The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an international organisation founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Its objective is to promote economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the Southeast Asian ...

The Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) was founded in Singapore in 1970 as the Conference of Southeast Asian Librarians. It was a regional body formed to provide a platform for librarians of Southeast Asian Nations to have dialogues and to promote ...

The Southeast Asia (SEA) Collection is a significant collection of the National Library. It includes the Ya Yin Kwan Collection, the Rost Collection, the Gibson-Hill Collection and a wide range of early-19th-century literature. Its most valuable titles come from ...

The arrival of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in India in 1498 meant that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover a direct sea route to Asia via the Cape of Good Hope and, subsequently, Southeast Asia. Their main motive in seeking out the maritime ...

Suratman Markasan (b. 29 December 1930, Singapore– ) is a prolific poet, novelist and respected literary pioneer in Singapore. His literary career spans from the early 1950s to the present. The numerous awards he has received include: the Southeast Asian Writers ...

The durian (Durio zibethinus) is often dubbed “king of tropical fruits” and a native of Southeast Asia. The name “durian” was derived from the Malay word for thorns, duri. The renowned naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, said this about the fruit: “It is like a ...

The cultivated mango (Mangifera indica Linn.) originated in the Indo-Burma region, and it has been grown in India for the last 6,000 years. It is an important commercial crop not only in India, but also in Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, ...

Radio broadcasting began in Singapore in 1924 through the initiatives of a small circle of amateur radio enthusiasts and hobbyists. It was developed further by commercial companies until it was nationalised by the colonial government in response to the threat of ...

Haze is an air-borne mixture of pollutants that includes soot particles, carbon dioxide and other toxic gases. Haze pollution affects several Southeast Asian countries on a regular basis, notably Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, and to a lesser extent ...

The Lady Mary Wood was a 49-metre-long wooden paddle steamer launched on 16 September 1841 and registered in January 1842. It is said to be named after the wife of Charles Wood, who was England’s secretary to the Admiralty. The steamer had a gross tonnage of 556 ...

Wayang kulit is a form of traditional theatre in Southeast Asia. It involves a puppet shadow play performance with origins that are possibly linked to the Indian shadow play. There are many forms and types of wayang kulit in Asia. Those performed in Peninsular ...

The dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) is a tropical fruit that belongs to the climbing cacti (Cactaceae) family. Widely cultivated in Vietnam, the fruit is popular in Southeast Asia. Apart from being refreshing and tasty, it has been noted that the dragon fruit ...

George Lien Ying Chow (b. 2 August 1906, Guangdong, China–d. 6 August 2004, Singapore) was an entrepreneur, banker and philanthropist. He is best known as the founder of Overseas Union Bank (OUB), one of Southeast Asia’s largest banks before it was acquired by ...

Lee Tzu Pheng (b. 13 May 1946, Singapore–) is one of Singapore’s distinguished poets. A retired university lecturer, she has published in anthologies and journals internationally. Her three volumes of poetry, Prospect of a Drowning (1980), Against the Next Wave ...

The Borneo Co. Ltd. (BCL) was formed in 1856 to exploit business opportunities in Borneo (Sarawak). It was also active in other parts of Asia. Drawing on its knowledge of the Southeast Asian markets, the company entered the automobile industry in the 1920s, importing ...

Joscelin Yeo Wei Ling (b. 2 May 1979, Seoul, South Korea–) is a national swimmer of Singapore, and the only athlete on record to have won 40 gold medals at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. Yeo retired from competitive swimming in 2007, and is regarded as a legend ...

The Dutch founded Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM) in 1888 as a regional shipping line in the Indonesian archipelago. At its height, KPM operated more than 140 ships ranging from small vessels of less than 50 tonnes to large passenger liners exceeding ...

Said to be the largest fruit in the world, the jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is an indigenous fruit tree of South India which is popular in the Southeast Asian region. The jackfruit’s appearance is similar to that of the cempedak, a fruit that also belongs ...

Water Chestnut (Trapa natans), an aquatic plant, belongs to the family Trapaceae. It is not to be confused with another aquatic plant of tather similar name, Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis) of the family Cyperaceae, which is a popular ingredient in Southeast ...

The mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) is an evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia. It is grown widely in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The crop is also found in certain parts of India and Sri Lanka where conditions are favourable. The dark ...