The history of Southeast Asia covers the people of Southeast Asia from prehistory to the present in two distinct sub-regions:Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia. Mainland Southeast Asia comprises Cambodia,Laos,Myanmar,Peninsular Malaysia,Thailand and Vietnam whereas Maritime Southeast Asia comprises Brunei,Cocos (Keeling) Islands,Christmas Island,East Malaysia,East Timor,Indonesia,Philippines and Singapore.
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders,also called shipwrights,follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.
A junk is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China:northern junk,which developed from Chinese river boats,and southern junk,which developed from Austronesian ships visiting southern Chinese coasts since the 3rd century CE. They continued to evolve in later dynasties and were predominantly used by Chinese traders throughout Southeast Asia. Similar junk sails were also adopted by other East Asian countries,most notably Japan,where junks were used as merchant ships to trade goods with China and Southeast Asia. They were found —and in lesser numbers,are still found —throughout Southeast Asia and India,but primarily in China. Historically,a Chinese junk could be one of many types of small coastal or river ships,usually serving as a cargo ship,pleasure boat,or houseboat,but also ranging in size up to large ocean-going vessel. Found more broadly today is a growing number of modern recreational junk-rigged sailboats. There can be significant regional variations in the type of rig or the layout of the vessel;however,they all employ fully battened sails.
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei,Indonesia,Malaysia,the Philippines,Singapore,and East Timor.
Sculling is the use of oars to propel a boat by moving them through the water on both sides of the craft,or moving one oar over the stern. A long,narrow boat with sliding seats,rigged with two oars per rower may be referred to as a scull,its oars may be referred to as sculls and a person rowing it referred to as sculler.
Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers,which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull. They can range from small dugout canoes to large plank-built vessels. Outrigger boats can also vary in their configuration,from the ancestral double-hull configuration (catamarans),to single-outrigger vessels prevalent in the Pacific Islands and Madagascar,to the double-outrigger vessels (trimarans) prevalent in Island Southeast Asia. They are traditionally fitted with Austronesian sails,like the crab claw sails and tanja sails,but in modern times are often fitted with petrol engines.
A sewn boat is a type of wooden boat which is clinker built with its planks sewn,stitched,tied,or bound together with tendons or flexible wood,such as roots and willow branches. Sewn boat construction techniques were used in many parts of the world prior to the development of metal fasteners,and continued to be used long after that time for small boats to reduce construction costs where metal fasteners were too expensive.
Indian maritime history begins during the 3rd millennium BCE when inhabitants of the Indus Valley initiated maritime trading contact with Mesopotamia. As per Vedic records,Indian traders and merchants traded with the far east and Arabia. During the Maurya Empire,there was a definite "naval department" to supervise the ships and trade. At the end of 1st century BCE Indian products reached the Romans during the rule of Augustus,and the Roman historian Strabo mentions an increase in Roman trade with India following the Roman annexation of Egypt. As trade between India and the Greco-Roman world increased,spices became the main import from India to the Western world,bypassing silk and other commodities. Indians were present in Alexandria while Christian and Jewish settlers from Rome continued to live in India long after the fall of the Roman Empire,which resulted in Rome's loss of the Red Sea ports,previously used to secure trade with India by the Greco-Roman world since the Ptolemaic dynasty. The Indian commercial connection with Southeast Asia proved vital to the merchants of Arabia and Persia during the 7th–8th century. A study published in 2013 found that some 11 percent of Australian Aboriginal DNA is of Indian origin and suggests these immigrants arrived about 4,000 years ago,possibly at the same time dingoes first arrived in Australia.
A Dhoni is a traditional multi-purpose sailvessel with a motor or lateen sails that is used in the Maldives,South India and Sri Lanka. Varying in size and shape,they are used as fishing vessel,ferry,trading- and cargo ship.
By around 788 BCE,a large settlement had been established on the northern bank of the Merbok River. The settlement was one of several in the Bujang Valley,covering the Merbok and Muda Rivers,about 1000 square miles. The Merbok settlement was built near the estuary of the tributary river,the Sungai Batu. Around 170 CE groups of Hindu faith arrived at Kedah,joining them soon were peoples from nearby islands and from the northern Mon-Khmer region. At the same time traders from India,Persia and Arab,arrived the brink of the Malacca Strait,using Gunung Jerai the Kedah Peak as marking point. Ancient Kedah covered the areas of Kuala Kedah,Kuala Bara,Kuala Pila and Merpah.
