Basics - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 38

world's major faiths are represented in
the region, but characteristic across much
of Southeast Asia is the syncretic nature
of belief, so that many Buddhists, Hindus
and Muslims incorporate animist rituals
into their daily devotions as well as
occasional elements of other major faiths.

Theravada is an ascetic form of Buddhism, based on
the principle that each individual is wholly respon-
sible for his or her own accumulation of merit or sin
and subsequent enlightenment; it is prevalent in
Thailand , Laos and Cambodia as well as in Sri Lanka
and Myanmar.
The other main school of Buddhism practised in
Southeast Asia is Mahayana Buddhism , which is
current in Vietnam , and in ethnic Chinese commu-
nities throughout the region, as well as in China
itself, and in Japan and Korea. The ideological rift
between the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhists
is comparable in scale to the one that divides
Catholicism and Protestantism. Mahayana Buddhism
attempts to make Buddhism more accessible to the
average devotee, easing the struggle towards
enlightenment with a pantheon of Buddhist saints or
bodhisattva who have postponed their own entry
into Nirvana in order to work for the salvation of
all humanity.

Buddhism

Buddhists follow the teachings of Gautama Buddha
who, in his five-hundredth incarnation, was born in
present-day Nepal as Prince Gautama Siddhartha ,
to a wealthy family during the sixth century BC. At an
early age, Siddhartha renounced his life of luxury to
seek the ultimate deliverance from worldly suffering
and strive to reach Nirvana , an indefinable, blissful
state. After several years he attained enlightenment
and then devoted the rest of his life to teaching the
Middle Way that leads to Nirvana.
His philosophy was built on the Hindu theory of
perpetual reincarnation in the pursuit of perfection,
introducing the notion that desire is the root cause
of all suffering and can be extinguished only by
following the eightfold path or Middle Way. This
Middle Way is a highly moral mode of life that
encourages compassion and moderation and
eschews self-indulgence and antisocial behaviour.
But the key is an acknowledgement that the
physical world is impermanent and ever-changing,
and that all things - including the self - are
therefore not worth craving. Only by pursuing a
condition of complete detachment can human
beings transcend earthly suffering.
In practice, rather than set their sights on Nirvana
most Buddhists aim only to be reborn higher up
the incarnation scale. Each reincarnation marks a
move up a kind of ladder, with animals at the
bottom, women figuring lower down than men,
and monks coming at the top. The rank of the
reincarnation is directly related to the good and
bad actions performed in the previous life, which
accumulate to determine one's karma or destiny -
hence the obsession with “ making merit ”. M e r i t -
making can be done in all sorts of ways, including
giving alms to a monk or, for a man, becoming a
monk for a short period.

Chinese religions
The Chinese communities of Singapore, Hong
Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand
generally adhere to a system of belief that fuses
Mahayana Buddhist, Taoist and Confucianist tenets,
alongside the all-important ancestor worship.

Ancestor worship
One of the oldest cults practised among both city
dwellers and hill-tribes people who migrated into
Southeast Asia from China is that of ancestor
worship , based on the fundamental principles of
filial piety and of obligation to the past, present and
future generations. Practices vary, but all believe
that the spirits of deceased ancestors have the
ability to affect the lives of their living descendants,
rewarding those who remember them with
offerings, but causing upset if neglected. At funerals
and subsequent anniversaries, paper money and
other votive offerings are burnt, and special food
is regularly placed on the ancestral altar.

Confucianism
The teachings of Confucius provide a guiding set of
moral principles based on piety, loyalty, humanitari-
anism and familial devotion, which permeate every
aspect of Chinese life. Confucius is the Latinized name
of K'ung-Fu-Tzu, who was born into a minor aristo-
cratic family in China in 551 BC and worked for many
years as a court o cial. At the age of 50, he set off
around the country to spread his ideas on social and
political reform. His central tenet was the importance

Schools of Buddhism
After the Buddha passed into Nirvana in 543 BC, his
doctrine spread relatively quickly across India. His
teachings, the Tripitaka, were written down in the Pali
language and became known as the Theravada
School of Buddhism or “The Doctrine of the Elders”.