Cultural, Political, And Political Culture In India And Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is the intersection of many great cultural, political, and religious world influences, especially those coming from other parts of Asia. Since their inception centuries ago and still to this day, the states of Southeast Asia have been characterized by the incorporation of these different ideologies and customs into their cultural, economic, and political practices. China, for example, has throughout its history been perhaps the most dominant power in Asia, and is known for its mandarin system of bureaucratic administration, Mahayana Buddhism, and Confucianism. India, another major force in Southeast Asia, is known for being the birthplace of both Hinduism and Buddhism, and for being the center of extensive global trade networks.

According to D. R. SarDesai, India's culture was quite acceptable to most of Southeast Asia due to the "relative lack of Indian political ambition in the region, and the state of commerce between India and Southeast Asia." As a result, the most important and obvious Indian contributions to Southeast Asia are religious. India's Buddhist and Hindu religions were traditionally very closely affiliated with the government and therefore tied to political power. Though little is known about the "Indianization" process of Southeast Asia, it is clear that the Imperial Kingdoms of Southeast Asia incorporated Indian religious custom into their governments. Extensive Indian influence, mostly through the cultural diffusion of Theravada Buddhism into Southeast Asia, can today be found in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. The Khmer Empire, one of the Imperial Kingdoms of Southeast Asia and the roots of modern-day Cambodia, was founded by King Jayavarman II, between 802 and 850 A.D. According to Hermann Kulke, Jayavarman and his successors ruled consistently with the Hindu notion of

China is famous for developing a bureaucratic system, centered around an emperor and his court. This system worked particularly well in China as a means of asserting power and collecting tax revenue. The consequential strength of China's administration allotted it the opportunity to become an imperializing power in the region. However, it held strongly to Confucian ideals, and thus limited trade and contact with other areas, with a prominent exception being its domination over Vietnam. It ruled over Annam, as Vietnam was then known, by implementing a system of "sinicization," in which China forced the people it conquered to adhere to Chinese customs, speak Chinese, and adopt Chinese value systems. Between the 600s and 900s A.D., the Chinese Tang Dynasty ruled over Vietnam, and through the incorporation of sinicization, it imposed the bureaucratic system upon the Vietnamese. Though the dynasty decayed, and Vietnam became independent, the system of government remained in place under the new Vietnamese state, the Dai Viet. This reveals that Vietnamese elites were not opposed to Chinese-style ruling institutions so much as they were specifically to Chinese rule. This was especially apparent in the transition of power from the ruling Tran Dynasty (r. 1225-1400) to the Later Li Dynasty (r. 1428-1787). At the end of the Tran's rule, the Chinese invaded and occupied