All religions that are predominant to a people have a large role to play in their history as well as in their current transformation. To the outside world, Buddhism is known as the most predominant religion in Asia. Countries around Asia that have been influenced by the Chinese have adopted Buddhism as a way of life. However, a vast difference exists when it comes to the representation of Buddha in the South and Southeast Asia. Markedly, the population of these two regions plays a major role in the existing difference.
For starters, the Southeast Asians are very conservative people. They conserve their culture and uphold the traditions of their forefathers. Essentially, their culture has adopted Buddhism as a way of life thus have a large number of adherents of Buddhism, unlike south Asians. This is predominantly because south-east Asians were among the first people to adopt Buddhism and have nurtured their beliefs in the religion ever since. They have a long tradition of keeping the practices of the religion, which has made them stauncher in the faith and has facilitated them having stronger beliefs. To this end, the representation of Buddha is more adept here seeing as there are more temples and places of worship in regard to the Buddhist faith. On the other hand, unlike Southeast Asians, South Asians have recently had the religion introduced to them which is evidenced by their shaky belief system as well as a fewer number of religious places of worship.
Notably, the representation of Buddha differs throughout South and Southeast Asia in terms of the type of Buddhism practiced. Fundamentally, there are two types of Buddhism namely Mahayana, and Theravada Buddhism (Stokstad & Cothren, 2018). Mahayana Buddhism was the oldest kind of Buddhism practiced while Theravada Buddhism is practiced more in the modern day. In this regard, Southeast Asians maintain the traditions of the religion by practicing the older form of Buddhism whereas those in South Asia practice Theravada Buddhism which is not as thorough. The extent of how Buddhism is less practiced in South Asia is highlighted by the fact that some countries in South Asia do not even have it as the official religion. The reason is that countries in South Asia have adopted other religions in addition to Buddhism, which include Christianity and Islam.
The spread of Buddhism throughout south-east Asia was largely influenced by trade as well as the monks who used to interact with traders. These monks used this chance to spread the religion into the mainland of Southeast Asia, which led to better representation of Buddha from the monks themselves. As a religion, Buddhism was so strong, that it survived in the face of the introduction of other religions such as Islam and Christianity. The conversion of people into Mahayana Buddhism led into positive economic impacts such as the construction of monuments in Java and Borobudur even though the people from the mainland were also staunch in the religion. Buddhism thus reached many parts of South East Asia, which is the main reason why religion is more prevalent here than in South Asia.
Conclusively, even though the people of Southeast Asia and South Asia both took up Buddhism, the practice of the religion as well as representation of Buddha today has changed in relation to these two places. Markedly, Southeast Asia has adopted the religion better seeing as it is the main religion here unlike South Asia where other religions such as Islam and Christianity are practiced. This has led to a better representation of Buddha in South East Asia than how Buddhism is represented in South Asia where the religion is challenged by other religions that have since been adopted.
References
Stokstad, M., & Cothren, M. (2018). Art history (6th ed.). London, England: Pearson.
