The Spread of Buddhism and Peace in Southeast Asia

Buddhism is among the oldest religious traditions of the world. It is based on the life and teachings of Siddharta Gautama. The message of world peace is the greatest contribution of Buddhism to the human civilization. This paper aims to study the spread of Buddhism in the Southeast Asian region and its relations with the ideals of peace in contemporary period. Theoretically paper relies on the post-colonial history writing tradition. It adopts descriptive and analytical method to study the subject matter. Conclusions of the paper are drawn after scrutiny of primary and secondary literatures. A thorough study reveals that Buddhism has a glorious past in the Southeast Asia. The practice of Buddhism in the region was popular even prior to the beginning of recorded history. Different monuments provide tangible evidence, and deep-rooted essence of Buddhism in the socio-cultural practices of the region are intangible testimony to this. Paper argues that inter-religious issues in the region and especially current situation of conflict between people of different faith can be resolved by following philosophy of Buddhism in true sense.


Introduction
Buddhism is one of the most important philosophies of the world, developed by Siddhartha Gautama, who lived before 2500 years ago.
Over time, Buddhism has spread throughout Asia, Europe and America.
After Buddha got enlightenment, he preached his 'dhamma' for nearly 45 years. He visited different places to instill his teachings to the people.
It has been argued that his effort in establishing a new religion brought a significant change to a big part of population. However, some scholars also contested that his philosophy posed a political and religious problems (Neelis, 2011). Most of the teachings of the Buddha's life and philosophy are available in Pali language; although it was not ordered chronologically and well-combined. According to Pali sources, the story of the Buddha and his followers is very interesting and important 222 VOL. 10 NO. 2 DECEMBER 2021 (Dhammika, 1989). In Buddhism, one can purify his life by various methods. Not long after the introduction of Buddhism and its philosophy, millions of people converted to this religion.
Archaeological sources indicate Buddhism was spread to Southeast Asian region back to 3,500 BC through trading relations between India and Southeast Asian countries. Indian religious practices reached to this region through trading activities without any resilience and restrictions (Jha 2016: 213-4). Historical evidences mentioned that the civilizations of Southeast Asia are as old as Egypt, Greece, India, and China (Agrawal, 2015). The region has maintained a long historical record, known as the Golden Age of Southeast Asia.
Buddhism has long been celebrated as the discipline of non-violence and peace. Currently, the practice of Buddhism is popular in different parts of the world and its message of 'world peace' is seen as the basic strand of human civilization; even prosperity and peace are interdependent.
Although human civilization is still colored with war and violence, but subsequently peace has been restored with the realization that without peace human civilization will be extinct. In this context, Buddhist teaching of evolving practice of peace and nonviolence from inner sense which ultimately leads to harmony between different socio-cultural groups, religious beliefs and nation-states has always been a promising philosophy (Olson, 2005: pp. 16-17).
Today's human beings trust that peace is a sense of contentment that brings about the conditions around them including feeling safe, successful, or fortunate. Therefore, Buddhist teachings are always inspiring harmony amongst human beings, while at the same time focusing on the inner fellow. For example, Buddhism believes that assisting others is a good deal as it generates a source of happiness. The Buddhist philosophy urges for mutual trust, cooperation, self-sacrifices and inner-satisfactions which negates to possibilities of conflicts and violence. In fact, it leads to the essence of peace which is a vital component of our modern society and civilization. Peace has also tremendous ramifications in the animal world. Because of modern world scenario which has been marred by colonialism, two world wars, the cold war, religious confusion and sometimes barbarism, the crumbling down of ethics and morals, and so forth, peace has held the only light. Peace has been restored through agreements and engagements (Panjvani, 2013: pp. 36-37).
Before the era of mass tourism, trade was a major resource by which people from different religions and scriptures came into contact with each other. Although Buddhism is not traditionally a religion that actively seeks convertibility, it nonetheless extends to Southeast Asia.
The number of Buddhist merchants in Central Asia in many countries in the 'Middle Ages Religion' kept growing. Buddhist monks also traveled on merchant ships to go on pilgrimage, thus they bring along their religious practices. Evidences indicated that through its propagation, Buddhism has done an important task of bringing peace in the Southeast Asian region (Heine and Prebish, 2003: pp. 21-22). The main reason for the spread of Buddhism in this region was the local interest in the beliefs of Buddhists among foreign traders. Therefore, Buddhism developed organically in these areas. Sometimes, rulers adopted Buddhism to help bring morality to their people, but no one was forced to convert. By making Buddha's message available to the public, people were free to choose what was helpful to them (Ibid: p. 26). This research seeks to examine the spread of Buddhism and peace in Southeast Asia.

