Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

The plantain is a close relative of the

common banana. It is always cooked

before being eaten.

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Fruit • Herb

Bandar Seri

Begawan

Population

(2001 census),

city, 27,285;

(2004

estimate), urban

area, 81,500

Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital of

Brunei, a country in Southeast Asia. It is

also Brunei’s largest city. The city has a

port on the Brunei River. Ships can

travel from the port to the South China

Sea. Bandar Seri Begawan is a center for

the trade of farm products. It also has

Bananas grow in clusters on a

banana plant.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Bandar Seri Begawan 19

 

factories for processing Brunei’s rich

reserves of oil and natural gas.

A water village probably existed in the

region as early as the 600s. The modern

city became the capital of Brunei in

1920. Bombing duringWorldWar II

(1939–45) destroyed most of the city.

But after the war the city was rebuilt.

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Brunei

Bangkok

Population

(2007 estimate)

6,704,000

Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, a

country of Southeast Asia. It is Thailand’s

largest city by far. Bangkok is a

center for government, education, culture,

and business. It is also Thailand’s

main port. The city lies on both banks

of the Chao Phraya River.

More than 300 groups of Buddhist

temple buildings, called wats, are found

throughout Bangkok. They are centers

of the city’s religious and cultural life.

Factories in Bangkok process foods and

make cloth, building materials, and electronics.

Rice, tapioca, rubber, sugarcane,

and other products are shipped from the

city’s port. Tourism is also important to

the economy.

In 1782 Bangkok became the capital of

the kingdom of Siam, which is now

Thailand. Railways, electricity, and

other improvements made the city more

modern in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Bangkok began to grow rapidly in the

second half of the 1900s.

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Thailand

A mosque in Bandar Seri Begawan is set in

an artificial lake.

Merchants sell fruits, vegetables, and other

items from boats at a floating market in

Bangkok.

20 Bangkok BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a country in south-central

Asia. It is one of the most crowded

countries in the world. Although 92

countries are larger than Bangladesh,

only seven have more people. Dhaka is

the capital.

Geography

Bangladesh is surrounded by India and

Myanmar. The Bay of Bengal lies to the

south. The country’s many rivers

include the Ganges (known as the

Padma in Bangladesh), the Brahmaputra

(known as the Jamuna in Bangladesh),

the Tista, the Meghna, the Surma, the

Karnaphuli, the Sangu, and the Matamuhari.

Bangladesh has a tropical monsoon

climate. This means that it has heavy

rains and high temperatures during the

summer. Damaging floods occur every

two or three summers. In 1991 a

cyclone killed more than 100,000

people. The winters, however, are dry

and cool.

Plants and Animals

Forests cover about one sixth of Bangladesh.

Plant life includes groves of

mango, jackfruit, bamboo, betel nut,

coconut, and date palm trees. The country’s

animals include elephants, royal

Bengal tigers, langur monkeys, leopards,

and black bears. About 750 types of bird

nest in Bangladesh, and snakes are also

common.

People

Almost 98 percent of the people are

Bengalis. They speak Bengali, the state

language.West Bengal, a neighboring

state of India, shares the Bengali culture.

Islam is the main religion in Bangladesh.

Followers of Islam, called Muslims,

make up about 86 percent of the population.

About 12 percent of the people

are Hindus. The rest are mostly Buddhists

and Christians.

Economy

Bangladesh is a poor country. Most of

the people live in rural areas and make

their living by farming. The main crops

are rice, sugarcane, potatoes, wheat, jute,

bananas, sweet potatoes, oilseeds, mangoes,

and tea. Goats and cattle are the

main livestock.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s largest

producers of jute fibers. These fibers are

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Bangladesh 21

 

used to make fabric and twine. Manufacturers

also make clothing, shoes,

tobacco and food products, chemicals,

and iron and steel.

History

Bangladesh is part of a historic region

called Bengal. From the 700s to the

1100s Buddhist and Hindu kings ruled

Bengal. Muslims invaded in about 1200.

The region remained largely independent

until the 1600s. Then the Mughal

Empire, which controlled India at the

time, made Bengal one of its provinces.

The British took control of all of India

in the 1700s. They ruled the area as a

colony until 1947.

After the British left, the colony of India

was divided into two independent countries:

India and Pakistan. India lay

between Pakistan’s two provinces—East

Pakistan (now Bangladesh) andWest

Pakistan (now Pakistan). The people of

East andWest Pakistan spoke different

languages and had different cultures.

The provinces struggled for power.War

broke out in 1971. About 1 million

Bengalis were killed, and millions more

fled to India. India helped East Pakistan

defeatWest Pakistan. Then East Pakistan

became the independent country of

Bangladesh.

Bangladesh held its first national election

in 1973, but the military soon took