Bali

Balinese dance includes many famous forms such as legong, baris, topeng, barong, and many others. See also:. Balinese gamelan is highly developed and varied. Its characteristic flavor is sweet (sugar), spicy (serrano peppers), and flavored by a variety of mints. Balinese is famous for the arts, both the performing arts as well as painting, scuplture, and woodcarving. Vietnamese cuisine is based on rice, soy sauce, and fish sauce. In the past, the language has been heavily influenced by the Balinese caste system, but this is becoming less and less pronounced. Southern music exudes a lively laissez faire attitude.

The Balinese language is a rich and diverse language reflecting the population. Central classical music shows the influences of Champa culture with its melancholic melodies. English is a common third language owing to the island's large tourism industry. Vietnamese classical music can be traced to the Mongol invasions, when the Vietnamese captured a Chinese opera troupe. Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and many Balinese people are bilingual or even trilingual. Northern classical music is Vietnam's oldest and is traditionally more formal. Other minority religions on the island include Islam (5.7%), Christianity (1.4%), and Buddhism (0.6%) (2003 statistics). Vietnam's cuisine and music have three distinct flavors, related to Vietnam's three regions: Bắc or North, Trung or Central, and Nam or South.

About 92% of Bali's population adheres to this religion. Others say that the Vietnamese' second religion is superstition and fatalism, brought on by the decades of war. Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, the majority of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed from a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. The majority of Vietnamese are adherents to Mahayana Buddhism, influenced by Confucianism and Daoism, and with a strong emphasis on ancestor worship. Bali is a richly diverse island of approximately 3.57 million people (2003 statistics). Historically, passing the imperial Mandarin exams was the only means for Vietnamese people to socially advance themselves. Another series of bombings occurred nearly three years later at Kuta and nearby Jimbaran; see 2005 Bali bombings. Education is highly prized.

On October 12, 2002, the island was the location of a car bomb attack in the tourist resort of Kuta, killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Due to Vietnam's long association with China, Vietnamese culture remains strongly Confucian with its emphasis on familial duty. In 1965, after a failed coup d'etat against the national government, Bali was the scene of widespread killings of members and sympathizers of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) by right-wing militias, along with several other parts of Indonesia. During the French colonial period, Quốc Ngữ, the romanized Vietnamese alphabet representation of spoken Vietnamese, became popular and brought literacy to the masses. Bali became part of the Republic of East Indonesia after the World War II Japanese conquest and part of United States of Indonesia in 1948. The celebrated epic Đoạn trường tân thanh (or Truyện Kiều) by Nguyễn Du is written in Chữ Nôm. "Pendet","Legong" and "Baris" are some of the better-known examples. In the 16th century, the Vietnamese developed their own set of characters called Chữ Nôm.

Balinese dance is highly developed, and considered by many to be one of the world's finest artistic traditions. In its early history, Vietnamese writing used Chinese characters. Its arts and crafts are also popular. Main article: Culture of Vietnam. Bali's beaches are famous worldwide. See also: List of ethnic groups in Vietnam. International tourism started in the 1920s. In recent years, English has become a more popular language to learn and is increasingly used in business, among other things.

These wars were so fierce (with the entire royal court of the Raja, women and children plunged into battle, armed with kris and spears, killing each other on the battlefield rather than be taken captive) that the Dutch governors afterwards exercised relatively little influence over the island, generally allowing local control over religion and culture to remain intact. Russian- and to a much lesser extent Czech or Polish- is often known among "baby-boomers" whose families had ties with the Soviet bloc. Dutch control of the island was firmly established after a series of colonial wars (1846–1849). French, a legacy of colonial rule, is spoken by some (mostly older) Vietnamese as a second language. The Dutch established a trade post soon after, and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) started trading from early 17th century onwards. The most spoken languages are: Tày (1.5 million), Mường (1.2 million), Khmer (1.05 million), Cantonese (870,000, this figure also includes speakers of other Chinese dialects), Nung (860,000), HMông (790,000), and Tai Dam (700,000). Europeans first discovered the island when the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived in 1597, though a Portuguese ship had foundered off the coast of Bukit as early as 1585. Various other languages are spoken by the several minority groups in Vietnam.

