What role does the past play in Southeast Asia today? VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way into a new subject. They are written by experts, and

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ACCOUNTING Christopher Nobes ADOLESCENCE Peter K. Smith ADVERTISING Winston Fletcher AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION Eddie S. Glaude Jr AFRICAN HISTORY John Parker and Richard Rathbone AFRICAN RELIGIONS Jacob K. Olupona AGEING Nancy A. Pachana AGNOSTICISM Robin Le Poidevin AGRICULTURE Paul Brassley and Richard Soffe ALEXANDER THE GREAT Hugh Bowden ALGEBRA Peter M. Higgins AMERICAN HISTORY Paul S. Boyer AMERICAN IMMIGRATION David A. Gerber AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY G. Edward White AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY Donald Critchlow AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel AMERICAN POLITICS Richard M. Valelly THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY Charles O. Jones THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Robert J. Allison

AMERICAN SLAVERY Heather Andrea Williams THE AMERICAN WEST Stephen Aron AMERICAN WOMEN’S HISTORY Susan Ware ANAESTHESIA Aidan O’Donnell ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY Michael Beaney ANARCHISM Colin Ward ANCIENT ASSYRIA Karen Radner ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE Christina Riggs ANCIENT GREECE Paul Cartledge THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Amanda H. Podany ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas ANCIENT WARFARE Harry Sidebottom ANGELS David Albert Jones ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR Tristram D. Wyatt THE ANIMAL KINGDOM Peter Holland ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia THE ANTARCTIC Klaus Dodds ANTHROPOCENCE Erle C. Ellis ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller ANXIETY Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman APPLIED MATHEMATICS Alain Goriely THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS Paul Foster ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne ARISTOCRACY William Doyle ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes ART HISTORY Dana Arnold

ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY Madeline Y. Hsu ASTROBIOLOGY David C. Catling ASTROPHYSICS James Binney ATHEISM Julian Baggini ATMOSPHERE Paul I. Palmer AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick AUSTRALIA Kenneth Morgan AUTISM Uta Frith THE AVANT GARDE David Cottington THE AZTECS Davíd Carrasco BABYLONIA Trevor Bryce BACTERIA Sebastian G. B. Amyes BANKING John Goddard and John O. S. Wilson BARTHES Jonathan Culler THE BEATS David Sterritt BEAUTY Roger Scruton BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS Michelle Baddeley BESTSELLERS John Sutherland THE BIBLE John Riches BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY Eric H. Cline BIG DATA Dawn E. Holmes BIOGRAPHY Hermione Lee BLACK HOLES Katherine Blundell BLOOD Chris Cooper THE BLUES Elijah Wald THE BODY Chris Shilling THE BOOK OF MORMON Terryl Givens BORDERS Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen

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CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY Helen Morales CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard CLIMATE Mark Maslin CLIMATE CHANGE Mark Maslin CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY Susan Llewelyn and Katie Aafjes-van Doorn COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE Richard Passingham THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon COLONIAL AMERICA Alan Taylor COLONIAL LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE Rolena Adorno COMBINATORICS Robin Wilson COMEDY Matthew Bevis COMMUNISM Leslie Holmes COMPARATIVE LITERATURE Ben Hutchinson COMPLEXITY John H. Holland THE COMPUTER Darrel Ince COMPUTER SCIENCE Subrata Dasgupta CONFUCIANISM Daniel K. Gardner THE CONQUISTADORS Matthew Restall and Felipe Fernández-Armesto CONSCIENCE Paul Strohm CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore CONTEMPORARY ART Julian Stallabrass CONTEMPORARY FICTION Robert Eaglestone CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Simon Critchley COPERNICUS Owen Gingerich CORAL REEFS Charles Sheppard CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Jeremy Moon CORRUPTION Leslie Holmes COSMOLOGY Peter Coles

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THE EARTH Martin Redfern EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE Tim Lenton ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta EDUCATION Gary Thomas EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch EIGHTEENTH‑CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball EMOTION Dylan Evans EMPIRE Stephen Howe ENGELS Terrell Carver ENGINEERING David Blockley THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Simon Horobin ENGLISH LITERATURE Jonathan Bate THE ENLIGHTENMENT John Robertson ENTREPRENEURSHIP Paul Westhead and Mike Wright ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS Stephen Smith ENVIRONMENTAL LAW Elizabeth Fisher ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS Andrew Dobson EPICUREANISM Catherine Wilson EPIDEMIOLOGY Rodolfo Saracci ETHICS Simon Blackburn ETHNOMUSICOLOGY Timothy Rice THE ETRUSCANS Christopher Smith EUGENICS Philippa Levine THE EUROPEAN UNION John Pinder and Simon Usherwood EUROPEAN UNION LAW Anthony Arnull EVOLUTION Brian and Deborah Charlesworth EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn EXPLORATION Stewart A. Weaver

