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In Southeast Asia, facing the South China Sea, the nation of Negara Brunei Darussalam – better known as Brunei, is wedged between the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah. Brunei was a British protectorate for almost one hundred years [...]

Filed under: Asia, East by TDI
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The Indonesian island of Java with a population of 124 million people is the most populous island in the world. Over 90% of inhabitants of the island are Muslims (Almost 10% of the Muslim population worldwide). The very first Muslim kingdom on the island of Java was founded in 1511 at Demak, about 24 km [...]

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Singapore consists of 62 small islands and one large island (699 km2) just south of mainland Malaysia and north of Indonesia. While about 23% of Singapore’s land area consists of forest and nature reserves it is also the world’s second most densely populated independent country. Singapore has one of the world’s busiest ports and is [...]

Filed under: Asia, East by TDI
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Taiwan’s Foreign Workforce: 336,985
Indonesian: 79,650 (23.6%)
Filipino: 91,995 (27.3%)
Thai: 93,673 (27.8%)
Vietnamese: 71,618 (21.2%)
Islam first reached Taiwan in the 17th century when Muslim families from the southern Chinese coastal province of Fujian accompanied Koxinga on his invasion to oust the Dutch from Taiwan. But their descendants became assimilated into the local Taiwanese society adopting the local customs [...]

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A Different Focus on the Uyghurs of Kashgar, Xinjiang
We featured material about the Uyghurs two years ago in “30 Days“. However, we want to encourage you to pray again with a somewhat different focus this year. The Uyghurs are a Turkic people group dwelling in ancient oasis cities ringing the Taklamakan Desert of what is [...]

Filed under: Asia, East by TDI
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Majestically the eagles circle while sometimes powerfully beating their wings high above the gathered crowd. At the signal of the falconer an eagle suddenly swoops down, glides over the heads of the spectators and lands with a loud shriek on the thick padded gloves of its master. The “Festival of the Golden Eagle” in Bayan-Olgii [...]

Filed under: Asia, East by TDI
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Population: estimate 514,000 (Year 2000 census)
Religion: Sunni Muslims
Fourth Largest
The Dongxiang people is the 4th largest of China’s 10 Muslim peoples. Literally, Dongxiang means “eastern villages” hinting that the Dongxiang came from further west. In fact it is thought that they originally came from the Sarta people of Central Asia. Between the 12th and 13th [...]

Filed under: Asia, East by TDI
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Thailand, the land of smiles, is predominantly known as a Buddhist nation, with golden tip temples and saffron robed monks scattered throughout much of the nation. Buddhism is also recognized as the state religion and thus it is often said “to be Thai is to be Buddhist.” However, what is little known about Thailand is [...]

Filed under: Asia, East by TDI
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