Theoretical Frameworks
The paper aims to study the philosophy of Buddhism and its acceptability in the Southeast Asian region through the lens of history.
Conventionally, histography has been dominated by two dominant traditions-Marxism and Liberal. The Marxist theory examines social development from 'base' and 'super-structure' model which sees religion as a tool of domination of 'haves' over 'haves not'. The liberal tradition has been largely dominated by the Cambridge pattern in which the eastern world has been branded as primitive and barbaric to justify colonial subjugation of Asian and African regions with the popularly known -the Whitesman Burden Theory. The post-colonial historical writings challenge these notions and try to establish that the countries of the Third World have a glorious past with advancement in technology and spirituality. This paper analyses Buddhism from the perspectives of modern Peace Studies tradition which evolved in Europe in the twentieth century and argues that Buddhism is carrying this since last 2500 years, and therefore it should be regarded as predecessor of the 'Peace Study'.

Method
This paper mainly relied on historical method by employing descriptive and analytical methods. The sources include different books on Gautama Buddha and Buddhism in Southeast Asia, journals, periodicals, and newspaper articles. Materials are analysed to bring out different aspects of the central theme of the paper. In analytical method, researchers have analyzed incidents/ occurences happened in past and then interpreted them in the present context. In this way, researchers have gone through the available literatures to explore relevant research on the Buddhist philosophy of peace and currently existing and used in contemporary Southeast Asia.

Literature Review
There are numerous scholarly works available on the spread of Buddhist's essence of peace. Agrawal (2015) points out that Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world. Its origins can be traced back to the 6 th century BC in India sourced from the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It later spread to most of Asia region, including China, Korea and Japan. Today, Buddhism has over 300 million followers worldwide.
Buddhism teaches individuals to follow the Buddha's path to reach the state of Nirvana. There is no individual God in Buddhism, but a belief in impermanence. One can acquire knowledge through practice, knowledge and mediation. Ashitsu (1984) argues that the word 'Buddha' means 'awakened', which comes from the Sanskrit root Buddha 'wake up'. A Buddha is a man who is fully awake, as if from a deep sleep, to find that the suffering is over, like a dream. The historical Buddha, though a person like any other, was an extraordinary figure; what he rediscovered was a way that anyone could walk, provided they inclined. His story from the birth to the evolution of Buddhism in India has built a narrative around the contribution of Buddhism to education and literature (Bapat, 1956).
Buddhist vision with extraordinary clarity and depth can serve as a viable solution to the crisis and confusion facing mankind today (Bodhi, 2000). The 'Vision of the Dhamma' refers to the penetrating insight into the true nature of existence that can be observed. His vision of the Dhamma, an intuitive look into the true nature of existence, is a modern guide for the perplexed. He incorporates a deep and rich knowledge of the recorded teachings of the Buddha along with his original understanding of issues of importance to the modern Western mind in exploring topics such as Karma, Nirvana, Bhakti in Buddhism, and the way to get rid of sorrows. Jayatillake (1962) argues that the concept of peace is contentment, which distinguishes Buddhism from other religions. Peace is the centre of Buddha's religion, which can be known as the Shanti or the peace. In addition to peace, the central tenet of Buddhism also includes nonviolence (Theresa Der-Ian Yen, 2006). He views Buddhist vision of peace in the light of peace studies, and addresses the Buddhist perspective on the causes of violence and way to prevent violence to attain the peace. How Buddhism was spread and how was its impact on the culture of Southeast Asia has also been discussed by Lim (1973).
She attempted to make a general scrutiny of the cultural characteristics of Southeast Asian region from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, from the early period of Buddhist expansion, with the adequate focus on the Sumatra and Java in Indonesia.
Buddhist philosophy contributed towards the conceptualization of peace, even the Puranas treat Buddha as a heretical teacher of Vedic culture (Joshi, 1970). Buddhism contributed greatly in the Indian art, culture, religion and philosophy. Buddhism focuses not only on individual liberty, but also to liberate socially of men and women. It also contributed to the social harmony and racial integration in ancient India. Damodar (2007) provides details of the core tenets of Buddhism and their utility to maintain peace in current global order. Besides analyzing Buddha's teachings for global peace, the paper also focuses on the philosophy of Buddhism-its origin, development and spatial spread,

