Duiker W.J., Spielvogel J.J. The Essential World History. Volume 1: To 1800

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on secular subjects can be found at Sigiriya, a fifth-century

royal palace on the island of Sri Lanka.

Among the most impressive rock carvings in south-

ern India are the cave temples at Mamallapuram (also

known as Mahabalipuram), south of the modern city of

Chennai (Madras). The sculpture, called Descent of the

Ganges River, depicts the role played by Shiva in inter-

cepting the heavenly waters of the Ganges and allowing

them to fall gently on the earth. Mamallapuram also

boasts an eighth-century shore temple, which is one of

the earliest surviving freestanding structures in the

subcontinent.

From the eighth century until the time of the

Mughals, Indian architects built a multitude of magnifi-

cent Hindu temples, now constructed exclusively above

ground. Each temple consisted of a central shrine sur-

mounted by a sizable tower, a hall for worshipers, a

vestibule, and a porch, all set in a rectangular courtyard

that might also contain other minor shrines. Temples

became progressively more ornate until by the eleventh

century, the sculpture began to dominate the structure

itself. The towers became higher and the temple com-

plexes more intricate, some becoming virtual walled

compounds set one within the other and resembling a

town in themselves.

The greatest example of medieval Hindu temple art is

probably Khajuraho. Of the original eighty-five temples,

dating from the tenth century, twenty-five remain

standing today. All of the towers are buttressed at various

levels on the sides, giving the whole a sense of unity and

creating a vertical movement similar to Mount Kailasa in

the Himalayas, sacred to Hindus. Everywhere the viewer

is entertained by voluptuous temple dancers bringing life

to the massive structures. One is removing a thorn from

her foot, another is applying eye makeup, and yet another

is wringing out her hair.

Literature During this period, Indian authors pro-

duced a prodigiou s number of written works, both re-

ligious and secular. Indi an religious poetry was written

in Sanskrit and also in the la nguages of southern India.

As Hinduism was transformed from a contemplative to a

more devotional reli gion, its poetry became m ore ardent

and erotic and prompted a sense of divine ec stasy. Much

of the religious verse extolled the lives and heroic acts of

Shiva, Vishnu, Rama, and Krishna by repeating the same

themes over and over, which is also a characteristic of

Indian art. In the eighth century, a tradition of poet-

saints inspired by intense mystical devotion to a deity

emerged i n southern India. Many were women who

sought to escape the drudgery of dome stic toil through

an imagined sexual union with t he go d-lover. Such was

the case for the t welfth-century mystic w hose poem here

expresses her sensuous joy in the physical-mystical

union with her god:

It was like a stream

running into the dry bed

of a lake,

like rain pouring on plants

parched to sticks.

It was like this world’s pleasure

and the way to the other,

both walking towards me.

Seeing the feet of the master,

O lord white as jasmine

I was made worthwhile.

The great secular literature of traditional India was

also written in Sanskrit in the form of poetry, drama, and

prose. Some of the best medieval Indian poetry is found

in single-stanza poems, which create an entire emotional

scene in just four lines. Witness this poem by the poet

Amaru:

We’ll see what comes of it, I thought,

and I hardened my heart against her.

What, won’t the villain speak to me? She

thought, flying into a rage.

And there we stood, sedulously refusing to look one

another in the face,

Until at last I managed an unconvincing laugh,

and her tears robbed me of my resolution.

One of India’s most famous authors was Kalidasa,

who lived during the Gupta dynasty. Although little is

known of him, including his dates, he probably wrote for

the court of Chandragupta II (375--415

C.E.). Even today,

Kalidasa’s hundred-verse poem, The Cloud Messenger,

remains one of the most popular Sanskrit poems.

In addition to being a poet, Kalidasa was also a great

dramatist. He wrote three plays, all dramatic romances

that blend the erotic with the heroic and the comic.

