The Kingdom of Cambodia is a country in Southeast Asia with a population of almost 15 million people, with Phnom Penh being the capital city. Cambodia is the successor state of the once powerful Hindu and Buddhist Khmer Empire, which ruled most of the Indochinese Peninsula between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.

A citizen of Cambodia is usually identified as "Cambodian" or "Khmer", which strictly refers to ethnic Khmers. Most Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists of Khmer extraction, but the country also has a substantial number of predominantly Muslim Cham, as well as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and small animist hill tribes. More...

The Republic of India, commonly known as India, is a sovereign country in South Asia with minor overlap into Southeast Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world. India has a coastline of over seven thousand kilometres, bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east. India borders Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia. More...

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked socialist republic in southeast Asia, bordered by Myanmar (Burma) and the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Laos traces its history to the Kingdom of Lan Xang or Land of a Million Elephants, which existed from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. After a period as a French colony, it gained independence in 1949. A long civil war ended when the communist Pathet Lao came to power in 1975. More...

Myanmar, officially Union of Myanmar (or Burma) is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. On 4 January 1948, Burma achieved independence from the United Kingdom, as the "Union of Burma". Subsequent name changes were on 4 January 1974, to the “Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma”; 23 September 1988, to the "Union of Burma" and on 18 June 1989, the “Union of Myanmar” was adopted by the State Law and Order Restoration Council. Myanmar is bordered by the People's Republic of China on the north, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, and India on the northwest, with the Andaman Sea to the south, and the Bay of Bengal to the southwest. More...

The Kingdom of Thailand lies in Southeast Asia, with Laos and Cambodia to its east, the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia to its south, and the Andaman Sea and Myanmar to its west. The country's official name was Siam until 24 June 1939. It was again called Siam between 1945 and May 11, 1949, when it was once again changed by official proclamation. The word Thai means "freedom" in the Thai language and is also the name of the majority ethnic group. Different indigenous cultures have existed in Thailand since the time of the Baan Chiang culture. However, due to its geographical location, Thai culture has always been greatly influenced by China and India as well as other neighboring cultures. More...

Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost nation on the Indochina Peninsula. It borders China to the north, Laos to the northwest, and Cambodia to the southwest. On the country's east coast lies the South China Sea. With a population of over 85 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world. The country is listed among the "Next Eleven" economies; according to government figures GDP growth was 8.17% in 2006, the second fastest growth rate among countries in East Asia and the fastest in Southeast Asia. More...