agricultural d. Industrial
7. The society of men which appeared due to the invention of machines.
a. Horticultural b. Industrial c. Post-Industrial d. Hunter-Gatherer
8. The society of men where the members were migrants or always transfer from
one place to another in search of food.
a. Horticultural b. Industrial c. Post Industrial d. Hunter-Gatherer
9. The society of men which appeared when people have learned how to culture
fruit bearing trees.
a. Horticultural b. Industrial c. Post-Industrial d. Hunter-Gatherer
10. The society of men which appeared due to the invention of modern gadgets of
communication like computer & cellular phone.
a. Horticultural b. Industrial c. Post-Industrial d. Hunter-Gatherer

III. Instruction – Fill in the blanks with the correct word or group of words.

1. _________ is the body of water which attracted the first people of Cambodia
(Kampuchea) to settle around it.
2. _________is the country with two main herbal traditions.
3. _________ is the dominant ethnic group in Thailand.
4. _________ is the country where members of the ethnic group prefer to marry
cousins.
5. _________ is the country where during the early days, villagers planted dense
stands of bamboos around their communities to define their boundaries.
6. _________ is the critical issue of inheritance in Malaysia.
7. _________ are the most important architectural features in Myanmar.
8. _________is the food which is served in Myanmar during the rice harvest festival,
and is a mixture of glutinous rice with sesame seeds, peanuts, shredded ginger,
and coconut.
9. _________ is the art of painting textiles with wax in northern Malaysia, followed
by dying to bring out the pattern.
10. _________is the country where the etiquette is for younger people to be the
first to issue the common salutation chao when meeting someone older.
11. _________is the country where traditional literature draws on Indian epics such
as the Ramayana but also includes indigenous forms such as Sinxay.
12. ________is the country where people usually sit on mats, and there is little
furniture in their house.
13. _________ is the national garment of the kingdom in this country. It is a form of
sarong that is worn by men and women.
14. _________ is the most famous temple in Cambodia for it is the biggest Hindu
temple in the world.
15. _________ is a noticeable manifestation of animism in Thai Buddhism and are
associated with almost all houses and buildings.
16. _________ is the youngest child in Thailand who assumes primary responsibility
for looking after the parents in their old age, and this person inherits the family
home.
17. _________ is the belief in Cambodia that the power of the self to intervene in
the course of life’s events, or to enhance one’s prospects, is significantly
diminished.
18. _________is the oldest known poem in Thailand.
19. _________ are finely chopped meat with spices,that is a favorite dish in Laos
which can be eaten raw or cooked.

22
 20. ________ is the country where the general custom is for the eldest son to inherit
the parental home and the largest portion of the family property, particularly
land.

LESSON 2
Civilization in Southeast Asia

TOPICS
1. Civilization and culture of Chinese and Indian colonizers
2. Religion in Mainland Southeast Asia

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. identify the civilization & culture learned by people of mainland S.E.
Asia from Indian and Chinese colonizers, and
2. distinguish the great influence of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and
Christianity in mainland S.E. Asia

TOPIC 1: Civilization and culture of Chinese and Indian colonizers

Asia

The origins of Indian Civilization

Agriculture began on the Indian subcontinent

about 4000 BC. It gradually led to the development of
villages and towns. About 2500 BC the first invaders,
the Dravidians, came into the subcontinent through
the mountains in the north. It was easy for them to
conquer the local towns and villages because they had
bronze weapons, while the local inhabitants only had
stone weapons. The invaders settled in the cities
together with the locals. Many of them intermarried
and adopted the local language. By 2400 BC the first
civilisation in India, the Harappan civilisation, was prospering in the Indus River valley.

The way of life

In what is now Pakistan, there were two very large cities: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
(mohhenjoh-dah-roh). They were each about one square kilometer in area and about
35,000 people lived in each of them. The cities were well planned. The houses were
built with fire hardened bricks. The streets were all the same size and there were fairly
complicated water City Plan of Mohenjo-Daro and drainage systems. The Harrappans

23
were farmers and traders. The farmers raised chickens and grew wheat, which was used
for barter as well as for food. They were the first people to grow cotton. They traded
with other ancient civilizations, such as Egypt, and they used a system of writing similar
to Egyptian writing.

