Indian Ocean Trade
600-1450
Indian Ocean Trade
Southernization
• Look back at your Indian Ocean articles
and quotes.
• What is important about the Indian
Ocean?
Unique in World History
• “Zone of interaction”
• First ocean to be crossed
• “Sailor's ocean”
– Warm water
– Fairly placid waters
– Wind patterns: one way = north of equator,
the other = south of the equator
Area around the ocean
• Varied environments:
– Tropical East Africa
– Deserts around the Red Sea and Persian
Gulf
– Intensely wet southern India
– Tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia
Trade goods:
•
•
•
•
Teak from India
Mangrove swamps in East Africa
Arabian horses to India
Spices from Southeast Asia & Spice
Islands
• Frankincense from Arabia and Africa
• ***Desired far beyond the Indian Ocean
world
People around the ocean
• Madagascar settled by people from
Southeast Asiaarrived via catamarans (1st
millennium CE)
• Slave trades & labor migrations
– Slaves from East Africa to Arabia/India
– From Southeast Asia to Southern Africa
• Colonies of Romans in India; Arab Muslims &
Jews in India; Indians and Chinese in SE
Asia; Europeans in India, SE Asia, and East
Africa…
The things they carried…
• Indian merchants brought Brahmin
priests
• Muslim scholars brought by Arab
merchants
• Christian merchants brought priests
Borobudur (Java)
•
Largest Buddhist structure in the world
•
Built during Sailendras rule in Java (8th C CE—832)
•
Illustrates the wealth due to control of shipping lanes
•
Diffusion of Buddhism
Borobudur (Java)
• Illustrates Javanese Buddhism
– Mahayana
– Continual cycle of reincarnation
– Low levels represent the earthly
life
– Continual path to enlightenment
– Common Buddhist motifs: stupa,
mandala
– Unique to Java: sacred mountain
Borobudur Stupa
•
Prambanan (Java)
•After the fall of the
Sailendra dynasty: Hindu
dynasty
• The Sanjaya.
•Built
Prambananphysical
manifestation of Hindu
trinity
•In SE Asia: cultural fusion
(syncretism) known as
Hindu-Buddhism
Angkor Wat
•Cambodia
•Cultural diffusion of Hindu-Buddhism
throughout SE Asia.
Angkor Wat
• Built by Khmer Empire
– Dedicated to Vishnu
– Height ca. 1200 CE
– Cultivated rice
– Extensive irrigation system
– Violent martial art
– Flourished until conquered by Burma
Hindu-Buddhism
• SYNCRETISM
• Religious and cultural fusion on both
mainland and islands of SE Asia
• Final flowering: 14th and 15th C in
Majapahit
• In Java, Islam replaced due to arrival of
Muslim traders; by 16th C, nearly entire
island converted.
Hindu-Buddhism
• Majahapit court and religious community
moved to Bali; still flourishes there
• Eventually, new syncretic religion: blending
Sufi Islam with Hindu-Buddhism.
– Prone to mysticism
– Today: Indonesia = most populous Muslim nation;
national symbol = Garuda (Hindi eagle deity)
Conclusions
• How is the spread of Hinduism/Buddhism
in SE Asia similar to/different from the
spread of Islam in Africa and Spain?
• What can we learn based on the
architecture?
• What similarities does this hold with other
cultures around the world?