Southeast Asian art and architecture comprises the artistic traditions of the southeastern Asian mainland and a vast arc of islands extending from Sumatra in the west to Sulawesi (Celebes) in the east. The present-day countries in this area include Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Kampuchea (Cambodia), Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Philippines, although in many ways similar to the other countries of Southeast Asia, never shared in the main cultural influence that united the rest--the spread of Indian culture, which took place gradually from about AD 20 to about 1200. During this era first traders and then colonists from India settled along the coasts and principal rivers and roads of Southeast Asia, establishing dynasties that came to rule the surrounding territory and compete for the great wealth of the region. In the wake of Indian merchants and settlers came the two major Indian religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, which provided the inspiration for most Southeast Asian monumental art. Lastly, the travels of Buddhist monks and pilgrims were a significant factor in the cultural evolution of this vast and disparate region. Indigenous Folk Traditions Prior to the impact of Indian culture, Southeast Asia seems to have been a part of the great web of animist culture and religion that still extends out through New Guinea and the Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian islands of the Pacific (see \TOceanic art\t). Vestiges of animist culture can still be found today in Southeast Asia, permeating, in modified forms, the superimposed layers of "higher" civilization. The indigenous tribal cultures upon which Indianization was imposed flourished in cleared villages set in densely forested terrain. With the aid of stone tools, tribal artisans used wood, especially the omnipresent bamboo, to build houses and shrines and to carve artistic objects such as funereal effigies. The houses seem to have followed a fairly consistent pattern throughout the region: even today, a close generic similarity appears in the dwellings made by such geographically dispersed peoples as the \TBatak\t of northern Sumatra, the highland tribes of Laos, the \TBalinese\t islanders, the \TDayak\t of Borneo, and the Toradja of central Sulawesi. Common elements include floors raised on piles; strong center and corner posts; woven or plank walls; and vast, towering gable roofs masking complex inner structures and usually covered with palm fronds or thatch. Some of the most important structures are painted in brilliant colors. The stylized designs of these structures refer to spirit beings and to ceremonials, especially buffalo sacrifice. According to animist beliefs, the spirits of the dead are to be pacified and worshiped if they are ancestors, enslaved if they are enemies; therefore, the cult worship of the skull as a receptacle of a dead person's spirit traditionally has pervaded the whole area. Many tribes made (and still make) korvars (wooden figures in which the skulls of ancestors are incorporated); most villages have skull shrines; and the original designs of the predyed and woven ceremonial textiles called ikat appear to represent early references to the dead, to skulls, and to spirit beings. A sense that the countryside teems with spirits, good and bad, even today informs the culture of the entire region. The presence of the spiritual is expressed particularly in ornamental forms: among the many objects still looked on with religious awe as repositories of spiritual power are large and small stones, bronze drums, and finely ornamented swords called kris or keris. Prehistoric stone tools were made of a variety of stones, including semiprecious jasper, agate, and chalcedony. The more sophisticated tools were produced in two principal forms: the adze, or ax, of rectangular section, which seems to have been distributed southeastward from Malaysia into the Indonesian islands; and the pickadze, triangular or five sided in section, with a top rib. Ancient examples of these implements are still treasured as powerful communal \Lamulet\ls. Ancient Megalithic and Dong-son Cultures By about 1000 BC, the people known as the \TMon\t of Thailand and southern Burma apparently were making large stone funerary monuments that were ornamented with figures. These monuments may have been connected with a megalithic culture extending westward beyond India and southern Arabia through Malaysia and Indonesia. On some of the