Southeast Asian Civilization

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Southeast Asian Civilization
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Geographic setting

• Defined as East of India and South of China
• Covers 10 of total Asian area and is one of
  worlds densely populated region
• SEA is made up of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos,
  Thailand, Vietnam,Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore,
  the PHILIPPINES, Brunei D, East Darussalam, and
  East Timor

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• Insular SEA ( Malaysia, Indonesia, PHILIPPINES
  and Singapore) is given the title
  anthropologists paradise because of the relics
• ( skeletons, utensils and musical instrument of
  pre-historic inhabitants) found therein

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• Of these 11 nations, only Thailand was not
  successfully invaded by the Western colonizers
  who took interest of the SEA regions rich
  natural resources ( especially spices )

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The Wind-dominated Islands

• Lands below the Wind were the coastal Kingdom
  of Brunei, Indonesia and Borneo. One had to sail
  down on the north wind to reach home.
• Lands above the Wind were India and China and
  other distant realms, because one sailed up north
  to reach them.

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Early History

• Four major contemporary civilization that exist
  in the region
• 1.Sinic
• 2.Indic
• 3.Islamic
• 4.Western

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3 epochs of human development

• Paleolithic ( Old Stone ) age where human and
  artifacts were found mostly in the Java area (
  Apeman/Java man, Wadjack man, and Australoid
  featured man)
• Mesolithic (Middle Stone) age when
  Australoid-Verddoid type of humans emerged. Also
  appearing in this period were the people like the
  negritos.In this period there was continued use
  of bones and stone implements.

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• Neolithic (new-stone)age when neolithic people
  emerged.Their descendants form the population
  today. Their tools were hard stones (
  quadrangular adzes and chisels) used for building
  houses and boats, carving and cutting woods.
  People have began to settle in communities also
  unlike the hunting and gathering ones in the
  previous ages.

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Bronze-Iron Culture Dongson

• Dongson is after a village in Vietnam where
  bronze industry was first discovered
• The industry was passed down from China to SEA
• The most distinctive products of Dongson were the
  largest bronze drum decorated with ornamental
  patterns with stylized animal and human
  representations

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• Associated with this culture is the Megalithis
  culture represented by sculptures and base
  reliefs as well as monumental structures ( i.e
  slave graves and tombs stones ) only smaller than
  the Sumatran megalithics
• Dongson period commenced the cultural traits of
  India and China in the region

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Recorded Chinese and Indian Cultures in SEA

• Chinese pottery discovered in Indonesia
• Mention of SEA as dynastic history by the the
  seafaring chinese in quest for pearls and
  precious stones
• Chinese and Indian monks and pilgrims traversed
  the region
• Occupation by China of the areas bordering North
  Vietnam
• Mongol invasion of most SEA lands
• Indian exported ideas and received students and
  merchants and colonists
• The Epic Ramayana referred to islands of gold and
  barley in the area of lower Burma and Malay
  Peninsula

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• Indian Buddhist emperor Asoka sent missionaries
  to Burma
• Sanskrit inscription found in Cambodia,
  Cochin-china, Burma, Malaya, and Indonesia
• SEA received from India new religion complete
  with laws,myths,philosophies, temples,languages,
  writing and political theory

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Earliest Indianized states

• Funan appeared in 3 regions, i.e. Mekong Delta,
  the coastal strip of present day Vietnam south oh
  Hue and Northern Malaya
• -Deriverd from a Khmer word meaning
  mountains
• -Ruling dynasty was found by Brahman named
  Kaundinya who married the queen of the country
  explained in the Pallava dynastic Myth ( the lady
  was a Naga princess, a mythical rhine-headed
  cobra of the Khmers) the posterity of the
  country was maintained by the union of the Khmer
  king and Naga princess
• -Became an imperial power under a ruler
  whose name appeared in Chinese chronicles
• -This Khmer kingdom was called by chinese as
  Chenla ( the water and land chenla)

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• Champa- people whose remains were found in
  Annam,a modern Vietnamese division
• -first appeared in history under the name
  Lin-in in the reports of the chinese governer of
  Tonkin who complained of the raids
• - indicated shiva-worship as the court
  religion
• - there were constant expedition against
  champa as a sort of punishment to them for
  disturbing the southern frontier of China
• - their freedom from China substituted their
  former sinic culture to an indianized Champa
  culture

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States of Malaya and Indonesia

• Sailandra rule in sanskrit it means king of
  mountains
• - original name was Sanjaya ( the ninth of
  his line but first to attain substantial power)
• - the king of Sailandra, Vishnu or
  Pancapana started the Borubudur, a structure as
  an impressive expression of Buddhist fervor.

