History of Southeast Asia: the region in the Middle Ages. Ancient civilizations of Southeast Asia

For thousands of years, the relationship between the developed centers of world civilization and the barbarian periphery has been complex. Actually, the very principle of the relationship was unambiguous: more developed cultural agricultural centers usually influenced the backward periphery, gradually drawing it into their orbit, stimulating the acceleration of the pace of sociopolitical, economic and cultural development of its peoples. However, this general principle operated differently in different conditions. In some cases, the near periphery was gradually annexed by a successfully expanding empire. In others, energetically developing people, especially nomads, having received some impetus to move forward, then began to pursue an active policy and, in particular, invaded zones of thousand-year-old civilization, subjugating foreign countries (Arabs, Mongols, etc.). Finally, the third option could be the gradual accumulation of useful borrowings and some acceleration at this expense of one’s own development without an active foreign policy, but taking into account mutual contacts and movements, migrations of peoples and diffusion of cultures. The third path was typical for many peoples of the world, be it Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia or the Far East.

Southeast Asia is an interesting and in many ways unique region, a crossroads of many world routes, migration flows and cultural influences. Perhaps, in this sense, it can only be compared with the Middle Eastern region. But if the Middle Eastern lands were at one time the cradle of world civilization, if the origins of almost all the most ancient peoples of the world, the most important inventions and technological discoveries stretch to them in one way or another, then with the Southeast Asian region the situation is somewhat different, although in some ways similar . The similarity is that, like the Middle East, Southeast Asia, at the dawn of the process of anthropogenesis, was the habitat of anthropoids. This is where science began back in the early 1890s. discovered traces of archanthropes (Javanese Pithecanthropus), and at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries. made a number of other similar discoveries. In addition, if there are independent centers of the Neolithic revolution on Earth, besides the Middle East, then in Eurasia it is precisely the Southeast Asian one. Here archaeologists have found traces of early agricultural cultures that are almost more ancient than those of the Middle East. However, a significant difference is that agriculture in this region was represented by the cultivation of tubers and roots (especially taro and yams), but not grains.

It would seem that the difference is not so great, because the main thing is still in principle. The peoples who lived here, independently, have reached the art of growing plants and collecting fruits! Just like, by the way, the art of making ceramics (although there may be grounds for doubt). And yet this difference is not only colossal, but also, in a sense, fatal in terms of results. The cultivation of grains at one time led the Middle Eastern region to the accumulation of excess product, which made possible the emergence of the primary centers of civilization and statehood, while the cultivation of tubers with their much less useful properties did not lead to this. Unlike grain, tubers cannot be preserved for a long time, especially in hot climates, and this food is in many respects inferior in composition to grain. And although several decades ago experts found traces of a very ancient Bronze Age culture in the caves of Thailand, which introduced a lot of new ideas about the development and distribution of bronze products, this did not play a decisive role in revising views on the place of the Southeast Asian region in world history. Neither local agriculture nor, later, bronze products led here to the emergence of ancient centers of civilization and statehood that would be comparable to those in the Middle East.

Quite early, back in the 4th millennium BC, perhaps not without external influence, the Southeast Asian peoples nevertheless switched to the cultivation of grains, in particular rice, but only relatively late, shortly before our era, in this region The first proto-state formations began to emerge. The reasons for such a delay in the development of a region that started so long ago and achieved so much in ancient times are not entirely clear. Perhaps natural conditions, not very favorable for the formation of large political organisms, including a hot tropical climate, played a role. Or the geographical environment with a predominance of mountainous regions with narrow and closed valleys, with islands separated from each other, had an effect. But the fact remains: only shortly before the beginning of our era, the first states emerged in this region, emerging under the strong influence, and sometimes even under the direct influence of Indian culture.

Indian cultural influence (Brahmanism, castes, Hinduism in the form of Shaivism and Vaishnavism, then Buddhism) determined the social and political development of the proto-states and early states of the region, both its peninsular (Indochina) and island parts, including Ceylon (although this island is strictly geographical sense, it is not included in Southeast Asia; according to historical destinies, it is quite closely adjacent to it, which we will take into account, not to mention the convenience of presentation). The impact of Indian culture was most immediate. It is known that many ruling houses in the region traced their lineage to immigrants from India and were very proud of it. In religious beliefs and sociopolitical structure, including caste divisions, this impact is visible to the naked eye. Over time, the influence from India weakened, but other streams of cultural interaction intensified. First of all, we mean China. Eastern regions

Indochina and especially Vietnam have been a zone of Chinese influence since the Qin dynasty, when the first Vietnamese proto-states were subjugated by the Qin army and then remained under Chinese rule for many centuries, despite the sometimes heroic resistance of the Vietnamese. And even after Vietnam gained independence, Chinese influence in the region did not weaken, but, on the contrary, intensified. It is worth remembering about Chinese migrants huaqiao and their role in the development of the economy and culture of southeastern countries. Even later, a third powerful stream of cultural influence appeared in the region, Muslim, which began to decisively displace Indian influence.

Thus, The countries and peoples of Southeast Asia were influenced by the three great eastern civilizations. Naturally, this could not but leave its mark on the region and affect the complexity of the cultural and political situation. If we also take into account that migration flows were constantly coming to Indochina from the north and that this peninsula with its mountain ranges, narrow valleys, stormy rivers and jungles, as if by nature itself, was prepared for the existence here of numerous isolated and closed groups of the population, then it becomes obvious , that the ethnic, including linguistic, situation in this region is quite complex. Let us now turn to the history of the main countries and peoples of Indochina, also touching on Ceylon.

§ 1. Geographical environment and problems of ethnocultural unity of Ancient Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is characterized by rugged terrain, alternating high mountains, usually overgrown with tropical rainforest, where small fast mountain rivers flow, with swampy valleys of large and medium-sized rivers. High temperatures and humidity, the richness of the flora led to an increased role of gathering and a relatively small role of hunting and especially cattle breeding. One of the most ancient settlements of people was discovered here, who already passed in the Mesolithic (8th millennium BC) from consuming to producing agriculture (cultivation of legumes and melons). The type of rice farming that then emerged in the Neolithic was more or less the same for ancient Southeast Asia, whose territory, which had similarities in the economy, and partly in the cultural and anthropological appearance of its inhabitants, in ancient times was somewhat larger than it is now. It included the valleys of Xijiang and Yangtze with right tributaries; its periphery was the Ganges valley, where peoples related to the Mon-Khmers still live. The main ancient peoples of Southeast Asia are the Austro-Asians (Molas, Khmers, etc.) in its continental part and the Austronesians (Malays, Javanese, etc.) in the island part; together they are called the Austric peoples. The most developed were the Austro-Asian regions of the plains of Southern Indochina, where already in the 3rd millennium BC. e. the population independently switched to making tools from copper, and soon - from bronze. This ancient center of metallurgy had a profound impact on the western periphery and on the development of metallurgy in the Yellow River basin. But by the 2nd millennium BC. e. the economic development of Southeast Asia began to lag behind the development of neighboring regions. The complex regime of the large rivers of Southeast Asia made it difficult to create large irrigation systems on them as one of the most important conditions for the development of a specific rice culture. They learned to create such systems later. For a long time, small rural communities engaged in rice growing remained the main unit of society.

Only in the late Bronze Age, during the famous Dong Son civilization of the 1st millennium BC. e.1, in the valleys of large and medium-sized rivers of Ancient Southeast Asia, fairly large areas of compact agricultural populations arose, which became the base of early class societies. The development of plow farming and complex crafts entailed an increase in labor productivity and a more complex social structure of society. Fortified settlements appeared and the first states began to emerge.

The oldest written sources, written in peculiar hieroglyphs, typologically close to the extreme scripts of Western Asia (although they arose thousands of years later), were discovered only recently, and their number is negligible. Basic information is contained in ancient epigraphy in Sanskrit and in early medieval inscriptions in the languages of the peoples of Southeast Asia. Early medieval chronicles (Vietian, Mon, etc.), as well as testimonies of ancient Chinese, ancient Indian and ancient authors, also play an important role in reconstructing the history of this region.

Early class societies, which arose primarily among the ancient Austroasiatics and the linguistically related ancient Viet, stretched from Western Indochina through modern North Vietnam to the lower reaches of the Yangtze. Among them, four groups of states can be distinguished: the states of North-Eastern Indochina and the Northern coast of the South (modern South China) Sea; states of Southern Indochina; the states of the ancient Indonesians on the Malacca Peninsula and the Archipelago; states of the central part of Northern Indochina and adjacent areas, inhabited by Thai-speaking and Burmese-speaking peoples.

§ 2. Ancient Vietnamese states and their neighbors

Of the states in North Vietnam and along the northern shore of the South Sea, the ancient Chinese tradition was best known for the more northern states, primarily the “barbarian” (from the point of view of the Chinese tradition) kingdom of Yue (Viet). Their own written sources were not preserved either in the kingdom of Viet, where they undoubtedly existed, or in more southern states. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence in Northern Vietnam, in the lower reaches of the Red River, of a very ancient and original center of class society.

The Yue Kingdom arose around the 7th century. BC e. in the lower reaches of the Yangtze. Its social structure was defined by ancient authors as simpler compared to the structure of the ancient Chinese kingdoms. The main occupation of the population, unlike the ancient Chinese kingdoms, was irrigated rice cultivation. In the IV-III centuries. BC e. in the territory from the mouth of the Yangtze to the mouth of the Hong Ha, five states are known (they arose, perhaps, much earlier): Van Lang (then Aulak) in the lower reaches of the Hong Ha, further to the east - Teyau, Nam Viet, etc. They had a fairly high level of social development; at the same time, the degree of perception of Han culture was much lower in the southern kingdoms than in the northern ones, bordering on the ancient Chinese states.

The most developed states in the region in the 3rd century. BC e. were the state of Aulak, located in the lower reaches of Hong Ha and in neighboring coastal areas, inhabited by the La Viet, the ancestors of the Vietnamese, and the state of Nam Viet, located in the lower reaches of Xijiang. The bulk of the population in Aulak was a class of small producers, mainly community members; A variety of sources record the presence of slaves in Vietnamese society. The ruling class consisted of the landed aristocracy and the associated service nobility. The ruler was at the head of the state. The culture of the ancient Viets was deeply original, in particular beliefs based on the cult of ancestors, spirits of the earth, veneration of the dragon crocodile and waterfowl. In 221-214. BC e. Aulak, Teyau and Nam Viet fought wars with the Qin Empire, during which Aulak retained its independence and annexed part of Teyau, and Nam Viet was captured by Qin troops for several years. By 207 BC. e., during the fall of the Qin Empire, Nam Viet regained its independence, and subsequently both countries united into the state of Nam Viet-Aulak.

In the II century. BC e. it was one of the strongest states in East and Southeast Asia, second only to the Han Empire; Vuong Nam Viet at the beginning of the 2nd century. BC e. declared himself equal to the Han emperor. The basis of the country's economic power was the rice-producing regions, whose population already used iron tools. There was a fairly developed craft, domestic and foreign trade played an important role, including handicraft items, and there were large cities. The social and class structure becomes more complex, slavery develops, and the state apparatus becomes more complex.

From the beginning of the 2nd century. BC e. The rulers of Namwye-ta-Aulak, through wars and active diplomatic activity, sought to unite all neighboring states under their rule. They also waged successful wars with the Han Empire (first half of the 2nd century BC) and its allies. Along with the Xiongnu, the Vietnamese were considered the main opponents of the empire. But in 111 BC. e. After a difficult war, the country was captured by the troops of Emperor Wu Di. The establishment of Han rule was not accompanied in the 1st century. BC e. significant interference in the internal life of the Viet, the empire adhered to the policy of “barbarians governing barbarians.”

Apparently, a special group of ancient states of Southeast Asia in the III-II centuries. BC e. consisted of the mountainous ancient Thai states of Dien and Elan. Agriculture here was less developed; cattle breeding played a significant role; nevertheless, the processes of the formation of a class society, which took place with the participation of some Burmese-speaking tribes and groups of the Central Asian pastoral population, led to the emergence of early class societies here. Slaves were replenished from among the subordinate local ethnic groups. It is from Dien that the only known monuments of local writing are known so far, used for drawing up economic reporting documents and fundamentally different from Chinese hieroglyphs.

