22.6 The far east: a.d. 701 to 800  (Page 2/2)

In Manchuria, the proto-Mongolian people, the Khitan, had begun to raid the Chinese border as early as 695 and they continued throughout this 8th century. A little to their east were the P'o-Hai, a powerful kingdom set on the Chinese model but established by the remnants of the Korean Koguryo nobles. They remained independent from 710 on for some two centuries. (Ref. 8 )

Japan

We have previously indicated that for centuries it had been the custom for the Japanese royal family to change its capital each time a ruling emperor died. The so-called Nara period started with the capital at that city in 710, but this metropolis was too large to be torn down and moved each generation and that practice was stopped, at least until the final move to Kyoto in A.D. 794. Both Nara and Kyoto had been constructed using Baghdad as a model. (Ref. 8 ) After Emperor Kammu transferred his capital to Kyoto, Japanese art, previously under Chinese influences, developed its own mature style and taste. (Ref. 19 ) After Kammu's death the emperor's role deteriorated somewhat. Throughout this period, under Fujiwara ministers, court life had become a great pageant of ceremonies and costumes, and gradually the emperor's person, itself, became so taboo and awe-inspiring, as a rouged and gilded doll, that he began to be veiled from the world and the Fujiwaras took all responsibility for decisions, good or bad, shielding the throne. gradually came to believe in an emperor who was at the same time "a mortal god, a zero infinity, an impotent omnipotence"

In 752 the Great Buddha at Nara, a 53 foot bronze figure, was dedicated as the cherished project of the Shomas. At the end of the century, in 790, Japan had a sustained epidemic with women under 30 years and males of all ages afflicted. (Ref. 140 )

Korea

Most of Korea was now united under the Silla Dynasty. Buddhism and art flourished, particularly at the capital on the site of modern Kyongju.

Southeast asia

The T'ai, or Shan, peoples had been infiltrating down into the southeast Asian peninsula for several centuries and now they formed a kingdom in Yunnan province of China.

The Dvaravati kingdom of Khmer people was Buddhist, rather than Brahman in religion, and in this century migrants were sent to the upper Menam Valley where they established the independent Kingdom of Haripunjaya, with a capital near the present Chiengmai. All of this occurred in what is now Thailand. Burma was under Indian influence and had Hindu commercial settlements on the Tenasserim coast and at the principal river mouths. In Cambodia the war-like course of the Chenlas was brought to an end when a king from Java entered and beheaded the Chenla ruler. Although the Javanese soon withdrew, that kingdom declined. On the Atlantic coast was Champa, under strong Indian influence. (Ref. 119 , 37 , 8 )

Throughout the first millennium after Christ, but particularly from the 7th to the 16th century, Indian culture and religious influence spread throughout Indonesia and in particular it created a distinctive civilization in Java. This society, controlled by the Buddhist king of the Sailendra Dynasty, was second only to the Khmers in southeast Asia. (Ref. 18 , 19 ) In this and the next century, Arab traders brought the Moslem religion to the Philippines and then, in turn, came the Indians. (Ref. 153 )

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