Luso-Asians

Luso-Asians (Portuguese: luso-asiáticos) are Eurasian people whose ethnicity is partially or wholly Portuguese and ancestrally are based in or hail primarily from Portugal, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. They historically came under the cultural and multi-ethnic sway of the Portuguese Empire in the East and retain certain aspects of the Portuguese language, Roman Catholic faith, and Latin cultural practices, including internal and external architecture, art, and cuisine that reflect this contact. The term Luso comes from the Roman Empire's province of Lusitania, which roughly corresponds to modern Portugal.

Luso-Asian Art is also known as Indo-Portuguese Art (from India), Luso-Ceylonese Art (from Sri Lanka), Luso-Siamese Art (from Thailand), Luso-Malay (from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore), Sino-Portuguese Art (from China), or Nipo-Portuguese Art (from Japan). Examples of this art, especially of furniture and religious art are found throughout Europe and in the islands of Macaronesia.

Luso-Asians traded and influenced each other within Asia as well as with Portugal and other parts of Catholic Europe, especially Spain and Italy. This exchange produced distinctive elements in domestic, civic and religious Luso-Asian architecture, as well as Luso-Asian cuisine.

History

The European continent exploration of the Asian continent after the arrival of D. Vasco Da Gama during the Age of Discovery in the Indian Ocean around 1498, was followed by the establishments of coastal trading bases called feitorias (factories) and forts. Portuguese traders, Catholic missionaries, who were Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and Jesuits, such as Saint Francis Xavier and administrators poured into the vast region. These men often married local residents with the official encouragement of D. Alfonso de Albuquerque by the royals granted approval in the form called Politicos dos casamentos.