Singapore is a multi-religious country. According to Statistics Singapore, around 51% of resident Singaporeans (excluding significant numbers of visitors and migrant workers) practice Buddhism and Taoism. About 15%, mostly Chinese, Eurasians, and Indians, practice Christianity - a broad classification including Catholicism, Protestantism and other denominations. Muslims constitute 14%, of whom Malays account for the majority with a substantial number of Indian Muslims and Chinese Muslims. Smaller minorities practice Sikhism, Hinduism and others, according to the 2000 census.
Some religious materials and practices are banned in Singapore. The Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, are prohibited from distributing religious materials and are sometimes jailed for their conscientious refusals to serve in the Singaporean military.
About 15% of the population declared no religious affiliation.
According to legend, Sang Nila Utama, also known as Sri Tri Buana, was a prince from Palembang who founded ancient Singapore. According to the Malay Annals, the prince ruled the island from 1299 to 1347.
Sang Nila Utama was a prince of Palembang, which was then the capital of the Srivijayan empire. Wanting to find a suitable place for a new city, he decided to visit the islands off the coast of Sumatra. He set sail in a number of ships. He and his men reached the Riau Islands and were welcomed by the queen. A few days later, Sang Nila Utama went to a nearby island on a hunting trip.
While hunting, he spotted a deer and started chasing it. He came to a very large rock and decided to climb it. When he reached the top, he looked across the sea and saw another island with a sandy beach which had the appearance of a white sheet of cloth.
* Resources: fish, deep-water ports, a large modern airport
* GDP: $ 141.2 billion
* GDP growth: 7.9%
* GDP per capita 1: 31 400 USD
* Inflation: 1%
* Unemployment: 3.1%
* A very strict legal system and effectively enforced. Crime is rather unique. Suffice to say that you can pay a penalty for the paper to throw into the street. For example, chewing gum is banned in public places.
* Controversial political system, between authoritarianism and democracy
* Threats: piracy carried out in the sea near the atmospheric pollution caused by large forest fires carried out for commercial purposes in private at the nearby Indonesian islands
In spite of a dense and growing systematically built in Singapore can find a charming place to relax. On a splendid amusement park switches from one of the islands - the island of Sentosa. Built on the Sea, which can among other things spacer held przeszklonym corridor underneath one of the major aquariums. On the island there is also a water amusement park, botanical garden and butterfly museum where you can watch about 60 species of live specimens. On the east coast of the main island is also krokodylarium, in which live more than 1800 crocodiles coming from Asia, Africa and the United States.
The island state located off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and is controlled by two dams Usable associated with it. The island is approximately 1 km wide Straits of Johor separated from the mainland, 57 more islets are also part of the territory. Singapore is predominantly flat, the 166 m high Bukit Timah is the highest elevation. In the north-east of the island were large areas of the sea abgewonnen of jungle and swamps in the lowlands are mostly cleared and has been dry.
The first records of settlement in Singapore are from the 2nd century AD. The island was an outpost of the Sumatran Srivijaya empire and originally had the Javanese name Temasek ('sea town'). Temasek (Tumasek) rapidly became a significant trading settlement, but declined in the late 14th century. There are few remnants of old Temasek in Singapore, but archaeologists in Singapore have uncovered artifacts of that and other settlements.
The name Singapura comes from the Sanskrit singha ("lion") and pura ("city"). According to the Malay Annals, this name was given by a 14th century Sumatran prince named Sang Nila Utama, who, landing on the island after a thunderstorm, spotted an auspicious beast on the shore. His chief minister erroneously identified as a 'singha' or lion. However, recent studies of Singapore indicate that lions have never lived there (not even Asiatic lions), and the beast seen by Sang Nila Utama was likely a tiger, most likely the Malayan Tiger.
Singapore is an island nation located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At 707.1 km² (272 sq mi), it is one of the few remaining city-states in the world and the smallest country in Southeast Asia.
The British East India Company established a trading post on the island in 1819. The main settlement at that point was a Malay fishing village at the mouth of the Singapore River. Several hundred indigenous Orang Laut people also lived around the coast, rivers and smaller islands. The British used Singapore as a strategic trading post along the spice route. It became one of the most important commercial and military centres of the British Empire. When it was occupied by the Japanese during World War II, Winston Churchill called it "Britain's greatest defeat". Singapore reverted to British rule in 1945. In 1963, it merged with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia. Less than two years later it split from the federation and became an independent republic on 9 August 1965. Singapore joined the United Nations on September 21 that same year.