Shakuntala, perhaps the best-known play in all Indian

literature, tells the stor y of a king who, while out hunting,

falls in love with the maiden Shakuntala. He asks her to

marry him and offers her a ring of betrothal but is sud-

denly recalled to his kingdom on urgent business. Sha-

kuntala, who is pregnant, goes to him, but the king has

been cursed by a hermit and no longer recognizes her.

With the help of the gods, the king eventually does recall

their love and is reunited with Shakuntala and their son.

Like poetry, prose developed in India from the Vedic

period. The use of prose was well established by the sixth

and seventh centuries

C.E. This is truly astonishing con-

sidering that the novel did not appear until the tenth

224 CHAPTER 9 THE EXPANSION OF CIVILIZATION IN SOUTHERN ASIA

century in Japan and until the seventeenth century in

Europe.

One of the greatest masters of Sanskrit prose was

Dandin, who lived during the seventh century. In The Ten

Princes, he created a fantastic and exciting world that

fuses history and fiction. His keen powers of observation,

details of low life, and humor give his writing consider-

able vitality.

Music Another area of Indian creativity that developed

during this era was music. Ancient Indian music had

come from the chanting of the Vedic hymns and thus

inevitably had a strong metaphysical and spiritual flavor.

The actual physical vibrations of music (nada)were

considered to be related to the spiritual world. An off-key

or sloppy rendition of a sacred text could upset the

harmony and balance of the entire universe.

In form, Indian classical music is based on a scale,

called a raga. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of sep-

arate scales, which are grouped into separate categories

depending on the time of day during which they are to be

performed. The performers use a stringed instrument

called a sitar and various types of wind instruments and

drums. The performers select a basic raga and then are

free to improvise the melodic structure and rhythm. A

good performer never performs a particular raga the

same way twice. As with jazz music in the West, the au-

dience is concerned not so much with faithful repro-

duction as with the performer’s creativity.

The Golden Region:

Early Southeast Asia

Focus Question: What were the main characte ristics of

Southeast Asian social and economic life, culture, and

religion before 1500

C.E.?

Between China and India lies the region that today is

called Southeast Asia. It has two major components: a

mainland region extending southward from the Chinese

border down to the tip of the Malay peninsula and an

extensive archipelago, most of which is part of present-

day Indonesia and the Philippines. Travel between the

islands and regions to the west, north, and east was not

difficult, so Southeast Asia has historically served as a vast

land bridge for the movement of peoples between China,

the Indian subcontinent, and the more than 25,000

islands of the South Pacific.

Mainland Southeast Asia consists of several north-

south mountain ranges, separated by river valleys that run

in a southerly or southeasterly direction. Between the

sixth and the thirteenth centuries

C.E., two groups of

migrants---the Burmese from the Tibetan highlands and

the Thai from southwestern China---came down these

valleys in search of new homelands, as earlier peoples had

done before them. Once in Southeast Asia, most of these

migrants settled in the fertile deltas of the rivers---the

Irrawaddy and the Salween in Burma, the Chao Phraya

in Thailand, and the Red River and the Mekong in

Vietnam---or in lowland areas in the islands to the south.

Although the river valleys facilitated north-south

travel on the Southeast Asian mainland, movement be-

tween east and west was relatively difficult. The moun-

tains are densely forested and often infested with malaria-

carrying mosquitoes. Consequently, the lowland peoples

in the river valleys were often isolated from each other

and had only limited contacts with the upland peoples in

the mountains. These geographic barriers may help ex-

plain why Southeast Asia is one of the few regions in Asia

that was never unified under a single government.

Given Southeast Asia’s location between China and

India, it is not surprising that both civilizations influ-

enced developments in the region. In 111

B.C.E., Vietnam

was conquered by the Han dynasty and remained under

Chinese control for more than a millennium (see Chap-

ter 11). The Indian states never exerted much political

control over Southeast Asia, but their influence was

pervasive nevertheless. By the first centuries

C.E., Indian

merchants were sailing to Southeast Asia; they were soon

followed by Buddhist and Hindu missionaries. Indian

influence can be seen in many aspects of Southeast Asian

culture, from political institutions to religion, architec-

ture, language, and literature.