The end of the Harrappan civilization and the Aryans

The Harrappans built the first Indus cities

around 2400 BC. Archaeologists have discovered the
remains of about 60 cities including Harrappa and
Mahenjo-Daro. By 1500 BC, the Indus Civilisation
had declined. Some historians believe that the
civilisation was weakened and finally wiped out by
severe floods. These floods could have killed many
people and forced the rest to leave the Indus plains.
The floods may have been caused by erosion
because the nearby forests were cut down for fuel.
Others believe that wars were the reason cities like Mohenjo-Daro were abandoned. It
is thought that around 1500 BC, people called the Aryans came from western and
central Asia, possibly from the area near present-day Iran. They kept sheep, cattle and
goats and were most likely looking for a place to pasture their animals. Some historians
believe the ancient cities were abandoned because the Indus River may have changed
its course. A series of earthquakes might have changed the course of the Indus River.

Some Harrappans stayed and lived alongside the Aryans (ahr-y-ans), adopting
their language – Sanskrit. Others moved to the south of the subcontinent. Today, the
northern languages in India are still called Aryan languages and the southern languages
are called Dravidian languages. Scholars still debate if there were really a separate race
of people called the Dravidians, or if the southern people were just Aryans who
developed a very different language

The Hindu religion and the caste system

The Hindu religion developed through many stages over many hundreds of
years. During the early period of Hinduism, the Rig Vedic period, the castes were first
developed. Originally, there were only two social classes: nobles and commoners. Then
the third was added: Dasas, or “darks.” These were probably the darker-skinned people
the Hindus had conquered.
By the end of the Rig Vedic period, social class had settled into four rigid castes
called varnas. At the top were the priests, or Brahmans. Below the priests were the
warriors or nobles (Kshatriya), the crafts people and merchants (Vaishya), and finally,
the servants (Shudra), who made up the bulk of society. These economic classes were
later subdivided into a huge number of economic sub-classes.
Below these castes were the outcasts who were untouchable to the four castes.
These untouchables worked in degrading jobs like cleaning sewage. The first three
castes had social and economic rights which the Shudra and the untouchables did not
have.
By the end of the Rig Vedic period, social class became completely inflexible. The
castes were so inflexible because they were based on the religious beliefs of the Hindus.
They believed that the Brahman were made from the mouth of the god Brahma, the
Kshatriyas were made from his hands, the Vaishyas came from the thighs and the

24
Shudra from the feet of Brahma. In contrast, the class system of Southeast Asia
remained very flexible for a long time

Chinese civilization

Chinese civilization started around

10,000 BC, when a group called the Yangshao
(yahngshow) settled near the Yellow River.
Archaeologists have discovered many
Yangshao villages in northern China. In one
village, they found the remains of
farmhouses, built partly underground, with
plaster floors, and roofs held up by wooden
posts. By 5,000 BC there were many
agricultural communities in China. There were
villages from the Wei River Valley to the East, parallel with the great Yellow River. The
Wei River flows out of the Kunlun Mountains to the forest and the fertile soil region of
the North China Plain. About 3,000 BC, another farming group appeared, the Lungshan
(luhng shan) people. The Lungshan people harvested silk, and used it to weave fine
fabrics. They used the potters wheel. They baked strong bricks in ovens, and used them
to build their homes. They grew rice and millet and worked together on flood control
and irrigation projects. They had great engineering skills.

Probably around 2200 BC, the first dynasty of kings conquered the North China
Plains. These warrior kings belonged to the Xia (hsia) family. This culture probably had
the first writing system in China. However, there is no real record of this dynasty. The
first dynasty of which there is historical evidence is the Shang dynasty. The Shangs
began their rule around 1750 BC. The Shang clan came out of the Wei River Valley. By
force, the Shang unified many of the people living on the North China Plain and started
to build an empire. The last Shang ruler was overthrown by a chieftain of a frontier tribe
called Zhou. The Zhou rulers conquered and colonised most of the territory of present
day China, spreading Zhou culture as they went.

