Religious Traditions in Politics: Buddhism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Laliberté
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Lay Buddhists ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Different Cultures

Buddhists constitute a majority of the population in peninsular Southeast Asia, but the largest concentration of Buddhists lives in East Asia. The delay between the times the Buddha gave his teachings and they were transcribed in written form and the adoption of the latter through centuries in countries with vastly different cultures hampered the development of a unified Buddhist political thought. Two major trends within Buddhism aspire to influence contemporary politics: “Buddhism for the human realm,” a reform movement originating in Republican China, and “engaged Buddhism,” which is a contemporary international network of activists rather than a systematic body of thought. The three major schools of Buddhism do not differ fundamentally on matters of doctrine, so the variety of Buddhist political orientations has more to do with the historical and national circumstances of the religion’s diffusion. Buddhism has expanded out of its country of origin, India, where it has almost disappeared but remains an important source of soft power. The Mahayana school has spread to China, where it has developed an eschatology that has inspired rebellions through history. The Theravada school has spread to Southeast Asia and has provided a source of legitimation for many rulers. The colonial era brought a key change, as lay Buddhists and monastics inspired many nationalist movements. Only six governments give a “special place” to Buddhism in their constitutions, but other countries with large Buddhist populations feel its influence on politics through the sangha. In countries of the Theravada tradition, monastics play an important role in politics, whereas in countries where the Mahayana school prevails lay associations mobilize Buddhists. Very few Buddhist political parties have emerged and only in Japan has one endured in a coalition government. In Southeast Asia, the politics of Buddhism is often associated with nationalist intransigence, in contrast to the peaceful and tolerant image of the religion’s politics promoted by many of its exiled leaders in the “engaged Buddhist” network.

scholarly journals SOUTHEAST ASIA: HISTORY, MODERNITY, AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE

Al-Albab ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumanto Al Qurtuby
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Cultural Legacies ◽  
State Organization ◽  
A Site

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia, with more than six hundred million populations, is home to millions of Buddhists, Muslims, Confucians, Protestants, Catholics, and now Pentecostals, as well as many followers of local religions and spiritual beliefs. Notwithstanding its great historical, political, cultural legacies, however, the region has long been neglected as a site for religious studies in the Western academia. Aiming at filling the gap in Asian and religious studies as well as exploring the richness of Southeast Asian cultures, this article discusses the dynamics, diversity, and complexity of Southeast Asian societies in their response to the region’s richly political, cultural, and religious traditions spanning from pre-modern era to modern one. The article also examines the “integrative revolutions” that shaped and reshaped warfare, state organization and economics of Southeast Asia, particularly in the pre-European colonial era. In addition, the work discusses the wave of Islamization, particularly since the nineteenth century, as well as the upsurge of religious resurgence that shift the nature of religiosity and the formation of religious groupings in the area. The advent of Islam, with some interventions of political regimes, had been an important cause for the decline of Hindu-Buddhist traditions in some areas of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, the coming of Pentecostalism has challenged the well-established mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism, especially in Indonesia and the Philippines. Keywords: history, modernity, religious change, Southeast Asia

Where Great Powers Meet

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Shambaugh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Stable Region ◽  
Power Transition ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Sphere Of Influence ◽  
The Cold War

After the end of the Cold War, it seemed as if Southeast Asia would remain a geopolitically stable region within the American imperious for the foreseeable future. In the last two decades, however, the re-emergence of China as a major great power has called into question the geopolitical future of the region and raised the specter of renewed great power competition. As this book shows, the United States and China are engaged in a broad-gauged and global competition for power. While this competition ranges across the entire world, it is centered in Asia, and here this text focuses on the ten countries that comprise Southeast Asia. The United States and China constantly vie for position and influence in this enormously significant region, and the outcome of this contest will do much to determine whether Asia leaves the American orbit after seven decades and falls into a new Chinese sphere of influence. Just as important, to the extent that there is a global “power transition” occurring from the United States to China, the fate of Southeast Asia will be a good indicator. Presently, both powers bring important assets to bear. The United States continues to possess a depth and breadth of security ties, soft power, and direct investment across the region that empirically outweigh China’s. For its part, China has more diplomatic influence, much greater trade, and geographic proximity. In assessing the likelihood of a regional power transition, the book looks at how ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the countries within it maneuver between the United States and China and the degree to which they align with one or the other power.

