Contents:
The exact nature, process and extent of Indian influence upon the civilisations of the region is still fiercely debated by contemporary scholars. Debated are most claims over whether it was Indian merchants, Brahmins, nobles or Southeast Asian mariner-merchants who played a central role in bringing Indian conceptions to Southeast Asia.
Debated is the depth of the influence of traditions for the people. Whereas early 20th-century scholars emphasised the thorough Indianisation of Southeast Asia, more recent authors argued that this influence was very limited and affected only a small section of the elite. Sea trade from China to India passed Champa , Funan at the Mekong Delta , proceeded along the coast to the Isthmus of Kra , portaged across the narrow and transhipped for distribution in India.
This trading link boosted the development of Funan, its successor Chenla and the Malayan states of Langkasuka on the eastern and Kedah on the western coast. Numerous coastal communities in maritime Southeast Asia adopted Hindu and Buddhist cultural and religious elements from India and developed complex polities ruled by native dynasties.
Although knowledge about port localities and shipping lanes is very limited, it is assumed that most of this exchange took place on land routes and only a small percentage was shipped "on coastal vessels crewed by Malay and Yue traders". Military conquests during the Han dynasty brought a number of foreign peoples within the Chinese empire when the Imperial Chinese tributary system began to evolve under Han rule.
Prior to the 10th century, the route was primarily used by Southeast Asian traders, although Tamil and Persian traders also sailed them. China later built its own fleets starting from the Song dynasty in the 10th century, participating directly in the trade route up until the end of the Colonial Era and the collapse of the Qing dynasty. Local rulers have most benefited from the introduction of Hinduism during the early common era as it greatly enhanced the legitimacy of their reign.
Historians increasingly argue, that the process of Hindu religious diffusion must be attributed to the initiative of the local chieftains. Buddhist teachings, that almost simultaneously arrived in Southeast Asia developed during the subsequent centuries an exalted distinction and eventually came to be perceived as more appealing to the demands of the general population, a belief system and philosophy that addresses concrete human affairs. Emperor Ashoka initiated the tradition to send trained monks and missionaries abroad who spread Buddhism, that includes a sizeable body of literature, oral traditions, iconography, art and offers guidance as it seeks to solve central existential questions with emphasis on individual effort and conduct.
Between the 5th and the 13th century Buddhism flourished in Southeast Asia. By the 8th century the Buddhist Srivijaya kingdom emerged as a major trading power in central Maritime Southeast Asia and around the same period the Shailendra dynasty of Java extensively promoted Buddhist art that found its strongest expression in the vast Borobudur monument. However, a pure form of Theravada Buddhist teachings had been preserved in Sri Lanka since the 3rd century. Srivijaya on Sumatra island had developed into the dominant power of Maritime Southeast Asia by the 5th century.
Its capital Palembang became a major seaport and functioned as an entrepot on the Spice Route between India and China. Srivijaya was also a notable centre of Vajrayana Buddhist learning and influence. The third system involved direct trade between the Indian and Chinese coasts during the Southwest Monsoon season. Srivijaya's wealth and influence faded when changes in nautical technology in the 10th century enabled Chinese and Indian merchants to ship cargo directly between their countries and also enabled the Chola state in southern India to carry out a series of destructive attacks on Srivijaya's possessions, ending Palembang's entrepot function.
From the 7th to 15th centuries Sumatra was ruled by kaleidoscope of Buddhist kingdoms, from Kantoli , Srivijaya , Malayu , Pannai and Dharmasraya kingdom. Most of its history from the 6th to 13th centuries, Sumatra was dominated by Srivijaya empire. While Central and Eastern Java was dominated by a kaleidoscope of competing agrarian kingdoms including the Sailendras , Mataram , Kediri , Singhasari and finally Majapahit.
In the 8th to 9th centuries, the Sailendra dynasty that ruled Medang i Bhumi Mataram kingdom built numbers of massive monuments in Central Java, includes Sewu and Borobudur temple. In the Philippines , the Laguna Copperplate Inscription dating from CE relates a granted debt from a Maginoo caste nobleman named Namwaran who lived in the historic Tondo which is now part of Manila area.
This document mentions a leader of Medang in Java.
The Khmer Empire effectively dominated all Mainland Southeast Asia from the early 9th until the 15th century, during which time they developed a sophisticated monumental architecture of most exquisite expression and mastery of composition at Angkor. The distinct culture of the kingdom of Dvaravati first appeares in records around the 6th century.
By the 10th century, Dvaravati had come under the influence of the Khmer Empire and by the 12th century Thai tribes had conquered the Chao Phraya River valley of modern-day central Thailand and established the local Sukhothai Kingdom in the 13th century and the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 14th century. According to the Nagarakertagama , around the 13th century, Majapahit 's vassal states spread throughout much of today's Indonesia, making it the largest empire ever to exist in Southeast Asia.
The empire declined in the 15th century after the rise of Islamic states in coastal Java, Malay peninsula and Sumatra. By the eight century, less than years after the establishment of Islam in Arabia , the first traders and merchants who adhered to Mohammad's prophecies reportedly appeared in Maritime Southeast Asia. Certain is also, that Islam did not play a notable role anywhere in the archipelago or Indochina before the 13th century. In addressing the issue of how Islam was introduced into Southeast Asia, most historians have elaborated various scenarios along an Arabia to India and India to Southeast Asia sequence.
Opinions vary on the identity and method of the agent. Either Arabian traders and scholars, who did not live or settle in India arrived directly in island Southeast Asia, or Arab traders, that had been settling in coastal India and Sri Lanka for generations.
