Southeast Asia
Birth of Civilisations in Southeast Asia
The study of Southeast Asia starts at a much later time than India and China - from c.200BCE onwards. The records about the region began to be kept only from this time, starting by Indian and Chinese traders and later, by local people.
Southeast Asia consists of two distinct areas. Firstly, it is the mainland Southeast Asia, which has several great rivers like the Irrawaddy and Mekong. These rivers flow through present-day Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Mainland Southeast Asia also has many mountains and jungles. Secondly, it is island Southeast Asia, which consists of thousands of islands separated by seas.
Such environments made travel and large-scale farming difficult for people. Therefore, in Southeast Asia, civilisations started with small groups of people and they did not have much contact with each other.
Artefacts like clay pottery, beads and cave wall paintings have led historians to conclude that as early as c. 6000 BCE, culture in Southeast Asia began in different parts of the region. During that time, people lived in small villagers near the sea and they gathered food in the jungles. They also ate fish they caught and animals they hunt.
Development of Maritime Kingdoms
Over the centuries, the first few Southeast Asian villagers were transformed into cities, thus leading to the rise of maritime kingdoms or kingdoms near the sea. The main factors that led to the rise of these kingdoms were rice and trade.
Rice
The people of Southeast Asia might have been among the first in the whole world to grow rice. Certainly, they were the first to use water buffalo to plough rice fields. As rice is a source of food, rice farmers made profits when they sell their rice. The growing of rice allowed ancient Southeast Asia to prosper and the homes they stay to grow into cities.
Trade
By c.200 BCE, the people of ancient Southeast Asia were skilled in building boats. The boats could allow people to sail across the oceans to trade with each other. Their goods would be carried by boats and the boats would sail from one village to another for trading. At the same time, new goods for the traders would be loaded to bring back to their own villagers. Thus, the villagers on the coast acted as small ports. Goods included ivory, coconut, rice, bronze tools, bracelets and big ceremonial drums.
The coastal villages in Southeast Asia developed rapidly as maritime trade or sea trade between China and India increased after 200 BCE. The coastal villagers became resting places for traders sailing between China and India. These villagers offered unique Southeast Aisan products like coral and dried fish for traders to bring back to China or India. Thus, some of the coastal villagers developed into port cities.
Earliest maritime kingdoms in Southeast Asia
In Southeast Asia, between the 1st century CE and the 13th century CE, Funan and Srivijaya were the two major maritime kingdoms.
Features of Early Southeast Asian Civilisations
Historians are able to trace the features of early civilisations in Southeast Asia from the records of Chinese visitors to Funan and other Southeast Asian port cities.
Government
As early Southeast Asia was ruled by kings, religion was important to the kings and at every Southeast Asian port city, there was a religious building (made of stone). The king's palace, houses of officials, rich traders and common people were made from wood. Those houses haven not survived till today because wood rots when it is exposed to the sun and rain for long periods of time.
Occupations
Apart from craftsmen, fishermen, sailors and local foreign traders, there were priests, officials from foreign countries too. There were also people who built and repaired ships, officials who were primarily responsible for bringing in trade and protecting foreign traders. Thus, there were people from different countries and different cultures at the port cities.
Writing
By around 200 CE, many Southeast Asian rulers and officials had begun to keep written records of important events. Only those on carved stone have survived till today. Sanskrit, a language brought by Indian traders and priests, were initially used to write records. After the 6th century CE, Southeast Asian kingdoms began to develop their own writing scripts. One of these was the Jawi script (Malay script using the Arabic alphabet) that is still used today.