At the beginning of the 1st century BC. e. The administration of the Han conquerors attempted mass assimilation of the La Viet in the territory of modern North Vietnam. This policy encountered stubborn resistance from all sectors of society; the nobility led a number of major uprisings. In 40-44 AD. e. During the uprising of the Two Sisters (the uprising was led by the Trung sisters), the Laquiet threw off the Han yoke and restored their independence within the boundaries of ancient Aulak. Only a new long war allowed the Han Empire to restore its political control here. I-II centuries AD e. were a time of increasingly frequent uprisings against the Han, which forced the empire to abandon its policy of active assimilation and begin a gradual transfer of power (except for the highest posts) to the local Sinicizing nobility. Many rulers of Chinese states of the 3rd-5th centuries. n. e. they actually recognized the right of the Laquiettes to internal independence, and although attempts were made from time to time to establish real control here, they did not have any lasting success. The ethnic specificity of Vietnamese society was preserved.

The socio-economic processes that took place in these centuries in the Chinese Empire also had little impact on Vist society.

In the I-V centuries. n. e. Buddhism, which came here from India, spread throughout Vietnamese society. Among the Viet, it became (and was until the 12th-13th centuries) the main religion. During these same centuries, Chinese culture spread.

§ 3. State formations of the Mon-Khmers and Indonesians

Formation of early class society. At the turn of our era, class societies and states emerged in all the major river valleys of Indochina and Indonesia. The high level of agricultural production achieved in the Late Bronze Age and the widespread transition to the use of iron tools contributed to the emergence of pockets of statehood here. Contacts with the Dravidian peoples of Southern Hindustan, and through them - with Northern Hindustan, the Middle East and even the Mediterranean, became regular.

The leading social unit among the farmers of the plains, as well as among the Viet, was a small rural community. A specific feature of the local society was the coexistence within one ethnolinguistic group of lowland farmers, who had reached a fairly high level of development, and hunter-gatherers living in neighboring mountainous areas. Such socio-economic confusion led to the fact that the centers of class society and statehood turned out to be, as a rule, separated by areas where pre-class relations prevailed.

Each of such states as Aulak, Bapnom (Funan), Srikshetra (Tarekit-tara), the small Mon states in Suvannabhumi (Southern Burma) and on Tyao Phraya (Maenam), the Malay states of the Malacca Peninsula and Archipelago, the early Javanese states, were located around a specific political-economic core - a densely populated rice-growing region and its capital. As a rule, the capital - the largest city in the state - stood some distance from the sea, but given the small displacement of sea vessels of that time (which made it possible to drag them over a certain distance), it was also a port. Many states conducted more or less intensive maritime trade.

In the system of exploitation, an important role was played by the sovereign ownership of the entire land, combined with the hereditary possessions of large aristocrats, the “eternal” possessions of temples and priesthood, with the conditional holdings of senior officials and land ownership of communities. The structure of the ruling class was relatively simple; its division into varnas, castes or clearly defined class groups was not recorded. The class of small community producers depended on the state or on a specific landowner, one way or another connected with the state. The ruling class and this class of free community members made up the bulk of the population. Slaves did not play a decisive role in the main branch of production - agriculture, but they participated in it.

It should be noted the close connection of the state with the priesthood and the control of secular power over the priesthood. The fusion of local agrarian cults, Hinduism (or Buddhism) and the cult of ancestors led, within the framework of the cult of the ancestors of the monarch, to the appropriation by the supreme power of many religious functions, which was also typical for a number of states of Ancient Western Asia.

The main form of exploitation was rent-tax in favor of the state or (with its consent) representatives of the highest aristocracy (sometimes inherited this right).

Ancient Mon-Khmer states. Most Mon and Khmer states arose around the 1st century. n. e. All of them were closely related to each other. In this relatively homogeneous environment, various associations periodically arose, the largest of which - the Bapnom Empire (Funan) - united in its heyday almost the entire lowland Mon and Khmer Southern Indochina.

The emergence of Bapnom dates back to the first centuries of the new era. After the period of “gathering” the country, which ended at the turn of the 2nd-3rd centuries, the ancient non-Khmer rulers moved on to wars of conquest. The most famous of them was Fanshiman, who built a strong fleet and captured a number of neighboring states and tribal territories. The military, naval and trading power of Bapnom constantly increased until the middle of the 4th century. n. e. Widespread irrigation and temple construction was carried out, Hinduism and Buddhism spread in the country, and the power of the ruler was strengthened.

In the V - early VI centuries. in ancient Khmer society, northern groups strengthened, almost not participating in trade and associated primarily with agriculture; Gradually they subjugated the coastal areas, and the Bapnom Empire ceased to exist.

During the development of class society, the Mon-Khmer peoples adopted some elements of the culture of Southern Hindustan, in particular writing, a sacred language, and some features of religion, with the Mons adopting mainly Buddhism, and the Khmers adopting Hinduism. The adopted religions underwent significant changes and selection, and were adapted to create, on the basis of the traditional cult of ancestors, the cult of the deified ancestor of the monarch.

Ancient states of the Indonesian peoples. In the island world in the I-VI centuries. n. e. two groups of states emerged: Western (or Malay) and Eastern (or Javanese). The Western group consisted of the Sumatran states, among which a process of centralization was rapidly underway under the leadership of the peoples of the lowland part of Central Sumatra, and small state formations of the Malacca Peninsula. The forms of class society were more or less uniform here.

In the life of these states, foreign trade, including transit (mainly in spices, including from the Moluccas), played a large role, since they were located on a busy trade route. Both the Mon-Khmers and the Indonesians were seafarers in Southeast Asia in these centuries.

Of the states of Shalmaladvipa (the ancient name of the Malacca Peninsula), the most famous are Lankasuka (from the 2nd century AD), Kataha and Tambralinga. Foreign travelers noted the splendor of their courts and the strength of their armies. The level of cultural development was also high; Sanskrit literature, writing and language, Hindu and Buddhist beliefs were widespread among the urban population. The ancient states of Western Indonesia had trade and diplomatic connections in both the west and the east.

The agrarian Malay and Javanese states in Java and Kalimantan looked somewhat different. The most famous are the state of Taruma in West Java and the state of Mulawarman, named after one of its rulers, in the east of Kalimantan (IV-V centuries). The social structure of these states was similar to that of Bapnom. The state provided irrigation construction, apparently through the hands of community members; distributed land (fields and gardens), livestock and slaves to the Hindu priesthood (Buddhism was still poorly spread here). Apparently, there was also state ownership of land.

The state of Champa, inhabited by the people of the Indonesian family of languages, was located on the eastern coast of the Indochina Peninsula, in its central part; it was one of the oldest in Southeast Asia. In its agrarian structure it resembled Vietnamese society. The advantageous coastal position from the very beginning made Champa a maritime trading power with a strong fleet and regular overseas connections. The Cham rulers widely practiced robbery of their coastal neighbors and in every possible way protected their dominance on the seas. Culturally, the Chams were part of the Indonesian world and were influenced in many ways by the Khmers. Relations with the Han were characterized in ancient times by a large number of wars, alternating with diplomatic missions and trade contacts.

From the middle of the 1st millennium BC. h. A number of peoples of Ancient Southeast Asia began to develop early class relations and the first states. They are characterized by their own type of economy (irrigated rice growing as the basis of agriculture), social organization (small rural community), and spiritual culture (ancestor cult in the religious sphere, “Dong Son style” in the field of fine arts). The states of the largest ancient peoples - the ancestors of the Viets, Khmers, Mons, Malays, Javanese - occupied the territory of medium and large river valleys convenient for irrigation, some of them gradually spread their influence to the foothills. The northern part of these states (the Vietnamese) waged persistent wars with the ancient Chinese states, as a result of which the territory of Ancient Southeast Asia was somewhat reduced. The remaining states of Southeast Asia did not fight major wars during these centuries; their trade and cultural ties were oriented to the west - to the Hindustan subcontinent.

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Southeast Asia: Ceylon and Indochina countries

Over the course of thousands of years, the relationship between the developed centers of world civilization and the barbarian periphery has been quite complex. Actually, the principle of the relationship was unambiguous: the more developed cultural agricultural centers influenced the backward periphery, gradually drawing it into its orbit, stimulating the acceleration of the pace of social, political, economic and cultural development of its peoples. But this general principle operated differently in different conditions. In some cases, the near periphery was gradually annexed by the expanding empire; in others, a people that was energetically developing and possessing a passionate charge, having received the initial impulse to move forward from others, then began to pursue an active policy and, in particular, invaded the zones of a thousand-year-old civilization, subjugating many ancient countries (Arabs, Mongols, etc.) . Finally, the third option was the gradual cumulation of useful borrowings and some acceleration at this expense of one’s own development without an active foreign policy, but taking into account mutual contacts and movements, migrations of peoples. This third path was typical for many peoples of the world, be it Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia or the Far East.

Southeast Asia is an interesting and in many respects unique region, a place where many world routes, migration flows, and cultural influences intersect. Perhaps, in this sense, it can only be compared with the Middle Eastern region. But if the Middle Eastern lands were at one time the cradle of world civilization, if the origins of almost all the most ancient peoples of the world, the most important inventions and technological discoveries stretch to them in one way or another, then with the Southeast Asian region the situation is somewhat different, although in some ways it looks like it.

The similarity is that, like the Middle East, Southeast Asia, at the dawn of the process of anthropogenesis, was the habitat of anthropoids: it was here that science discovered traces of archanthropes (Javanese Pithecanthropus) back in the last century, and in the middle of the 20th century. gave many other similar discoveries. If there are independent centers of the Neolithic revolution on Earth other than the Middle East, then in Eurasia it is precisely the Southeast Asian one: here archaeologists have found traces of early agricultural cultures that are almost more ancient than the Middle Eastern ones. However, a significant difference is that agriculture in this region was represented by the cultivation of tubers and roots (especially taro and yams), but not grains.

It would seem that the difference is not so great, the main thing is still in principle: the peoples who lived here, and quite independently, reached the art of growing plants and collecting fruits! As, by the way, before the art of ceramics. And yet, this difference is not only colossal, but also in a sense fatal in terms of results: the cultivation of grain led the Middle Eastern region during the swarm time to the accumulation of excess product, which made possible the emergence of the primary centers of civilization and statehood, while the cultivation of tubers with their less useful properties did not lead to this (tubers, unlike grain, cannot be preserved for a long time, especially in hot climates, and this food is in many respects inferior in composition to grain). And although several decades ago experts found traces of a very ancient Bronze Age culture in the caves of Thailand, which brings a lot of new things to the existing ideas about the development and distribution of bronze products, this did not play a decisive role in revising views on the place of the Southeast Asian region in world history. Neither local agriculture nor, later, bronze products led here to the emergence of ancient centers of civilization and statehood that would be comparable to those in the Middle East.

Quite early, back in the 4th millennium BC, perhaps not without external influence, the Southeast Asian peoples switched to the cultivation of grains, in particular rice, but only relatively late, shortly before our era, the first proto-state formations. The reasons for such a delay in the development of a region that started so long ago and achieved so much in ancient times are not entirely clear. Perhaps natural conditions, not very favorable for the formation of large political organisms, including a hot, tropical climate, played a role. Or the geographical environment, with a predominance of mountainous areas with narrow and closed valleys, and islands separated from each other, played a role. But the fact remains: only shortly before the beginning of our era, the first proto-states emerged in this region, which arose under the strong influence, and sometimes even under the direct influence of Indian culture.

Indian cultural influence (Brahmanism, castes, Hinduism in the form of Shaivism and Vaishnavism, then Buddhism) determined the social and political development of the proto-states and early states of the entire Southeast Asian region, both its peninsular part (Indochina) and the island part, including Ceylon (although this the island in a strictly geographical sense is not included in Southeast Asia; according to historical destinies, it is quite closely adjacent to it, which we will take into account, not to mention the convenience of presentation). The impact of Indian culture was most direct: many representatives of the ruling houses in the region traced their family back to immigrants from India and were very proud of it. In religious beliefs and in the social structure, including caste divisions, this influence is visible, so to speak, to the naked eye. But over time, Indian influence weakened. But other streams of cultural interaction intensified.