China, as we know it today, became unified under the next dynasty, the Qin, but
much of its current culture came from the next rulers, the Han Dynasty. The largest
ethnic group in China today calls itself the “Han people.”

TOPIC 2: Religion in Mainland Southeast Asia

Asia
In the beginning of the Common Era (after 1AD) new religions began arriving in
Southeast Asia. At first these were Hinduism and Buddhism. Later came Islam, and
finally Christianity. These days most people in Southeast Asia are Buddhists Hindus,
Muslims, and Christians, but Animism still has a strong influence.

25
Hinduism

Hinduism was the first major religion in India. It

is at least 3,000 years old. It originated from
Aryan traditional beliefs and legends that they
brought to India. Hinduism developed over many
centuries from a mixing of beliefs of the various
cultural groups in India. Hindus worship many
different gods and they believe in reincarnation.
Hinduism in Southeast Asia Hinduism was the
first religion to come to Southeast Asia from
scoopwhoop.com
outside. It was brought by Indian traders in the
1st century AD. The religion was adopted by
many rulers of Southeast Asia. Some of the most important Hindu monuments are the
Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the Prambanan temple in Java. The only places in
Southeast Asia where Hinduism survives today are the Indonesian island of Bali, and
among minority communities of Hindu descent.

Buddhism

Buddhism began over 2,000 years ago in

India and developed from the teachings of a
prince called Gautama Siddhartha. He left his
palace and travelled for many years. He wanted
to find an answer to the question, ‘Why is human
life full of sorrow and pain?’ After many years of
searching, he realised the answer to this
question. Gautama became the Buddha, which
means ‘The Enlightened One’. He taught that all
vox.com
people are born equal and that everyone can
attain enlightenment. After the Buddha’s death,
some of his followers raised him to the level of a god and Buddhism became a religion.
Spread of Buddhism in Southeast Asia Buddhism appeared in Southeast Asia around AD
300. It was brought by Indian and Chinese traders as well as the Buddhist missionaries
who traveled with them. Through them, Buddhism spread throughout Southeast Asia:
Khmer Empire, Laos, Siam (Thailand), Burma, Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula and
Indonesia.

Islam

People who believe in Islam are called

Muslims. They believe that God revealed the
religion to the Prophet Muhammad.
Muhammad was born in Mecca in Arabia in AD
570. In Arabic, Allah means ‘the one true God’.
The messages that Muhammad received from
Allah were written down and became the holy
book of the Muslims, the Qur’an (Koran). The
wsj.com
Qur’an states how Allah wants Muslims to live.

26
Spread of Islam in Southeast Asia

Historians believe that Islam came to Southeast Asia around the 11th century
AD. Islam was brought to the region by Muslim traders from Arabia, Persia and India.
From the Malay Peninsula, Islam spread to Siam, Sumatra and Indonesia. Many Muslim
kingdoms, called sultanates, emerged in these places. One of the famous sultanates was
the sultanate of Malacca.

Christianity

Christianity originated in the Middle East about

2000 years ago. Christianity developed from
Judaism through the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ taught people to love each other and
to forgive. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son
of God who was sent to earth to save the world.
Christians believe that Jesus died to redeem the
world. They also believe that he rose from the
dead afterwards. Christians get baptized to form swedishnomad.com

a worshipping community. Christians believe that

Jesus is present among them to work for peace on earth. The second coming of Christ
represents the belief that the world will be finally saved.

Spread of Christianity in Southeast Asia

In the last few hundred years, Christianity spread to Europe and parts of Asia. From
Catholic missionaries in the Philippines in the 1500s to American Protestant missionaries
in Burma in the 20th century, there has been a long history of Christian conversions in
Southeast Asia. Today there are many Christian denominations in the region including
Baptists, Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists and Roman Catholics. In most areas
however, Christians remain a minority.

