document_title: Monadnock Building

question_text: who designed the first truly modern skyscraper using steel framework covered in masonry

text: Monadnock Building

text: History[edit]

text: North half (1881–1891)[edit]

text: The Monadnock was commissioned by Boston real estate developers Peter and Shepherd Brooks in the building boom following the Depression of 1873–79.[5] The Brooks family, which had amassed a fortune in the shipping insurance business and had been investing in Chicago real estate since 1863, had retained Chicago property manager Owen F. Aldis to manage the construction of the seven-story Grannis Block on Dearborn Street in 1880.[6] It was Aldis, one of two men Louis Sullivan credited with being "responsible for the modern office building",[7][a] who convinced investors such as the Brooks brothers to build new skyscrapers in Chicago. By the end of the century, Aldis would create over 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) of new office space and manage nearly one fifth of the office space in the Loop.[8][9]

text: Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root met as young draftsmen in the Chicago firm of Carter, Drake, and Wight in 1872 and left to form Burnham & Root the following year.[10] At Aldis's urging, the Brooks brothers had retained the then-fledgling firm to design the Grannis Block, which was their first major commission.[11] Burnham and Root would become the architects of choice for the Brooks family, for whom they would complete the first high-rise building in Chicago, the 10-story Montauk Building, in 1883, and the 11-story Rookery Building in 1888.[12]

text: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 had destroyed a 4-mile (6.4 km) by 0.5-mile (0.80 km) swath of the city between the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, and subsequent commercial development expanded into the area far south of the main business district along the river that would come to be known as "the Loop".[13] Between 1881 and 1885, Aldis bought a series of lots in the area on Peter Brooks' behalf, including a 70-by-200-foot (21 by 61 m) site on the corner of Jackson and Dearborn streets.[14] The location was remote, yet attractive for several reasons. The construction of the Chicago Board of Trade Building in 1885 had made nearby LaSalle Street the city's prime financial district, driving up property values, and railroad companies were buying up land further south for new terminal buildings, creating further speculation in the southeastern end of the Loop.[15] Brooks commissioned Burnham & Root to design a building for the site in 1884, and the project was announced in 1885, with a brief trade journal notice that the building would cost $850,000 ($22.7 million in 2016 dollars).[16][17] The Chicago building community had little faith in Brooks' choice of location. Architect Edwin Renwick would say:

text: When Owen Aldis put up the Monadnock on Jackson Boulevard there was nothing on the south side of the street between State Street and the river but cheap one-story shacks, mere hovels. Every one thought Mr. Aldis was insane to build way out there on the ragged edge of the city. Later when he carried the building on through Van Buren Street they were sure he was.[18]

text: Early sketches show a 13-story building with Ancient Egyptian ornament and a slight flaring at the top, divided visually into five sections with a lotus-blossom decorative motif. This design was never approved, as Brooks waited for the real estate market in the south Loop, still mostly warehouses, to improve.[17] Where Root was known for the detailed ornamentation of his designs (as seen in the Rookery Building), Brooks was known for his stinginess and preference for simplicity. For the Monadnock, Brooks insisted that the architects refrain from elaborate ornamentation and produce instead "the effect of solidity and strength, or a design that will produce that effect, rather than ornament for a notable appearance."[19] In an 1884 letter to Aldis, he wrote:

text: My notion is to have no projecting surfaces or indentations, but to have everything flush .... So tall and narrow a building must have some ornament in so conspicuous a situation ... [but] projections mean dirt, nor do they add strength to the building ... one great nuisance [is] the lodgment of pigeons and sparrows.[20]

text: While Root was on vacation, Burnham had a draftsman create a "straight up-and-down, uncompromising, unornamented facade."[21] Objecting at first, Root later threw himself into the design, declaring that the heavy lines of an Egyptian pyramid had captured his imagination and that he would "throw the thing up without a single ornament".[17][22]

text: In 1889, a new plan was announced for the building: a thick-walled brick tower, 16 stories high, devoid of ornamentation and suggestive of an Egyptian pylon.[17][23] Brooks insisted that the building have no projections, for which reason the plan did not include bay windows, but Aldis argued that more rentable space would be created by projecting oriel windows, which were included in the final design.[24] The Monadnock's final height was calculated to be the highest economically viable for a load-bearing wall design, requiring walls 6 feet (1.8 m) thick at the bottom and 18 inches (46 cm) thick at the top. Greater height would have required walls of such thickness that they would have reduced the rentable space too greatly. The final height was much dithered over by the owners, but a decision was forced when the city proposed an ordinance restricting the height of buildings to 150 feet (46 m).[25] To protect future income potential, Aldis sought a permit for a 16-story building immediately. The building commissioner, although "staggered by the sixteen story plan",[24] granted the permit on June 3, 1889.[24]

text: With its 17 stories (16 rentable plus an attic), its 215 feet (66 m) high load-bearing walls were the tallest of any commercial structure in the world.[26][b] To support the towering structure and reinforce against wind, the masonry walls were braced with an interior frame of cast and wrought iron. Root devised for this frame the first attempt at a portal system of wind bracing in America, in which iron struts were riveted between the columns of the frame for reinforcement.[22][c] The narrow lot allowed only a single, double-loaded corridor, which was appointed with a 3-foot (0.91 m) high wainscot of white Carrara marble, red oak trim, and feather-chipped glass[d] that allowed outside light to filter from the offices on each side into the hallways. Floors were covered with hand-carved marble mosaic tiles.[27] Skylit open staircases were made of bronze-plated cast iron on upper floors.[28] On the ground floor, they were crafted in cast aluminum—an exotic and expensive material at the time—representing the first use of aluminum in building construction.[17][29][e]

text: The building was constructed by the firm of George A. Fuller, who trained as an architect but made his mark as the creator of the modern contracting system in building construction. His firm had supervised construction of the Rookery, and later built New York's Flatiron Building with Burnham in 1902.[30][31] The Monadnock Block was built as a single structure but was legally two buildings, the Monadnock and the Kearsarge, named for Mount Monadnock and Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire.[f] Work was completed in 1891. The Monadnock, which Root called his "Jumbo", was his last project; he died suddenly while it was under construction.[32][33]

text: South half and early history (1891–1893)[edit]

text: Encouraged by the early success of the building, Shepherd Brooks purchased the 68-by-200-foot (21 by 61 m) lot adjoining to the south in 1893 for $360,000 ($9.6 million in 2016 dollars).[16][34] Aldis recommended the firm of Holabird & Roche, who had designed the Pontiac Building for Peter Brooks in 1891, to extend the Monadnock south to Van Buren.[35][36] William Holabird and Martin Roche had trained together in the office of William LeBaron Jenney, and in 1881 formed their own firm, which would become one of the most prolific in the city and the acknowledged leader of the Chicago school of architecture.[g] The north half had struggled with cost overruns and Holabird & Roche presented a far more cost-effective design.[37] The design, for two buildings called the Katahdin and Wachusett (also named for New England mountains), connected them to the north half as a single structure at an estimated cost of $800,000 ($21.3 million in 2016 dollars).[16][38][39] Construction began in 1892, under the supervision of Corydon T. Purdy who would later earn accolades as the structural engineer for many famous Chicago and New York skyscrapers.[40]

text: The addition, 17 stories high, preserved the color and vertically massed profile of the original, but was more traditionally ornate in its design, with grander entranceways and more neoclassical touches.[41] The building reflected in its design the transition taking place in skyscraper design from load-bearing walls to steel frame construction .[26] The Katahdin, built first, used the same iron framed masonry construction as the original. The Wachusett was entirely steel framed.[42] Where the north half required great thicknesses of brick in the load-bearing walls, the addition employed only a thin facing of brick and terracotta trim, affording larger expanses of glass and faster, less expensive construction.[41] The south half cost 15 percent less, weighed 15 percent less, and had 15 percent more rentable space than the north half.[43] Connected on every floor except the top one and sharing a common basement, each of the four component buildings was equipped with its own heating system, elevators, stairs, and plumbing to facilitate a separate sale if required.[26] The combined final cost in 1893 was $2.5 million ($66.6 million in 2016 dollars).[16][44]

text: When complete, the Monadnock was the largest office building in the world, with 1,200 rooms and an occupancy of over 6,000.[45] The Chicago Daily Tribune commented that the population of most Illinois towns in 1896 would fit comfortably in the building.[46][47] It was a postal district unto itself, with four full-time carriers delivering mail six times a day, six days a week.[48] It was the first building in Chicago wired for electricity, and one of the first to be fire-proofed, with hollow fire clay tiles lining the structure so that the metal frame would be protected even if the facing brick were to be destroyed.[34][49]

text: The Brooks' decision to construct a building of such scale and in such an unlikely location was vindicated by the Monadnock's success—it was the most profitable investment they ever made.[21] The Economist, a Chicago real estate journal, conceded in 1892 that:

text: the rapidity with which the Monadnock and Kearsarge ... have been rented is one of the phenomenal features in the real estate market of this city. The erecting and successful renting of these structures has simply established, in an incredibly short period of time, an important business center at the southwest corner of Jackson and Dearborn streets, a point which was but a short time ago considered too far south for a prosperous business center.[51]

text: Early tenants, according to Rand McNally, included "great corporations, banks, and professional men ... among them the Santa Fe, the Michigan Central, and the Chicago & Alton Railroads, and the American Exchange National and Globe Savings Banks".[44]

text: In 1897, the Union Elevated Railroad Company opened the Union Loop line of the Chicago "L", the last leg of which ran immediately alongside the Van Buren side of the building.[52][h] Aldis filed suit against the "L" in 1901 for $300,000 in damages ($8.64 million in 2016 dollars), complaining that:

text: [the] means of access to the said building ... had been cut off and the light, air, and view obstructed, and the enjoyment of the property disturbed by the throwing of smoke, dust, cinders, and filth ... by the creating and causing of loud and ominous noises, and by the causing of the ground to shake and vibrate ... said building and premises are greatly damaged.[16][53][54]

text: Aldis lost the case, but won on appeal, when the Supreme Court of Illinois found that owners of property abutting the "L" lines could recover damages if the property had been injured by noise, vibration, or the blocking of light, paving the way for many lawsuits to follow.[55][56]