First of all, we mean China. The western regions of Indochina and especially Vietnam have been a zone of Chinese influence since the Qin dynasty, when the first Vietnamese proto-states were subjugated by the Qin army and then remained under Chinese rule for many centuries, despite the sometimes heroic resistance of the Vietnamese. And even after Vietnam gained independence, Chinese influence in the region did not weaken. On the contrary, it has intensified. Even later, a third powerful stream of cultural influence appeared in the region - Muslim, which began to displace Indian influence.

Thus, the countries and peoples of Southeast Asia were influenced by the three great eastern civilizations. Naturally, this could not but leave its mark on the region and affect the complexity of the cultural and political situation. If we add to what has been said that migration flows were constantly coming to Indochina from the north and that this peninsula with its mountain ranges, narrow valleys, stormy rivers and jungles was, as they say, prepared by nature itself for the existence here of numerous disparate and ethnically closed groups, then It will become obvious that the ethnic and linguistic situation in this region is quite complex. Let us now turn to the history of the main countries and peoples of Indochina, also touching on Ceylon.

Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

Geographically, historically and culturally, Ceylon has always gravitated towards India. But he always had fairly close ties with Indochina. In particular, a considerable share of the cultural influence from India, which has already been mentioned, came precisely through Ceylon, which at the turn of our era became the recognized center of Buddhism that came there from India in its early Hinayan modification, Theravada Buddhism.

It is difficult to speak with precision about the first steps of statehood on this island. Legends say that in the 3rd century. BC. the local ruler sent an embassy to the court of Emperor Ashoka and that in response to Ceylon, Ashoka's son, the Buddhist monk Mahinda, arrived, who converted the ruler of the island, his entourage, and then the entire local population to Buddhism. It is unclear to what extent these legends correspond to the truth, but it is very likely that they somehow reflect it and that it was in the 3rd century. BC. under the influence of the flow of Buddhist migrants from India, who introduced the local population to Buddhism and other elements of Indian civilization, including rice sowing, the first stable state formations arose on the island. In any case, it is quite certain that the state with its capital in Anuradhapura became Buddhist from its very inception, and Buddhist monasteries and monks played a huge role in it. Ceylon quickly became a sanctuary of Buddhism. Here a shoot from a sacred tree was solemnly planted, under which, according to legend, the great Buddha once received his sight. Some of the relics of the Buddha were brought here with all care and pomp. Here the compilation of the written canon of Tripitaka Buddhism began. And finally, it was in Ceylon in the first centuries of our era that the famous temple in Kandy was built, where, as the most valuable treasure of the country, the tooth of Buddha was kept, to worship which numerous pilgrims flocked from neighboring Buddhist countries.

The entire political history of the first millennium and a half (III century BC - XII century AD) was actively connected with the struggle to strengthen and defend the position of Buddhism on the island. The assimilation of migrants from India with the native population laid the foundations of the Sinhala ethnic group at the turn of our era. The Sinhalese rulers were, as a rule, zealous defenders of Buddhism. At the same time, the island was from time to time overwhelmed by waves of newcomers from South India, the Tamil conquerors, along with whom numerous Hindus arrived in Ceylon. Hinduism began to crowd out Buddhism, which caused numerous conflicts. New waves of migrants from India at the beginning of our era also carried with them elements of Mahayanist Buddhism, so that the religious situation in Ceylon became increasingly complex. In general, however, it boiled down to the fact that religious discord between the local Sinhalese Buddhist population and the newcomer Hindu Tamil population (the settlement of Tamils in the north of the island turned some of its areas almost entirely into Tamil; independent Tamil states arose there from time to time) remained throughout the history of the country and has survived, as we know, to this day.

The capital of the country until the 11th century. there was Anuradhapura with its abundance of Buddhist temples and monasteries. Then, in connection with the conquest of Ceylon by the South Indian state of the Cholas and the proclamation of Hinduism in the form of Shaivism as the official religion, the capital was moved to the city of Polonnaruwa, the center of Hinduism. However, Buddhist monasteries, like Hindu temples, have always flourished in Ceylon. They had rich lands and other treasures at their disposal, they had tax immunity and had enormous prestige among the local population.

The political history of the island, like other countries of the East, was subject to the general laws of cyclical dynamics: periods of centralization and effective power of strong rulers were replaced by periods of decentralization and internecine struggle, after which strong centralized states emerged again, usually patronizing Buddhism (unless these were states founded migrants from India). The head of state was considered the supreme owner of land in the country, on whose behalf, in particular, donations and grants were made to monasteries and churches. Peasants paid rent-tax to the treasury or to monasteries and churches. There was a fairly strong community, close in standard to the Indian (although without castes) community, whose affairs were in charge of the community council. Administratively, the country was divided into provinces, regions and districts.

In the XII-XV centuries. Feudal-separatist tendencies in Ceylon noticeably intensified, as a result of which only individual rulers, and for a short period of time, managed to unite a country that had actually fallen apart. The strongest and richest part of the island was the southwest, where the independent state of Kogte arose, the basis of its income was the cultivation of coconut palms and cinnamon trees. The cinnamon trade, carried out in transit through India, brought huge profits and served as one of the sources of European ideas about India (they did not even know about Ceylon at that time) as a country of spices. The desire to master the routes to the land of spices was, as mentioned, the most important incentive that contributed to the Great Geographical Discoveries of the 15th-16th centuries. The active initiators of these discoveries, the Portuguese, already at the very beginning of the 16th century. settled in the southwest of Ceylon, in Kotta, where they built Fort Colombo. Soon after this, the Portuguese brought the state of Kandy in the center of the island under their influence.

However, a series of uprisings and wars led to the retreat of the Portuguese at the end of the 16th century, and in the middle of the 17th century. They were finally expelled from Ceylon, but they were replaced by the Dutch, who seized a monopoly on the cinnamon trade. At the end of the 18th century. The Dutch were also expelled, and the British took their place. Against the background of these internecine wars of the colonialists, local politicians from among the Sinhalese and Tamil nobility were no longer able to defend the interests of the country and people. From the beginning of the 19th century. Ceylon became an English colony, a center for the cultivation of coffee and then tea for export.

The plantation economy significantly transformed the traditional agrarian structure of the country. Many peasants were deprived of their lands, and they themselves were turned into farm laborers who worked on the plantations. Workers recruited there were sometimes brought from India to help them. However, the relatively rapid development of the country in the 19th century. led to the revival of national consciousness in it on a new basis. And although the ideological basis of nationalism continued to be mainly Buddhism, which is characteristic of Sri Lanka today, a nationalism arose in the country from the middle of the 19th century. Secular national culture began to play a significant role (newspapers in Sinhala and then Tamil, new literature), which contributed to the development of anti-colonial sentiments, and then political movements, groups, etc.

Burma

Although the territory of Northern Burma has long served as a footbridge between India and China, statehood in Burma itself arose relatively late. Reliable data only indicate that the oldest aborigines of these places back in the 2nd millennium BC. were pushed out by the Monkhmers who came from the north and northeast, after which in the 1st millennium BC. Tibeto-Burman tribes began to arrive in waves from the north. The proto-state of Arakan in the southwest of Burma was apparently the oldest, and it is possible that the monks who arrived here from India at the turn of our era and brought with them Buddhist relics played a certain role in its emergence - so, in any case, they say legends. Later, around the 4th century, in the center of modern Burma, the proto-state of Srikshetra of the Burmese Pyu tribe arose, where Southern Hinayan Buddhism also quite obviously dominated. However, the Pyu were already familiar with Vaishnavism, as evidenced by the stone sculptures of Vishnu that have survived from that time. The Mon state of Ramanades arose in the south of Burma.

All these early state formations, especially Srikshetra, played a certain role in the emergence of a more developed state, the kingdom of Pagan, which from the 11th century. united under his rule both the northern lands inhabited by the Burmese and the southern Burmese country of the Mons. Arakan also became a vassal of Pagan. The influence of Ceylon played a role in the fact that southern Theravada Buddhism took a stronger position in Pagan (a special Shwezigon pagoda was built in order to ceremoniously place a copy of the Ceylonese tooth of Buddha from Kandy) than the Mahayana Buddhism that penetrated from the north, to a large extent burdened with elements of Tantrism with its sex magic.

The legendary founder of the kingdom Pagan Anoratha (1044-- 1077) did a lot to strengthen the state. Under him, as legends testify, the foundations of Burmese writing based on the Pali script and the Mon alphabet were laid, literature and various arts were developed, primarily in their Indianized mythological form. Apparently, China also had a certain influence on the culture of Pagan. Little is known about the internal socio-economic structure of Pagan society. But what is known is completely written off in the usual parameters: the country was dominated by the power-ownership (supreme ownership) of the ruler on the land, there were vassal possessions of the large nobility, an apparatus of officials, as well as communal peasants who paid to the treasury or to the owner placed over them by the treasury land, aristocrat and official, rent-tax.

The strengthening of the economic positions of the nobility and the Buddhist Church led at the end of the 12th century. to the weakening of the still unsettled centralized structure of the Pagan kingdom. The weakening power began to fall apart, and the invasion of the Mongols in the second half of the 13th century. accelerated its collapse. In the XIV-XVI centuries. Several small states coexisted in Burma. In the middle of the 16th century. The Shan principality of Pegu briefly united Burma under its rule and even made the large Thai state of Ayutthaya a vassal dependent on itself for 15 years. But at the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. the situation changed dramatically due to the appearance of the Portuguese in Burma, who developed very active activities, including the almost forced Christianization of the local population. Indignation at pressure from the Portuguese colonialists, who enjoyed some support from the authorities, led to the death of the Pegu state. It was replaced by a new state under the rule of the ruler of the Principality of Ava, who managed to unite most of Burma around himself. The Av state existed for over a hundred years, until the middle of the 18th century, and at times it was under strong pressure from Qing China, although it was still ruled by Portuguese, Indian, and a little later also Dutch and English merchants, who held in their hands on all foreign and transit trade.

The socio-political structure in the late Middle Ages remained in principle the same as it had been before. The ruler, the highest subject of power-property, relied on a fairly developed apparatus of power, consisting of several central institutions and various administrative divisions. Myotudzhi managers were considered officials and for their service were entitled to a portion of the rent-tax from the areas they governed. The rest went to the state treasury and was used for the maintenance of the central apparatus, troops and other needs. There was monastic land ownership, exempt from taxation. The rulers of the outlying principalities, inhabited mainly by non-Burmese tribes, enjoyed significant autonomy.

The Buddhist Church in Burma was officially dominant. Monasteries located throughout the country were not only religious, but also educational and cultural centers, guardians of knowledge, norms and order. It was considered usual that every young man studied - if he studied at all - precisely in the neighboring monastery and, naturally, first of all, the wisdom of Buddhism. Upon reaching adulthood, each Burmese spent many months, or even years, in the monastery, imbued with the spirit of Buddhism for the rest of his life.

Almost the entire 18th century passed rapidly in Burma. In the west, the ancient state of Arakan, which had regained its independence, was strongly influenced by Muslim Bengal, colonized by the British. The complex relationship of Arakan with the Bengali Islamic rulers - and through them with the administration of the Mughal Empire while it still existed - and with the British, who were clearly seeking to expand their zone of influence at the expense of Burma, was aggravated by the need for a constant struggle with Portuguese pirates and with their own neighbors. Burmese in Burma. The Av state, which existed until the middle of the 18th century, fell under the blows of one of the Mon rulers, after which the relations of the new state that emerged as a result of this conquest with Qing China led to an armed conflict with Chinese troops. The almost continuous wars of the Burmese states with Siam were also ineffective, although very burdensome.

