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The Contribution of Buddhist Kingdoms in Indonesia to the Nation's History and Identity |
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Bhiksuni Bhadra Pranidhana (著)=釋賢願 (au.)
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| Source |
世界佛教論壇論文集（第2屆）
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| Date | 2009.03.28 |
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| Pages | 296 - 305 |
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| Publisher | 世界佛教論壇籌備辦公室=Preparatory Office of the World Buddhist Forum |
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| Location | 北京, 中國 [Beijing, China] |
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| Content type | 會議論文=Proceeding Article |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Note | 佛教的傳播與民族性=The Spread National Characteristics of Buddhism |
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| Abstract | Buddhism speaks about conditionality, inter-connectedness, nothing exist on its own. Such law of inter-dependent applies to all phenomena, and the “becoming” of a nation is no exception. A nation cannot abruptly come into being without undergoing many different processes and changes across time, on many aspects requisite to a formation of a nation. These processes are the embryonic stage of an identity of a nation. To quote from the “The Hindu” newspaper: “The question of identity is of primary importance in the formation of a nation. What then is the basis of identity? Identity, most commonly, is based on a shared sense of history, culture and language.”[1] Undoubtedly, history, culture, and language are three crucial components of identity of a nation, and that these component also changes, fluctuates, reshapes, as a continuous transformation of the identity.A good starting point in discussing the history of Indonesia that links to Buddhism was India’s relation to the nation. Even though Indonesia has been in trade contact with India since prehistoric time, but the culture started to penetrate into Indonesia only from around the first century C.E. It is important to note that Buddhism with its non-caste system and tolerant attitude towards all seemed to have given Indian merchants more opportunities to reach foreign lands. The communication between the Indian and local merchants later on, eased the process of cultural and religious penetration. Indian aspects were welcomed by the locals, and considered to be beneficial for them, enabling the two cultural ingredients to mold smoothly.From the end of the second century to the beginning of the third, Indian community formed through the natural process from unification of the locals, headed by an Indian leader or Indianized local leader, started to appear in Southeast Asia. It started to grow rapidly from the fourth century, along with the conquest of Samudragupta dynasty in Southern India which created migration of merchants, noblemen, clergies to the East for about three centuries. Naturally, “Beginning in the fourth century A.D., there are indications of a widespread adoption in Southeast Asia of religious and political traditions whose original home lay in the Indian subcontinent.”[2] Even though in the early fifth century Chinese monk Fa Xian who made a stop in Indonesia from India mentioned in his record, “The Faith of Buddha was in a very unsatisfactory condition”[3], however this does not mean it did not exist at all. As a matter of fact, the few Buddhists in the fifth century might have paved the way to the development of many Buddhist kingdoms in later centuries, and these Buddhist kingdoms including the ones in Indonesia, which were strategically located in favor of international trade, continued to be active in establishing trade, diplomatic, and religious relations with India, as well as with China.This paper is intended to briefly show evidences that prior to the modern Indonesia, there were many dynamic Buddhist entities that emerged partly due to the spread of the religion, actively networking across borders. These entities received foreign influences, gradually formed their identities, take actions for gaining recognitions, and in some point in time, some of these kingdoms even became the center of attention and target of destination. Although the traits and identities of these entities may differ from those of today’s Indonesia, they are indeed an undeletable enrichment of the history, as well as the identity of Indonesia, the current modern nation they apparently belong to. |
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| Hits | 1384 |
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| Created date | 2009.06.10 |
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| Modified date | 2015.08.24 |
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