The
legendary walisongo, the nine Javan saints and missionaries who are
considered early torchbearers of Islam in what is now Indonesia, stood in a long
tradition of itinerant Muslim scholars, preachers, and travelers who found their
way into the region on trade ships traveling from India to the Far East and from
China to the West. Islam in Southeast Asia has thus always been characterized by
cultural and religious diversity. The many ethnic, religious, and cultural
communities living side by side in the region integrated Islam into their lives
in manifold ways. In some of these countries Muslims remained minorities, such
as the Cham of Vietnam and Cambodia, while in others, such as Indonesia and
Malaysia, they became the world's largest Muslim populations within the borders
of a single nation. In this special folder we travel from Brunei to Burma,
Myanmar to Laos, and back in time to the ancient Thai kingdom of Siam, to then
return to the modern metropolises of the Philippines and Singapore, on a journey
of discovery of the artistic and cultural heritage that the Muslim peoples of
these intimately tied islands and shores have contributed to the world of Islam.
If you have any audio files related to Islamic
oral expression in Southeast Asia (songs, prayers, poems, chants) that you
would like to share with us, please e-mail us at: artculture_egypt@yahoo.co.uk
