Indochina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly east of India, south of China.
Note that the term Sino-Indian is used to describe things relating to India and China. (e.g. Sino-Indian relations). The term Indochina is exclusively used to denote this region.
Historically, the countries of Mainland Southeast Asia received cultural influence from China and India, but to varying degrees. Many Southeast Asian countries are influenced mainly by the culture of India with a smaller influence from the culture of China. However, this is actually reversed in the culture of Vietnam where the main foreign influence is from the culture of China with a much smaller influence from India, largely via the Champa civilization that Vietnam conquered during its southward expansion.
Indochina comprises the territory of the following countries:
- in strict sense, only the former colonial French Indochina:
- in the wider sense, better described as Mainland Southeast Asia, it also includes:
- Peninsular Malaysia (comprising the southern end of the Malay peninsula but none of the Malay islands)
- Myanmar (formerly Burma and part of British India until 1937)
- Singapore (also considered part of Maritime Southeast Asia if the man-made Johor-Singapore Causeway is not taken into account)
- Thailand (formerly Siam)
The main religion in this region is Theravada or Hinayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is predominant in Vietnam, while Malaysia and Singapore are multi-religious nations, with adherents of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and others (Animism, Confucianism, Taoism, etc).