THE EYE Michael Land FAIRY TALE Marina Warner FAMILY LAW Jonathan Herring FASCISM Kevin Passmore FASHION Rebecca Arnold FEMINISM Margaret Walters FILM Michael Wood FILM MUSIC Kathryn Kalinak THE FIRST WORLD WAR Michael Howard FOLK MUSIC Mark Slobin FOOD John Krebs FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY David Canter FORENSIC SCIENCE Jim Fraser FORESTS Jaboury Ghazoul FOSSILS Keith Thomson FOUCAULT Gary Gutting THE FOUNDING FATHERS R. B. Bernstein FRACTALS Kenneth Falconer FREE SPEECH Nigel Warburton FREE WILL Thomas Pink FREEMASONRY Andreas Önnerfors FRENCH LITERATURE John D. Lyons THE FRENCH REVOLUTION William Doyle FREUD Anthony Storr FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven FUNGI Nicholas P. Money THE FUTURE Jennifer M. Gidley GALAXIES John Gribbin GALILEO Stillman Drake GAME THEORY Ken Binmore

GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh GENES Jonathan Slack GENIUS Andrew Robinson GENOMICS John Archibald Geography John Matthews and David Herbert GEOPHYSICS William Lowrie GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds GERMAN LITERATURE Nicholas Boyle GERMAN PHILOSOPHY Andrew Bowie GLOBAL CATASTROPHES Bill McGuire GLOBAL ECONOMIC HISTORY Robert C. Allen GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger GOD John Bowker GOETHE Ritchie Robertson THE GOTHIC Nick Groom GOVERNANCE Mark Bevir GRAVITY Timothy Clifton THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson THE HABSBURG EMPIRE Martyn Rady HAPPINESS Daniel M. Haybron THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE Cheryl A. Wall THE HEBREW BIBLE AS LITERATURE Tod Linafelt HEGEL Peter Singer HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood THE HELLENISTIC AGE Peter Thonemann HEREDITY John Waller HERMENEUTICS Jens Zimmermann HERODOTUS Jennifer T. Roberts

HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson HINDUISM Kim Knott HISTORY John H. Arnold THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY William H. Brock THE HISTORY OF CINEMA Geoffrey Nowell-Smith THE HISTORY OF LIFE Michael Benton THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS Jacqueline Stedall THE History of Medicine William Bynum THE HISTORY OF PHYSICS J. L. Heilbron THE HISTORY OF TIME Leofranc Holford‑Strevens HIV AND AIDS Alan Whiteside HOBBES Richard Tuck HOLLYWOOD Peter Decherney HOME Michael Allen Fox HORMONES Martin Luck HUMAN ANATOMY Leslie Klenerman HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham HUMANISM Stephen Law HUME A. J. Ayer HUMOUR Noël Carroll THE ICE AGE Jamie Woodward IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden THE IMMUNE SYSTEM Paul Klenerman INDIAN CINEMA Ashish Rajadhyaksha INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Robert C. Allen INFECTIOUS DISEASE Marta L. Wayne and Benjamin M. Bolker INFINITY Ian Stewart

INFORMATION Luciano Floridi INNOVATION Mark Dodgson and David Gann INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Siva Vaidhyanathan INTERNATIONAL LAW Vaughan Lowe INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION Khalid Koser INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson INTERNATIONAL SECURITY Christopher S. Browning IRAN Ali M. Ansari ISLAM Malise Ruthven ISLAMIC HISTORY Adam Silverstein ISOTOPES Rob Ellam ITALIAN LITERATURE Peter Hainsworth and David Robey JESUS Richard Bauckham JEWISH HISTORY David N. Myers JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves JUDAISM Norman Solomon JUNG Anthony Stevens KABBALAH Joseph Dan KAFKA Ritchie Robertson KANT Roger Scruton KEYNES Robert Skidelsky KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner KNOWLEDGE Jennifer Nagel THE KORAN Michael Cook LAKES Warwick F. Vincent LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Ian H. Thompson LANDSCAPES AND GEOMORPHOLOGY Andrew Goudie and Heather