History of Buddhism in Southeast Asia
Historically, Buddha's teachings were divided into two fundamental orders namely, the 'Mahayana and the Theravada'. Theravada is known as the original form of Buddhism and Mahayana is known as the created form of Buddhism (Laumakis, 2008: pp. 190-99) In Southeast Asia, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced in the first century BC (Jha, 2016: pp. 213-16). In Indonesia, a center of Buddhist education existed in the 7 th century established by a Chinese traveler.
Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia was built in the Central Java in the 9 th century. However, in the 13 th century, the practice of Buddhism declined in the region due to the collapse of Srivijaya's kingdom. Over the period of time, the beauty of Borobudur receded and it started to be abandoned. Situated in an area of active volcanoes, Borobudur remained submerged under the volcanic ash and forest growth for tcentruies. Later in the 19 th century, British explorers discovered it and rebuilt the monument that today is seen as a symbol of a glorious past of Buddhism in the region (Braun, 2009: p. 37).
Angkor Wat of Cambodia is another huge temple complex of Buddhism.
The temple was constructed by the Khmer people around the 12 th century. The temple is a testimonial for Buddhism popularity in the region those days. It is interesting to note that initially the temple was dedicated to the Hindu deity Vishnu. As Khmer kings adopted Buddhism (mainly Theravada Buddhism) comes the second place, followed by Christianity in Southeast Asian countries, with the majority of its members living in the Philippines. Almost all countries in Southeast Asia are religiously pluralistic. Ethnicity is an issue in religious conflict here because in Southeast Asia religious identity is often inseparable from ethnic identity (Kosuta, 2017: p. 24).
Buddhism has a deep rooted history in the Southeast Asian region.
Today, Buddhism is followed by minority of Southeast Asian people , except Singapore where Buddhism is the most widely practiced religion.

Inter-religious Issues in Southeast Asia
The growing tension between different socio-religious communities and fundamentalism has emerged a major challenge for peace and security in the present global order, and Southeast Asia is not an exception to it.
Amid such increasing tension, implementing rules of common law will Spread of Buddhism and Peace … 230 VOL. 10 NO. 2 DECEMBER 2021 not be sufficient for any country. In such stressful time, a deep understanding of Buddhist nationalist discourse can reduce complaints to a great extent. In this way, Buddhism is important for improving mutual coexistence in the region. As such, Buddha's emphasis on the moral duty of a ruler inspired Emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE 'to use public power to improve the welfare of the public' (Bhikkhu, 2012: pp. 36-39).
Similarly, with a shining instance of this principle, Emperor Ashoka resolved to live in accordance with Dhamma and to serve the entire humanity. Hence, Buddha must be regarded as a pioneer social reformer of ancient history. He was in total opposition to the prevailing caste system in India and preached for the equality of the people, improved the socio-economic conditions of people and considered the importance of the more equitable distribution of wealth between rich and poor.
Further, he should also be considered a forerunner intellectual of gender equality as equal opportunities were provided to women in the Buddhist institutions. The principles of welfare state and humanist administration can also be traced in the philosophy of Buddha. He recommended for the welfare of people, incorporation of humanism into government and administration, and a principle that a society should be run not with greed but with consideration and compassion for the people (Berzin, 1996: pp. 15-16). institutions. In certain cases, politically engaged monks have also been critical on religious minority rights for non-Buddhist minorities. Such activism gave rise to state policies, which has been criticized for being exclusionary and discriminatory against religious minorities. This unique occurrence became a distinct identity of Buddhism in the Southeast Asian region (Schober, 1995: pp. 12-15).
Thus, Buddhism has served to reinforce the state's identity as well as Therefore, mutual tension in this area must not be overlooked.
Undoubtedly, the 'rule of law' is essential requirement for the safety and security of the state and its people. The religious conflicts in certain areas of Myanmar has been a concern not only for the Southeast Asian region but also at global scale. To bring any fruitful solution, authorities needs to rely on mutual negotiations and politically active clerics can be of great help to resolve the problem. In fact, there has been various official and unofficial discussions involving Buddhist and Muslim religious leaders to resolve the matters of conflict and violence. Many of these dialogues were supported by international agencies, local Rajneesh Kumar Gupta, Alok Kumar Verma …

