Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c7.12

c7.12

The southern part of Malay Peninsula forms the tongue of land by which Indo-China projects far into the Indian ocean, between China Sea on the east and the Bay of Bengal on the west. The narrow strait of Malacca separates it from the big island of Sumatra lying to its west and south. The very narrow strait of Sunda separates Sumatra from the island of Java to its south-east. Then follows a series of small islands in a long chain from west to east beginning with Bali and stretching almost up to New Guinea. To the north of this is another chain consisting of the big islands of Borneo and Celebes and the group known as Molucca islands. Further north is another group known as Philippine islands. These islands of varying size more than six thousand in number, are collectively known by various names such as Indian Archipelago, Malay Archipelago, Asiatic Archipelago, Indonesia and Insulinde.