Indian Ocean Trade 600-1450. Indian Ocean Trade Southernization Look back at your Indian Ocean articles and quotes. What is important about the Indian.

Indian Ocean Trade

600-1450

Indian Ocean Trade

Southernization

• Look back at your Indian Ocean articles and quotes.

• What is important about the Indian Ocean?

Unique in World History

• “Zone of interaction”

• First ocean to be crossed

• “Sailor's ocean”– Warm water– Fairly placid waters– Wind patterns: one way = north of equator,

the other = south of the equator

Area around the ocean

• Varied environments:– Tropical East Africa– Deserts around the Red Sea and Persian

Gulf– Intensely wet southern India– Tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia

Trade goods:

• Teak from India• Mangrove swamps in East Africa• Arabian horses to India• Spices from Southeast Asia & Spice

Islands• Frankincense from Arabia and Africa• ***Desired far beyond the Indian Ocean

world

People around the ocean

• Madagascar settled by people from Southeast Asiaarrived via catamarans (1st millennium CE)

• Slave trades & labor migrations– Slaves from East Africa to Arabia/India– From Southeast Asia to Southern Africa

• Colonies of Romans in India; Arab Muslims & Jews in India; Indians and Chinese in SE Asia; Europeans in India, SE Asia, and East Africa…

The things they carried…

• Indian merchants brought Brahmin priests

• Muslim scholars brought by Arab merchants

• Christian merchants brought priests

Borobudur (Java)

• Largest Buddhist structure in the world

• Built during Sailendras rule in Java (8th C CE—832)

• Illustrates the wealth due to control of shipping lanes

• Diffusion of Buddhism

Borobudur (Java)

• Illustrates Javanese Buddhism– Mahayana– Continual cycle of reincarnation– Low levels represent the earthly

life– Continual path to enlightenment– Common Buddhist motifs: stupa,

mandala– Unique to Java: sacred mountain

Borobudur Stupa

•

Prambanan (Java)

•After the fall of the Sailendra dynasty: Hindu dynasty

• The Sanjaya.•Built Prambananphysical manifestation of Hindu trinity

•In SE Asia: cultural fusion (syncretism) known as Hindu-Buddhism

Angkor Wat

•Cambodia

•Cultural diffusion of Hindu-Buddhism throughout SE Asia.

Angkor Wat

• Built by Khmer Empire– Dedicated to Vishnu– Height ca. 1200 CE– Cultivated rice– Extensive irrigation system– Violent martial art– Flourished until conquered by Burma

• SYNCRETISM• Religious and cultural fusion on both

mainland and islands of SE Asia• Final flowering: 14th and 15th C in

Majapahit• In Java, Islam replaced due to arrival of

Muslim traders; by 16th C, nearly entire island converted.

Hindu-Buddhism

Hindu-Buddhism

• Majahapit court and religious community moved to Bali; still flourishes there

• Eventually, new syncretic religion: blending Sufi Islam with Hindu-Buddhism.– Prone to mysticism– Today: Indonesia = most populous Muslim nation;

national symbol = Garuda (Hindi eagle deity)

Conclusions

• How is the spread of Hinduism/Buddhism in SE Asia similar to/different from the spread of Islam in Africa and Spain?

• What can we learn based on the architecture?

• What similarities does this hold with other cultures around the world?