Michel Lorrillard
EFEO
The penetration of Buddhism into the continental regions of Southeast Asia is little studied. Research has long revealed evidence for the introduction of Buddhism to Cambodia and Thailand, with their maritime interfaces, more than 1500 years ago, but the introduction of Buddhism to Laos has been placed in a much later period – the foundation of the kingdom of Lan Xang in the middle of the fourteenth century. This notion is, however, inaccurate on two points: for if a careful study of local sources leads us indeed to place the beginnings of a distinctively “Lao” Buddhism in an even more later context – that of the diffusion towards the north and the east of the religious culture of Lanna in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, nonetheless the history of Buddhism within the borders of the modern state of Laos began much earlier.
Recent archaeological researches demonstrate that the middle Mekong valley – of which only the western reaches (that is, the Northeastern region of Thailand) have previously been taken into account – is in fact an area which saw a very early development of historical period cultures. The Mekong River was not in any sense an obstacle; rather it was a unifying factor for exchange and influence over a vast territory.
In Laos, the left bank of the Mekong, drained by extensive river systems descending from the Annamite range, was especially attractive for settlement. More than one hundred sites marked by remains connected with Indianization have been identified, from the middle Sekong basin, in the South, up to the northern region of Luang Prabang. Regional geomorphology permits us to attach the province of Champassak, even though it is situated on the right bank, to this complex.
The vestiges discovered in Laos bear witness to the use of Sanskrit and the practice of cults originating in India from the second half of the fifth century up to the beginning of the thirteenth century. In contrast to the brahmanical remains, the Buddhist remains cover the entire period and the entire area under study, although there are continuities and ruptures depending on regional variations. The remains indicate the encounters and oppositions of different cultures: Khmer, Mon, and, perhaps, Cham. They attest to a dynamism, hitherto unnoticed, between the substrata of ancient civilizations and the evolution of Lao culture.
By focusing on localization as seen through archaeological evidence in the light of physical geography, the present contribution opens new perspectives in historical research on Laos, especially with regard to the different diffusions of Buddhism in Southeast Asia.
(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)