Viles LANGUAGES Stephen R. Anderson

LATE ANTIQUITY Gillian Clark LAW Raymond Wacks THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS Peter Atkins LEADERSHIP Keith Grint LEARNING Mark Haselgrove LEIBNIZ Maria Rosa Antognazza LIBERALISM Michael Freeden LIGHT Ian Walmsley Lincoln Allen C. Guelzo LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler LOCKE John Dunn LOGIC Graham Priest LOVE Ronald de Sousa MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner MADNESS Andrew Scull MAGIC Owen Davies MAGNA CARTA Nicholas Vincent MAGNETISM Stephen Blundell MALTHUS Donald Winch MAMMALS T. S. Kemp MANAGEMENT John Hendry MAO Delia Davin MARINE BIOLOGY Philip V. Mladenov THE MARQUIS DE SADE John Phillips MARTIN LUTHER Scott H. Hendrix MARTYRDOM Jolyon Mitchell MARX Peter Singer MATERIALS Christopher Hall

MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers The Meaning of Life Terry Eagleton MEASUREMENT David Hand MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope MEDICAL LAW Charles Foster MEDIEVAL BRITAIN John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths MEDIEVAL LITERATURE Elaine Treharne MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY John Marenbon Memory Jonathan K. Foster METAPHYSICS Stephen Mumford THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION Alan Knight MICHAEL FARADAY Frank A. J. L. James MICROBIOLOGY Nicholas P. Money MICROECONOMICS Avinash Dixit MICROSCOPY Terence Allen THE MIDDLE AGES Miri Rubin MILITARY JUSTICE Eugene R. Fidell MILITARY STRATEGY Antulio J. Echevarria II MINERALS David Vaughan MIRACLES Yujin Nagasawa MODERN ART David Cottington MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter MODERN DRAMA Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr MODERN FRANCE Vanessa R. Schwartz MODERN INDIA Craig Jeffrey MODERN IRELAND Senia Pašeta MODERN ITALY Anna Cento Bull MODERN JAPAN Christopher Goto-Jones MODERN LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE Roberto González

Echevarría

MODERN WAR Richard English MODERNISM Christopher Butler MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Aysha Divan and Janice A. Royds MOLECULES Philip Ball MONASTICISM Stephen J. Davis THE MONGOLS Morris Rossabi MOONS David A. Rothery Mormonism Richard Lyman Bushman MOUNTAINS Martin F. Price MUHAMMAD Jonathan A. C. Brown MULTICULTURALISM Ali Rattansi MULTILINGUALISM John C. Maher MUSIC Nicholas Cook MYTH Robert A. Segal THE NAPOLEONIC WARS Mike Rapport NATIONALISM Steven Grosby NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE Sean Teuton NAVIGATION Jim Bennett Nelson Mandela Elleke Boehmer NEOLIBERALISM Manfred Steger and Ravi Roy NETWORKS Guido Caldarelli and Michele Catanzaro THE NEW TESTAMENT Luke Timothy Johnson THE NEW TESTAMENT AS LITERATURE Kyle Keefer NEWTON Robert Iliffe NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner NINETEENTH‑CENTURY BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and H. C. G.

Matthew THE NORMAN CONQUEST George Garnett NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green NORTHERN IRELAND Marc Mulholland

NOTHING Frank Close NUCLEAR PHYSICS Frank Close NUCLEAR POWER Maxwell Irvine NUCLEAR WEAPONS Joseph M. Siracusa NUMBERS Peter M. Higgins NUTRITION David A. Bender OBJECTIVITY Stephen Gaukroger OCEANS Dorrik Stow THE OLD TESTAMENT Michael D. Coogan THE ORCHESTRA D. Kern Holoman ORGANIC CHEMISTRY Graham Patrick ORGANISED CRIME Georgios A. Antonopoulos and Georgios

Papanicolaou ORGANIZATIONS Mary Jo Hatch PAGANISM Owen Davies PAIN Rob Boddice THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT Martin Bunton PANDEMICS Christian W. McMillen PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close PAUL E. P. Sanders PEACE Oliver P. Richmond PENTECOSTALISM William K. Kay PERCEPTION Brian Rogers THE PERIODIC TABLE Eric R. Scerri PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig PHILOSOPHY IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD Peter Adamson PHILOSOPHY OF LAW Raymond Wacks PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Samir Okasha PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Tim Bayne PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards

PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY Peter Atkins PILGRIMAGE Ian Reader PLAGUE Paul Slack PLANETS David A. Rothery PLANTS Timothy Walker PLATE TECTONICS Peter Molnar PLATO Julia Annas POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY David Miller POLITICS Kenneth Minogue POPULISM Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler POSTSTRUCTURALISM Catherine Belsey PREHISTORY Chris Gosden PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Catherine Osborne PRIVACY Raymond Wacks PROBABILITY John Haigh PROGRESSIVISM Walter Nugent PROJECTS Andrew Davies PROTESTANTISM Mark A. Noll PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns PSYCHOANALYSIS Daniel Pick PSYCHOLOGY Gillian Butler and Freda McManus PSYCHOTHERAPY Tom Burns and Eva Burns-Lundgren PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Stella Z. Theodoulou and Ravi K. Roy PUBLIC HEALTH Virginia Berridge Puritanism Francis J. Bremer THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion QUANTUM THEORY John Polkinghorne RACISM Ali Rattansi

RADIOACTIVITY Claudio Tuniz RASTAFARI Ennis B. Edmonds THE REAGAN REVOLUTION Gil Troy REALITY Jan Westerhoff THE REFORMATION Peter Marshall RELATIVITY Russell Stannard Religion in America Timothy Beal THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton RENAISSANCE ART Geraldine A. Johnson REVOLUTIONS Jack A. Goldstone RHETORIC Richard Toye RISK Baruch Fischhoff and John Kadvany RITUAL Barry Stephenson RIVERS Nick Middleton ROBOTICS Alan Winfield ROCKS Jan Zalasiewicz ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway THE ROMAN EMPIRE Christopher Kelly THE ROMAN REPUBLIC David M. Gwynn ROMANTICISM Michael Ferber ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler RUSSELL A. C. Grayling RUSSIAN HISTORY Geoffrey Hosking RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION S. A. Smith SAVANNAS Peter A. Furley SCHIZOPHRENIA Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway Science and Religion Thomas Dixon

SCIENCE FICTION David Seed THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION Lawrence M. Principe SCOTLAND Rab Houston Sexuality Véronique Mottier SHAKESPEARE’S COMEDIES Bart van Es SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS AND POEMS Jonathan F. S. Post SHAKESPEARE’S TRAGEDIES Stanley Wells SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt THE SILK ROAD James A. Millward SLANG Jonathon Green SLEEP Steven W. Lockley and Russell G. Foster SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY John Monaghan and Peter

Just SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Richard J. Crisp SOCIAL WORK Sally Holland and Jonathan Scourfield SOCIALISM Michael Newman SOCIOLINGUISTICS John Edwards SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor SOUND Mike Goldsmith THE SOVIET UNION Stephen Lovell THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Helen Graham SPANISH LITERATURE Jo Labanyi SPINOZA Roger Scruton SPIRITUALITY Philip Sheldrake SPORT Mike Cronin STARS Andrew King Statistics David J. Hand STEM CELLS Jonathan Slack STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING David Blockley

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James R. Rush

SOUTHEAST ASIA A Very Short Introduction

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a

registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New

York, NY 10016, United States of America.

© Oxford University Press 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate

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You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rush, James R. (James Robert), 1944- author.

Title: Southeast Asia : a very short introduction / James R. Rush. Description: Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2017043737 (print) | LCCN 2017044526 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190248772 (updf) | ISBN 9780190248789 (epub) |

ISBN 9780190248796 (online component) | ISBN 9780190248765 | ISBN 9780190248765q (pbk. ;qalk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Southeast Asia. Classification: LCC DS521 (ebook) | LCC DS521 .R87 2018 (print) |

DDC 959—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043737

Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this

work.