And yet, despite all the difficulties, in Burma in the 18th century. There was a noticeable process of political integration, one of the manifestations of which was military-political successes: at the beginning of the 19th century. The Indian principalities of Assam and Manipur were annexed to Burma, although not for long. During the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824---1826. not only these principalities, but also Arakan were annexed by the British, as well as the southern lands of Tenasserim. The annexation of Burmese lands continued during the second (1852) and then the third (1885) Anglo-Burmese wars, after which independent Burma ceased to exist. The colonization of Burma by the British led to significant changes in it. There, a market economy began to develop rapidly, leading to the specialization of agricultural production, then also to the creation of a national economic community and, as a consequence of this, to the growth of national self-awareness, to an awareness of the Burmese state's own identity. For all that colonialism brought to the Burmese people the ruin of farmers and the transformation of the country into an agricultural appendage of Great Britain, it indirectly contributed to the development of Burma, both economic and political. It is hardly worth exaggerating the degree of this development in the 19th and even in the 20th centuries, especially if we bear in mind the preservation of tribal groups that were at a low level of development on the outskirts of the country. However, we must not forget that the introduction of colonial Burma to the world market, as well as the influence of European culture, did not pass without a trace for this country and played a positive role in the events of the 20th century.

Thailand (Siam)

Apart from the already mentioned sensational finds of bronze items in the caves of Thailand, dating back to very early antiquity, but not yet in any way linked to any ethnic groups, much less compact and clearly recorded archaeological sites and cultures, we have to admit that The earliest traces of urban life, civilization and statehood in Thailand date back only to the beginning of our era, when the Monkhmer tribes who migrated here shortly before lived here. There are good reasons to believe that, as in the case of ancient Burma, the impetus for the creation of the first centers of statehood was the intensive penetration of Indian influence and, in particular, Hinayan Buddhism.

Little is known about the earliest Mon proto-states in the Menama basin. Chinese chronicles, for example, mention the independent state of Dvaravati in the 7th century, and earlier inscriptions in Mon and Sanskrit suggest that this proto-state existed already in the 4th-6th centuries. and was originally a vassal of the Khmer state of Funan. From the VIII-IX centuries. The capital of the state became the city of Lopburi (Lavapura), and the name of the state changed accordingly. Lopburi was a vassal of the Khmers, from the 11th century - from Cambodia. Another Mon state on the territory of Thailand, Haripujaya, arose in the 8th-9th centuries. just north of Lopburi and waged incessant wars with it. After the actual subjugation of Lopburi to Cambodia, Haripujaya began to wage war with Cambodia.

While the Mons and Khmers were sorting things out with each other in this way, wave after wave of Tai tribes began to migrate to the south from the north. Back in the 7th century. These tribes, possibly mixed with Tibeto-Burman tribes, created the state of Nanzhao on the territory of modern Southern China (Yunnen Province), which existed as an independent political entity until the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. and had a significant impact both on the successful migration of Thai tribes to the south, and on the penetration there of many elements of Chinese culture and political administration. Migrating in waves to the south and mixing with the local Mon-Khmer population, and then again layering on this previously mestizo base, the Thai tribes in the 11th-12th centuries. became clearly dominant in Thailand, both quantitatively and ethno-linguistically. The creation of several Thai state entities was the solid basis on which in the 13th century. Thai leaders, taking advantage of the weakening of Khmer Cambodia, which was waging continuous wars with Burmese Pagan, united within the framework of the newly emerged strong state of Sukhothai. It reached its peak under Ramkamhaeng (1275-1317). The capture of Yunnan by the Mongols and the fall of the Nanzhao state caused a new wave of Thai-Nanzhao migration, which strengthened the political position of Sukhothai, which expanded its territory, forcing out the ancient Mon states of Lopburi and Haripujaya, as well as the Khmers, i.e. Cambodia, which by that time was already greatly weakened.

Sukhothai's increased influence was, however, short-lived. The internal weakness of this state (the ruler usually distributed a considerable part of the country's territory to his sons as hereditary inheritance, which could not but lead to its feudal fragmentation; it is possible that this institution of appanages was borrowed from the Chinese tradition) led to its collapse after Ramkhamhaeng. As a result of the ensuing internecine struggle between the Thai rulers, one of them rose to power, founded the new capital of Ayutthaya and was crowned under the name Ramathibodi 1 (1350-1369). Ramathibodi and the Ayutthaya state he created actively worked towards the unification of both all Thai lands and neighboring territories inhabited by mons. Since the 15th century Ayutthaya (Siam) has become one of the largest states in Indochina; even Cambodia was his vassal.

The structural weakness of Sukhothai times was taken into account by the rulers of Ayutthaya. The new rulers of Siam isolated its strongest aspects from the Chinese experience and used them with considerable success. The highest and only administrator of the land, the subject of power-property in the state was the king, in relation to whom all landowners acted as taxpayers who contributed rent-tax to the treasury. The country was governed by an extensive state apparatus, and officials, as a salary, received the right to collect a certain share of rent-tax from the controlled territories, strictly in accordance with their rank and position. The peasants lived in communities and paid rent and tax to the treasury. Some peasants were assigned to the military department and militarized; there were their own forms of military-administrative structure, as well as exercises and military training. Apparently, the strength and military successes of the Thais depended to a large extent on the activity of this part of the population, i.e. military settlers.

The centralized administration extended mainly to those areas of Siam where the Thais themselves lived. But there were also so-called external provinces, ruled by special governors, most often princes of the blood. These provinces, inhabited predominantly by the Nogai population, had a certain degree of autonomy. But ethnic differences between the ruling Thai elite and the oppressed foreigners led to a noticeable increase in feudal oppression: the governors sometimes turned into autocratic feudal princes, mercilessly exploiting the local population, whose dependence on them turned into bondage (six months a year - work for the master or in favor treasury).

In the middle of the 16th century. Ayutthaya briefly became dependent on the Burmese state of Pegu, which was then at the height of its power. This circumstance was used by the Khmers, who decided to oppose the weakened Siam. However, the Siamese found the strength to fight back. A powerful independence movement began in 1584, and during the reign of Naresuan (1590-1605), the Burmese and Khmers were expelled from Ayutthaya. Moreover, the unification of all Thai lands was completed, which turned Siam into one of the largest powers in Indochina.

Like other countries in the region, Siam has been since the 16th century. became the object of colonial expansion by Portuguese, Dutch, English and especially French merchants. But colonial pressure caused sharp resistance from just at this time the strengthened central government, which managed at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. expel foreign traders and close the country to them. It must be said that the isolation of the country from European commercial and industrial capital contributed to a certain decline in the economy and caused increased exploitation of peasants using old methods that had been worked out earlier. Now almost all the peasants of Siam were obliged to work for the treasury for six months a year. In other words, the rent-tax rate increased to 50%. At the same time, the enslaved people, especially those from among peoples ethnically alien to the Thais, turned into even more cruelly exploited, almost into slaves, which from time to time caused uprisings in the country, which often had a religious and mystical overtones and were usually led by Buddhists. Buddhism in Thailand, as in Burma, was the official state religion, and monasteries enjoyed considerable prestige, as did Buddhist monks.

The 18th century passed for Siam under the sign of wars with Vietnam and Burma, as well as in the desire to subjugate weakened Laos and Cambodia. Successes in these wars led to the overcoming of the internal crisis and contributed to some flourishing of Siam, including literature and art. The strong central government was able to establish the development of economic ties between the country and the outside world, which at the beginning of the 19th century. led to an increased role of commodity-money relations and the development of private property ties in Siam. This became a kind of equivalent to the lack of regular relations with colonial capital. Development through internal capabilities strengthened Siam and placed this country in a special position on the Indochina Peninsula. In the 19th century Siam was the only state in Indochina independent of colonialism. Of course, Siam was also gradually drawn into the world market, foreign traders and colonial capital also began to penetrate into it, but this country never became a colony of any of the powers, which significantly distinguishes it from other countries in Southeast Asia.

Cambodia

The oldest state formation on the territory of Cambodia was Funan - an Indianized state, the history of which is known mainly from Chinese chronicles. Everything that is known about Funani points to the Indian and Hindu-Buddhist political and cultural origins of this state, while it is difficult to say anything definite about the ethnic characteristics of the population. It is possible that the Khmers were already one of the main local substrates, although it is possible that their role at that time was still small. The conquest of Funani by its northern neighbor Chenla, formerly its vassal, led in the middle of the 6th century. to the dominance of the Khmers, whose culture and writing developed on an Indo-Buddhist Sanskrit basis. It is believed that the name (Cambodia), which began to be called the new state, was also Indo-Iranian in origin. A few inscriptions in Sanskrit and Khmer, as well as materials from Chinese sources, contain a lot of information about the early periods of the history of Cambodia, which was often visited by Chinese embassies (it is worth remembering that in these centuries China was the overlord of Vietnam and the Chinese were often near the Khmer state).

The evidence in question suggests that the structure of early Khmer Cambodia was typical of eastern societies. Landowners were mostly peasants who lived in communities. There was service land ownership. There was a flow of rent-taxes into the treasury. The state apparatus existed on the usual hierarchical-bureaucratic basis. The dominant religion was Buddhism, although Hinduism also played a huge role. Even in mythology there are traces of the claims of the ruling house of Cambodia to kinship with the legendary Hindu “lunar” and “solar” dynasties.

At the turn of the 7th--8th centuries. Cambodia broke up into several competing states, during the internecine struggle of which from the 9th century. Kambujadesha (Angkor Cambodia) began to intensify with its deified rulers (deva-raja, i.e. king-god), whose cult greatly contributed to the development of the construction of magnificent palace and temple complexes, the unsurpassed pinnacle of which were the temples of Angkor, where linga-shaped towers dominated , the Shaivist symbol of the ruler. Accordingly, Hindu Brahman priests played a huge role in the country, constantly arriving in Cambodia. The ruler of the country was the supreme owner of everything, including land, i.e. subject of power-property. Some of the land directly belonged to the court, and a lot belonged to the priests and temples. The income from the rest went to the treasury. Communal peasants cultivated the land, but on royal and temple lands this was usually done by non-full-fledged Khnyum. The administrative apparatus consisted of officials who received temporary official allotments for their service, who, as a rule, also processed the khnyum. Since positions, especially in the highest ranks of officialdom, were hereditary, the status of an official was close to that of a noble aristocrat with his hereditary rights, which often developed into feudal rights.

Angkor Cambodia flourished in the 11th century; from the 13th century it began to noticeably weaken, which was greatly facilitated by the penetration of Buddhism from neighboring countries in its southern Hinayan form. The religious struggle between Shaivite Hindus and Buddhists led to the victory of Buddhism in Cambodia, which coincided with the weakening and collapse of Kambujadeshi. Since the 14th century The almost theocratic power of the deified monarch is becoming a thing of the past. Hinayan Buddhism becomes the state religion. Since the 15th century, when the Siamese plundered Angkor, Kambujadesh finally ceased to exist. True, Cambodia was soon recreated anew with the capital in Phnom Penh, but the greatness of the country, as well as its national pride - the temples of Angkor, became a thing of the past, a thing of the past.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. Siam and Dai Viet (Vietnam) strongly pressed Cambodia. And although at times the Khmers managed to fend for themselves, strength was no longer on their side. The struggle ended in the 19th century. The rulers of Cambodia were forced to recognize the dual suzerainty of Siam and Vietnam and seek help against their overlords on the side, from the French, who did not fail to take advantage of this, which led, as is known, to the transformation of Cambodia into a colony of France.

Laos

The history of Laos developed in many ways parallel to that of Thailand: first the Mon-Khmer and then the Thai-Laotian layer was superimposed on the local aboriginal Austro-Asian ethno-linguistic basis. But, unlike Thailand, cities and proto-states here took shape quite late, mainly already under the influence of the Khmer and even Thai cultures and, through them, Indo-Buddhism. This process was facilitated by the same waves of Thai migration caused by political events in Nanzhao in the 9th-13th centuries. In the 13th century Northern Laos became part of the Thai state of Sukhothai, where Theravada Buddhism was the dominant religion. The southern regions of Laos at this time were under the influence of the Khmer states. In the XIV century. Several Laotian principalities united into the state of Lansang, whose first ruler, Fa Ngun (1353-1373), expanded his possessions also to the northeastern regions of Thailand.

The administrative structure of Lansang, like the Thai one, which apparently absorbed a lot from the Chinese tradition through Nanzhao, was a hierarchical network of central and district administrators, each of whom controlled a certain department or district, while taking care of collecting rent-tax from the peasants, carrying out necessary public works. Apparently, the district commanders were also in charge of the corresponding military formations. The Thai population was considered privileged; It was mainly from here that warriors were recruited. Buddhist monks enjoyed great influence in the country. Numerous monasteries and temples were built, which were at the same time - as in Burma, Siam, Ceylon, Cambodia and other Buddhist countries - centers of education, literacy, and culture.