On Sustainable Development Culture and its Construction

2011 ◽  
Vol 361-363 ◽  
pp. 1342-1345
Author(s):  
Yong Hong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Present State ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Selection ◽  
The Times

The sustainable development culture is a culture aiming to bring culture itself into harmony with the times, promote social all-round progress and human overall and sustainable development. In today’s china, this culture is particularly needed because of the ecological crisis and population pressure we are facing, the present state of Chinese culture and the pressing need of China for construction of cultural soft power. In the construction of sustainable development culture, special attention should be given to cultural selection, education popularization and system guarantee.

Religious Syncretism and Art in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ori Soltes
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Religious Perspectives ◽  
Religious Syncretism ◽  
Spiritual Perspectives ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
Anti Jewish

Religious and cultural syncretism, particularly in visual art in the Jewish and Christian traditions since the 19th century, has expressed itself in diverse ways and reflects a broad and layered series of contexts. These are at once chronological—arising out of developments that may be charted over several centuries before arriving into the 19th and 20th centuries—and political, spiritual, and cultural, as well as often extending beyond the Jewish–Christian matrix. The specific directions taken by syncretism in art is also varied: it may be limited to the interweave of two religious traditions—most often Jewish and Christian—in which most often it is the minority artist seeking ways to create along lines consistent with what is created by the majority. It may also interweave three or more traditions. It may be a matter of religion alone, or it may be a matter of other issues, such as culture or gender, which may or may not be obviously intertwined with religion. The term “syncretism” has, in certain specifically anthropological and theological circles, acquired a negative connotation. This has grown out of the increasing consciousness, since the 1960s, of the political implications of that term in the course of Western history, in which hegemonic European Christianity has addressed non-Christian religious perspectives. This process intensified in the Colonial era when the West expanded its dominance over much of the globe. An obvious and particularly negative instance of this is the history of the Inquisition as it first affected Jews in late-15th-century Spain and later encompassed indigenous peoples in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. While this issue is noted—after all, art has always been interwoven with politics—it is not the focus of this article. Instead “syncretism” will not be treated as a concept that needs to be distinguished from “hybridization” or “hybridity,” although different modes of syncretism will be distinguished. Syncretistic preludes to visual artists in the 19th and 20th centuries, suggesting some of the breadth of possibility, include Pico della Mirandola, Kabir, and Baruch/Benedict Spinoza. Specific religious developments and crises in Europe from the 16th century to the 18th century brought on the emancipation of the Jews in some places on the one hand, and a contradictory continuation of anti-Jewish prejudice on the other, the latter shifting from a religious to a racial basis. This, together with evident paradoxes regarding secular and spiritual perspectives in the work of key figures in the visual arts, led to a particularly rich array of efforts from Jewish artists who revision Jesus as a subject, applying a new, Jewishly humanistic perspective to transform this most traditional of Christian subjects. Such a direction continued to spread more broadly across the 20th century. The Holocaust not only raised new visual questions and possibilities for Jewish artists, but also did so from the opposite direction for the occasional Christian—particularly German—artist. Cultural syncretism sometimes interweaves religious syncretism—which can connect and has connected Christianity or Judaism to Eastern religions—and a profusion of women artists in the last quarter of the century has added gender issues to the matrix. The discussion culminates with Siona Benjamin: a Jewish female artist who grew up in Hindu and Muslim India, attended Catholic and Zoroastrian schools, and has lived in America for many decades—all these aspects of her life resonate in her often very syncretistic paintings.

scholarly journals Islamic Education in Southeast Asia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The World

Islamic Education in Southeast Asia reflects the diversity of Islam in that part of the world and of course plays a central role in shaping and transmitting the region’s religious traditions. this work concludes that Southeast Asia has an extraordinarily large and well-developed structure of Islamic education that can be a resource of critical importance in the ongoing war of ideas within Islam.

scholarly journals COMPARISION COGNITIVE IDENTITY BETWEEN HONGKONG CITIZENS AND CHINESE DIASPORA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhang Guannan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Cognitive Problem ◽  
Chinese Citizen

In this paper, my topic is related to the cognitive identity case in Hong Kong. To research this topic, the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia will also be discussed and compared to illustrate what factors may caused the case occurred in Hong Kong. The topic of this paper will be discussed in terms of historical development, with this comparison, I will explain how the historical development of cognitive identity in Hong Kong from the colonial era to the present. Meanwhile, unlike the case of Hong Kong which is disappearing their cognitive identity which is national identity in China, there are Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia who still consider themselves as the successors of Chinese culture. With this comparison, I want to find a solution to avoid cases like this that occur in Hong Kong so that the cognitive problem of identity of people who has followed the Hong Kong case will also be changed and also truly be considered their identity as Chinese citizen. To research this topic, I will use the literature review method.

