Premodern South East Asia: Architecture, Culture and Cities in a Global Perspective

Southeast Asia is unique in the world because of the intersection of environmental, geologically and geographic realities. As a tropical environment, it supplied cinnamon, scented woods, bird’s nest and a vast array of other luxury, forest goods. Geologically, it possessed gold, gems and diamonds and geographically, located between Indian and China, it could supply these luxury goods to eager markets. The people who lived there were, in one way or another, forest-based animist cultures whose villages were oriented around sacred rivers and mountains. In the period before about 200 CE, the transfer of goods and materials was relatively informal. Distances were formidable and sea traffic dependent on trade winds and other contingencies. Even so, Roman coins at Oc Eo, a port site in Vietnam are testament to the emerging connectivity. By 200 CE, we see the first expansions of Indian traders into Southeast Asia. Along with their India-centric world views, they colonized and fused with local chiefdom to create a type of palace-based environments that in turn served as stepping stones from port to port, thickening the geo-political landscape. By 800 CE, this model of cultural expansion, known as Indianization, was in full swing, by 1200, it was at its peak. Powerful and independent kingdoms and mini-states had now formed that controlled both extraction and trade with palace-based elites building world-class structures, temples and palaces. Most of the lectures will therefore focus on this period – 400 to 1200 – as that was period where we see a vast array of buildings being built, along with ambitious water-engineering projects that introduced rice cultivation as a key element in the power structure of the day. Most of the palace-based economies were based on local wealth generation from the forest, control of the shipping lanes with rice agriculture as a stabilizing caloric foundation. The Khmer pushed all of this to the limits and their collapse at the end of the 13th century had devastating regional impact. The collapse was a consequence of over-stressing the land. It was also a result of the ascendency of the Mongolians, who based their economic viability on steppe trade routes, and so it was to their interest to close of the south as much as possible. In this downturn we see new regimes vying for power and the introduction of Islamic states, the Sultanate of Brunei, for example, paving the way to the arrival of European colonialism.