In the XIV-XV centuries. Lansang waged long wars with Ayutthaya (Siam) for control of some Thai principalities. Then the wars with Dai Viet began, and from the 16th century. - with Burma. These centuries were the heyday of the united Lao state, its literature and culture. Lan Xang achieved its greatest power during the reign of Suligna Wongea (1637-1694), but after his death the state split into a number of principalities, of which Vientiane soon became the strongest, whose rulers, relying on the support of the Burmese Ava State, competed with Thai Ayutthaya. Strengthening Siam at the end of the 18th century. and the orientation towards him of the princes hostile to Vientiane led to the Thai campaign in Laos, which ended with the transformation of Laos into a vassal of Siam for some time. At the beginning of the 19th century. As a result of new wars with the strong Siamese state, Laos was defeated and dismembered. Most of its territory fell under the rule of Siam and Vietnam. After the Vietnamese-French wars in the 60s and 80s of the 19th century. Laos came under strong influence from France and then became its protectorate.

Vietnam

The most numerous of the modern peoples of Indochina are the Vietnamese, whose history, if we mean statehood, also dates back to approximately the 3rd century. BC. The proto-states of Nam Viet (partially on the territory of the PRC) and Aulak existed at that time, and it was then that they were conquered by the troops of Qin Shi Huang. True, soon after the collapse of the Qin empire, the Qin military leader proclaimed himself the ruler of North Vietnamese territory. Later, under Wu-di, in III BC. The North Vietnamese lands were again subordinated to China and, despite sometimes heroic resistance to the invaders (the uprising of the Trung sisters in 40-43), they remained under the rule of the Chinese administration until the 10th century.

It is not surprising that North Vietnam, whose population was ethnically close to the ancient Chinese kingdom of Yue, was forced to orient itself culturally towards the Chinese empire, which could not but play a role in its historical fate. This left a noticeable imprint on the nature of socio-economic relations, and on the forms of political administration, and on the entire way of life of people. Ruled by Chinese viceroys, North Vietnam had a typically Chinese internal social structure. Communal peasants paid rent-tax to the treasury; Due to its centralized redistribution, officials and a small Vietnamese nobility existed. Officials had official allotments, aristocrats had hereditary ones, but with reduced rights. These rights were significantly limited by the introduction of administrative division in the country according to the Chinese model, into regions and counties, regardless of the tribal or patrimonial territories that had developed over centuries.

From the 6th century Mahayana Buddhism, which came there from China, began to play a large role in the north of Vietnam, but Chinese Confucianism with its education system and Chinese writing (hieroglyphics) became even more widespread. The Vietnamese were also familiar - again through China - with Taoism. In a word, North Vietnam during the first twelve centuries of its existence was closely connected with China and was entirely dependent on it politically and culturally. It was, in a sense, a remote periphery of the Chinese empire, with almost no autonomy, although it was distinguished by the ethnic composition of the local population and, naturally, by some local characteristics, its own traditions in the way of life, etc.

The South Vietnamese proto-state of Tjampa, which arose around the 2nd century, was a completely different entity. First of all, it, like the rest of Indochina at that time, was noticeably influenced by Indian culture. Located in the zone of Indo-Buddhist influence, the Tyamas (Lakviet) led a correspondingly different way of life, which was most noticeably manifested in the sphere of culture and religion. Here Hinayan Buddhism flourished and actually dominated, although Hinduism in its Shaivist form, close to that of the Khmers of the times of Angkor, also played a significant role. Only in the 9th century. the first Mahayanist monasteries began to appear here, marking the strengthening of northern influences. In general, Buddhist and Hindu monasteries and temples flourished in Tjampa. In the 5th century here (naturally, in monasteries) local writing appeared on a South Indian graphic basis.

Relations with the north, i.e. relations with the Chinese rulers of North Vietnam, things were complicated for Tyampa and far from being in favor of the Tyams. There are even indications that in the 5th century. Tyampa formally recognized the sovereignty of China, which further increased pressure on it from the north. In the X-XI centuries. the northern lands of Tyampa were captured by the Vietnamese rulers, who had freed themselves from Chinese rule and waged a fierce internecine war with each other, and in the 12th century. The Tyams were noticeably displaced by Angkor Cambodia. The invasion of Khubilai's Mongol troops temporarily stopped the internecine wars in Indochina, but from the 14th century. they flared up with renewed vigor and led to Tyampa becoming a vassal of the Vietnamese Annam.

The 10th century was a period of fierce civil strife for North Vietnam, which lasted, as just mentioned, for quite a long time. The fall of the Tang Dynasty led to the liberation of North Vietnam from Chinese rule. First, liberated Vietnam was led by the kings of the Khuc dynasty (906--923), then Ngo (939--965), after which the military leader Dinh Bo Linh founded the Dinh dynasty (968--981) and gave the country the name Dai Co Viet. He also carried out a number of reforms aimed at strengthening the power of the center (the creation of a regular army, a new administrative division) and against the internecine wars of the feudal-separatist aristocracy. However, the reforms did not prevent the fact that after the death of Dinh, power passed to Le Hoan, who founded the early Le dynasty (981-1009). It was Le who most seriously pushed back the Tyams, annexing part of their lands to Daykovet.

Against the backdrop of internecine wars, virtually independent large feudal clans (sy-kuans) became stronger in the country, whose estates sometimes competed in power with the power of the center. It was from among them that new rulers emerged every now and then, founding new dynasties. Naturally, each successive ruler did not like all this, so, having come to power, he sought to limit the opportunities of the large nobility. However, the complexity of the situation was that weak sovereigns were forced to rely on the support of strong vassals to strengthen their own power, as a result of which the rulers could do little against the influential nobility. And yet attempts of this kind followed one after another. First there were Digne's reforms. Then Le acted in the same direction, who managed to weaken the Si-kuans so much that sources almost stopped mentioning them. Only as a result of this, a more or less favorable situation developed in the country for the creation of a strong centralized state. Such a state was created in the 11th century. rulers of the new Li dynasty (1010-1225).

The Ly dynasty, which changed the country's name to Dai Viet in 1069, divided it into 24 provinces led by rotating governors. The entire political administration was transformed according to the Chinese model: officials of different ranks with a clear hierarchy; central departments and provincial administrators; examination system for filling administrative positions; Confucianism as the basis of administration and the entire way of life of the population; regular army based on conscription, etc. The Chinese model was the basis both in the sphere of economics and social relations: land was considered the property of the state, personified by the king; community members paid rent-tax to the treasury; officials lived off part of this rent; there was a small layer of hereditary nobility (mainly relatives of kings), who had hereditary land holdings with limited rights; The Buddhist Church enjoyed considerable influence and property. Buddhism, Confucianism and local peasant beliefs and superstitions, close to Taoism, had a clear tendency to converge into a single syncretic folk religion - also on the Chinese model.

In a word, strange as it may seem, the political independence of Dai Viet from China not only did not lead to the liberation of the country from the influence of Chinese culture, which had taken root over the centuries of its dominance in Vietnam, but, on the contrary, it even more clearly realized this influence, especially in the political sphere culture. In essence, the Vietnamese continued to live according to the standards that had developed before. This can be seen even in the example of the internal organization of Vietnamese peasant communities, where there were full-fledged (local) and non-full-right (newcomers), who most often did not have their own land and found themselves in the position of tenants. This was noticeably manifested in the organization of city life (guilds; the system of state monopolies and craft workshops, etc.).

Foreign policy of the Li dynasty in the 12th century. brought some success, especially in the fight against tyams. The attempts made by the powerful Angkor Cambodia to oust Dai Viet were also successfully repelled. But at the turn of the XII-XIII centuries. the dynasty began to weaken, which one of the aristocrats, a relative of King Chan, did not fail to take advantage of. Based on the dissatisfaction of the peasants with oppression by officials (it seems that the Vietnamese, along with the entire structure, borrowed the dynastic cycle from China), Chiang carried out a palace coup in 1225 and declared himself the ruler of a new dynasty, which lasted until 1400. In principle, the rulers of the Chiang dynasty continued the same policy of strengthening central power as their predecessors. But the political situation during the years of their rule became greatly complicated due to the Mongol invasion, which affected almost most of Indochina. Although the Chans created a strong army and a combat-ready navy, it was not easy to resist the Mongols. Not only the army, but literally the entire people rose up against the invaders. The war continued to wear and tear until the victorious end. And the Mongols, especially after the death of their commander Sagatu, were eventually forced to retreat. Under the terms of the peace treaty of 1289, the Chinese (Mongolian) Yuan dynasty was formally recognized as the overlord of Vietnam, but in fact Dai Viet remained independent. Commander-in-Chief Tran Hung Dao, who achieved this success, is revered as a national hero to this day.

Resistance to the Mongols greatly weakened the country and undermined its economy. Famine and unrest resulted in the 14th century. a series of peasant uprisings, and the weakening of administrative control and the army made it possible for the Tyams to try to recapture their northern territories. But the weakness of the dynasty was stopped by the decisive hand of Ho Cui Li, who in 1371 headed the government and actually concentrated all power in the country in his hands.

Ho carried out a number of important reforms, which boiled down to a sharp limitation of the hereditary possessions of the nobility, to the reorganization of the army and administrative apparatus, as well as to the streamlining of taxation in the interests of the communal peasantry. The reforms had a certain effect, but caused strong opposition. The dissatisfied appealed to the rulers of Ming China, which was formally the overlord of Dai Viet. Ming troops invaded Dai Viet, ending Ho's reign in 1407. However, patriotic Vietnamese led by Le Lon opposed the Chinese troops, who achieved the withdrawal of these troops and founded the Later Le dynasty (1428-1789).

Le Loi continued Ho's reforms. Land registration was carried out in the country, the status of the community was restored, and poor peasants received allotments. In the south, military settlements were created where peasant warriors lived on preferential terms, but were in constant combat readiness to fight the Tyams. An administrative reform was carried out in the country, a new division into provinces and counties was created. Administration officials received the right to strictly control communities. The examination system was strengthened, as was the practice of conditional service land tenure for officials. All these measures significantly strengthened the power of the center and stabilized the structure as a whole, which contributed to the flourishing of the economy and culture. And finally, in 1471, the southern lands of Tyampa were finally annexed to the country.

From the 16th century The power of the rulers of the house of Le began to weaken, and the major dignitaries Nguyen, Mac and Chinh began to compete for influence in the country. Their internecine struggle led to the actual division of Dai Viet into three parts. Soon the most influential house of the Macs was squeezed out by the combined efforts of the other two, after which a fierce struggle broke out between the Nguyens and the Chins, under the sign of which the entire 17th century passed. The northern part of the country, under the rule of Chiney, developed in the 17th century. quite successfully: privately owned farms grew, officially recognized among the community members and taxed accordingly, handicraft production expanded, trade and mining developed. The Chineys had a good army, including a navy and even war elephants. The southern part of the country, where the Nguyens established themselves, also developed rapidly. Here, on the lands seized from the Tyams and Khmers, the Vietnamese who migrated from the north settled, and were provided with tax benefits. Community ties weakened accordingly, while commodity-money relations and private land ownership developed. A large colony of Chinese settlers, strengthened in the Mekong Delta after the fall of the Ming dynasty, greatly contributed to the acceleration of the pace of development of South Vietnam and the growth of large cities there.

Both in the north and south of the country in the 17th century. A considerable number of Catholic missionaries appeared. If in China, Japan, even in Siam their activities were suppressed, then in Vietnam, on the contrary, they received quite wide scope. Apparently, the Vietnamese rulers viewed Catholicism as a kind of weighty religious and cultural counterbalance to Chinese Confucianism, whose position in the country was still predominant. One of the results of the successful activities of Catholic missionaries in Vietnam was that, along with the Chinese hieroglyphic writing, which until then was almost exclusively used by the literate sections of the population, especially the official administration, all bureaucrats, Vietnamese literary writing also appeared on the Latin graphic alphabetic basis. This writing received full support from patriotic Viet-ts. It is not surprising that under such conditions the position of the Catholic Church strengthened. Converts to Christianity (Catholicism) in Vietnam already in the 17th century. there were several hundred thousand. This growth even aroused concern on the part of the authorities, which led to the closure of European trading posts in a number of cities in the country and to some restriction of the activities of the Catholic Church in Vietnam.