Heritage of Nusantara:
International Journal of Religious Literature and Heritage 233 governments, NGOs, and so on. There has been various dialogues and joint activities in faith groups as well as training of religious leaders including monks for conflict prevention and resolution. In this way, mainly Buddhism has played a major role in organizing such incidents (Stein, 2014: pp. 3-4).

Popular Traditions in Southeast Asian Countries
Muslim and Buddhism are major religions in Southeast Asia, followed by Christianity. Immediate neighbours are the first account witness of any happening to a country, followed by other distant fellows. This is true in terms of propagation process of any religion or sect-known as the spatial spread in cultural geography. In this way, world communities share many different cultural traits. Buddhism is also a cultural and with Christianity. However, religious practices cannot be confined to political boundaries. Buddhism is the best example of this because, at present, it has spread very rapidly in the western world (Park, 2004: p. 11).
Buddhism is a religious practice as well as a philosophy. Philosophy is a discipline, which encompasses the process of investigation, interpretation, and development of ideas. It deals with common wisdom of values and reality. The use of discipline in Buddhism is based on the important ideas and concepts of the Buddha, moral obligation, knowledge, reason, issues, problems, logic, ethics, conceptual analysis, and a theoretical aspect. In Buddhism, the emphasis has been placed on reasoning and reasoning. It creates an atmosphere of equality and brotherhood in society. Buddhism includes all traditions based on the teachings of the Buddha (Berzin, 1996: pp. 6-19). Myanmar are demonstrating in defense of Buddhism, which has been directed against the country's minority Muslim communities (Taylor, 1987: pp. 6-9).
Similarly, mutual tensions are also increasing in several Southeastern countries. "In the south of Thailand, where the government is engaged in a century of conflict with the 'Malay Muslim Rebels', the monks are caught in conflict. Hence, the army has entered some temples, and rumors are circulating socially to 'military monks'" (Stein, 2014: p. 1).
Such developments are opposite to the concept of Buddhism, which preaches for non-violence and considers killing of any living as a sin.
These types of developments predict a growing rift between Buddhist and Muslim communities in the most populous Theravada Buddhist-Muslim countries, which leads to such a sense of development. This incident calls for an understanding of Buddhist nationalist discourses, which claim that the state belongs to a majority nation, be it Burman, Sinhalese, or Thai, this nation would naturally be a Buddhist nation.
Only, if the driving force behind these discourses is understood can the growing interrelated tensions in South and Southeast Asia are addressed constructively (Hipsher, 2011: pp. 6-15).

Present Circumstances of Buddhism in Southeast Asia
The historical development of Buddhism has been full of complexities.
Buddhism is not meant to be merely a philosophy, but also a defined Buddhism, which remain today (Banerjee, 1990: pp. 32-33).