The Majapahit empire collapsed slightly before 1500, due to assaults, causing an exodus to Bali. According to official figures, 86.2% of the population speak Vietnamese as a native tongue. The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on Eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The figure was down to 86.9% at the 1989 census, and 86.2% at the 1999 census. The name Balidwipa has been discovered from various inscriptions, among others the Blanjong charter which was issued by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 913 AD and mentions the word "Walidwipa". According to official figures, at the 1979 census the ethnic Vietnamese accounted for 87.4% of the total population. The end of the prehistoric period in Indonesia was marked by the arrival of the Hindu people arriving from India around 100 BC as determined by Brahmi inscriptions on potsherds. As a result, the ethnic minorities are now growing at a faster rate than the ethnic Vietnamese, which means that the percentage of ethnic Vietnamese in the total population is slowly decreasing year after year.

The Balinese people are descendants of a prehistoric race who migrated through mainland Asia to the Indonesian archipelago, presumably first settling around 2500 BC. The birth rate of the minorities is still very high, comparable to birth rates in Cambodia or Laos. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings and silverware. The birth rate of the ethnic Vietnamese (and also the Hoa), which historically has been very high, decreased significantly since the 1980s and is now reaching much lower levels, comparable to the birth rates in Thailand or Malaysia. A significant number of Balinese are also fishermen. In terms of land area, the ethnic Vietnamese inhabit a little less than half of Vietnam, while the ethnic minorities inhabit the majority of Vietnam's land (albeit the least fertile parts of the country). Other crops such as fruits, vegetables and other cash crops are also grown, although in smaller amounts. According to the 1999 census, ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh) numbered 65,795,718 and thus accounted for 86.2% of the total population of Vietnam.

Most of the Balinese people are involved in agriculture, primarily that of rice cultivation. Protests and demonstrations by highland minorities have been reported. Beautiful black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are now being developed for tourism, but apart from the famous seaside temple of Tanah Lot, this is not yet a tourist area. Further north, there have been reports of tensions with the Tày people due to the government sponsored relocation of ethnic Vietnamese from the lowlands to the highlands inhabited by the Tày and other minorities. Facing a revitalizing landscape of strong waves, the coast around Pasut is a perfect escape from the crowds. On the other hand, some in the Vietnamese government still pursue the centuries old policy of colonizing Khmer land, and it was reported that in the 1980s and 1990s some local Vietnamese officials have pushed the Cambodian-Vietnamese border several kilometers inside Cambodian territory, annexing tens of Cambodian villages, in violation of international treaties, thus further increasing the ethnic Khmer population inside Vietnam. The Ho River is navigable by small sampan. The Vietnamese government is afraid that the large native Khmer Krom population in the Mekong delta could allow Cambodia to officially claim back the fertile areas of the delta that were annexed by Vietnam more than 200 years ago.

Pasut Beach (Tabanan), near Sungai Ho and Pura Segara, is a quiet beach lying 14 km southwest of Tabanan. In particular, the large Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) minority of southern Vietnam is denied elementary human rights in an effort by the Vietnamese government to Vietnamize the Khmer Krom, or force them to leave their native land and relocate to Cambodia. The beach town of Padangbai in the north east has both: the main beach and the secret beach have white sand and the south beach and the blue lagoon have much darker sand. Human Rights NGOs point out the Vietnamese government's poor record with respect to ethnic minorities. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west tend to have black sand. Sometimes, the name Montagnard is used specifically for the Mường ethnic group. The island is surrounded by coral reefs. The name Montagnard is still sometimes used today.