Indonesian islands, notably Sumatra, evidence suggests that such megalithic monuments were made until relatively recently. Sizable stone coffins finely carved in the round have been found at Lake Toba on Sumatra, and ornamented menhirs (freestanding stones) appear on various islands. About 700 BC an important bronze-using culture appeared on the Tonkin plain, in present-day northern Vietnam. Called Dong-son, after one of its principal sites, this culture seems to have spread by sea along the mainland coast and down into the main islands of Indonesia. Along with the first really extensive use of bronze, the Dong-son disseminated throughout the region a decorative style related to that of the late Chou period (770-221 BC) in China. The chief characteristic of the Dong-son style is the frequent use of heavy, slightly square spirals in relief; other motifs include key patterns and rows of dots. Although Dong-son artists decorated lamps, weapons, bowls, huge ceremonial jars shaped like axes, and in-the-round human and animal figures, their most important works were large bronze drums, or drum-shaped gongs, that perhaps were used in rain ceremonials. Of the many such drums dating from the period 500-100 BC, as well as the later imitations that survive, the largest, known as the Moon of Bali, stands 1.8 m (6 ft) high and is still revered in the temple at Pedjeng, Bali. In Thailand, these drums apparently were looked on as sacred symbols of power and royalty. On some Indonesian islands, small versions cast in stone molds are still used in the traditional payment of \Tbride-price\t. After the Dong-son homeland was occupied (111 BC) by the Han Chinese, Dong-son culture waned throughout the region, eclipsed by Chinese and, later, Indian influence. CAMBODIA AND VIETNAM Artistically as well as politically, the most important of the Indianized cultures of ancient Southeast Asia was that of Cambodia. Cambodia probably was first colonized from India in the 1st century AD, when a kingdom known to the Chinese as Funan was established on the lower Mekong River. The Funan state was succeeded in the 5th century by another kingdom, known as Chen-la, centered upriver in what is now Laos. A vast number of Funan and Chen-la sites remain to be excavated. Among artworks that have already been recovered is a remarkable series of powerfully sculpted stone images of Buddhist and Hindu deities, along with a few remaining wooden Buddha figures. Such works probably stood in brick shrines, where they provided a cultural and ceremonial focus at first for the colonies of Indian settlers and then for the entire local population. Although these early Cambodian works echo the sensuousness and concern for anatomical detail characteristic of Indian sculpture, they also display an architectonic and monumentalized quality foreign to Indian art. The full flowering of Cambodian culture took place under the \TKhmer Empire\t, which ruled much of what is present-day Cambodia and Laos from the 7th to the 15th century. Firmly based in Indian culture and artistic motifs, Khmer art gradually assumed a distinct identity characterized by grandiose and monumental forms, particularly in architecture and architectural decoration. An increasingly important emphasis on the exalted status of god-kings led successive Khmer monarchs to build increasingly elaborate religious edifices, from the isolated brick towers of the 7th century to the vast complex built (9th-13th century) at \TAngkor\t. At Angkor, the largest integrated complex of architecture and sculpture ever built, a net of huge reservoirs and canals encloses the great temple mountains of successive kings--the monumental stone structures at which they maintained spiritual contact with their Hindu patron deities. Comprising assemblages of shrines linked by cloisters, corridors, and stairways, these structures grew in size as each king strove to outdo his predecessors in the glory of his own building. Culminating in the colossal (1,500-by-1,300-m/4,920-by-4,265-ft) Angkor Wat built by Suryavarman II (r. 1113-50), all the temple mountains of Angkor were filled with three-dimensional images and miles of relief sculpture that covered every inch of available wall space. After Angkor Wat was sacked (1177) by the Cham, Jayavarman VII (r. 1181-c.1218) constructed the biggest shrine of all, called the Bayon, inside his own city, Angkor Thom. The 15th-century conquest of the Khmer kingdom by the Thais resulted (1431) in the final abandonment of Angkor. Until