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| | South Asia, Himalayas and Tibet |
 | | The languages of insular Southeast Asia (along with some of those of the mainland) all belong to the great Austronesian family, which, though spread throughout most of the Pacific Islands, is also of Asian origin. |
 | | The Thai, Burmese, Malays, and Javanese are large "national" (or transnational) ethnic communities that have long-established civilizations, literate cultures, state-level or centralized political traditions (courts, capitals, and kings), and adhere to either Buddhism (in the case of the Thai and Burmese) or Islam (in the case of the Malays and Javanese). |
 | | The societies noted in the remaining entries, the Hmong, Semai, Taman, and Murut (along with similar groups mentioned in the two broader surveys, including the Than and Ngaju of Borneo and the Wana of Sulawesi, to which many others could be readily added), are very different from the Burmese, Thais, Malays, and Javanese. |
| www.sociologyesoscience.com /asia/south_asia_himalayas_tibet.html (2419 words) |
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