Paddy Fields and Spices:

The States of Southeast Asia

The traditional states of Southeast Asia can generally be

divided between agricultural societies and trading socie-

ties. The distinction between farming and trade was a

product of the environment. The agricultural societies---

notably, Vietnam, Angkor in what is now Cambodia, and

the Burmese state of Pagan---were situated in rich river

deltas that were conducive to the development of a wet

rice economy (see Map 9.6). Although all produced some

goods for regional markets, none was tempted to turn to

commerce as the prime source of national income. In

fact, none was situated astride the main trade routes that

crisscrossed the region.

The Mainland States One exception to this general

rule was the kingdom of Funan, which arose in the fertile

valley of the lower Mekong River in the second century

C.E. At that time, much of the regional trade between

India and the South China Sea moved across the narrow

THE GOLDEN REGION:EARLY SOUTHEAST ASIA 225

neck of the Malay peninsula. With access to copper, tin,

and iron, as well as a variety of tropical agricultural

products, Funan played an active role in this process, and

Oc Eo, on the Gulf of Thailand, became one of the pri-

mary commercial ports in the region. Funan declined in

the fifth century when trade began to pass through the

Strait of Malacca and was eventually replaced by the ag-

ricultural state of Chenla and then, three hundred years

later, by the great kingdom of Angkor.

Angkor was the most powerful state to emerge in

mainland Southeast Asia before the sixteenth century (see

the box on p. 227). The remains of its capital city, Angkor

Thom, give a sense of the magnificence of Angkor civi-

lization. The city formed a square 2 miles on each side. Its

massive stone walls were several feet thick and were

surrounded by a moat. Four main gates led into the city,

which at its height had a substantial population. As in its

predecessor, the wealth of Angkor was based primarily on

the cultivation of wet rice, which had been introduced to

the Mekong River valley from China in the third mil-

lennium

B.C.E. Other products were honey, textiles, fish,

and salt. By the fourteenth century, however, Angkor had

begun to decline, a product of incessant wars with its

neighbors and the silting up of its irrigation system. In

1432, Angkor Thom was destroyed by the Thai, who had

migrated into the region from southwestern China in the

thirteenth century and established their capital at Ayu-

thaya, in lower Thailand, in 1351.

As the Thai expanded southward, however, their

main competition came from the west, where the Bur-

mese peoples had formed their own agricultural society in

the valleys of the Salween and Irrawaddy rivers. Like the

Thai, they were relatively recent arrivals in the area,

having migrated southward from the highlands of Tibet

beginning in the seventh century

C.E. After subjugating

weaker societies already living in the area, in the eleventh

century they founded the first great Burmese state, the

kingdom of Pagan. Like the Thai, they quickly converted

to Buddhism and adopted Indian political institutions

and culture. For a while, they were a major force in the

western part of Southeast Asia, but attacks from the

Mongols in the late thirteenth century (see Chapter 10)

weakened Pagan, and the resulting vacuum may have

benefited the Thai as they moved into areas occupied by

Burmese migrants in the Chao Phraya valley.

The Malay World In the Malay peninsula and the In-

donesian archipelago, a different pattern emerged. For

centuries, this area had been linked to regional trade

networks, and much of its wealth had come from the

export of tropical products to China, India, and the Middle

East. The vast majority of the inhabitants of the region

were of Malay ethnic stock, a people who spread

from their original homeland in southeastern China into

INDIA

PAGAN

NAN

CHAO

DAI

VIET

CHINA

CHAMPA

Strait of

Malacca

SUMATRA

BORNEO

Strait of

Sunda

JAVA

SRIVIJAYA

MAJAPAHIT

ANGKOR

Prambanan

Borobudur

Palembang

Tumasik

Ayuthaya

Angkor

Thom

Oc Eo

Tali

Quanzhou

Pagan

Indrapura

Indian

Ocean

South

China

Sea

0 250 500 Miles

0 250 500 750 Kilometers

MAP 9.6 Southeast Asia in the Thirteen th Century . This

map shows the major states that arose in Southeast Asia after

1000

C.E. Some, like Angkor and Dai Viet, were predominantly

agricultural. Others, like Srivijaya and Champa, were

commercial.

