Editing Southeast Asia (section)

==Culture==
{{See also|Southeast Asian cinema|Southeast Asian Games|Southeast Asian music}}

[[File:Burmese puppetry.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Burmese puppet performance]]

The culture in Southeast Asia is diverse: on mainland Southeast Asia, the culture is a mix of Burmese, Cambodian, Laotian, Thai ([[Greater India|Indian]]) and Vietnamese ([[East Asian cultural sphere|Chinese]]) cultures. While in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia the culture is a mix of indigenous [[Austronesian people|Austronesian]], Indian, Islamic, Western, and Chinese cultures. In addition, Brunei shows a strong influence from Arabia. Vietnam and Singapore show more Chinese influence<ref>{{cite web |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001478/147804eb.pdf |title=Introduction to Vietnamese culture |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=23 August 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=17 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617214630/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001478/147804eb.pdf }}</ref> in that Singapore, although being geographically a Southeast Asian nation, is home to a large Chinese majority and Vietnam was in [[East Asian cultural sphere|China's sphere of influence]] for much of its history. Indian influence in Singapore is most prominently evident through the Tamil migrants,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.microsite.nl.sg/PDFs/BiblioAsia/BIBA_0303Oct07a.pdf |title=Indian Migration into Malaya and Singapore During the British Period |first=Makeswary |last=Periasamy |magazine=biblioasia |issn=0219-8126 |volume=3 |issue=3 |date=October 2007 |pages=4–11 |access-date=22 July 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021102125/http://www.microsite.nl.sg/PDFs/BiblioAsia/BIBA_0303Oct07a.pdf |archive-date=21 October 2012 }}</ref> which influenced, to some extent, the [[cuisine of Singapore]]. Throughout Vietnam's history, it has had no direct influence from India – only through contact with the Thai, Khmer and Cham peoples. Moreover, Vietnam is also categorised under the [[East Asian cultural sphere]] along with China, Korea, and Japan due to a large amount of Chinese influence embedded in their culture and lifestyle.
[[File:Paddy field Viet Nam.jpg|thumb|[[Paddy field]] in Vietnam]]
[[Paddy field|Rice paddy]] agriculture has existed in Southeast Asia for millennia, 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 labour-intensive. The rice paddies are well-suited to the monsoon climate of the region.

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

===Influences===
The region's chief cultural influences have been from some combination of [[Islam]], [[Culture of India|India]], and [[Culture of China|China]]. Diverse cultural influence is pronounced in the Philippines, derived particularly from the period of Spanish and American rule, contact with Indian-influenced cultures, and the Chinese and Japanese trading era.

As a rule of thumb, the peoples who ate with their fingers were more likely influenced by the culture of India, for example, than the culture of China, where the peoples ate with [[chopstick]]s; tea, as a beverage, can be found across the region. The [[fish sauce]]s distinctive to the region tend to vary.

===Arts===
[[File:Royal Ballet Camboda Apsara Mera.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal Ballet of Cambodia]] (Paris, France 2010)]]The [[Southeast Asian arts|arts of Southeast Asia]] have an affinity with the arts of other areas. Dance in much of Southeast Asia includes movement of the hands as well as the feet, to express the dance's emotion and meaning of the story that the ballerina is going to tell the audience. Most of Southeast Asia introduced dance into their court; in particular, [[Khmer classical dance|Cambodian royal ballet]] represented them in the early seventh century before the [[Khmer Empire]], which was highly influenced by Indian Hinduism. The [[Apsara Dance]], famous for strong hand and feet movement, is a great example of Hindu symbolic dance.

Puppetry and shadow plays were also a favoured form of entertainment in past centuries, a famous one being the ''[[wayang]]'' from Indonesia. The arts and literature in some of Southeast Asia are quite influenced by Hinduism, which was brought to them centuries ago. Indonesia, despite large-scale conversion to Islam which opposes certain forms of art, has retained many forms of Hindu-influenced practices, culture, art, and literature. An example is the {{Lang|jv|[[wayang kulit]]}} (shadow puppet) and literature like the ''[[Ramayana]]''. The {{Lang|jv|wayang kulit}} show has been recognised by [[UNESCO]] on 7 November 2003 as a [[Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity]].

It has been pointed out that Khmer and Indonesian classical arts were concerned with depicting the life of the gods, but to the Southeast Asian mind, the life of the gods was the life of the peoples themselves—joyous, earthy, yet divine. The [[Tai peoples|Tai]], coming late into Southeast Asia, brought with them some Chinese artistic traditions, but they soon shed them in favour of the Khmer and [[Mon people|Mon]] traditions, and the only indications of their earlier contact with [[culture of China|Chinese]] arts were in the style of their temples, especially the tapering roof, and in their [[lacquerware]].