TOPIC 2: Colonizers in Mainland Southeast Asia

Asia

The Formation of French Indochina

Pre-colonized Vietnam was split into three states, Cochinchina, Annam, and
Tonkin. Cochinchina covered the most southern part of Vietnam in which its primary city
was Saigon. Annam was the central state of Vietnam where the ancient capital of
Vietnam, Hue, was located. Tonkin was the most northern region where its main city
was Hanoi.

The first European arrival to Indochina, which was made up of Vietnam,

Cambodia, and Laos, began with Portuguese and Dutch missionaries during the 16th and
17th centuries, respectively. These missionaries’ main objective was to start up trading
posts along the Vietnamese coast.

During the mid-1620s, Jesuit priest, Father Alexandre de Rhodes, arrived in

Cochinchina and traveled throughout Vietnam to Tonkin. While in Vietnam, de Rhodes
27
learned the language through speaking with villagers and would write several books
chronicling his experience in Vietnam, as well as contain a part in which de Rhodes
expresses his interest in the language. In 1630, de Rhodes was expulsed from Vietnam
for his preaching of Catholicism where he was able to convert over 6,000 Vietnamese. In
1640, de Rhodes returned to Cochinchina to continue establishing missionaries. In 1645,
he would be executed, but by this time, there would be a total of over 120,000
Vietnamese who converted to Christianity. Father de Rhodes was important because
through his contribution, he was able to spread Catholicism in a major way in Vietnam
and through his books, many others would follow his path to use Southeast Asia to
spread Christianity and establish trading networks. Following these European
missionaries, there would be an escalation of desire to not only control ports along
Vietnam, but also control Southeast Asia to control a major trading line.
The end of the 17th century saw the first arrival of the French in the form of the
French East India Company trading organization who were there to establish a trading
network in Southeast Asia and spread Catholicism through missionaries. Due to
prejudice against Christians and foreigners, after a few centuries of the French
establishing missions and trading ports across the Vietnamese coast, the French
missionaries, traders and soldiers were attacked by the local Vietnamese. In retaliation,
the French waged wars against Vietnamese local tribes and planned to take control over
Indochina to establish their colony. In 1862, French and Vietnamese emissaries met in
Saigon to cease the war and come to a negotiation. The treaty granted France with
Cochinchina where missionaries had the freedom to build missions and preach. France
also gained the freedom to allow ships in through the Mekong Delta and open coastal
ports to open trade with the west. In 1863, Cochinchina gained its first governor,
Admiral Pierre-Paul de la Grandiere, who took an interest in international affairs with
Cambodia and the Cambodian monarchy. As governor, La Grandiere signed a treaty with
Cambodia granting protection for trade. La Grandiere proposed the expansion into
Tonkin in northern Vietnam. As a result, he issued two expeditionary forces to invade
Tonkin. While the first expeditionary advance failed in 1868, the second one, launched
in 1883, was able to successfully control Hanoi. Following the capture of Hanoi, there
was a meeting, known as the Treaty of Hue, between the French and Vietnamese
emperor Tu Duc. This treaty granted France full control over Vietnam.

The French government followed their victory by merging their colonies into a
single state under one authority figure. This state would be known as the Indochinese
Union, or French Indochina. Along with the colonies of Vietnam, it would also include
Laos and Cambodia. France altered the political and economic structure of French
Indochina to be able to benefit their ways of governing and to make it easier to govern
under French rule. Firstly, France moved the capital from Hue to Hanoi which changed
the administrative and political central focus of French Indochina closer to China and the
Red River Delta. France also established a governor general who would be in charge
from Hanoi over all of French Indochina, while governors of smaller colonies, for
example, Cochinchina, would work under the governor general. The governor general
was also supported by the Upper Council of Indochina, five directors in charge of the
colonies’ services.

