Hinduism in Southeast Asia

Common card · No. 370529

Hinduism in Southeast Asia had a profound impact on the region's cultural development and its history. As the Indic scripts were introduced from the Indian subcontinent, people of Southeast Asia entered the historical period by producing their earliest inscriptions around the 1st to 5th century CE. Today, Hindus in Southeast Asia are mainly Overseas Indians and Balinese. There are also Javanese (also other minorities of Indonesia), and the Balamon Cham minority in South Central Vietnam who also practice Hinduism. Hindu civilization, which itself formed from various distinct cultures and peoples, including also early Southeast Asian, specifically Mon Khmer influences, was adopted and assimilated into the indigenous social constructs and statehoods of Southeast Asian regional polities. Through the formation of Indianized kingdoms, small indigenous polities led by petty chieftain were transformed into major kingdoms and empires led by a Maharaja with statecraft akin to India’s. This gave birth...

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