These wind systems bring fairly predictable rainy seasons, and before steamships were invented, these wind systems also enabled traders from outside the region to arrive and leave at regular intervals. The entire region is affected by the monsoon winds, which blow regularly from the northwest and then reverse to blow from the southeast. For example, several small islands in eastern Indonesia were once the world’s only source of cloves, nutmeg, and mace. Many sea and jungle products are unique to the region, and were therefore much desired by international traders in early times. Temperatures are generally warm, although it is cooler in highland areas. Virtually all of Southeast Asia lies between the tropics, and so there are similarities in climate as well as plant and animal life throughout the region. Geography, Environment, and Cultural Zones Muslims are a minority in Singapore and the southern Philippines. Although 85 percent of Indonesia’s population of over 234,000,000 are Muslims, a larger number than any other country in the world, Islam is not the official state religion.
Islam is the state religion in Malaysia and Brunei. Island or maritime Southeast Asia includes Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, and the new nation of East Timor (formerly part of Indonesia). The Cham people of central Vietnam and Cambodia are also Muslim. Muslims can be found in all mainland countries, but the most significant populations are in southern Thailand and western Burma (Arakan). The mainland ( Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) is actually an extension of the Asian continent.
Southeast Asia consists of eleven countries that reach from eastern India to China, and is generally divided into “mainland” and “island” zones.
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