11 - Archaeological Evidence for Esoteric Buddhism in Sumatra, 7th to 13th Century

Summary

RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES OF vajra s and inscribed gold objects in Sumatra and under the water near the island lend support to the hypothesis that Sumatra was a significant centre of Esoteric Buddhist activity during an important phase of that religious orientation's genesis and growth. Archaeological and historical data suggest that several streams of Buddhist thought and practice coexisted in Sumatra for more than half a millennium. Geographic correlations between these artefacts and inscriptions with ethnic groups and imported items suggest that Sumatra offered fertile ground for the development of Esoteric Buddhist concepts. This chapter will summarize the archaeological correlates of Esoteric Buddhism in Sumatra from the late 7th to the end of the 13th century, and explore the implications of this data in terms of Buddhism's links to social, political, and economic variables.

Most modern Malays, even those who are highly educated, believe that their ancestors were Hindus. Archaeological data flatly contradict this assumption: they show that Buddhism was much more popular than Hinduism in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula during the Classic period (approximately 1,000 years long, from the 4th to the 14th century ad). In Kedah, one of the bastions of the Buddhist kingdom of Śrīvijaya, an invasion by the Cōḻa Tamils of 1025 led to a period of Hindu domination lasting through the 11th century. The large ruin of a temple probably dedicated to Śiva at Candi Bukit Batu Pahat built during this period, and the eventual decline of Buddhism in India, may have biased public opinion. Another potentially confusing factor includes the tendency of early European scholars to label everything pre-Islamic as ‘Hindu’.

Much of the art generated in the Malay realm during this period is very different from Buddhist art in modern Southeast Asia. Whereas the figure of Buddha and the stūpa dominate in modern Southeast Asian Buddhism, early Buddhist practice in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula tended to favour a multiplicity of deities more reminiscent of contemporary Hinduism. The stūpa was present but rare in the architectural inventory. Statues of some deities associated with Hinduism have been found in Sumatra and the Siamo-Malay Peninsula, but this is also true of such major Buddhist sites as Nālandā in India.