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• - It maintained connections with the Indianized
  states located in SEA mainland
• - With Sailandras help Jayavarman II seized
  Lower Chenla for a dynastic rival and unified the
  new Kingdom of Cambodia
• - Borubudur was an outstanding example of
  dynastic and religious monument constructed in
  Kedu plain. It marked a high point in Javas
  culture
• - The ashes of nine Sailandra rulers entomed in
  Pancapana were deposited in Borubudur

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• Sri Vijaya Empire- one of the early states in the
  Malacca Strait and in Central Java
• - chinese records refer to it as
  Kan-to-li and later Sna-For- Tsi
• - It founded several coastal colonies to
  maintain its commercial supremacy
• - it conquered the whole of Sumatra, Malay
  peninsula, West and Central Java, and helped
  Jayavarman II ascend to the Khmer Throne

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• -Indian merchants became interested in trading
  with this Indonesian archipelago when the Roman
  Empire decreased its trade with South India. The
  Chinese too became interested with the Southeast
  Asian products. This the coastal Indonesians took
  advantage of
• -Sri Vijaya maintained supremacy in West
  Indonesia while Airlangga undertook
  reconstitution of Javanese state.
• - From the time of Airlangga, Javanese influence
  began to spread slowly to the eastern part.
  Airlanggas younger brother Anak Wungau, reigned
  in Bali. There had also been renewed influence
  from the Javanese-speaking areas in West Java,
  formerly a dependency of Sri Vijaya. This
  development made possible the unification of
  Indonesia later on

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• The Kediri period is especially for its literary
  achievements and a revival of Vishnu worship
  coinciding with the developments in India and
  cambodia
• No architectural monument s survived during
  Airlanggas reign but witnessed the unparalleled
  flowering of Indo-Javanese literature (
  vernacular adaptations of Indian epics, original
  poetry, even Airlanggas life story was later
  fitted into Hindu allegory of Saint Arjuna)
• - Javanese power ( through Kertanegaras took
  over of Singhasari)developed rapidly and taking
  advantage of the deteriorating power of Sri
  Vijaya, occupied the coastal Borneo, Sunda
  Strait, southern portion of Malaya and contested
  against Sri Vijaya control over the Malacca Strait

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• The ambitious policy of Singhasari, fashioned in
  part to counter monggol threat,attracted hostile
  attention of Chinese authorities
• Commerce within the area got the interest of the
  Monggol Kublai Khan wanting to revise sea-borne
  trade He also got attracted to the
  deteriorating Malacca Straits
• - Later, Sri Vijayas ports degenerated into
  semi-piracy and when Marco Polo passed through
  the straits, Sri Vijayawas already gone.

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Singhasari Empire

• The Javanese capital of Singhasari was founded by
  Ken Angkor ( man born out of a peasant family but
  credited for his superhuman powers
• The Monggol invasion of Java marked the end of
  Singhasari Empire and the beginning of the
  Majapahit Empire

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Majapahit Empire

• Majapahit was the last medieval Hindu-Javanese
  empire to wield much influence in Southeast Asia
• When emissaries from Mongol China appeared at
  Singhasari in 1289, the great warrior-king
  Kertanagara promptly arrested and expelled them.
  This provoked a punitive Chinese expedition to
  eastern Java
• it arrived to find that Kertanagara had been
  killed in an uprising engineered by a prince of
  the displaced house of Kediri.
• Kertanagara's son Vijaya was forced to flee to a
  village on the Brantas River named Majapahit
  (bitter fruit)

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• Majapahit filled the political vacuum left by the
  fall of the Srivijaya empire and the dissolution
  of its temporary successor, Singhasari.
• Majapahit could claim domination over most of
  Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula and extended hold
  up to as far north as Kedah, Langkasuka, and
  Pantai
• Majapahit's influence extended to much of what
  now comprises Indonesia, extending to territories
  on the south and west coasts of Borneo, and to
  southern Celebes and the Moluccas
• Some even claim that Majapahit power was felt as
  far away as the Indo-Chinese peninsula, in Siam,
  Cambodia, and Annam, though this is doubtful
• he infiltration of Islam from the Straits of
  Malacca into the Southeast Asian archipelago
  gradually undermined the influence of Majapahit
• by the late fifteenth century Majapahit was
  reduced to little more than an eastern Javanese
  state with a glorious past

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End