text: Modernization (1938–1979)[edit]

text: A boom in new construction after 1926 created stiff competition for older buildings like the Monadnock. Occupancy declined from 87 percent in 1929 to 55 percent in 1937 and the building began to lose money.[57] In 1938, building manager Graham Aldis (Owen's nephew) announced what the Chicago Daily Tribune called "the city's largest and most novel modernization job"[58] in a move toward halting the destruction of Chicago's aging skyscrapers. Rejecting the term "modernization", Aldis called his plan "progressive styling", which he believed would revolutionize the way building maintenance was done to preserve millions of dollars worth of buildings that would otherwise be destroyed. "There is no reason why", he said, "any well-designed office building need be torn down because of obsolescence."[58] Skidmore & Owings, who had pioneered functional design, were retained to lead a $125,000 program ($2.13 million in 2016 dollars) to restyle the main entrance, remodel the lobby and ground floor shops, modernize all the public spaces, and progressively modernize office suites as demand required.[16][57] The modernization included covering the mosaic floors with rubber tile and terrazzo, enclosing the elevators and ornamental stairways, and replacing the marble and oak finishes in the corridors and offices with modern materials.[58] By the end of 1938, 35 new tenants had signed leases and 11 existing tenants had leased additional space in the building.[59]

text: In 1966, Aldis & Co., which had managed the building for the Brooks estate for 75 years, was dissolved and the Monadnock was sold for $2 million ($14.8 million in 2016 dollars) to Sudler & Co., owners of the John Hancock Center, the Rookery Building, and the Old Colony Building.[16][60][61] The new owners again modernized the interior, installing carpet, fluorescent lights, and new doors, and undertook a major effort to shore up the north wall which had sunk 1.75 inches (44 mm) during construction of the Kluczynski Federal Building across Jackson Street in 1974.[60][62]

text: By 1977, operating expenses were high, rents were low, and occupancy had fallen to 80 percent.[63][64] Struggling to make loan payments, the owners were forced to sell the building to avoid foreclosure.[63][64] It was purchased by a partnership headed by William S. Donnell in 1979 for $5 per square foot ($53.82 per square meter) or approximately $2 million ($6.6 million in 2016 dollars).[16][65][66]

text: Restoration and later (1979–)[edit]

text: The building Donnell purchased in 1979 had declined badly. The Dearborn entrances had been closed in, the ground floor had been "defaced by garish signs",[67] and the brick had been painted and was peeling. Inside, the marble wainscoting had been painted over and many of the original oak doors had been replaced with cheaper mahogany. The decorative stair rails had been enclosed, and some stairways and corridors had been closed off completely. Much of the original mosaic tile had been demolished—some floors were carpeted, others tiled in vinyl or terrazzo. Half of the sixteen elevators were still manually operated.[67] "It was as if it had been partly updated every ten years throughout its history", said Donnell, "it was never done over in its entirety."[64]

text: Donnell, who had studied architecture at Harvard, planned to gut the building and construct a new, modern office complex inside the historic shell. Failing to obtain financing for the remodeling, he embarked instead on an incremental, "pay as you go"[68] project to restore the Monadnock to its original condition in painstaking detail.[27] The project was, according to historian Donald Miller, the most comprehensive skyscraper restoration ever attempted at the time; it took thirteen years to complete.[69] Working from original drawings discovered at the Art Institute of Chicago, and two old photographs, Donnell and John Vinci, one of the nation's leading preservation architects, restored the building to its condition when first constructed, before any modernizations, working piecemeal as offices became vacant.[70][71]

text: The color of the shellac was matched to closets where the wood had not been darkened by exposure to light. The mosaic floors were recreated by Italian craftsmen at a cost of $50 per square foot ($538.12 per square meter).[36] A local firm was found that could reproduce the complicated process of sandblasting and hide glue application used to create the original feather chipped glass. This reproduced glass was used to restore the partitions and naturally lit corridors of Root's design.[72] To recreate the doors and wood trim, Donnell purchased the firm that had created the original oak woodwork—and still used the same 19th century machinery.[64] Perfect replicas of the original aluminum light fixtures were fabricated from early photographs and carbon filament light bulbs were obtained to recreate the original lighting effect.[73] A single surviving aluminum staircase was discovered behind a wall, restored, and used as a model to rebuild the lobby stairways and metalwork.[72] The wainscoting on the upper floors was restored with marble salvaged from the recently modernized, nearby 19 LaSalle and Manhattan Buildings.[74] Marble was purchased from the same Italian quarry that supplied Root's original construction to restore the lobby walls and ceilings.[73]

text: The Dearborn Street entrances were reopened and their massive granite lintels and surrounds cleared of layers of black paint or replaced. A source was found for the molded bricks needed to repair or replace the curved corners. Large plate glass windows at the entrance were removed and replaced with double-hung windows that conformed to the original design.[75] Fiberglass shades resembling the original linen versions were installed to preserve the appearance of the facade.[74] The average cost of the restoration work was $1 million per floor ($1.93 million in 2016 dollars) in 1989, or $47 per square foot ($505.92 per square meter).[16][76]

text: Donnell's goal was that the Monadnock would "not only look as it originally did, it [would] also live as it used to",[77] and he sought tenants for the street-level shops that were similar to their 19th-century occupants.[78] Shop windows were cleared of all signs and obstructions to preserve intended view from the corridor through to the street. Fluorescent lighting was prohibited and only gold leaf lettering on the glass was permitted for signage. Shops, all individually owned, were selected to fit the architectural character of the building.[78] A florist, for example, was chosen that evoked a turn-of-the-century atmosphere, as well as a barbershop with vintage fixtures and decor. A tobacconist with oak furnishings, a pen shop with glass cases, a shoe-shine stand, and other service establishments represented, in Donnell's words, "the kind of small-scale entrepreneurs who occupied those spaces at the turn of the century, the kind of people who bring vitality and life to a building because they have a stake in it."[78]

text: The restoration was a success both critically and commercially. The building was 80 percent occupied when bought in 1979 and rented for $5.50 per square foot ($59.20 per square meter). By 1982, it was 91 percent occupied and commanded rent of $9 per square foot ($96.89 per square meter).[64] The Monadnock was selected as one of top restoration projects in the country by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1987, noting "the outstanding quality of the overall restoration effort", and the precision, detail and faithfulness of the interior restoration, in particular the lobby, which "serves as a model for preservation nationwide."[70]

text: The restored Monadnock is divided into offices of from 250 square feet (23 m2) to 6,000 square feet (560 m2)[79][80] As of 2008[update], it was 98.9 percent leased; the 300 tenants are primarily independent professional firms and entrepreneurs.[81][82] Rents range from $21 to $23 per square foot ($226 to $247 per square meter), plus electricity.[83]

text: The building was offered for sale in 2007, with an expected price of $45 to $60 million.[84] A tentative deal was reached at a price of $48 million in 2008.[81]

text: Architecture[edit]

text: Together, the two parts of the building have a frontage of 420 feet (130 m) on Dearborn Street with a depth of 70 feet (21 m).[85] The original northern half presents a plain, unbroken vertical mass of purple-brown brick, which is contoured to create a gentle curve at the base of the building and an outward flare to form an austere parapet at the top.[86] The gentle swelling at base and cornice, observed historian Donald Hoffman, "came very close to the bell-shaped column the Egyptians had derived from papyrus".[87] The corners of the building are gracefully chamfered as they rise to the top and the oriel windows are chamfered at their base. The floor divisions are not marked on the exterior; the unbroken edifice is interrupted only by a series of cantilevered window bays, separated by rows of single thin silled windows set into the vertical face. The entryways are small, single-height portals topped with plain stone lintels.[86]

text: The south half preserves the lines and color of the older building, but is vertically divided by a stringcourse over the second story, emphasizing the building's base, and a large ornamental copper cornice at the roof line. Massive blocks of red granite, 6 feet (1.8 m) thick, frame the large, two-story entrances.[27] The projecting window bays of the original are repeated, but alternate in a pattern of two four-window bays to one recessed strip of windows to create the undulating appearance of the facade that was an early trademark of Holabird & Roche.[86][88] Carl Condit, historian of the Chicago school, has commented that:

text: The general appearance of the Monadnock almost belies its masonry construction. The projecting bays of the walls with their large glass areas give the structure a light and open appearance in spite of its great mass.... Stripped of every vestige of ornament, its rigorous geometry softened only by the slight inward curve of the wall at the top of the first story, the outward flare of the parapet, and the progressive rounding of the corners from bottom to top, subtly proportioned and scaled, the Monadnock is a severe yet powerfully expressive composition in horizontal and vertical lines.[89]

text: The Monadnock rests on the floating foundation system invented by Root for the Montauk Building that revolutionized the way tall buildings were built on Chicago's spongy soil.[90] A 2-foot (0.61 m) layer of concrete, reinforced with steel beams, forms a spread footing extending out 11 feet (3.4 m) under the surrounding streets, spreading the weight of the building over a large area of earth.[91] The building was designed to settle 8 inches (200 mm), but by 1905 had settled that much and "several inches more",[18] necessitating reconstruction of the first floor.[67] By 1948, it had settled 20 inches (51 cm), resulting in a step down from the street to the ground floor.[91][92] The entire east wall is supported on caissons sunk to the hardpan, installed when the subway Blue Line was dug under Dearborn Street in 1940.[93]

text: The narrow building allows an external exposure to all of the 300 offices, which pass natural light via double hung outside windows through feather-chipped glass transoms and hallway partitions into the single central corridor. Skylights bring sunlight into the open stairwells.[94] The north half corridors are 20 feet (6.1 m) wide and the south half corridors are 11 feet 6 inches (3.51 m). In the north half, there are two open stairs in the center at the one third points, with perforated risers, white marble treads, and decorative steel railings. There are two banks of four elevators on the west side of the corridor, one for passengers and the other for freight.[92] In the south half, there is a single bank of elevators on the north half of the length. The southern bank was abandoned and slabbed over on each floor.[67] There is a flight of stairs behind each of these shafts with marble treads, closed cast iron risers, and ornamental balusters.[92] The basic office suite is 600 square feet (56 m2), consisting of one outer office and two or more inner offices.[95] Heavy internal walls at the quarter and halfway points, the arches of which manifest Root's innovative wind bracing, mark the boundaries of the four original buildings.[67]