the ascendancy of the Thais, Khmer dominance of much of Southeast Asia was contested only by the Champa kingdom, an Indianized, largely Hindu state that flourished in central and southern Vietnam. The Cham people, whose history reflects a long (1st-15th century) struggle for existence pressed between the Chinese and the Khmer, built a series of small but elaborately ornamented Hindu tower shrines, first (4th-11th century) at Mi Son in the north, then (11th-15th century) at Binh Dinh in the south. A characteristic feature of Cham temple architecture is the multilobed arches above porticoes and windows, decorated with carved foliage springing from the mouth of a monster. Cham sculpture is notable for its powerfully modeled forms. Most other art of ancient Vietnam, known to us only in fragments, can be described as provincial versions of Chinese models. THAILAND The first great dynastic state of present-day Thailand was the Dvaravati kingdom established (6th century) by the Eastern Mon people. Between the 6th and 11th century, the largely Buddhist Mon produced a significant body of \Tstupa\t (Buddhist temple mounds) architecture, of which only fragments remain at Nakhon Pathom, Ku Bua, U Thong, and elsewhere. The most important examples of Mon-Dvaravati art to survive are Buddhist sculptures of the 6th-8th century, executed in bronze or stone, that reflect the influence of contemporary northern Indian sculpture but display typically Mon faces, with delicate, turned-out lips and almond-shaped eyes. Mon-Dvaravati art also was strongly affected by that of a powerful but thus far enigmatic Sumatran kingdom called Shrivijaya. The famous, elegant Bodhisattva Torso (8th century; National Museum, Bangkok) from Chaiya may be a Shrivijaya work. In the 11th century, southern Dvaravati became part of the Khmer Empire, and Khmer styles of architecture and sculpture were imposed, notably at Phimai and Lopburi. The eclipse of the Dvaravati kingdom was followed by infiltration into northern Thailand of the ethnic \TThai\t, an animist people who adopted the Theravada Buddhism of Ceylon and whose northern capital was at Chiengmai. After the Khmer downfall in the 13th century, another Thai branch established a kingdom (fl. 1350-1767) in the southern and central areas of the country, with its capital at \TAyuthia\t (Ayuthaya). Control over the great Buddhist city of Sukhothai, a city that maintained special links with Ceylon, was continually disputed between the northern and southern Thais. The principal Thai architectural form was a tall, tapering, bell-shaped, ornamented stupa set amid associated monastic structures. Large-scale sculpture, the principal art of Sukhothai and Ayuthia, was devoted to sacred, highly spiritualized bronze Buddha icons. During the 14th century, Sukhothai produced a basic set of Buddha types whose smooth and sinuously curved surfaces, looped linear features, and tightly curled hair crowned by a flame or lotus-bud headdress are well represented in the so-called Walking Buddha (14th century; Monastery of the Fifth King, Bangkok). Two other sculptural styles, the northern Chieng Sen type (15th-16th century) and the southern U Tong type (14th-16th century), evolved later. Close versions of these three types, both large scale and small scale, are still made today. Paintings in styles related to Thai sculpture adorned the interiors of shrines and halls which in later centuries reflected Burmese influence. Fine ceramics, versions of Chinese originals, were made in Thailand from the 14th century on, notably at Sawankhalok, Sukhothai, and Chiengmai. BURMA Burmese art also was predominantly Buddhist. During the earliest phase, between the 6th and 11th centuries, present-day Burma was divided into two distinct zones. In the north flourished the kingdom of the Pyu people, which was known to the Chinese for its large and wealthy cities. Still extant at Hmawza, the Pyu capital, are three huge brick stupas whose cylindrical structures and bell-shaped domes set the pattern for all later Burmese stupas. Southern Burma was ruled by the Western Mon, who were confederated with, and shared the art styles of, the Dvaravati culture. During the 10th century the north was infiltrated by the ethnic Burmese, an animist people who introduced a set of spirit beings called the 36 nats, which are still being portrayed in Burmese sculpture. When they were converted to Theravada Buddhism, the Burmese included the Buddha as the 37th nat. In the 11th century, the Burmese king