Due to the slope of the mountainous terrain in the island's center, the roads tend to follow the crests of the ridges across the mountains. The French used the name Montagnard (plural Montagnards, meaning "mountain people") to call all the minorities (except the Khmer Krom and the Hoa), no matter what their actual language. There are major coastal roads as well as roads that cross the island mainly in a north-south manner. Officially, the ethnic minorities are referred to as "national minorities". There are no railway lines on the island. Mixed race individuals face the most discrimination in Vietnamese society and government, especially ones who are product of American soldiers (white or black) from the Vietnam War. The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus joining the southernmost part of the island to the main part of the island. There are some who are racially mixed with blacks as well, another product during the Vietnam War from American soldiers.

The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (along with its accompanying beach), Sanur, Jimbaran, Seminyak and the newer development of Nusa Dua. There are also a few of those descended from Indian or Pakistani setttlers also during the colonial era. Its population of over 3 million is mainly (about 93%) Hindu, but a very small part is Muslim (mostly coastal fisherman). Most of them are descendants of Vietnamese people mixed with either early French settlers or white American soldiers and personnel (or both), during the colonial period and Vietnam War. In the south the land descends to form an alluvial plain, watered by shallow rivers, dry in the dry season and overflowing whenever there are periods of heavy rains. Vietnam also has a small number of racial Eurasians, people of Asian and Caucasian (mostly white, but also Indian) parentage. The town of Ubud (north of Denpasar), with its art market, museums and galleries, is regarded as the cultural center of Bali. Many of these 53 minority groups only have a few thousand members or so.

The principal cities are the northern port of Singaraja and the capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Beyond these five largest ethnic minorities, there are 48 other minorities officially recognized by the Vietnamese government, giving a total of 53 minorities altogether. About 30,000 years ago Mount Batur experienced a massive catastrophic eruption — one of the largest known volcanic events on Earth. However, since the North Vietnamese took over South Vietnam in 1975 many Hoa left Vietnam, especially in the 1980s, so that at the 1999 census the Hoa were only the fifth largest minority (or the fourth largest if the Thái are not considered as an homogenous ethnic group). Mount Batur, or what remains of it, is also still active. Up to the 1979 Vietnamese census, the Hoa were the largest minority of Vietnam. Mountains range from the central to the eastern side of the island with Mount Agung being the easternmost peak. They speak predominantly Cantonese (known to the Vietnamese as Quảng Đông), but there are also speakers of Hakka (Khách Gia), Min Nan/Hokkien/Fujian (Mân Nam/Phúc Kiến), Chaozhou (Triều Châu), etc.

The highest point of the island is Mount Agung, 3,142 m high (10,308 feet), an active volcano that last erupted in March 1963. The Hoa (ethnic Han Chinese) are mainly lowlanders and, more specifically, urban dwellers. Its surface is 5,633 km². The Vietnamese government reported 1,055,174 Khmer Krom at the 1999 census. It lies about 8 degrees south of the equator. There is no consensus on the exact number of Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) living in Vietnam. Bali is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands, 153 km long and 112 km wide (95 by 69 miles), and 3.2 km east of Java. The Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) live in the fertile delta of the Mekong River in southern Vietnam and are ethnically the same as the Khmer people who make up the majority of the population of Cambodia.

. The Mường live in the mountains of north central Vietnam and speak a Mon-Khmer language closely related to the Vietnamese language. The island is a popular tourist destination and known, along with Java, for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather and metalworking, and music, especially that played on the gamelan. Although the Thái ethnicity is officially recognized in Vietnam, western linguistics do not recognize it and prefer to classify Tai Dam, Tai Dón, Tai Daeng, etc., as separate ethnic groups, in which case the Mường minority moves to second largest minority of Vietnam, Khmer Krom move to third position, and Hoa to fourth position. It is positioned in a chain with Java to the west and Lombok to the east. The Thai people of Thailand speak languages belonging to the Lao-Phutai branch of the Southwestern Tai subgroup, while the "Thái" of Vietnam speak languages belonging to the East Central branch of the Southwestern Tai subgroup. Location: 8°25′23″S, 115°14′55″E. This official "Thái" ethnicity should not be confused with the Thai people of Thailand.

