New states, peoples, and religions in Southeast Asia November 19, 2013

Review

• According to the video Story of India, • Were the kings of South Asia supposed to be warriors, priests, scholars, or merchants? • What was the dominant empire in southern India in the 11th century? • What is the Kama sutra?

• Which deities (gods) did the video focus on?

Geography of Southeast Asia

• Why did the Malay states tend to establish their early capitals in ports while the inland empires tend to establish their capitals farther inland? • Which states are Malay states? • What is Champa? • Remember that ethnic groups form over time. They don can change. (Lockard, 69) ’ t suddenly appear in history fully formed. Moreover, the ethnic identity of a group • Also remember that governments in Southeast Asia in this period are not like modern governments. Their power is concentrated in their capitals and grows weaker in direct proportion to distance from the capitals (Lockard, 57)

Southeast Asia Before the West Arrived

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Southeast_Asian_Historical_Mandalas.svg

Pre-modern Polities

• Remember that governments of that time were like solar systems, with the power of the government weakened the farther it reached from the capital. • Also remember that Sanskirt was often used as the official language of government until around 1,000 or so, even though Sanskrit is not related to the languages the peoples of Southeast Asian countries spoke. (p. 54) • Also, remember that new ethnic groups who entered Southeast Asia came from the north and that they did not eliminate the previous inhabitants but instead changed power over them and, in many cases, absorbed them. (p. 55, 61)

New peoples: Burmese

• Who controlled Burma (Myanmar) first? The Mon • Where did the Burmese come from? the Himalayas.

• What sort of language did they speak? Tibeto-Burmese • What was the name of the first kingdom they established? Pagan (Bagan) (9th to 13th century) • It fell after Mongol attacks in 1287 but was not occupied by the Mongols • New states arose: Pegu on the coast ( a Mon kingdom), Ava in central Burma, and, in the 1500s, Toungoo (after Ava was attached by Shan from the north). Fought with the Thais. United Burma but not for long. (p. 52-55 • Where did they adopt Theravada Buddhism from?

The Tais and the Thais (55 59)

• Where were they before the Mongols forced them to move in the 13th century?

• Who did they push aside when they created a new kingdom?

• Where did the name of the Tai kingdom of Ayutthaya come from? • Why did they push down the Malay peninsula?

• What was the religion of the Thais?

The birth of Siam (Thailand)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map-of-southeast-asia_1400_CE.png

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Vietnam marches south (59 62)

Freed from Chinese control in 907 (with the fall of the Tang) • Song China tried to restore control but the Vietnamese fought them off. They also resisted Mongol attacks and Ming attacks. Was a tributary state • Became only kingdom in Southeast Asia to use civil service exams. (only Confucian state in Southeast Asia) • captured main Champa city in 1471 but some Champa polities remained for another couple of centuries. • Did not control the Mekong Delta until the mid-18th century (it was primarily Khmer before then).

Vietnam before expansion

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VietnamChampa1.gif

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Religious change on the mainland

From Hinduism-Mahayana Buddhism to Theravada Buddhism (except where?) • First Burma, then Thailand and the Khmers • What are the differences between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism?

• Sanskrit texts (Mahayana) vrs Pali texts (Theravada) • Bodhisattvas (Mahayana) vrs emphasis on Buddha • People earn merit (karma) by donating to monks.(Theravada) (p. 59)

The islands of Indonesia

• What are the three most important islands of Indonesia, from west to east? • Sumatra • Java • Bali (unique for holding on to Hinduism rather than adopting Islam).

Majapahit (1293-1528)

http://pramleeelvis.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/600px-majapahit_empire-svg.png

Majapahit (1295-1527)

• What was the primary religion of Majapahit (Madjapahit)? • Where was its power base?. • Which powerful Malay kingdom did it replace? • What sort of religious change do we see beginning during the Majapahit period?

Islam reaches the Malays (65-71)

• 1400--The King of Melaka (Melacca) converts, creating the Melaka Sultanate. Melaka becomes a major site for Chinese trade with Southeast Asia. • It also spreads into Sumatra and Java but didn ’ t reach Bali.

• Reached Mindanao, but was blocked in most of the Philippines by the arrival of the Catholic Spanish. • May have been spread by Sufis as well as by merchants.

Islam in Southeast Asia

• Why did the people of maritime Southeast Asia adopt Islam but few on the mainland did so?

• ➤ http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/imageislam/Seasia.gif

Map of Indonesia

• ➤ Melaka (Malacca) • http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/imageisl am/malacca1500.gif

Islam

• Different from other religions of pre-modern Asia • Islam is monotheistic: There is no God but God (Allah) • Muhammad is a prophet. He is not worshipped. • Islam is a religion of a book, the Quran (Koran), believed to be the revealed word of God.

• Islam places specific obligations on its believers: five formal prayers a day, fasting during Ramadan, and, if possible, a visit to Mecca. The veiling of women is not in the Quran. • Islam is the religion. Believers in Islam are called Muslims.

The Vernacular

• Both in maritime (sea-trading) and mainland Southeast Asia, vernacular scripts began to replace Sanskrit around 1,000-1,100 years ago. Most of those writing systems were imitations of the writing systems of South Asia, though Vietnam used Chinese characters instead.

• We also see the beginning of the use of Arabic script among the Malays.

Agriculture and Trade

• Pre-modern societies are primarily either agricultural or commercial oriented. All societies had both components, but some, such as maritime Southeast Asia, put more emphasis on trade than other societies did. • In maritime Southeast Asia (Java, Sumatra, Malaya), trade played a larger role in government revenues than it did anywhere else in Asia. Mainland Southeast Asia was primarily agricultural, though it placed more emphasis on trade than did East Asia or South Asia. • Despite the agricultural foundations of their societies, the states of South Asia and East Asia also had merchants engaged in both internal and foreign trade. However, since the rulers gained most of their revenue from agriculture, their societies should be regarded as primarily agricultural.