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in Great Britain

by Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Gosport, Hants. on acid-free paper

Contents

List of illustrations

Introduction

1 What is Southeast Asia? 2 Kingdoms 3 Colonies 4 Nations 5 The past is in the present

References

Further reading

Index

List of illustrations

1 Contemporary Southeast Asia and its nation-states

2 Wet-rice farmers in Vietnam © Jimmy Tran/Shutterstock

3 Premodern Southeast Asia through c. 1800

4 Mandalas

5 Angkor Wat © Tom Roche/Shutterstock

6 Map of las yslas Philipinas, Pedro Velarde Murillo Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, 06_01_003750

7 Rijsttafel Tugu Kunstkring Paleis, Jakarta

8 Chinese migrants in Dutch Borneo KITLV, 6549

9 Sukarno, first president of Indonesia UN photo, 332531

10 Southeast Asian heads of state at 2016 ASEAN-UN Summit UN photo/Eskinder Debebe, 690363

Introduction

Southeast Asia is a region of vast complexity, and scholarship about it is equally vast and complex. This slender book draws upon a broad body of scholarship. Barely a sentence fails to reflect the ideas and scholarly writing of my mentors and colleagues and others from whom I have learned. Readers familiar with the literature will discern the footprints of Harry Benda, John Smail, O. W. Wolters, Benedict Anderson, Anthony Reid, James Scott, J. S. Furnivall, Thongchai Winichakul, and a host of others whose work has shaped the field.

This volume is a “very short introduction,” and so it does not attempt to capture fully the deep research and nuanced arguments of this scholarship. Instead, its purpose is to tell a complicated story simply and legibly. Its historical arc focusing on kingdoms, colonies, and nations is deliberately formulaic, designed to provide a structured narrative around which otherwise random events and anecdotal information about Southeast Asia (or the day’s news, for that matter) can be understood in the context of larger patterns of history, politics, and society. This narrative can be—indeed, it is meant to be —explored, elaborated, and critiqued through further study. The “Suggestions for Further Reading” at the back will get you started.

Southeast Asia: A Very Short Introduction is also intentionally colloquial. Terms are used such as trade hubs, traffic patterns, and mini-kings, for example, the latter to describe an array of persons who ruled over small territories (mini-kingdoms) throughout Southeast Asia under many different

titles. Likewise, certain terms are employed that are often applied more narrowly in scholarship—mandala, for example—to describe general patterns applying to the region at large. Thongchai Winichakul’s use of the term geo- body, to mean a modern border-bounded nation-state, is another example. The word Native, capitalized, is used here to convey the colonial-era practice of categorizing indigenous Southeast Asians officially (and subordinately) in the law.

Southeast Asia also prioritizes the familiar. East Timor will be East Timor, although it is officially known as Timor-Leste and also as Timor Lorosa’e. Burma will be Burma, except when referring to the contemporary state of Myanmar. Burmans will be Burmans, not Bama. And so on. The spellings of Southeast Asian names can vary considerably when rendered in English. I have followed familiar scholarly conventions.

One cannot possibly acknowledge everyone who has contributed to a general book like this one. But I am grateful to my undergraduate students at Arizona State University (ASU), in dialogue with whom the narrative of this book has evolved, and also to several former graduate students whose work has informed my work. These include Maria Ortuoste, Christopher Lundry, Duan Zhidan, Zhipei Chi, Sze Chieh Ng, and Alex Arifianto. Particular thanks go to William McDonald, an ASU student at Barrett, the Honors College, who worked diligently collecting data about the contemporary region. I am also indebted to my faculty colleagues in Southeast Asia studies at ASU from whom I am constantly learning. They include Sheldon Simon, Juliane Schober, Ted Solis, Karen Adams, Christopher Duncan (now at Rutgers), Leif Jonsson, James Eder, Mark Woodward, Pauline Cheong, Sarah Shair- Rosenfield, Peter Suwarno, Sina Machander, Le-Pham Thuy-Kim, and Ralph Gabbard. Finally, I want to express my gratitude and love to my wife, Sunny Benitez-Rush, who enriches everything I do, including this book.

Chapter 1 What is Southeast Asia?

Southeast Asia is a sprawling neighborhood of hot countries that straddles the equator. Its eleven nations lie between India and China and form the great tropical cusp of Asia. Here societies drawing from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and Confucianism (alongside myriad other traditions) have rubbed shoulders over centuries and created a vast profusion of distinctive yet ever-shifting cultures. It is among the most dynamic regions on earth.

Mainland Southeast Asia, the southern apron of the continent of East Asia, is home to hundreds of ethnic groups that are today the citizens of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Island (or maritime) Southeast Asia includes the Malay Peninsula and two huge archipelagos whose even more diverse populations are now citizens of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, East Timor, and the Philippines. The entire region stretches some 3,000 miles from end to end and 2,500 miles north to south, an area larger than Europe. It contains 625 million people, around 9 percent of the world’s population.