The French had not only altered Vietnam’s political system, but also changed the
social and economic environment within French Indochina. Paul Doumer, in 1897,
became General Governor of French Indochina and began forming departments to
control finances, customs and monopolies, public works, agriculture and trade, the
postal and telegraph service, and other state agencies to maintain civil and international
services. Doumer organized three monopolies based around opium, salt, and alcohol.
Based on these three items, France applied a heavy tax on these items for the
Vietnamese and took away property if the taxes weren’t paid. These taxes were used to
28
help govern the administrative cost of Indochina. The countries, particularly Vietnam, of
French Indochina had economic benefits for France based on its natural resources.
Vietnam produced rice, rubber and coal. The French government in Indochina began
exporting these goods and using villagers to increase their work and increase production
rates to keep up with demands. Vietnam became the third largest exporter of rice in the
world behind Burma and Thailand. Tire companies such as the Michelin Tire Company
bought thousands of acres of land in Vietnam to use the Vietnamese peasants to assist
in working for these tire companies through producing rubber to build the tires in return
the peasants would be able to keep their land although under French jurisdiction. The
farmers, peasants, and coal miners, all of whom were Vietnamese, were underpaid and
overworked to support French manufacturing and trading companies.

French Indochina, in particular, Vietnam, through its geographical location and

natural resources, became an important strategic economically, and later, militarily,
country in Southeast Asia. For the next hundred years, many countries such as France
and Japan would see Vietnam as a country to use for their own economic and military
goals in which would turn their citizens against their oppressors leading into one of the
most important wars in history.

The French in Indochina

Vietnam was not even a place one could

find on a map. However one could find a French
colony in Southeast Asia. What we now call
Vietnam was once owned and run by France.
From the late 1800's to 1954, Vietnam was part of
a French colony called French Indochina.
When the French first became interested
in Indochina French missionaries sought to wwwnc.cdc.gov
convert the Vietnamese to Catholicism, the
religion of France. French mer-chants saw
opportunities to enrich themselves by securing rice coffee, tea and rubber, and the
French government also was eager to establish a strategic presence in Southeast Asia.

Life in Vietnam Before the French

Before the French came to Indochina,

Vietnam, the Khmer Empire (Cambodia), and
the Laotian Kingdom (Laos) were independent
countries. Vietnam had been ruled by
neighboring China for hundreds of years, but
after centuries of resistance the Vietnamese
people overthrew their Chinese rulers and
became independent. The tradition of armed
struggle against foreign occupation had a long wwwnc.cdc.gov

and noble history in Indochina as the French as

well as the U.S. later learned to their regret.

In the three centuries preceding the French arrival, the Vietnamese were ruled
by a series of emperors whose nominal rule included collecting revenue. But, the taxes
were modest and the emperor had relatively little real power over the Vietnamese. "The
edicts of the emperor," according to an old Vietnamese saying, "stop at the edge of the
29
village." The men who ruled the hundreds of small villages and hamlets in which the vast
majority lived were chosen locally based on their education, wisdom, and family's
status. The lives of the people in these villages were seldom affected by outside events.
They knew little of what was happening beyond the circle of the huts in which they
lived, and fields on which they tilled their crops.

Life in the villages was usually pleasant and peaceful. Much of Vietnam was well
suited for growing rice, and Chinese conquerors had taught the Vietnamese people the
difficult art of planting and harvesting this crop. The Vietnamese diet consisted mainly
of rice and fish. A man was considered well off if he had a water buffalo to help him in
his farming. Most of his clothes were home-made, and he had little need for goods
made outside of his village. His religion was usually Buddhist, with its attending set of
beliefs, priests, and rituals. Women exercised a surprising amount of authority, and the
level of education in the villages was unusually high. On the average 4 out of 5
Vietnamese were taught to read and write in their own language using the calligraphy
introduced by the Chinese.