text: Surrounding area[edit]

text: The Monadnock belongs to the Printing House Row District, a National Historic Landmark which includes the Manhattan Building, the Old Colony Building, and the Fisher Building, some of Chicago's seminal early skyscrapers.[96] The Manhattan Building, built by William LeBaron Jenney in 1890, was the first building in Chicago with a complete steel skeleton or "Chicago" construction, an innovation Jenney had introduced in the Home Insurance Building in 1884.[97] The first 16-story building in America, at the time it was "regarded with awe and fear".[98] Jenney's masterpiece, the Manhattan was considered a technical triumph in construction.[99] The 17-story Old Colony, built by Holabird & Roche in 1894, was considered one of the structural masterpieces of its time for its revolutionary portal form of bracing.[100] It is the only survivor of a group of Chicago school buildings with rounded corner bays.[101] The Fisher Building, built by Burnham in 1894, was an engineering miracle—the first tall commercial building to be built almost entirely without bricks. Its steel frame and thin terracotta curtain wall allowed two-thirds of the surface to be covered with glass.[102]

text: The district overlaps geographically with the Printer's Row neighborhood, originally the center of Chicago's printing and publishing industry, but now mostly converted to residential housing.[103] The area is also home to the largest public library in the world, the Harold Washington Library, named for Chicago's first African-American mayor, and the Loop campus of Depaul University, America's largest Roman Catholic university.[104][105]

text: Immediately to the west on Jackson Street is the Union League Club of Chicago, founded in 1879 as a civic organization for "upright, law-abiding businessmen".[106] To the north are the three buildings comprising Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe's minimalist Federal Plaza: the 1964 Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse, the only courthouse designed by Mies; the 1973 United States Post Office Loop Station; and the 1975 Kluczynski Federal Building, Mies's last project, considered to mark the apex of his career.[107][108] The triangular, 27-story Metropolitan Correctional Center, a detention center serving the Federal courts in the Dirksen Building and nearby Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building, is southwest of the Monadnock at Clark and LaSalle.[109]

text: The south leg of the Chicago Transit Authority elevated rail loop runs next to the building on Van Buren Street; the CTA's Brown, Orange, Pink, and Purple Lines are served by the Library-State/Van Buren stop one block to the east. The Jackson street subway station, serving the Blue Line, is on the Dearborn Street side of the building.[110]

text: Critical reception and historical significance[edit]

text: Contemporary Chicago critics considered the building too radical a departure from Burnham & Root's previous designs and too extreme in its stark simplicity and disregard for prevailing aesthetic norms, calling it an "engineer's house"[111] and a "thoroughly puritanical"[112] example of commercial style.[113] European critics were even less approving. In the words of French architect Jacques Hermant, "The Monadnock was no longer the result of an artist responding to particular needs with intelligence and drawing from them all of the possible consequences. It is the work of a laborer who, without the slightest study, super-imposes 15 strictly identical stories to make a block then stops when he finds the block high enough."[114]

text: Other critics saw this lack of style as "natural" and what made the Monadnock truly modern. New York critic Barr Feree wrote in 1892 that "There are no attempts at facades ... no ornamental appendages, nothing but a succession of windows, frankly stating that the structure is an office building, devoted to business, needing and using every available surface."[115] Other critics praised the truthfulness of the building to the ideals of business, which, while "not necessarily the highest to which we might aspire to in art ... are the only ideals the business building ought to express".[115] Montgomery Schuyler, one of the Monadnock's most enthusiastic defenders, argued that the Monadnock's lack of ornament was not a lack of art, but rather "radiated the gravity of modern business life".[115]

text: The Monadnock was widely praised by early twentieth-century German architects, including Mies, who on his arrival in Chicago in 1938 declared that "The Monadnock block is of such vigor and force that I am at once proud and happy to make my home here."[116] These European architects found the building's attention to purpose and functional expression inspiring. Bauhaus architect Ludwig Hilberseimer wrote that "The false solution—unfortunately too common—of applying meaningless and misplaced adornment is here instinctively avoided. An innate feeling for proportion gives this great building inner consistency and logical purity."[116]

text: Modern critics have praised the Monadnock as one of the most important exemplars of the Chicago school, along with Louis Sullivan's Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building.[64] It has been called "a triumph of unified design"[117] comparable to Henry Hobson Richardson's Marshall Field's Wholesale Store, and "one of the most exciting aesthetic experiences our commercial architecture has ever produced".[118]

text: The building was one of the first five selected by the Chicago Commission on Architectural Landmarks in 1958, "in recognition of its original design and its historical interest as the highest wall-bearing structure in Chicago".[30][119] The commission went on to note that the "restrained use of brick, soaring massive walls, omission of ornamental forms, unite in a building simple yet majestic."[30] In 1973, the Chicago City Council voted unanimously to designate the Monadnock a Chicago Landmark, stating that "The two halves of this building provide a unique perspective for examining the history and development of modern architecture.... Together, they mark the end of one building tradition and the beginning of another."[2][120][i] Critics of the Monadnock's landmark status objected that it would prevent the necessary demolition of the building, which was "an excellent example of a building that is ... no longer fulfilling the functions it was designed to fulfill" and "a wasting asset" that underperformed the market and was far less valuable than the land on which it stood would be.[121]

text: The National Register of Historic Places, to which the Monadnock was added in 1970, noted that "the sheer, unadorned walls of this building forming a powerful mass became, prophetically, a forerunner of the 'slab skyscraper'—a style not popular until the late 1920s" and that "the two sections ... make, as an ensemble, one of the strongest, yet refined architectural statements in the development of twentieth century architecture."[3][4] Its nomination as a National Historic Landmark in 1976, as part of the South Dearborn Street – Printing House Row Historic District, included the comment that it was "one of the most classical statements ever made in the skyscraper idiom."[91]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ The other was William E. Hale, who introduced the hydraulic elevator to Chicago in 1878. (Miller 1997, p. 311)
Jump up ^ When completed, at 215 feet (66 m), the Monadnock was the tallest commercial masonry building in the world and, as of 2000[update], it remained so. (Wiseman 2000, p. 56) The tallest of its type, it is not, however, the tallest masonry building to be found, a distinction that belongs to the stone and marble Philadelphia City Hall, at 541 feet (167 m). (Priwer & Phillips 2009, p. 51)
Jump up ^ The Monadnock used a portal-strut system, which braced the masonry piers with iron girders. This evolved into what would come to be known as the portal system, using solid web plates instead, first used by Holabird & Roche in the Old Colony Building in 1894. (Freitag 1895, pp. 151–152)
Jump up ^ Feather chipping creates a frosted texture on plate glass using a technique called glue chipping, in which the glass is sandblasted to roughen the surface and then painted with animal hide glue which is fan dried at a carefully controlled temperature to shrink the glue, creating a surface of feather-like chips in the glass.
Jump up ^ The Washington Monument was fitted with a 100-ounce (2.8 kg) cast aluminum cap in 1884, arguably the first architectural use of aluminum. The Monadnock represents the first use of aluminum as a functional element of building construction. (National Park Service 1992, p. 84)
Jump up ^ The Monadnock had two (and later four) names because it was legally four separate buildings—the Monadnock, the Kearsage, the Katahdin, and the Wachusett—each owned by a different branch of the Brooks family that could sell their share independently. The other names were abandoned in the late 1890s and the four-way ownership was dissolved in the early 1920s. The letters M, K, and W can still be found on the original cast iron doorknobs, indicating which building each office originally was in. (Merwood-Salisbury 2009, pp. 159–160)
Jump up ^ Holabird & Roche moved their offices to the north half of the Monadnock in 1892, while the south half was under construction. They remained there until 1910, and built no fewer than five major projects for the Brooks brothers, practically at the same time, all within blocks of the Monadnock. (Bruegmann 1997, pp. 38,40)
Jump up ^ The Van Buren street side was designed to be the main entrance. When the 'L' tracks were erected literally on the doorstep of the building, the configuration was reversed to make Jackson street the building's "front". (Fuller 1958, p. B5)
Jump up ^ The original Commission on Architectural Landmarks was advisory in nature and was ultimately unsuccessful in protecting Chicago's landmark buildings. Beginning in 1968, Chicago Landmark status was granted by statute, which prohibited the destruction or drastic alteration of designated buildings without approval from the city. (Chicago Tribune 1968, p. B10)


document_title: List of Tennessee Titans first-round draft picks

question_text: who is the tennessee titans number one receiver

root

text: The Tennessee Titans are a National Football League (NFL) franchise that began play as the Houston Oilers in 1960, a charter member of the American Football League. The Oilers relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 1997, playing as the Tennessee Oilers before changing their name to the Tennessee Titans in 1999. The Titans' first draft selection was Billy Cannon, a halfback from Louisiana State University. The team's most recent first round selection was Marcus Mariota, a quarterback from the University of Oregon. The Titans have selected the number one overall pick in the draft twice. They have also selected the second overall pick thrice and the third overall pick six times. The team's five selections from the University of Texas are the most chosen by the Titans from one university.

tag: p

text: Every year during April, each NFL franchise seeks to add new players to its roster through a collegiate draft known as "the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting", which is more commonly known as the NFL Draft. Teams are ranked in inverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, and the second worst picking second and so on. The two exceptions to this order are made for teams that appeared in the previous Super Bowl; the Super Bowl champion always picks 32nd, and the Super Bowl loser always picks 31st. Teams have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or a combination thereof. Thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades.

text: The Titans drafted three consecutive future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees, Earl Campbell, Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews in the first rounds of the 1978, 1982 and 1983 NFL Drafts respectively.

text: Key[edit]

text:
Table key

^
Indicates the player was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

 *
Selected number one overall

†
Indicates the player was selected for the Pro Bowl at any time in their career.

—
The Titans did not draft a player in the first round that year.

Year
Each year links to an article about that particular NFL Draft.

