Everything about The Malay Archipelago totally explained
The
Malay Archipelago is a vast
archipelago located between mainland
Southeastern Asia (
Indochina) and
Australia. Straddling the
Indian and
Pacific Oceans, this group of some 20,000
islands, the world's largest archipelago by area, constitutes the territories of
Indonesia, the
Philippines,
Singapore,
Brunei,
Malaysia,
East Timor, and most of
Papua New Guinea. There are, however, arguments for excluding the last-named country for cultural and geographical reasons: Papua New Guinea is culturally quite different from the other countries in the region, and the island of
New Guinea itself is geologically not part of the continent of
Asia, as the islands of the
Sunda Shelf are (see
Australia (continent)).
The archipelago is sometimes also known as the
East Indies, but some authorities apply a much broader meaning to this term by including
Indochina, the
Indian subcontinent, and even areas as far west as
Iranian Baluchistan.
The Malay Archipelago encompasses many groups which may be considered archipelagoes in their own right. The major ones are:
The archipelago's area is more than 2 million km², and its total population is more than 300,000,000+. The biggest islands in the archipelago are
New Guinea (if included),
Borneo, and
Sumatra. The most heavily populated island is
Java.
Geologically the archipelago is very interesting, being one of the most active
volcanic regions in the world.
Geological uplifts in the region have also produced some impressive mountains, culminating in
Mount Kinabalu in
Sabah with a height of 4 101 m (or
Puncak Jaya in
Papua at 4 884 m, if New Guinea is included).
The climate throughout the archipelago, owing to its position astride the
equator, is tropical. It is notably rainier in the west than in the east, however.
The region known as
Maritime Southeast Asia is more or less coextensive with the Malay Archipelago.
Maritime Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia is the name given to the island nations in
Southeast Asia, collectively known as the
Malay archipelago. Nations in this region include:
Malaysia - two Malaysian states are on the island of Borneo, and [Labuan]], a nearby island, is a Federal Territory.
Singapore - a small island nation off the coast of the Malay Peninsula.
Brunei - a small nation bordered by Malaysia and the South China Sea.
Indonesia - in the Malay archipelago; including islands such as Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and the western part New Guinea.
Papua New Guinea - the nation occupying the eastern part of New Guinea.
Philippines - a group of many islands bordered by the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea.
East Timor - the 21st century's first independent nation, shares the island Timor with Indonesia.
In terms of the demography of this region, people are predominantly from Austronesian subgroupings (with the exception of Singapore), and all correspondingly speak western Malayo-Polynesian languages. Also, this region of Southeast Asia shares more social and cultural ties with other Austronesian peoples in the Pacific than with the peoples of Mainland Southeast Asia.
Often, the mainland part of Malaysia, which is known as Malaya, is included as part of Maritime Southeast Asia in order that all the non-Oceanian Austronesian peoples can be included together in one cultural region.
The main religions in this region are Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and traditional Animism.
Sources
"Malay Archipelago
." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2006. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Wallace, Alfred Russel The Malay Archipelago, Volume I.Further Information
Get more info on 'Malay Archipelago'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://malay_archipelago.totallyexplained.com">Malay Archipelago Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
