Research in Indonesia on Austronesian voyaging and maritime Buddhism: An atlas project

Abstract

In the past year we have researched the extent of Austronesian voyaging and early historical Buddhism in terms of maritime transportation systems across Indonesia. This paper reviews the state of our Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) Austronesia Team's research collection and mapping of selected regions in Eastern Indonesia, esp. Sulawesi. Our research relates to (1.) specific places connected to distant lands through sea travel featuring time-enabled layers of inter-connective place names in terms of self identification and social transformation, (2.) motivation for mariners, merchants, and monks to carry the dharma from South Asian harbors to other distant ports for religious, economic, and political exchange, and (3.) presenting notions of geographies as points and lines, not boundaries, as a tool for linking the significance of what seems to be unrelated elements, found to be connected in various ways leading to our better understanding of historical continuity, or discontinuity, at designated places. This work in turn becomes a contributing module to the ECAI Atlas of Maritime Buddhism.