The task of providing exhaustive information
about any subject is a daunting
one, but it is a measure of maturity
when a group of scholars believe they are ready
to produce an encyclopedia about their field of
knowledge.When that field concerns Southeast
Asia, the challenge is all the greater. Although
various parts of the region can claim a recorded
history of some two thousand years, Southeast
Asia is one of the most fragmented regions in
the world. Its maritime links stretch outward in
at least three directions—toward the Indian
Ocean and the West, toward the China Seas and
eastern Asia, and toward the Polynesian-
Melanesian world of the Pacific. In addition, it
has strong overland and riverine bonds with
continental China and the highlands of Tibet
and eastern India. Partly because of these
many-directional ties, there have not been pivotal
centers that help to define a region, and it
has taken a long time for the divided lands and
strung-out islands to be recognized as having a
significant identity as a region in its own right.