Muslim traders from India Gujarat , converts of South Asian descend and ethnicity are variously considered as to have played a major role. A number of sources propose the South China Sea as another "route" of Islam introduction. Arguments for this hypothesis include:.
In a EU publication of the European Commission Forum an inclusive attitude is being maintained: "Islam spread in Southeast Asia via Muslims of diverse ethnic and cultural origins, from Middle Easterners, Arabs and Persians, to Indians and even Chinese, all of whom followed the great commercial routes of the epoch.
The presence of smelted alloys in a prehistoric Inuit context in northwest Alaska was demonstrated for the first time and indicated the movement of Eurasian metal across the Bering Strait into North America before sustained contact with Europeans. Follow our live coverage of the US election aftermath. One of these coins I examined at the store of Chu Chong in Victoria. He loved music and loved to dance and just be goofy, his family said. Nursing and assisted living facilities have become hot spots for outbreaks of the coronavirus disease. The Dong Son culture established a tradition of bronze production and the manufacture of ever more refined bronze and iron objects, such as plows, axes and sickles with shaft holes, socketed arrow and spearheads and small ornamented items. In Enfield, N.
Research has several answers as to what caused the distinct syncretic its modern expression is cultural Islam , as opposed to Middle Eastern and North African political Islam Islam in Southeast Asia, that allowed the continuation and inclusion of elements and ritual practices of Hinduism , Buddhism and ancient Pan-East Asian Animism. Most principalities had developed highly distinctive cultures as a result of centuries of active participation in the cultural interchange and by borrowing from the flow of ideas that criss-crossed the archipelago, coming from across the Indian Ocean in the west and the South China Sea in the east.
Cultural and institutional adoption was a creative and selective process, in which foreign elements were incorporated into a local synthesis. Unlike some other "Islamised" regions like North Africa , Iberia , the Middle East and later northern India , Islamic faith in Southeast Asia was not enforced in the wake of victorious territorial conquests , but followed trade routes as with the Islamisation of Turkic Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, southern India and north west China. The idea of equality before God for the Ummat the people of God and a personal religious effort through regular prayer was more appealing to the average person than the perceived fatalism [] of the Hindu pandemonium.
However, Islam also taught obedience and submission, which guaranteed that the social structure of a converted people or political entity hardly saw any fundamental changes. There are various records of lay Muslim missionaries, scholars and mystics, particularly Sufis who were most active in bringing about a peaceful proselytisation.
Java , for example "received Islam by nine very active men", who were referred to as "Wali Sanga" Nine Saints , although the historical identity of such people is almost impossible to determine. The foundation of the first Islamic kingdom in Sumatra, the Samudera Pasai Sultanate took place during the 13th century. Nagore Shahul Hamid — , the "Qadir Wali" was a popular protector of sailors and seafarers. A simple ritual practice was maintained by Tamil Muslims in his shrine on the coast south of Madras.
He attracted pilgrims from Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and anyone else who sought his aid. Islam and its notion of exclusivity and finality is incompatible with all other religions and the Chinese concept of heavenly harmony and the Son of Heaven as the enforcer. The integration in the traditional East Asian tributary system with China at the centre Muslim Malays and Indonesians exacted a pragmatic approach of cultural Islam in diplomatic relations with China. The conversion of the remnants of the Buddhist Srivijaya empire, that once controlled trade in much of Southeast Asia and in particular the Strait of Malacca , marked a strategic turning point as this act turned the Strait into an Islamic water.
With the fall of Srivijaya the way was open for effective and widespread proselytisation and the establishment of Muslim trading centres. Modern Malays view the Sultanate of Malacca , which existed from the 15th to the early 16th century as the first political entity of contemporary Malaysia.
By the end of the 14th century Ming China had conquered Yunnan in the South, yet had lost control of the Silk Road after the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty. The ruling Yongle Emperor resolved to focus on the Indian Ocean sea routes seeking to consolidate the ancient Imperial Tributary System , establish greater diplomatic and military presence and widen the Chinese sphere of influence. He ordered the construction of a huge trade and representation fleet that, between and , undertook several voyages into Southeast Asia, to India, the Persian Gulf and as far as East Africa.
Under the leadership of Zheng He hundreds of naval vessels of then unparalleled size, grandeur and technological advancement and manned by sizeable military contingents, ambassadors, merchants, artists and scholars repeatedly visited several major Southeast Asian principalities. The individual fleets engaged in a number of clashes with pirates and occasionally supported various royal contenders.
However, pro-expansionist voices at the court in Peking lost influence after the s and the voyages were discontinued.
The protraction of the ritualistic ceremonies and scanty travels of emissaries in the Tributary System alone was not sufficient to develop firm and lasting Chinese commercial and political influence in the region especially during the impending onset of highly competitive global trade. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty , Liu Daxia , who later became the Shangshu of the Ministry of War, hid or burned the archives of Ming treasure voyages [] []. Regular and momentous voyages only began in the 16th century after the arrival of the Portuguese, who actively sought direct and competitive trade.
They were usually accompanied by missionaries, who hoped to promote Christianity. Portugal was the first European power to establish a bridgehead on the lucrative maritime Southeast Asia trade route , with the conquest of the Sultanate of Malacca in The Netherlands and Spain followed and soon superseded Portugal as the main European powers in the region. In , Spain began to colonise the Philippines.
In , acting through the Dutch East India Company , the Dutch took the city of Sunda Kelapa , renamed it Batavia now Jakarta as a base for trading and expansion into the other parts of Java and the surrounding territory. In , the Dutch took Malacca from the Portuguese.