Pick
Indicates the number of the pick within the first round

Position
Indicates the position of the player in the NFL

College
The player's college football team

tag: table

text: Player selections[edit]

text:
Tennessee Titans first-round draft picks

Year
Pick
Player name
Position
College
Notes

1960
N/A
Cannon, BillyBilly Cannon
HB
LSU

1961
7000800000000000000♠8
Ditka, MikeMike Ditka^
TE
Pittsburgh

1962
7000700000000000000♠7
Jacobs, RayRay Jacobs
DT
Howard Payne

1963
7000600000000000000♠6
Brabham, DannyDanny Brabham
LB
Arkansas

1964
7000600000000000000♠6
Appleton, ScottScott Appleton
DT
Texas

1965
7000200000000000000♠2
Elkins, LarryLarry Elkins
WR
Baylor

1966
7000500000000000000♠5
Nobis, TommyTommy Nobis
LB
Texas

1967
7000500000000000000♠5
Webster, GeorgeGeorge Webster
LB
Michigan State

7001230000000000000♠23
Regner, TomTom Regner
G
Notre Dame

1968
—
— No pick
—
—

1969
7001150000000000000♠15
Pritchard, RonRon Pritchard
LB
Arizona State

1970
7001140000000000000♠14
Wilkerson, DougDoug Wilkerson
G
North Carolina Central

1971
7000300000000000000♠3
Pastorini, DanDan Pastorini
QB
Santa Clara

1972
7000600000000000000♠6
Sampson, GregGreg Sampson
T
Stanford

1973
7000100000000000000♠1
Matuszak, JohnJohn Matuszak*
DE
Tampa

7001140000000000000♠14
Amundson, GeorgeGeorge Amundson
RB
Iowa State

1974
—
— No pick
—
—

1975
7000600000000000000♠6
Brazile, RobertRobert Brazile
LB
Jackson State

7001150000000000000♠15
Hardeman, DonDon Hardeman
RB
Texas A&M–Kingsville

1976
—
— No pick
—
—

1977
7001110000000000000♠11
Towns, MorrisMorris Towns
T
Missouri

1978
7000100000000000000♠1
Campbell, EarlEarl Campbell^*
RB
Texas

1979
—
— No pick
—
—

1980
—
— No pick
—
—

1981
—
— No pick
—
—

1982
7000800000000000000♠8
Munchak, MikeMike Munchak^
G
Penn State

1983
7000900000000000000♠9
Matthews, BruceBruce Matthews^
G
USC

1984
7000200000000000000♠2
Steinkuhler, DeanDean Steinkuhler
T
Nebraska

1985
7000300000000000000♠3
Childress, RayRay Childress
DT
Texas A&M

7001110000000000000♠11
Johnson, RichardRichard Johnson
DB
Wisconsin

1986
7000300000000000000♠3
Everett, JimJim Everett
QB
Purdue

1987
7000300000000000000♠3
Highsmith, AlonzoAlonzo Highsmith
RB
Miami (FL)

7001200000000000000♠20
Jeffires, HaywoodHaywood Jeffires
WR
North Carolina State

1988
7001220000000000000♠22
White, LorenzoLorenzo White
RB
Michigan State

1989
7001230000000000000♠23
Williams, DavidDavid Williams
T
Florida

1990
7001150000000000000♠15
Lathon, LamarLamar Lathon
LB
Houston

1991
—
— No pick
—
—

1992
—
— No pick
—
—

1993
7001130000000000000♠13
Hopkins, BradBrad Hopkins
T
Illinois

1994
7001260000000000000♠26
Ford, HenryHenry Ford
DT
Arkansas

1995
7000300000000000000♠3
McNair, SteveSteve McNair
QB
Alcorn State

1996
7001140000000000000♠14
George, EddieEddie George
RB
Ohio State

1997
7001180000000000000♠18
Holmes, KennyKenny Holmes
DE
Miami (FL)

1998
7001160000000000000♠16
Dyson, KevinKevin Dyson
WR
Utah

1999
7001160000000000000♠16
Kearse, JevonJevon Kearse
DE
Florida

2000
7001300000000000000♠30
Bulluck, KeithKeith Bulluck
Linebacker
Syracuse

2001
—
— No pick
—
—

2002
7001150000000000000♠15
Haynesworth, AlbertAlbert Haynesworth
Defensive tackle
Tennessee

2003
7001280000000000000♠28
Woolfolk, AndreAndre Woolfolk
Defensive back
Oklahoma

2004
—
— No pick
—
—

2005
7000600000000000000♠6
Jones, AdamAdam Jones
Defensive back
West Virginia

2006
7000300000000000000♠3
Young, VinceVince Young
Quarterback
Texas

2007
7001190000000000000♠19
Griffin, MichaelMichael Griffin
Defensive back
Texas

2008
7001240000000000000♠24
Johnson, ChrisChris Johnson
Running back
East Carolina

2009
7001300000000000000♠30
Britt, KennyKenny Britt
Wide receiver
Rutgers

2010
7001160000000000000♠16
Morgan, DerrickDerrick Morgan
Defensive end
Georgia Tech

2011
7000800000000000000♠8
Locker, JakeJake Locker
Quarterback
Washington

2012
7001200000000000000♠20
Wright, KendallKendall Wright
Wide receiver
Baylor

2013
7001100000000000000♠10
Warmack, ChanceChance Warmack
Offensive lineman
Alabama

2014
7001110000000000000♠11
Lewan, TaylorTaylor Lewan
Offensive lineman
Michigan

2015
7000200000000000000♠2
Mariota, MarcusMarcus Mariota
Quarterback
Oregon

2016
7000800000000000000♠8
Conklin, JackJack Conklin
Offensive lineman
Michigan State

2017
7000500000000000000♠5
Davis, CoreyCorey Davis
Wide receiver
Western Michigan

7001180000000000000♠18
Jackson, Adoree'Adoree' Jackson
Defensive back
USC


document_title: Southeast Asia

question_text: what regions of south asia have the highest population densities

question_tokens: what regions of south asia have the highest population densities

text: Southeast Asia

text: Definitions[edit]

text: The region, together with part of South Asia, was well known by the Europeans as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Chinese sources referred the region as 南洋 (Nanyang), which literally means the Southern Ocean. The mainland section of Southeast Asia is referred as Indochina by European geographer due to its location between China and Indian subcontinent and cultural influences from both neighboring regions. In the 20th century however, the term became more restricted to former French Indochina territory (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). The maritime section of Southeast Asia is also known as Malay Archipelago, a term derived from the European concept of a Malay race.[8] Another term for Maritime Southeast Asia is Insulindia (Indian Islands), used to describe the region between Indochina and Australasia.[9]

text: The term "Southeast Asia" was first used in 1839 by an American pastor Howard Malcolm in his book entitled Travels in South-Eastern Asia. Malcolm only included the Mainland section and excluded the Maritime section in his definition of Southeast Asia.[10] The term was officially used in the midst of World War II by the Allies, through the formation of South East Asia Command (SEAC) in 1943.[11] SEAC popularised the use of the term "Southeast Asia", although what constituted Southeast Asia in the early days was not fixed, for example the Philippines and a large part of Indonesia were excluded by SEAC while Ceylon was included. However, by the late 1970s, a roughly standard usage of the term "Southeast Asia" and the territories it encompasses had emerged.[12] Although from a cultural or linguistic perspective, the definitions of "Southeast Asia" may vary, the most common definitions nowadays include the area represented by the countries (sovereign states and dependent territories) listed below.

text: Ten of eleven states of Southeast Asia are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while East Timor is an observer state. Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea.

text: Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (a disputed region or nation), are also considered as part of the Southeast Asia.[13][14][15][16][17]

text: Political divisions[edit]

text: Sovereign states[edit]

text:
State
Area
(km2)[2]
Population
(2016)[1]
Density
(/km2)
GDP (nominal),
USD (2016)[2]
GDP (PPP)
per capita,
Int$ (2016)[2]
HDI (2016)[18]:22–24
Capital

 Brunei Darussalam
5,765
423,196
78
10,458,000,000
$76,884
0.865
Bandar Seri Begawan

 Cambodia
181,035
15,762,370
85
19,368,000,000
$3,737
0.563
Phnom Penh

 East Timor
14,874
1,268,671
75
2,501,000,000
$4,187
0.605
Dili

 Indonesia
1,904,569
261,115,456
132
940,953,000,000
$11,720
0.689
Jakarta

 Laos
236,800
6,758,353
30
13,761,000,000
$5,710
0.586
Vientiane

 Malaysia
329,847
31,187,265
91
302,748,000,000
$27,267
0.789
Kuala Lumpur *

 Myanmar
676,000
52,885,223
98
68,277,000,000
$5,832
0.556
Nay Pyi Daw

 Philippines
343,448
103,320,222
294
311,687,000,000
$7,728
0.682
Manila

 Singapore
724
5,622,455
7,671
296,642,000,000
$90,151
0.925
Singapore (city-state)

 Thailand
513,120
68,863,514
127
390,592,000,000
$16,888
0.740
Bangkok

 Vietnam
331,210
94,569,072
279
200,493,000,000
$6,429
0.683
Hanoi

text: * Administrative centre in Putrajaya.

text: Dependent territories[edit]

text:
Territory
Area (km2)
Population
Density (/km2)
Capital

 Christmas Island
135[20]
1,402[20]
10.4
Flying Fish Cove

 Cocos (Keeling) Islands
14[21]
596[21]
42.6
West Island (Pulau Panjang)

text: Administrative subdivisions[edit]

text:
Territory
Area (km2)
Population
Density (/km2)
Capital

 Andaman and Nicobar Islands
8,251
379,944[22]
46
Port Blair

text: Geographical divisions[edit]

text: Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia (or Indochina) and Maritime Southeast Asia (or the similarly defined Malay Archipelago) (Javanese: Nusantara).

text: Mainland Southeast Asia includes:

text:
Cambodia
Laos
Myanmar (Burma)
Peninsular Malaysia
Thailand
Vietnam

tag: ul

text: Maritime Southeast Asia includes:

text:
Indonesia
Philippines
East Malaysia
Brunei
Singapore
East Timor

text: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Maritime Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and Northeast India have strong cultural ties with Southeast Asia and sometimes considered both South Asian and Southeast Asian.[23] Sri Lanka has on some occasions been considered a part of Southeast Asia because of its cultural ties to mainland Southeast Asia.[12][24] The rest of the island of New Guinea which is not part of Indonesia, namely, Papua New Guinea, is sometimes included, and so are Palau, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, which were all part of the Spanish East Indies with strong cultural and linguistic ties to the region.[25]

text: The eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor (east of the Wallace Line) are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania (Wallacea) due to its distinctive faunal features. New Guinea and its surrounding islands are geologically considered as a part of Australian continent, connected via the Sahul Shelf.

