Indochina and the Malay World: A Glimpse on Malay-Vietnamese Realations to the Mid-Nineteenth Centry

Abstract

Studying Southeast Asia as a regional unit, scholars such as O.W. Wolters in History, Culture, and Religion in Southeast Asian Perspectives have stressed the linkage and cultural dialogue among the peoples of the Southeast Asian coastal areas: sharing a "common ocean", they have certainly been in communication with each other from very early times. However, the recent publication of many valuable research works notwithstanding, the interaction between mainland and insular Southeast Asia needs further inquiry. This paper is a modest attempt to highlight some landmarks in past relations between Vietnam and the Malay world.