Indic religions arrived in the early centuries of the first millennium and left a profound mark on Southeast Asia’s past
To cite this page: Tan, Noel Hidalgo (2021, Updated 09 October 2022) Archaeology of Hinduism in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian Archaeology. Available at: https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/hinduism/
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Overview
Indic religions arrived in the early centuries of the first millennium and left a profound mark on Southeast Asia’s past
Hinduism is a system of beliefs, rituals and traditions originating from India, and arrived into Southeast Asia in the early centuries of the first millennium through trade and probably Brahmin scholars who transferred their religion to the elite class of Southeast Asian societies. There are several forms of Hinduism, most notably Vaishnavism and Shaivism, and the earliest evidence for worship of these deities come in the form of inscriptions and temples. Some major Unesco World Heritage sites are ancient Hindu temples: the Prambanan temple complex in Indonesia, the My Son Sanctuary in Vietnam and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, which is thought to be dedicated to Vishnu. Islam and Buddhism supplanted Hinduism as the dominant religions in the second millennium, but the effects of Hindu religion and culture persist in the languages and cultures of Southeast Asia today. A few groups of people still practice Hindu religion today, including the Balinese and the Chams.
Recommended Books
These are books relevant to Hinduism or the Indic religions in Southeast Asia, with a focus on archaeology. You may also want to check out the page on the archaeology of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Some of these links are affiliate links and I may receive a commission if you click on them and make a purchase. For other sources of reliable academic information, you should also check out the books page for latest releases and the occassional free book, as well as the journals page for the latest scientific research.
Last update on 2024-09-23 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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Hindu Archaeology in the News
The news reports indexed below usually link to external sites that were active at the time of posting; sometimes websites may be temporarily down or may have reorganised their underlying architecture or have even closed down – in these cases the links may not be available. Most of the news articles archived are in English; this is largely because I do not have a working competency in the outher Southeast Asian languages, although when I am made aware of stories in this and other languages I try to index them.
