The Blending of Chinese, Indian, and Indigenous Religious Traditions in Indochina from the Earliest Times to 1500 C.E.: Some New Perspectives on Religious Interaction
CHINA; ASIA; INDIA; INDO-CHINA; RELIGIOUS INTERACTION
摘要
When Europeans "discovered" Buddhism in the mid-nineteenth century, they felt that they had come upon a philosophy that matched the new intellectual climate in their own culture. But they were at a loss to explain the apparent dichotomy between elite, non-theistic, monastic Buddhism, and the popular religious practices that they encountered in their Buddhist colonies which were centered on various deities and spirits. The scholars' answer to this apparent inconsistency was that at the village level the "pure" Buddhism of earlier times had been "contaminated" by the introduction of elements from Hinduism and native animism. Thus the Therav Y din countries of South and Southeast Asia possessed "two religions"--a "pure" Buddhism and a syncretic village religion that was only minimally Buddhist.
This dissertation examines the development of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and in Southeast Asia as a historically conditioned, systemic entity. In doing so, it draws on Buddhist textual analysis, new historical data and perspectives, social and cultural anthropological research, and personal fieldwork. What emerges is a persuasive case for the proposition that the two-religion thesis of Southeast Asian religion is incorrect and the result of the imposition of Western ideas and presuppositions. When analyzed in their historical context, the religion patterns of Southeast Asia can be seen to represent a religious system which is, in a functional and structural sense, similar to other religions. Moreover, while having emphasized certain elements in its milieu over others, it is not syncretic in the general sense of the word.
目次
Introduction
Chapter 1. Reconstructing the Indigenous Religions of Indochina 2. Champa and the Transmission of the Indic Religions to Indochina 3. The Development of Religion in Cambodia 4. The Spread of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia 5. The Sandha Reform of Parakramabahu I and Its Implications for the Spread of Sinhaless Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia 6. The Anomalous Position of Vietnam