The Austronesian peoples,sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples,are a large group of peoples in Taiwan,Malay Peninsula,parts of Mainland Southeast Asia,Maritime Southeast Asia,Micronesia,coastal New Guinea,Island Melanesia,Polynesia,and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages. They also include indigenous ethnic minorities in Vietnam,Cambodia,Myanmar,Thailand,Hainan,the Comoros,and the Torres Strait Islands. The nations and territories predominantly populated by Austronesian-speaking peoples are sometimes known collectively as Austronesia.
Traditionally,many different kinds of boats have been used as fishing boats to catch fish in the sea,or on a lake or river. Even today,many traditional fishing boats are still in use. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),at the end of 2004,the world fishing fleet consisted of about 4 million vessels,of which 2.7 million were undecked (open) boats. While nearly all decked vessels were mechanised,only one-third of the undecked fishing boats were powered,usually with outboard engines. The remaining 1.8 million boats were traditional craft of various types,operated by sail and oars.
Southeast Asia was in the Indian sphere of cultural influence from 290 BCE to the 15th century CE,when Hindu-Buddhist influences were incorporated into local political systems. Kingdoms in the southeast coast of the Indian Subcontinent had established trade,cultural and political relations with Southeast Asian kingdoms in Burma,Bhutan,Sri Lanka,Thailand,the Sunda Islands,Malay Peninsula,Philippines,Cambodia,Laos,and Champa. This led to the Indianisation and Sanskritisation of Southeast Asia within the Indosphere,Southeast Asian polities were the Indianised Hindu-Buddhist Mandala.
Naga Pelangi is a wooden junk rigged schooner of the Malay pinas type built using traditional lashed-lug techniques from 2004 to 2009 in Kuala Terengganu,Malaysia. Finished in 2010,it is operated as a charter vessel in South East Asia.
The countries of the Bay of Bengal include littoral and landlocked countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia that depend on the bay for maritime usage. Historically,the Bay of Bengal has been a highway of transport,trade and cultural exchange between diverse peoples encompassing the Indian subcontinent,Indochinese peninsula and Malay Archipelago. Today,the Bay of Bengal region is the convergence of two major geopolitical blocs- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) promotes regional engagement in the area.
The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected China,Southeast Asia,the Indian subcontinent,the Arabian peninsula,Somalia,Egypt and Europe. It began by the 2nd century BCE and flourished later on until the 15th century CE. Major players in the Maritime Silk Road include the merchants from the Tang,Song,Yuan and Ming dynasties of imperial China,Austronesian sailors in Southeast Asia,Tamil merchants in India and Southeast Asia,and Persian and Arab traders in the Arabian Sea and beyond. The network followed the footsteps of older maritime networks in Southeast Asia,as well as the maritime spice networks of Southeast Asia,Sri Lanka,India,and the Indian Ocean,coinciding with these ancient maritime trade roads by the current era.
Bangka are various native watercraft of the Philippines. It originally referred to small double-outrigger dugout canoes used in rivers and shallow coastal waters,but since the 18th century,it has expanded to include larger lashed-lug ships,with or without outriggers. Though the term used is the same throughout the Philippines,"bangka" can refer to a very diverse range of boats specific to different regions. Bangka was also spelled as banca,panca,or panga in Spanish. It is also known archaically as sakayan.
Sampan panjang was a type of Malay fast boat from the 19th century. It was used especially by the sampan-men,or "Orang Laut". Historically,they can be found in Malaysia,Singapore,and Indonesia. This type of boat was used by Malay people as racing boat and as transport boat. The sampan panjang appeared at the first quarter of the 19th century,and disappeared at the turn of that century. These boats proved to be superior than European boats in racing purposes;they were easy winners when racing against the European yachts of that time.
Lashed-lug boats are built using a long-standing traditional boat-building technique found in Maritime Southeast Asia. It dates back at least to early in the first millennium CE and its use has continued into the 20th century. Lashed lug construction is closely associated with Austronesian maritime activity.
Stern sculling is the use of a single oar over the stern of a boat to propel it with side-to-side motions that create forward lift in the water. The strict terminology of propulsion by oar is complex and contradictory,and varies by context. Stern sculling may also simply be referred to as "sculling",most commonly so in a maritime situation. In fresh water,and particularly in sport rowing,sculling is use of two oars on either side of the boat by each person,in contrast to sweep rowing,whereby each boat crew member employs a single oar,complemented by another crew member working on the opposite side with their oar.
