A DISTINCT SOUTHEAST ASIAN RELIGION?

“Do you have a Lord Brahma image?” I asked the old Indian lady manning the shop in Kuala Lumpur’s Little India.

She only gave me an unsure look and smiled. I was scuffling back and forth the aisle barely containing the Ganesha images in my arms and I so need to find Lord Brahma’s small figurine so I can go home.

Seem like she’s not gonna answer me so I went on looking through hundreds of stuffs in the shop.

After 10 more minutes… "No, we don’t have.” -- OH THANK YOU LADY! *And you figured the answer after 10 years? Ha!* I went up to her to pay for my stuffs.

“Are you Hindu?” she asked me. I said “No, I’m not. I’m Buddhist… Well, sort of…” Handing her my Ganesha images. “How much for everything?” I added.

I know what she was thinking all along -- I don’t look like South Asian, I’m not a Hindu but I hoard Ganesha images and looking for more Brahmas. So, I took the initiative to explain before she spends the rest of her lifetime figuring out what in the world am I.

“I’m from Thailand.” I told her. “Although we are mainly Buddhists, we revere Lord Ganesha, Lord Brahma and the Trimutri…We have a version of the Ramayana and we know Hanuman, Erawan, Indra… ” mentioning every familiar Hindu characters to ring the biggest bell on her ears.

Then she was like “well-I’ll-be-damned!” giving me the “bewildered-little-girl” look. And I was like “cool-isn’t-it?” giving her the best Thai smile I can ever display.

A major part of Thai culture is defined by Buddhism -- but Hindu deities are part of our beliefs too. We share the same concept with the Laotians, the Burmese and the Khmers.

When Buddhism and Hinduism are assimilated together –
is this a distinct Southeast Asian religion?


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