The Yakushima Island Biosphere Reserve is located at the Kagoshima Prefecture at Kyushu in the southern part of Japan.

Situated in the north of Thailand, this biosphere reserve comprises one of the most populated mountain areas of the country and encompasses the watershed of Thailand’s second biggest city Chiang Mai. Five natural ecosystems are represented in Mae Sa-Kog Ma: moist evergreen forest, hill evergreen forest, coniferous forest, mixed deciduous forest and dry dipterocarp forests. Most of the biosphere reserve overlaps with a major part of the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park.

Situated in the Guangdong Province in southern China, this biosphere reserve comprises low mountains and hilly lands of the Dayunwu Mountain Range. The area is mostly covered by (sub-) tropical forest. In contrast to the disturbed surrounding forests, the Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve comprises rare primary forests of at least 400 years age. Dinghushan was China’s first Nature Reserve and had a significant importance in the conservation of the ecosystems over the last 40 years.

Marco Polo’s expedition to the east between 1271 and 1295 was written up on his return in his book The Travels of Marco Polo. It was looked upon as being a collection of fables as much as facts, but did much to shape European perceptions of Asia.  His accounts of Buddhism in Sri Lanka are particularly interesting for religious and cultural history, both in what he found to be note-worthy, and in what he omitted. He was clearly fascinated by Buddhism and the life of the Buddha, and described certain religious rites in detail. 

Before the era of large-scale tourism, trade was one of the principal means by which people of different religions and cultures came into contact with each other. Although Buddhism is not traditionally a religion that actively seeks to ‘convert’ others, it nonetheless spread across South East Asia and became a widely followed religion in many countries in the Middle Ages, due largely to the voyages of Buddhist traders across Central Asia.

Korean musical tradition has historically been influenced by cultures from all over Asia. Whilst China, as Korea’s immediate neighbour, played a particularly dominant role in early medieval musical forms, many types of foreign music were actively encouraged in Korea throughout the first millennium AD. Buddhist chant (pomp’ae) spread from India, whilst the traverse flute and the five-stringed lute can be traced back to northern Central Asia, to what is now Mongolia and Kazakhstan.

The countries of southeast Asia have a closely interrelated cultural history, shaped by the passage of cultures and religions that accompanied the historic trade routes. Caught between the economic demands of the Roman and Chinese Empires, the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos came to be increasingly exposed to new cultures from both east and west, which were to have a longlasting effect on their artistic traditions. Buddhism spread east from India and left a clear legacy in the art and architecture of these societies.