Which of these states would soon disappear? Wh y?

CHRONOLOGY

Early Southeast Asia

Chinese conquest of Vietnam 111

B.C.E.

Arrival of Burmese peoples c. seventh century

C.E.

Formation of Srivijaya c. 670

Construction of Borobudur c. eighth century

Creation of Angkor kingdom c. ninth century

Thai migrations into Southeast Asia c. thirteenth century

Rise of Majapahit empire Late thir teenth century

Fall of Angkor kingdom 1432

226 CHAPTER 9 THE EXPANSION OF CIVILIZATION IN SOUTHERN ASIA

island Southeast Asia and even to more distant locations

in the South Pacific, such as Tahiti, Hawaii, and Easter

Island.

Eventually, the islands of the Indonesian archipelago

gave rise to two of the region’s most notable trading

societies---Srivijaya and Majapahit. Both were based in

large part on spices. As the wealth of the Arab Empire in

the Middle East and then of western Europe increased, so

did the demand for the products of East Asia. Merchant

fleets from India and the Arabian peninsula sailed to the

Indonesian islands to buy cloves, pepper, nutmeg, cinna-

mon, precious woods, and other exotic products coveted

by the wealthy. In the eighth century, Srivijaya, located

along the eastern coast of Sumatra, became a powerful

commercial state that dominated the trade route passing

through the Strait of Malacca, at that time the most

convenient route from East Asia into the Indian Ocean.

The rulers of Srivijaya had helped bring the route to

prominence by controlling the pirates who had previously

preyed on shipping in the strait. Another inducement was

Srivijaya’s capital at Palembang, a deepwater port where

sailors could wait out the change in the monsoon season

before making their return voyage. In 1025, however,

Chola, one of the kingdoms of southern India and a

commercial rival of Srivijaya, inflicted a devastating de-

feat on the island kingdom. Although Srivijaya survived,

it was unable to regain its former dominance, in part

because the main trade route had shifted to the east,

through the Strait of Sunda and directly out into the

Indian Ocean. In the late thirteenth century, this shift in

trade patterns led to the founding of a new kingdom of

Majapahit on the island of Java. In the mid-fourteenth

century, Majapahit succeeded in uniting most of the

archipelago and perhaps even part of the Southeast Asian

mainland under its rule.

The Role of India Indian influence was evident in all of

these societies to various degrees. Based on models from

the kingdoms of southern India, Southeast Asian kings

were believed to possess special godlike qualities that set

THE KINGDOM OF ANGKOR

Angkor (known to the Chinese as Chen-la) was the

greatest kingdom of its time in Southeast Asia.

This passage was probably written in the thirteenth

century by Chau Ju-kua, an inspector of foreign

trade in the city of Quanzhou (sometimes called Zayton) on the

southern coast of China. His account, compiled from reports of

seafarers, includes a brief description of the capital city, Ang-

kor Thom, which is still one of the great archaeological sites

of the region. Angkor was already in decline when Chau Ju-kua

described the kingdom, and the capital was later abandoned

in 1432.

Chau Ju-kua, Records of Foreign Nations

The officials and the common people dwell in houses with sides of

bamboo matting and thatched with reeds. Only the king resides in a

palace of hewn stone. It has a granite lotus pond of extraordinary

beauty with golden bridges, some three hundred odd feet long. The

palace buildings are solidly built and richly ornamented. The throne

on which the king sits is made of gharu wood and the seven pre-

cious substances; the dais is jeweled, with supports of veined wood

[ebony?]; the screen [behind the throne] is of ivory.

