Southeast Asia

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The peoples of Southeast Asia have not been mere satellites of the more powerful Indian and Chinese civilizations. On the contrary, the cultures that arose in these three vast areas might better be thought of as alternative developments that occurred within a greater Austroasiatic civilization, sometimes called “Asia of the monsoons.” Therefore, the transmission of Buddhism and Hinduism to Southeast Asia can be regarded as the spread of the religious symbols of the more “advanced” elements within this Austroasiatic cluster to peoples sharing some of the basic religious presuppositions and traditions.In Southeast Asia the Buddhist impact has been made in very different ways in three different regions. In two of these (the region of Malaysia/Indonesia and the region on the mainland extending from Myanmar to southern Vietnam), the main connections have been via trade routes with India and Sri Lanka. In Vietnam the main connections have been with China.

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