For the most part, Southeast Asia is verdant and wet, with rainfalls averaging 60 inches a year and, in many places, monsoon rains that arrive reliably each year to water the rice fields, vegetable gardens, and fruit trees that for

centuries have sustained its rural villages. But here and there drier patches are found where rain is scarce. In eastern Indonesia people say that their arid islands are the dirt flicked from the fingernails of the Creator after he finished making the rest of the world.

Although Southeast Asia’s complex wind, water, and elevation patterns have created multiple human habitats, scholars have found it useful to begin with two archetypal ones: hills and plains. Large expanses of the region rise above 1,000 feet. Until very recently, these hills and mountains have been a world apart, an alternative human habitat dominated by dense old-growth forests interlaced by free-flowing rivers and streams. In these vast and inaccessible uplands, farmers developed strategies for living sustainably by creating temporary hill farms amid the forest—by cutting down a patch of trees, burning the debris, and planting rice and other crops amid the charred remains. A hillside “swidden” like this could be bountiful for a year or two, after which the farmers moved on to another patch as the old one wooded over again and restored the forest.

Hill farms of this kind existed everywhere in Southeast Asia, enabling highly diverse customs and characterized by distinctive textiles, jewelry, tattoos, handcrafts, and spiritual practices. From Myanmar to the Philippines hundreds of such groups could be found. One may have heard of the Lisu, Mien, and Hmong of the Burma-Thai-Lao uplands, the Rhade and other Montagnards of Vietnam, the Iban of Malaysia and Indonesia, and the Ifugao and Mangyan of the Philippines. Hill peoples like these maintained a variety of contacts with their lowland neighbors, most especially an up-river and down-river exchange of forest products (rattan, damar, bird’s nests) for lowland valuables such as heirloom porcelains and outboard motors. Otherwise, they remained aloof, clinging to the sanctuary provided by their inaccessible habitat.

These small populations of resilient, adaptable, and often-shifting hill folk built their longhouses and villages along the free-flowing mountain rivers that eventually flowed downward, aggregated with other branches, and formed the great tidal rivers of Southeast Asia’s lowland plains.

Just as slash-and-burn farming became the dominant agricultural pattern of the hills, wet-rice farming dominated the plains. Instead of temporary swiddens, in the lowlands farmers created permanent, bunded fields designed to capture water and manage its depth as green rice plants sprouted, rose through the shallow waters of the artificial pond, and finally matured and yellowed as farmers drained the paddies to make dry fields at harvest time. For centuries past and until today, paddy fields have dominated the cultivated landscape of lowland Southeast Asia and supported its large sedentary populations, even as vast tracts of lowlands also remained forested until recent times.

Interspersed with vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, and lush groves of trees, this verdant lowland habitat has supported large populations of farmers as well as the region’s major societies and states throughout history. It is the plains that host Southeast Asia’s larger ethnic groups—the Burmans, Thai, Khmer, Vietnamese, Malay, Javanese, Filipino—as well as the greater concentrations of people adhering to major world religions. Most of Southeast Asia’s Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus are people of the plains. In short, almost always when we speak of Southeast Asia, we are speaking of the lowland societies of the plains.

Today, the old dichotomy of hills and plains is breaking down. Once a lightly populated region, Southeast Asia is now bursting with people. And they are changing its old landscapes—penetrating the hills to open giant mines and to harvest logs and palm oil; overtaking forests, vacant wetlands, and vast acres of village rice paddies to create a modern landscape of exploding megacities, sprawling suburbs, and burgeoning industrial zones; and blanketing great swaths of countryside with agribusiness plantations that produce bananas, coconuts, sugar, and rubber. Shrimp and fish farms now cover the region’s coasts, which once were lined with mangroves.

1. Contemporary Southeast Asia and its nation-states

In Southeast Asia today, no one is wholly off the grid. Even the most remote mountain sanctuaries and islands are within reach of the capital, technology, and machinery of government that are pulling every group and place into the matrix of globalization. For the Iban of the hills of central Borneo, it is logging and oil-palm plantations. For the Ifugao of upland Luzon, it is hydroelectric dams. For the Montagnards of Vietnam, it is robusta coffee farms. For the forest Tiboli of Indonesia’s remote Halmahera island, it is nickel mines. Everywhere it is the same. Meanwhile, as the long arms of the global marketplace reach deep into Southeast Asia, so do the tax collectors, engineers, and schoolteachers of the region’s national governments, asserting their claims of sovereignty over far-flung and disparate citizens and their

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