Bali is an Indonesian island. All these languages are closely related and belong to the Southwestern Tai subgroup of the Tai languages. Thái is a name used by Vietnamese authorities for a group of people also from the mountainous northern region of Vietnam and whom western linguists say actually speak separate languages: Tai Dam, Tai Dón, Tai Daeng, Tai Hang Tong, Tày Tac, and Tai Thanh. Their language is a member of the Tai languages, belonging to the Central Tai subgroup and closely related to the Zhuang language of southern China. The Tay people live primarily in the mountains and foothills of northern Vietnam.

Membership to Sunni and Bashi Islam are usually accredited to the ethnic Cham minority, but there are also a few ethnic Vietnamese adherents to Islam in the southwest. The largest Protestant churches are the Evangelical Church of Vietnam and the Montagnard Evangelical Church. Mainstream Pure Land schools and Zen-inspired syncretists); with a sizeable Roman Catholic following, Protestant, Cao Đài, and Hoa Hao minorities. But according to the majority of other sources, Vietnamese people are predominantly Confucian and Mahayana Buddhist (esp.

According to the 1999 Socialist Republic of Vietnam's census numbers, eighty percent of Vietnamese subscribe to no religion. By contrast, the ethnic minorities, except for the Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) and the Hoa (ethnic Han Chinese), are found mostly in the highlands that cover two-thirds of the national territory. A homogenous social group, the Viet exert influence on national life through their control of political and economic affairs and their role as purveyors of the dominant culture. They are concentrated largely in the alluvial deltas and in the coastal plains and have little in common with the minority peoples of the highlands, whom they have historically regarded as hostile and barbaric.

The majority ethnic Vietnamese, also called Viet or Kinh, make up about 86 percent of the nation's population. According to official figures from the 1999 census, of Vietnam's then population of 76.3m, the largest of 54 government recognized ethnic groups of Vietnam were:. Main article: Demographics of Vietnam. Many of the over 3 million annual visitors are Vietnam war veterans.

Tourism has become an increasingly important industry in Vietnam. Corruption, bribery and embezzlement committed by many government officials have pushed property prices even higher, as real estate investment is a popular form of money laundering. The booming prices have given the poor land owners the opportunity to sell their homes for inflated prices. This has amazed many people because GDP per capita of this city is around US$1,000 per annum.

In Hanoi, the capital, property prices can be as high as those in Tokyo or New York City. The reason lies in the high property prices. The spending power of the public has noticeably increased. This figure has been scaled down by the Government to 9.5% per annum to avoid the ‘double digit’ classification.

Inflation rate is estimated at 14% per year in 2004. This translates to US$2700 per capita. Vietnam, however, is still a relatively poor country with GDP of US$227.2 billion (est., 2004). The country is attempting to become a member of the WTO.

Layoffs in the state sector and foreign-invested enterprises combined with the lasting effects of a previous military demobilization further exacerbated the unemployment situation. On the other hand, urban unemployment has been rising steadily in recent years due to high numbers of migration from the countryside to the cities, and rural unemployment, estimated to be up to 35% during nonharvest periods, is already at critical levels. Simultaneously, investment grew three-fold and domestic savings quintupled. On the one hand, Vietnam achieved around 8% annual GDP growth from 1990 to 1997 and continued at around 7% from 2000 to 2002, making it the world's second-fastest growing economy.

In many ways, this followed the Chinese model and achieved similar results. In 1986, the Sixth Party Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam formally abandoned Marxist economic planning and began introducing market elements as part of a broad economic reform package called "đổi mới" ("Renovation"). Main article: Economy of Vietnam. Land boundaries: Total: 4,639 km (2,883 mi) Border countries: Cambodia 1,228 km (763 mi), China 1,281 km (796 mi), Laos 2,130 m (1,324 mi).

