Religion and the Asian Maritime Realm II

Panel Convenor(s)

• AA

  Andrea Acri

  École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres, France

Panel Chair(s)

• AA

  Andrea Acri

  École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres, France

Presenter(s)

• AA

  Andrea Acri

  École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres, France
• IG

  Ilay Golan

  University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
• UI

  Ubaldo Iaccarino

  University of Naples "L'Orientale", Italy

As it is increasingly recognized by recent scholarship, the maritime realm, rather than creating a barrier, favoured short- and long-distance connectivity, and also played a role in shaping the imaginaries, cosmologies, and ritual practices of people interacting with the sea. This panel explores the relationship between religions—including, but not limited to, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Sinitic religions, ‘Indigenous’ religions, etc.—and the sea in Asia.

Taking as its geographical arena the swathe of maritime, archipelagic and coastal territories encompassing the Indian Ocean region, the China Sea and the Indo-Pacific, and as chronological framework the premodern, early modern and modern/contemporary, this panel will focus on the maritime circulation of human agents and nonhuman entities (e.g.  mythological figures, deities, etc.), cults, ritual practices and their associated material cultures; on the influence of the sea on cosmopolitan and local epistemologies; on religious faiths, conversion, pilgrimage, and maritime migration; etc.

The panel encourages an ‘oceanic turn’ in the study of religions in Asia, their spread, and their broader socio-cultural contexts throughout the centuries. It foregrounds Southeast Asia not only as a region that received foreign influence and ‘localized’ external cultural traits, but rather as the fulcrum of the geographical area that can be conceptualized as Maritime Asia or Monsoon Asia, which constituted a crossroad and catalyser of religious transactions, as well as the pivot of a dynamic network of cultural brokers carrying a disparate array of textual, oral, and material cultures. In so doing, it hopes to 1) transcend the artificial spatial demarcations of nation-states and macro-regions elaborated within the Area Studies paradigm, which do not reflect actual geo-environmental and ethnolinguistic boundaries; 2) promote a transregional methodological approach; and 3) encourage a disciplinary cross-fertilization.

Special attention is paid to the local context, namely Java (and, more generally, Nusantara and archipelagic Southeast Asia), whose pivotal role as crossroad in the traffic of ideas, religious beliefs, and ritual practices across the Bay of Bengal and further east to the China Sea in the premodern period will be highlighted by several papers. Thus, Java’s maritime heritage and its importance in connecting peoples across Asia will be duly acknowledged and unpacked.

Presentations:

• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Across the Southern Seas: Premodern Nusantara and the Maritime Asian Network of Buddhist Tantra
  

  Presenter: Andrea Acri – École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  The Colour-Boat Ritual: A Sailors' Religious Tradition
  

  Presenter: Ilay Golan – University of Cambridge
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  The Role of Christianity in the Sino-Japanese Trade of the Philippines (16th–17th Centuries)
  

  Presenter: Ubaldo Iaccarino – University of Naples "L'Orientale"