text: History[edit]

text: Prehistory[edit]

text: The region was already inhabited by Homo erectus from 1,000,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene age.[26] Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago,[27] having moved eastwards from the Indian subcontinent.[28] Homo floresiensis also lived in the area up until 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct.[29] It has been proposed that the Austronesian people, who form the majority of the modern population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor, and the Philippines, may have migrated to Southeast Asia from Taiwan. They arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BC, and as they spread through the archipelago, they often settled along coastal areas and confined indigenous peoples such as Orang Asli of peninsular Malaysia, Negritos of the Philippines or Papuans of New Guinea to inland regions.[30] Archaeologists refer these people as Deutero-Malays, whom are more advanced in farming techniques and metal knowledge than their indigenous counterpart, the Proto-Malays.[31][32]

text: Studies presented by HUGO (Human Genome Organization) through genetic studies of the various peoples of Asia, show empirically that there was a single migration event from Africa, whereby the early people travelled along the south coast of Asia, first entered the Malay peninsula 50,000–90,000 years ago. The Orang Asli, in particular the Semang who show Negrito characteristics, are the direct descendent of this earliest settlers of Southeast Asia. These early people diversified and travelled slowly northwards to China, and the populations of Southeast Asia show greater genetic diversity than the younger population of China.[33][32] Studies on the genetics of modern Malays however show that there is a complex history of admixture of human populations in Southeast Asia, with the Malay population showing four major ancestral components: Austronesian, Proto-Malay, East Asian and South Asian.[34]

text: Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao (Nusantara) maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BC to 1 AD.[35] The Bronze Age Dong Son culture flourished in Northern Vietnam from about 1000 BC to 1 BC. Its influence spread to other parts Southeast Asia.[36][37][38] The region entered the Iron Age era in 500 BC, when iron was forged also in northern Vietnam still under Dong Son, due to its frequent interactions with neighboring China.[26]

text: The peoples of Southeast Asia, especially those of Austronesian descent, have been seafarers for thousands of years, some reaching the island of Madagascar, became the ancestors of modern-day Malagasy people.[39] Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonisation of Madagascar, as well as commerce between Western Asia, eastern coast of India and Chinese southern coast.[39] Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome. Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History about Chryse and Argyre, two legendary islands rich in gold and silver, located in the Indian Ocean. Their vessels, such as the vinta, were capable to sail across ocean. Magellan's voyage records how much more manoeuvrable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships.[40] A slave from the Sulu Sea was believed to have been used in Magellan's voyage as a translator.

text: Most Southeast Asian people were originally animist, engaged in ancestors, nature, and spirits worship. These belief systems were later supplanted by Hinduism and Buddhism after the region, especially coastal areas, came under contacts with Indian subcontinent during the 1st century.[41] Indian Brahmins and traders brought Hinduism to the region and made contacts with local courts.[42] Local rulers converted to Hinduism or Buddhism and adopted Indian religious traditions to reinforce their legitimacy, elevate ritual status above their fellow chief counterparts and facilitate trade with South Asian states. They periodically invited Indian Brahmins into their realms and began a gradual process of Indianisation in the region.[43][44][45] Shaivism was the dominant religious tradition of many southern Indian Hindu kingdoms during the 1st century. It then spread into Southeast Asia via Bay of Bengal, Indochina, then Malay Archipelago, leading to thousands of Shiva temples on the islands of Indonesia as well as Cambodia and Vietnam, co-evolving with Buddhism in the region.[46][47] Theravada Buddhism entered the region during the 3rd century, via maritime trade routes between the region and Sri Lanka.[48] Buddhism later established a strong presence in Funan region in the 5th century. In present-day mainland Southeast Asia, Theravada is still the dominant branch of Buddhism, practiced by the Thai, Burmese and Cambodian Buddhists. This branch was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture. Mahayana Buddhism established presence in Maritime Southeast Asia, brought by Chinese monks during their transit in the region en route to Nalanda.[43] It is still the dominant branch of Buddhism practiced by Indonesian and Malaysian Buddhists.

text: The spread of these two Indian religions confined the adherents of Southeast Asian indigenous beliefs into remote inland areas. Maluku Islands and New Guinea were never been Indianised and its native people were predominantly animists until the 15th century when Islam began to spread in those areas.[49] While in Vietnam, Buddhism never managed to develop strong institutional networks due to strong Chinese influence.[50] In present-day Southeast Asia, Vietnam is the only country where its folk religion makes up the plurality.[51][52] Recently, Vietnamese folk religion is undergoing a revival with the support of the government.[53] Elsewhere, there are ethnic groups in Southeast Asia that resist conversion and still retain their original animist beliefs, such as the Dayaks in Kalimantan, the Igorots in Luzon, and the Shans in eastern Myanmar.[54]

text: Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms era[edit]

text: After the region came under contacts with Indian subcontinent circa 400 BCE, it began a gradual process of Indianisation where Indian ideas such as religions, cultures, architectures and political administrations were brought by traders and religious figures and adopted by local rulers. In turn, Indian Brahmins and monks were invited by local rulers to live in their realms and help transforming local polities to become more Indianised, blending Indian and indigenous traditions.[55][44][45] Sanskrit and Pali became the elite language of the region, which effectively made Southeast Asia part of the Indosphere.[56] Most of the region had been Indianised during the first centuries, while the Philippines later Indianised circa 9th century when Kingdom of Tondo was established in Luzon.[57] Vietnam, especially its northern part, was never fully Indianised due to the many periods of Chinese domination it experienced.[58]

text: The first Indian-influenced polities established in the region were the Pyu city-states that already existed circa 2nd century BCE, located in inland Myanmar. It served as an overland trading hub between India and China.[59] Theravada Buddhism was the predominant religion of these city states, while the presence of other Indian religions such as Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism were also widespread.[60][61] In the 1st century, the Funan states centered in Mekong Delta were established, encompassed modern-day Cambodia, southern Vietnam, Laos, and eastern Thailand. It became the dominant trading power in mainland Southeast Asia for about five centuries, provided passage for Indian and Chinese goods and assumed authority over the flow of commerce through Southeast Asia.[62] In maritime Southeast Asia, the first recorded Indianised kingdom was Salakanagara, established in western Java circa 2nd century CE. This Hindu kingdom was known by the Greeks as Argyre (Land of Silver).[63]

text: By the 5th century CE, trade networking between East and West was concentrated in the maritime route. Foreign traders were starting to use new routes such as Malacca and Sunda Strait due to the development of maritime Southeast Asia. This change resulted in the decline of Funan, while new maritime powers such as Srivijaya, Tarumanagara, and Medang emerged. Srivijaya especially became the dominant maritime power for more than 5 centuries, controlling both Strait of Malacca and Sunda Strait.[39] This dominance started to decline when Srivijaya were invaded by Chola Empire, a dominant maritime power of Indian subcontinent, in 1025.[64] The invasion reshaped power and trade in the region, resulted in the rise of new regional powers such as the Khmer Empire and Kahuripan.[65] Continued commercial contacts with the Chinese Empire enabled the Cholas to influence the local cultures. Many of the surviving examples of the Hindu cultural influence found today throughout Southeast Asia are the result of the Chola expeditions.[66]

text: As Srivijaya influence in the region declined, The Hindu Khmer Empire experienced a golden age during the 11th to 13th century CE. The empire's capital Angkor hosts majestic monuments—such as Angkor Wat and Bayon. Satellite imaging has revealed that Angkor, during its peak, was the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the world.[67] The Champa civilisation was located in what is today central Vietnam, and was a highly Indianised Hindu Kingdom. The Vietnamese launched a massive conquest against the Cham people during the 1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa, ransacking and burning Champa, slaughtering thousands of Cham people, and forcibly assimilating them into Vietnamese culture.[68]

text: During the 13th century CE, the region experienced Mongol invasions, affected areas such as Vietnamese coast, inland Burma and Java. In 1258, 1285 and 1287, the Mongols try to invade Đại Việt and Champa.[69] The invasions were unsuccessful, yet both Dai Viet and Champa agreed to become tributary states to Yuan dynasty to avoid further conflicts.[70] The Mongols also invaded Pagan Kingdom in Burma from 1277 to 1287, resulted in fragmentation of the Kingdom and rise of smaller Shan States ruled by local chieftains nominally submitted to Yuan dynasty.[71][72] However, in 1297, a new local power emerged. Myinsaing Kingdom became the real ruler of Central Burma and challenged the Mongol rule. This resulted in the second Mongol invasion of Burma in 1300, which was repulsed by Myinsaing.[73][74] The Mongols would later in 1303 withdrawn from Burma.[75] In 1292, The Mongols sent envoys to Singhasari Kingdom in Java to ask for submission to Mongol rule. Singhasari rejected the proposal and injured the envoys, enraged the Mongols and made them sent a large invasion fleet to Java. Unbeknownst to them, Singhasari collapsed in 1293 due to a revolt by Kadiri, one of its vassals. When the Mongols arrived in Java, a local prince named Raden Wijaya offered his service to assist the Mongols in punishing Kadiri. After Kadiri was defeated, Wijaya turned on his Mongol allies, ambushed their invasion fleet and forced them to immediately leave Java.[76][77]

text: After the departure of the Mongols, Wijaya established the Majapahit Empire in eastern Java in 1293. Majapahit would soon grew into a regional power. Its greatest ruler was Hayam Wuruk, whose reign from 1350 to 1389 marked the empire's peak when other kingdoms in the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali came under its influence. Various sources such as the Nagarakertagama also mention that its influence spanned over parts of Sulawesi, Maluku, and some areas of western New Guinea and southern Philippines, making it one of the largest empire to ever exist in Southeast Asian history.[78](p107) By the 15th century CE however, Majapahit's influence began to wane due to many war of successions it experienced and the rise of new Islamic states such as Samudera Pasai and Malacca Sultanate around the strategic Strait of Malacca. Majapahit then collapsed around 1500. It was the last major Hindu kingdom and the last regional power in the region before the arrival of the Europeans.[79][80]

