8. Hindu/Buddhist Places in South-East Asia

I recently visited India to explore how this country evolved and what drives it today. In the 1,450 years from about 250 BC to 1200 AD (called The Common Period), the spread of Indian religion had a profound impact on South, Central, South-East, and Eastern Asia. Today, over half the world’s population lives in areas where Indian religious ideas are, or once were, dominant.

Bagan (Myanmar) An ancient city in Myanmar

Hinduism and Buddhism in South-East Asia

Many notable places remain today showing the Hindu/Buddhism influence modified by the local influence, the most significant being the Khmer Empire. A list of the more important places are:

• Angkor Wat (Cambodia)

  A Hindu-Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia that is the world’s largest religious structure. It was built around 1150 CE as a Hindu temple dedicated to the deity Vishnu. Later it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the century.

  
  

• Bagan (Myanmar)

  An ancient city in Myanmar with over 2,000 temples and pagodas spread across a scenic plain. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar. During the kingdom’s height between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas, and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive.

  
  

• Ayutthaya (Thailand)

  A former capital city with richly carved prangs (reliquary towers) and monasteries. Ayutthaya, Thailand, is known for its many ancient temples and palaces, including some of the most important Buddhist complexes in the world.

  
  

• Borobudur (Java, Indonesia)

  A grand stone mandala in Java, Indonesia, completed in the early 9th century during the reign of the Syailendra dynasty. Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world and ranks with Bagan in Myanmar and Angkor Wat in Cambodia as one of the great archaeological sites of Southeast Asia. Borobudur remains popular for pilgrimage, with Buddhists in Indonesia celebrating Vesak Day at the monument. Among Indonesia’s tourist attractions, Borobudur is the most-visited monument.

  
  

• Banteay Chhmar (Cambodia)

  Banteay Chhmar is one of the largest Khmer complexes built outside of the Angkor complex in Cambodia. The simultaneous dedication of the Buddhist temples and shrines to Hindu divinities shows the religious tolerance of the period.

  
  

Many other ancient monuments and archaeological sites exist in Southeast Asia.

Eventually, Malaysia and Indonesia adopted Islam as their major religion.