Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Networks across India and Southeast Asia

"This book breaks new ground by examining trans-oceanic connectivity through the perspective of coastal shrines and maritime cultural landscapes across the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. It covers a period of expanding networks and cross-cultural encounters from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. The book examines the distinctiveness of these shrines, and highlights their interconnections, and their role in social integration in South and Southeast Asia. By drawing on data from shipwreck sites, the author elaborates on the material and religious intersections and transmissions between cultures across the seas. Many of these coastal shrines survived into the colonial period when they came to be admired for their aesthetic value as 'monuments'. As nation states of the region became independent, these shrines were often inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List on account of their Outstanding Universal Values. The book argues that in the 21st century there is a need to promote the cultural connectivity of the past as transnational heritage on UNESCO's global platform to preserve and protect our shared heritage. The volume will be essential reading for academics and researchers of archaeology, anthropology, museum and heritage studies, history of South and Southeast Asia, religious studies, cultural studies, and Asian studies"-- Provided by publisher In this quote Sunil Amrith highlights changes brought about as a result of European colonization, which began in the 16th and 17th centuries through commercial imperialism. From about 1750 to 1825, territorial European Empires had already been established in large parts of South and Southeast Asia. These new empires ruled over much larger areas than had ever come under one kingdom in the past and led to the imposition of not only new administrative structures but also the development of disciplines such as oceanography and archaeology. While the former was based on mapping coastal zones and finding navigable maritime routes to maximize profits from trade, the latter introduced different ways of understanding the past. This book is about a period prior to these radical interventions when mobility and connectivity across large parts of South and Southeast Asia were not restricted and when trade and maximizing profits were not the sole leitmotif of sea travel. Is it possible in the 21st century to revive some of the cultural connectivity that underwrote maritime exchanges?