migrations brought elements of the Yoga ̄ca ̄ra, Ma ̄dhyamika, and Vajraya ̄na
sects.^1 Buddhism came relatively late into Tibet, around the eighth century,
when forms of Vajraya ̄na (tantric) Buddhism were grafted onto the indi-
genous Bon religion, spawning in Tibet a school peculiar to that region.^2
Buddhas were grafted onto the numerous spirits of Bon which populated
the universe. Indigenous shamanism came to inform the stages of Tibetan
Buddhist meditation and of death. The convictions of the Indian personalists
(pudgalas) provided the seeds for the belief in reincarnation found in Tibet,
but also in later schools of China.
The Buddhism that spread into Sri Lanka and eventually into Southeast
Asia was Therava ̄din. Once King Tissa of Ceylon was converted by As ́oka’s
emissary, the island became a Buddhist stronghold. Thereafter monks
migrated there, and stored, wrote, and copied Therava ̄din texts. From Sri
Lanka in turn, Therava ̄da Buddhism spread into Burma, the Indonesian
Islands, Cambodia, and Thailand. In addition one of the Indian centers that
influenced Buddhist art and thought in Southeast Asia was the Buddhist
monastic community of Amara ̄vatı ̄ now in Andhra Pradesh.
Hindu influences in Southeast Asia in the medieval period were sig-
nificant, if largely temporary and focused on royalty. These influences were
of several kinds. On the one hand, there were Indian travelers who married
indigenous women and occasionally assumed the role of king or advisers
to the kings. This was the case with such dynasties as Funan in Vietnam in
the early centuries CE; certain of the S ́rı ̄vijayas of Sumatra; and apparently,
the early Khmers of Cambodia as well.^3 In addition, there were Hindu
merchants who settled and occasionally constructed temples to Vis.n.u or
Sı ̄va – for example, a Vis.n.u temple was built near Pagan, Myanmar, by the
eleventh century.^4 Then there were those Buddhist kings – for example, of
Pagan – who used brahman advisers to help in the development of a royal
cult and the construction of their cities, temples, and palaces. The model
for these royal centers – from Polonnaravu, Sri Lanka, to Pagan; Angkor,
Cambodia; and Ayuthia, Thailand – was significantly Hindu, mingled with
Buddhist and indigenous motifs. Thanks to the influence of the Guptas prior
to the fifth century, and, later, of the Palas of Bengal, and the Pallavas and
Co ̄l
̄
as of Tamil Nadu, much of the art and architecture of the city, palace,
and temple reflected Indian cosmology and S ́aiva or Vais.n.ava forms. The
temples built at Angkor, for example, often mirrored the architecture of the
Pallavas,^5 while S ́aiva expressions, generally incorporating the canons of
theS ́aiva ̄gamas, carried orally by S ́aivite advisers could be detected in the
architecture of Pagan and Ayuthia.^6 The model of the king was that of
the Hindu devaputra(son of the divine) coupled with the Buddhist notion
of the cakravartin. Palace and city were microcosms, embodying the multi-
layered cosmology of India, wherein Mt. Meru stood at the center of the
India’s Global Reach 225