Influence of Buddhism and Peace in Southeast Asia
Peace as a concept has a variety of understandings in different cultures.
It can be said to exist when people resolve their differences or work together without any conflict. Scholars would claim pithily that peace is not just the absence of war (Galtung, 1969). The term peace has been articulated almost as frequently as terms like truth, beauty, and love. It has been argued by scholars that the concept of peace has emerged since the birth of humanity and is often linked to the Chinese, Indian, Arabic and other cultures. The concept of peace is not so much concerned with how certain individuals or leagues conceptualized the realization of an eternal dream, the investigation of peace, and how to change the world in socio-political institutions.
Serious academic engagement with the concept of peace began around the 1960s (Matsuo, 2007). In the 1960s', Galtung articulated the idea of peace and violence in the context of indirect or structural violence.
According to Grewal, such an attempt by Galtung was a direct test to establish ideas about the nature of peace (Grewal, 2003). In conceptualizing the term 'peace' and to measure its complexity, Galtung employed two perspectives such as peace value and peace sphere.
Galtung argued that "an important task in peace research has always been and always be the exploration of the concept of peace" (Galtung, 1981).
According to Galtung, the following are the main three principles of the idea of peace. "The term peace will be used for social goals at least verbally agreed to be many, if not necessarily be the most. These social goals may be complex and difficult, but not impossible to attain. The statement of peace is the absence of violence will be retained as valid" (Galtung, 1969). The third conviction makes it clear that the concept of International Journal of Religious Literature and Heritage 239 peace and violence are interlinked concepts because peace can be achieved in the absence of war (Ibid). Coming to the Indian context, it could be seen that in contemporary India, violence and conflict take place in many parts of Indian society such as religious, political and economic conflicts and violence against human rights (Matsuo, 2007). "Peace is one of the important aspects of any developed country. Without peace, no country can develop, whether economically, socially or politically. ...Peace is essential for social harmony, economic equality, and political phenomena. The spiritual and religious leaders like Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama were lovers of peace and they considered it an essential part for any society. There are some people, who interact with those who may dislike and be jealous of them, but still, they try to maintain peace. Many philosophical, religious, and cultural traditions have mentioned the peace in its positive and negative sense". (Haynes, 2009: Pp. 52-75) Without peace, no country can progress in today's world scenario. Peace can be conceptualized in terms of political stability, economic security, social equality and justice and the sharing of love among human beings.
'Love your neighbour' should be the marking principle of the countries of the world, which will help in the establishment of peace among the comity of nations. As mentioned above, peace in Indian philosophy and religion has been present from an ancient period even before the advent of Buddhism.
Buddhism heightened and polished the notion of peace. Jayatillake states that another aspect of these practices of compassion on the part of Buddhism, in fact, those other philosophical traditions in India (Jayatillake, 1962: pp. 1-16).
Buddha's conviction of spreading peace in the world is quite praiseworthy. His methods of spreading peace are also quite appealing.
Buddha inculcated a sense of missionary zeal among his followers to spread the message of peace in various corners of the globe. Buddha had realized that it is peace that will only hold the world for a long run.
Violence will only destroy the world. His early goal was to teach people the essence of peace in different parts of the world and different corners of India. Even after Buddha's period, this method of preaching peace was more popularized. This was indeed a very good method of making people aware of peace and certitude in life. Buddhism also preaches people about self-restraint and discipline. Buddhist monks through their self-restrained and controlled life gave the message of the importance of discipline in life. Buddha sent the message of peace to the world through missionary monks (Dharmakosajarm, 2000, pp. 1-10).  (Core, 1973: pp. 22-23).
In addition to these changes in the social, political, and economic spheres, significant changes were also found in the spheres of language and literature. As it is a very well-known fact that Buddhism had touched a new height during the reign of Asoka. Asoka had sent his son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra to preach Buddhism in Sinhala (present-day Sri Lanka), different parts of South and East Asian countries. During Asoka's period, the Pali language was of dominance.
During this period, Buddhism was spread through the Pali language.
Many Buddhist works of literature were also written in Pali during this period (Schober, 1995: pp. 15-16).
At different phases of its history and development, Buddhism brought about changes in the social, political, economic, linguistic, and literary spheres of the society. Both the Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhists tried to bring the transformation in the society in different ways. As Jayasuriya observes, Buddha's teachings affected every sector of society whether it is social, political, or economic. Therefore, Buddhism had shown extraordinary efforts to change the social and geographical conditions of the people in the Southeast Asian reason (Jayasuriya, 2008: pp. 41-44).

Conclusion
This paper has analyzed the basic tenets of Buddhism and the spread of Buddhist tradition in the Southeast Asian region through the lens of history. It has also provided a brief status of the social and political