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Indonesian Buddhism
With the spread of Buddhism to China many Chinese pilgrims sailed to India through the strait of Malacca. On their way, some stopped and temporarily stayed in Indonesia to learn more about Buddhism. In 144 AD a Chinese Buddhist saint, Fa-hsien, landed in Java island and stayed for five months. At the beginning, Theravada members were the founders. In 423 AD the Mahayana monks Ven. Gunavarman went to Java from Kashmir, from there he went to China. This is the first introduction of Mahayana to this area.
During Cailendra Dynasty (750-850 AD) the famous Buddhist temple, Borobudur (see Figure 1), was built. In 772 AD other Buddhist temple were also build. They include the Mendut, Kalasan and Pawon temples. In Indonesia most followers of Hinduism and Buddhism lived side by side in peace, blending with and borrowing from one another. Hinduism eventually took over on Java. In the 15th/I6th century, Islam influence had affected a lot. Even though Islam ostensibly erased Indian cultural traditions from Java by the 16th century, much is still visible from Buddhist-Hindu times. |
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