ORIGIN OF THE HINDU-BUDDHIST CIVILIZATION

History of Southeast Asia up to the 2nd century. AD remains a blank spot in science. The earliest information about it is contained in Chinese written sources of that time and archaeological finds. Chinese dynastic chronicles mention states whose rulers bore Indian names in Sanskrit, and whose clergy were representatives of the highest caste - Brahmins. Buddha images of the same style as at Amaravati on the Krishna River, in South India, characteristic of the period between 150 and 250 AD, have been discovered in Thailand, Cambodia and Annam (Central Vietnam), and on the islands of Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi.

The earliest texts - in Sanskrit - have been found in West Java, East Kalimantan, northern Malaya and Cambodia. These inscriptions are written in the ancient alphabet of the Pallavas, a Tamil dynasty that ruled from the 3rd to the 8th centuries. in Kanchipuram, southeast India. From more recent times there is evidence reflecting cultural trends from other areas of India. One of the directions of Buddhism - Mahayana - came from the northeast. It bore the imprint of the mystical, Hindu-influenced doctrine of Tantrism, which originated in the Buddhist monastery of Nalanda in Bihar. From the 11th century The authority of the Ceylonese (Lankan) branch of Buddhism begins to affect itself. This branch of Buddhism - Hinayana (Theravada) - gradually replaced Mahayana and Hinduism from Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

The most ancient culture of Southeast Asia.

Origin of the peoples of Southeast Asia.

Little is known about the genesis and early migration of the peoples who, under the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism, developed their own cultures. Nowadays, the most civilized peoples inhabit the plains, especially river valleys and deltaic lowlands, as well as sea coasts. Relatively economically backward peoples lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the mountains and other elevated areas. Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age cultures were brought to Southeast Asia by Malay tribes from Southwest China, which are divided into Proto-Malay and Pre-Malay respectively. They became the ethnic substrate of the current population of the region. Both of these groups probably migrated down river valleys towards deltaic and coastal areas. The South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand and the Java Sea formed a kind of internal basin, promoting the common culture of the peoples living on the coast and the banks of the rivers flowing into them.

Material culture.

The material well-being of the peoples of Southeast Asia was based on the cultivation of fruit trees, intensive rice cultivation and fishing. Artificial irrigation systems required a relatively high population density: irrigation structures were built with the participation of large masses of people, organized either under the authority of a strong leader or, in some cases, within rural communities. Apparently, the appearance of pile buildings and the use of domesticated buffaloes for plowing fields dates back to this time.

There was also a “boat” civilization culture, distinguished by an amazing variety of vessels of different types and sizes used. Many families spent their lives on their boats, and until recently, communication between communities in Southeast Asia was carried out primarily by water. Residents of the coasts who made long sea voyages possessed especially high art of navigation.

Religion.

The religion was a mixture of three elements: animalism, ancestor worship, and the worship of local fertility gods. The water gods of fertility were especially revered in the form of a naga - a mythical cobra with several human heads. For the inhabitants of Southeast Asia, the world was filled with mysterious forces and spirits, ideas about which were reflected in dramatic mysteries and in works of art that have survived to this day. The construction of megaliths, in which the remains of deceased leaders were placed, was associated with the cult of ancestors.

Penetration of Indian culture.

The penetration of Hinduism and Buddhism into Southeast Asia apparently began before the 2nd century. AD Hinduism was propagated by the rulers of local states who sought to imitate the pomp of Indian courts. Buddhism was brought with them by mendicant Buddhist monks (bhiksus), who founded monasteries.

Rulers who accepted Hinduism invited Indian Brahmins to perform rituals to deify monarchs by identifying them with one of the highest Hindu gods - Shiva, Vishnu or Harihara (a deity combining the features of the first two). The new names of the rulers often indicated the gods with whom they were identified (Isanavarman - “Favorite of Shiva”, Indravarman - “Favorite of Indra” and Jayavarman - “Favorite of Victory”). The widespread use of the suffix "-varman" in names seems to have its roots in the Pallavas. At first it was a ritual suffix of the Kshatriyas - the class (varna) of warriors and leaders in Ancient India, but later it lost its class meaning and was used to designate members of the ruling class. In addition to the Brahmins, the rulers had to invite specialists in the construction of appropriate sanctuaries for the worship of the god-king.

Gradually Sanskrit became the sacred court language. Over time, Indian writing was adapted into the first literary works in local languages. The earliest extant inscriptions in Javanese, Malay, Mon and Khmer are excellent examples of this.

To legitimize the rulers of Southeast Asia, the Brahmins used mythical images taken from epic poems Ramayana and the Mahabharata, as well as from the Puranas (collections of religious myths and hymns) and other texts containing the mythical genealogy of the royal families of the Ganges region. They also imposed the system of government set forth in the Arthashastra (Treatise on Politics and State), Indian astrology and Indian calendars. The people of Southeast Asia themselves made an important contribution to this process, many of whom made pilgrimages to India to study the sacred texts.

Early Shaivite inscriptions indicate that the basis of the state religion was the cult of the royal linga (phallic symbol), which was believed to concentrate the magical power of the god-king, which ensured the well-being of the state. Thus, the autochthonous cult of fertility was dressed in Indian clothing

EARLY HINDUIZED STATES

Funan.

The first royal courts known to historians under Indian influence appeared towards the end of the 2nd century. AD in three areas: a) in the Mekong Delta, b) on the coast of modern Vietnam, south of Hue, and c) in the north of Malaya. The name "Funan", by which the state located in the Mekong Delta is known, is found in Chinese sources and is a derivative of the ancient Khmer word for "mountain". For the Chinese, Funan meant the country of the “king of the hill.” Chinese sources report that its ruling dynasty was founded by a Brahman named Kaundinya, who married the leader of one of the local tribes. This legend was based on the local version of the dynastic myth of the Pallavas, in which the founder of the family was Princess Naga - the mythical nine-headed cobra, the goddess of water. Later, the Naga was adopted as a sacred symbol from the Funani by the Khmers, and it became an indispensable attribute of the iconography of the Khmer capital of Angkor. It was believed that the country's prosperity was maintained by the nightly union of the Khmer kings and the Naga princess.

In the first half of the 3rd century. Funan grew into a powerful empire under the leadership of a king whose name is mentioned in Chinese chronicles as Fan Shiman. The ships of this monarch dominated the seas, and the states on the lands of the lower Mekong up to the northern regions of the Malacca Peninsula were his vassals. Fan Shiman assumed the title of Maharaja, or "great ruler", and sent one embassy to the court of Murunda in India, and another to China. A certain Kang Tai, whom the Chinese emperor sent with a return embassy, left the first description of Funan. Its subsequent rulers expanded the territory of the state and its overseas trade. As follows from the surviving inscriptions, one of the tasks of the royal government was the development of irrigation. Large-scale works to create irrigation systems were often associated with sanctuaries where traces of Vishnu were kept.

Like Rome in Europe, Funan left many elements of its culture as a legacy to the states that replaced it, but in the middle of the 6th century. under the pressure of the Khmers, who were gaining strength, the influence of Funani itself was fading away. The Chinese called the Khmer state Chenla and reported that at first it was a vassal of Funan. No explanation for this name has been found. During the century preceding the accession of the Khmer king Jayavarman II in 802, Chinese sources mention two states: the Chenla of Earth and the Chenla of Water. Until now, little is known about their history. The name "Chenla" was mentioned long after the founding of the great Khmer city of Angkor.

Tyampa (Champa).

The historical Vietnamese region of Annam is rich in archaeological sites of the people known as the Chams. For the first time in history, they are mentioned as Lin-yi in reports of the Chinese governor north of Nam Viet: a high-ranking official complained about Cham raids. It still remains unclear how Indian trends penetrated them. The earliest inscriptions, dated c. 400 AD, indicate that their court religion was Shaivism. One of the inscriptions is associated with the most ancient linga discovered in Southeast Asia.

The early history of the Cham is a continuous series of attempts at expansion to the north by both land and sea routes, which forced the Chinese to launch punitive expeditions against them. The Vietnamese at that time inhabited lands whose borders in the south only slightly extended beyond the Tonkin region, which occupies the northern part of modern Vietnam. After liberation from Chinese rule in 939, a long struggle developed between the Vietnamese and the Cham for possession of the lands south of Tonkin. Ultimately, after the fall of Tyampa in the 15th century. Vietnamese culture, which experienced strong Chinese influence, supplanted the Hinduized Cham culture.

States on the Malay Peninsula.

There is scant information about these states in Chinese sources. More valuable information is contained in inscriptions made in the oldest Pallava script, the earliest of which date back to the end of the 4th century.

Early Indonesian states.

The earliest known inscriptions in Java date back to about 450. They were made by the king of Taruma in West Java - Purnavarman, who began the construction of irrigation systems and erected a temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. In the east of Kalimantan, in the Kutei region, on the Mahakam River, they were found dating back to the beginning of the 5th century. inscriptions of a certain king Mulavarman, but nothing is known about the further fate of his empire. Chinese sources mention the existence of Hinduized states in Sumatra starting from the 5th century; discovered inscriptions date back no earlier than the end of the 7th century.

Inscriptions in Myanmar and Thailand.

There is evidence that from the middle of the 4th century. in Arakan, on the western coast of Burma (Myanmar), north of the Irrawaddy River delta, the Chandra dynasty ruled, but this information is known only from inscriptions of a later period. At Srikshetra, near modern Pyyu (Prom), in central Myanmar, inscriptions dating back probably to 500 have been discovered. Srikshetra was the capital of the state of the Pyu people, who are believed to have been the vanguard of the Burmese (Myanmar) who migrated to the country. The Pyu occupied the Irrawaddy Valley as far as Khalinja, in the north, near modern Shuebo. To the east of them, from Chaushe to modern Mawlamyine in the south, and in the Irrawaddy valley were the Mon states of Pegu and Thaton. Mons also inhabited the Menama Chao Phraya valley (Thailand). The earliest identified Mon inscriptions date back to about 600. They were found in Phrapaton, where the oldest known capital of the Mon state of Dvaravati, located in the basin of the said river, was located. Subsequently, the Mons had a strong cultural influence on their related Khmers, as well as on the Burmese and Tai (Siamese), about whose history little is known until the 11th century.

Rise of the Srivijaya state.

After the fall of Funan in the 6th century. its place was taken by Srivijaya, which developed around Palembang, in southeast Sumatra. This vast trading empire owed its prosperity to its control of the Malacca and Sunda Straits, as well as to the favor of China, where it sent numerous embassies. Srivijaya existed from the 7th to the 13th century. She did not leave behind such monumental monuments as those found in Central Java, but Palembang was for a long time an important center of enlightenment for the Mahayanists. In 671, in order to study Sanskrit grammar, he was visited by the Chinese Buddhist monk I Ching, who then went to India. After several years of study in Nalanda, he returned in 685 to Palembang, where he translated Sanskrit texts into Chinese and left his description of the Buddhist religion of that time. The close connections of Srivijaya with the Indian regions of Bengal and Bihar help explain the strong influence that Tantric Buddhism had on the rulers of the Indonesian states. In the 9th century So many pilgrims from Sumatra visited Nalanda that a special house was built for them.

THE AGE OF TEMPLE BUILDERS

In the period from 650 to 1250, remarkable works of art and architecture were created in the states of Southeast Asia, in no way inferior to the best world examples. Among the Chams, this flowering in the artistic sphere began in the middle of the 7th century, when the Tang dynasty in China stopped the expansion of Champa to the north for a long time. Very little is known about significant changes in the lower Mekong region after the Khmer conquest of Funan. Sufficiently complete and reliable information on the history of this territory appears only since the founding of the Khmer capital on the northern shore of Lake Sap (or Tonle Sap - “Great Lake”), founded in 802 by King Jayavarman II. But even earlier, those grandiose changes in art and architecture began, which ultimately led to the creation of such masterpieces as the ensembles of Angkor. In Java, a similar process begins ca. 730 in its central regions, and on Burmese soil, in the state of Bagan, much later - approx. 1100. (However, on the site of the capital of the Pyu state, Srikshetra, there are ruins of buildings from the 8th century, which were the prototypes of the temples built later in Pagan.)

