CULTURAL CONTACT IN CHINA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

Cultural contact in China and Southeast Asia, especially Java under study was defined by its tolerant, accommodating and adaptive acculturation processes. The causes could be explored at two levels — the operational and philosophical. At the operational level, the role of the initial key players who served as agents and targets of change and the medium through which cultural contact was effected is examined. In both cases, cultural contact was mainly initiated by traders through foreign trade. These traders were the initial agents of change, followed later by priests. The traders’ primary goal was to trade and the spread of religions was merely a by-product of foreign trade. They were neither effective cultural transmitters nor professional religious preachers. Therefore, the process was slow and intermittent. Despite not having the political and military support of their respective home governments, these traders interacted with the native political, social and business elite in royal courts and marketplaces in urban centres and coastal ports in China and Southeast Asia. Common business interests of the various stakeholders of the international trade accounted for the general lack of severe political, military, religious and social conflicts. Thus, cultural exchange was conducted peacefully through trade and migration.

The non-violent and tolerant operational aspect of such cultural contacts reveal a deeper philosophical outlook embedded in the Asian cultures. The dominant Asian worldview sees harmony and order of human relations with nature and the supernatural as the foundation of peace, harmony and order of the world. In Asian philosophies, man's harmonious relationships with nature and gods, and man's union with God can be achieved through various means such as the Daoist way of following the flow of nature (wuwei), Kejawen's and Sufism's practice of mysticism, and Confucianism's conception of the trinity of Heaven, Earth and Man. In addition, self-cultivation in Asian faiths is a way to shape personal character with a high moral standard and bring about peace and harmony in society. Confucianism's self-cultivation is based on five cardinal human relationships between ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger brothers, and between friends. Whereas, both Hinduism's hermitage and Buddhism's Nirvana as well as Kejawen/Sufi mysticism aim to purify one's soul and free oneself from material things and sufferings through meditation and doing penance.