Clerical associations in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates: soft power competition in Islamic politics

2021 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 945-963
Author(s):  
Kristin Diwan
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Power Projection ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Peace Initiatives ◽  
Gulf States

Abstract In the wake of the 2011 Arab uprisings, the wealthy Gulf states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates began hosting and establishing associations of influential Islamic scholars. These clerical associations, the Doha-based International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and the Abu Dhabi-based Muslim Council of Elders (MCE) and associated peace initiatives, have afforded a platform for more credibly entering into religious and political debates, for cultivating new networks of influence among Muslim publics, and engaging non-Islamic countries and organizations. Drawing upon interviews and primary resources, this study investigates this exercise in religious statecraft, comparing the discourse and policy interventions of these associations, and analysing their improbable challenge to the predominant religious terms set by the traditional heavyweight in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia. It finds that the effectiveness, or resonance, of these religious soft power projects depends upon credibility—their alignment with national religious traditions and policy directions—and positioning—the targeting of particular audiences and stakeholders. It concludes that the UAE holds certain advantages over Qatar in its soft power positioning in the current nationalist moment, as states gain ground over transnational Islamic movements and relations with powers such as India, Russia, China and Israel—all hostile to independent Islamic movements—gain in importance. Policy-makers acknowledging the surprising hard power projection of these small states through military interventions and economic leverage may benefit from this study of their new religious soft power influence.

EPIC - THE SOURCE OF THE “SOFT POWER” OF INDIAN CULTURE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (11) ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
Thuy Le Thi Bich
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Indian Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
Indian Epic ◽  
Historical Culture ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Southeast Asian Countries

The power of each nation is determined by many factors, including the role of its culture. Culture is seen as an effective tool of soft power to affirm the image of our country in the international community. As one of the originating centers of Asian civilization and one of the largest, oldest civilizations in the world, India's soft power exists naturally in its own long historical culture. The Indian epic is considered to be the source of soft power, the link between the world and Indian culture, helping Indian culture expand its influence on other countries and the world. In this article, we focus on presenting the unique features of thinking, soul, thought, and “Indian spirit” reflected in the epic - the source of Indian culture and the epic continuation in countries in Southeast Asia. Thereby, this article helps its readers have a comprehensive view of the Indian epic - the source of “soft power” of Indian culture in Southeast Asian countries to strengthen and develop the relationship between India and other countries in Southeast Asia more and more sustainably and lasting.

Understanding the Mood of International Millennials Towards India

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-42
Author(s):  
Soumik Parida
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Power Study ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Group Research ◽  
Different Cultures

This chapter explores what triggers international millennials moods in relation to India and its cultural attributes. The theoretical undertaking related to nation branding and soft power study was used as a basis for this research. In the light of the discussion carried out in the chapter, key Indian cultural attributes were briefly discussed. The major cultural attributes extensively discussed during this research were related to Indian cinema, Indian cuisine, religion, spirituality, and yoga. Twenty-two international millennials belonging to four different cultural groups were selected for the focus group research. Their perceptions about India brought out interesting insights in understanding how to promote India among different cultures.

1. Buddhist morality

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Damien Keown
Keyword(s):  
Common Core ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Monastic Community ◽  
The Law ◽  
Moral Teachings ◽  
Lay Buddhists ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
The Buddha

This chapter summarizes the main moral teachings, precepts, and virtues common to the major schools of Buddhism. While these schools often exhibit divergent practices and customs, it seems legitimate to speak of them sharing a common moral core grounded in the teachings of the Buddha originating in the 5th century bce and then handed down largely unaltered through the centuries. A central part of this common core are the Five Precepts observed by lay Buddhists everywhere. The monastic community has its own set of rules and regulations in the Vinaya. Buddhist moral beliefs are underpinned by the cosmic principle of Dharma, of which the law of karma is an aspect. Like science, karma is objective, but unlike science it is not value-free. Karma is concerned with voluntary actions and the good and bad consequences flowing from moral choices.

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