Anawratha united the entire country and carried off Mon monks and craftsmen to his northern capital, \TPagan\t, which was continually embellished and expanded until the Mongol conquest of 1287. Pagan still stands today, the largest surviving example of the great medieval complexes of brick and plaster that once were widespread in Southeast Asia. Its temples are centrally planned complexes in which four axially disposed, roofed approaches converge on a stupalike tower that rises from the floor through to the sky. Inside are Buddha icons of brick. Narrative paintings and modest terra-cotta reliefs survive in some temples. Libraries and monastery halls, originally royal palace-pavilions, later were dedicated to religious uses. In Southern Burma, notably at Rangoon and Mandalay, Buddhist followers built vast monastery complexes whose buildings have been continually torn down and refurbished with plaster cladding and gilt ornament. Right up to the present day, flaring porches, elaborately ornamented doors and finials, as well as whole halls have been added on, augmenting ancient building patterns by use of an aesthetic of glittering and expansive grace. INDONESIA Indian traders and settlers first reached the Indonesian islands in the 1st century AD, bringing with them both Buddhism and Hinduism. From the 3d to the 6th century, Buddhist monasteries apparently were built in the Sumatran kingdom of Shrivijaya and in Sulawesi, where a fine early bronze Buddha has been found. The Hindu dynasty that ruled central Java in the 7th century was replaced (8th-9th century) by the Buddhist Shailendra princes, who were devotees of Mahayana Buddhism. The oldest Javanese monuments, all undated, are Hindu shrines erected on volcanic mountain plateaus; they were dedicated to the god Shiva, who was identified thereafter with cosmic subterranean energy. The huge Buddhist stupa mountain of \TBorobudur\t, built about 800 in stone and profusely decorated throughout with ornate sculpture, is the largest structural \Tmandala\t (cosmic diagram) in the world. Its iconography summarizes Buddhist doctrine concerning both the cosmos and spiritual enlightenment. Other 9th-century Shailendra temples, such as those at Kalasar (8th century) and at Mendut and Sari (both 9th century), incorporate similar but more condensed doctrinal summaries. The largest Javanese religious complex is the Hindu shrine of Lara Jonggrang, built about 900 at \TPrambanan\t. Originally 232 separate temples were incorporated into the Prambanan complex; the fact that its temple towers are adorned with rows of small Buddhist stupas illustrates how the two great Eastern religions intermingled in ancient Indonesia. Superb figure sculpture depicting Hindu epics runs around the balconies in a manner similar to the Buddhist work at Borobudur. An eastern Java dynasty that arose in the 10th century built temples in the form of open courts with small stone shrines; the chief examples are located at volcanic springs--notably Belahan, where royal tomb chambers were cut into low cliffs. Beginning in the 11th century, relief sculpture developed toward the deeply incised and caricatured forms of what is now known as the Wayang puppet style, although splendid three-dimensional icons of Hindu and Buddhist deities were still executed. Particularly fine reliefs are the 14th-century terra-cotta panels that once adorned the walls of the capital city of Majapahit with elaborate landscape images as well as figures of deities and spirits. In the 15th century, Islam largely supplanted Indian culture throughout Indonesia, except in Bali, where a modified but fascinating form of East Javanese religion survives today. The colorful ceremonies still performed in terraced courts of Balinese shrines give some idea of what life around older shrines must have been like in their heyday. Philip S. Rawson Bibliography: Bernet Kempers, A. J., Ancient Indonesian Art (1959); Griswold, A. B., and Kim Ch'ewon Pott, P. H., The Art of Burma, Korea, Tibet (1964); Groslier, B. P., The Art of Indochina including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (1966) and Indochina, Melting Pot of Races, trans. by George Lawrence (1964); Rawson, P. S., The Art of Southeast Asia (1967) and The Making of Indian Asia (1977); Rowland, Benjamin, The Art and Architecture of India, 3d rev. ed. (1967; repr. 1977); Swaan, Wim, Lost Cities of Asia (1966); Wagner, F. A., Indonesia, the Art of an Island Group (1959); Zimmer, Heinrich R., The Art of Indian Asia (1955).