Javanese kingdoms.

The historical information we have about these kingdoms is often inaccurate. The development of art in Central Java was associated with two local dynasties: the Mahayanist Shailendra and the Saivite Sanjaya. Information about these dynasties until the 8th century. are missing. In Sanskrit, Shailendra means "king of the hill", and it is possible that this indicates the dynasty's connections with the Funani "kings of the hill" of an earlier period. Under the Shailendras, remarkable Buddhist monuments and temple complexes were erected, the most impressive of which are the huge Borobudur ensemble and the Chandi (Hindu temple) Mendut. In the 9th century the construction of such structures in Java ceases, but it begins in the state of Srivijaya. The Sanjaya dynasty probably prevailed in Central Java, and one of its rulers married a princess from the Shailendra dynasty. Her brother Balaputra fled to Sumatra, married an heiress from the Srivijaya family and gave the name Shailendra to the Srivijaya dynasty.

An outstanding monument of the Sanjaya dynasty remains the magnificent Saivite temple complex of Lara Jonggrang in Prambanan, built in the early 10th century.

Soon after, for unknown reasons, the center of power moves to East Java. The construction of monumental architectural objects is being stopped in Central Java. Nothing similar was created in East Java until the 13th century. On the other hand, it was an important period in the development of original Javanese literature. Sanskrit epic Mahabharata had a strong influence on Javanese literature and the wayang shadow theater, as well as on the sculptural reliefs that began to decorate East Javanese temples of a later period. One of the most famous works of ancient Javanese literature Arjunaviha (Arjuna's wedding) based on what is contained in Mahabharata the story of the ascetic Arjuna. This poem was written by the court poet Mpu Kanwa to celebrate the marriage of the most revered of the East Javanese kings, Erlang (r. 1019–1049), presenting the king's life in allegorical form. The heyday of the Erlang kingdom occurred during the short period of decline of Srivijaya, when the Sumatran state was weakened by a war with the South Indian state of the Cholas.

In the next century, during the heyday of the East Javanese kingdom of Kediri, another masterpiece of Javanese literature was created - Bharathayuddha. It is also based on a Sanskrit epic, but in spirit it is a purely Javanese work. Kediri's heyday continued until 1222, when it became a vassal of another Javanese state, Singasari.

In the religious sphere, there was a close merger of Buddhism and Hinduism, which by that time had absorbed local magical rituals and the cult of ancestors. At that time, there was a custom according to which kings after death were identified with the god Vishnu. An excellent expression of this tradition is the sculpture of King Erlang, originally installed in his mausoleum in Belakhan and currently stored in the Mojokert Museum. The cult that developed around her was a variation of the Javanese cult of ancestors.

Khmers and Angkor Cambodia.

Creation of the state.

In 802, Jayavarman II founded the state of Kambujadesh (in historical literature Angkor Cambodia) in the area of \u200b\u200bLake. Sap (modern Cambodia). The choice of location was determined by a number of conditions that explain the power achieved by the new empire that arose at the crossroads of sea and land routes. The lake was abundant with fish, and the alluvial plain allowed for up to four harvests a year using Khmer-developed irrigation methods. The wealth of forests was combined with the ability to extract sandstone and clay from the Dangrek mountain range, located to the north, necessary for the construction of giant architectural structures.

Jayavarman II spread the cult of the god-king among the Khmers, which formed the basis of the extensive religious system developed by his successors. A linga was erected on the top of the mountain, and the Brahmins, who became the high priests of the cult, through meditation began to identify the king with Shiva, and the linga became the receptacle of his sacred soul. The sanctuary around which the capital grew represented the mythical Hindu Mount Meru, the center of the universe, while the monarch, as the “king of the mountain,” declared himself the ruler of the universe.

Pre-Indian roots of the cult of the god-king.

A closer look reveals that beneath the veil of Hindu terminology and mythology were ideas and concepts that originated in an earlier period. Thus, in Cambodia, Tjampa, Java and Bali, there was a belief that the construction of a temple-image fixes in stone the essence, or life principle of the person being immortalized. The temple was built as the future tomb-sanctuary of the king, who, when laying it, left an inscription instructing his descendants to continue this tradition, and with it to preserve the established order - “dharma”. Thus, the ruler tied himself, his ancestors and descendants together in a single cult of ancestors. A remarkable example is Borobudur, a temple-mountain of the Shailendra dynasty in Central Java. This Buddhist monument, containing hundreds of bas-relief images, is a veritable textbook of the Mahayanist branch of Buddhism that developed in Nalanda, Bihar, at the time Borobudur was built. However, its full name Bhumisambarabhudhara - Mountain of accumulation of virtue on the ten stages of a bodhisattva - has another meaning, which is revealed only by taking into account the cult of ancestors. Each of the ten steps, with the exception of the lowest one, symbolizes one of the Shailendras, the predecessors of the creator of the temple, King Indra. The lower stage was deliberately left unfinished in anticipation of the death of the monarch and his transformation into a bothisattva, the future Buddha.

Khmer conquests.

Jayavarman II's kingdom was small. The construction of large reservoirs and canal systems, which became the basis for the prosperity of the state, was begun by Indravarman II (reigned 877–889). Under him, the place of natural heights, from where the universal king showered blessings on the population of his miniature universe, is occupied by man-made mountain temples. The first city of Angkor was founded by Yasovarman I (r. 889–900). Somewhat later, the Khmer capital was moved for a short time to Zhok Gargyar (Kohker), northeast of Angkor, but Rajendravarman II (r. 944–968) returned it back to Angkor, which from then on remained the seat of the Khmer kings until 1432. when the city was completely abandoned.

The history of the Khmer conquests has been little studied. The first of the Khmer wars with Tyampa was fought during the reign of Rajendravarman II, but it did not bring visible success. In the 10th century Angkorian possessions probably extended up the Mekong valley all the way to the Chinese border. Suryavarman I (r. 1002–1050) expanded his lands westward, conquering the Mon state of Dvaravati, in the Menama Valley, and part of the Malacca Peninsula, now part of Thailand. From this time on, the Mon influence on Khmer art and architecture can be clearly seen.

By the beginning of the 12th century. Khmer civilization and statehood reached its peak. Suryavarman II (r. 1113–1150), under whom Angkorwat was built, the culmination of the development of the mountain temples, was the most powerful monarch in Khmer history. However, his endless wars against the Mons, Thais, Vietnamese and Chams did not produce lasting results. His unsuccessful campaign in Tjampa led to several retaliatory attacks, during one of which, in 1177, the Cham unexpectedly captured and plundered Angkor. Jayavarman VII (r. 1181–1219) responded by occupying their country in 1203 and holding it until the end of his reign.

Jayavarman VII, the last of the Great Builders.

Jayavarman VII carried out the most extravagant building project in Khmer history. He redesigned the capital, making it smaller, but at the same time turning it into the fortified city of Angkor Thom. In the center of the city stood the Bayon Temple, and along the perimeter were built monumental gates with towers topped with giant heads with four colossal faces. This was already the time of expansion of Mahayana Buddhism: in the central temple of Angkor Thom there was an image of Buddharaja, the king as the incarnation of Buddha, and in the radially located temples there were images with the names of the highest court nobles of Jayavarman, who were thus involved in the process of his deification. The faces on the towers were his portraits as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara - “the god who looks down” with compassion on suffering humanity.

Suryavarman II also replaced Devaraja, the Shaivite god-king of his predecessors, with Vishnuraja in Angkorwat. In essence, there was a merger of two cults, just as happened in East Java. Jayavarman VII, having established the cult of Buddharaja, whose main temple was Bayon, took another step in this direction, just as it happened in contemporary Java, under the rulers of the state of Singasari. And just as in Java, Hindu and Buddhist elements were intertwined with traditional Khmer magic and ancestor worship: the mythology, terminology and rituals were Hindu, but expressed purely Khmer ideas about the universe. The cults were dedicated to the material prosperity of the country and the earthly salvation of people. Buddharaja's compassion was also expressed in the construction of more than 100 hotels for pilgrims and the same number of hospitals, open to all subjects, on the roads radiating from the capital.

The state could not sustain such a policy, which constantly demanded forced laborers and soldiers, and it ended with the death of Jayavarman. New grandiose structures were no longer built. About the history of the Khmers in the remaining years of the 13th century. so little is known that it is difficult to judge the situation created after the death of Jayavarman VII. The Khmers had to leave Tjampa, and the lands in the upper reaches of the Menam passed to the Thai tribes. Chinese traveler Zhou Daguan, who visited the area at the end of the century, wrote about the magnificent city and prosperous countryside. His notes contain a new, extremely important point: Hinayana Buddhism became the religion of the people. Thus, the state religion of the god-king should have lost its significance.

Pagan: Mon-Burmese synthesis.

The Rise of Pagan.

The great era of temple building among the Burmese is associated with the city of Pagan, which united them into the first state, which existed from 1044 to 1287. The Burmese, who ruled in Pagan, migrated to the arid central part of the country from the Shan Plateau in the second half of the 9th century. They first concentrated in the Chaushe region, not far from modern Mandalay, and then settled in other lands, to which they gave their name. The earlier Mon inhabitants were the first to cultivate rice and pulses in Myanmar. The Burmese adopted from them the technique of artificial irrigation, which was vital for Pagan. The foundations of Hindu-Buddhist culture, including writing, were also adopted from the Mons.

The Pyu state of Srikshetra collapsed under the onslaught of Nanzhao, a Thai state in Yunnan, just before the arrival of the Burmese, and the Pyu people themselves gradually lost their identity and were assimilated. The Mon states of Lower Burma were conquered by King Anorate (r. 1044–1077), the founder of Pagan. This led to increased Mon cultural influence in Pagan, where Hinayana Buddhism was the state religion. Pali became the canonical language, replacing Sanskrit. In essence, Pagan Buddhism was the same combination of Buddhism, Hinduism and local cults as in other places, but the official religion was Hinayana, which, with the help of the royal power, gradually took a leading position.

Mon influence.

Mon influence in Pagan becomes predominant under King Chanzit (r. 1084–1112). During his reign, the Ananda Temple was built, the first and perhaps the most beautiful of the religious buildings. Unlike Angkor, Pagan was not the center of an extensive irrigation network.

Before the end of Pagan's prosperity, which, as in the case of Angkor, occurred in the first half of the 13th century, there was a change of cultures, accompanied by a change in the language of inscriptions from Mon to Burmese. However, much more important were the changes in local Buddhism that occurred as a result of the development of ties with Ceylon (Sri Lanka). New trends were brought by Mon pilgrims who visited this island at the end of the 12th century. They resulted in a movement for the purification of the Hinayana in accordance with orthodox teaching, which preached personal salvation through poverty, meditation, and complete renunciation. Missionary monks spread this doctrine throughout the country and far beyond its borders.

SOUTHEAST ASIA AFTER THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

The thirteenth century proved to be an important turning point in the history of the region. The construction of huge temples stopped in Angkor and Pagan, and Hinayana Buddhism took possession of the minds of the people inhabiting the vassal possessions of these two centers. He was destined to gain a foothold on the religious map of mainland Southeast Asia. Serious political changes also occurred. The maritime power of Srivijaya disappeared, although the available evidence does not provide a clear picture of how this happened. After the conquest of China by Kublai Khan, the Mongols invaded Burma, Vietnam, Tjampa and even penetrated into Java. Bagan collapsed in 1287, even before the Mongol invasion, and the same happened with the East Javanese state of Singasari in 1293.

Thai conquests.

By the end of the 13th century. Outside the islands, Thai peoples are taking leading positions. The Shans, one of them, sought to establish control over Upper Burma, and the state of Sukhothai, founded by King Ramkamhaeng (r. 1283–1317), subjugated the Mon-Khmer tribes inhabiting the western outskirts of Angkor Cambodia and adopted the Hinayana.