The French Come to Indochina

France did not set out to conquer Indochina all at once. Over a period of more
than 350 years the French gradually extended their control over Vietnam, Cambodia and
Laos. As early as the 16th century, European missionaries were welcomed in Indochina
for their technical skills and connections to European suppliers of modern weapons and
western merchandise. The French East India Company, a trade organization formed to
expand trade and propagate Catholicism, gained a foothold in Indochina in 1668.
Thereafter a pattern was established which continued for centuries. When French
soldiers, traders, or priests were attacked and/or killed in Indochina, the French would
revenge the loss of their nationals, and use the resistance to their authority as an excuse
to extend their power. Vietnamese were forced to surrender control over their land and
to provide the French with special privileges. The French also took part in wars between
rival Vietnamese factions. As a reward from the winning faction, the French would be
given control over more land and the right to sell French goods and spread the French
religion. In the process, the French replaced local leaders with their nationals — by
1925, a bureaucracy of some 5,000 Frenchmen ruled over a country totaling 30,000,000.
In time, France had extended its control to encompass Laos, North and South Vietnam,
and Cambodia, which they called French Indochina.

The French Civilization: Religion and Culture

The French have traditionally taken great pride in what they called their
'civilization Francais.' This included the language, religion, literature, poetry and music
of France, as well as its culture, laws, form of government, educational system, and
technological achievements. One of the reasons the French gave for expanding their
colonial empire throughout the world was to spread this civilization to "inferior" native
peoples.

For the Vietnamese, spreading French civilization meant making them into
Frenchmen. The French taught the Vietnamese to speak their language. French priests

30
converted the Vietnamese to Catholicism. French teachers educated Vietnamese in
French history, literature, and law. The Vietnamese were also taught math, science, and
engineering in special private schools attended by 20 percent of Vietnamese boys. This
prepared the smartest young Vietnamese, if their parents could afford it, to attend the
French colleges in Indochina or a university in France. In their new schools Vietnamese
students took the same courses in French history and literature that were taught in
France. In this way, French culture was instilled in the brightest and wealthiest
Vietnamese children, and young men were prepared to help the French rule their
country.

31
British rule in Myanmar

In 1886, the British officially made

Myanmar a province of India and established a
capital at Rangoon (present-day Yangon).
British rule brought about dramatic changes to
Myanmar's society and economy. The separation
of religion and state, the abolition of the
monarchy, the expansion of farming to cater to
new international demand - all of this led to huge
nation-wide upheavals. Ethnic Burmese were all
but completely excluded from their country's
increasing wealth, which was concentrated in the
hands of the British primarily, then the Anglo-Burmese and Indian migrants.
Though reforms did begin to take place in the early 20th century, allowing for
more autonomy for Myanmar and more representation for Burmese people in the civil
service, the pace of change was slow. The 1920s saw university strikes and protests which
grew into more serious upheavals and eventually armed rebellion against the colonial
government by the commencement of the 1930s.
In 1937, the British officially separated Myanmar from India and granted the
country a new constitution, a fully elected assembly and a Burmese prime minister. This
was not universally welcomed by the Burmese, some of whom feared that this was a
move to exclude them from reforms taking place in India. A string of strikes and protests
ensued, leaving one Rangoon University student and 17 protesters in Mandalay dead at
the hands of British police.

Thailand (Siam) Remains Independent

While its neighbors on all sides fell

under the control of imperialists, Siam
(present-day Thailand) maintained its
independence throughout the colonial
period. Siam lay between British-controlled
Burma and French Indochina. (See map
above.) France and Britain each aimed to
prevent the other from gaining control of
Siam. Knowing this, Siamese kings skillfully
promoted Siam as a neutral zone between
the two powers.
Siam modernized itself under the guidance of King Mongkut and his son
Chulalongkorn. In a royal proclamation, King Chulalongkorn showed his understanding of
the importance of progress:

32
 “As the times and the course of things in our country have changed, it is essential to
promote the advancement of all our academic and technical knowledge and to prevent it
from succumbing [giving in] to competition from the outside. In order to achieve this, it is
imperative to make haste in education so that knowledge and ability will increase”.

