Southeast Asia - Culture

Culture

See also: Southeast Asian cinema, Southeast Asian Games, and Southeast Asian music

The culture in Southeast Asia is very diverse, on mainland Southeast Asia, the culture is a real mix of Indian and Chinese, in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, the culture is a mix of Arab, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Indian and the indigenous Malay culture. Also Brunei shows a strong influence from Arabia.

Rice paddy agriculture has existed in Southeast Asia for thousands of years, ranging across the subregion. Some dramatic examples of these rice paddies populate the Banaue Rice Terraces in the mountains of Luzon in the Philippines. Maintenance of these paddies is very labor-intensive. The rice paddies are well-suited to the monsoon climate of the region.

Stilt houses can be found all over Southeast Asia, from Thailand and Laos, to Borneo, to Luzon in the Philippines, to Papua New Guinea. The region has diverse metalworking, especially in Indonesia. This include weaponry, such as the distinctive kris, and musical instruments, such as the gamelan.

Read more about this topic:  Southeast Asia

Famous quotes containing the word culture:

    Let a man attain the highest and broadest culture that any American has possessed, then let him die by sea-storm, railroad collision, or other accident, and all America will acquiesce that the best thing has happened to him; that, after the education has gone far, such is the expensiveness of America, that the best use to put a fine person to is to drown him to save his board.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Our culture still holds mothers almost exclusively responsible when things go wrong with the kids. Sensing this ultimate accountability, women are understandably reluctant to give up control or veto power. If the finger of blame was eventually going to point in your direction, wouldn’t you be?
    Ron Taffel (20th century)

    We do not need to minimize the poverty of the ghetto or the suffering inflicted by whites on blacks in order to see that the increasingly dangerous and unpredictable conditions of middle- class life have given rise to similar strategies for survival. Indeed the attraction of black culture for disaffected whites suggests that black culture now speaks to a general condition.
    Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)