Thai expansion has decisively changed the balance of power in the region. In 1350, Ayutthaya was founded, marking the beginning of modern Thailand, and already in 1378 it conquered Sukhothai. Three years later, the state of Lan Xang arose in the middle and upper reaches of the Mekong. After 1350, under the pressure of the Thai tribes, the Khmer state quickly collapsed. In 1431 they ravaged Angkorth, which as a result ceased to be the capital the following year. The Khmers moved their capital to the south, to Phnom Penh, but their state was never able to revive its former power. In 1471, the Vietnamese captured Thampa, and its Hindu-Buddhist culture gradually disappeared as the Vietnamese penetrated further south into the Mekong Delta.

Burmese and Mon states.

In Burma, the struggle between the Burmese and Thai tribes continued until the mid-16th century. and ended in a decisive victory for the Burmese. During this confrontation, Burmese culture made a big step forward. Its center was Ava, founded in 1364. To the south, the settled Mons, who gained freedom after the fall of Pagan, created their own independent state of Pegu, which existed until 1539. Its capital was the city of the same name, and the ports of Syriam, Martaban and Bassein became centers of international trade. Pegu made an important contribution to the development of Burmese Buddhism through extensive reforms carried out by the Mon king Dammazedi (1472–1492). Once again, Ceylon initiated the changes. In 1472, the king sent a mission of monks and novices to the island to the Mahavihara monastery on the Kelani River. Upon their return, they consecrated the ordination center in Pegu, where all the monks were invited to undergo the rite according to the Sri Lankan Hinayana rules. Dissent among the monks was strongly condemned, and orthodoxy was enforced everywhere.

Indonesia: the decline of Singasari and the rise of Majapahit.

The state of Singasari in East Java, which collapsed on the eve of the Mongol invasion in 1293, completed the process of religious unification. Kertanagara (r. 1268–1292), one of the most controversial figures in Indonesian history, introduced the cult of Shiva-Buddha, a mixture of indigenous magic and tantrism that developed the demonic aspects of "kalachakra" ("Wheel of Time"). To practice this cult, his followers organized secret vigils. The purpose of the obscene rituals was the desire to give the king the necessary magical abilities to fight the demonic forces threatening the kingdom: internal schism and external threats. Kertanagara tried to create under his leadership a confederation of Indonesian islands to organize resistance to the Mongol invasion, the threat of which turned out to be real for Southeast Asia after Kublai Khan launched 1264 aggressive campaigns. The challenge posed by Kertanagara did not go unanswered, and in 1293 the Mongol armada was sent against him. But even before her invasion of Java, one of Kertanagara’s vassals rebelled, captured the capital, and killed the king himself when he, along with a group of associates, performed secret tantric rituals. The Confederation, or "holy alliance" as it was called, fell apart. But the Mongol army, which defeated the usurper’s forces after landing on the island, fell into a trap set by the direct heir of Kertanagara, Prince Vijaya, and was able to avoid defeat only by abandoning the intended goal and returning to their homeland. After this, Vijaya was crowned king under the name of King Kertarajas.

Under Kertarajas, whose policy was a continuation of the expansionist line of Kertanagara, Majapahit became the new capital of the East Javanese kingdom. However, for many years the state was torn apart by civil strife. Majapahit owes its rise to the talents of its chief minister, Gadjah Mada, who held this post from 1330 until his death in 1364. Scholars disagree as to how far Majapahit's conquests extended beyond Java. His power was certainly recognized by the neighboring islands of Madura and Bali, but it is unlikely that Majapahit’s possessions extended to the entire territory that in the first half of the 20th century. constituted the Netherlands Indies. The kingdom's decline began shortly before the end of the 14th century, although it still maintained a dominant position in Java in the next century. However, as the Islamic sultanate strengthened on the Malay Peninsula and Islam penetrated into the northern regions of Java, Majapahit's territory decreased. Ultimately, the state disappeared from the political arena in the first half of the 16th century, and its history in the 15th century. so vague that it gave rise to a lot of speculation about the reasons for the death of the state.

Monuments of Majapahit.

While the reliefs on the buildings of Central Java are realistic, in the reliefs of East Java the heroes and their servants are depicted in the bizarre form of wayang puppets, as if belonging to the world of ancestral spirits. Most of the monuments in Java are known as "chandi". This name, applied to temple-shrines related to the dead, is derived from one of the names of the Hindu goddess of death, Durga. In Javanese folk tradition, however, these temples took on a slightly different meaning. They were Hindu-Buddhist only in appearance, and were seen more as places of spirit release and resurrection, clearly deriving from local ancestor cults.

Bali.

The conquest of Bali by Chief Minister Gadjah Mada was a major milestone in the cultural life of the island. For hundreds of years there existed its own form of Hindu-Buddhist culture, which later became completely Javanese. Among other things, Old Javanese literature had a strong influence on the Balinese literature into which it was incorporated. Currently, it is Bali that remains the repository of Javanese literary works of the Hindu-Buddhist period, since in Java itself much of the historical heritage was lost as a result of subsequent Islamization.

Spread of Islam in Malaya and Indonesia.

At the end of the 13th century. in Southeast Asia, the results of the activities of Islamic preachers began to be felt. Marco Polo, who visited the Sumatran port of Perelak in 1292, noted that its population had already been converted to the religion of the Prophet. Under the influence of North Sumatra, the monarch of Malacca converted to Islam, with the strengthening of its power in the 15th century. Islam was adopted by Malacca vassals on the mainland and in Sumatra. Malacca's trade connections facilitated the penetration of Islam into the northern ports of Java and Brunei, in Kalimantan, whose rulers joined the ranks of adherents of the new faith. Just before the conquest of Malacca by the Portuguese in 1511, the rulers of the Spice Islands (Moluccas) followed their example. By the end of the 16th century. Most Indonesian rulers were already adherents of Islam, but in East Java the struggle between the defenders of the old faith in the old state of Padjajaran and the Muslim elite of the new state of Mataram continued in the 17th century. Bali has resisted all attempts at conversion and has maintained its Hindu-Buddhist culture to this day.

However, the adoption of Islam by the rulers did not mean the extension of this process to their subjects. The situation that was observed in earlier times, when Hinduism and Buddhism were introduced in the royal courts, was repeated with Islam. The adoption of Islam did not violate the integrity of Indonesia's cultural history. Social relations were still determined by local “adat” (customary law). There were no mass conversions, and there was no break in cultural life. It’s just that the Indonesian and Malay civilizations absorbed elements of Islam over the centuries, just as they previously absorbed elements of Hinduism and Buddhism, and later the beginnings of Western culture.

Spread of Hinayana Buddhism on mainland Southeast Asia.

In this territory, where Hinayana took a leading position, in particular in Arakan, Burma, Siam (Thailand), Cambodia, Laos, a long process of interaction of cultures also took place. At the same time, their early traditional forms of religion showed amazing resilience, and Buddhism showed a magnificent spirit of tolerance. It is noteworthy that neither Islam nor Christianity left a noticeable mark on the peoples who professed the Hinayana. The most peculiar feature of this process of acculturation is not just a tolerant attitude towards animism, but actually its inclusion in Buddhist mythology. Pagoda festivals and national celebrations are excellent examples of this. These include the New Year (Tinjan, or Water Festival) in April, the First Furrow ceremony in May, the Festival of Lights (Tarinjut), usually in October, and the Swing Festival, celebrated in December or January during the harvest. The New Year's Water Festival in these Buddhist countries marks the annual return of the king of spirits (Taj Min among the Burmese, Phra In among the Thai) to Earth, and the very moment of this return is determined by the Brahmans. Young boys and girls solemnly sprinkle water on images of Buddha. The Festival of Lights, which marks the end of the Buddhist fast (and monsoon season), is an even greater mixture of Buddhism, animism and remnants of Hinduism. At this time, ritual meals are organized for the monks, who are given new robes. Buildings are decorated with illuminations and fireworks are displayed.

In Burma, the process of mixing beliefs took the extreme form of celebrations in the context of the legend of how Gautama Buddha ascended to the land of spirits to explain to his mother, who became their queen, the commandments of the teaching he created.

Orthodox Hinayana is essentially an atheistic teaching that denies the existence of the world of spirits. Nevertheless, in all the countries of Southeast Asia where Hinayana predominates, every phase of human life, from birth to death, from plowing to harvesting, is accompanied by rites to propitiate the spirits. There are numerous places of worship everywhere, where fresh offerings arrive. On the grounds of the Shwezigon Stupa in Pagan, famous for its Buddhist relics, there are temples of the Thirty-seven Nats (spirits), which testify to their respect for the shrines.

Socio-economic conditions of Hindu-Buddhist civilization.

Information about the socio-economic conditions of life during the existence of the Hindu-Buddhist civilization is extremely fragmentary. This is due to the fact that to this day only buildings made of brick and stone have survived, while all dwellings, starting with the royal ones, built of wood, have long disappeared from the face of the earth. Inscriptions, a valuable potential source for the study of social relations, have not been sufficiently studied. The latest archaeological excavation techniques and aerial photography can greatly help specialists, but until now the only successful attempt to analyze the economic system that gave rise to the boom in temple construction was undertaken by Bernard P. Groslier at Angkor. He described in detail the city as the center of a powerful system of reservoirs and canals, which provided constant irrigation and intensive cultivation of vast rice fields, but also required strictly centralized management of the life of a close-knit community. The Khmers created an apparatus of government to suit their own needs, but the administrative structures of all other leading states in the region were also based on the cult of water and fertility. Thus, the god-king of the Khmers, Chams, Burmese, Mons or Indonesians performed almost the same function everywhere, and their cities were most closely connected with areas of irrigated rice growing. Even Bagan, located in the arid zone of Burma, owed its existence to the Chauskha irrigation network and was so located on the Irrawaddy River as to keep the irrigation facilities downstream under control. Its fall at the end of the 13th century. was associated mainly with the loss of control over Chaushe, and the fall of Angkor in the 15th century. occurred due to the destruction of its water facilities during the Siamese invasions.

Cities did not, however, turn into purely urbanized settlements. Aerial photographs show that Angkor was cut by canals and included cultivated land. It was a real garden city, in the center of which stood the palace city, the administrative heart of the country. A special quarter was allocated to merchants, and representatives of various countries had their own farmsteads. Around the city, along the banks of canals and rivers, there are villages, fields and plantations of fruit trees.

Local varieties of Southeast Asian culture.

Throughout their early history, the various peoples of Southeast Asia developed highly individually. This is especially clearly visible in the designs of fabrics, for example on batiks - both made in Malaya and imported from India. The importer had to be well aware of the specific needs of the population of different regions, since what sold well in one of them might not be in demand in another. In all countries of the region, clothing consisted of the same elements: a long piece of fabric was wrapped around the hips, a shorter piece was thrown over the shoulder, and a third was tied around the head. But there were noticeable differences in patterns and style of wearing between the Burmese loungeji, Khmer kampot, Thai panung, and Malay or Indonesian sarong. The same applies to other types of costume. The official robes worn at the courts of Burmese Ava and Siamese Ayutthaya were very different from each other. Everything that came from abroad was quickly absorbed into the local culture. For example, shadow theater borrowed from India merged with Javanese puppet theater and acquired a completely distinct Javanese character. Tales of Buddha's rebirths in Jataka form in Pali, common in Burmese prose and drama, were completely Burmanized. Motifs of Sanskrit epic poems Ramayana And Mahabharata were used everywhere: in shadow theater, national literature, and other forms of art, in each specific case, however, acquiring local flavor and local interpretation. Similarly, traditional musical ensembles, called gamelan in Java, and associated forms of dance and singing were widespread throughout Southeast Asia, but had significant local variations.

Literature:

Hall D. History of Southeast Asia. M., 1958
Peoples of Southeast Asia. M., 1966
Bartold V.V. Essays, vol. 6. M., 1966
History of Asian and African countries in the Middle Ages. M., 1968
Tatar-Mongols in Asia and Europe. M., 1970
Southeast Asia in world history. M., 1977
Southeast Asia: problems of regional community. M., 1977
Shpazhnikov S.A. Religion of Southeast Asian countries. M., 1980
Berzin E.O. Southeast Asia in the 13th–16th centuries. M., 1982