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Concept
Hinduism in Southeast Asia
Summary
Hinduism in Southeast Asia had a profound impact on the region's cultural development and its history. As the Indic scripts were introduced from India, people of Southeast Asia entered the historical period by producing their earliest inscriptions around the 1st to 5th century CE. Today, Hindus in Southeast Asia are mainly Overseas Indians and Balinese. There are also Javanese (also other minorities of Indonesia) and Balamon Cham minority in Cambodia and south central Vietnam who also practice Hinduism.
Hindu civilization, which itself formed from various distinct cultures and peoples, including also early Southeast Asian, specifically Mon Khmer influence, was adopted and assimilated into the indigenous social construct and statehood of Southeast Asian regional polity. Through the formation of Indianized kingdoms, small indigenous polities led by petty chieftain were transformed into major kingdoms and empires led by a Maharaja with statecraft akin to India. It gave birth to the former Champa civilisation in southern parts of South Central Vietnam, Funan in Southern Vietnam, the Khmer Empire in Indochina, Langkasuka Kingdom and Old Kedah in the Malay Peninsula, the Sriwijayan kingdom on Sumatra, the Mataram Kingdom, Singhasari and the Majapahit Empire based in Java, Bali and parts of the Philippine archipelago. The civilisation of India influenced the languages, scripts, written tradition, literatures, calendars, beliefs system and artistic aspects of these peoples and nations.
A reason for the acceptance of Indian culture and religious traditions in Southeast Asia was because Indian culture already some striking similarities to indigenous cultures of Southeast Asia, which can be explained by earlier Southeast Asian (specifically Austroasiatic, such as early Munda and Mon Khmer groups) and Himalayan (Tibetic) cultural and linguistic influence on local Indian peoples. Several scholars, such as Professor Przyluski, Jules Bloch, and Lévi, among others, concluded that there is a significant cultural, linguistic, and political Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic) influence on early Indian culture and traditions.
Official source
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