Southeast Asia

Although Southeast Asia is not a country along the Silk Road, it is an important transit point connecting China, Japan, and Western countries. In recent years, the maritime trade route has been named the “Maritime Silk Road”. The region has thus begun to be greatly influenced by the great powers of the East and the West – India and China – at an early stage. Buddhism, Hinduism, caste system, culinary culture from India, immigrants diverse cultures from China have been introduced into Southeast Asia. With the change of time, Islamic culture was introduced into the region. Since the Age of Sail, ships from the European countries flocked to the region, and Southeast Asia became colonized. The collection in the museum includes printed cotton cloth of Indian, Japanese, and European influence, masks for aboriginal ceremonies or sacrifices, primitive earthenware, Chinese pottery, and glassware in the East India Company period.