When all the ministers of state have audience, they first make

three full prostrations at the foot of the throne; they then kneel and

remain thus, with hands crossed on their breasts, in a circle round

the king, and discuss the affairs of state. When they have finished,

they make another prostration and retire. ...

[The people] are devout Buddhists. There are serving [in the

temples] some three hundred foreign women; they dance and

offer food to the Buddha. They are called a-nan or slave dancing

girls.

As to their customs, lewdness is not considered criminal; theft

is punished by cutting off a hand and a foot and by branding on

the chest.

The incantations of the Buddhist and Taoist priests [of this

country] have magical powers. Among the former those who wear

yellow robes may marry, while those who dress in red lead ascetic

lives in temples. The Taoists clothe themselves with leaves; they have

a deity called P’o-to-li which they worship with great devotion.

[The people of this country] hold the right hand to be clean, the

left unclean, so when they wish to mix their rice with any kind of

meat broth, they use the right hand to do so and also to eat with.

The soil is rich and loamy; the fields have no bounds. Each one

takes as much as he can cultivate. Rice and cereals are cheap; for

every tael of lead one can buy two bushels of rice.

The native products comprise elephants’ tusks, the chan and su

[varieties of gharu wood], good yellow wax, kingfisher’s feathers, ...

resin, foreign oils, ginger peel, gold-colored incense, ... raw silk

and cotton fabrics.

The foreign traders offer in exchange for these gold, silver, por-

celainware, sugar, preserves, and vinegar.

Because of the paucity of written records about Angkor soci-

ety, much of our knowledge about local conditions comes from

documents such as this one by a Chinese source. What does

this excerpt tell us about the political system, religious beliefs,

and land use in thirteenth-century Angkor?

THE GOLDEN REGION:EARLY SOUTHEAST ASIA 227

them apart from ordinary people. In some societies such

as Angkor, the most prominent royal advisers constituted

a brahmin class on the Indian model. In Pagan and

Angkor, some division of the population into separate

classes based on occupation and ethnic background seems

to have occurred, although these divisions do not seem to

have developed the rigidity of the Indian class system.

India also supplied Southeast Asians with a writing

system. The societies of the region had no written scripts

for their spoken languages before the arrival of the Indian

merchants and missionaries. Indian phonetic symbols

were borrowed and used to record the spoken language.

Initially, Southeast Asian literature was written in the

Indian Sanskrit but eventually came to be written in the

local languages. Southeast Asian authors borrowed pop-

ular Indian themes, such as stories from the Buddhist

scriptures and tales from the Ramayana.

A popular form of entertainment among the com-

mon people, the wayang kulit, or shadow play, may have

come originally from India or possibly China, but it be-

came a distinctive art form in Java and other islands of

the Indonesian archipelago. In a shadow play, flat leather

puppets were manipulated behind an illuminated screen

while the narrator recited tales from the Indian classics.

The plays were often accompanied by gamelan, a type of

music performed by an orchestra composed primarily of

percussion instruments such as gongs and drums that

apparently originated in Java.

Daily Life

Because of the diversity of ethnic backgrounds, religions,

and cultures, making generalizations about daily life in

Southeast Asia during the early historical period is diffi-

cult. Nevertheless, it appears that Southeast Asian socie-

ties did not always apply the social distinctions that were

sometimes imported from India.

Social Structures Still, traditional societies in South-

east Asia had some clearly hierarchical characteristics. At

the top of the social ladder were the hereditary aristocrats,

who monopolized both political power and economic

wealth and enjoyed a borrowed aura of charisma by vir-

tue of their proximity to the ruler. Most aristocrats lived

in the major cities, which were the main source of power,

wealth, and foreign influence. Beyond the major cities

lived the mass of the population, composed of farmers,

fishers, artisans, and merchants. In most Southeast Asian

societies, the vast majority were probably rice farmers,

living at a bare subsistence level and paying heavy rents or

taxes to a landlord or a local ruler.