Annual rainfall ranges from 120 to 300 centimetres (47 to 118 inches), and annual temperatures vary between 5°C (41°F) and 37°C (99°F). The climate is tropical and monsoonal; humidity averages 84 percent throughout the year. The south is divided into coastal lowlands, Dai Truong Son (central mountains) with high plateaus, and the Mekong River Delta. Phan Xi Păng, located in Lào Cai province, is the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3,143 metres (10,312 ft).

The northern part of the country consists of highlands and the Red River Delta. Mountains account for 40 percent, hills 40 percent, and forests 75 percent. The topography consists of hills and densely forested mountains, with level land covering no more than 20 percent. The country is approximately 331,688 square kilometers (128,066 mi²) in area, which is slightly larger than New Mexico and slightly smaller than Germany.

Main article: Geography of Vietnam. Besides the five cities, the country is divided into fifty-nine provinces (tỉnh, singular and plural): An Giang, Bắc Giang, Bắc Cạn, Bạc Liêu, Bắc Ninh, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, Bến Tre, Bình Định, Bình Dương, Bình Phước, Bình Thuận, Cà Mau, Cao Bằng, Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Điện Biên, Đồng Nai, Đồng Tháp, Gia Lai, Hà Giang, Hải Dương, Hà Nam, Hà Tây, Hà Tĩnh, Hòa Bình, Hậu Giang, Hưng Yên, Khánh Hòa, Kiên Giang, Kon Tum, Lai Châu, Lâm Đồng, Lạng Sơn, Lào Cai, Long An, Nam Định, Nghệ An, Ninh Bình, Ninh Thuận, Phú Thọ, Phú Yên, Quảng Bình, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Quảng Ninh, Quảng Trị, Sóc Trăng, Sơn La, Tây Ninh, Thái Bình, Thái Nguyên, Thanh Hóa, Thừa Thiên-Huế, Tiền Giang, Trà Vinh, Tuyên Quang, Vĩnh Long, Vĩnh Phúc, Yên Bái. Now, Saigon is understood as heart of the city (central area of the District 1). Ho Chi Minh City was formerly known as Sài Gòn (Sài Gòn).

There are also four municipalities (thành phố trực thuộc Trung ương, singular and plural) existing at provincial level: Cần Thơ, Đà Nẵng, Hải Phòng, and Hồ Chí Minh City (Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh). Vietnam's capital (thủ đô, singular and plural) is Hà Nội (Hà Nội). Main article: Provinces of Vietnam. Vietnam is a member of the United Nations, La Francophonie, ASEAN, and APEC, and applied for membership to the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Former political parties include the nationalist Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng of Nguyễn Thái Học, the Can Lao party of the Ngô Đình Diệm government and the Viet Nam Duy Tan Hoi of Phan Bội Châu during the colonial period. The Government of Free Vietnam has claimed responsibility for a number of guerilla raids into Vietnam, which the Vietnamese government has denounced as terrorism. The most prominent are the Vietnamese Constitutional Monarchist League, and the Government of Free Vietnam. These communities have supported demonstrations and civil disobedience against the government.

There are no legal opposition parties in Vietnam, although a number of opposition groups do exist scattered overseas among exile communities within countries such as France and the United States. Senior Politburo members (Trần Đức Lương, Phan Văn Khải, Nguyễn Văn An, Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, Lê Hồng Anh, Phạm Văn Trà and Trương Quang Được) concurrently hold high positions in the Government and the National Assembly. From 2001 until now, Nong Duc Manh has been General Secretary of CPV. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam exists today as a communist state.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is governed through a highly centralized system dominated by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) (Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam), which was formerly the Vietnamese Labor Party (1951-1976). Main article: Politics of Vietnam. It reestablished diplomatic relations with the United States in 1995, one year after the United States' trade embargo on Vietnam was repealed. During much of the 1990s, economic growth was rapid, and Vietnam reintegrated into the international community.