====Music====
{{Main|Music of Southeast Asia}}

[[File:Angklung-arumba.jpg|thumb|right|The ''[[angklung]]'', designated as a [[Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity|Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity]]]]

Traditional music in Southeast Asia is as varied as its many ethnic and cultural divisions. The main styles of traditional music include court music, folk music, music styles of smaller ethnic groups, and music influenced by genres outside the geographic region.

Of the court and folk genres, [[gong chime]] ensembles and orchestras make up the majority (the exception being lowland areas of Vietnam). ''[[Gamelan]]'' and ''[[angklung]]'' orchestras from ''[[Indonesia]]''; ''[[piphat]]'' and ''[[pinpeat]]'' ensembles of Thailand and Cambodia; and the ''[[kulintang]]'' ensembles of the southern Philippines, [[Borneo]], [[Sulawesi]] and [[Timor]] are the three main distinct styles of musical genres that have influenced other traditional musical styles in the region. String instruments are also popular in the region.

On 18 November 2010, UNESCO officially recognised the ''angklung'' as a ''Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity'', and encouraged the Indonesian people and government to safeguard, transmit, promote performances and to encourage the craftsmanship of ''angklung'' making.

====Writing====
{{Main|Writing systems of Southeast Asia|Baybayin|Jawi script|S.E.A. Write Award|Thai alphabet}}

[[File:Thai manuscript Jim Thompson Museum IMG 7170.jpg|thumb|[[Thai script|Thai]] manuscript from before the 19th-century writing system|left]]

The history of Southeast Asia has led to a wealth of different authors, from both within and without writing about the region.

Some of the earliest writing systems of Southeast Asia stem from those of [[Culture of India|India]]. This is shown through [[Brahmic family|Brahmic]] forms of writing present in the region, such as the [[Balinese script]] shown on split palm leaves called ''lontar'' (see image to the left – magnify the image to see the writing on the flat side, and the decoration on the reverse side).
[[File:Pura Puseh 05153.jpg|thumb|Sign in [[Balinese script|Balinese]] and [[Latin script|Latin]] script at a [[Hindu]] temple in [[Bali]]]]
The antiquity of this form of writing extends before the invention of paper around the year 100 in China. Note each palm leaf section was only several lines, written longitudinally across the leaf, and bound by twine to the other sections. The outer portion was decorated. The alphabets of Southeast Asia tended to be [[abugida]]s, until the arrival of the Europeans, who used words that also ended in consonants, not just vowels. Other forms of official documents, which did not use paper, included Javanese copperplate scrolls. This material would have been more durable than paper in the tropical climate of Southeast Asia.

In Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore, the Malay language is now generally written in the Latin script. The same phenomenon is present in Indonesian, although different spelling standards are utilised (e.g. 'Teksi' in Malay and 'Taksi' in Indonesian for the word 'Taxi').

The use of Chinese characters, in the past and present, is only evident in Vietnam and more recently, Singapore and Malaysia. The adoption of [[chữ Hán]] in Vietnam dates back to around 111 BC when it was occupied by the Chinese. A Vietnamese script called [[chữ Nôm]] used modified chữ Hán to express the Vietnamese language. Both chữ Hán and chữ Nôm were used up until the early 20th century.

[[Rapa Nui]] is an Austronesian language like those of Indonesian, Tagalog, and many other Southeast Asian languages. [[Rongorongo]] is presumed to be the script of Rapa Nui and if proven so, would place it as one of very few [[inventions of writing]] in human history.<ref>{{cite book | title=Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction | author=Robinson, Andrew | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2009 | section=The death of RongoRongo | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zcXH52jICOEC| isbn=9780191579165 }}</ref>

====Sports====
{{See also|SEA Games}}
[[Association football]] is the most popular sport in the region, with the [[ASEAN Football Federation]], the region's primary regulatory body, formed on 31 January 1984, in [[Jakarta]], Indonesia. The [[AFF Championship]] is the largest football competition in the region since its inaugural in [[1996 AFF Championship|1996]], with [[Thailand national football team|Thailand]] holding the most titles in the competition with seven titles. The reigning winner is Thailand, who defeated [[Vietnam national football team|Vietnam]] in the [[2022 AFF Championship|2022]] final. Thailand has had the most numerous appearances in the [[AFC Asian Cup]] with 7 while the highest-ranked result in the Asian Cup for a Southeast Asian team is second place in the [[1968 AFC Asian Cup|1968]] by [[Myanmar national football team|Myanmar]] in [[Iran]]. [[Dutch East Indies national football team results|Indonesia]] is the only Southeast Asian team to have played in the [[1938 FIFA World Cup]] as the [[Dutch East Indies national football team results|Dutch East Indies]].

ASEAN has also committed to preserving [[traditional sports and games]] (TSG) in the region.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Promoting and Safeguarding Traditional Sports and Games in ASEAN: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies |url=https://asean.org/book/promoting-and-safeguarding-traditional-sports-and-games-in-asean-challenges-opportunities-and-strategies/ |access-date=2024-11-18 |website=asean.org}}</ref>