text: Spread of Islam[edit]

text: Islam began to made contacts with Southeast Asia in the 8th-century CE, when the Umayyads established trade with the region via sea routes.[81][82][83] However its spread into the region happened centuries later. In the 11th century, a turbulent period occurred in the history of Maritime Southeast Asia. The Indian Chola navy crossed the ocean and attacked the Srivijaya kingdom of Sangrama Vijayatungavarman in Kadaram (Kedah); the capital of the powerful maritime kingdom was sacked and the king was taken captive. Along with Kadaram, Pannai in present-day Sumatra and Malaiyur and the Malayan peninsula were attacked too. Soon after that, the king of Kedah Phra Ong Mahawangsa became the first ruler to abandon the traditional Hindu faith, and converted to Islam with the Sultanate of Kedah established in 1136. Samudera Pasai converted to Islam in 1267, the King of Malacca Parameswara married the princess of Pasai, and the son became the first sultan of Malacca. Soon, Malacca became the center of Islamic study and maritime trade, and other rulers followed suit. Indonesian religious leader and Islamic scholar Hamka (1908–1981) wrote in 1961: "The development of Islam in Indonesia and Malaya is intimately related to a Chinese Muslim, Admiral Zheng He."[84]

text: There are several theories to the Islamisation process in Southeast Asia. Another theory is trade. The expansion of trade among West Asia, India and Southeast Asia helped the spread of the religion as Muslim traders from Southern Yemen (Hadramout) brought Islam to the region with their large volume of trade. Many settled in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. This is evident in the Arab-Indonesian, Arab-Singaporean, and Arab-Malay populations who were at one time very prominent in each of their countries. Finally, the ruling classes embraced Islam and that further aided the permeation of the religion throughout the region. The ruler of the region's most important port, Malacca Sultanate, embraced Islam in the 15th century, heralding a period of accelerated conversion of Islam throughout the region as Islam provided a positive force among the ruling and trading classes.

text: Trade and foreign colonisation[edit]

text: Trade among Southeast Asian countries has a long tradition. The consequences of colonial rule, struggle for independence and in some cases war influenced the economic attitudes and policies of each country until today.[85]

text: China[edit]

text: From 111 BC to 938 AD northern Vietnam was under Chinese rule. Vietnam was successfully governed by a series of Chinese dynasties including the Han, Eastern Han, Eastern Wu, Cao Wei, Jin, Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang, Sui, Tang, and Southern Han.

text: Records from Magellan's voyage show that Brunei possessed more cannon than the European ships, so the Chinese must have been trading with them.[40]

text: Malaysian legend has it that a Chinese Ming emperor sent a princess, Hang Li Po, to Malacca, with a retinue of 500, to marry Sultan Mansur Shah after the emperor was impressed by the wisdom of the sultan. Han Li Po's well (constructed 1459) is now a tourist attraction there, as is Bukit Cina, where her retinue settled.

text: The strategic value of the Strait of Malacca, which was controlled by Sultanate of Malacca in the 15th and early 16th century, did not go unnoticed by Portuguese writer Duarte Barbosa, who in 1500 wrote "He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice".

text: Europe[edit]

text: Western influence started to enter in the 16th century, with the arrival of the Portuguese in Malacca, Maluku and the Philippines, the latter being settled by the Spanish years later. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies; the French Indochina; and the British Strait Settlements. By the 19th century, all Southeast Asian countries were colonised except for Thailand.

text: European explorers were reaching Southeast Asia from the west and from the east. Regular trade between the ships sailing east from the Indian Ocean and south from mainland Asia provided goods in return for natural products, such as honey and hornbill beaks from the islands of the archipelago. Before the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the Europeans mostly were interested in expanding trade links. For the majority of the populations in each country, there was comparatively little interaction with Europeans and traditional social routines and relationships continued. For most, a life with subsistence level agriculture, fishing and, in less developed civilizations, hunting and gathering was still hard.[86]

text: Europeans brought Christianity allowing Christian missionaries to become widespread. Thailand also allowed Western scientists to enter its country to develop its own education system as well as start sending Royal members and Thai scholars to get higher education from Europe and Russia.

text: Japan[edit]

text: During World War II, Imperial Japan invaded most of the former western colonies. The Shōwa occupation regime committed violent actions against civilians such as the Manila massacre and the implementation of a system of forced labour, such as the one involving 4 to 10 million romusha in Indonesia.[87] A later UN report stated that four million people died in Indonesia as a result of famine and forced labour during the Japanese occupation.[88] The Allied powers who defeated Japan in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II then contended with nationalists to whom the occupation authorities had granted independence.

text: Contemporary history[edit]

text: Most countries in the region enjoy national autonomy. Democratic forms of government and the recognition of human rights are taking root. ASEAN provides a framework for the integration of commerce, and regional responses to international concerns.

text: Conflicting claims over the Spratly Islands are made by Brunei, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. As recently as 2013, China has made efforts to develop artificial islands throughout the region.[89]

text: Geography[edit]

text: Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia and it also the largest archipelago in the world by size (according to the CIA World Factbook). Geologically, the Indonesian Archipelago is one of the most volcanically active regions in the world. Geological uplifts in the region have also produced some impressive mountains, culminating in Puncak Jaya in Papua, Indonesia at 5,030 metres (16,500 feet), on the island of New Guinea; it is the only place where ice glaciers can be found in Southeast Asia. The highest mountain in Southeast Asia is Hkakabo Razi at 5,967 meters and can be found in northern Burma sharing the same range of its parent peak, Mount Everest.

text: The South China Sea is the major body of water within Southeast Asia. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore, have integral rivers that flow into the South China Sea.

text: Mayon Volcano, despite being dangerously active, holds the record of the world's most perfect cone which is built from past and continuous eruption.[90]

text: Boundaries[edit]

text: Southeast Asia is bounded to the southeast by the Australian continent, a boundary which runs through Indonesia. But a cultural touch point lies between Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian region of the Papua and West Papua, which shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea.

text: Climate[edit]

text: The climate in Southeast Asia is mainly tropical–hot and humid all year round with plentiful rainfall. Northern Vietnam and the Myanmar Himalayas are the only regions in Southeast Asia that feature a subtropical climate, which has a cold winter with snow. The majority of Southeast Asia has a wet and dry season caused by seasonal shift in winds or monsoon. The tropical rain belt causes additional rainfall during the monsoon season. The rain forest is the second largest on earth (with the Amazon being the largest). An exception to this type of climate and vegetation is the mountain areas in the northern region, where high altitudes lead to milder temperatures and drier landscape. Other parts fall out of this climate because they are desert like. Climate change will have a big effect on agriculture in Southeast Asia such as irrigation systems will be affected by changes in rainfall and runoff, and subsequently, water quality and supply.[91]

text: Environment[edit]

text: The vast majority of Southeast Asia falls within the warm, humid tropics, and its climate generally can be characterised as monsoonal. The animals of Southeast Asia are diverse; on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the orangutan, the Asian elephant, the Malayan tapir, the Sumatran rhinoceros and the Bornean clouded leopard can also be found. Six subspecies of the binturong or bearcat exist in the region, though the one endemic to the island of Palawan is now classed as vulnerable.

text: Tigers of three different subspecies are found on the island of Sumatra (the Sumatran tiger), in peninsular Malaysia (the Malayan tiger), and in Indochina (the Indochinese tiger); all of which are endangered species.

text: The Komodo dragon is the largest living species of lizard and inhabits the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang in Indonesia.

text: The Philippine eagle is the national bird of the Philippines. It is considered by scientists as the largest eagle in the world,[92] and is endemic to the Philippines' forests.

text: The wild Asian water buffalo, and on various islands related dwarf species of Bubalus such as anoa were once widespread in Southeast Asia; nowadays the domestic Asian water buffalo is common across the region, but its remaining relatives are rare and endangered.

text: The mouse deer, a small tusked deer as large as a toy dog or cat, mostly can be found on Sumatra, Borneo (Indonesia) and in Palawan Islands (Philippines). The gaur, a gigantic wild ox larger than even wild water buffalo, is found mainly in Indochina. There is very little scientific information available regarding Southeast Asian amphibians.[93]

text: Birds such as the peafowl and drongo live in this subregion as far east as Indonesia. The babirusa, a four-tusked pig, can be found in Indonesia as well. The hornbill was prized for its beak and used in trade with China. The horn of the rhinoceros, not part of its skull, was prized in China as well.

text: The Indonesian Archipelago is split by the Wallace Line. This line runs along what is now known to be a tectonic plate boundary, and separates Asian (Western) species from Australasian (Eastern) species. The islands between Java/Borneo and Papua form a mixed zone, where both types occur, known as Wallacea. As the pace of development accelerates and populations continue to expand in Southeast Asia, concern has increased regarding the impact of human activity on the region's environment. A significant portion of Southeast Asia, however, has not changed greatly and remains an unaltered home to wildlife. The nations of the region, with only few exceptions, have become aware of the need to maintain forest cover not only to prevent soil erosion but to preserve the diversity of flora and fauna. Indonesia, for example, has created an extensive system of national parks and preserves for this purpose. Even so, such species as the Javan rhinoceros face extinction, with only a handful of the animals remaining in western Java.

text: The shallow waters of the Southeast Asian coral reefs have the highest levels of biodiversity for the world's marine ecosystems, where coral, fish and molluscs abound. According to Conservation International, marine surveys suggest that the marine life diversity in the Raja Ampat (Indonesia) is the highest recorded on Earth. Diversity is considerably greater than any other area sampled in the Coral Triangle composed of Indonesia, Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. The Coral Triangle is the heart of the world's coral reef biodiversity, the Verde Passage is dubbed by Conservation International as the world's "center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity". The whale shark, the world's largest species of fish and 6 species of sea turtles can also be found in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean territories of the Philippines.

text: The trees and other plants of the region are tropical; in some countries where the mountains are tall enough, temperate-climate vegetation can be found. These rainforest areas are currently being logged-over, especially in Borneo.

