Southeast Asia

The religious diversity of Southeast Asia from ancient times to the present encapsulates the history of the global spread of some of the world's major religions. The region, which is east of India, south of China, and north of Australia, is usually [Page 1209]grouped into two sections: mainland Southeast Asia, which includes Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and island Southeast Asia, which includes Singapore, Indonesia, East Timor, Brunei, and the Philippines. Malaysia can be placed in either category: One part of it is the Malay Peninsula that juts southward from the mainland; the two other parts, Sabah and Sarawak, are located in northern Borneo—a large island that Malaysia shares with Indonesia. Papua New Guinea is sometimes included in Southeast Asia and sometimes in Oceania; Sri Lanka is at times listed with Southeast Asia but usually with South Asia; Taiwan is sometimes grouped with Southeast Asia as well, though far more often it is counted as a part of East Asia.

Most of the mainland countries of Southeast Asia are Buddhist, except for Malaysia, which is mainly Muslim. The island countries of Southeast Asia adhere to a mixture of religious customs: Indonesia and Brunei are Muslim, Singapore is predominantly Buddhist, and the Philippines is Christian. This simple characterization, however, masks a great deal of religious diversity within each of these countries, both at present and in the past. The southern part of the Philippines is Muslim; Indonesia has a thriving Hindu population in Bali; Cambodia hosts the ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples at Angkor Wat and its environs. The Mahayana Buddhism of Vietnam and Singapore is different from the Theravada Buddhism practiced in other areas of Southeast Asia. The history of Southeast Asia is the story of successive waves of religious cultures that left their marks in a variety of ways on the region's societies and were influenced, in turn, by indigenous religious traditions. Religion in Southeast Asia, therefore, is best described as syncretic. This entry will provide an overview of the history of religious globalization in the region: ancient Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, the arrival of Islam, the cultural effect of European colonialism, and the religious situation in the post-colonial global era.