In 1986, the Communist Party of Vietnam implemented economic reforms known as đổi mới (renovation). Only one month later, however, partially in retaliation, China launched a short-lived incursion into Vietnam: the Sino-Vietnamese War. In late 1978, the Cambodian people, with the support of the Vietnamese army, removed the Khmer Rouge from power. Millions of South Vietnamese became boat people over the next two decades.

After reunification, political and economic conditions deteriorated to near-famine conditions. By April 30, 1975, North Vietnam had overtaken South Vietnam and by 1976, Vietnam was officially unified under the North Vietnamese government as The Socialist Republic of Vietnam. All American troops were withdrawn by March 29, 1973. The war continued even after the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, which formally recognized the sovereignty of both sides.

The conflict quickly escalated into the Vietnam War. During the Cold War, the North was supported by China and the Soviet Union while the South was supported by United States. The Geneva Accords subsequently divided the country into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, separated by a demilitarized zone. When the war ended, France attempted to re-establish control but failed, after they were defeated at Dien Bien Phu.

French rule continued until World War II, when Japan briefly occupied Vietnam and used the country as a base to launch attacks against the rest of Indochina and India. The independent period ended in the mid-19^th century, when the country was colonized by France. They eventually conquered the kingdom of Champa and much of the Khmer empire. Between the 13th and 17th centuries, the Vietnamese expanded southward in a process known as nam tiến (southward expansion).

Feudalism in Vietnam reached its zenith in the Le Dynasty 1400s, especially with the emperor Le Thanh Tong. However, during the rule of the Tran Dynasty, it defeated three Mongol attempts of invasion by the Yuan Dynasty. For most of its history, Vietnam has been strongly influenced by its much bigger northern neighbor, China. They gained complete autonomy a century later.

In 939, the Vietnamese defeated Chinese forces at the Bach Dang River and gained independence. Sporadic independence movements were attempted, but were quickly extinguished by the Chinese army. What is known for sure is that for most of the period from 207 BC to the early 10^th century, it was under the rule of successive dynasties of China. Whether this is indeed historically true or not is still subject to debate.

This Chinese general adopted the native language (which sounded similar to southern Chinese dialects anyway) and married local women, who gave birth to sons that inherited the kingdom. He and his soldiers conquered the land and established a civilized society modeled after ancient Chinese customs. Some historians, both in Asia and in the West, hold that the various peoples of today's Vietnam were brought together by a Qin Dynasty-era general who was fed up with the despotic rule of the Qin Shi Huang (First emperor of China proper) and escaped to the "southern Yue [Viet] mountains" to set up his own kingdom. Chinese historical records tell of an indigenous people that existed about 2,500 years ago.

Vietnamese legends hold that native people populated and civilized the land more than 4,000 years ago. Its cognate name in Chinese, Yuè Nán (越南; Yut⁶ Naam⁴ in Cantonese) means "southern extension". The name of the country comes from the Vietnamese Việt Nam, which is in turn a reordering of Nam Việt, the name of an ancient kingdom from the ancestral Vietnamese that covered much of today's northern Vietnam. .

Situated in eastern Indochina, it borders China, Laos, Cambodia, as well as the South China Sea. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, or Vietnam, is a communist country in Southeast Asia. (Vietnamese, "Independence, liberty, happiness"). Music of Vietnam.

Cuisine of Vietnam. Hmong: 0.8m (1.0%). Nun: 0.9m (1.1%). Hoa: 0.9m (1.1%).

Khmer Krom: 1.1m (1.4%). Mường: 1.1m (1.5%). Thái: 1.3m (1.7%). Tày: 1.5m (1.9%).

Viet/Kinh: 65.8m (86.2%).