South and Southeast Asian Art History

This paper employs “globalization” theory, dynamically incorporating space and time, geography and history, to challenge the notion that the development of Southeast Asian cultures along the global sea-faring arc between India and China can be best explained by constructing narratives derived from these major civilisations. The archaeological record shows a complex inventory of contacts and exchanges of goods and ideas from China and India intersecting in Southeast Asia. While globally-based trade and religion were formative, the region’s indigenous resources and cultures not only provided attractive destinations and way-stations, but also molded non-native inputs to the dynamics of already extant socio-cultural systems. The arrival of Buddhism and Brahmanism on Southeast Asian shores is framed within this context and four regions are selected to highlight these processes: the Pyu in Myanmar, Dvaravati in Thailand, the Thai-Malay peninsula, and Pre-Angkorian Cambodia from the mid-first millennium CE onwards. Southeast Asians successfully managed the twin processes of globalization and localism, adapting Buddhist and Brahmanical practices to suit their situations. These fusions facilitated transformations of Southeast Asian societies, setting them on trajectories leading to the formation of fully fledged, unique Buddhist and Brahmanical states such as Angkor in Cambodia, Bagan in Myanmar, and Sukhothai in Thailand.