The average Southeast Asian peasant was not actively

engaged in commerce except as a consumer of various

necessities. But accounts by foreign visitors indicate that

in the Malay world, some were involved in growing or

mining products for export, such as tropical food prod-

ucts, precious woods, tin, and precious gems. Most of the

regional trade was carried on by local merchants, who

purchased products from local growers and then trans-

ported them to the major port cities. During the early

state-building era, roads were few and relatively primitive,

so most of the goods were transported by small boats

down rivers to the major ports along the coast. There

the goods were loaded onto larger ships for delivery

outside the region. Growers of export goods in areas near

the coast were thus indirectly involved in the regional

trade network but received few economic benefits from

the relationship.

As we mig ht expect from an area of such ethnic and

cultural diversity, social structures differed significantly

from countr y to countr y. In the Indianized states on the

mainland, the tradition of a hereditar y tribal aristocracy

was probably accentuated by the Hindu practice of

dividing the population into separate classes, called

varna in imitation of the Indian model. In Angkor and

Pagan, for example, the divisions were based on occu-

pation or ethnic background. Some people were con-

sidered free subjects of the king, although there may

have been legal restrictions against changing occupa-

tions. Others, however, may have been indentured to an

employer. Each community was under a chieftain, who

in turn was subordinated to a hig her official responsible

for passing on the tax revenues of each group to the

central government.

In the kingdoms in the Malay peninsula and the

Indonesian archipelago, social relations were generally

less formal. Most of the people in the region, whether

farmers, fishers, or artisans, lived in small kampongs

(Malay for ‘‘villages’’) in wooden houses built on stilts to

avoid flooding during the monsoon season. Some of the

farmers were probably sharecroppers who paid a part of

their harvest to a landlord, who was often a member of

the aristocracy. But in other areas, the tradition of free

farming was strong.

Women and the Family The women of Southeast Asia

during this era have been described as the most fortunate

in the world. Although most women worked side by side

with men in the fields, as in Africa they often played an

active role in trading activities. Not only did this lead to a

higher literacy rate among women than among their male

counterparts, but it also allowed them more financial

independence than their counterparts in China and India,

a fact that was noticed by the Chinese traveler Zhou

Daguan at the end of the thirteenth century: ‘‘In Cam-

bodia it is the women who take charge of trade. For this

228 CHAPTER 9 THE EXPANSION OF CIVILIZATION IN SOUTHERN ASIA

reason a Chinese arriving in the country loses no time in

getting himself a mate, for he will find her commercial

instincts a great asset.’’

Although, as elsewhere, warfare was normally part of

the male domain, women sometimes played a role as

bodyguards as well. According to Zhou Daguan, women

were used to protect the royal family in Angkor, as well as

in kingdoms located on the islands of Java and Sumatra.

Though there is no evidence that such female units ever

engaged in battle, they did give rise to wondrous tales of

Amazon warriors in the w ritings of foreign travelers such

as the fourteenth-century Muslim adventurer Ibn Battuta.

One reason for the enhanced status of women in

traditional Southeast Asia is that the nuclear family was

more common than the joint family system prevalent in

China and the Indian subcontinent. Throughout the re-

gion, wealth in marriage was passed from the male to the

female, in contrast to the dowry system applied in China

and India. In most societies, virginity was usually not a

valued commodity in brokering a marriage, and divorce

proceedings could be initiated by either party. Still, most

marriages were monogamous, and marital fidelity was

taken seriously.