text: While Southeast Asia is rich in flora and fauna, Southeast Asia is facing severe deforestation which causes habitat loss for various endangered species such as orangutan and the Sumatran tiger. Predictions have been made that more than 40% of the animal and plant species in Southeast Asia could be wiped out in the 21st century.[94] At the same time, haze has been a regular occurrence. The two worst regional hazes were in 1997 and 2006 in which multiple countries were covered with thick haze, mostly caused by "slash and burn" activities in Sumatra and Borneo. In reaction, several countries in Southeast Asia signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution to combat haze pollution.

text: The 2013 Southeast Asian Haze saw API levels reach a hazardous level in some countries. Muar experienced the highest API level of 746 on 23 June 2013 at around 7 am.[95]

text: Economy[edit]

text: Even prior to the penetration of European interests, Southeast Asia was a critical part of the world trading system. A wide range of commodities originated in the region, but especially important were spices such as pepper, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. The spice trade initially was developed by Indian and Arab merchants, but it also brought Europeans to the region. First Spaniards (Manila galleon) and Portuguese, then the Dutch, and finally the British and French became involved in this enterprise in various countries. The penetration of European commercial interests gradually evolved into annexation of territories, as traders lobbied for an extension of control to protect and expand their activities. As a result, the Dutch moved into Indonesia, the British into Malaya and parts of Borneo, the French into Indochina, and the Spanish and the US into the Philippines. An economic effect of this imperialism was the shift in the production of commodities. For example, the rubber plantations of Malaysia, Java, Vietnam and Cambodia, the tin mining of Malaya, the rice fields of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam and Irrawaddy River delta in Burma, were a response to powerful market demands.[96]

text: The overseas Chinese community has played a large role in the development of the economies in the region. These business communities are connected through the bamboo network, a network of overseas Chinese businesses operating in the markets of Southeast Asia that share common family and cultural ties.[97] The origins of Chinese influence can be traced to the 16th century, when Chinese migrants from southern China settled in Indonesia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries.[98] Chinese populations in the region saw a rapid increase following the Communist Revolution in 1949, which forced many refugees to emigrate outside of China.[97]

text: The region's economy greatly depends on agriculture; rice and rubber have long been prominent exports. Manufacturing and services are becoming more important. An emerging market, Indonesia is the largest economy in this region. Newly industrialised countries include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, while Singapore and Brunei are affluent developed economies. The rest of Southeast Asia is still heavily dependent on agriculture, but Vietnam is notably making steady progress in developing its industrial sectors. The region notably manufactures textiles, electronic high-tech goods such as microprocessors and heavy industrial products such as automobiles. Oil reserves in Southeast Asia are plentiful.

text: Seventeen telecommunications companies contracted to build the Asia-America Gateway submarine cable to connect Southeast Asia to the US[99] This is to avoid disruption of the kind recently caused by the cutting of the undersea cable from Taiwan to the US in the 2006 Hengchun earthquakes.

text: Tourism has been a key factor in economic development for many Southeast Asian countries, especially Cambodia. According to UNESCO, "tourism, if correctly conceived, can be a tremendous development tool and an effective means of preserving the cultural diversity of our planet."[100] Since the early 1990s, "even the non-ASEAN nations such as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Burma, where the income derived from tourism is low, are attempting to expand their own tourism industries."[101] In 1995, Singapore was the regional leader in tourism receipts relative to GDP at over 8%. By 1998, those receipts had dropped to less than 6% of GDP while Thailand and Lao PDR increased receipts to over 7%. Since 2000, Cambodia has surpassed all other ASEAN countries and generated almost 15% of its GDP from tourism in 2006.[102]

text: Indonesia is the only member of G-20 major economies and is the largest economy in the region.[103] Indonesia's estimated gross domestic product for 2016 was US$932.4 billion (nominal) or $3,031.3 billion (PPP) with per capita GDP of US$3,604 (nominal) or $11,717 (PPP).[104]

text: Stock markets in Southeast Asia have performed better than other bourses in the Asia-Pacific region in 2010, with the Philippines' PSE leading the way with 22 percent growth, followed by Thailand's SET with 21 percent and Indonesia's JKSE with 19 percent.[105][106]

text: Southeast Asia's GDP per capita is US$3,853 according to a 2015 United Nations report, which is comparable to Guatemala and Tonga.[107]

text:
Country
Currency
Population
(2017)[108]
Nominal GDP
(2017)[109]
GDP per capita
(2017)[110]
GDP growth
(2017)[111]

Inflation
(2017)[112]

Main industries

 Brunei
B$ Brunei dollar
443,593
$11.96 billion
$27,890
-1.3%
-0.2%
Petroleum, Petrochemicals, Fishing

 Cambodia
៛ Riel
16,204,486
$22.25 billion
$1,390
6.9%
3.7%
Clothing, Gold, Agriculture

 East Timor
US$ US dollar
1,291,358
$2.72 billion
$2,190
4%
1%
Petroleum, Coffee, Electronics

 Indonesia
Rp Rupiah
260,580,739
$1,010.00 billion
$3,860
5.2%
4%
Coal, Petroleum, Palm oil

 Laos
₭ Kip
7,126,706
$17.15 billion
$2,570
6.9%
2.3%
Copper, Electronics, Tin

 Malaysia
RM Ringgit
31,381,992
$309.86 billion
$9,660
5.4%
3.8%
Electronics, Petroleum, Palm oil

 Myanmar
K Kyat
55,123,814
$66.97 billion
$1,270
7.2%
6.5%
Natural gas, Agriculture, Clothing

 Philippines
₱ Peso
104,256,076
$389.482 billion
$3,593
6.6%
3.1%
Electronics, Timber, Automotive

 Singapore
S$ Singapore dollar
5,888,926
$305.76 billion
$53,880
2.5%
0.9%
Electronics, Petroleum, Chemicals

 Thailand
฿ Baht
68,414,135
$437.81 billion
$6,340
3.7%
0.6%
Electronics, Automotive, Rubber

 Vietnam
₫ Đồng
96,160,163
$215.96 billion
$2,310
6.3%
4.4%
Electronics, Clothing, Agriculture

text: Demographics[edit]

text: Southeast Asia has an area of approximately 4,500,000 km2 (1.7 million square miles). As of 2016, around 642 million people live in the region, more than a fifth live (143 million) on the Indonesian island of Java, the most densely populated large island in the world. Indonesia is the most populous country with 261 million people, and also the 4th most populous country in the world. The distribution of the religions and people is diverse in Southeast Asia and varies by country. Some 30 million overseas Chinese also live in Southeast Asia, most prominently in Christmas Island, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, and also as the Hoa in Vietnam. People of Southeast Asian origins are known as Southeast Asians or Aseanites.

text: Ethnic groups[edit]

text: The Aslians and Negritos were believed as one of the earliest inhabitant in the region. They are genetically related to the Australoid Papuans in Eastern Indonesia and Australian Aborigines. The next waves of human migration to Southeast Asia were Austroasiatic and Austronesians, which today forming the majority of the regional population.

text: In modern times, the Javanese are the largest ethnic group in Southeast Asia, with more than 100 million people, mostly concentrated in Java, Indonesia. The second largest ethnic group in Southeast Asia is Vietnamese with around 86 million population, mainly inhabit Vietnam forming significant minority in neighboring Cambodia and Laos. The Thais is also a significant ethnic group with around 59 million population forming the majority in Thailand. In Burma, the Burmese account for more than two-thirds of the ethnic stock in this country.

text: Indonesia is clearly dominated by the Javanese and Sundanese ethnic groups, with hundreds of ethnic minorities inhabited the archipelago, including Madurese, Minangkabau, Bugis, Balinese, Dayak, Batak and Malays. While Malaysia is split between more than half Malays and one-quarter Chinese, and also Indian minority in the West Malaysia however Dayaks is the most majority in Sarawak and Kadazan-dusun is the most majority in Sabah which are in the East Malaysia. The Malays are the majority in West Malaysia and Brunei, while they forming a significant minority in Indonesia, Southern Thailand , East Malaysia and Singapore. In city-state Singapore, Chinese are the majority, yet the city is a multicultural melting pot with Malays, Indians and Eurasian also called the island their home.

text: The Chams forming a significant minority in Central and South Vietnam, also in Central Cambodia. While the Khmers are the majority in Cambodia, and forming a significant minority in Southern Vietnam and Thailand. The Hmong people are the minority in Vietnam, China and Laos.

text: Within the Philippines, the Visayan (mainly Cebuanos and Hiligaynons), Tagalog, Ilocano, Bicolano and Central Luzon (mainly Kapampangan and Pangasinan) groups are significant.

text: Religion[edit]

text: Countries in Southeast Asia practice many different religions. Islam is the most practised faith, numbering approximately 240 million adherents, or about 40% of the entire population, concentrated in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Southern Thailand and in the Southern Philippines. Indonesia is the most populous Muslim-majority country around the world.

text: Buddhism is predominant in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Singapore. Ancestor worship and Confucianism are also widely practised in Vietnam and Singapore.

text: Christianity is predominant in the Philippines, eastern Indonesia, East Malaysia and East Timor. The Philippines has the largest Roman Catholic population in Asia. East Timor is also predominantly Roman Catholic due to a history of Portuguese rule.

text: No individual Southeast Asian country is religiously homogeneous. In the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, Hinduism is dominant on islands such as Bali. Christianity also predominates in the rest of the part of the Philippines, New Guinea and Timor. Pockets of Hindu population can also be found around Southeast Asia in Singapore, Malaysia etc. Garuda (Sanskrit: Garuḍa), the phoenix who is the mount (vahanam) of Vishnu, is a national symbol in both Thailand and Indonesia; in the Philippines, gold images of Garuda have been found on Palawan; gold images of other Hindu gods and goddesses have also been found on Mindanao. Balinese Hinduism is somewhat different from Hinduism practised elsewhere, as Animism and local culture is incorporated into it. Christians can also be found throughout Southeast Asia; they are in the majority in East Timor and the Philippines, Asia's largest Christian nation. In addition, there are also older tribal religious practices in remote areas of Sarawak in East Malaysia, Highland Philippines and Papua in eastern Indonesia. In Burma, Sakka (Indra) is revered as a nat. In Vietnam, Mahayana Buddhism is practised, which is influenced by native animism but with strong emphasis on ancestor worship.

text: The religious composition for each country is as follows: Some values are taken from the CIA World Factbook:[113]

text:
Country
Religions

 Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Hinduism (69%), Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and others

 Brunei
Islam (67%), Buddhism, Christianity, others (indigenous beliefs, etc.)