KING CHULALONGKORN, “Royal Proclamation in Education”

To accomplish the changes, Siam started schools, reformed the legal system, and
reorganized the government. The government built its own railroads and telegraphs
systems and ended slavery. Because the changes came from their own government, the
Siamese people escaped the social turmoil, racist treatment, and economic exploitation
that occurred in other countries controlled by foreigners.

TOPIC 3: Civilization Learned from Colonizers

 Improvement of the status of women – Women were granted the right to vote, to
seek higher education, to find jobs outside the home and to actively participate in
governance. In Malaysia, due to the improvement of their status, an increasing number
of women hold professional positions, and women's access to higher education has
grown. More than half the university graduates are women.
 New forms & styles of Art & Architecture, including sturdy building materials - Wood
has given way to cement as the main building material, and new forms of architecture
include high-rise buildings for offices and residences, and air-conditioned shopping
malls. In Laos, tourists could see mixtures of French colonial architecture, Buddhist
architecture in temples, traditional Lao houses raised on stilts, American-style houses
built in the 1950s and 1960s, and new large houses that imitate Thai styles.
 Urban Planning - The 1980s witnessed the emergence of suburban housing
developments and shopping complexes. There are few public parks, and urban
planning is focused on building roads.
 Asians learned to cook European dishes and imbibed the Westerners alcoholic drinks.
- Influenced by the French, many Lao in cities and small market towns drink coffee and
eat bread at breakfast, which strikes Thai visitors as exotic. In the cities, beer
consumption is widespread.
 Religious beliefs & rituals of Christianity & Protestantism were added to beliefs &
rituals of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.
 Systems of government – Parliamentary & republican form of government were
introduced.
 The colonizers propagated the estate system of agriculture where tea, rubber plant,
sugarcane, tobacco & bananas were planted.
 Land ownership - Private land ownership was encouraged.
 Mining with modern machineries & gadgets replaced old methods of mining
 Modern gadgets for transportation & communication were used.
 Public School system was started.

33
 Manufacturing industries – Manufacture of motor vehicles, computers, cellular
phones, electrical appliance, etc.
 Public health facilities, medicines & sanitation – Hospitals were built and medicines
from Western countries were used for treating diseases. Hygiene campaigns have
caused a decline in the eating of raw foods in cities.
 In Laos, the main parameters of the modern state were established by French
colonialism between 1893 and 1954: The French delineated the borders and wrote the
first national history of the country.
 Legal system – In Malaysia, Western legal system was blended with Sharia law and the
doctrines of Buddhism & Hinduism.
 Infrastructures & major industries – Roads and bridges were built by French colonizers
in Laos & British colonizers in Malaysia. Manufacture of motor vehicles & computers
was started.
 Introduction of the Roman alphabet, especially in educational institutions.

Changes in Civilization of People in Mainland Southeast Asia

 Before there is no formal education. When the colonizers came, public education
started.
 Native dresses like sarong & batik, G-string, turban and malong were influenced by
European dresses.
 The colonizers added new plant & animals to the indigenous flora & fauna of mainland
Southeast Asian countries.
 The colonizers propagated the estate system of agriculture where tea, rubber plant,
sugarcane, tobacco & bananas were planted. It replaced the natives’ slash & burn
system of agriculture on ancestral lands in rural areas.
 Mining with modern machineries & gadgets was introduced.
 Old fashioned tools were replaced with machineries, motor vehicles, canning &
weaving machines………
 Clan leaderships, tribal system of government & monarchy gave way to constitutional
monarchy, parliamentary & republican system of government.
 Christianity & Protestantism were added to pagan religion, Hinduism, Buddhism &
Islam.
 European art, architecture, rituals & dances, influenced native art, dances, rituals &
architecture.
 Asian people are now using colonizers names & surnames in place of their traditional
names & surnames.
 Great influence was made by European culture to native culture.
 The simple tastes, needs & wants of native people became complicated.
 Individualism & competition were now emphasized instead of cooperative work.
 Deep spiritualism is now threatened by strong sense of materialism.
 Native dialects & languages are now interspersed with foreign words.
 Close knit families are now being replaced by families with members separated from
each other.