The relative availability of cultivable land in the re-

gion may help explain the absence of joint families. Joint

families under patriarchal leadership tend to be found in

areas where land is scarce and individual families must

work together to conserve resources and maximize in-

come. With the exception of a few crowded river valleys,

few areas in Southeast Asia had a high population density

per acre of cultivable land. Throughout most of the area,

water was plentiful, and the land was relatively fertile. In

parts of Indonesia, it was possible to survive by living off

the produce of wild fruit trees---bananas, coconuts,

mangoes, and a variety of other tropical fruits.

World of the Spirits: Religious Belief

Indian religions also had a profound effect on Southeast

Asia. Traditional religious beliefs in the region took the

familiar form of spirit worship and animism that we have

seen in other cultures. Southeast Asians believed that

spirits dwelled in the mountains, rivers, streams, and

other sacred places in their environment. Mountains were

probably particularly sacred, since they were considered

to be the abode of ancestral spirits, the place to which the

souls of all the departed would retire after death.

When Hindu and Buddhist ideas began to penetrate

the area early in the first millennium

C.E., they exerted a

strong appeal among local elites. Not only did the new

doctrines offer a more convincing explanation of the

nature of the cosmos, but they also provided local rulers

with a means of enhancing their prestige and power and

conferred an aura of legitimacy on their relations with

their subjects. In Angkor, the king’s duties included per-

forming sacred rituals on the mountain in the capital city;

in time, the ritual became a state cult uniting Hindu gods

with local nature deities and ancestral spirits in a complex

pantheon.

This state cult, financed by the royal court, eventually

led to the construction of temples throughout the

country. Many of these temples housed thousands of

priests and retainers and amassed great wealth, including

vast estates farmed by local peasants. It has been esti-

mated that there were as many as 300,000 priests in

Angkor at the height of its power. This vast wealth, which

was often exempt from taxes, may be one explanation for

the gradual decline of Angkor in the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries.

Initially, the spread of Hindu and Buddhist doctrines

took place mostly among the elite. Although the common

people participated in the state cult and helped construct

the temples, they did not give up their traditional beliefs

in local deities and ancestral spirits. A major transfor-

mation began in the eleventh century, however, when

Theravada Buddhism began to penetrate the kingdom of

Pagan in mainland Southeast Asia from the island of Sri

Lanka. From Pagan, it spread rapidly to other areas in

Southeast Asia and eventually became the religion of the

masses throughout the mainland west of the Annamite

Mountains.

Theravada’s appeal to the peoples of Southeast Asia is

reminiscent of the original attraction of Buddhist thought

centuries earlier on the Indian subcontinent. By teaching

that individuals could seek Nirvana through their own

actions rather than through the intercession of the ruler

or a priest, Theravada was more accessible to the masses

than the state cults promoted by the rulers. During the

next centuries, Theravada gradually undermined the in-

fluence of state-supported religions and became the

dominant faith in several mainland societies, including

Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

Theravada did not penetrate far into the Malay

peninsula or the Indonesian island chain, perhaps be-

cause it entered Southeast Asia through Burma farther to

the north. But the Malay world found its own popular

alternative to state religions when Islam began to enter

the area in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Be-

cause Islam’s expansion into Southeast Asia took place for

the most part after 1500, its emergence as a major force in

the region will be discussed in a later chapter.

Not surprisingly, Indian influence extended to the

Buddhist and Hindu temples of Southeast Asia. Temple

architecture reflecting Gupta or southern Indian styles

began to appear in Southeast Asia during the first cen-

turies

C.E. Most famous is the Buddhist temple at

THE GOLDEN REGION:EARLY SOUTHEAST ASIA 229

Borobudur, in central Java. Begun in the late eighth

century at the behest of a king of Sailendra (an agricul-

tural kingdom based in eastern Java), Borobudur is a

massive stupa with nine terraces. Sculpted on the sides of

each terrace are bas-reliefs depicting the nine stages in the

life of Siddhartha Gautama, from childhood to his final

release from the chain of human existence. Surmounted

by hollow bell-like towers containing representations of

the Buddha and capped by a single stupa, the structure

dominates the landscape for miles around.