 Burma
Buddhism (89%), Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Animism, others

 Cambodia
Buddhism (97%), Islam, Christianity, Animism, others

 Christmas Island
Buddhism (75%), Islam, Christianity

 Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Islam (80%), others

 East Timor
Roman Catholicism (97%), Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism

 Indonesia
Islam (87.18%), Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, others[114]

 Laos
Buddhism (67%), Animism, Christianity, others

 Malaysia
Islam (60.4%), Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Animism

 Philippines
Roman Catholicism (80%), Islam (11%),[115] Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) (3%), Buddhism (2%),[116] Animism (1.25%), others (0.35%)

 Singapore
Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism, Hinduism, others

 Thailand
Buddhism (93.83%), Islam (4.56%), Christianity (0.8%), Hinduism (0.011%), others (0.079%)

 Vietnam
Vietnamese folk religion (45.3%), Buddhism (16.4%), Christianity (8.2%), Other (0.4%), Unaffiliated (29.6%)[117]

text: Languages[edit]

text: Each of the languages have been influenced by cultural pressures due to trade, immigration, and historical colonization as well. There are nearly over 800 native languages in the region.

text: The language composition for each country is as follows (with official languages in bold):

text:
Country
Languages

 Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Bengali, Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Shompen, A-Pucikwar, Aka-Jeru, Aka-Bea, Aka-Bo, Aka-Cari, Aka-Kede, Aka-Kol, Aka-Kora, Aka-Bale, Jangil, Jarawa, Oko-Juwoi, Önge, Sentinelese, Camorta, Car, Chaura, Katchal, Nancowry, Southern Nicobarese, Teressa

 Brunei
Malay, English, Indonesian, Chinese, Tamil and indigenous Bornean dialects (Iban, Murutic language, Lun Bawang,)[118]

 Burma
Burmese, English, Shan, Kayin(Karen), Rakhine, Kachin, Chin, Mon, Kayah, Chinese and other ethnic languages.[119]

 Cambodia
Khmer, Thai, English, French, Vietnamese, Cham, Chinese, others[120]

 Christmas Island
English, Chinese, Malay[121]

 Cocos (Keeling) Islands
English, Cocos Malay[122]

 East Timor
Tetum, Portuguese, Indonesian, English, Mambae, Makasae, Tukudede, Bunak, Galoli, Kemak, Fataluku, Baikeno, others[123]

 Indonesia
Indonesian, Javanese, Dutch, Sundanese, Batak, Minangkabau, Buginese, Banjar, Papuan, Dayak, Acehnese, Ambonese Balinese, Betawi, Madurese, Musi, Manado, Sasak, Makassarese, Batak Dairi, Karo, Mandailing, Jambi Malay, Mongondow, Gorontalo, Ngaju, Nias, North Moluccan, Uab Meto, Bima, Manggarai, Toraja-Sa'dan, Komering, Tetum, Rejang, Muna, Sumbawa, Bangka Malay, Osing, Gayo, Bungku-Tolaki languages, Moronene, Bungku, Bahonsuai, Kulisusu, Wawonii, Mori Bawah, Mori Atas, Padoe, Tomadino, Lewotobi, Tae', Mongondow, Lampung, Tolaki, Ma'anyan, Simeulue, Gayo, Buginese, Mandar, Minahasan, Enggano, Ternate, Tidore, Mairasi, East Cenderawasih Language, Lakes Plain Languages, Tor-Kwerba, Nimboran, Skou/Sko, Border languages, Senagi, Pauwasi, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Tamil, Punjabi, Bengali, and Arabic.
Indonesia has over 700 languages in over 17,000 islands across the archipelago, making Indonesia the second most linguistically diverse country on the planet,[124] slightly behind Papua New Guinea. The official language of Indonesia is Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), widely used in educational, political, economic, and other formal situations. In daily activities and informal situations, most Indonesians speak in their local language(s). For more details, see: Languages of Indonesia.

 Laos
Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, Hmong, Miao, Mien, Dao, Shan, French, English and others[125]

 Malaysia
Malaysian, English, Indonesian, Mandarin, Tamil, Kedah Malay, Sabah Malay, Brunei Malay, Kelantan Malay, Pahang Malay, Acehnese, Javanese, Minangkabau, Banjar, Buginese, Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Fuzhounese, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi, Sinhalese, Malayalam, Arabic, Brunei Bisaya, Okolod, Kota Marudu Talantang, Kelabit, Lotud, Terengganu Malay, Semelai, Thai, Iban, Kadazan, Dusun, Kristang, Bajau, Jakun, Mah Meri, Batek, Melanau, Semai, Temuan, Lun Bawang, Temiar, Penan, Tausug, Iranun, Lundayeh/Lun Bawang and others,[126] see: Languages of Malaysia

 Philippines
Filipino, English, Tagalog, Spanish, Visayan (Aklanon, Cebuano, Kinaray-a, Capiznon, Hiligaynon, Waray, Masbateño, Romblomanon, Cuyonon, Surigaonon, Butuanon, Tausug) Ivatan, Ilocano, Ibanag, Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Bicolano, Sama-Bajaw, Maguindanao, Maranao, Chavacano
The Philippines has more than a hundred native languages, most without official recognition from the national government. Spanish and Arabic are on a voluntary and optional basis. Malaysian, Indonesian, Mandarin, Lan-nang (Hokkien), Cantonese, Hakka, Japanese and Korean are also spoken in the Philippines due to immigration, geographic proximity and historical ties. See: Languages of the Philippines

 Singapore
English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Hindi, Sinhalese, Indonesian, Javanese, Balinese, Singlish creole and others

 Thailand
Thai, English, Teochew, Minnan, Hakka, Yuehai, Malay, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Arabic, Lao, Northern Khmer, Isan, Shan, Lue, Phutai, Mon, Mein, Hmong, Karen, Burmese and others[127]

 Vietnam
Vietnamese, English, Khmer, French, Cantonese, Hmong, Tai, Cham and others[128]

text: Cities[edit]

text:
Jabodetabek (Jakarta/West Java/Banten),  Indonesia. Jabodetabek is an abbreviation of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi, which are the satellite cities of the Special Capital Region of Jakarta.
Metro Manila (Manila/Quezon City/Makati/Taguig/Pasay/Caloocan and 11 others),  Philippines
Bangkok Metropolitan Region (Bangkok/Nonthaburi/Samut Prakan/Pathum Thani/Samut Sakhon/Nakhon Pathom),  Thailand
Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley (Kuala Lumpur/Selangor),  Malaysia
Greater Penang (Penang/Kedah/Perak),  Malaysia
Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area (Ho Chi Minh City/Vung Tau),  Vietnam
Yangon Region (Yangon/Thanlyin),  Myanmar
Hanoi Capital Region (Hanoi/Hai Phong/Ha Long),  Vietnam
Gerbangkertosusila (Surabaya/Sidoarjo/Gresik/Mojokerto/Lamongan/Bangkalan),  Indonesia
Bandung Metropolitan Area (Bandung/Cimahi),  Indonesia
Metro Cebu (Cebu City/Mandaue/Lapu-Lapu City/Talisay City and 11 others),  Philippines
Metro Davao (Davao City/Digos/Tagum/Island Garden City of Samal),  Philippines
Metro Iloilo-Guimaras (Iloilo City/Pavia/Oton/Leganes/Zarraga/San Miguel/Guimaras) ,  Philippines
Phnom Penh City (Phnom Penh/Kandal),  Cambodia

text: Culture[edit]

text: The culture in Southeast Asia is very diverse: on mainland Southeast Asia, the culture is a mix of Indochinese (Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand) and Chinese (Vietnam). While in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia the culture is a mix of indigenous Austronesian, Indian, Islamic, Western, and Chinese cultures. Also Brunei shows a strong influence from Arabia. Singapore and Vietnam show more Chinese influence[129] in that Singapore, although being geographically a Southeast Asian nation, is home to a large Chinese majority and Vietnam was in China's sphere of influence for much of its history. Indian influence in Singapore is only evident through the Tamil migrants,[130] 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.

text: 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 labour-intensive. The rice paddies are well-suited to the monsoon climate of the region.

text: Stilt houses 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 include weaponry, such as the distinctive kris, and musical instruments, such as the gamelan.

text: Influences[edit]

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

text: As a rule, 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 chopsticks; tea, as a beverage, can be found across the region. The fish sauces distinctive to the region tend to vary.

text: Arts[edit]

text: The arts of Southeast Asia have 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, Cambodian royal ballet represented them in the early 7th century before the Khmer Empire, which was highly influenced by Indian Hinduism. Apsara Dance, famous for strong hand and feet movement, is a great example of Hindu symbolic dance.

text: Puppetry and shadow plays were also a favoured form of entertainment in past centuries, a famous one being Wayang from Indonesia. The arts and literature in some of Southeast Asia is quite influenced by Hinduism, which was brought to them centuries ago. Indonesia, despite 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 Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) and literature like the Ramayana. The wayang kulit show has been recognized by UNESCO on November 7, 2003, as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

text: 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, coming late into Southeast Asia, brought with them some Chinese artistic traditions, but they soon shed them in favour of the Khmer and Mon traditions, and the only indications of their earlier contact with Chinese arts were in the style of their temples, especially the tapering roof, and in their lacquerware.

text: Music[edit]

text: Traditional music in Southeast Asia is as varied as its many ethnic and cultural divisions. Main styles of traditional music can be seen: Court music, folk music, music styles of smaller ethnic groups, and music influenced by genres outside the geographic region.

text: 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 /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 also are popular in the region.

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

text: Writing[edit]

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

text: Originally, Indians were the ones who taught the native inhabitants about writing. This is shown through Brahmic forms of writing present in the region such as the Balinese script shown on split palm leaf 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).

text: 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 abugidas, 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.

text: 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').

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

text: However, the use of the Chinese script has been in decline, especially in Singapore and Malaysia as the younger generations are in favour of the Latin Script.