Feeling The Diversity of Culture in Southeast Asia, Are We The Same?

When discussing Southeast Asia, it certainly includes many countries or you must remember ASEAN. One of the countries we often hear about is Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. But in general, for small children, Malaysia is definitely affected by the Upin Ipin cartoon which is very educational and seems to be a spectacle for young children. 

Indonesia is the 14th largest country as well as the largest archipelago by area and the country with the sixth largest island in the world. Indonesia consists of various ethnic groups, languages, and religions. Based on the family family commonly known as RAS, Indonesia's national motto is, "Bhineka Tunggal Ika" which means (different but still one), meaning socio-cultural diversity that forms a single unit/state. 

Indonesia is a country located in Southeast Asia which is directly adjacent to other countries. Among the countries in the Southeast Asian region, of course, they have different slogans or cultures, especially what we know in Indonesia itself, which has many cultures and always different customs.

Southeast Asia is a region known for its many cultural differences

The Southeast Asian region is often referred to as the Malay tribe, but the Malays are mostly inhabited by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

 Southeast Asia has the nickname Malay tribe because it has cultural and physical similarities in their countries. The occurrence of physical resemblance in Southeast Asia was caused by the influence caused by Europeans, Indians, Chinese and Arabs who at that time they were trading in the area around the coast of Southeast Asia. 

They traded in the coastal areas of Southeast Asia which eventually brought new teachings and cultures which eventually occurred in the people of Southeast Asian countries, starting with the spread of Islamic religion, culture, about dressing, crafts and customs. 

In the view of the European community, Southeast Asia has a clear resemblance both from the point of view of the European community. However, by looking carefully at the forms of diversity in ideology, social conditions, the description of the population or the defense system, which has its own characteristics in each country. 

One example is in terms of language, residents in the Southeast Asian region have their own language characteristics for communicating, namely if in Indonesia using Indonesian, Malaysia uses Malaysian which is more inclined to Malay while in Singapore uses Singaporean language, namely English Malay, while in Singapore, English is Malay. Thailand uses the Thai language itself.

There are some cultural similarities in Southeast Asia

The proximity of the geographical location between Indonesia and Malaysia and the teachings that were accepted at the time made Malaysia and Indonesia have almost the same similarities if we do not pay close attention, for example, the faces or faces of Malaysians and Indonesians have similarities and the majority have brown skin. The mature adoption of the Malay language in Indonesia, especially in the Kalimantan region, makes Indonesia and Malaysia almost no different. 

From cultural arts there are some that are almost similar, for example, if Indonesia has reog Ponorogo and Kuda Lumping in Malaysia also has Kuda Lumping which this news has spread widely from the last few months which was mentioned in the mass media about claims of Indonesian culture in Malaysia, namely Reog culture. Ponorogo, to be more precise, claims that the lumping horse Ponorogo is said to be one of Indonesia's signature loot which has become an art and is recognized by Malaysia.

While it may seem that every country has its own unique culture, it turns out that there are some similarities between all of them. For example, in terms of the Malay language used by people in Southeast Asia, the way of speaking, clothing and facial features that have little by little similarities. In addition, every country must have its own characteristics in culture or dress. 

In Malaysia, where the majority of the people are ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians, they have a culture, namely the dull dawai Daya dance ceremony and the zapin dance, where these dances have their own characteristics in terms of clothing, while in clothing, Malaysians usually wear traditional Malay clothes that has the characteristic of using a skullcap for men and a short sarong that covers the hips and plain cloth pants. Meanwhile, in Myanmar, where the majority of religions are Hinduism or Buddhism, they have a culture that is dominated by Buddhists because there is very little Islam in Myanmar. Culture in Myanmar is more of a handicraft culture, for example jade. As well as clothing in Myanmar called longyi which is worn by wrapping it from the stomach to the calves and wearing a headdress and jade bracelets. 

 So that's all the discussion about the cultural diversity that exists in Southeast Asia, I hope this information is useful for all of us.