34
 Faithful adherence to values like honesty & loyalty is slowly disappearing.
 Modern gadgets for transportation & communication appeared.
 Ecological balance was disturbed by the arrival of colonizers.
 People now have a longer lifespan than before.
 Travel is much faster now than before.
 Climate change occurred due to rapid degradation of environment.
 Tuberculosis, measles, smallpox & leprosy appeared in mainland Southeast Asian
countries when the colonizers came.
 The spirit of nationalism of people in mainland S.E. Asia was awakened by colonizers.
 Widespread use of the Roman alphabet.

ASSESSMENT

Activity 1

Name: _________________________________ Rating:_______

Year/Course/ Section:_____________________ Date:_________

Instruction: Read carefully the following questions. Write your answer in a separate sheet
of paper. (2 points each)

1. Why was the improvement of the status of women of great importance?

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
2. How did roads, bridges & modern communication facilities hasten the
development of S.E. Asian countries?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
3. Why is a public school system of education important?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
4. How did the Western’s method of public health & sanitations improve the health
of the people who believed in traditional herbal medicines & spiritual healing?

35
 ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
5. Using the Philippines as an example, how did European cuisine improve the native
dishes of people in countries of mainland S.E. Asia?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

II. Instruction – Fill in the blank with the correct word or group of words.

1. ___________is the building material brought by colonizers which replaced wood.

2. ___________is the country where more than half of the university graduates are
women.
3. ___________is the style of architecture of houses built in Laos in the 1950s &
1960s.
4. ___________is planning which is focused on building roads
5. ___________is the country where Thai visitors find drinking of coffee and eating of
bread at breakfast as exotic
6. ___________was the colonizer of Myanmar which brought a new system of
government.
7. __________ is the country where the legal system is blended with Sharia law and
the doctrines of Buddhism & Hinduism.
8. __________was the colonizer of Malaysia brought to the country the industry of
manufacturing motor vehicles like motorcycle.
9. __________ is the alphabet which was brought by the colonizers to countries in
mainland Southeast Asia.
10. __________ the system of education brought by colonizers.

III. Enumeration.

1-2 Give the two systems of government brought by the colonizers to countries in
mainland Southeast Asia.
3-4 Write the two religions brought by colonizers to countries in mainland Southeast
Asia
5-6 The style of architecture of colonizers which influenced indigenous architecture in
building houses in S.E. Asian countries.
7-10 Advantage of improvement of status of women in S.E. Asian countries
11-15 The crops which were propagated in the estate system of agriculture by
colonizers.

36
 ASSESSMENT

Activity 2

Name: _________________________________ Rating:_______

Year/Course/ Section:_____________________ Date:_________

Instruction: Read carefully the following questions. Write your answer in a separate sheet
of paper. (2 points each)

1. How did formal education make a tremendous change to the civilization of people in
countries in Southeast Asia?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. How did rubber tree, banana & tea improve the economy of countries in S.E. Asia?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. Why is modern system of mining considered as destructive to the environment?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
4. Why is the lifespan of the Asian people longer now than before?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
5. How did the Roman alphabet help to raise the level of education of people in
countries of Southeast Asia?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

II. Instruction – Fill in the blanks with the correct word or group of words.

1.____________ is the system of agriculture of colonizers which replaced the slash &
burn system of agriculture of indigenous people.
2. ____________is now threatened by strong sense of materialism.

37
3. ___________is the specie of tree which is now planted in wide areas of land in
Malaysia and is the source of raw material for the manufacture of tires.
4. ___________families are now being replaced by families with members separated
from each other.
5. __________occurred due to the rapid degradation of the environment.
6. __________is the spirit which was awakened among the people by colonizers of S.E.
Asian countries.
7. __________was disturbed by the arrival of the colonizers.
8. _________ culture influenced the native culture of people in S.E. Asian countries.
9. _________names & surnames are now being used by Asians instead of their
traditional names & surnames.
10. ________is the kind of education which replaced the non-formal type of education.

38