Second only to Borobudur in technical excellence

and even more massive in size are the ruins of the old

capital city of Angkor Thom. The temple of Angkor Wat

is the most famous and arguably the most beautiful of all

the existing structures at Angkor Thom. Built on the

model of the legendary Mount Meru (the home of the

gods in Hindu tradition), it combines Indian architec-

tural techniques with native inspiration in a structure of

impressive delicacy and grace. In existence for more than

eight hundred years, Angkor Wat serves as a bridge be-

tween the Hindu and Buddhist architectural styles.

Expansion into the Pacific

One of the great maritime feats of human history was the

penetration of the islands of the Pacific Ocean by Malayo-

Polynesian-speaking peoples originating on the island

of Taiwan and along the southeastern coast of China.

The Temp le of Borobudur. The colossal pyramid temple at Borobudur, on the island of Java, is one

of the greatest Buddhist monuments. Constructed in the eighth century, it depicts the path to spiritual

enlightenment in stone. Sculptures and relief portrayals of the life of the Buddha at the lower level depict the

world of desire. At higher elevations, they give way to empty bell towers (see inset) and culminate at the

summit with an empty and closed stupa, signifying the state of Nirvana. Shortly after it was built, Borobudur

was abandoned as a new ruler switched his allegiance to Hinduism and ordered the erection of the Hindu

temple of Prambanan nearby. Buried for a thousand years under volcanic ash and jungle, Borobudur was

rediscovered in the nineteenth century and has recently been restored to its former splendor.

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William J. Duiker

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William J. Duiker

230 CHAPTER 9 THE EXPANSION OF CIVILIZATION IN SOUTHERN ASIA

By 2000 B.C.E., these seafarers had migrated as far as the

Bismarck Archipelago, northeast of the island of New

Guinea, where they encountered Melanesian peoples

whose ancestors had taken part in the first wave of human

settlement into the region 30,000 years previously.

From there, the Polynesian peoples---as they are now

familiarly known---continued their explorations eastward

in large sailing canoes up to 100 feet long that carried

more than forty people and many of their food staples,

such as chickens, chili peppers, and a tuber called taro,

the sourc e of poi. Stopping in Fiji, Sam oa, an d th e Cook

Islands dur ing the first millennium

C.E., their descendants

pressed onward, eventually reaching Tahiti, Hawaii, and

even Easter Island, one of the most remote sites of human

habitation in the world. Other peoples, now known as the

Maori, sailed southwestward from the island of Rarotonga

and settled in New Zealand, off the coast of Australia. The

final frontier of human settlement had been breached.

Angkor Wat. The Khmer rulers of Angkor constructed a number of remarkable temples and palaces. Devised

as either Hindu or Buddhist shrines, the temples also reflected the power and sanctity of the king. This twelfth-

century temple known as Angkor Wat is renowned both for its spectacular architecture and for the thousands of

fine bas-reliefs relating Hindu legends and Khmer history. Most memorable are the heavenly dancing maidens

and the royal processions with elephants and soldiers.

CONCLUSION

DURING THE MORE THAN fifteen hundred years from the

fall of the Mauryas to the rise of the Mughals, Indian civilization

faced a number of severe challenges. One challenge was primarily

external and took the form of a continuous threat from beyond the

mountains in the northwest. A second was generated by internal

causes and stemmed from the tradition of factionalism and internal

rivalry that had marked relations within the aristocracy since the

arrival of the Aryans in the second millennium

B.C.E. (see Chapter 2).

Despite the abortive efforts of the Guptas, that tradition continued

almost without interruption down to the founding of the Mughal

Empire in the sixteenth century.

The third challenge was primarily cultural and appeared in the

religious divisions between Hindus and Buddhists, and later

between Hindus and Muslims, that took place throughout much of

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William J. Duiker

CONCLUSION 231