Maritime Southeast Asia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maritime Southeast Asia is the name given to the island nations in Southeast Asia. Nations in this region include:
- Malaysia - two Malaysian states are on the island of Borneo.
- Singapore - a small island nation off the coast of the Malay Peninsula.
- Brunei - a small nation bordered by Malaysia and the South China Sea.
- Indonesia - in the Malay archipelago; including islands such as Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and New Guinea.
- Philippines - a group of many islands bordered by the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea.
- East Timor - the 21st century's first independent nation, shares the island Timor with Indonesia.
In terms of the demography of this region, people are predominantly Austronesian (of the Philippine, Malay, Micronesian, Melanesian and Papuan groupings) and all correspondingly speak Austronesian languages. Also, this region of Southeast Asia shares more social and cultural ties with other Austronesian peoples in the Pacific than with the peoples of Mainland Southeast Asia.
The main religions in this region are Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, with the exception of the Philippines, whose most dominant religion is Christianity.
