Buddhist concepts of the vital spirit—the leikpya of the Bur-
mese, the khwan of the Tai, the praluDn of the Khmer—also
remained and continued to be part of ritual. These beliefs
were, however, reformulated to take into account the Bud-
dhist teaching that the soul is not immortal and that “con-
sciousness” (Pali, viñña ̄n:a) links one life with the next.
The Therava ̄da revolution in mainland Southeast Asia
did not lead to the demise of the man:d:ala; on the contrary,
it led local lords to demonstrate their effectiveness by claim-
ing to be righteous rulers and validating such claims by as-
serting their independence or even embarking on military
ventures to extend their domains at the expense of other
lords. Despite the political fragmentation of premodern
Buddhist societies, all could conceive of being part of a com-
mon Buddhist world. Such a conception was expressed, for
example, in the recognition of important pilgrimage
shrines—ones containing relics of the Buddha—that lay in
other domains.
The success of Therava ̄da Buddhism led to a much
sharper distinction between the religious traditions of the
peoples of the western part of mainland Southeast Asia and
those east of the Annamite cordillera. Not only were the
Vietnamese becoming increasingly sinicized, but the Cham,
who had once had an important indianized culture in south-
ern Vietnam, turned from this tradition and embraced Islam,
a religion that was becoming established among other Aus-
tronesian-speaking peoples in major societies of the Indone-
sian archipelago and on the Malay Peninsula.
Tribal peoples in Southeast Asia, mainly located in
highland areas where they practiced swidden cultivation, did
not remain totally isolated from the changes occurring in the
lowlands. A myth among many tribal peoples in the northern
part of the region tells of a “lost book” or “lost writing.” The
Kachin version of the myth is typical. Ninggawn wa Magam,
the deity from whom humans acquired culture, called all the
different tribes of humans together. To each tribe he gave a
book to help them in their lives. Shans and Burmans received
books written on palm leaves; Chinese and foreigners (i.e.,
Westerners) received books on paper; and Kachin received
a book of parchment. The Kachin, not truly understanding
the significance of the book, ate it and have been without
writing ever since. The myth reveals a sense on the part of
tribal peoples of being culturally deprived relative to those
who have writing.
When tribal peoples have turned to expand their hori-
zons, they have tended to do so through acquiring access to
the literature of their lowland neighbors. The Lawa, an Aus-
troasiatic tribal people in Thailand, see themselves as Bud-
dhists, like their Northern Thai neighbors, but unable to
practice the religion in the hills where they have no monks
to instruct them. When they move down from the hills,
however, they quickly transform themselves into Northern
Thai. Mien, who are found more in southern China than in
Southeast Asia, long ago developed a tradition of craft litera-
cy, with ritual specialists being able to read Daoist texts in
Chinese. An interesting variant on the myth is found among
some Karen in Burma, who were converted in significant
numbers to Christianity beginning early in the nineteenth
century. Their myth tells how the book will be returned to
them by foreign brothers who are identified with the West-
ern missionaries. Even among Karen, however, more have
become Buddhist than have become Christian.
Missionization—not only by Christians but in recent
years by Buddhists—and the spread of modern systems of
compulsory education have rendered tribal religions increas-
ingly peripheral. So, too, have improved health care and sec-
ular education undermined beliefs in spirits that were previ-
ously elements of the religions of Southeast Asian Buddhists
and Vietnamese. Moreover, as agriculture has been trans-
formed by large-scale irrigation works and the introduction
of new technology and new high-yield varieties of rice, peo-
ples in the region have become less inclined to credit super-
natural powers with the control over fertility. They may con-
tinue to perform traditional rites, but these are becoming
more secular celebrations than sources of religious meaning.
Nonetheless, even as the worlds of Southeast Asians are radi-
cally transformed by political-economic forces and cultural
changes that have occurred over the past century and a half,
there still remains among many the ancient idea of cultivat-
ing virtue through morally effective action.SEE ALSO Ancestors, article on Ancestor Worship; Boats;
Buddhism, article on Buddhism in Southeast Asia; Burmese
Religion; Drums; Folk Religion, article on Folk Buddhism;
Islam, article on Islam in Southeast Asia; Khmer Religion;
Kingship, article on Kingship in East Asia; Lao Religion;
Megalithic Religion, article on Historical Cultures; Merit,
article on Buddhist Concepts; Na ̄gas and Yaks:as; Nats; Ne-
grito Religions; Pilgrimage, article on Buddhist Pilrimage in
South and Southeast Asia; Sam:gha, article on Sam:gha and
Society in South and Southeast Asia; Stupa Worship; Thai
Religion; Therava ̄da; Vietnamese Religion.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Robert Heine-Geldern interprets archaeological and ethnographic
evidence with reference to a diffusionist thesis that posited
the source of a prehistoric “megalithic complex” in Europe.
His most recent formulation of his position appears in
“Some Tribal Art Styles in Southeast Asia,” in The Many
Faces of Primitive Art, edited by Douglas Fraser (Englewood
Cliffs, N.J., 1966), pp. 161–214. Kenneth Perry Landon, in
Southeast Asia: Crossroads of Religion (Chicago, 1969) and
Pierre-Bernard Lafont, in “Génies, anges et démons en Asie
du Sud-Est,” in Génies, anges et démons (Paris, 1971), provide
introductions to Southeast Asian religions in other than dif-
fusionist terms. By far the most detailed comparison of be-
liefs and practices relating to agriculture found among peo-
ples not only in mainland Southeast Asia but also on the
islands of the region is Eveline Porée-Maspero’s Étude sur les
rites agraires des Cambodgiens, 3 vols. (Paris, 1962–1969).
Also see in this connection P. E. de Josselin de Jong’s “An
Interpretation of Agricultural Rites in Southeast Asia, with
a Demonstration of Use of Data from Both Continental andSOUTHEAST ASIAN RELIGIONS: MAINLAND CULTURES 8645