.png)
Theme: 2. From Oceanic Crossroads: Empires, Networks and Histories
Andrea Acri
École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres, France
Andrea Acri
École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres, France
Eko Bastiawan
Padjadjaran University, Indonesia
Mathilde Mechling
École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres, France
Emma Natalya Stein
the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, United States
Lesley Pullen
SOAS University of London, United Kingdom
Saran Suebsantiwongse
Silpakorn University, Thailand
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.
Presenter: Eko Bastiawan – Padjadjaran University
Co-Presenter: Mathilde Mechling – École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres
Co-Presenter: Emma Natalya N. Stein – the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art
Presenter: Lesley Pullen – SOAS University of London
Presenter: Saran Suebsantiwongse – Silpakorn University